Hot Scoop!

I can't believe that I've failed to mention the most exciting development in my life these days. For the past year and a half I've been commuting to Toronto every afternoon to work until late into the evening. I think I can easily write off 2010 as one of the least fun years of my life. All I did was travel and work. Mike and I are lucky to work in the same office, because we'd sneak away for a half hour when I got into work, but that was pretty much the most time we spent together each day. It was hard. Harder still, I missed out on all kinds of great things happening in Hamilton, like Knit Nights or amazing seminars put on by The Cossart Exchange.

Two weeks ago, I quit my job in Toronto. At the end of this week, I'm in Hamilton full-time. All day, all night. My heart is soaring. And even better? Starting Friday, you'll be able to find me helping out the Buttrums at the Hamilton Farmers' Market.

Gary, Kieran, Mike and I stopped by the market last night to get a sneak peek. The other half of the library renovations by David Premi Architects Inc. was slated to open January 21st, but due to some unforeseen problems it was pushed back until tomorrow, February 1st. While we visited, all the vendors were in full gear trying to get their stands in order for the big reveal. Walking down the ramp from the main entrance, there was a nice feeling of familiarity to the space, but then my eyes caught sight of the glass wall into the library and it made me gasp in delight. The two spaces compliment each other beautifully.

The most stunning addition to the market is the restored Birks Clock. I remember when it used to stand in front of Jackson Square, but I did not remember the scale of it. Standing 17 feet tall, and weighing 2000 lbs, you'd be hard pressed not to immediately notice this centerpiece of the renovations. The bronze has been repainted and the mechanisms fully fixed to make sure that the knights joust and spin around on the quarter hour. Stunner. The best view is from the main staircase. You'll be amazed by the detail that close up.

Not to get all civic and ranty here, but city of Hamilton, this clock is a mere fraction of the beauty that the Birks Building was, and where now sits an 80% vacant office building. Stop tearing down our heritage.

Rant over. Market photos continue.

For as much uniformity as there is with clean lines and glass walls and stall sizes, it was nice to see that the market gave the vendors freedom to dress their stall as they wished. For as stark as concrete bones can be, each stand is splashed with a bit of colour, has unique hand-painted signs or other individual touches. There seems to be a diverse selection of product available, and a couple of new faces, including the fine folks at Red Hill Coffee. The addition of a community kitchen is intriguing, and I am looking forward to seeing how it will be utilized.

I mean, just imagine how incredible this place is going to look once it's filled to the brim with delicious food, and more importantly, buzzing with people and activity. The renovation on this side doesn't feel as open as the library (yet this may have been a symptom of seeing it at night and not taking advantage of all the amazing natural daylight sources) but the effect is nice for a farmers' market. Crowded and clustered together, but in a warm, homey way. Like all those times that the party inevitably ends up in the kitchen, even though there is more space in the living room for everyone.

Personally, I've really been missing the market during this hiatus. If I didn't have to go down, I'd be making the trip anyways tomorrow to check it out. You should too. Maybe even make plans to meet a friend under the Birks Clock, just like people used to.

Boys, shall we meet under the Birks Clock? I call this photo "Hunks of Hamilton" and I couldn't not post it. My heart is seriously doing backflips over the fact that from here on out I'll be seeing a lot more of these faces, and a lot more of this city. Having amazing public spaces to share with those faces in this city? Heart backflips times a million.

Alley Cat

A couple of weeks ago my darling cat Atticus came home in the morning looking like this. I don’t think the picture does an adequate job of showing just how filthy and oil-covered he was, but it was really a sight.
Enter: bath time! He actually needed two baths: first we tried with a regular cat shampoo, and when that didn’t work he needed a second one with some gentle dish soap. By the time we were finished there was a ring of black oil around the bath tub.
Lucky for me, Atticus is the most docile and gentle cat I’ve ever owned or met. I think he also realized just how filthy he was, because he just stood in the bathtub calmly for most of the ordeal, not even trying to escape.
Look at that face!

