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Yesterday, I decided to brave the crowds of Toronto's One of A Kind Show for Good Friday - definitely one of the busiest days I have ever seen the show in all the years I have been going. But it was totally worth it! Here is my summary of some of my favorite booths, and products! 

Hot Pop Factory

I have to start with Hot Pop Factory - these guys do 3D printing. To be more specific, I can get a ring "printed" with my face on it. In 3D. Pretty much the best thing ever. At the show they were doing free scans so you could see what your face would look like on jewlery or bobble heads. I hope all you know that at the next party I host, I will definitely have some of these rings with my face on it, for a prize.

The Quarrelsome Yeti

This guy does amazing illustrations and his apparel is even better. Just check out this beaver t-shirt below. I don't even need to explain why I love this guy's stuff - but if you check out the website, you'll see lots of tentacles around... 

Handsome and Lace 

While I was at the show looking at someone's booth, they suddenly came to me and said "Oh my gosh, you need to go around the corner here. You're going to freak out!" As I went around the corner, I saw why. Handsome and Lace brings handsome things (bowties, and ties) into style with lace and other nice fabrics. Finally bowties and ties that are trendy, pretty and nice! Make sure to take a look at their website - their ties would make great presents (especially to me.)

Karen Kalashnik  

Karen designs unique leather handbags - I would describe a lot of them as being perfect for a night out on the town in Toronto, or going to a rock concert. Or maybe your life is a rock concert, and you need one of these bags all the time. Karen and her team were friendly and helpful, and didn't seem outraged by my idea that they design a leather studded custom collar for my cat, which I think I will have done! 

Cloud 9 Cat Trees  

For any of you obsessed with your kitties, you will need one of these. 

Ccomme Ca 

Nothing gets me more excited than meeting fellow French Canadians at the One of a Kind show - and it happens every year because Ccomme Ca is always there, and every year I say the same thing - "I need one of these bags." I think the bags are great and different and would also provide the modern business person with a stylish flare going into meetings. What do you think?

Crywolf Clothing 

How can I do a blog about the One of a Kind show and not name-drop the company responsible for our awesome octopus logo? Crywolf clothing has always been a huge favorite of mine - I have so many of their t-shirts, tanks, stuffed animals, mousepads and now bandanas, but I still can't get enough. Their illustrations are detailed, funny and trendy featuring anchors, sailors and cute/weird animals and monsters. 

All in all, One of a Kind was awesome this year, and every year there are lots of great new vendors. If you haven't gone yet, tomorrow is the last day! Get on it. 

Later Gators!

While I have been really enjoying my vacation and trying to stay away from the computer, today I fell upon the most fun app! If you haven't used it yet, go and try it. 

For it, you will need to be logged into Facebook. In the Facebook search bar, look for bitstrips and sign up for the app. 

You can make an avatar of yourself, and your friends and make your own hilarious comics. Like these. 

I promise, if you were slowly getting bored of Facebook as a workplace distraction - this will re-ignite your passion for online procrastination. 

Later Gators 

Well, we made it to Florida (an hour ahead of schedule). The drive was actually really fun, and it didn't feel as long as 26 hours. We brought the cat in the car and drove 15 hours to Atlanta from Toronto - the cat literally slept the entire time on our legs, so he was great. And we listened to all 6 seasons of the Glee soundtrack, which was also awesome. Another awesome thing was that we spent about $9 on food on the way down - between McDonalds free coffee and Little Ceasars $5 pizzas, we were well fed and caffienated the whole time. 

We used Airbnb to stay in Atlanta, and we were hosted by a guy named Tim and his fat cat. We slept at 9:30pm since we had left at 5am, and we woke up at 7am the next day to take off for Florida. 

The next day of driving was a  bit weird. We had to stop off a few places in Georgia for gas or coffee and it was then that I realized how lucky I am to live in Canada. I felt most of the time like people were staring burning holes of inferno into my soul at every rest stop. It was unsettling, but better once we got into Florida. 

Two days of practically no Wifi was hard, just because whenever we stopped somewhere to pee and had wifi for 5 minutes, I'd get a slew of emails from clients and it was hard to drive and keep my eyes on the road knowing I might be missing some new business. 

More pictures and adventure notes to come. Here is a picture of our cat in the car. Cheers!

Recently, I've been training myself (and with the help of my girlfriend) to use Adobe Illustrator. It is a tool I've always said I would never use - back in the day in highschool we were trained to use Photoshop and Flash - but never Illustrator. 

At first, it was insanely confusing. What was this pen tool? How could I possibly trace, draw and invent things by connecting points instead of actually drawing it? How could I form curves? And how does one colour something in without actively painting it with a mini-computerized paint brush? 

But the ansewrs came to me quickly with practice. 

This is what I suggest doing if you yourself want to learn illustrator: 

- Start with basic shapes. Find pictures of things on the internet to trace - practice curves, straight lines and using pen tool handles. 
- Understand your layers! Layers can go in front of or behind each other and it is key to understand where your layers are before you handle something complex.
- Remember shading and colouring in making a drawing seem realistic is key!
- Save, save and more saving. You never know when your computer will randomly lose all your work. 

Anyway, here is one of my first shots on illustrator! I hope you can get on there and start getting artistic too! And for all you advanced illustrator gods, let me know what you think!

Well, again it has been forever since I have blogged. But fear no more - lots more blogging coming soon. I promise. And there is a reason for that. But I will get to that in a minute - first, we must talk NEW THINGS. 

Who doesn't love a bunch of new shiny things? 

1) Cat 

That's right, we have an official company cat. His name is Davy Jones, and he is pretty awesome. Pretty much, he is the cutest thing ever. 

2) I aquired a company car! While the scooter (yes, I drive a little vintage looking 50cc scooter in the summer) is super fun downtown, it has been a bit of a pain going long-distance when the weather sucks, and when I need to take more than one person somewhere. My new little Nissan Versa is a real treat to ride in, and the cat loves it too. 

3) Tentacle Studio is rockin' - we have been getting some great jobs in, and we've been working on a little treat of our own which will be coming out in a few weeks! An infographic video...that is all I will say as a hint. 

4) Amazing Race is coming to Canada! And I have applied to be on the show, with my girlfriend (and the Tentacle Studio animator) Angie Feret. 

Let me know what you think of our audition video! 

5) A website that my good friend Rebecca Mountain from Impetus Consulting has been working on forever is finally out, and we are handling the content portion of it! Good news if you are a realtor - www.socialagentpro.com - for now, it is just for Toronto realtors, but if you are in Toronto get on it! $30 a month gets you so much social media care! 

6) Road trip is soon! Angie and I are taking Davy Jones on a road trip to Florida, and I will be blogging all about it. We just watched the movie Craig'slist Joe (And I LOVED it) - and we're going to try along to way to embrace some of his ways! Since I already barter like a maniac, I am going to see if we can use Air BnB to find us some sweet places to stay along the way there and back, that we can trade our services for (Services like...graphic design, social media etc...) We will be staying in Florida with my parents, and getting lots of work done, in the sun!

Well, that's it for now.

More news soon.

Later Gators.