Serendipity

I'm back from my dark place.

I knew it was official when something serendipitous happened just now.

I had to write about it.

First things first, there is nothing worse than a return on a slow afternoon in January.

I grinned through the transaction, and it really was okay. We don't have a no returns policy and I remembered the woman from before Christmas and knew there was a possibility that the item wouldn't work in her home.

And THEN like an angel from heaven, a woman came up to the cash not a minute later to buy the exact same thing!

That's right. Tickle me sideways and call me Steven.

Even Steven that is.

Love that.

If you've been to my shop you know the unlikelihood of something like this happening.

This place is packed with (cute) merchandise. And I rarely have more than 1 or 2 of the same item at any given time.

Also, it's January. So the odds of having more than one customer aren't exactly stacked in my favour.

Anyway.

I'm taking it as a sign to keep on keeping on.

Maybe if I hadn't returned the original hook the other woman wouldn't have bought one. Or maybe she would have overheard an unsavoury conversation regarding a bad return policy that would have made her turn on her heels and head for the door.

I know you don't do things for people in the hopes that you'll get something in return.

But it sure is nice when you do.

Em

The Cheer Up

I've been feeling pretty hum drum lately.

I usually think of my blog as my rose coloured glasses. Maybe you feel this way if you write a blog, but I find life looks considerably more interesting when you focus only on the good, quirky stuff.

Duh.

I just haven't been in the mood this past week. I don't know what it is really. A combination of things I suppose.

I'm not a winter person for starters.

The store is quiet, but I have a lot on the burners so if we're being positive I suppose that's a good thing in the short term.

I think it's just been a long year you know?

Clemmie will be one next month and maybe I'm feeling a little melancholy about that. It's almost been a whole year since my life was not my own. Maybe that's it.

Also. She's growing up!

As much as I look forward to the days when she can change her own diaper (it could happen) I love my little bambino.

Even after a year I'm still finding it so difficult to be patient and not do what I want to do when I want to do it.

That's definitely been the hardest part about motherhood for me.

I wonder if that will change ever. I hope it does. Or that I can change to make it okay.

Sure the sleeping (or lack of rather) can be challenging at times, but the waiting around is the real killer.

Are there mothers out there who really enjoy staying one step behind as their toddlers teeter up stairs at a glacial pace?

Sure it was cool the first, even the 5th time.

And YES she looks very cute when she does it.

But, if I'm being honest, I'm over it.

I have things to do people.

Even if those things are just putting on laundry and, you know, like peeing when I really have to.

Is that bad you think?

Am I a bad mom?

Do I need a lesson in patience? Probably.

Whatever. I do other things that some moms don't do. Like make her things, and let her chew on my cell phone.

She loves that.

I have three pregnant friends right now. Which is very exciting.

Because really, no one is as honest about stuff like this as your friends.

Misery* loves company. Ain't that the tooth.

Let's talk about something fun. How about crafts? That always cheers me up.

Colleen and I are buzzing with ideas lately. Blackbird is going to start offering Creative Workshops in the coming weeks. Have I mentioned that before?

I am losing it you know.

They'll be 3 hour, $35 workshops (in most cases this will include the cost of materials), covering a variety of different projects.

All of which will be awesome.

Over the months we have been collecting amazing tutorials generously provided by some amazing fellow crafters. I think we all need a creative outlet and what better way to socialize than over a great project?

And, knowing me, wine.

Here's just a taste of the things that have inspired me lately.

The type of things you could be creating if you join in all the fun we're about have here at Blackbird.

original creator: Tatertots and Jello

original creator: Blue Cricket Design

original creator: Bella Dia

(As in any craft, we'll be putting our own spin on things of course, but these images and ideas are taken from tutorials generously provided by the blogs listed above. Go check them out, but be warned. A crafting session may well ensue.)

You're excited I can tell.

Want to know about upcoming classes?

Join our mailing list here and write "Workshop" in the subject line.

We're also launching our own Handmade line of products in the shop.

And on Etsy.

It's called Handmade Nest. You know. Because we're addicted to the bird theme.

