Toronto’s 2011 Spring One of a Kind Show and Sale

One of the sure signs in Toronto that Spring is on the way is the One of a Kind Show, and this year is no different. I do not find any coincidence in the fact that it was 11 degrees Celsius on the weekend of the show, I firmly believe that it was Spring trying to peek through and see what the over 400 vendors were showing at the Direct Energy Centre.

And I don’t blame Spring one bit. I showed up at 9am (which is early for me, let’s not discount that fact in the story) on Wednesday morning for the Media Breakfast and walk around preview before the official show start time of 10am. Breakfast was excellent. We were treated to fresh berries and crepes from Yorkville’s famous Crepes a GoGo. Kids, let me tell you this, the crepes were fantastic. Amazing. Veronique, the “mistress” of Crepes a GoGo, and her crew whipped up 3 different crepes for us…

1 – Goat Cheese, Tomato, Red Onion
2 – Scrambled Eggs, Mozzarella, Maple Syrup
3 – Goat Cheese, Spinach

It was also great to be able to sit with Maria from Ourfaves.com and talk about what we do, where we’re from and all kinds of great things – including nachos!

After breakfast I started my walk around of the Direct Energy Centre floor and started to fall in love with more stuff than I honestly expected. My first stop was to see Nude by Rita di Cesare – her Spring collection looked great in the booth and as I said to a friend “kinda made me wish I wore skirts and dresses”. It was also a plus that Rita is pleasant to be around and easy to talk to. Check her out at www.nudeclothes.com.

As I walked around I found a lot of art that I wanted to bring home. I’m talking about coffee cups and canisters painted with great designs as well as paintings and photos and crafts and my goodness there were so many sweet things!

One of my favourite booths was perhaps one of the simplest. Margi Laurin… maker of stuff stole my book loving, notebook craving, vintage appreciating heart. The entire booth was set-up with her notebooks (lined and unlined), bookmarks, note cards and her newest creations – iPad and eReader covers! Ms. Laurin takes some awesome old books and takes the covers (front and back) to make her new products. My eyes lit up when I saw covers like Dr. Seuss and The Hardy Boys and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland turned into notebooks that a geek like me would love to have in my bag every day! If you think that you may be half as geeky as I am feel free to see what I’m talking about at the website here.

Another of my favourite booths came courtesy of a local (Liberty Village) shop. Mad Batter Bakers came down to the Direct Energy Centre from their store front location at 135 Jefferson Ave. and had a great, colourful setup of cookies. With Easter coming up the focus of the booth was easy to see. There were bunnies in a variety of sizes. For 16 years Mad Batter Bakers has been part of the Liberty Village landscape, and for almost half that long they have been participating in the One of a Kind Show as well. If you’re in the area and want to pick some cookies up to impress your friends, family or co-workers you should stop in and give them a taste. You won’t regret it. Trust me, I know cookies.

I was also lucky enough to stop by at some of the booths belonging to some of my tweeps. I visited with @Moon_Rox, @lovefresh and @ednaspickles – and these cats get it. They all have great product whether it be jewelry, lotions & scrubs or condiments and they know that engaging with the public at places like the One of a Kind Show and being active in social media will help to grow the business and tell the world about the pretty cool stuff that they are making available to the world!

If you weren’t at the 2011 Spring Show worry not – there’s always the Christmas show which is bigger and (from what I’ve heard) better. And the internet is a wondrous place that allows us all to do things like visit the One of a Kind Show website and search through all of the Artisans and find them on their own sites and buy their stuff and tell all of your friends about your findings!

In the end I can tell you this: My first One of a Kind Show was a great experience. I’m already making my plans for the Christmas Show and would be happy to have you all come with me. We can make it a field trip!

It will be awesome!

Author profile

Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.