No lowlights, only highlights

I'm pretty sure outdoor craft markets are the ultimate form of retail therapy. Sure I rave about the joys of my pajama clad internet spending sprees but despite popular belief, I do try to avoid being a hermit. However, not all markets are created equally, so old ladies with pot scrubbers and crocheted barbie clothes need not apply. I'm more of a fan of markets geared towards semi-urban awesome crafty smart indie women (which I very much pretend to be). I got the pleasure of visiting such an anomaly for two consecutive weeks amidst my September mini break! Behold - Victoria's Government Street Market:


One block of pure awesome held every Sunday (weather permitting) from 11 - 4. The streets are magically strewn with local handicrafts, many of which I drool over on etsy on a regular basis. It's like the stars align for a five hour period each week fulfilling all my crafty purchasing desires - and none of that delayed gratification bit either.

I've always wanted to dive into the wonderful world of craft market salesmanship (officially since quinn and I went to that craft fair in Vernon a few years back) but dipping my toes into the not so fast-paced world of online selling seems to leave me content for the time being. Plus it's probably a good thing I don't actually live anywhere near a market so cool because I'm not ready to admit how much money I spent there...

Home sweet uncool home

My ten days in the wonders of Victoria were officially a success with only minimal mishaps (i.e. vomity illness, getting lost in the forest, and that epic tale of battery purchasing)! Highlights of my trip include:

1) Being an amazingly original tourist



2) Seeing all the important sights



and 3) Attending the sweetest Victoria-based music festival!



Now all I need to do is stumble across mass amounts of shame free riches so my dreams of well educated housewivery can come true and I can spend the rest of my days like I spent the last week - countless hours of retail therapy, crafts/friends/nature galore, and scheming how to make sweet young indie musicians my devoted pen pals! Dan Mangan - you're next.

Speaking of music festivals...

Amidst all the stir and excitement of my trip to Victoria and rifflandia, I received an email reminding just how sweet the last music festival I went to was! Roots and Blues was such an awesome experience (minus the complete exhaustion/onset of swollen lupus pain for the last month) that I'm sure I'll remember it fondly for many years to come! Sure it was rainy and muddy and we all dressed for the predicted hot August weather, but there were so many fantastic bands to soak up! (Including my fav's Elliott Brood and Chad Vangaalen - hence their addition to my september playlist - and my unruly urge to learn to play the banjo).

One cool booth/attraction they had at the event was the Six String Nation guitar entirely made from pieces of Canadian history and culture! It's a pretty amazing project and interesting to learn about all the items they used to construct it. So cool in fact, that thanks to Doug Nicholson/Six String Nation I got my picture taken with the guitar!


And even though this music festival was substantially different than the one I'm attending this weekend, I'm still totally stoked. Oh, and I really need to cut down the crafting time so I can work on my banjo playing...

Mini break!

Instead of celebrating the onset of September with back to school stationary and bouquets of sharpened pencils, I will relish in the fact that I'm not a slave to learning establishment this fall and visit British Columbia's capital city, Victoria! (Note the Parliament buildings and cheesy ultimate touristyness)


I've got an action packed week(ish) planned to visit old friends, potentially recover from my last month of lupus disaster, and overload my indie senses (with a ridiculous about of indie shops, indie food, and indie music)! Nothing better than a mini vacation from reality spent shopping in crafty markets and attending quite possibly the coolest autumnal music festival ever! Eee! Oh and don't worry Lindsay, I'm sure I'll be visiting some of those benches too...

On the subject of lists...

I am a list fanantic! As I was explaining to nick the other night (amidst his first year sciences/work/life juggling dilemma), I'm fairly confident in saying that lists are the key to success in life. Seriously. They're great for keeping you super organized, perfect in brainstorming, awesome at allowing you to remain focused, and best of all you get the ultimate satisfaction when you can dramatically cross completed items off! So good.

I'm all about different lists for different purposes. My list of lists:

1) The perpetual list - These are the items that are pretty much ultimately unreachable to complete but nice to have on the back of my mind when I find some spare moments. Includes items like cleaning/laundry, exercise, crafting, and, you know, figuring out my career/rest of my life.

2) The daily tasks list - Sometimes this one turns into a "weekend tasks" list, but both have the same contents. Includes things like deposit cheques, pick up prescriptions/random item I feel necessary to purchase, make lunch for work, be an awesome pen pal, paint toenails, etc. These lists are usually the most satisfying because the tasks don't take very long to complete and you even get to crumple up the list violently when you're done!

3) The specialty list - You can find these scattered on post-its around my desk and are specific to certain tasks (i.e homework, packing, groceries, etsy shop). My crafting/etsy list evolves most rapidly depending on what I've convinced myself is the highest priority at the time and has become so specialized that in fact it's jumped from post-it to legal paper format (although I did get the joy of crossing off "start blog" not too long ago).

