At the Gallery – “Leonard Cohen : Everybody Knows” Exhibition at the AGO Toronto

Hello! My friend Julie and I had a Galentine and belated friendaversary (our 10th!) outing this past week, at the Leonard Cohen Exhibition at the AGO (aka the Art Gallery of Ontario).

Leonard Cohen : Everybody Knows runs until April 10, 2023.

To quote the gallery's description of the show, with more on their website here :

"An enduring artistic force, Canadian novelist, poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) is renowned the world over for his meditations on beauty, death, loss and the human heart.

The first museum exhibition to present the holdings of the Leonard Cohen Family Trust, Everybody Knows immerses visitors in the many facets of Cohen’s creative life. Rare concert footage and archival materials, including musical instruments, notebooks, lyrics and letters are featured alongside photographs, drawing, and digital art created by Cohen across several decades."

Week 6 Creative Challenge : Handmade Valentine Decorations – Crochet and Embroidery

Hello! In keeping with the creative challenge I've set for myself for 2023 (as introduced in this post), here is what I completed this past week. It might look like a lot, and granted, I usually do end up making quite a few things for Valentine's Day because I love the colours red and pink and the shape of hearts, but these things were made over a few weeks and finished last week. In fact, many got the final touches last night because weaving in the ends of crocheted pieces is always my least favourite part, so I sat down and did them all at once while watching Netflix (I watched "Your Place or Mine", the new movie with Reece Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. It was fun and, although romantic comedies are not usually what I choose, I quite liked it.)

Even though I've been crocheting since I was 7, I only made my first "real" doily last year (the one in this post about St. Patrick's Day decorating). But, now I've tried quite a few different patterns and I'm hooked (haha) on making doilies. What makes them fun is that every row of them is different and you don't really know what is coming up next, so it's kind of like a treasure hunt in crochet form.

Week 5 Creative Challenge : Four Themed Vintage Valentine Vignettes for Instagram

Hello! I hope you're doing well. Here I am with an update on the "Weekly Creative Challenge" that I've set for myself for 2023 (as introduced in this post).

To recap, I finally began using Instagram on January 1st. (My account is Loulou Vintage Home.)

Although I'd looked at other people's photos on the site in the past, when I created my own account I had no idea that there was such a robust and active vintage community there. So far, I have found 114 accounts of like-minded vintage enthusiasts to follow. The people, for the most part, have been very friendly and welcoming, and, my goodness, the stunning pieces and collections I've seen photos of this past month have made my jaw drop. I've also felt quite the urge to go shopping, which is a bit of a downside, haha. So far, I've fought that, but, dang, there sure are a lot of cute things out there.

One thing this group does a lot of, which I've found to be really fun, is they post photos based on particular themes. It's neat to see what everyone does to meet those themes, with what they have in their own collections. Some themes, (or hashtags), are ongoing and you can post to them anytime you have a photo that meets the particular criteria and others are for a time period, as in "this week we're asking you to show us your (fill in the blank) ". Some of the asks are pretty straight forward and some of them make you really think about what you have, that will fit. And, of course, since this is a visual medium, you want to present the items in an interesting way, and take good photos. Also, part of the fun are the clever written captions that go along with the posts. I have found myself laughing out loud at some of them.

This past week, I jumped in and posted four different vignettes, for these themed challenges : Note: photos on Instagram are square so users don't see the black bars on the left and right of the images.

1) The hashtag was #colorfulvintagegirls and participants were asked to post photos of a vintage footstool.

Week 4 Creative Challenge : Romantic Puffy Hearts Made From a Vintage Pillowcase

Hello! For last week’s creative challenge (as introduced in this post), I used some cotton fabric from a worn out vintage pillowcase to make a few stuffed hearts.

I really like the shape of hearts, so end up making some sort of decoration featuring them every year as we approach Valentine's Day. My usual colour scheme tends to be in the dark range, with rich ruby reds, deep turquoise and quite a bit of black (as seen here), so, with this project, I wanted to try something different. When I looked through my bin of scrap fabric, this well worn vintage pillowcase stood out as a good option for the soft romantic pastel effect, with an old fashioned primitive handmade look, that I had in mind.

Week 3 Creative Challenge : Making a Tiny Wooden Door and Painting a Little Log Cabin

Hello! At the beginning of 2023 I gave myself the challenge of creating at least one thing every week (as described in this post). If you're doing the challenge yourself, I hope you made something you're happy with last week.