Quintland

Not too much to say around these parts today. Jane and I are actually a part of a huge, massive, super exciting project that we'll be announcing in maybe a week or two. We're working with a number of other ladies on this, and not just one but multiple have exclaimed "I've been waiting my whole life to work on a project like this!" So, it's big. And it's good. Hamilton, get ready.

The photo above is my most recent (and currently favourite) vintage acquisition. A framed postcard of the Dionne quintuplets playing in a sandbox. Their names are all labeled underneath them. Can we talk about that frame for a second? It's like it was made in my grade seven summer camp dreams. I hung it right in my entrance-way, and now I smile each time I enter or leave the house.

So, apologies that not much can be said on the secret topic just yet. But we'll spill the beans soon. And then we can all squeal in delight together.

Home Sweet Home

I was planning to hold off on posting any apartment pictures until after we were done painting and decorating. However, judging from the amount of progress we’ve made since the first week we moved in (none!) I’ll never ever post any pictures if I don’t do it now. Luckily when Gabby went home in December she took a bunch of pictures to show her family, so I have some photographic evidence of the apartment only 2 weeks after we moved in.

This is my bedroom. Gary is supposed to build me a closet sometime in the new year, but for now I have clothes hanging on this Ikea rack Hollie and I used to use for Ainslie Wood Co. Two of my favorite Oh My Cavalier prints are hanging between the windows, and sitting against the window sill. Along the window sill is some of my favorite milk glass pieces, small jewelry boxes I have accumulated, a gift-shop Alcatraz mug that my friend Erica mailed me (along with fake gold from the Yukon!), a matryoshka doll I’ve had since I was a child, and a pair of vintage frames I keep meaning to get real lenses put in.
To the left is the original staircase from the apartment. The stairs lead up to my bedroom, and we begged to keep the original railing. Painting these stairs is one of the first projects on our to-do list.
To the right is another shot of my bedroom. This is where the closet was supposed to go, but now I love having my bed in this alcove so much I don’t know what to do. Above my bed is a poster of Sable Island, “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. I bought that poster about 5 years ago when I lived in Halifax, and I’ve been carrying it with me ever since. Sable Island seems like a magical wonderland to me, and I’m hoping that having this poster above my bed means lots of dreams about wild ponies.
The quilt on my bed was a kijiji find that I drove to Kitchener to pick up. I have no idea why someone would sell a quilt their grandmother made on kijiji, but I was happy to find it. The green floral blanket was for extra warmth, and belonged to my mother when I was little. The cedar chest was my grandmothers, and the folded up quilt on top of it came from an antique market I visited. The red circle thing is Pepper’s toy. This is the view looking down from my bedroom doorway. The pink & yellow cupboards came like that, and we are definitely planning to repaint them. For now they are the perfect place to display my milk glass collection. The ceiling beams are all original, and I am so so happy that they were preserved. Pepper is pretty much always hovering somewhere near my feet.
This is the view from the kitchen, looking into the living room. How good are those windows? In the corner is my aluminum Christmas tree that we just took down yesterday. Nothing had really been hung on the walls yet except for the framed Audubon print. The couch is a hand-me-down from Hollie, the side tables were both found/thrifted, the green & blue chair at the back was originally meant for the store when we first opened, and the credenza was a $20 steal 4 years ago. The cat is Atticus.
This guy is Boo, and he’s really shy. Here’s a closeup of my favorite chair, and another one of the Christmas tree.
This is another series of shots of the same room, but this time from the living room looking towards the kitchen. On the coffee table is an Audubon bird print book. I can’t get enough of them. The floors are maple. The two breakfast stools you see are the culmination of 4 years of searching for one’s similar to Victoria’s. Turns out they are THE EXACT SAME. I plan to paint them white, and recover them in Mojave Fabric from Proud Mary. The blue chair is another thrifted find, and the mint green table is actually a desk belonging to the former resident of this apartment. Above it, we’ve hung a series of cat match boxes that our dear friend Erica brought me back from Portugal.

And that’s that. I didn’t post any pictures of the bathroom or Gabby’s bedroom because at the time these were taken both were a work in progress. We have tons to do still, and we haven’t really started any of it. Eventually, right?

