Friday Night Live at Royal Ontario Museum

There is something really cool happening in Toronto Friday nights and it's at, take a wild guess, Royal Ontario Museum! I had been hearing about and seeing tweets and pictures for ROM Friday Night Live since last year. I finally attended myself for the first time in May and was quite impressed.

The dinosaurs are ready to rock for ROM Friday Night Live

The crowd arrives

 

The entire museum is turned into a festive rocking place complete with bars and various food stations throughout the building.  The main floor has the largest stage and dancing area. My group and I stumbled across a great set up on the 2nd floor, an entire room for dancing, a few bars to choose from and food stations. It may be a good idea to see a list of all the different food stations available. I chose very quickly and then saw several other things I would have liked to try on other floors. Next time rice balls, you are mine.

Let's listen to music while we look at some gems

One of the main reasons I really like this event is that we had a very mixed group of people in age, location and maritial status and it appealed to everyone. I can't say that for a lot of things. Plus as much as I love the museum on a normal day, this made a museum trip seem uber cool, fun and I got to dance IN A MUSEUM! How many people can say that? It's a great girls night out, date night (find a date night) or catching up with friends night. I would definitely go again and highly recommend it to anyone.

The group hangs out and chats. Where to next ladies?

Wander around long enough and you find a superhero at FNL ROM

 

On the main floor you will also find the Ford Canada VIP lounge. Make sure you visit, its worth it for a great photo of you in a car getting attacked by a dinosaur. It makes for a great souvenir and memoir of the evening.

 

Food and beverage tickets can be purchased at the ROM and are good at all bars and food stations. Each ticket is $6. Non drinkers can purchase a soft drink and keep the cup for refills all night. A great idea and I like the support for the non drinkers and designated drivers.

Dessert! Must keep the energy up for dancing

Tickets for the event are $12 and can be purchased in advance online and a select number sold at the door the night of the event. Event goes from 7pm - 11pm.

ROM Friday Night Live is a seasonal event and will run until June 27th. Information on a Fall 2014 session is still to be released. Check out #FNLROM on twitter to see what people are saying about it, twitter account is @ROMToronto.

Ford VIP Lounge

Our hang out on the 2nd floor, where all the cool people are

 

© Royal Ontario Museum

100 Queen’s Park, Toronto,
ON M5S 2C6

 

Regular Hours

Mon - Thurs 10am-5:30pm

Fri 10am - 6:30pm

Sat - Sun 10am - 5:30

 

Sample Sale - Toronto

Posting for your info, a sample sale of a few brands all under one roof. Definitely worth going just to check out Foxy Originals and This is J. I love them both!

Not Afraid Of These Monsters

I have a secret. I’m afraid of the dark. It’s not bad now, but when I was little my Mom had to leave the light on in the hallway until I fell asleep. Even now I can’t watch horror movies or I will have nightmares. So it may seem a bit odd that I have decided to do an entire blog post on monsters.

These are not the big, ugly, scary monsters you are see on TV or in the movies. These are the cutest monsters you have ever seen in your life with personalities to match.

It was a few years ago I saw the product offering from The Monster Factory for the first time. I was at the One of a Kind show with some friends who had been there before. We walked into The Monster Factory booth and I never wanted to leave. These monsters were so colourful, odd looking and adorably cute all at the same time. Each one has a tag with their name and a description of their personality. You have never seen happier people than the ones standing in this booth looking at those monsters, including the adults like myself.

It was love at first sight when I first laid eyes on Colin. I had to go through a lot of monsters before I settled on him. Even then it was much later when I decided to make a commitment to him. Since then I have been a very happy owner. He keeps me company in my living room alongside my favourite Vancouver 2010 mascot Muk Muk. I call the two of them “my guys”. Sometimes I’ll even talk to them but if you ask me to admit that in real life, I won’t.

After Colin and I had been together for awhile, I felt it was time to introduce him to my friends. After all he was someone special in my life. My friend was over for dinner one night and I introduced her to Colin. Her reaction wasn’t what I expected. She immediately started laughing, laughing so hard she was crying and kept saying over and over again, “he looks so funny, he looks so funny”. Well excuse me, I know he’s no model but he is not “funny” looking.

