One Of A Kind Show - Toronto

The One Of A Kind Show is gearing up to begin it's Christmas show on November 24th at The Direct Energy Centre. One of the best places to find unique gifts for others and yourself, the Christmas show tends to be larger than the show held in the Spring. This show also has a longer run time giving avid shoppers like me ample time to get ourselves organized to make it down there. With the crowds that tend to turn out for this show, you might want to break your visit up into 2 or 3 trips. Get a re-admit pass when you leave and you can return on another day without having to pay admission again. New this year is a late shopping night on December 1st. The show will be open until 11pm. Might be a good time to attend since prime hours seem to be the weekends.

I have only attended the Christmas show once before. Plans to attend last year were sidetracked with my unemployment status in December. This year I am making a point to go as I also missed the Spring show. I have some standard favourites I want to check out and also see what new and exciting vendors have taken up attendance at One Of A Kind.  If it is your first time attending, it can be overwhelming as it is a large show. What works for me is to walk the entire show, make notes on the booths I want to buy from, then go back to them after I've seen everything. I find this method also keeps my spending in check. I do try to be a responsible Not A Shopaholic.

For more info visit the One Of A Kind website:  http://www.oneofakindshow.com/toronto/index.php

Some of my can't miss booths at One Of A Kind include:

Coach House Shortbread Company - I have a complete weakness for shortbread cookies and the ones from Coach House are the best I have ever tasted. The best part of visiting this booth is taste testing before you buy. No matter what I sample I always end up buying the same flavour. I don't even remember what kind I buy I just know I like the one in the orange packaging. If they ever change the colour I will be lost. I'm sure whatever you buy you will love. I cannot leave One Of A Kind without Coach House shortbread cookies.
http://www.shortbread.ca/homepage.html

glamjulz - The very first time I went to One Of A Kind I bought the most beautiful necklace from glamjulz. I remember the woman behind the counter saying it was one of her favourites and I assured her I would give it a good home. To this day I still get compliments on that necklace whenever I wear it. That necklace also started my obession/fascination with glamjulz. I have bought several pieces from them since, including some custom made pieces, and have attended a few of their end of season sales at their showroom in Burlington. I will definitely be stopping by their booth this show although I don't know what is left for me to buy from them. Knowing me I will think of something.
http://glamjulz.com/

My first necklace from glamjulz. The photo doesn't do it justice.

At The Wroot Of It - The coolest dishes and serving platters you will ever see courtesy of Carrie Wroot. Before you buy you will probably kill yourself laughing over Carrie's fun quirky characters, one blond and one brunette, and their appropriate kitchen and non cooking phrases. This booth is so much fun. I have come home with a triangle shaped serving platter and and oblong tray both of which I don't use nearly enough. I'm looking to expand my collection this year. Last time I was at the show Carrie was telling me she doesn't sell at retail and only sells her wares at 2 shows: One Of a Kind and CNE. These really are unique pieces you won't find anywhere else. Great gifts and great additions to your personal tabletop collection. Reading the Facebook page, it looks like there are paintings available too. Hope to check those out at the show.
No web page for this one but you can join the Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/At-The-Wroot-Of-It/106083591058

From my personal collection, serving platters from At The Wroot Of It by designer Carrie Wroot

Luxe Design (Booth W38) - What could possibly be better than jewellery as a gift? How about jewellery you can personalize? That is the concept at Luxe Design, a Vancouver based company. I have never bought anything from Luxe at the show, mostly because their booth is so busy I can't get near the merchandise. I have ordered online from them a few years ago and bought necklaces for myself and two best friends. Search my blog and you will find a post with the details.  Choose your chain, choose your pendant, choose what you want it to say and Luxe takes it from there, stamping out your request with their unique letters and numbers. Then accessorize with charms and beads to create the perfect piece of jewellery. I don't know how often my friends wear their necklaces but I wear mine all the time. On each of ours I put our names and then personalized the other side of the pendant to something special for each of my friends.
http://www.luxe-design.com/default.asp

Taken from Luxe Design website. Pendant is the same shape as the one I have.

