Toronto's National Home Show 2015

As of almost two weeks ago, we have been in our place for a year. There is still plenty to fix, paint, spruce up, but it has come a long way. I'm a huge addict of home blogs, magazines, and shows and get loads of inspiration from them. So when our realtor offered us tickets to Toronto's National Home Show, I didn't even have to think before I said yes. We went on Saturday and spent the better part of the day wandering around and listening to pros giving advice and demos.

Here are some of my pictures from the day, I apologize for the quality on a few. I only took my small camera and phone. I really didn't want to have to lug my big camera around all day! I need one of those super light and small DSLRs for occasions like this. A girl can dream!

Tulips in the Canada Blooms section of the show.

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Andrew Pike and Margaret MacDonald gave a presentation on celebrity kitchens, what to do and what not to do, and how to get the look for less. They did a little trivia with popular TV and movie kitchens and we won a $15 Starbucks card. Yay! He also brought up a good point when showing the kitchen from Friends- with Monica being such a neat freak, why was the kitchen such a messy disaster? Mind = blown. How did I never notice that? Also, how fabulous are his two-toned saddle shoes and suit?!

Kevin Durkee owns Cheesewerks downtown and I have to try it. A restaurant revolving around cheese? Umm yes, get in my belly now. He was lots of fun to watch and his Nutella Ricotta Banana Stuffed French Toast was amazing. Sounds weird, but it was so tasty. If I am not mistaken, he was on an episode of Food Network Canada's You Gotta Eat Here, which is sort of our version of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  Nope, not on that. It will drive me crazy until I remember where I saw him! Regardless, I have to go and I'll give it a proper blog review when I do.

Gold Medalist Olympian Rosie MacLennan also talked about her background with trampolines that took her to the Olympics.

 In the Canada Blooms section, they put together this massive tree house with a curvy slide. Was this not the thing dreams were made of when you were growing up? I always wanted a tree house with a tire swing! Those hopes were dashed when I never lived anywhere that had trees big enough to support those things. Drat! I did have an awesome loose hammock tied between two trees that I would wrap around myself and swing really fast until I would flip over. Thinking back now, probably not my smartest idea.

Jackie Morra gave tips on an inspirational home and working around your style. She answered questions afterward and she took her time to give in depth answers instead of just giving a quick one and moving on to the next person. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that. She looked at the photo of my kitchen I showed her and gave me a lot of ideas to think about and work around.

Aside from the Starbucks gift certificate, we also got an Energy Savings Kit. It is funny to think about how happy I was to get this kit to finally have a kitchen faucet aerator again. Our old condo had one and I loved it. I had one on my home wishlist, but kept forgetting to get one. They swivel and add air to the water so that you still get the pressure but you use less water. I also bought three dips from Cinnamon Hill Farm that I can't wait to make. I tried to get flavors that were unique and these were three of the ones that we sampled and enjoyed. Loaded Baked Potato is my favorite of the three.

And right before we left the show, we passed the BeaverTails booth and could not pass it up. They don't have many locations, so they are usually a rare treat. The basic one is fried dough topped with cinnamon sugar. They also have other toppings, which I definitely have to try! We split this while it was nice and hot to warm us up for the jaunt to the car outside.