Nick and I went to the Parkdale Flea a week ago Sunday, and I took some pictures to show you. This is a market that happens at 1266 Queen Street West (on the north side, just west of Dufferin), on the second Sunday of every month during the summer — there’s one more this season, on September 10th. Also, I believe there are a couple geared towards holiday shopping in the winter as well. Their Facebook page is here, if you’d like updates.
We thought it was great. It was sized just right as not to be overwhelming, and included an impressive mix of attractive, high quality handmade, art and vintage items, offered by a group of very friendly local creators, artists and pickers.
I didn’t get shots of all the 22 or 23 booths, as I didn’t want to disrupt the goings-on, however, a lack of a picture is by no means an indication of how I felt about what the vendor had. I loved it all! So many talented people brought together like that, made the Parkdale Flea an event that I look forward to returning to.
↑ Barbara had some terrific vintage clothing and housewares to show. These were pieces from her personal collection, giving reason for the name of her booth, “From Barbara’s Room”. ↑
↑ At Snaffle and Mane, “succulents are their passion”. They had brought along a creatively potted selection. ↑
↑ Duo creators, Krystina of Keepsake Studio and Lynda of With a Y, showed some very nice handcrafted jewellery and expertly sewn pouches. ↑
↑ Bonnefetti Paper Studio had attractive gift wrap, greeting cards, and beautiful boxes in which to keep them. ↑
↑ We enjoyed the refreshing punch they were serving in their pretty booth. ↑
↑ Artist Ariane, aka WildWitchCrafts, was helped out by an adorable assistant.↑
↑ She was showing prints, postcards and jewellery featuring her beautiful artwork, and wonderful smelling handmade soap. ↑
↑ Jessie of Glacier Body Care had soaps, bombs, scrubs and salts, which contain no synthetic preservatives, chemicals or alcohols. ↑
↑ ReVintageTO had organic soy candles and re-purposed tile coasters. ↑
In addition to the row of booths outside, there were more inside.
↑ The cute dog was greeting visitors at the table behind me … ↑
↑ … which was that of artist and illustrator Emily May Rose, who had a variety of pieces, many featuring her urban raccoons with attitude.
By coincidence, we’d just chased a lounging raccoon off our deck right before heading over to Parkdale, so it seemed fated that we needed some of her coasters, which were created in collaboration with another artist “Daily City Train”. More on him further down. ↑
↑ We love our functional art and have put them right to use. Note that the raccoons are eating Cici’s pizza — the reason I say that will be seen further down. ↑
Emily also owns the “Northern Contemporary Gallery”, which we passed through in order to reach the other vendors. Pictures of the gallery and the colourful show that’s currently hanging there are at the end of the post.
The building is home to many art studios, and the market booths inside were situated right in the midst of things.
↑ Noble Street Vintage had a nice selection of clothes and accessories. ↑
↑ MoonBeam Co had some great hand painted porcelain pieces & pins on offer. ↑
↑ Illustrator and designer, Kimia Ghofrani showed some prints of her watercolour paintings. ↑
↑ Nick amoungst the goodness. I hadn’t noticed until I looked at my pictures later, that I’d happened to take a shot that included a menu for Cici’s Pizza, the same neighbourhood favourite that the rambunctious raccoons in Emily May’s painting were eating. ↑
↑ Here is photographer and creator of coasters (including the ones we got from Emily May), Daily City Train, at work. ↑
↑ Coasters featuring his photography were for sale. ↑
↑ Revamped Clothing had a rack of garments made from pieces of previously used clothing, in addition to these wired headbands made with re-purposed fabric. ↑
We left the way we came, by passing through Northern Contemporary Gallery, taking some time to admire the original oil paintings by Shanna Van Maurik. The show is called “Tropicana Wasteland” — To quote the artist’s instagram intro, she is a “Maker of Rainbows”, … no explanation required.
The paintings are for sale and the space also has a retail section which includes products from many talented local artists and artisans. It’s open Wednesday – Sunday, 11am-5pm.
Thank you to you for reading and to the organizers and vendors at Parkdale Flea!
xo loulou