Monster Factory (Booth E6) - Some recent readers may recall seeing my blog post from a few months ago about the Monster Factory. I first fell in love with these lovable critters at One Of A Kind and their booth is always super busy. I will definitely stop by this one and check out all the monsters. You will see people of all ages here. I bought Colin, my long time favourite from One Of A Kind show 2 years ago. More recently I bought 2 full size and many smaller size monsters for my friends twin boys. These monsters make great gifts for people of any age. My previous blog post about Monster Factory prompted some of my Twitter followers to buy some monsters of their own, as gifts and for themselves. Glad to help spread the word about this great Toronto based company. I just love them.
http://monsterfactory.net/

Top Photo: Colin, my first monster purchase. Bottom photo: Monster gifts for the twins.

*For a full list of artisans at the show, click here. 

One Of A Kind Show Toronto runs November 24th to December 4th. Shows also take place in Vancouver and Chicago. Check website for details.

http://www.oneofakindshow.com/

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

My Knight in Shining Armour: The Chesterfield Shop

Once upon a time there was a lovely girl who grew up in the suburbs and dreamed that one day she would be able to afford a condo in the city somewhat bigger than the size of a shoebox. When that day eventually came, she packed up her fantastic wardrobe, IKEA bedroom set and moved into said condo with its hardwood floors, spacious bedroom and gigantic balcony. Having lived with her parents her entire life, she had no furniture to speak of. The bigger than a shoebox condo remained relatively empty for over a year. A leather club chair, ottoman and barstools were the only furniture pieces to keep her company. After a year and a half of owning one piece of furniture and scouring the city and suburbs far and wide for a sofa that would fit in her beloved condo, the girl decided to buy a sofa and a slipper chair from a reputable retail chain. After many visits to the store, many searches online, measuring her living room and furniture selections, she came to terms with the price and took the plunge. The girl filled out the proper papers, picked out fabric for her furniture that would have made it magazine worthy and handed over a deposit. Now she was tortured with waiting 8-10 weeks for her magazine worthy furniture to arrive.

She waited patiently for the day her furniture would finally arrive, well maybe not that patient but she did the best she could. At the 8 week mark she called the store to check on the date of arrival, after all this was the most important day of her life. To move the story along quickly, it turns out the magazine worthy furniture was never ordered by the reputable retail chain. Hmmm, what? Yes, you read right. The order was never submitted. She wasn’t going to be getting furniture anytime soon. They offered to rush the order, but this girl had had enough. She demanded her deposit back from the big bad retail chain, much to the horror of her family and friends who thought she should have stuck with the original order. But lovely girls in the city don’t believe in rewarding bad behaviour so this girl set out to take her business elsewhere.


Now, the situation wasn’t as bad as you might think, for this girl already knew where she was going to go. Having visited a friend’s condo a few months before, she was smart enough to inquire as to where the friend had purchased her furniture. When the friend replied “The Chesterfield Shop”, the girl had no idea what she was talking about. After the big bad retail company screwed up her order, she knew she had to look up The Chesterfield Shop and check it out. The salesperson was very sympathetic to her predicament. He was a great help in pointing out their condo sized sofas, provided her with pricing and matching fabric to her sample. Within an hour of entering the store, she had a sofa and fabric picked out and signed on the dotted line. This purchase ended up costing less than the previous so some good came out of it. She settled in to wait another 6 weeks for her sofa. Luck was on her side this time because at 4 weeks she got a call and her sofa was delivered on a beautiful Saturday morning in September. It was so pretty and nice she didn’t even want to sit on it for risk of getting it dirty. It has become the centrepiece of the living room and this girl couldn’t be happier. Now her condo resembles an actual home thanks to The Chesterfield Shop and many other stores. The Chesterfield Shop will always have a special place in her heart. It is now the store she recommends to anyone who needs furniture. As it turns out, the lovely girl’s best friend and husband ended up buying furniture for their house there too. And they saved money compared to the place they had originally been looking at. See a trend here?


So now that the lovely girl has her beautiful sofa in her beautiful condo, what is she to do with her time? Why search for her Prince of course!

Christina Wallaert

Authors Note: While I was working on this piece, I came home one day and there was a delivery truck from The Chesterfield Shop parked in front of the condo building next to mine. Its was pretty funny timing.

My sofa and I are very happy together.