Fast forward many years and said “friend” is now married and recently had twin boys. My dilemma, what to buy these 2 sweet boys so they can remember their (favourite) Auntie Christina when she isn’t around. After much deliberation I decided The Monster Factory would be the best present. It is a present they wouldn’t outgrow right away, looking at monsters would make the boys happy and I would be on my way to solidifying "Favourite Auntie" status. I settled on Donny and Doyle for the boys. Donny and Doyle are funny looking, (Colin is not!) and I thought their funny faces and odd shapes would keep baby eyes occupied for awhile. Ordering was very easy. I did it online and chose to pick up Donny and Doyle when they were made. The Monster Factory emailed me when the order was ready and I headed to downtown Toronto to pick them up.  I added miniature versions of monsters Kyle, Todd and Mr. Jefferson. It really is difficult to limit yourself to only one or two.

Donny on the left, Doyle on the right

Mini Monsters starting left: Todd, Mr. Jefferson, Kyle

Now Donny and Doyle are sitting in my living room waiting to be given to their new owners. I know I bought them for the twins but I don’t want them to leave me. I like having this monster family around. Sadly the day will come when I have to give them up. I feel good knowing they are going to a good home. I'm sure the twins will love Donny, Doyle and friends as much as I do.

Monster Factory is a collection of plush monsters (I don’t want to call them toys) created by a group of 3 friends who have been building their monsters for years. Each monster is made with love in their downtown Toronto studio. Visit their website or visit them in studio (by appointment) or find them on Facebook or Twitter to tell them which monster you love.

Ps. I also get startled when there is a thunderstorm. I’m not scared though. Colin is here to protect me.

The Monster Factory
471 Richmond St. West, Suite 201
Toronto, ON
Ph: 416-913-6673

Written by Christina Wallaert

Let's Dance

One of the reasons I love tweetups is you get to try something new with a bunch of other people and you usually end up supporting a local business. You may remember my earlier post about the Artisano tweetup I organized back in November 2010. After that tweetup, I got the idea for another, one that did not revolve around eating.

I've been dancing almost my whole life. I did Jazz and Ballet as a child/teenager and as an adult kept going adding Hip Hop and finally learning Tap. After a very long absence from ballet, I went back to classes last year. Keeping up with dancing is one of the best things I've every done for myself. I really don't know what I would do without it. It calms me in a way gym workouts never have.

So for my second tweetup I wanted to take a group of people dancing! Great idea right? Well it was a bit slow to take off but was still successful. I always knew I wanted to partner with City Dance Corps on this one. They have a great schedule of a variety of classes at different levels of dance. They were on board with the tweetup as soon as I contacted them. We both agreed a Beginner Hip Hop class would have the most interest for people. For people who have never danced before a Beginner class would be challenging. I set up the invite and starting tweeting about it like crazy! We didn't have a full tweetup but I was very impressed with the people who did come. Most had not ever danced before. We had men, we had women and everyone was really excited to dance. There was some apprehension over the hour and a half class but I told them it would go by very quickly, and it did.

Going through the moves.

Our teacher was KJ who was both a great dancer and teacher, his sense of humour helped put people at ease. After the warm up we went right into learning a combination and pretty soon all of my Twitter friends were dancing! I was like a proud Mom. It was fun to see people doing something they didn't think they could do. More than one person commented they had a new respect for dancers. It isn't as easy as it looks.

Now usually during a tweetup there are lots of tweets flying from all attendees. Doing that while dancing is a bit difficult but of course this group somehow managed. Pictures and video are also evidence of their efforts and participation. Some people from our group even went back the next week for another class. I think they'll be dancers for life now. It really was a fun afternoon and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was over before we knew it and we headed to a pub to discuss this new found talent everyone had.

The group looks on as the other group performs.

Time for tweets and video taking.

I'm hoping to organize a part 2 in the very near future. If you would be interested in attending, let me know either through a comment on here or on twitter @Notashopaholic. You can also follow hash tag #CDCTO for info and up to date tweets.
Happy Dancing everyone!

Group photo with our teacher KJ

A very special thank you to City Dance Corps and Estelle for being so welcoming to our group. The class we took runs every Saturday at 1:30. It can be hard to find classes for experienced adult dancers and from all of my research I find City Dance Corps to have one of the best selection of classes and levels. Check them out and tell them I sent you!

City Dance Corps
489 Queen St. W 3rd floor
Toronto, ON
ph: 416-260-2356

Video of our class

We All Heart Accessories

It was a warm sunny October day in Toronto and I decided a trip up to Yonge and Eglinton to visit I Heart Accessories was needed. We had been corresponding on Twitter, I had read their blog and I was drooling over all the photos of product on their Facebook page. Obviously I didn’t really need any accessories and I was on a self imposed shopping abstinence, but I had to go, plus I had my current issue of Lou Lou and it had a 20% off coupon for I Heart Accessories. Trust me, smaller things have made me visit. It’s like the store was calling me, or maybe I really wanted to meet Natalie, owner of the store. I would love to be in her position one day: have my very own store to buy for and merchandise. I also think she is doing a great job at promoting the store through social media and I wanted to go see it in person. Point: Social media does work folks!

