Calling all Crafters

Decisions have been made and the Handmade Harvest Holiday 2011 Call for Crafters (mouthful!) has been officially launched! 
Click here for details.

I really thought this would get easier to organize!


Colleen and I had been toying with the idea of hosting the show at two different venues (Old Town Hall and Textile Museum) simultaneously in November, and then we realized that would probably suck the joy out of it for us.
There are always little fires to put out, and it's just easier when we can work together.


I'm VERY excited to say that the show will be held at the Old Almonte Town Hall again.


We've expanded into additional space within the Hall this time - to avoid the chaos that was Holiday 2010 - but we still have a lower cap on vendors than the spring show.
Looks like we'll max out at 35 this time.
So the bar will be high, and the vendors that are accepted will truly be exceptional.


No pressure.
No pressure.

Rain Date - Home & Store Yard Sale

Looks like we're going to be rained out for our Yard Sale tomorrow morning.

Brad says there's a 100% chance of precipitation. 

To which I said "You're sure it's not like 95%? I mean how can anyone be 100% sure of anything really?"

He didn't say anything, but he did roll his eyes.

In our house, eye rolls trump all.

So.

Please join us NEXT SATURDAY JULY 2nd for our 2nd annual Home & Store Yard Sale.

Sale starts at 8am.

77 Union Street North, Almonte (aka my house)

Yard sale prices on our off-season merchandise, scratch & dent stuff (you can hardly tell!), home furnishings and more.

Emily

Call me Em

This morning when I was getting back into my car after dropping Clementine off at daycare, a woman across the street (who I only know because she used to be a teacher at my elementary school so we're talking like 20 years ago) called out "Hi Em!"

I love when people I hardly know call me Em.
Makes me feel like they like me. (Which is so important to me it could be labeled a character flaw.) 
That they think of me in a friendly, approachable, neighbourly way.

A lot of customers call me Em.
Also, Clemmie.
But I don't like that so much.

"Emmmm? Canna have a peanabutta wap pleeeeease?"
Translation: "Mother dear, may I have a peanut butter wrap please?

Don't people say you should be clear not to blur the line between parent and friend?
Apparently I'm doing a real bang up job so far.

Home & Store Yard Sale - Saturday June 25th! RAIN DATE: July 2

This Saturday June 25th  July 2nd at 8am, my 2nd annual Home & Store Yard Sale will take place at 77 Union Street North in Almonte.

My house.

I'm done looking at the odds and ends of seasons past in the shop...so I'm dragging them all home and selling them off at rock bottom prices in my own front yard.

I've got loads of stuff from home decor items, scratch and dent stuff, electronics, furniture, toys, jewelry, display items, pillows, wreaths, clothing and much much more.

Time to clean house.

And store.

Any items that remain will be donated to the Hub and/or Rebound Centre.

Wanna come?

You can hold the baaaabyyyyyyy! 

Em

Lazy man's blog post

I'm feeling a little down in the dumps today.
Overwhelmed, sorry for myself, negative in general.
I just really really really need a mental health day.
Without the kids.
Without feeling guilty for not being with the kids.
And without knowing anyone at the grocery store, coffee shop, bank, post office...you get it.

Last night I just needed to get in and get out.
Pasta sauce, eggs, milk. Pasta sauce, eggs, milk.

I had just come from boot camp at the gym, looking like a sweaty bag of garbage, not at all in the mood to put on my "I'd love to small talk with you stranger!" face and who do I see at the grocery store?
That's right.
Everybody.

Of course I did.

So instead of bringing you all down with me on my sinking ship of self pity, I thought I'd just link up to a post Colleen has written about some of the new handmade stuff that's slowly starting to fill up the shop.
You can read her blog here.

Em

Bicycle Month

June is Bicycle Month here in Almonte.
You can check out this link to know what that means exactly.
To me it means the beginning of a season of festivals and, hopefully, a season of tourists tourists tourists.

I bought Brad a new bike for his birthday in April and as we were about to add his old, beyond repair bike to the pile of stuff to take along on our annual dump trip, I had a vision for my Bicycle Month shop window display.

Got to love repurposing old junk.
Also, spray painting.
So quick, so satisfying. So impossible to do perfectly on a round, double sided object.
Thankfully, perfection wasn't the goal.
And you can hardly see the bits of fresh cut grass imbedded in the paint.

AND, since now I am the proud owner of my very own 1.25" button maker, I was able to make buttons to match!
How cute are these?
For sale all month in the shop...of course.

Watch for my Button of the Month Club. Coming soon!!
Happy Bicycle Month!

Emily

Picking up the Pieces

A few notes about gift giving to recipients under the age of 6.

- Don't give them anything with more than 2 pieces or accessories. They will either lose them, or scatter them, subsequently making their mother insane and inclined to make rash decisions like breaking something purposely or throwing them in the damn garbage.

- If the child is one or older, he/she likely already has a doll and a stuffed animal. If you give them another, they will love it for approximately one day. Then it will clutter up their bedroom or playroom until their mom finally takes it to the Hub. Give them books.

- A two year old will love you just as much if you give them one toy or seventeen toys. And no matter how many times their mother tells them "Say thank you to your Aunt Zoey", odds are tomorrow they probably won't remember who gave them what. If you really want to give them a lasting gift, take them somewhere they've never been and show them a good time. Then you can own a little chapter in their memory for life. (This makes a great gift for parents too).

(For the record, this is NOT my playroom. Via.)

Em

Survival

Survive we did.
Daddy even came home earlier than expected and I high tailed it to work for a little me time.
And then I completely took advantage of him being home.
Like maybe a little too much actually.

Brad got home around 1pm on Tuesday.
I went to work at 2pm, came home for a hot second, and then headed to Mahogany for a massage.
Wednesday night I went out for dinner with Cynthia (of Appleton Gift and Basket fame) to strategize what the heck we're going to do about the awful awful terrible sales we've been experiencing here on Mill Street.
and Thursday I went to see Bridesmaids with three of my besties who totally would have been my bridesmaids if I had any (other than my lovely sisters).

Oh my god that movie is funny.
I'm almost embarrassed by how much I liked it because it was so disgusting in parts.
I won't tell you about it, I'll let you see it for yourself.

Moving on.

Remember way back when when I told you I was dieting?
If you're interested in an update, I'm down 17lbs since mid February.
I feel a million times better about myself than I did, but every day is still a struggle. I have about 15 more to go.
Kicking things up a notch by going starting Boot Camp, so hopefully that will help me along.

On a totally different topic, I've been thinking a lot about how many kids Brad and I are destined to have.
I've always thought three. Probably because I'm from three.
But now that life is getting back to a "new" normal for everyone, I'm kind of happy to be on this end of the baby making.
Two seems manageable.
One each.
It means we don't need a bigger house, or car, and I have this terrible pattern of complicating my life just when it starts to get easy.
It's one of my very few character flaws.

We may have to wait a few more years to decide on this matter.

Babies have been hard on our relationship in the past.
Brad and I are doing remarkably well this time. Mostly thanks to Griffin being such a great baby, but I know we're both making a big effort to be kind to each other.
I don't know when the switch happened.
We certainly haven't been doing so well the entire 4 months we've had Griffin, but this last month has been really nice.
We've almost entirely cut out the under-our-breath grumblings about the others shortfalls and I feel like we haven't been keeping score the way we have in the past.

Oh there will be more trying times in the Brad and Emily saga, this I know, but for now things are okay. Half way decent even.
And I'll leave it at that before I jinx it.

Em