The Junction is really hitting it’s stride in terms of having everything from essentials to inspiration within walking distance.
Most recently a Scandinavian design store has moved into the hood. Mjolk, is the name of the store, means milk in Swedish. It is located on Dundas Street west of Keele and east of Pacific Ave. The store itself is beautiful, and it’s full of exquisitely designed pieces.

Architects from Studio Junction designed the shop, and as usual they have done a stellar job with the finishing touches.

La Merceria is a delightful cafe and housewares shop. Its elegance and coziness is like no other. I had a fantastic lunch on my visit the other day: black bean soup, a veggie and cheese pastry, and an americano to finish it off.

They carry only the most beautiful housewares for an international household – great for gifts.

La Merceria is on Adelaide east of Bathurst.

Technorati Tags: brunch, Cafe, coffee, delicious, espresso, latte, sandwiches, Toronto

Mari Cla Ro, a boutique selling fabulous bags and other recycled fashion, is a great new addition to Roncesvalles. They opened their doors at 457 Roncesvalles just south of Dundas last week. They feature designs that re-use materials such as seatbelts, car seats, and tarps to create innovative bags and accessories. They also carry the designs of other artists who reuse materials in their creations.

Technorati Tags: Artist, Boutique, clothing, recycling, Roncesvalles, Toronto

Bred’s Custom Shop has just opened on Dundas West, just west of Bathurst. They are a truly local shop. Local artists use locally made textiles to design, screen print and sew custom clothes, on the premises of the shop. Having just opened last week they have t-shirts and hats for local stylers to check out.
It’s nice to see another great place open on this stretch of Dundas.

Technorati Tags: Artisan, clothes, Design, Dundas Street , handmade, Hats, local, local business, custom

If you like beads and you haven’t been to The Beadery you are missing out! Claude, the owner, is a jewellery designer with a fantastic eye. He collects all kinds of interesting beads and jewellery supplies from around the world. You’ll find exquisite beads here that are hard to find anywhere else. The Beadery is on the north side of Queen west of Spadina.

Technorati Tags: Artisan, beads, Craft, jewellery, Queen St. W

I don’t know about you, but this time of year I have a real desire to get organized. In my current circumstance of having a little one on my hands it’s hard to do, so I take all the help I can get. “Neat” is a store that has all kinds of containers and devices to help you get organized. They also have some general stuff for your home that is kinda ‘neat’ (as in cool) and has nothing to do with organization. A fun little store if you are into some new beginnings for your home. It’s located on Queen St. W, west of Bathurst.

Technorati Tags: Queen St. W, Toronto

Trove has been a find of a little shop on Bathurst for a handful of years. They focused first on accessories and have now broadened to offer clothes too. Trove has a selection of cute albeit pricey shoes, along with purses, scarves, jewelry and clothing at various price points. Good news for West-enders: they have now opened up a new store in Bloor West Village.

Technorati Tags: Bloor West Village, Boutique, Toronto

Americo on Queen West has the most beautiful yarns and knitting patterns I’ve seen. It’s one of those stores where you walk in and want to own everything in site. But wait, there’s a catch: the sweaters are not for sale; you have to knit them yourself. Since I’m a lousy knitter you’ll likely never see me in one of these fantastic sweaters. Unless of course I choose the huge yarn so that the project is shortened by a factor of 10. If I start this year it might get done by 2010.

For those that love knitting this store is amazing. For the rest of us it’s a bit of a tease.

Technorati Tags: alpaca, Artisan, knitting, Queen St. W, Toronto, wool, yarn

The Queen West Art Crawl is this weekend. Saturday and Sunday between 11am – 6pm, numerous artists will be displaying and selling their works in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Galleries between Spadina and Roncesvalles will be exhibiting for the crawl. Buskers and musicians will be playing in the streets.
Let’s hope the weather is nice for the event!

There’s another new market in town… This one is more focused on art, collectibles and food creations.

The Queen West Market is held on the second floor of the Spin Gallery building at 1100 Queen Street just west of Dovercourt in a beautiful loft space with fantastic floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s open on both Saturdays and Sundays from 11am -6pm.

By the way, booths are still relatively inexpensive for those artistically inclined… could be fun.

Technorati Tags: Artists, breads, Craft, market, Beaconsfield, Queen St. W, Queen St. W