Etsy pop-up returns to Toronto, here are six artisans that caught our eye – by Debra Norton

Sometimes while living in a city, it’s easy to forget that winter can actually be beautiful, that away from the busyness, there’s an amazing silence. Everything is frozen in stillness, and you can breathe deep and relax.

As much as this is true, I’m also really really glad it’s coming to an end soon!

A little feature in the latest issue of Covet Garden!

The Made & Found is now available at Kokito in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County! A shop definitely worth a visit or 3 when you find yourself in Prince Edward County. It’s full to brim with an eclectic collection of housewares, art, accessories, and some vintage items. Most products are Canadian designed and made.

The Made & Found will once again be part of the Toronto Young Designers Holiday Sale. This year’s sale will take place on Saturday, December 13th, at the Church of St. Stephens-in-the-Field, at 103 Bellvue Ave. at College St. From 11am to 5pm you’ll be able to pick up some fine gifts for everyone on your list, and maybe a couple for your fine self too! Hope to see you there!

The Made & Found featured recently in Australia’s Fashion Journal:

Toronto-based label The Made & Found create quality travel products you won’t want hiding at the bottom of your suitcase. Handmade from natural products with everyday use in mind in mind, their sustainable selection of totes, travel kits and drawstring bags combine a bright and clean aesthetic with functionality and durability.

Each product is designed with love and purpose, for ease of travel and living. The Travel Kit has a designated toothbrush pocket so it no longer sleeps with your hairbrush, and the Drawstring Packing Bag makes the prettiest little laundry bag you’ve ever seen. There are 16 products in the range, each featuring neutral cotton fabrics with a unique pop of colour.

Select totes and travel cases are now available at Likely General in Toronto! A beautiful shop that carries a wide range of lifestyle products including skincare, accessories, and housewares, making it the perfect place to find the perfect gift (for yourself and/or maybe someone else).

Photo from Instagram/LikelyGeneral

The Made & Found is now available at Health Hut Boutique! If you’re in Muskoka this summer be sure to drop by and pick up a travel case to fill with all your favourite natural cosmetics.

Photo from Instagram/ShopHealthHut

The time has come to do some packing. Some light packing, my favourite kind. No matter how long the trip, two days or two months, it’s so satisfying to strike the perfect balance of what you need and what you want, while keeping things minimal enough that you can get away with having just one bag, preferably just one carryon if you’re flying.  It’s super important to be organized or you end up with a lot of scattered, random things you don’t need. Having said that I will use those pencil crayons if it kills me! After finding them in a drawer, and sharpening each one, I felt a strong urge to take them with me. Everything else is super essential of course.

Come down to West Elm Toronto this Saturday and check out the Etsy Pop-up!  The market running from 1 – 6pm will feature local designers selected by Emma Reddington of The Marion House Book and Home Editor of Chatelaine magazine. There will also be treats from Glory Hole Doughnuts and Wanda’s Pie in the Sky. Hope to see you there!

I recently had the chance to work on a custom order for a hairstylist in Maryland. She wanted a tool roll for her combs and scissors based on the make-up brush roll. It was fun to create something with very specific measurements for very specific tools. I’ve always liked the idea of everything having its place.

It felt a little strange to ship it off today. Maybe because it was a custom piece, and I worked so closely with just this one for awhile that I got a bit attached to it? Not sure. It’s on its way to a great new home though, so yay! I’m eagerly awaiting a pic with all the scissors and combs inside.

So the past several weeks have been a bit crazy with cutting and sewing, getting ready for the One of a Kind Show here in Toronto. The last couple of days has been a mad dash and mayhem getting all the ironing, tagging, and minor yet important details together and I think it’s close. Well, I suppose it has to be since the show starts tomorrow . . .

From tomorrow, March 26 to Sunday, March 30th you will find The Made & Found at booth K20W at the One of a Kind, so come on down!

