Sunday Photo:

Sunday Photo

Where was I? Favorite place for bead shopping and a reaction

(Photo Credit)

Where was I? Do you recognize the city? I was in Toronto, Ontario! I live in New York State but when I need a big city fix, my city of choice is Toronto. It's less than 2 hours away and is full of all the urban-ness anyone could want.

New York has Fifth Avenue, Toronto has Bloor Street - which is where we stayed in a boutique hotel my husband reserved through Priceline. Living so close and going so often, we use priceline and come up with wonderful hotels but you have to be willing to stay at different places and wait until the last minute to make a reservation. This time around, we stayed at a charming boutique hotel on Bloor.

But the street the bead lover has to visit is Queen West. In one block on Queen West past Spadina are 5-6 bead shops sprinkled in among the fabric and notion shops. Queen West is part of the Fashion District. The Teen loves Queen West because of the indie music shops and outsider fashion.

Here's a shot of the block I'm talking about, you can see The Beadery in the picture.

I'm on a strict no-bead diet but I allowed myself a very limited amount of money to purchase a few things. I haven't bought turquoise in a very long time so I picked up a strand of turquoise drops. Since turquoise is the color for this season, I thought I'd pick up a couple of strands of the ceramic beads. Next to the turquoise were the etched "eye" beads that sang when held next to the deep rose beads. Bing! I'd hit my limit in the stones bead shop! I bought the beads and out I went to the next bead shop.



When I'm on such a limited diet, I look for the unusual, something I don't have that will enhance my lampwork glass beads. Bing! I fell in love with the wooden flower and bird beads and pendants.


Reaching down to make my selection of these light weight lovelies, I almost passed out. I'd forgotten about the warning from my doctor to stand up slowly because of the migraine medicine we were trying. A blood pressure lowering medicine, it lowers my normally good blood pressure to avoid the migraines.

I stood for a little bit wondering what would happen if I passed out on the floor with my husband and The Teen up the street in a music shop. I got my bearings and took my selections to the check out.

I love the flowers and the birds on these charming wood pieces. My concern is that they're very light weight and may not lay as well as I'd like if I put only the wooden beads in a necklace. Interspersed with glass and stones, they'll lay quite nicely.

I stayed well within my teeny bead budget and had a great time. I could have stayed the rest of the afternoon tramping through every single one of the bead shops and then added on the notions but it was not to be. My traveling companions had had enough of sitting in a coffee shop waiting for me.

Once home, I didn't feel myself. The lightheadedness of the bead shop returned and persisted along with feeling like I couldn't breathe.

I spent yesterday in the emergency room. I had several tests and blood work taken. They were looking for a heart "incident."

Everything came back normal. No "incident."

Seems my blood pressure was too low and I was having an allergic reaction to the migraine medicine. Stop the medicine and stop the symptoms.

So today I feel much better. I've got to get to the post office to mail some orders, take some pictures of a necklace I made and make some beads!

I think Toronto is a great place to shop for beads - it's now on my list of favorites. I'll skip the light headedness next time, though.

What's your favorite place to go bead shopping?

Inspiration from Toronto's Chinatown

If I'm jonesing for some big city excitement, we hop in the car and drive to Toronto. A little color inspiration for you today - taken at a market in Toronto's Chinatown.