Yonge and Eglinton is one of my favourite areas of the city. Tons of restaurants, I didn’t think there was much in the way of shopping, at least from what I could remember. Turns out, if walk up Yonge a bit, north of Eglinton, there is great shopping! Good thing I wasn’t spending any money or I could have done some serious damage. I found Natalie’s store no problem and apparently I’m not the only one. It was crowded which was great to see. I looked around as I waited for her to finish up with several customers. The best thing about the store is the accessories are affordable!!! I love that word. It took me awhile to decide on what to buy. I finally settled on a necklace from brand iwear and a pair of leather gloves with ruching.

When Natalie was finally able to chat I didn’t even have to introduce myself, she knew who I was. It’s kind of funny when someone can recognize you from your twitter photo. We chatted for awhile about the store, brands, customer traffic, our blogs and twitter. She was so nice. I probably would have talked her ear off (which I think I actually did) but other customers needed her. It’s a great store and I plan to be back one day. Next spring I see a pair of Lindsay Philips flats in my closet and I know just where to get them. Thanks Natalie!

Follow on Twitter @iheartaccessories
Join the I Heart Accessories Facebook page for a 15% discount every time you shop.
Website: http://www.iheartaccessories.ca/index.html

Artisano Breakfast Tweetup

Twitter is good for a lot of things, the best being if you want to go check out a restaurant there is no shortage of Twitter people who will want to join you. Putting this theory to the test I decided to organize my own Tweetup (a chance for Twitter people to meet in real life) at one of my favourite places, Artisano Bakery and Cafe.

If you’re a regular reader of mine, and I know you are, you’ll remember my post from last year “The Art of Sandwiches”. I still visit Artisano on a regular basis for sandwiches and pizza but I really, really wanted to go there for breakfast. I didn’t want to go and pick up food and bring it home to eat which is what I usually do. I wanted to sit in the restaurant with a bunch of fun people, hang out on a weekend morning with them and a scrumptious breakfast. I created an invite using twtvite, sent out a few tweets on Twitter, and lo and behold, people actually wanted to come! That is how we came to be a group of 16 people, most of whom have met through Twitter, sitting at Artisano’s Toronto location on Islington Avenue yesterday morning, to eat breakfast, drink coffee, meet some cool people and have a few good laughs. People came from as far away as Pickering, Hamilton, Richmond Hill and across the city on TTC. Most of them made it on time too!

Before Saturday, there were many tweets flying around as people tried to decide what they were going to order. I already knew what I wanted! I was dying to try the Breakfast Pizza. My Mom had ordered it on a previous trip and I was in envy the entire time she ate it. It did not disappoint yesterday morning and there were a few others who chose this as well. The other popular item of the morning was “Eggs in my Pocket”, interesting name. French toast was also ordered, the consensus was it was ok, the other dishes looked much better. Lots of coffee accompanied most meals. We discovered some talented coffee gofers which was a pleasant surprise. People tweeted as they ate, tweeted photos of their breakfast, and tweeted in general. I’m trying to get a count of the hash tag used. It’s not easy to do, needless to say there were a lot of tweets with the tag #Artisano.

 I was so happy others love this cafe as much as I do. I’ve never had a bad meal there and it’s a great place to hang out, eat, work, chat, whatever you want. Not only was it fun for us, we got to support a local business which is always a good thing. Artisano is expanding with new locations in Mississauga and North York. Hopefully there will be one in your neighbourhood soon.

A big thank you to all the Twitter people (tweeps) for joining me this morning. Some of you came from faraway places and I appreciate your efforts to get there, as well as the time you had to get up to do that. Also a thank you to Lyndon, General Manager of Artisano for helping to reserve a section for us. I don’t think he believed me when I said I was going to bring a bunch of Twitter people to his restaurant. At least now he knows I’m not a liar! From what I can tell, we generated a few hundred tweets, had #Artisano trending on Four Square, posted photos of the food, and those tweets were seen by thousands of people Saturday morning. 

There were some people who could not make it today and have requested another Tweetup be scheduled. I will look into doing that and post details once it is arranged. I am thrilled there has been this much interest in a place I love going to and have been going to for a few years.


If you’re interested in seeing the tweets from the event, you can search hash tag #Artisano. See you there next time.

Twitter people out for breakfast at Artisano Bakery and Cafe.

 Thanks to all the Twitter folks who took photos of their food. Without you I would not have had any photos for my blog.