Not A Fan of Yoga Until The Jeans Came Along

One Saturday afternoon, I was shopping in Bloor West Village at one of my all time favourite stores Trixie (future blog post). I wasn’t looking for anything particular that day, when am I really? It’s not like I need anything new. As I was perusing the cool clothes in the store I noticed some denim. It was not a brand I was familiar with, however I had seen it in another store and decided to ask the helpful associates at Trixie about it. It was the Yoga jean from Second denim Co. I think I’m pretty up on my brands and labels but sheepishly had to admit that I was not familiar with this one. That’s what I get for being behind on my Lou Lou issues. The Trixie girls convinced me to try on a pair, which really isn’t that hard to do. Into the fitting room I went with these so called Yoga jeans. The style was a dark denim straight leg jean. I have always stayed away from skinny leg and straight leg jeans. It wasn’t a style that I ever thought would be flattering on me. My shape has been described as many things and skinny or straight isn’t one of them. I will say that I am not really thin nor am I really curvy. All of my jeans are boot cut as I have deemed that to be the most flattering style for my body type. Whether that is right or wrong I do not know but it is what had prevented me from trying on these other styles before this day.

The jeans are very stretchy. I believe the Trixie girls told me these jeans stretch two ways, most jeans only stretch one. My normal size fit me, thank goodness! You know if I had to go up a size they would have stayed in the store. Best of all, I thought they made my legs look long AND thin! Yes I swear my legs looked longer and more slender. If that isn’t enough to buy them what is? On top of that they were amazingly comfortable and I was in love. I didn’t want to take them off. I now wear them often and they look great with heels or with the jeans rolled up a bit and worn with flats.

When I got home from that shopping trip I had to look up the website of these amazing jeans. I was pleased to discover it was a Canadian company, started by Eric Wazana, in Montreal ten years ago. Design, production, washing and finishing are done in Montreal and then shipped out to a local store near you. Eric and  his team pay close attention to detail. This is obvious when you try on a pair of their jeans.  I consider him to be pure genius. It can’t be easy to design jeans that women will love! The best thing about this is its's another great Canadian brand having great success in the fashion world. The website has a very comprehensive list of retailers. Lots of independents carry the brand but if you can’t locate one near you, your closest Jean Machine location should be able to help you.

I like mine so much I’m contemplating getting a 2nd pair but that probably doesn’t surprise you. The hard part is deciding whether to get the same style different colour or go for a new style. So many decisions to make, so little time....

If you own a pair of Second denim Co. jeans I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment below or on the Not A Shopaholic group page on Facebook. Happy Shopping!

Update: September 5-I did buy another pair of the Yoga bootcut jeans in Black! I think I might be addicted to these jeans.

Christina Wallaert

Finally, I'm a Balmshell

I am a lipstick girl. I have been wearing lipstick or lip gloss for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, it was the one piece of makeup I could wear and feel confident that it had been put on properly and that I didn’t look like a clown when wearing it. Even now it is the one thing I refuse to leave the house wearing. Sometimes I worry that I am somewhat fanatic about it, but I’ve stopped caring. It’s my security blanket if you will. Because of this lipstick/gloss addiction I am always on the hunt for that one perfect lip stick/gloss. The one that even if it is the only thing I am wearing, will make me look like a million bucks.

If the above statement doesn’t prove my worth somewhat as a lip makeup expert than I don’t know what will! I came upon a pleasant lip gloss discovery a few months ago. I was attending TwestivalTO, a Twitter event that brings together followers and gives them a chance to meet in real life (IRL). I went with my friend Maria and we hung out all night with other Twitter people who had no idea who we were. Several sponsors had provided gifts for the event and Maria and I were quick to snatch up anything that looked good. My best score of the evening were testers of a lip gloss I had never heard of before called Balmshell. I was a little hesitant to start using the lip gloss as I had never heard or seen this brand before. Now that I have tried it, I am addicted! In my non professional opinion it is the best lip gloss I have ever used. It doesn’t make my lips stick together and it doesn’t feel like things are going to get stuck in my lips when I wear it!

What I’ve always been disappointed about in lip gloss is that the colour is usually so sheer, once it is applied you can’t even tell there is any colour there. This is not the case with Balmshell, at least not the colours I got (there were two samples in each package). I have a very neutral shade that I wear with lip liner and that is it. There is enough colour to it that I don’t need to mix it with lipstick. Sometimes I do but I don’t have to.

