Being a crafty gal myself, I know I have many crafty friends reading this who are heading to Toronto in just a few. short. weeks (!!!) I haven't done a thorough research of every little crafty detail there, but I want you to know: Toronto = Crafty.
If you enjoy fabric, head to Queen Street West. There are several blocks from Spadina to Bathurst where there are tons of fabric stores. You'll find everything from home dec to fashion to quilting fabrics. There are also several stores selling notions, beads, and buttons. I wish we had a district like this in SF. I don't have specific links, but just go down there, start heading down the street and you'll see the fabric stores.
There are also many shops for the yarn lovers. If you're on Queen Street checking out the fabric stores, stop in at Romni Wool -- they have a huge supply of yarns and they're having a big sale for the month of July. (Danger! Danger!) There is also Americo -- they make their own hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns. Gorgeous stuff.
Your friend Google can help you find additional yarn stores in the area, but one great place to look is the Yarn Harlot's Toronto Yarn Crawl post, which includes reviews and photos of the shops.
If you like paper crafting, check out The Paper Place -- it's also on Queen Street West, but further down. Either take a long walk, or hop on the street car that goes down Queen. If you have the public transit Day Pass, just show that to the driver and you're good to go.
In addition to shops, there is the Textile Museum of Canada. My mom and I went there last month and really enjoyed the exhibits (and gift shop!) there. If you've got a bit of time to spare and you like textiles (fabric, yarn, clothing, thread, etc -- it's quite comprehensive), I would recommend it. It's near the corner of Dundas and University -- about a mile's walk from the Hockey Hall of Fame area (in the direction of Queen St. W, if you were already over that way) or take public transportation to the St. Patrick station (map here).
A good resource for check out other crafty goings on in Toronto is Toronto Craft Alert. They have crafty happenings listed there, as well as links to many crafty shops (selling both supplies and handmade goods).
Sorry this post is not a more comprehensive guide, but, um... wow! We're getting married in less than 3 weeks! Just wanted to give the crafty peeps the heads up: There is much craft to be found in TO!
-kelly
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Public transit: Day pass!
More information for anyone planning to use public transportation in Toronto -- the Day Pass is the way to go (especially on weekends)!
On weekends, for $9 (CAD), 2 adults + up to 4 children (or 1 adult + up to 5 children) can ride public transportation all day long -- including subway, buses, and streetcars. Jenny and I used this on our trip and it's quite a bargain! Otherwise, each trip is $2.75 per ride per person, so it paid for itself in one round trip for us.
On weekdays, it's also $9, but only good for 1 person. Still a good deal if you are planning on using public transportation everywhere, as each individual fare is $2.75, which means that the pass pays for itself in 2 roundtrips on one day (out and back twice = $11).
So how do you get one of these Magic Tickets? At any subway station, tell the person working in the ticket booth that you want a Day Pass. They'll take your $9 and give you a ticket that looks like this:
(But with the current date scratched off, of course.)
As you travel the rest of the day, simply show that card to anyone taking fares -- that's the guy in the booth at subway stations and the driver on buses and streetcars. It was remarkably easy to use the pass, and I highly recommend it.
Again, if you have any questions at all about this, feel free to drop me a line or post a comment here. I am no expert, but I'll try to help.
-kelly
On weekends, for $9 (CAD), 2 adults + up to 4 children (or 1 adult + up to 5 children) can ride public transportation all day long -- including subway, buses, and streetcars. Jenny and I used this on our trip and it's quite a bargain! Otherwise, each trip is $2.75 per ride per person, so it paid for itself in one round trip for us.
On weekdays, it's also $9, but only good for 1 person. Still a good deal if you are planning on using public transportation everywhere, as each individual fare is $2.75, which means that the pass pays for itself in 2 roundtrips on one day (out and back twice = $11).
So how do you get one of these Magic Tickets? At any subway station, tell the person working in the ticket booth that you want a Day Pass. They'll take your $9 and give you a ticket that looks like this:
(But with the current date scratched off, of course.)
As you travel the rest of the day, simply show that card to anyone taking fares -- that's the guy in the booth at subway stations and the driver on buses and streetcars. It was remarkably easy to use the pass, and I highly recommend it.
