Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup 2011

On Saturday I went to Brassaii for the Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup. Before Saturday, I'd never been here before, but I'd heard good things about it. Brassaii is located in a beautiful building on King St W in Toronto - outside is a charming cobblestone patio and beautiful tomato coloured doors greeted me as I entered. Inside, there was some great lighting and brick walls - my weakness!

The lovely Daniella (from Dress, Design & Decor) and Vie (from Verdigris Vie) were the power duo behind this beautifully organized event.

They snagged Tommy Smythe (!) as the key speaker for the event and he quickly dubbed us "Bitches Who Blog" and he called me beautiful...well technically, he called he audience beautiful, but I was in the audience, so that counts...right??

He shared with us a slide show of photos from his (and Sarah Richardson's and Scott McGillivray's) recent trip to Scandinavia, where they visited the Ikea Museum. Tommy has an amazing eye for design (obviously!) and his commentary was hilarious, to say the least. He talked about the timelessness of good design at any price point, and gave the Lack table (shown below) as an example. He also showed us a uniquely shaped building front and said it was an inspiring shape for a headboard. The most hilarious part for me was when he discussed the pros and cons of obelisks versus ball-shaped objects... If you don't know what an obelisk is, look it up and you'll get why it was funny.

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I couldn't believe the giveaways! A huuuge Ikea gift card, several Delta faucets, a Rowenta steamer, an iPad, books, some Crate and Barrel pillows, a few magazine subscriptions to Canadian House and Home....... wooh!

The swag bags that were given out at the end of the night were great as well. We got one copy of Style at Home, 2 copies of Canadian House & Home, a travel mug by CIL and a cool lamp from Ikea. 

The best part of the night for me was meeting all my fellow bloggers in person! It was so great! Admittedly, it felt a little creeper-like to walk up to someone and say, "Hey (insert blogger's name)! I love your blog. Your bathroom/kitchen/garden/kids/wedding looked so great" lol but I guess that's what blogging's all about - putting yourself out there. These ladies below are Brittany (My Daily Randomness), her sister Amanda (Amanda Cromwell Designs), and Janice (Life Begins at Thirty, Right?)... then me!

Some other women I met, who I didn't get pics with, were Kerry from First Time Fancy, Sarah, from Redesigning Sarah (who won the iPad2....lucky girl!), Lindsay from Buy Borrow and Style, Michele from Mod Missy, Susan from Saf Affect, Jennifer from Rambling Renovators, and Andrea from Ikea, who very kindly explained to me how Twitter works.


I couldn't get enough of the hors d'oeuvres! I wasn't hungry when I got there, but I sure worked up an appetite once I saw the beautifully presented food being served.  Yummy spring rolls, gourmet grilled cheeses, individual sized fish and chips, crab cakes.


I thought I tried everything, but then I saw the photos on the CDB site and somehow I managed to miss these delectable bites! Me oh my they look gooood.

**All photos, except where noted, are from Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup and were taken by Leah Kirin from Forever Moments.