Nature nerd time! These beautiful trees with green and red leaves are all over Portland, Jamaica. Turns out they’re almond trees, and when you look closely you’ll notice small green pods growing from them. Some are tiny new born ones, and some are about the size of apricots. When they’re ripe they look a little bit like small pears, with sweet red flesh on the inside. Almond fruit!

When they fall from the tree and dry up, they look like gnarled mini coconuts, and at that point they are ready to be smashed with rocks. Inside is the almond seed, which we know as a nut. Newsflash! Almonds are seeds not nuts.

Check it out, I hand shelled these almonds! Okay, so I did 3, and Pam the cook, may have helped with the other 30 or so . . .

One morning I found myself at a track meet in Buff Bay, where I was invited to watch one of the neighbourhood kids race. Several hundred students from schools in the area race every year. Running is kind of a big deal ’round here.

The cliffs at Frenchman’s Cove, plantain chips disguised in a travel case for secret eating, and the perfect, private little deck.

Choosing some fish with the lovely Rosie at Likkle Porti. Mrs. Snapper, Ms. Grunt, and Mr. Parrot, thanks so much for coming to dinner!

The colours of Port Antonio and the surrounding area kill me a little bit. The colour combinations whether accidental or intentional are so striking. And the hand painted signs! So great!

People often talk about how imperfections add charm, and the perfectly imperfect. These fall under that category for sure I think, but sometimes imperfections don’t add to the charm, the imperfections are just imperfect, bleh, and unremarkable. And then there’s also the perfectly perfect, as well as the perfectly boring! How does it happen one way or another?

Maybe it’s like everything else in life, a fine balance between control and no control, caring too much and not caring at all?

Whatever it is, I’m happy to see it.

Jamaica. Portland Parish to be exact. The north eastern part of the island turned out to be so much more than I had expected. To be honest I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t done much research prior to leaving, so maybe it was a bit of a happy accident.

I stayed in Hope Bay, a small town in Portland. A random survey of Jamaicans will tell you “It’s a beautiful place, a place for lovers.”, “Not a nice place, nothing there.”, “Well, that’s off the beaten track!”, and “Be careful when it rains. Crocodiles will be at your door.”  Amazing.  My bedroom at the Greenhouse, opened onto a wraparound porch overlooking the ocean. I saw some geckos. That guy had never been to Hope Bay.

Other random notable things were:

1. Roadside fruit stands selling things I had never seen before, like star apples! The cute girl pictured above helped out at her mom’s stand and paused for a photo. If I could pose like that I’d be all over this blog. Just kidding, no I wouldn’t . . . or would I?
2. On my birthday I saw a double complete rainbow! It reminded me of the double rainbow guy. Oddly I didn’t quite have the same reaction.
3. There were so many bad dogs everywhere.
4. I think I saw Jah. (Last photo. Those are rays of Jah, no?)

The Made & Found was recently featured on EF magazine, an online magazine with a focus on sustainable style. It’s always nice to be recognized, but extra nice to be recognized by a magazine with such lovely taste. To read the full feature go to EF magazine.

Happy to have been a part of Blogshop Chicago. The Made & Found drawstring packing bags as goodie bags! To see more pics from the Chicago workshop go to DesignLoveFest.

Photos from DesignLoveFest Instagram

1. A little touch up at brunch at The Flying Pan, in Gangnam, Seoul, Korea

2. Shoes in a drawstring shoe bag outside a temple at the Golden Rock, Burma

3. Travel kit as camera bag at the Mingun Pagoda near Mandalay, Burma

Thanks to everyone who came out this past weekend to Vendor Queens! So great to meet all of you!

If you weren’t able to make it, and you’ve missed the online ship dates, there are still a few places in Toronto to pick up select items.

La Merceria at 506 Adelaide St. West

Ashtanga Yoga Centre of Toronto‘s studio shop at 3215A Yonge St., a couple blocks north of Lawrence

BRIKA/Hudson’s Bay pop-up shop at 176 Yonge St. at Queen