We should get medals for fun

You know what it's like when you have a big event the next day and get everything ready the night before? That's not me.

That's why, instead of strolling 20 minutes to the light rail train station, as I sometimes do, I power walked/ran, cursing, coattails flying, and chest heaving, to the hotel near my home, where I screamed to a taxi, "TAKE ME TO THE TRAIN STATION!!" If this wasn't Vancouver and I wasn't me, it could have been a scene from a movie.

Suzanne in her "cowboy" hat and me in my "toque."

Over-40 CANADIAN style!! (photos by Sue)

Why the drama, other than that's just my life? I went to an epic blogger meetup with Suzanne of Suzanne Carillo: Style, Smiles and Stories, who had flown into town for a few days from Toronto, and Sue of A Colourful Canvas: Stitch, Style, Smile - almost one year to the day since our first meetup, here. Hurrah!!! Definitely worth heaving for. Heh.

Now you might be familiar with blogger meetups in Canada's motherland (the UK), where bloggers meet in bustling historic villages and towns and spend a relaxing afternoon popping in and out of quaint thrift shops located in old castles and bath houses, followed by a debriefing over a pint or four at a local pub. (Of course we all wish we could join them!)

Well, we do things a little differently up here in Canada. 

We hop in our cars (and trains) and barrel our way to the burbs, where the concrete is barely dry, for some roll-your-sleeves-up, bronco-bustin', mud-slingin', serious strip mall thrifting. Yeeeah baby, it was pedal to the metal on the bargoon highway of secondhand love. (Uh-oh, sounds like a song.) Sue mercifully picked me up from the station and drove me the rest of the way to Talize. THANK YOU, Sue.

Is she licensed to drive that thing?!

Of course size matters. No namby-pamby hand baskets here. Puh! And forget Nascar - that's a circuit-certified Canadian cart with Suzanne at the wheel. She's definitely licensed to shop in that maxi with the shrinking violets gone nuclear, and while she didn't wear a helmet she did try on a cool leopard-print cowboy hat with a pink flower.

And are those bathroom doors on the change rooms? you ask. Heck, yeah!! If only the change rooms in all thrift stores were so clean and secure. 

Instead of passing toilet paper between stalls, we sometimes passed our clothes relay-style down the line. For example, we were all grabby for that cute little sparkly dress but it didn't make the grade for any of us. Too bad you can't see Sue's awesome navy over-the-knee boots with rear zips. Gaaa! 

The store was Talize, which is a fairly new chain sweeping across Canada. Sue and I were first-timers but Suzanne showed us the ropes as a regular to the Toronto-area store and helped us become card-carrying regulars. 

Talize is like Value Village, except cleaner, more organized, and more reasonably priced, yet with all the vintage, designer, and quirky pieces required of a satisfying thrift experience. I hope they don't let it slide.

Suzanne took this shot.

The face of a satisfied customer - in need of caffeine.

Suzanne took this photo too.

Another satisfied customer. We were all unforgivingly enabling - "Yeah, Sue, you've got to get this baton-twirler fringed vest. Seriously!" That's it in my arms behind her. It was another relay-type item that ended up at my finish line.

Photo by our server at Earls

After our work-out on the racks we went to Earls, several suburb-sized blocks away. Great food, good service. It's a different location in the same chain as the one we dined at during the summer blogger meetup event.

Sue and I had the Timbuktu (can't remember the real name). I was ravenous after shopping and ate like the Queen after a three-week cleanse, doing my best to maintain my dignity while shoveling food in as quickly as protocal allows. Fish tacos for Suzanne. And of course, sticky toffee chocolate pudding for dessert. No boozing - in the burbs everyone drives.

So there you have it, friends. What a FUN DAY we had!!! I took some video footage which I'm saving for something special. Thank you, Sue and Suzanne, for a STELLAR!!! outing.

This is my new Talize maxi denim coat with faux fur trim, which SUZANNE pre-scouted for me while she was waiting for me and Sue to show up. WOW! Do I love it or do I love it? $25.00, Parasuco, fully winterized with heavy lining. Oh, that woman knows me. And I'm wearing big earrings.

It's Patti's Visible Monday at her blog Not Dead Yet Style, oldest linkup party on the net. I must catch up with the gang before the big holidays kick in, always so much fun. Who's bringing the peppermint schnapps? Heave. I'll see you there.

Thanks too to Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb for featuring my gala gown as a favourite from her #iwillwearwhatilike linkup last week. Teehee.  I shall link this photo to this week's theme-free #iwillwearwhatilike as well.

OTHER NEWS 
O's engineering-related art is in the news again. Hahaha! Again, courtesy of the amazing Jean Thilmany, who wrote a story about O in late 2013 after she discovered him via Bag and a Beret being a big-time thrifter herself! (Jean, we're waiting for your blog!) My post about it is HERE.