Again, if you have any questions at all about this, feel free to drop me a line or post a comment here. I am no expert, but I'll try to help.
-kelly
Monday, June 8, 2009
Public transit: To and from the airport
I went to Toronto this past weekend with our Best Woman (hi, Jenny!) We used public transportation the entire weekend. Personally, I love good public transit and Toronto definitely has it, so I highly recommend it.
We took a bus from the airport downtown and back again. You can find a lot of information on the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) website, but I thought I would share our first-hand experience here for those who are considering using it for the wedding.
The bus we took to and from the airport was the 58 Malton (it is listed as "58A" on their site, but the one we took just said 58. You can take either.) This bus takes you to the Lawrence West station, which is on the Young-University-Spadina line (there's a map coming up in a few paragraphs to better explain that).
To get to the bus, follow the signs in the airport to Public Transit and Voila! Buses! Once on the bus, put $2.75 Canadian into the machine by the driver. I do not know if they can make change -- we had exact change. More precisely, we had $5.50 (a 5 dollar bill and 50 cents) for the both of us and we just put that in.
The driver will give you a transfer pass that you may or may not need to ride the subway (take it in case you need it, although we did not).
The bus ride is about 45 minutes through the suburbs of Toronto. You can take this opportunity to look around and say, "Hey! We're in a foreign country!" Or read a book.
The bus terminates at the Lawrence West station. Get off there and head on down to the subway. The station you want will depend on where you are staying.
To help you figure out which station is closest to your hotel, here is a Google map of the downtown area surrounding the Hockey Hall of Fame. There is an "M" indicating stations (as well as the station names), so if you enter in the name/address of your hotel, you can see what station is closest to you.
If you are staying at the Fairmont Royal York, the Union station is directly beneath it. The Hotel Victoria is closest to the King station. Novotel is kind of between the two.
The following map shows the downtown portion of the subway system -- you can see where you get dropped off by the bus (Lawrence West). You can then get an idea of which direction you need to go in for your hotel. For the entire subway map, click here.
To get back to the airport, you go in reverse -- take the subway to the Lawrence West station, then follow the signs up to the buses. Get in line where it says 58, then hop on that bus to the airport. It's handy to know your terminal ahead of time, but you can also ask the bus driver -- if you know your airline, they'll know the terminal.
You pay when you first get on the subway, then you just get straight on the bus without paying again (it's $2.75 CAD for the entire trip). Again, you may or may not need a transfer ticket to get on (we did not), so just grab one when you enter the station to be safe.
It's about 30 minutes on the subway (depending on what station you start at) and 45 minutes on the bus, so I would recommend you leave yourself 1.5 hours to get back to the airport. I'm sure there are faster ways to get to the airport, but none as cheap as $2.75 CAD.
For more information on all of the buses from the airport, see this page here on the TTC site. For more information on the 58 line, here is a map.
If you have any additional questions about this, please let me know. I'm no expert, but I just did it this past weekend, so it's fresh in my mind right now. You can post a comment here or email me and I'll be sure to edit this post with answers.
-kelly
We took a bus from the airport downtown and back again. You can find a lot of information on the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) website, but I thought I would share our first-hand experience here for those who are considering using it for the wedding.
The bus we took to and from the airport was the 58 Malton (it is listed as "58A" on their site, but the one we took just said 58. You can take either.) This bus takes you to the Lawrence West station, which is on the Young-University-Spadina line (there's a map coming up in a few paragraphs to better explain that).
To get to the bus, follow the signs in the airport to Public Transit and Voila! Buses! Once on the bus, put $2.75 Canadian into the machine by the driver. I do not know if they can make change -- we had exact change. More precisely, we had $5.50 (a 5 dollar bill and 50 cents) for the both of us and we just put that in.
The driver will give you a transfer pass that you may or may not need to ride the subway (take it in case you need it, although we did not).
The bus ride is about 45 minutes through the suburbs of Toronto. You can take this opportunity to look around and say, "Hey! We're in a foreign country!" Or read a book.
The bus terminates at the Lawrence West station. Get off there and head on down to the subway. The station you want will depend on where you are staying.
