Party Planning

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we closed up shop for our reno.

We're not renovating this year, but we will be making some changes in the shop.

I love this time of year.

We get to clean off the shelves, do our annual vacuum (I know. Gross), spit shine the place and, my personal favourite, get all the Christmas stuff OUT of the back room.

You can't even breathe back there.

There's so much merchandising and Christmasizing to do we will be closing the store Monday November 9th through until the beginning of our Holiday Launch Party (Friday November 13th from 6pm - 10pm) just to prepare.

You're invited by the way.

Bring a friend. Bring twelve friends.

We'll be doing lots of fun stuff this night. Think free goodies, toe-tapping Christmas music, discounts of up to 40% (you'll draw a candy cane at the cash for this one), a little cider (a little rum if you promise not to tell) and holiday cheer in general.

If it's anything like last year, you'll see items here that night that you won't be able to get afterwards.

Thing go friends. Especially the really different stuff.

Like, did you even KNOW we had a huge wall-mounted wire reindeer head last Christmas?

Well we did.

And it was super cool.

And it was sold in the first 2 hours of being on the floor, never to be seen again.

I bought another one this year. Not to mention piles and piles of other great stuff.

Hope to see you here.

Em

Pumpkin Patches and other cute stuff

I FINALLY made some stuff this weekend.

I'm mildly obsessed with putting clips in Clemmie's hair but it's hard to find ones that aren't incredibly dorky.

So I decided to make some.

It's what I do okay?

Since I am useless at crocheting (it truly has become the bane of my existence), I trolled Etsy for cute appliques and, as usual, I was not disappointed in what I found.

I bought a bunch of appliques of all sizes, some dollar store grosgrain ribbon and a ton of alligator clips.

All for about $15.

And then I went to town.

This is just a few.

My favourites are actually the ones I made using the crocheted circles you can see in my supplies shot.

They are to-die-for-cute and I am SO going to sell them in the shop.

I may even hold a little workshop in the new year.

Colleen and I have been brainstorming (also as usual) and I think this could be a fun way to generate a little additional revenue during slower retail months.

But I digress.

Hey. Want to see a happy kid?

We took Clementine to the pumpkin patch this Sunday, and the girl loved herself some fall fun.

We toured the chicken coop...
Explored the corn maze...

Went on a hay ride...

And screamed at some pumpkins.

This last shot I took thinking I should try to take the same shot every year so we can watch her grow.

She doesn't look it really, but she's actually crying in this picture.

After I took it we realized we hadn't changed her diaper in about 5 hours.

Excellent.

Last on the cuteness list, shop stuff.

My friend Melissa designed me an adorable little logo to use on some reusable bags.

Yep. Blackbird has jumped on the reusable bag bandwagon finally.

Free with purchases over $50, or $2.99 each, we'll donate $.10 to the Almonte General Hospital every time you use one of these bags, or opt not to take one of our paper bags.

And that's it!

Christmas arrives here November 13th so stay tuned for info about our Open House, or join the mailing list at www.blackbirdshop.ca.

Regretsy

I have a new favourite website.

Meet Regretsy.

As you know I LOVE Etsy, but along with all the fabulousness, there's a lot of wacky shit on that site.

For example:

The life sized pizza brooch.

I thought I liked pizza as much as the next girl, but I guess that's really only if the next girl isn't wearing a freaking BROOCH in the shape of a slice.

(ps.anyone else hate that brooch has 2 o's? I don't know how I'd like to spell it, but it just looks so pretentious with that extra o.)

The best part? I found it in the SOLD section of Regretsy.

Someone bought this! Granted, it was only $7, but you could buy a slice of REAL pizza for $7.

A really good piece too.

Maybe even a little side salad.

There are some pretty sick items on this site too.

Like a pillow with a silk screened uterus on it, a lapel pin made from a real turtle foot, and a "real" mounted, taxidermy stuffed black unicorn.

Barf.

Who would kill a unicorn!? They're so rare!