Great Outdoors

This past Sunday was perfect weather for one of my favorite activities: taking Pepper for a winter walk out in nature. When Warren Park stopped being a leash free park, the available places to let Pepper run wild became few and far between. Lucky for me, my mom lives right beside a small valley forest that leads down to a (now) frozen lake with lots of trails, kids playing hockey, and tons of room to run.


There’s something about the forest that is so magical, isn’t there? I usually take it for granted whenever I’m not in them and find myself thinking “yeah yeah, woods are great.” This happens until the second I walk into the trees and I’m instantly in love with the whole experience all over again.
On Sunday I took Pepper over to visit my mom, and the three of us went on a little adventure. The hill down to the frozen lake is steep, and Pepper was miles ahead of us for most of the walk. When we made it down to the frozen ice, she was content to run alongside my mom and bury her nose in the snow in search of scents.
Doesn’t this scene look peaceful? It was, until Pepper noticed the snowshoes on this woman’s feet and freaked out about the newfangled contraptions that were clearly going to attack her. To steal a line from someone funnier, dogs don’t understand basic concepts like snowshoes.

In the middle of the lake, kids had cleared two small rinks for hockey games. I always love seeing people skating on lakes, but I can’t get past my need to yell “BE CAREFUL. YOU COULD FALL IN. DANGER!” The only reason I could walk on this ice without hyperventilating is that most of it was covered by snow, and what I can’t see can’t kill me. Also, it is extremely, extremely shallow.
This picture shows the exact moment Pepper finally noticed the hockey players who had been there all day. This is approximately 30 seconds before she went running on the ice, legs sliding and flailing all over the place, completely and utterly making my day.

Needle and Thread

Much like Jane is slowly working towards her goal of becoming Sylvester Stallone, I have also been chipping away at some of my personal resolutions this week. Namely: quilting.

For my last birthday, Mike got me a fat quarter bundle of fabric from Denyse Schmidt. I decided on doing a simple quilt made up of half square triangles. The prints and colours of the series are busy and bright enough on their own that I felt that any additional pattern could have the potential to really muddle things up visually. And half square triangle are about as basic as you can get to begin with.

I went over to my friend Melanies' place for a visit and quilting lesson Monday afternoon and she taught me how to make my squares.



Now, in my head while I quickly snapped photos I was thinking "great! I'll do some step by step instructions" but since I was actually more focused on learning how to do it myself than accurately capturing the process, I didn't actually do it all that well. You'll have to take my word on a lot of things.

Laying out the printed fabric face up with my solid white fabric on top, I cut 5.5" squares out with my rotary cutter and ruler on a self-healing cutting mat. It took a little getting used to applying enough pressure to the ruler while cutting out the strips to not let the ruler slip and lose the perfectly straight line. One of my blog brainstorm punchlines was to talk about how the most important piece of advice I can impart is to not cut your fabric like a pizza. And if I had taken one damn photo of my rotary cutter, you'd get it. It's not even that funny. Seriously though, I did run into problems using that back and forth motion because of the familiarity of the shape of the tool. So remember - fabric is not pizza. Only cut away from your body.

This is what a rotary cutter looks like.

Right?

Actually, I don't think you're supposed to cut back and forth with a pizza cutter either. Cuss.



After cutting out the squares, we drew diagonal lines from one corner to the opposite corner on the white fabric with a ruler and pencil. You could use a flat pin to hold it together and make sure that they are perfectly lined up, but since we were going right to the sewing process next, we didn't bother.



Using a quarter inch presser foot (and Mel's amazing sewing machine) I sewed two straight lines, 1/4" away on either side of the marked pencil line. Once sewn, I used the rotary cutter and ruler again to cut through the diagonal line. And voila! Unfold your pieces and you have not one, but two finished squares! After cutting and unfolding, you would iron the squares so that the fold stays.

The unveil would be way more dramatic if I actually took a photo of a finished triangle. The ones above are all still folded over without being cut down the center yet. Because quilting lesson time was also hang out and socialize with Mel time, I took a lot of my work home.