Handmade Nest is going to be hosting all of the workshops as a way to generate start up revenue and keep the creative juices flowing.

Look at that. I already feel better.

Thanks blog.

Emily

*I'm not miserable about being a mom. You know what I mean.

Happy New Year

There is just something so exciting about a new year don't you think?

It's not even about the whole resolution thing.

I'm not the kind of girl who needs to wait for January to get started on something, but I really dig the idea of a clean slate.

A fresh start.

I'm over the idea of going cold turkey on my nail biting habit, or trying to lose another 10 pounds, or even being nicer (sorry Brad). And I'm certainly not going to drink less wine this year.

That would be a mistake.

I'm quite pleased with the direction my life has been taking this year, and I don't think I'll mess with it thanks.

If I'm going to resolve to do anything, it's not going to be something that requires less.

It may take a little more organization when it comes to time management, but 2010 is going to be all about more. More more more.

If there's one thing I know it's that almost anything is possible if you got enough enthusiasm for it. That is the ingredient folks. Enthusiasm. Don't leave home without it.

Also, I'm going to try living by the tried and true cliche that "life is too short".

Of course I've heard that saying a million times, but it was said again to me the other day by a friend who is going through something terrible right now, and I guess it made me actually think about it.

How true!

I'm not going to take it to a level of intensity that would make me hard to live with or anything - life will never be too short to put on a clean pair of underwear for instance - but I think there's some good to the idea.

For instance, I was reading a book last week that I was struggling to enjoy and I thought to myself, "Hey. Life is too short to read this book".

2009 Emily would have laboured through and finished it.

No more! I put it back on the shelf and picked up a new one. Which I am loving by the way.

See? Already my new creedo is paying off.

Another thing I'm doing in 2010 is putting myself on the payroll.

I'm going to pay myself exactly half of what I pay my staff. I'm worth at least that I think.

Back in the shop today (Saturday) and getting the year in gear.

I hope you all had a really wonderful New Year's Eve and that you've started the year off on the right foot.

See you soon.

Em

Christmas Crafting

With the whirlwind season we're having at the shop this year, I kept the Christmas crafting to a minimum.

*Spoiler Alert!*

For each of my girlfriends I made little stacks of linen sachets filled with lavender and rice, and stamped them with perhaps the best purchase I ever made as far as craft supplies go.

That little gadget in the bottom right is a stamp that lets me spell out anything I like.

I think I got it at Michaels. I can't be sure about that, but I can be sure that you probably need one.

I even stamped the girls' names on the tags.

I've got etsy on the brain again and I think I may make some of these for my shop.

My sister Meghan is the only family member who got something handmade this year. An advent calendar like the one my mom made for us growing up.

As usual I had lots of help from Bernice.

Here's mom's advent calendar:

And here's mine.

It's missing the animals and little girl and boy at the bottom, but I ran out of felt.

It happens.

I bejeweled some pieces to make up for it.

I really should plan ahead a bit more, but give me a break.

I don't care if Clemmie is almost 11 months old. She's still technically a baby.

Brad and I hosted 13 people for Christmas Eve dinner here.

It was our first big family affair in the house and though at 3pm on the 24th (when I was still in the shop helping save the butts of more than a handful of VERY last minute shoppers) I thought about the distinct possibility that I may well be insane for choosing my busiest day of the year to throw a party, it was actually really really fun!

It was a little...shall we say "intimate", in a 4-people-on-a-loveseat kind of way, but that's what Christmas is all about don't you think?

In the morning we woke up and went over to mom and dad's to open presents.

Clemmie and her cousin Cohen each got a pair of Chuck Taylors from aunt Zoey.

And Meg and Jeff bought her a sled so we can get around in this winter wonderland we're experiencing.

It was a lazy, happy holiday for all.

Colleen told me if I do nothing else today, I have to write about the fact that we're having a BIG sale at Blackbird this week.

30% off all remaining Christmas merchandise.

We had a great season and the store is looking a little picked over right now, but new merchandise is en route!

