Toronto Style at Home Show

The Style at Home Show in Toronto was fab. It was well attended by interesting people and terrific vendors. Of course, I am very partial to this one - Indigo Books. It is connected to Chapter Books, which is a national chain of bookstores in Canada. There were two big stacks of our books front and center.

The salvage studio was invited to the show by Canadian Home and Country magazine. This was their display area. Everyone loved that light fixture with the five glass pendants.

Canadian Gardening magazine had created this striking seating area.

The third major magazine sponsoring this show was Style at Home. They had these floral arrangements in purples and greens. Really great.
An action shot of me putting the finishing touches on the show and tell display.

Erin McLaughlin, the editor of Canadian Home and Country magazine, introducing me. By the second day (in this picture), she had her own microphone. The first day we shared my headset. And with the difference in our heights, we were literally "bosom buddies". It could have been awkward, but she is the epitome of grace and kindness. We got some inside scoop from Erin that we'd find a delicious lunch at this hip hotel, The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West). We had a memorable late lunch - like one of the top ten sandwiches of my life good! It is exactly the kind of spot you hope to find when you are discovering a new city - not a tourist in sight, casual, friendly and spectacular food.
Here is their ceiling light fixture - crafted from numerous bicycle frames.
Time to hit the sidewalks and amble our way back to our hotel. Which by the way, deserves noting. The show had a media discount at the Hotel Victoria (56 Yonge Street) in a very handy section of downtown. With just 56 rooms, we received such helpful service from everyone at the front desk. We would certainly recommend it, and stay there again ourselves.
Not only did this shop have the perfect name - Preloved, it had clothing designed with recycled sweaters and textiles. I tried on a couple of sweaters and yearned for a bit. They stayed in Toronto.
Queen Street West goes for miles and miles. We were amazed at the HUNDREDS of small, independent, one-of-a-kind shops we saw along this street.
Our last free morning in Toronto found us at the St. Lawrence Antiques Market. It is open every Sunday year round. I felt like the luckiest junker ever, except for the lack of suitcase space and being dangerously close to our airplane weight limit on all our bags. I was happy to mainly look, and did manage to find some plastic party charms from the 60's and some rhinestone pins that could wiggle into my carry-on bag.
Then it was time to head for the airport for our return flight home. Let me tell you - it's not easy taking a fire place tool holder through airport security and customs! -- Beth