One of a Kind: What I would have bought edition...

I went to the One of a Kind with Amy- we went last year together and both years I had to apologize for holding her up with all my visiting. It was really great to see a lot of familiar faces at the show- many faces that I see when I do other shows. Great people and good work aside, I literally marched through the place in under 2 hours, so here are my more limited picks if I actually had a wee bit more cash in the wallet:

First off, really nice to meet Ella from Little Red Caboose face to face! I did a post back in May about Ella's Matryoshka dolls- since then we've been corresponding here and there, mostly about our boys. I really love these Matryoshka dolls- they are made with such love and hand-crafted so well!
Next, it was also great to catch up with Arleigh Woods at her booth and admire her lovely paintings! Arleigh's work is a combination of a photo-transfer technique using her own photographs, painting into the image and then sometimes carving, along with encaustic. The paintings are so multi-layered and really show off a richness and depth. Her photo-transfer technique is also golden- seriously she's got that one down!!
I didn't get a chance to stop at this booth for long, but was really smitten with the Patouche cloths for kids! Her concept of every day dress up really suits my 5 year old these days, and I was really drawn to the wonderful fabrics and well-made designs! I just found out they have an etsy shop and are soon to be launching an online shop too!

There's a lot more I could have wanted to buy at the One of a Kind show this year, but for now, this is what stood out to me! I thought the show was much better than last year for many reasons, but am still not convinced that Thanksgiving weekend is a great weekend for Vancouverites. The Ferries were swamped with travelers and the roads leading out of the city were a gong-show, which makes me wonder if there were any shoppers left to come by to make it worth it for all that hard work and money dolled out to do the show. It's always tough to pick and choose your shows, and who knows, maybe next year I'll be in line to do the One of a Kind here in Vancouver, except that it will be our 15th wedding anniversary and I have a feeling that being at the show for 4 long days won't sit so well with the hubby... priorities, I tell ya!