Our online shopping site is in the works and will launch in January with a big handmade component as well as some creative gift giving ideas.

The wheels are always turning friends.

Somedays I can't decide if it's a blessing or a curse.

And so ends nap time, and another belated blog entry.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

Until next time.

Em

A Christmas Story

Our Kid's Night made the cover!

Laura Wright (an Ottawa Citizen intern) came to join in the festivities at our busiest Kid's Night ever last Thursday night.

I thought she might give us a little blurb, or write up a "places to visit" paragraph about the shop. But no!

Saturday morning before work I rushed to the corner store to see what kind of coverage we got, and there we were.

Right there in the top right corner of the cover.

The COVER of the Saturday paper.

Inside, on the front page of the Business Section (did I mention this was a Saturday issue by the way? Like the fat one? The one all paperboys and girls dread delivering each week?) was a beautiful picture of our special door, and a very sizable article that even extended to the second page.

It was a pretty amazing article too.

The phone has been ringing off the hook with people asking if I'll be doing another night before Christmas. I won't. I can't. Don't make me.

But I may have to add a third night next year. (If you'd like to stay in the know about events at the shop, head to my website and join our mailing list.)

I could NOT have bought publicity like this. I am just totally thrilled about the whole thing.

Want to read it? Click here.

And if that wasn't enough to get me into the Christmas spirit, Brad, the Clemenator and I went to Cedar Hill Berry Farm today with Scott, Andrea and Sophia to chop down our first family Christmas Tree.

What a perfect day it was to do it too.

Outside it was (and still is) snowing those big, heavy, insulating snowflakes that make me actually enjoy the snow. The only way it could have been nicer is if it was a bit sunnier, but we had some gay old family time nonetheless.

We don't have a huge space for a tree this year, so it was nice to have our pick of the litter.

We packed up the kiddies and headed for Cedar Hill where loads of people had gathered in search of their own Christmas tradition.

We'll definitely do this every year.

When we arrived we hopped on a tractor-pulled wagon that drove us to the tree lot.

It took us a while to agree on a tree (in fact, I'm not sure we ever did) but we're home now with a pretty little Fraser Fir all ready for the tree stand.

Here's the one Clemmie chose.

I'll try to remember to take another one of her sitting in front of it when it's trimmed in our living room.

Clementine and Sophia (as you can see in this picture) enjoyed themselves immensely.

Two weeks until Christmas and I can't believe it's so close!!

I love December, but January really isn't my favourite when it comes to retail. I've got a few ideas brewing in hopes of stimulating some traffic, and it'll be nice to have a little break, but I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

I also love that I can rope Brad in to doing stuff he might not otherwise enjoy if it wasn't for tradition sake.

Like chopping down a tree in a snowstorm.

Dragging it half a kilometer back to the car.

And spending an hour in the cold garage hunting down a tree stand that's only going to give him grief anyway.

You know. Fun family stuff.

The end.

Em

'Tis the Season

Clearly 'tis the season when I'm too busy to blog.

The store is CRAZY busy and I LOVE it.

Excellent chance I'll start the new year in the black (save for what I still owe dad of course) and I am just FULL of Christmas spirit.

Kid's Night is this week. Thursday and Friday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

And, get this! The Ottawa Citizen called yesterday to ask if they could come write a story about it! (After my ever-thoughtful, marketing genius of a friend Melissa wrote them! Thank you Melissa)

Is that FAB or what?!

We're going to have to look especially elfish this year.

OOOooooooo I'm excited.

I am making several of my gifts this year (in all my spare time) but I won't post pictures of those until I'm done.

So basically never. I will never post pictures.

Instead, I thought I'd share some of the websites that have inspired me lately.

How cute is this Holiday Garland from Homemade Mamas?

I mean, anything with clementines really.

I wish I had a mantle to hang this on.

I might make one anyway.

A garland. Not a mantle. I'm crafty, but I'm not that crafty.

I think I might have to make some of these for the shop for Valentine's gift toppers...or something.

Her tutorial is so simple. Love that.

Have you checked out Today's Creative Blog lately?

