Darling Heart Sale!

I've updated the vintage shop with some new goodies, priced to sell! And as it's time to ring in the New Year, you can enter 'NYE2010' to get a further 25% off everything in stock. Have at it!

Proper reflective and resolution-y New Years post to come, promise.

xo

In between.

I've discovered that I really love this week in between Christmas and New Years, it's so perfect for recovering from the holidays, thinking about resolutions, getting excited for the change of a new year, pottering about the house and indulging in being a bit lazy. Up until today, things have been dark and gloomy around these parts (I love how early it gets dark), lots of rain and lots of reason to hole up indoors. 

I just read this great post over at Jane's place and I can totally relate with her feelings of Christmas having to live up to the expectations of this perfect, sparkly day and the reality of how rarely that actually happens. Don't get me wrong, I actually really love Christmas, but the past couple of years I've found myself trying to make up for the fact that it's just the two of us by over compensating ever so slightly on the preparations. Christmas has always been a big celebration for my family, lots of traditions, lots of food, lots of decorations, and I love it. But with just the two of us, there's really no need for the amount of food I hauled home from the supermarket on Christmas Eve when I was freaking out that we had nothing special in the house. This year our tree was a branch we grabbed from the sidewalk outside our apartment with silver baubles strung on it and I didn't finish cooking our main meal until late at night (because of course I was also baking cookies, roasting a nut mix and making peppermint bark at the same time). When I sat (slumped) down to eat I honestly had to wonder why on earth I'd gone to all that trouble. In the end, I secretly love the fact that Christmas is just the two of us and that we can stay in our pajamas all day until we go out into the quiet streets and see a movie. 

In the end, our holiday has been a great one. This past in between week where neither of us have had to work has been so nice and relaxing. I've been knitting and reading for the first time in ages, and am completely unworried that we have someone coming to view our house tomorrow despite my lack of tidying. The sun made a glorious appearance today, and it looks like it will be sticking around to ring in the New Year. I (quietly) can't wait! 

How have your holidays been?

Merry and Bright.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, friends. I hope your weekends are filled with loved ones, laughter, treats and plenty of time to relax. Thank you so much for all your love and support this past year, see you back here soon! xo

Nocturnal Magic

I was looking through the old encyclopedia we use to find our bookmark images awhile ago for a custom order, when I came across this beautiful aurora borealis image. I scanned it in because I have a feeling it would look great printed up nice and big, something I have in mind to try out in the new year. With tonight's nocturnal happenings, and ushering in the Winter Solstice it seemed like the perfect time to share it. I love how the etched lines look alive and sparkling, and even though it isn't a Christmas image it feels to sum up this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere so perfectly for me. Sitting here, sipping a winter ale in our finally clean house, when it has been dark since around 4pm, it's so hard to believe that next Christmas will be spent at the beach during daylight savings! 

Like most of you I'm sure, I can't quite believe that it is Christmas this weekend. This weekend! These last few months have flown by, and now that all our markets are finished, orders are posted and the shop is closed up for a little while I've got that post school exam feeling of not being able to sit still or know what to do with myself. Really though, I'm sure the sitting still part will come quickly and as for what to do with myself I'm hoping to spend as much of these dark winter months with pals as possible. Aside from seeing this everyday, there are a few lovely people who are what I will miss most about this rainy city so I plan on squeezing as much QT in as I can. I'm also so looking forward to getting some reading (both blog and print, a comfy couch is calling my name) in, starting on the Christmas baking tonight, stringing some sort of twinkling lights and taste testing the various festive drinks on offer. I might even blog! Imagine it. 

For now I'm off to light some candles, put on a record and embrace the hippy vibes. What are your plans for the holiday season? 

a very little christmas

I recently heard about a few friends of mine back home being involved in making a Christmas album, and as I have a not so secret love of Christmas music I was pretty excited for it to be released. While there is a very special place in my heart for cheesy holiday music (some might argue that this is the only way to do it), many carols are so pretty that when they're done right (see Sufjan Stevens 'O Holy Night'), it doesn't get much better. Anyway, 'a very little christmas' is up for download now and I'm really liking it! There's a few traditional tracks, and some fun ones, lots of lo-fi and acoustic-y goodness. It's free, and it helps get the name of some really excellent kiwi acts out there so I'd recommend taking a listen!

Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately, we've been swamped with the holiday rush and I've also just had one of those patches where there isn't really anything I can think of to write about. Have you ever had that? I don't want to post just for the sake of posting, but perhaps after this weekend my head will be a little clearer and I'll have thoughts outside the realm of shipping dates and finding more bubble wrap, ha! 

If you're in Vancouver, we're going to be at the Gypsy Market happening this Sunday at the Biltmore and we'd love for you to stop by and say hello! Richard will be selling records, I'll have a few Bliss in a Teacup goodies and other vintage trinkets. Plus, there's bands, booze and Budgies Burritos. What more could you want?

Holiday Weekend Sale!

Thanks so much for all your comments and notes about my previous post. It's funny, I had such a personal response to that passage and my time at the wedding that I didn't realise how much it would impact others, but I'm so glad it did! I need to print those verses out and display them somewhere in our apartment, all motivational saying like.

For those of you in the States, I hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend. I for one am having a hard time hearing all about the amazing food being consumed, I am definitely going to break down and bake a few pies this weekend! Partially to celebrate the holiday weekend and the beginning of the holiday season, but also to say a big thank you to everyone who reads this blog and supports our wee shop, we're having a sale! Etsy now has coupon codes (v. exciting!), so all you need to do is enter 'THANKS' at the checkout to get 15% off your order from now until Monday evening.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, too. We'll be living the craft fair/holiday season hermit life, but I hope to get out and about just a little bit!

Bits and pieces;

- Fieldguided and Sonja Ahlers collaborate on The Mini Meow. Such a perfect pairing of very talented people!
- Eastside Culture Crawl is on this weekend for local folks, I hope to make it out to some of the galleries in our neighbourhood and check out some art.
- Staying independent for the holiday season, I love this post over at Door Sixteen.

Seize life!

These lovely ladies were the main reason for our trip back east. The one in the sparkles is Richard's sister Kathy, dancing back down the aisle with her new beautiful wife, Beth. Once they set a wedding date, we decided to make the most of our time away by fitting in Montreal and NY, and while Toronto wasn't a real holiday type vacation the chance to spend time with family all in one place before we move was perfect.

The reading for the wedding was from Ecclesiastes, an often despairing book, but completely summed up the magic and celebration of the day. I was also really struck by it, especially with the business of this time of year and being distracted by moving plans.

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes - God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one!


So perfect for the day, and I was so honoured to be there to witness the love, and also bravery in declaring that love, of these two amazing women.


Even though we didn't get to see too much of Toronto, we were lucky enough to have the use of Anabela and Geoff's beautiful apartment while we were there. It was definitely a bummer that they were away in Portland while we were there (although we did run into them at Buffalo airport for a quick hug and chat!), but it was so nice to have somewhere to hide out and relax for a few days while we were away. Plus we were left very exciting thank you presents (more on that later) and got to hang out with their sweet kitties. The time to walk around the neighbourhood, get coffee, lie and read on the couch without a timetable (ok, aside from the wedding itinerary ;)) was such a gift, so thanks for that guys! 

Again, more photos here which are admittedly mostly of the cute cats. I couldn't resist! 

I also wanted to give you a reminder about our newsletter, in case you want to subscribe. You can do it over there in the sidebar, or click through here for a sign up form. We send them out fairly infrequently, but I can say that one will be coming out later today or tomorrow morning with some Black Friday/Cyber Monday coupons to help with your Christmas shopping!

Housekeeping

Sadly this is not a post about the keeping of my actual house, that's beyond a joke at this point, but I do have a couple of things I wanted to fill everyone in on in relation (mostly) to shop news so I thought I would just bundle it all up into one post. Here we go!

Christmas Mailing Dates
If you're wanting to pick up something from the shop for Christmas, please keep in mind the following dates, and also that it is just the two of us working although we try to go as fast as we can.

Canada - Purchase by December 4th
USA - Purchase by December 4th
International - Purchase by November 26th


We can offer express shipping if you need things to get there a little faster or you've missed the deadlines, just let us know and we'll get you a quote. There's also our Gift Certificates, that we email directly to you or the recipient, which are a really great idea for last minute gifts!

Bliss in a Teacup out and about
I know that I have mentioned the fantastic NZ based online design store Foxes before, and we're really excited to that they are now carrying select Bliss in a Teacup goods! While you're looking around the store, you can pick up a copy of Extra Curricular. Their latest Christmas issue is out, complete with a holiday activity book that includes a recipe from myself and other talented kiwis.