The great thing about half-square triangles is their versatility for patterns. My pattern inspiration was this quilt from L.L. Bean (JUST the pattern), but as illustrated above a simple pinwheel pattern would be just as easy with some rearranging.



But cookies! I got a photo of the cookies guys! PHEW. Obviously the most important part of quilting.

It feels really good to be able to piece something together from scraps into something functional. I still have a lot of work to do, (224 squares to go!) but the hardest part was actually getting out and starting it. You can do it too! I'd suggest maybe a book from the library as opposed to my tutorial (there's actually quite a bit of math involved) but you'd be surprised at how much easier it is than you think.

Jane has also resolved to make a quilt this year, so she better step up her game. Kidding. Please don't hit me with those newly-huge-from-rock-climbing muscles.

Cliffhanger

That, right there, is Amy Kenny kicking ass. As part of my New Years resolution to do more things I wanted to do, I took up indoor climbing at Gravity. Remember how much I love Cliffhanger? Well indoor climbing is right up my alley.
Excuse the quality of the above picture. Gravity is pretty much a giant warehouse, so getting a decently lit picture is a little difficult.

Check out Sean kicking ass. I had to go through about 20 pictures of Sean to find one where his butt crack wasn't showing. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded, but I'm being modest for him, ok Internet?
Sean & Amy (along with other friends) have been going to Gravity for the better part of a year, and they have been steadily acquiring some serious skills.

The learning curve feels a little slow, but after three sessions I already feel way stronger than when I started. Last night was my most successful climb yet, and I finally conquered this one wall that has been killing me since the first week. Nemesis no more.

Last night we went in a group of three, and I have to say I like it more than climbing with just a single partner. Groups of 3 means that you get a break every once in a while to sit on a couch and take pictures of Amy belaying Sean.
Also, see that picture on the right? That's me completing Poo 43 (yes, it's called Poo 43) on my first try! Not too shabby.
This picture is actually a fluke, but I'm so happy it exists. I forgot to take my camera out of my pocket before my climb, and considering how often I fall on this wall (it was my now-conquered nemesis) I'm super lucky I didn't drop it from however high up I was. Instead, I finalllyyyyyyyyyyyy got to the top of this wall, realized I still had my camera, and got to take a little photo break before Sean lowered me down.

I wish I had a close up of Sean & Amy's face. I think they were proud of me. Like proud, proud parents.

Gravity Climbing Gym is a bit of an undiscovered treasure in Hamilton. It's over by the Hamilton Spectator building, and they do lessons and rentals as well as day passes and memberships. Try it and feel strong.

L & K

Internet, we'd like to introduce you to Lindsay and Krysten!


Aren't they just some of the loveliest ladies you've ever set your eyes on? We think so too. From now on you'll be seeing Lindsay and Krysten around the shop, as they've happily agreed to be our interns. We are so thrilled and excited and thankful to have such kind, enthusiastic and fun girls helping us out. 2011 is all about getting down to serious business, and having these two around is going to make that process so much easier for Jane and I. I say it a lot, but we really are so incredibly lucky.

Welcome to the White Elephant team, ladies! We're ecstatic to have you on board.

Taking Care Of Business

This week was GET DOWN TO BUSINESS WEEK. And we actually got a lot accomplished. On top of re-arranging the entire store, we also cleaned out our back room so that it is a functioning office space, had an "orientation" with our two lovely new interns, completed a bunch of our spring orders with our artists, did some website revamping, and finished up a bunch of boring paperwork and general tying up of loose ends after the holidays. Oh, and we even got to sneak in a vintage shopping trip. Did you SEE that vintage handcrafted teepee? Drool.

I think Jane and I just may be getting the hang of juggling these crazy schedules of ours. Hurrah to a successful getting down to business week! On an ART CRAWL week, I may add. Seriously, we are in the zone right now.

We'll have the usual candy and good tunes and fun times and high spirits going on at the shop tonight. Come by and say hi! We'd really like to see your face. We worked hard for this weekend. Let's spend it together.