This week I had the opportunity to explore the One of a Kind Show here in Toronto which is running through Sunday, April 1st at Exhibition Place. The One of a Kind Show is held twice a year - once in the spring, and once before Christmas. I've only ever been to the show once, and it was a few years ago, so this was something a little bit new for me and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I really enjoyed my time exploring (so much so I went back on a second day), and I can see why it a spring tradition for many people in the Greater Toronto Area to attend the show.

Kerry Walford (Booth P-27) is an artist specializing in oil painting. The cute little 'Bird with red Scarf' above are $120 and I was rather tempted by them. She has prints and note cards available with her work as well if an oil original is outside your budget. www.kerrywalford.com

Pebble Art of Nova Scotia (Booth L-31) is created by Sharon Nowlan. All of the pebbles are collected on the beaches near her home. The picture above, entitled 'Spring' is $119 (my apologies for the photo which doesn't do her work justice)  pebbleart.ca  Pebble Art on Etsy

Mara Minuzzo (Booth I-36) is an artist whose work I've seen before (most recently at The Artist Project). Her art blocks of Play Mobile figurines never fail to make me smile. ($35). Her art blocks of mid-century furniture items are great, and her paintings of people and scenery are wonderful . maraminuzzo.com Blue Trike on Etsy

She Smiled and Ran (Booth N-44) is a contemporary jewelry line created by Annie Tung. The Wave ring ($320) above fits over two fingers, and made me wish my birthday hadn't just passed. shesmiledandran.com

Nicole Tarasick (Booth G-35) creates handmade screen printed items. The Canadian airport codes were what first drew my attention to her booth, and I love that what she had displayed all had a distinct Canadian angle. Small pillow: $65, Large: $95 (both with feather fill) Nicoletarasick.com  Nicole Tarasick on Etsy

Bookhou (Booth K-09) had a number of different products featured, but it was their textiles that drew my eye. I love these tea towels ($16) and the  Moose onesie ($25) made me smile. Bookhou.com Bookhou on Etsy

Jenna Rose (Booth I-16) is a textile studio where all the designs are initially hand drawn by Jenna Fenwick before being screen printed using water-based pigments. I honestly couldn't tell you which of Jenna's designs I liked the best - they're all gorgeous. Blankets $98, Tea towels $15, Pillows $60. Jennarose.ca  Jenna Rose on Etsy

Avril Loreti (Booth L-05) is a textile designer whose use of vibrant colour and pattern is amazing. The tea towels above are $25 and I can't decide which of them I like best (I keep changing my mind). Avrilloreti.com  Avril Loreti on Etsy

I'm going to give your scrolling finger a rest and end this post here. I'll post some more favorites later, but in the meantime, if you're heading to the One of a Kind show this weekend make sure you visit the booths of the artist above, or take a peak at their websites.

Unbelievably it's nearing  the end of March - where did the month go? In February I decided that I was going to treat myself to flowers once a month. If you follow me on twitter you know that my brother J sent me a lovely bouquet for my birthday, so while I didn't treat myself I'm still counting these flowers towards my goal of having fresh flowers in my home at least once a month.

By the time I remembered to take pictures these lovelies had been in my apartment for almost a week so they're not quite as stunningly vibrant as they were when I first received them. A small warning - I decided to practice my close-up photography with the bouquet as my subject so there are quite a number of pictures to scroll through - I hope you don't mind.

Sometime last year I was browsing one of my favorite blogs -'The Art of Doing Stuff', when I came across a post where Karen took an inexpensive dollar store ceramic bird and transformed it with a quick spray of paint. I decided right then an there that I was going to do the same if I was ever so lucky to come across a ceramic dollar store bird of my own. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right?

It took a while, but eventually my local Dollarama had some birds I could try my hand at spraypainting. They had three styles, and when I first saw them I have to admit that I didn't even remember my plan to
copyemulate Karen's idea. By the time my brain kicked in, all my local Dollaramas were completely sold out of birds, and I had to Google the store to find some locations in the far reaches of suburbia. Okay - it wasn't that bad - I just had to travel about 30 minutes by bus. That store had one version of the bird left so I scooped him up, and brought him home where he resided wrapped in tissue paper for months. (I need to work on my idea/plan execution - this isn't the only project that's languished as I twiddled my thumbs - but that's a different blog post).

Three coats of spray paint later, and a little white felt on the bottom and he's been transformed.

It's St. Patrick's day on Saturday, and as I'm genetically 50% Irish I feel I would be highly remiss if I didn't share something of my heritage with you. I love all things Irish - I was extremely lucky growing up and got to visit Ireland every summer. My boyfriend D says I can spot an Irish flag from any distance (For some reason he finds this odd - he's never been and therefore doesn't understand how wonderful a country Ireland is), and the sound of an Irish accent always makes me smile. 

I debated just what to share - there's the picture of me in the leprechaun hat (I decided that would most likely cause permanent damage to your retinas given the hat came complete with a red beard), but then remembered this recipe for brown bread that is quite similar to one my grandmother used to make (and still does) whenever I visit her in Dublin.

When I first moved into my apartment I didn't have a single piece of living room furniture other than my desk, and the media console I inherited from the previous owner. I'm coming up on my two-year anniversary and I've managed to accumulate a bit more furniture since move-in day, but it's all been placed in the room in a rather unimaginative way - up against the walls. I've tried to imagine different room layouts, but the idea of moving all my big furniture around only to realise what worked in my head doesn't in reality has stopped me from testing my out my wonder woman powers.

While trolling the internet one day looking for some more lighting for my living room I spotted something intriguing on the Urban Barn website. It's an application called 'The Make room' planner and it allows you to try different configurations until you find the best layout for your space - all with barely lifting a finger! The application, which is online, allows you to create your own layout, and then add all you furniture and lighting elements. The  application comes pre-loaded with all of Urban Barn's products, but because most homeowners buy from various sources you can add custom sized elements to represent furniture you already own. I don't own any furniture from Urban Barn so I measured and created all my furniture on the program. Once you've got all your items gathered you can move them around and save different layouts for viewing again later.

I played around with it for a while, and I came up with some layouts that could work, but I need some help deciding which I should risk straining a muscle to recreate in my living room, and I'm hoping you might help (BTW - Urban Barn has no idea I'm writing this post. I found the tool and though it was neat so I'm sharing it).

Here are the furnishings I'm dreaming of moving around:

Here are the layouts I created online. They are in no particular order.

What do you think? Would any of the options above work better than my current furniture placement? Are there any I haven't thought of?