Friday Find: Ladies & Gentlemen

This week's find is Ladies & Gentlemen, a charming etsy shop filled with lovely vintage goodies. Even though I enjoy thrift store finds, one item caught my attention in the shop - a giant doily rug! Take a look:


Oh my that is impressive! The doily is handwoven out of cotton rope which I'm sure takes ages (hence the hefty pricetag) and looks super cool! Maybe I'll attempt a copycat version later on when I've got some spare time on my hands. Everyone wants on for xmas this year right?

Doily DIY

I can't deny it. I love martha stewart crafts - especially ones involving doilies! Her site has some wonderful doily images ready to print out and decorate with! Check them out on cookie tins:


Oh how wonderful! Especially since I am a huge doily fan and I'm freshly moved into a place with no cookie tins! I'm actually really hoping to come across a nice simple blank recipe box I can paint up with martha's doily images but no such luck! Why is it so hard to find recipe boxes these days? Do people not cook anymore? Any tips?

September!

Hello september! An insanely busy month for me filled with:

1) Moving! Today! Downtown! Exciting!
2) Potential birth of leslie's baby making me an auntie for the first time!
3) A million doctors appointments (boo)
4) So many awesome musical events (Including said the whale and great bloomers/wooden sky in town, and rifflandia in victoria!!)
5) A new bloggy soundtrack
6) Peter and krista's wedding!
7) The anniversary of my blog (has it been a year already?)
and
8) A new kittens inspired by kittens inspired calendar page:


Okay - if you're a little confused by this one not to worry. I went as a french mustache cat (like my button) for halloween last year and to get into character I did some searches on the internet and apparently french cats laugh by saying "ron ron ron ron". You learn something new everyday I suppose...

What fun and exciting things do you have planned for the month?

A Smokey Comparison

About two weeks ago I shared a post with you on the insane zombie apocalypse smoke my hometown of kamloops was suffering from (link). Well, my sister mentioned how some comparison photos would be better reference for the crazy smoke haze and I aim to please! Let's take a moment to compare:

Scenic lookout before (notice nice flowers, slight haze, and that crazy white/grey sky):


Scenic Lookout after (Yay! Blue sky! No zombies in sight!):


Whew! And if you thought that was shocking - take a looks at this one!!!

Kamloops view before (a giant mess of smokey awfulness):


Kamloops view after (My goodness you can actually see the valley!):


So much better! Goodbye smoke! Don't come back anytime soon...

pom rug!

As most of you know (or at least I'd hope you know if you're a blog reader), I'm moving into a charming little house in september (which is frighteningly only two days away)! As many of you don't know - my new place is carpet-less and as such I've been keeping my eyes peeled for neat rug/floor covering related crafty projects to warm up the living room a tad. Well, I'm sure you can imagine how excited I got when I saw this lovely rug online:

Eeee!!! A pom pom rug! And I'll even be percy-less so it will be safe from the yarn devouring mouth of that evil kitty! Design crisis has a whole article on the pom pom phenomenon and how super rad it is to work some poms into your household decor! Even though their link doesn't have instructions, I'm sure I could figure this one out. Bring on the spare time and yarn and then bring on the pom poms! Yeah!

Bizarre Bazaar - vol. VIII

My eighth and final craft show at the bizarre bazaar was this past thursday and although I'm a little sad to be done with the selling I'm also relieved that I get a whole extra day each week to work on goods in preparation for the holiday season (seriously - i'm never prepared enough)! Here I am eager to get the craft selling underway:


How nice! It was a little cooler than normal this week and luckily I dressed for the weather - but certainly was not prepared for the insane gusts of wind we had this week! I know I always bring up how windy it is (and how the wind destroyed my colourful pennant flag banner I usually have up) but it was extra strong this week! In fact, it ripped two tents out of their cinder block footings and rolled them down the hill. For the second tent it actually took the bungied cinder blocks with it! And although I was praising my lovely c-clamped button display, most of my other goods were getting blown around (especially my felt brooches) and it was tiring always trying to keep on top of it. Whew!

On the plus side of things the sales were pretty good this week! I sold quite a few button sets, postcards, plushies, and (the big seller of the day) pocket mirrors! Hooray for restocking:


Yes - much better than the slim pickings I had at my last show and I even managed to get a ton of new coloured felt cases made! I had to keep them in a tin under my table to keep them safe from the wind:


How lovely! Plus now that I'm done with the biz baz I can stock all my extra goodies into my etsy shop! I'm not entirely sure how quickly that will happen though since I am moving this wednesday and will need to take pictures of all my products first (which is quite the time consuming task). But if you're extra anxious for any particular item I've been selling at my shows (i.e. certain pocket mirror, coffee sleeve, or post card set) I'm always willing to speed up the posting process and make a reserved listing for you. What fun!

As for my future in craft shows I'm not entirely sure how many more I will do. I've been invited to join a few holiday shows this year, but am a little cautious joining up since the booth fees are pretty steep ($120-$200) and although they promise tons of attendance, because most of my products are inexpensive, I would have to sell an awful lot of goods just to break even! I'd really like to do some bigger craft shows next spring/summer though so I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for the right opportunities! All in all my first summer of selling has been pretty good with lots of lessons learned, some good networking, and a sprinkling of sales. Plus (best of all) I actually stuck to my new years resolution of craft selling!!! Now I just need to keep up with my blog post a day and find some time to start learning the banjo and I'll be set! Hooray!

Market Tote!

Plastic bags are on their way out - so no better way to tote your groceries around than with your very own root vegetable tote! Design sponge does it again (seriously - so many good tutorials over there) with this lovely DIY:


Love the colours and design of this one! I also appreciate how fall-tastic it looks in this image. I'm looking forward to sweatery days and changing leaves! Fall here we come!