This new article is for a major engineering site called IHS Engineering 360. The title of Jean's piece is "Finding the Crossroads of Engineering and Art," HERE, and it explores the connections between art, analytics, and the brain, and includes info on O's latest piece, which is a micro-sized walking kinetic sculpture inspired by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who makes gigantic free-walking sculptures called Strandbeest.

Working universal joint for O's kinetic sculpture, 0.65 millimeters in diameter,
almost invisible, smaller than a standard needle. THAT'S SMALL!

I just realized today that O and I have both been associated with brain professors. IS THAT WEIRD?

When I did a talk at the time of my art exhibit, the other featured speaker was former Harvard professor Dr. Paul Swingle, a neurotherapist specializing in biofeedback with a particular interest in the effects of art on the brain. His talk was called "Art and the Brain."

This latest article by Jean also features Dr. Jose Contreras-Vidal, an electrical and computer professor at the University of Houston, who studies the effects of art-making on the brain with the goal of improving brain-machine interface. Cue the Twilight Zone music.

The difference is my brain works on chaos; O's brain works on control.

Anyway, if you're interested in the sort of thing O does, I hope you enjoy the article. Thank you, Jean!!! This story is a great holiday gift not only for O but for me too. You can see more of O's work HERE.

I hope you all have holidays!

EAT, SLEEP, DRINK, LAUGH. AAAAH!

The story of O and Jean and me and magic

This is Jean, Jean Thilmany. Doesn't she look great?

Check out that colour combo - red booties, orange bag, green dress, patterned cover-up, with a hint of crazy socks and tie belt. Note too the pink flamingo. Jean has got Style! But Jean is not a style blogger (at least not yet) - I requested the photo from her, which she valiantly had taken by a family member.

I met Jean through my partner O, who met her by way of Bag and a Beret. It's a complicated story but a perfect illustration of how extraordinary and unexpected positive change in your life can come from blogging.

A couple of months ago, out of the blue, Jean sent O an email which precipitated an intense flurry of emails between them. As a highly mature, open-minded, sophisticated, sensible, loving (and modest) partner, and with the aid of some Kobayashi-technique meditation sessions, I was quite happy to let their relationship run its course, and even encourage it BECAUSE -

- Jean is a writer. She stumbled across O's art website after dropping by Bag and Beret (there's a link to his site under my banner) while perusing +40 style blogs. O's art captivated her. She wrote O to ask him if he would be interested in being interviewed for an article in New-York based Mechanical Engineering magazine, where she is Associate Editor. It is published by ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

Well...Gaaa! After working in relative solitude for years, O and I had been wondering how we could introduce his work to the art world, engineers, and people who enjoy the poetry of small quiet things, which O specializes in. Our jaws dropped when we found out that Jean's focus for the piece would be about the marriage of art and engineering.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of work O does, below are a few of his latest pieces. The first is a solid gold chess set of 18K yellow and white gold on a stainless steel board, 3.8mm X 3.8mm, probably the smallest in the world in its category.

The stainless steel chess board below, 0.95mm X 0.95mm, is barely visible even on the head of a pin. And O is going even smaller... I call it magic. More than skill, if you don't believe you can do it, O tells me, you will definitely fail.

Jean's article, "Artist's Eye ME's Creation," came out in the October issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine, which is viewable online only by ASME members and in print by subscribers, but with Jean's permission we have posted a PDF of the article here. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect and timely public launch.

I contacted Jean after publication to thank her and invite her to take a bow on Bag for the incredible and unexpected positive impact she has made on our lives, knowing she enjoys reading style blogs. Here's what she said about her style in her email to me:

I'm a thrifter, of course. And have a huge collection of stuff thrifted almost since high school. I do cull, but some of it I just can't get rid of. I like to grab the first thing that comes to hand in the morning and then make an outfit around that. I've pretty much been dressing the same way since the time I discovered "grandpa sweaters" in high school. Never went to grunge, but did wear overly big shirts and skirts with too many layers in the 90s. That's about the only thing I've changed.

Here's another shot of Jean, self-portrait. I love that outfit with those shoes and socks. And check out that bling wall and mannequin hanger. At first I thought that was a wonky doorway but it's a mirror.

And that's my story, well, O's story, Jean's story, and my story, or just the beginning of it maybe. It's not my typical blog post, but I wanted to share this major event in my life with you. I was busy for a while updating O's website and my own art website where I have had to go TOTAL CHAOS to re-short my circuits, if that makes sense.

So keep on blogging my friends. You never know where it will lead! But then you already know that...