Plush Toy Show

This past Saturday I attended the first ever Plush Toy Show held at the Thornhill Community Centre. It's the same location as the Happy Cute Marts and also run by Queenie's Cards. I didn't know what to expect but I was hoping the cold weather would deter some people from going so I decided to not get VIP tickets as I had done for Happy Cute Mart and just get there early. I arrived around 10am when it opened and waited a little in line, overall the wait wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. 

While waiting in line we got a free macaron because apparently the vendor made too many. It was tasty (and also very cute and matched my outfit)!

My friend and I were done browsing the show in an hour. I didn't buy much - a washi tape, a fruit sando pouch from maobabie and a kermie plush with a magnetic gun (I found out the magnets were the wrong orientation when I got home so the gun doesn't really stick to the plushie as well as the display model, which was a bummer).

Not to say that there aren't talented artisans and vendors to see... It's just that 50% of the artists were selling the same crochet items and that doesn't really interest me. I never really got into crochet. In terms of plushies, it was either printed, cushion type plushies, official merch, crochet or people selling manufactured artist plushies. I could be wrong but we didn't see anyone selling original handsewn plushies. Do people not know how to sew anymore? It's weird because at AN, there were a few plush artists, my table partner for 10 years being one of them!! I don't wanna say that artists these days aren't talented to draft their own patterns and sew a plush... But I guess no one has the time for that now? It's all mass production of the same kind of crochet items using someone's pattern, or something manufactured by a factory. I guess there was a vibe or aesthetic that this market was going for. Which was odd because some artists were selling prints, shirts and pins as well, not just plush? To me it was kind of like a more boring version of Happy Cute Mart. Less foot traffic too, which I guess was a good thing. When we left around 11 am, there was no line to get in at all. 

The only food vendors were oishii sweets and mochi doh. I'm glad I was able to grab some drinks and food there since there's not much nearby but I noticed mochi doh was charging con pricing for their banh mi sandwiches. We had gotten take out from their store before and the markup for this event was an additional $3... And they forgot to include the pickled radishes and there was very little kimchi in one of the sandwiches I got. They messed up my order before when I got takeout too. Guess I'll move on to another banh mi place! 

I really thought I'd be going out more with the baby but with all the snow and cold, I find myself just lazing around at home a lot. So this was a nice change of pace. The days are slowly getting longer though. I can see spring around the corner!! (Knowing full well it snows in April here lol)