It's True

You guys, if you buy a box of wine at Fortinos, YOU GET THESE GLOVES TOO. Doug came by with them last week, and I almost died I was so excited. I do love boxed wine… it’s true!

Also, texting thumbs! These were the funniest part about the gloves to me, but after a week of wearing them, I have been converted. Texting thumbs all the way!

Bonus: our box o' wine is empty, so I think I'll pick up another one. Matching gloves!

We Have News!

You may have noticed some references to BIG NEWS over here lately, news we've been so excited about that we were practically busting at the seams not telling you all. Luckily, now we can, so allow me to breath for a moment while I get ready for this super duper exciting announcement.

Ok, I think I'm ready.

We have joined forces with all of these amazing ladies to start The Beehive Craft Collective!!!

What does that mean, exactly? It means we are going to be working on all sorts of wonderful new craft and homesteading projects, and we will be bringing them all to you. With a group of ladies this big, and this talented, we are feeling a little unstoppable, so we thought we would make our first project a good one.

Ladies and gentleman, The Beehive Craft Collective is going to be hosting the first ever Beehive Summer Craft Fair this August during the Art Crawl on James Street North!

ARE YOU DYING? I am.

Please go and check out the Beehive website to read more about it. Do you make beautiful and amazing crafty things? Please download an application for the craft show and apply, right this instant.




This is just the first step for The Beehive, but my heart is already bursting thinking about it. We have big things up our sleeves, BIG THINGS, and we'll keep updating you about them as soon as we can. For now, you can get all your up to date information about The Beehive here on Love It A Lot, or over on our Beehive blog here.

HEART PALPITATIONS.

La Lune

This past Saturday night was a night full of magical wonder. It was the "Over the Moon, Under the Stars" semi-formal prom party at The Ship. Thrown by Student Council, who you may remember brought you the Back to School party and the Sports and Clubs party. All good times. Great times, in fact.

This time, I got to play event photographer. Being that the theme was inspired by old Hollywood glamour and Busby Berkeley dreams (and as a my trade-off for services) I asked if a paper moon backdrop could be made. I've been totally obsessed with them lately, and had been dreaming about somehow, someday doing one myself. Since Gary is on Student Council, I knew that there was a pretty good chance that I'd get myself a paper moon. AND BOY DID I EVER.


Funny fact about Gary: he used to travel around the United States doing the interior paint jobs for glow-in-the-dark mini putt courses. So he's probably painted some awesome moons in his day, albeit awesome neon orange or green ones. The moon was made out of plywood and was about 6 feet across and around 8 feet tall. Isn't it absolutely breathtaking? And aren't all these people total babes?


Like Rachael. Rachael is a such a huge babe. I can't get over this photo. Rachael and I (and her son Lou) made stars out of cardboard and tinfoil and glitter. Authenticity was key. Rachael is also on Student Council, and is known at these parties as DJ Donna Lovejoy. If Donna Lovejoy is spinning, there's no way you won't dance.

These parties are such a good time. A crazy good time. Student Council has their next party theme lined up, so watch out for it, and think about joining if you haven't been already. Keep checking The Ship for event listings.


Hmmm. This group of ladies look like they have a story to tell. Maybe later this week, even.

PS - If I took your photo, I'll be slowly working on them. Send me an email with the subject line "Moon Photo". I don't know if I'm actually supposed to show people yet, due to the yearbook that will eventually be printed. But I'm just so gosh darned excited about these. Hamilton is full of pretty babes.

Cat Box

Speaking of cat cities...

I bought the the Native American Teepee for Fluffy Critters from Loyal Luxe as a Christmas present for my two sweet kittens, and it's kind of the best purchase that I've ever made. A miniature teepee is way more eye-pleasing to have in my dining room than those carpet covered cat city monstrosities. And it's super adorable when I actually discover either Tanooki or Meatbulb just chillin' in there. When I get upset with them, I get to chide "go to your teepee!" and one time, it actually worked. I was a little hesitant of whether or not they would get use out of it, but they totally love it. I think it's the cardboard. Cats love boxes. See: here.

Also, my cats are models. Cats cats cats.

Cat Haus

Aside from the generous helpings of poutine and maple syrup, one of my favorite things about Montreal was this super amazing/crazy cat house. We stayed with a friend whose back porch looked right on to this.

Seriously, are you looking at that detail? It was insane. There wasn't a lot of cats outside while we were there (the most I saw were 2) but when the weather is nice I’ve been told there are sometimes upwards of 9 cats hanging out in this thing.

Peek-a-boo!


The downside of having a cat city beside your apartment is that sometimes it smells A LOT like cat pee outside. The upside is pretty self explanatory though: A CAT CITY BESIDE YOUR APARTMENT.

