White, no. Pink, yes.

I'm having kind of a bananas week involving styling for Harlequin romance novels, photographing weathered barnboard, sourcing vinyl banners, walking the One of A Kind show and having a slew of furniture sprayed at Beresford's - the fantastic spray shop I use. So, I've been snapping away with my phone to capture a couple of cool things as I run around. In that first pic below you can see the in-between of the two vintage chairs I'm getting re-done (here is the before) at Beresford's. I've picked a lovely dark smoky grey for them, the white is just the primer, and can't wait to see the results. Well, lovely after Tim has kindly pried off the fiddly applied carving that sits on the frame at the head and below the seat. Don't they look better already?

The other snap I took on the fly after admiring the fantastic job my friend Bev Hisey has done on her place. This is her fab looking front porch (with a bit of unseasonable snow still hanging around) that has been painted in a charcoal and gussied up with a new door - that's one of Bev's die-cut wool Botanical table runners hanging behind the glass for privacy - new numbers (from Lowe's), a new light and vintage shell chairs that were transformed from old rust buckets with a quick sandblast and a powder coat in ultra-bright bubblegum pink. Brilliant.

Rainbow rabbits, and other stuff

I have been so behind the 8 ball this week. You know how it is, you come back from vacation and there's a traffic jam of work to wade through. Well, that went out the window yesterday morning as I took time out to check in on the just-opened One of A Kind show.

There was scads of great stuff to see, so here are just a few faves from me. First up, the incredibly sweet felt creatures from Cristina Larsen of Textile Platypus, who makes the felt, hand-dyes it, then stitches each little fellow by hand. Next, Lost Nation had fun with their Humane Antlers as well as these cool carved moustaches. I totally heart all of the hemp and organic linen tea towels from Freshly Printed, their snow-shoe design was a standout for me. Menswear brand Identity stepped out of t-shirts and into these screenprinted wool blanket pillows. More great tea towels, of course from the lovely Avril Loreti (whose calendar tea towel is a certified blog hit!). And finally, an '&' pillow craftily made from vintage clothing by Hilary Cosgrove.

Getting my craft on

I spent this a.m. running around at the One of a Kind show in Toronto. It's quite the craft-tastic institution and always a great one-stop-shop to check out what's new on the handmade scene, and as usual, I scored a few great finds (while gabbing with Julia Black, lol).

Up first, I'm loving the petite and edgy hand-embroidered artwork by Amanda Hu of Denture Thief Productions (read more on Amanda here). Next, the sweetly sketched packaging of Honey Pie Hives and Herbals, designed by one of Honey Pie's co-owners, Bay Woodward. Repeat, a collaboration between Roisin Fagan and Arounna Khounnoraj, resulted in a great line of hand-printed textiles, as well as these charming teensy notebooks (that were printed last night!). And finally, Jardinique's Garden Chair - inspired by this Rietveld chair - which looks smashing in all white (though you can order it in any Benjamin Moore exterior Aura paint colour), it also comes as a rocker and has an accompanying side table too.

Craft in kind

Okay peeps, have you been to the One of a Kind show yet? I took a super fast runthrough the other day and saw some great stuff, and will be finding time over the next couple of days to head back to grab a few things. The show is such a part of the Holiday season for me, and a wander through always puts me in the mood (let alone sampling all the shortbread). So, if you need any more convincing, just check out the vignettes below - which I can totally tell were shot at photographer Michael Alberstat's studio - and are crammed with lots of cool crafted One of a Kind gear.

Speedy Gonzales

Yesterday I had to make like Speedy Gonzales and run around town like nobody's business. My day started well enough, with a preview of the just-opened One of A Kind show in Toronto, except, rather than a leisurely stroll I only had 20 minutes to check it out before my next appointment. Gah! Needless to say, I'll be going back to have a proper poke around (more cool stuff to come).

Here's one thing that definitely caught my eye as I was dashing about - These are the hot and fresh hand-painted Splatter Morph Pads by Montreal firm, Schleeh Design. I'm bananas about well-designed paper goods, and I just loved the loose and splashy colours - very Pop!