Kid's Night!!

Kid's Night #1 was a HUGE success!

Yes, I'm pooped, but it was well worth it.

The door looked tres adorable and my elves were gorgeous in all their sparkly glory.

The kids came in droves with their lists and shopped their little hearts out. 

I wonder what it's like for them, drunk with all that independence and fists full of mom and dad's cash.

It's hard to tell with some of them because they start off so stunned by all the attention. But I imagine it's probably pretty exciting...right?

Check out these goofballs.

(Christine, this one's for you)

The next big event is next Thursday December 18th.

Hope to see you here!

Nice things about last week.

It snowed like a banshee last week. 

It was really beautiful, but it certainly made getting around a little more challenging.

Wednesday morning when I arrived at the store, the sidewalk needed some serious love.

I mean, my customers are dedicated, but I'm not sure they'll risk death by snowbank for a few Christmas ornaments and a condiment bowl shaped like Frosty the Snowman.

As much as I'd like to think.

So I grabbed the shovel and started at it. Oblivious to the fact that at 8 months pregnant I'm not the exactly the easiest girl to walk past without offering a hand.

Didn't take two minutes before one of my more fabulous customers (and now friends) came by to help.

She's initiated a "random acts of kindness" challenge at work, and I was the lucky random who got to be her good deed for the day.

It's been a whole week of nice things actually. 

Yep. I made a list.

MONDAY

Colleen offered to work the entire day so I didn't have to plan my activities around getting to the store for 3pm. AND it allowed me to get the door finished!

TUESDAY

The Jezewskis (wonderful customers and parents of a childhood friend of mine) surprised me with a gift for the baby! An adorable book called That's not my Monkey and a swaddling blanket brought back from their trip to Vancouver. The thoughtfulness overwhelms me.

Jennifer (who owns this funky company) made ONE HUNDRED tags for the kids to attach to their gifts on Kid's Night. Her husband even dropped them off so I didn't have to pick them up.

WEDNESDAY

Christine shoveled the sidewalk. And, despite the weather, I had my biggest sale to date! Woohoo!!

THURSDAY

Kid's Night! All my volunteers rallied together for a fabulously fun night.

FRIDAY

Got a card in the mail from a real estate agent in Ottawa who reads my blog! Brad and I went for a yummy dinner and chilled on the couch after a looooooong tiresome week.

SATURDAY

Wildly busy day at the store. Sold a LOT of Christmas stuff which always excites me since the last thing I want to do is pack it back up until next year.

SUNDAY

Brad and I went to an all day all intensive Pre Natal Course in Westboro. It was terrifying/informative.

Blackbird had it's FIRST EVER staff party at the Ironworks. 

Two more events (Kid's Night this Thursday and Men's Night on the 23rd) left before the holidays. 

I just might make it after all.

xoxo Em

La Porte

I just spent the last six hours in a freezing cold room turning this:

Into this:

And now I'm having a bath.

Brad the Dad

Thanks to Brad the baby's room is now outfitted with a fabulous crib.

Hey! Maybe we are actually having a baby after all.

My pregnancy has been such smooth sailing, and Christmas at the store has been keeping me so busy, that the baby has really been listing low on the list of priorities lately.

No more!

It struck us last week that we're less than 8 weeks away from meeting our new roommate, and the room is EMPTY. (Save for a few boxes of clothes I can't wear right now and a cat toy or seven). 

So yesterday we headed into the city with the Jeep and a mission: Bring home a crib.

After a quick stop at FAB Baby Gear in both Westboro and the Glebe, a sticker shock break at Second Cup (cribs were $700 - $1000!) we headed to Toys R Us at St. Laurent Shopping Centre (a.k.a. Hell three weeks before Christmas).

In less than thirty minutes we found a really decent crib that boasted itself the "World's Easiest Crib to Assemble" and a mattress that met our $500 budget. (Brad's parents graciously offered to buy our crib).

So, for lack of anything truly interesting to blog about, I thought I'd document the assembly process to see just how easy it was really going to be. 

The pictures aren't fabulous. I took them on my phone.

Truth in advertising! 

It took Brad about 20 minutes to get the whole thing together.

It's nice to see it in the room too. We admitted to each other this morning that we've both gone in a few times to practice lifting and lowering the front panel. I think that's probably pretty normal...right? ;)

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Our 2nd Annual Kid's Shopping Night is next Thursday and I am soooo excited.

First of all, we're holding the event on two nights to accommodate as many kids as possible this year.

Secondly, we have built a SPECIAL DOOR just for the occasion!

At first glance, it looks like a regular old door. But no! The Blackbird Elves have craftily modified it so that only the bottom half opens! Ha ha!

That's right mom and dad. You're WAY too big! There will be no sneaking in this year. 

See, the idea behind Kid's Night is that kids come with a budget (big or small) and a list of people to buy for.

Parents are shuffled off to the coffee shop across the street for a warm beverage (on us), while the kids shop the store and find great stuff with the help of our friendly elves (yep, REAL elves).

When the shopping is done and the gifts have been wrapped and tagged, we escort the little shoppers safely back to their parents.

It's a cool experience for kids I think.

Despite the trepidations of some parents, we didn't have any issues last year. 

The only piece of collateral damage was a half eaten Lemon flavoured Rogers Chocolate Cream that I found on a shelf the day after our first event. 

It actually made me smile, because Lemon is perhaps the most revolting flavour of chocolate Rogers makes.

So really, the culprit got theirs the second they bit into that nasty little morsel.

And I noticed that as soon as the kids knew their parents weren't around and that they had a responsibility to behave, they did.

It was fun.

Really really fun.

But back to this door.

It's going to be the coolest thing. It's not done yet, but we found the door at the old Flour Mill Sadie has been helping restore and renovate into condos (she even lives in one) and we cut the bottom half and added new hinges.

I still need to paint it. 

I'm going to pretend I'm an elf when I do. 

I think it needs curtains made out of things like boxer shorts and moth eaten grandpa sweaters and stuff. 

Don't you?

I'll just whip that up in my *ahem* spare time. 

On another note, we're also hosting a Men's Shopping Night Tuesday December 23rd from 5pm-10pm.

So, for all you guys who love leaving your Christmas shopping to the last minute, power to ya.

You wife gave us her wish list and Brad's got a cold beer waiting here for you.

xoxo Em