My love and admiration for this new product I had stumbled across led me to look up their website. The company was started by twin sisters, Jennifer and Fiona Lees, from right here in Toronto. They did not have a background in makeup but decided to go ahead and create the perfect lip gloss. I for one am ecstatic that they did and can’t thank them enough. I will be a fan for life. Their website says the products are sold at some Shoppers Drug Mart stores and Sephora. I have yet to see Balmshell in any of the locations I’ve been to but I will keep looking. If I can’t locate it in a store, I will buy it from their website ($20) as soon as I figure out what colour it is I have. If you happen to see Balmshell being sold at a retail location, please message me or leave a comment. I swear I will run there within 24 hours of someone confirming a location for me. My lips thank you in advance.

PS: They have a colour called “Shopaholic”. How cool is that?

Update June 17: I have found a few Shoppers Drug Mart locations that carry Balmshell. They are:

Mississauga, ON: Burhamthorpe and Cawthra
Etobicoke, ON: Queensway and Park Lawn
St. Catherines, ON: My co worker found this one. I have to get the street name from her.

Happy shopping!

Enjoy Adventures Under Sea With The Octonauts

I realize this post is probably beyond my realm of expertise but I write about what I like and I like the Octonauts, a series of children’s books from Meomi, a design company made up of one Vancouver resident and one Los Angeles resident. A cross border partnership I guess you could say.

I can’t take the credit for finding this one on my own. Back in my pre Olympic days when I was focused 24/7 on going to Vancouver 2010 and blogging all about it, I got an email from Immedium. They are a publisher located in California for The Octonuats book series. They thought I would be interested in the books because they are written and illustrated by Meomi, a company comprised of partners Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy. Meomi is the company that designed the Vancouver 2010 mascots, who I’m sure you love as much as I do (mark my words I will marry Quatchi one day). Since The Octonauts were not directly related to the Olympics themselves, I didn’t see a story there for my Journey to Vancouver 2010 blog. I did however think it would be perfect for Not A Shopaholic. The idea for this post was born months ago and I’m finally putting the words into writing now.

When Immedium emailed me, they included PDF versions of the first two books; The Octonauts and the Only Lonely Monster and The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade. The first thing that stood out for me was the beautiful illustrations. I loved the combination of colours and the undersea world that was being created. It seemed so realistic and possible that these characters could actually exist. I found myself wanting to be friends with them. The characters are adorable and have cool names like "Professor Inking" who is an octopus oceanographer, and "Captain Barnacles Bear" the polar bear leader of the Octonauts group. I found the writing to be intelligent and rhythmical, the funny names rolled right off the tongue.  Each story contains good life lessons for children.  I would say for adults it serves as a good reminder for some basic lessons we may have forgotten along the way.

Book cover for The Octonauts and the Only Lonely Monster

The first book sees the characters fleeing their underwater Octopod when they think it is under attack. They quickly find out that it is not the case and embark on a worldwide undersea adventure to reunite a stranded animal with its own kind. In doing so they become friends and realize there is something unique about each of them.

A page excerpt from the first book

What a great collection to give to a child as a gift to get them and keep them interested in reading. The series is a must have for any children’s book collection. In a world where we are so electronic based, it’s wonderful to see such interesting, creative stories being written for children with stunning illustrations. For my next friend that has a baby, guess what you’re getting as a gift!

Other titles in the Meomi Octonauts Series are:

The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade
The Octonauts and the Frown Fish
The Octonauts and the Great Ghost Reef




All titles are available for purchase in Canada, both through stores and online at Amazon and Chapters/Indigo. Internationally the books are available through publisher Harper Collins UK. According to The Octonauts website, the series is going to be developed into an animated TV show. How cool is that?  Watch these quirky lovable characters come to life on TV at some point throughout 2010.

The Octonauts have a whole website dedicated to them. Visit the website for a more detailed summary of the book titles or to download some "Octogoodies" (their word not mine) like colouring pages.

Feel free to share your opinions on The Octonauts with us. You can leave a comment here on the blog or on the Facebook group page for Not A Shopaholic. I look forward to hearing from you.

Photos used are from the Octonauts website.  Thank you Amy for finding me and sending me The Octonauts information.