I wish I had a picture of my friend Josie's "regretsy" to show you. (I'll add it if I can find the picture on my home computer - Found one! What you can't see is that the dress isn't actually zipped at the back, and those gorgeous fake flowers are hiding the best part, but at least you can get an idea of the quality of the fabric. Jos, please don't hate me for posting these!!)

A few months ago she bought what looked like a gorgeous wedding dress on Etsy for something like $150 US.

The pictures online showed a beautiful bride running through a busy city street wearing this gorgeous frock.

About a month later the piece of garbage showed up looking like an upchucked wedding cake...only acrylic.

Honestly.

It's atrocious.

The fabric is so cheap you'd be nervous to be in the same house as an open flame, and the sewing is wayyyy off.

The bust is all akimbo and there are seams in places there should be no seams.

Not to mention boobies.

The bright side of this story is that we definitely got at LEAST $150 worth of laughs out of the thing.

And it'll make a great addition to her kid's dress up trunk someday.

Anyway. Enjoy.

It's the write ups below the items that make this site hilarious beyond hilarious.

Welcome to my new addiction.

Em

Mishmash

The months are getting away from me so quickly lately!

I guess that comes with the baby territory but, seriously, at this rate I'm going to be seeing Clementine off to high school next week!

We're a busy little family, and that's got a lot to do with it.

In September we took a trip to Kitchener to visit Meg and Jeff and their lovely new home/fixer upper.

We were on our way to my friends' Nick and Lorrie's wedding in Stratford (possibly my new favourite town...stay tuned for a girl's trip to that locale!) and thought we'd stop in to see their place before their baby arrived.

We also needed them to look after their niece while we had a little fun!

The wedding was gorgeous and fun and gave Clem a chance to wear the adorable little dress my mom made her at Easter.

It really is the cutest thing. Thankfully it fit!

Brad for some reason felt it was VERY important that he matched his little girl so I made him a little pocket square out of some left over Amy Butler fabric.

After I got over feeling annoyed that in 8 years and a zillion weddings he's never cared to match his wife, I had to agree they made a pretty cute pair.

Two weeks after these pictures were taken my sister had her baby!!

Cohen Edward Randall was born Saturday September 26th...at home!

Luckily Meg and Jeff had a midwife (not to mention balls of steel) because her labour was less than 2 hours from the time her water broke and they couldn't make it to the hospital in time.

Apparently the only thing we have in common is parents because, if you recall, my labour was 18x that long!

Like seasoned pros they pulled down the shower curtain and had the baby right there on their bedroom floor.

All 8 pounds and 6 scrumptious ounces of him.

The weekend before, she and Jeff had paid a visit home for my dad's (60th) birthday and Jeff's mom (Meg's mother in law) hosted a little shower for her.

Just in time!

Never one to pass up an opportunity to make something, I found the most hideous nursing pillow at the Hub (Almonte's thrift shop) for $1 and re-covered it with $17 of fabric.

So yes, technically I could have bought her a new one for about the same amount of money but what fun is THAT?!

Of course I didn't think to take a picture before tearing it apart, so just use your imagination when you look into the eyes of those lions on the dusty blue background.

Of all of the gorgeous fabrics in the world why would anyone ever choose this pattern?

I think it looks so much better now don't you?

So does Clemmie.

That girl's always got her mommy's back.

I also did a little embroidered piece of a poem my Papa (dad's dad) used to say to us.

I hadn't thought of it for years and suddenly it just popped into my head.

I'm really not the best embroiderer (if that's even a word) in town, but I'm starting to let things like that go and just craft for the sake of creating instead of trying to make everything perfect.

Makes things more fun.

"I love you love you love you because you are so sweet. I love you love you love you because you have small feet."

There are so many things I want to create, and so little time to do it, I've become totally overwhelmed and hit a bit of a creative wall.

Lately I've begun choosing to do absolutely nothing (well not ABSOLUTELY) over doing anything for fear of running out of time and not completing a project.

