Shoes, shoes and more shoes

Loved the window display on the left. Looks like it was made out of mylar.

About once a year my sister and I manage a girl's weekend, no men, no kids. This was the weekend. Started off Friday evening with lots of chatter our favourite family or d'ouveres and the movie , "The Help". Great movie by the way.

Saturday we went to the Bata shoe Museum in Toronto. It was started by the Canadian Bata Shoe family. Mrs. Bata collected shoes from all over the world and from different eras in history. They are all housed here .

Guess what these ones were used for? Give up? Crushing chestnuts, like to see them in action.

Don't know how you take a step in these Chinese Dragon slippers.
Then there are these great wooden ones by artist Garry Greenwood. Loved these.

Here are a pair by Andre Perugia in the current display of shoes from the 1920's.


Here are another pair I could't walk in without spraining my ankle, which I've done recently and without the aid of stilts. These are Turkish, guess they keep your feet out of the muck.

These are a pair owned by Canadian Author Margaret Atwood. I'm always partial to anything with peacock feathers. Ms. Atwood obviously has tiny feet.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Fantastic to go visit. The displays have lots of explanation and are well set up.

The weekend continued on with lunch in Yorkville and a trip to Whole Foods. Now that was an eye opener for me, never been to one before. We were there to get raw organic food for one of my nephews who has gone raw vegan....just watch the grocery bill grow. We also picked up some food treats for our dinner and for the next day.

Sunday we spent working on encaustic painting. I had brought my supplies down so we could play. Although mine was serious play as we have that exhibit coming up in a couple of months. This is the first realy large one and it isn't going to be easy. More on that later.


Monday was back to Stratford with a stop at Curry's to buy art supplies for the artists in Haiti. My son's girlfriend's family go several times a year to help in Limbe  and surrounding area. Gallery 96, the co-op I belonge to donated a nice sum of money to purchase art supplies for Haitian artists . More on that when they return.