Jessica has asked a few people to contribute holiday sweets recipes that she's baked up and featured on her blog. There are so many delicious looking things! My contribution is here, it's a favourite that I've just realised I will now have to vegan-ise!

On a more local front, we're going to be at the Got Craft? Christmas market this Dec. 5th so please come along and say hello! It's our favourite market to do by far, and there are always lots of amazing wares.

Lastly, things might get a little quiet around here over the next while. The holiday rush is is in full force (thank you!) and there keeps seeming to be more and more things we need to do in preparation for our move home. I still have some travel photos and stories to share with you, and I'll be posting every now and then when I have something to share. I'm actually a little excited at the idea of scaling back and blogging the really good stuff as opposed to feeling like there always needs to be content for contents sake, you know?

Hope you're all well, it is freezing (literally, my balcony is like an ice skating rink!) here, an early winter is well on it's way!

Frost by Daybreak

We caught the train from Montreal to Ottawa early in the morning so we could spend the day there on our way to Toronto. I love train travel, and to coast across Quebec and Ontario at day break on this perfectly frosty morning was magical. The colours and light were incredible.

I don't seem to have any actual Ottawa photos, but I think they might be on one of our films. It was a brief stop but I'm so glad we did it! The weather was beautiful and we got to stop in and visit Victoire Boutique, which was filled with just as many beautiful things as I was imaging. We then spent the rest of our day wandering a bit around parliament and visiting the National Gallery of Canada, which was amazing! A definite highlight of our trip, I'm so glad we did it. There was this great Moshe Safdie exhibition on, as well as these giant Carl Beam works that were breathtaking. Of course they also have an amazing Group of Seven/Tom Thomson collection, along with Emily Carr's and a number of international artists. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!

J'adore Montreal

Montreal completely stole our hearts. I was expecting to love it, and for it to be different from other Canadian cities I've been to, but I don't think I expected quite how much so! We were lucky enough to stay with Caroline (who you might remember from these photos) and her partner Jeff, who were the most amazing hosts. We're not super touristy tourists, so just wandering through neighbourhoods, stopping at local spots to eat, pretty parks and getting the chance to really spend time with our hosts over beers and poutine was pretty much perfect! I would go back to Montreal in a heartbeat, even though I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how cold it truly gets there, and have been scheming ways to do so ever since we left!

Bagels from St. Viateur (to.die.for.) :: Le Cagibi, a really delicious vegetarian restaurant with great mix-matched furniture and huge helpings of chilli - so perfect for that rainy day :: chocolatin from Kouign Amann, which we discovered by chance after wondering around Mont Royal one day, the pastries were amazing and we managed to find our way back there a couple more times :: the light from Caroline's window dancing on the wall of her beautifully decorated apartment :: Carre St-Louis, a park that was once a reservoir and surrounded by incredible homes. The light was perfect that day. :: beers at Reservoir to escape the cold :: pretty beribboned buildings :: i can't remember the name of this building near the water in Old Montreal, but I loved the crest and the colours :: Old Montreal :: Drawn and Quartely, a book store I could have spent much money in :: pumpkins in Mile End :: tiles on Rue Saint-Denis :: pretty homes.

You can see a few more photos here, if you're not totally saturated in French Canadian goodness, and I also have a couple films to drop off that should make an appearance here soon!

Eastern Time

We're back! Four cities in just over two weeks. Much amazing food was eaten, buildings stood in awe of, stores browsed, friends bonded with and determination to go back and visit more when we left each place. We found a photobooth on our last night in New York and I love how happy we both look! It perfectly sums up how great it was to escape real life for a couple weeks. Getting to spend time with Richard and not be constantly talking about moving or making, and getting back to that child like wonder of travelling and visiting new places might just be the highlight of my trip. 

I have many, many photos and I'll try to use the rest of this week to spread them out over, maybe just the best ones. Each place was so great, I want to share it all! I initially tried not to look touristy, but by our last day in New York I had just embraced the camera/s as giant necklace look. You can't deny it. 

It's now 6.30am and I'm already dressed and ready to go (this is not at all normal), I'm trying to trick my body that it is still on eastern time for as long as possible (dark winter nights are very helpful with this) so that I can be all productive like. We shall see how long it lasts!