Colleen and I have dreamed for months about creating our own line of handmade whatever to sell in the store and make a little extra seed money.

At least enough to pay for our addictions to crafting!

If I'm really going to do this I need to get organized.

Things I want to make:

Cutlery Pocket Napkins.

Sort of like these in that they're all different fabric patches, but with a pocket for cutlery.

Baby hair clips.

Clementine has a bunch of them and I know they would be CRAZY easy to make if I'd just get out of this house and buy some supplies.

Of course, ours would be cuter...

There are more things, but let's just post this blog and start a new one tomorrow.

xo Em

This post brought to you by: Nap time.

Ah nap time.

I don't want to sound like a Braggy McBraggerson or anything, but I am getting pretty good at this mom thing.

I mean really good.

We're at two nononsense you-will-cry-until-you-fall asleep-and-you-will-like-it daytime naps, a strict no-fuss-no-muss 7pm bedtime, and only one nighttime feeding which has recently moved to about 4am, followed by a back to bed at least until the sun comes up.

Which, thankfully, is getting later and later.

She still makes a bit of a fuss at about midnight but I've just been going in, rubbing a little baby Anbesol on her gums (she's still majorly teething) and leaving.

I can usually hear her playing for a bit.

I think she enjoys the numb feeling in her mouth because it sounds like she's pulling on her tongue and talking which, when I picture it, makes me giggle.

We're living day to day in this house so we'll have to deal with her possible addiction to pain meds another time.

Clementine will be 7 months old on the 9th (already!) and she is learning things every second of the day it seems. She can clap now and give you 5. She can sort of wave bye too, and if you say "kitty?" she'll kick her legs and twist her whole body reaching for the cat.

The other day I caught her studying me as I bit my nails and all I could think was "Shit. I'm going to have to stop biting my nails!"

But enough about the baby.

I'm back in Blackbird 6 days a week now!

2-5 Monday through Friday and 10-5 on Saturdays.

Clementine has started day care 3 afternoons a week and is with my mom or Brad the other days.

So far I'm pretty mentally spent from all the schedule organizing and running around, but it's so nice to be back semi-full time and get a little more control over my finances.

I did pretty well with my summer buy at the store. All our remaining summer merchandise has been 40% off for a couple weeks now and we're almost sold out.

So, if you need a hostess gift, birthday or wedding present, take advantage while you still can!

I've decided to try not to put anything in storage anymore. I'd rather get my money back, or at least some of it, than hang on to year old stuff.

Better out than in I always say.

Not necessarily about merchandise, but it works here don't you think?

Oh, remember a while back when I found the smiley face on my cutting board?

Well I found another one.

This time it was Cheerios on the rug, but I kind of love when I make these discoveries.

Think that's fun?

Check these out!

The first is something I got in the mail from Melissa for my birthday.

I came from the World's Smallest Postal Service.

What an awesome gift to send someone if you can't see them on their birthday. I have to do this someday.

It's a little teensy weensy envelope, with a miniature wax seal and a little note. Luckily it came with a 10x magnifying glass so I could read it.

I think it's pretty much one of the coolest little gifts I've ever received. She's a creative one that Melissa. When I finally did see her a few weekends ago she also gave me passes to go to a typesetting workshop with her in Toronto.

A new craft for me to become obsessed with. My favourite!

The second thing, and I don't know why I didn't mention it before, but Brad also really came through this birthday. He got me this from Etsy.

Proof that the man listens to my ramblings afterall!

It's called a Thaumatraup. On the otherside is a bird. If you spin it fast enough, the bird looks like it's in the cage.

I love it.

Unfortunately within 24 hours of receiving it, it somehow found it's way into Clem's mouth and the ink smudged. I think Brad was more upset about that than I was. I'll still wear it proudly as it is.

Perfect timing.

I can hear the little goofball grumbling to herself upstairs.

Just time for one more picture and then this nap is over.