To help you figure out which station is closest to your hotel, here is a Google map of the downtown area surrounding the Hockey Hall of Fame. There is an "M" indicating stations (as well as the station names), so if you enter in the name/address of your hotel, you can see what station is closest to you.
If you are staying at the Fairmont Royal York, the Union station is directly beneath it. The Hotel Victoria is closest to the King station. Novotel is kind of between the two.
The following map shows the downtown portion of the subway system -- you can see where you get dropped off by the bus (Lawrence West). You can then get an idea of which direction you need to go in for your hotel. For the entire subway map, click here.
To get back to the airport, you go in reverse -- take the subway to the Lawrence West station, then follow the signs up to the buses. Get in line where it says 58, then hop on that bus to the airport. It's handy to know your terminal ahead of time, but you can also ask the bus driver -- if you know your airline, they'll know the terminal.
You pay when you first get on the subway, then you just get straight on the bus without paying again (it's $2.75 CAD for the entire trip). Again, you may or may not need a transfer ticket to get on (we did not), so just grab one when you enter the station to be safe.
It's about 30 minutes on the subway (depending on what station you start at) and 45 minutes on the bus, so I would recommend you leave yourself 1.5 hours to get back to the airport. I'm sure there are faster ways to get to the airport, but none as cheap as $2.75 CAD.
For more information on all of the buses from the airport, see this page here on the TTC site. For more information on the 58 line, here is a map.
If you have any additional questions about this, please let me know. I'm no expert, but I just did it this past weekend, so it's fresh in my mind right now. You can post a comment here or email me and I'll be sure to edit this post with answers.
-kelly
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Cupcake-ity
Blog? What blog? Oh, yeah -- this blog!
Unfortunately, the last 6+ weeks of our lives have sort of disappeared into a black hole, since our beloved kitty Kaesea has been so sick. But that's not what this blog is about -- this blog is about wedding stuff and we've got plenty of that. (If you're interested in the Kaesea stuff, check The Kaesea Report for updates.)
My mom and I went to Toronto a couple of weeks ago to do some wedding-y stuff, including the super fun activity of cupcake tasting! We plan to have red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (red and white, see?) and also vanilla cupcakes with red frosting (the reverse! Cheesy and I love it!)
Bill and I had found some places selling red velvet cupcakes, but they weren't very red. So I contacted someone else to ask how red her cupcakes were and she said they were pretty red.
So my mom and I stopped by to check it out. She delivered! Check it out:
And if that's not red enough for you, look at the inside of this cupcake. Aw, yeah:
Not only that, but they tasted amazing. SO good! In fact, I am drooling writing this post. The cake was fabulous and that frosting was fantastic.
We also tried the vanilla cupcakes there. They're good, but not as stellar as the red velvet. We're going to go ahead and get them for the folks who don't want red velvet, but I gotta say: this red velvet kicks butt.
Meanwhile, now that I've written this, no one is going to eat the vanilla ones, right? They're good too, I promise!
Mmm... cupcakes.
-kelly
Unfortunately, the last 6+ weeks of our lives have sort of disappeared into a black hole, since our beloved kitty Kaesea has been so sick. But that's not what this blog is about -- this blog is about wedding stuff and we've got plenty of that. (If you're interested in the Kaesea stuff, check The Kaesea Report for updates.)
My mom and I went to Toronto a couple of weeks ago to do some wedding-y stuff, including the super fun activity of cupcake tasting! We plan to have red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (red and white, see?) and also vanilla cupcakes with red frosting (the reverse! Cheesy and I love it!)
Bill and I had found some places selling red velvet cupcakes, but they weren't very red. So I contacted someone else to ask how red her cupcakes were and she said they were pretty red.
So my mom and I stopped by to check it out. She delivered! Check it out:
And if that's not red enough for you, look at the inside of this cupcake. Aw, yeah:
Not only that, but they tasted amazing. SO good! In fact, I am drooling writing this post. The cake was fabulous and that frosting was fantastic.
We also tried the vanilla cupcakes there. They're good, but not as stellar as the red velvet. We're going to go ahead and get them for the folks who don't want red velvet, but I gotta say: this red velvet kicks butt.
Meanwhile, now that I've written this, no one is going to eat the vanilla ones, right? They're good too, I promise!
Mmm... cupcakes.
-kelly
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