A Canadian Tradition

On Saturday morning I drove down to Montreal with some friends to spend the weekend. I took lots of pictures, but due to a late departure, and some pretty awful driving conditions, we didn’t get home until late last night. I’m a little sleepy this morning, and I think I might also need to go into some sort of detox after the obscene amounts of delicious food and candy we ate this weekend. Case in point: maple syrup!


We were cold and wandering around downtown Montreal at this point. It had been at least 30 minutes since we feasted on a gigantic breakfast, so of course we had to stop when we saw a maple syrup shack.

I was a slow syrup roller because I kept stopping to take pictures.


That is pure sugary goo right there, and it was delicious.

Happy customers!

Be Mine

One of the many upsides of having more free time and more help at the shop? Being able to work on ambitious crafty projects! It's no secret that we're big fans of love around here, so Valentine's Day is one of our favourite excuses to pretty up the shop with florals and hearts and doilies and lace and all that other good stuff. In fact, if you open the drawer of our white kitchen table in the middle of the store, you'll find it full of cinnamon hearts leftover from our window two years ago. Don't judge us.

I had seen this tutorial on making yarn balls, so we tried making our own using red and pink yarn. On top of using regular balloons, we also wanted to see what heart shaped balloons would turn out like. Success! They retained their heart shape. Add some paper doilies cut into snowflakes, an adorable vintage red coat, and an amazing vintage swan toy rocker (tunnel of love, anyone?) and I think we've got ourselves a pretty good window display. Our friend Courtney sent us this link for the paper heart chains, and we knew we had to make them to hang around the shop.

It makes me pretty happy that this was a total team effort. Jane, Krysten, Lindsay and myself all worked on this together. Love love love love.

Tonight is the second Friday of the month, which means its Art Crawl! Brave the cold and come out tonight for some merry-making! We've got a shop full of pretty things to look at, some vintage valentines for your sweetie and candy candy candy. While you're at it, you can also check out the grand re-opening of the library and farmers' market. It will be a good night full of love in downtown Hamilton. We hope you'll join us.

Family Ties

Still scanning old photos from my mom’s whenever I get the chance, and some of my favorites are these young ones of my mom and her friends. I never really saw a huge physical resemblance between myself and either of my parents until I found a bunch of these pictures. My mom figures she was around 25 in the one above, and I think I stumbled across this shot when I was also 25. At the time, we looked identical.

This is probably my all time favorite picture of my mom. Looking at it makes me desperate to grow out my bangs again.



The hunk is Archie Ferrie. He was my mom’s boyfriend at the time, and there’s a lot of pictures of him lingering around. I stole a bunch of them because he’s just so adorable looking. Is that weird, stealing pictures of your mom’s old boyfriend? I think when he looks a little bit like Harry Crane you’re allowed to.


Just a little compare & contrast here. This picture of me was taken at Hollie’s wedding, when I was also 25. I see the similarities mostly in our chins, and our eyes. OH HAI MOM.

Martin Abides

This weekend was our annual Lebowski bowling night. Last year, in a bout of cabin fever madness, I sent out an email to some friends asking if anyone would be interested in renting out a small bowling alley that I knew of for a night. Pretty much everyone was game. Probably because everybody likes The Big Lebowski, and everyone likes bowling. How could you not?

We also like our traditions around here, so we did it all over again this year.


Martin's Bowling Alley is located at 929 King Street East, at the corner of Sherman. Inside you'll find six lanes of five-pin bowling, some old school Tetris and pinball machines, and a fridge stocked full of beer. Since our bowling nights are based around The Big Lebowski, we put in a special request for white russians, and owner Jim is happy to oblige and make them for us all night. He's pretty happy to oblige in most requests. From cheap rental rates, to letting you order pizza to the alley, to playing your own iPod. He likes the old-school feel of his lanes, and will teach you how to score if you've got no idea how to do it without the help of computers.

Before you hate on the fact that Martin's only has five-pin, did you know that it is strictly a Canadian game? It was invented in Toronto in 1909. That has to tug on some patriotic heart strings, if nothing else.


Although there were some really good games played that night, our friend Peter ended up being the big winner with a whopping 230 point game. That is an incredibly high score. Higher than most of the high scores from the league players written on the chalkboard there. He got 5 strikes in a row. Peter claims luck, but it also might have something to do with the fact that his father was a city championship bowler, and his grandfather was a professional bowler, one time even winning a pink Cadillac on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Just maybe.

You don't need to go to all the trouble of renting out the entire alley to check out Martin's. He's open weekends and during the week. But if you want to gather up some friends and roll all night while listening to CCR, it wouldn't be a bad decision either. That's just, like, my opinion, man.