Hope you're well friends. 

xo

Last Hurrah!

via Pacolomo

We're heading off to Montreal today for a two week last hurrah before the holiday season and having to really get busy with our moving preparation. We'll also be going to Toronto (with a stop in Ottawa on the way) for my sister in laws wedding and then to NYC for pizza and walking the streets chilly streets in overcoats a la the Metropolitan set. I am so very excited, both for two weeks off on a real vacation and also to see places I've never seen before! Plus there are so many lovely people that we'll be getting to hang out with along the way, so fun to to do some real life hanging out with internet buddies. 

We've closed up the store for while we're away, otherwise I know I wouldn't really let myself take a break from it, but I might do a bit of blogging here and there to show you what we're up to. If anyone has any tips for the above cities, I would love to hear them!

Hope you're all well, and see you soon! 

Fall days

Hello! Sorry for how quiet it was around here last week, no excuses really aside from perfect fall days calling for neighbourhood walks and the realisation that the holiday season is approaching with the shop getting busier and busier. Oh, and the fact that it is November in a week. Eeep!

These photos are from a little stroll we took last weekend to a market that was held in this big, rambling house in our neighbourhood. There was vintage all strung up in the yard, boozy cider and pie for sale, a room full of vintage linens and Ora Bags and Seed Knits were selling their wares there, too. I ended up walking away with a beautiful Dresden Plate quilt for a steal (pictures to come), despite my best intention to be lightening our load before we leave. Oh well, I'm pretty sure you can never have too many quilts!

A few other things;

- My lovely friend Jen has released her Fall/Winter collection for her label Hound and it is just beautiful. I'll take one of each, thanks! How great are those yellow tights with the skirt and cape?
- Speaking of lovely friends, Kenzie released her new woven scarf collection last week and I am dying to get my hands on one! I love that she wove the yarn instead of knit, the texture looks amazing.
- City Shorelines by David Burdeny. These are just incredible, they look like paintings. The colours! I would love to have a print or two of these on my wall to daydream into.

Jumble

Canadian made 100% virgin wool blankets at Old Faithful

The temperature has definitely dropped over the last couple of days, which is almost enough to justify a trip to Old Faithful for one of these gorgeous blankets. There is pretty much no way I should be even thinking about buying anything housewares like with our trip home coming up, but I feel like these could pass as a souvenir of my life in Canada, yes? Please say yes. 

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and support of our update and necklaces! I'm really pleased that people seem to like them, and we sold our first one this morning so I'm already planning out a few new designs to try out as well as making some more prisms to stock. It feels really good to have that all taken care of, and now I can start getting ready for the Christmas rush plus finally taking care of some wholesale orders. Fun never stops around here!

As we've both been working lots the past few weeks, I'm so excited to have this weekend free to play. We're going to be at Canzine West* tomorrow from 1pm-7pm as part of a little mini Got Craft? market. I can't wait, it's definitely something I would have liked to visit anyway and I'm really excited to check out all the zines there. I'm also hoping to head out to the Apple Festival on Sunday to taste a Grimes Golden or two and watch some cider being made, and I might check out the Mary Janes Flea Market happening in our neighbourhood, too. So many fun times! 

Well, this was a bit of a jumble of a post. That's what I get for locking myself in and working for so long, unreasonable excitement of being out in the real world that manifests itself as stream of consciousness blog posting. Ah well! 

Have a great weekend, friends!

xo

*I am going to close up the shop from midnight tonight until midnight Saturday night, so that there is no double up of purchasing. Naturally I haven't been organised enough to made things especially for this market!

Update phase two: Wood Necklaces

Wood is really one of my favourite mediums to work in, and I am so proud of how our first range of necklaces have turned out. They're made from mahogany that was discarded boat building material and this stunning cocobolo piece that Richard had left over from studying cabinet making. They're all strung on a fine, platinum coated chain and I'm really loving the way the grain has shown itself off, especially in the cocobolo prism. You can find them all in the shop, here. Hope you like them!

I plan to take a bit of a break now that this shop update is done, although I secretly do have a few new things I've slowly started working on. Back to more regular blogging from now on though, promise. Oh, we also have a Facebook page now so you can pop over here and 'like' it (so weird to say that) if you like! I'll try keeping it updated as much as possible.