Back in BC

Well I am back in BC. Notice I said I and not we. That is because Kristin is still in Toronto because she has a shoot for Flare next week! And tomorrow, she becomes a (temporary) Ginger. Now we will have two redheads in our family. She will be home next week and we are still waiting to hear about a few other jobs.
That concludes our blog for now . Hope you enjoyed reading.

August 11 and 12th

August 11, we decided to head out to the Bata Shoe Museum. It was very interesting. Below are some of the very early shoes, sandals and flip flops make of leather and plant material

 These are from India. Probably for a special occasion

 Also from India. Some are made of silver.

 China. The ideal foot size for a woman was 3 inches, hence the whole foot binding thing. Ouch!

 There were also shoes from famous feet. Marilyn Monroe...

 Judy Garlard (thought they would be ruby slippers!) and Jimmy Stewart...

 Elton John. There were also a pair of size 23 basketball shoes from Shaquille O'Neal. I didn't know shoes were made that big!

 Some 1920's bling.

 These beauties were designed by Roger Vivier for the House of Dior. I took many more pictures of his shoes. They were works of art. He created custom shoes for princesses and celebrities. He is famous for his comma heal.

 Me on my 44th birthday. Actually, the day after. Kristin wasn't fit to be seen in a restaurant yesterday. Or so she said.

 We went to the Greek part of Toronto and there was a huge street festival on. Opa! These are quails on a spit. I had the lamb.

 This was our ride....

 Actually, this was our ride....actually, we took the streetcar.

 Today we went to Toronto Island which are several small islands a 15 mins ferry ride from the harbor. There are beaches, a little zoo, amusement park and lots of nice gardens.

 Momma and baby swans

 Kristin was enamored by this little farm duck. The daddy swan hated him and kept chasing him out of the pond.

 That is the male swan with his feathers all flustered. He was the boss of this pond and proud of it!

Toronto skyline from the ferry

 Kristin was willing to be photographed again so here we are at Fune, a sushi restaurant.

 The sushi came around in these little boats. Kinda cheesy but it was tasty.

Well, tomorrow is our last day in TO. We should find out if Kristin got any of the jobs from her castings with clients last week. I may have one more blog tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today was meant to be another shoot for Kristin but she woke up with her face terribly swollen and just slits for eyes. This happened once in NY and we have decided the culprit is make up remover wipes. It was much worse this time. So, off to the walk in clinic we went. It was severe enough for the doctor to put her on  a course of prednisone. As much as I would like to show you a picture of her, she has asked that no pictures  of her swollen face be published, so it will just be scenery shots today.

After our little visit to the walk in clinic (we only waited about half an hour) we went to St Lawrence Market, which is much like Lonsdale Quay and a little like Granville Island, with mostly food for sale. 

 We had a yummy lunch. I had calamari and fries and Kristin had chicken fingers and fries. It was an ENORMOUS amount of food and I think I only ate half. Check out that mound of calamari...looks sort of like onion rings. Must have been a giant squid.

 This was all the different types of fish we could have had for our meal. Yummers!

 This is a flat iron building. 

  This is Dundas Square, Toronto's take on Time Square

  Here was our entertainment for the evening. These guys were singing, playing drums and doing acrobatics.

  This guy was amazing. He had two other guys who did acrobatics with him. 

Not sure what we are up to tomorrow. We were meant to have the weekend off, but if Kristin's face is better, today's shoot may be re-booked. That's all for now...

Go Sees, Ryerson University and China Town

Today was busy.Kristin had 3 go sees, which are sort of like mini interviews with clients who have asked to see her for potential runway shows, magazine stories or campaigns (campaigns are the adds, flyers, videos etc for a particular line of clothing or other products)| Kristin saw 3 clients in and hour and a half, in locations all over the city. First we went to Eluxe and Fashion Magazine. Eluxe is an on-line clothing store and Fashion Magazine is a major Canadian fashion magazine. Then we were off to Joe Fresh. Joe Fresh is the line of clothing in Superstore, but also has several stand alone stores in major cities. After that, we were off to Flare Magazine, another major Canadian Magazine. Winners has also expressed an interest in Kristin.  So now we wait to see if any work comes Kristin's way. 

Kristin was done all done her model stuff by 1130 am, so we went for a tour at Ryerson University. Ryerson has an Interior Design program and a good volleyball program. It is the only university in Canada, I think, with both of those things, which are on Kristin's list. It seems like a lovely university. 

After our tour at Ryerson, we went to China Town and Kensington Market. Toronto has the 2nd largest China Town in North America. Lots of stores with, well, stuff. 5 t-shirts for $10, rice cookers, toys, just about anything you can think of.

 Behind China Town is Kensington Market. It is a funky little market with lots of little shops selling vintage clothing, food and baked goods. There is also a little residential neighborhood there, and below is a picture of some row houses.

This is China Town. These are baskets of dried shrimp and prawns. These are just the things I could identify. There were lots of other things, that I couldn't identify.

And these were baskets of dried fish. Not sure what one would do with such things!

Tomorrow is another shoot, again for her portfolio. It will be another all day affair so I think I will park myself at the condo and catch up on my work email. I think it is going to be another hot day, so staying inside the nice air conditioned condo will be fabulous. We have a few things that we still want to do, including the art gallery and Toronto Islands. It looks like we will have the weekend free (yay!) so hopefully we can take those things in. Friday is another half day shoot. Kristin should have a stunning portfolio by the end of our trip!

August 6 and 7th

 Well, I have been absent from the blog the last couple of days. On Monday we shopped and in the evening went down to the Beaches. Not sure why it isn't just called the beach. Anyhow, it is the cutest little community with old row houses and nice gardens. Here is Kristin taking pics with the ipad.

Here is one of the row houses. Kinda hard to see, but they were very cute.

These pictures are part of a shoot Kristin had at the beach today.

Tomorrow is a busy day. We are off to see the folks at Joe Fresh, Flare and Fashion Magazine. Very exciting!

Niagara Falls

Today was our big trip to Niagara Falls.

Here is what we looked like before the Maid of the Mist (Maid of the Torrential Downpour would be a more accurate name). There were not after pictures taken. Just think soaking wet, and, voila, that was us.

 I was quite surprised how close we could get to where the water goes over the falls

 This is the bridge connecting Canada to the US

 These are our funky blue ponchos. They didn't keep our feet (we were wearing socks and runners) from getting totally soaked.

 The American falls

 The Canadian Falls

 It doesn't look like we are getting wet, but the mist came in sheets of huge droplets. Not very mist-like at all! And none of that water helped to cool us down. It is just so very hot here in Ontario.

We also visited Niagara on the Lake, which is a beautiful little town, and Diamond Vineyards, which are owned by Dan Ackroyd. 

We are having a quiet evening tonight. Tomorrow we will check out a local church and then decide what to do. We have thought about going to the beach, so we have to see. It might be a bit to hot to be out in the sun. We shall see and will catch up with everyone tomorrow.