Perhaps everyone doesn't have to be quite so involved with the list making process as I am, but I do think they're great enough to ramble on about in this post (and yes, I did write a list of what I was going to talk about before publishing this). So next time you're feeling particularly stressed with life, try using a list. I know I would.

Kittens with mustaches!

Time for part two of the new pinback button designs tale. After joining the autumnal woodland fun with the first set of fresh buttons how was I ever going to possibly come up with something else equally cool. So I got to thinking, "What is pure awesome?". The answer was clear - kittens with mustaches.



I mean I'm destine to be that crazy spinster cat lady anyways, at least if these pins are a flop I can fondly reminisce about "that time when I was sure the next big thing would be genetically engineering cats' facial hair". Can't wait.

Hurray for the randomness of the internet

Quite possibly the funniest webcomic ever. Thanks wendy.

More free time please?

So I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to the internet. It has come to the point where I get up two hours early for those already painful 5 am shifts just so I have enough to get my morning dose of internet goodness so I can make it through the day (and believe me - I am not a morning person). My bookmarked lists grow exponentially but nothing has built my obsession quite as much as etsy.

Etsy has become the ultimate time thief, guilty of stealing a good chunk of my life away from me. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, I mean retail therapy is quite thrilling and etsy is filled with awesome handmade inspiration! The gift guide section alone is insanely influential making me crave everything I really don't need, specifically referencing weddings and vintage footwear. Etsy fuels my love for crafting and has single handedly remodeled my spare time. This craft revolution has excited me to take on new projects, do it myself, and learn every handicraft known to man. I've saved at least a hundred tutorial links and bought a plethora of craft books (online of course). My current object of desire is a sweet convertible scarf from KnotOriginal's etsy shop (which I conveniently spotted in the geekery gift guide - imagine that).



I love everything about this scarf! Love the colours, love the versatility, love the chunky acrylic wool blend and wooden buttons. I'm so into this item that I droned on about it over drinks with wendy and lucas. Clearly my life is not complete without this, or so I'd like to think for at least another week or so until something new comes along. I'm thinking if I'm still obsessed about it when I come back from my trip to Victoria in a few weeks I'll try to recreate my own version. Now all I need is time, money, and to magically learn how to knit. Minor details.

All aboard the trendy craft theme bandwagon!

I have always been a huge fan of pinback buttons. This obsession has done nothing but grow over the years and being able to design my own adorable and somewhat geeky pins makes it even more awesome. I've been craving an increase in my etsy buttons collection and no better way to do that then jump on the popularity and fantasticness of woodland creatures! I've been dabbling with a few designs but here's a sneak peek at the ridiculously cute winners:

Remember that other time when I only read the backs of cereal boxes?

Back when I was starting by etsy shop adventures, amidst bed rest recovery from chest surgery - so when I actually had time, I was super stoked on making coffee sleeves. Well I was actually excited about pretty much anything I could potentially sell on etsy, but sleeves were particularly appealing. I had grandiose plans of making tons of different designs then going to indie cafes with friends of mine where we could nonchalantly model them on our lattes be, like, the coolest people in existence.

I spent the next few weeks embroidering my life away (and struggling with that lousy french knot lesson my mom gave me) resulting in the birth of nine reusable coffee sleeve children (three sets of not quite identical triplets to be specific). I was so proud! Dinosaurs, caffeine, and DNA ecofriendly goodness that even had a cool little pocket to stash coffee cards or your weekly coffee budget. Seriously, so excited.

Spring turned to summer which turned to fall and at last I got my etsy shop started, branded (thanks quinn), and I posted my precious sleeve babies for adoption. Not too shortly after, they all sold out and I was back to my empty sleeve nest. *Sigh*

By the time I got around to maybe making more, I remembered how insanely time consuming that embroidery was and how annoying I find unmotivated sewing projects. So I guess being the coolest person in existence will have to be put on the back-burner for now, but I swear I'll get to that sweet love robot coffee sleeve one of these days lindsay...

Get your hand off my tail, you'll make it dirty

At long last the return of albi magnet sets:



Based on the loving tale of Albi the racist dragon, this magnet set depicts characters seen on HBO's Flight of the Conchords (season 1, episode 7)

Set includes: Albi the racist dragon, the badly burnt Albanian boy from the day before, and that magical dragon tear turned jelly bean (all the colours of the rainbow) that put a stop to racism in New Zealand!

These polymer clay gems have been a hot seller since my shop's opening in october '08 allowing me to not only practice being an obsessive Jemaine Clement fan but also my mad sculpting and painting skills. This is the fourth time I've recreated my original magnet set and finally I've decided to go big or go home...




well...not that big...

A blog is born

After much waffling I've decided to start a blog dedicated to my science based craftiness. I'm pretty sure the first post is supposed to be all "mission statement"-y but since my ultimate goal is for this blog to be as awesome as I pretend it's going to be in my head the stakes are a little high. Let's just go for, "I really hope this doesn't turn into one of those unfortunate decisions I tend to make". Yes. Sounds lovely. Enjoy.