See you soon!!

xo Em

This is an old one, but I just got it and I think it's pretty cute.

Clockwise from Clementine (4 months), Sophia Newton (1.5 months) & Liam Ray (9 days).

Another month goes by.

Gosh.

Lots has happened since I wrote last.

First things first, I went to VEGAS (sans bebe) with 7 of my favourite girls.

I feel like I should have more details, but it was a quick and dirty trip and, truthfully, I hardly remember it.

I know there were a few VIP lounges, $450 bottles of vodka, a trip to Tiffany's, a fabulous birthday dinner beneath the Eiffel Tower, the boobies of one of Heff's ex-girls and an amazing waterworks display at the Bellagio.

Oh, and Elvis. Es. Elvises.

But...yep...that's about it. That's all I can recall.

Thank God for cameras.

Secondly, Clem had the most freaking adorable photo shoot at Unposed (the girl who took the pics for my website). If you want funky family portraits done, go see this woman. She's so much fun, has a really awesome new studio she fashioned out of an old drive shed and is incredibly talented. I'm not on commission. I just love her.

I'll post pictures when I get them.

Thirdly, my parents MOVED out of our family home. 

We lived there for 19 years so you can just imagine the memories that live there (not to mention the alarming number of animals buried in the back corner of the yard).

The only good part about moving is all the awesome stuff you uncover. 

Like eleventeen diaries, all my old yearbooks and approximately a zillion notes from boys. 

All of which I am keeping because though I don't know if I want my girl to have such a wide window into her mother's past, I know she'll want to read them.

Also, I turned 30.

Which, really, is totally cool.

Brad took Clem (or BeeBop as he now lovingly calls her) for the day while mom and I went for lunch and a little shopping in Westboro. 

He invited friends for a bbq and offered (I accept!) to feed her through the night so I could indulge in a few too many glasses of vino.

I felt more like I'd just turned 70 at the shop the next day, but it was a great night.

Clementine, on the other hand, turned 6 months on the 9th.

Cliche cliche, but honestly, where did the last 6 months go.

She's saying "muh muh", "da da" and the occasional "buh buh".  She's sitting up on her own and learning how to make noise by smacking things.

The store is doing amazingly well. Puppets Up! weekend was Christmas busy and I sold puppets out the ying yang.

We didn't do one this year, but last year (pre blog) I was interviewed by a few wackadoo puppets about the upcoming festival. It was pretty cute in the end, so if you're curious, take a look.

Last but not least, Blackbird is carry two new consignment lines.

A few weeks ago we started carrying Swirlicious custom made to order "Mom Tags". They're made by a super crafty mom in Carleton Place and I think they're just about the perfect gift for any mom. She made one extra special for me. How thoughtful/cute is this!?:

And just today I started carrying a really beautiful line of prints and jewelry made by a crafty woman in west Ottawa. Today, I'm a terrible photographer, so here are a few I have in the shop, but you have to check out her website to get the picture. No pun intended.

Also notable this month: Somehow a 7 foot weed grew undetected in our front yard. 

I'm pretty sure it happened in all of 3 hours because this thing was ridiculous.

Days done, gone the sun (almost), gotta run!

xo Em

A Healthy Dose of Baby

I've been really good at not buying too many items of clothing for mi' darlin' Clem, but when I saw this little number at Old Navy with clementine coloured sea horses on it...I mean come on.

You're telling me you could have resisted?

Doubt it.

I bought this swim suit weeks ago and the kid is growing like gangbusters so we were afraid we'd never get a chance to see her cute little bum in those ruffles.

So what did we do?

We brought her tub outside and took her for a dip.

How many women does it take to bathe a baby?

Apparently three.

A grandma to hold her. An aunt to laugh. And a mom to take the pictures.

Also to make the notable cuteables (what?) list this week: Falling asleep on daddy's lap.

Why can't she do this for me?

I guess there's just something about a daddy's arms.

xoxo Em