That's where I find this stuff you know.

It may well be my favourite website, but I have to limit the number of times I visit it this month.

I have 4 (but who's counting) unfinished projects on the go.

One of which is refinishing my kitchen cupboards.

An excellent time of year to do something like that don't you think?

That's all there's time for today.

Once this week's over, and the article hits the stands I will be sure to post about it.

Have a happy week!

Em

One Crafty Weekend in Toronto

Remember when I told you Melissa bought me a Letterpress Workshop for my 30th birthday?

Well, it was this weekend.

And it was amazing.

I drove to Toronto on Friday (Thanks to my husband's remarkable ability to be a fabulous single parent. I'm becoming obsolete and I love it.) and arrived at Melissa's pad in Kensington Market at about 6:30pm.

Melissa, incidentally, lives in the Kensington Market Lofts.

The same building Brad and I lived in when we were in Toronto.

It's such a great place.

As if I wasn't heartsick enough driving into the bright lights of the city, being in this building, right in the heart of Chinatown, makes part of me wish we had never moved home.

There is just SO much to do in Toronto.

I could spend entire afternoons just drifting through the market, finding all the weird, great ingredients needed to make practically any ethnic dish, poking through shops that peddle everything from beautiful dining ware to synthetic wigs, waving around my vendors permit and snatching up steals on gorgeous imported stuff to resell in the shop. (We're talking 3 Pashminas for $9 people. We are paying WAY too much for Pashminas here.)

Or, I could spend that same amount of time sampling cheeses (some good, some not so much. Brad and I once tried a cheese that tasted like a combination of brie cheese and bad fruit cake, and fruit cake is pretty brutal to begin with) at Global Cheese.

This time I had the good sense to bring back some of their divine Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese to my afore mentioned deserving husband. As well as two soggy Doubles from the Patty King. His favourite food item on earth. Or at least in Chinatown.

Friday night Melissa and I kept it pretty low key and went to see a movie. Precious.

The acting was incredible (I know because I genuinely hated a few people, and that's how I gauge.) and the film was something I would recommend seeing, but it wasn't exactly the most heart warming story.

I need to look into it to see if it was a true story. I think it must have been. You'd have to be pretty sick to think up something that tragic.

Saturday our Letterpress course began at 10am.

Oh my god I have a new LOVE. I've always been really drawn to paper crafts. Stationary design, beautiful book covers, that kind of thing. But letterpress takes it to a whole new level.

Our instructor was a girl names Tanya Roberts of Snap & Tumble.

Her studio was in her apartment and it was the fastest four hours I've spent in a while.

Normally it's my instinct to make things for the shop and mass produce a bunch of items and just suck all the joy out of the experience, but this time I decided I would do something for myself.

So I made recipe cards.

I have been trying out a bunch of new recipes lately and since I find most of them online I keep losing them. Solution!

I figure it'd be pretty Martha of me to give other people recipes on these cards too.

You know, when they say things like "Oh Emily! That was delish! You must give me the recipe."

Before now, that was always an awkward scenario.

As I'm sure you can imagine.

Melissa chose to make note book covers.

In a nutshell, the letterpress is what newspapers used before we had typewriters or computers. You physically have to set all your letters by hand, reversed and backwards. (In more than a few instances "b's" were discovered in the place "d's" in the proof).

We'd then lock the letters into place and fit them into the press, ink the wheel and lower the lever.

It's very much like stamping, but because of the weight behind the lever, and the density of the paper, it leaves an ink filled impression on the paper.

Photos don't do the result justice whatsoever.

Of course, since I'm always thinking about Blackbird, I did make a few adorable little tags which I think I will save for Valentine's Day. Or maybe for when we give gifts to charitable causes.

I just couldn't resist.

When I came home on Sunday, Mr. Wonderful was already putting Clemmie to bed.

I didn't interrupt, but I did peer into the room to watch as he gave her a bottle and she slurped it down and played with his beard.

Those kind of images are things I need to store in my memory bank next time he makes me want to murder him in his sleep.

They melt my heart.

She loves her daddy so much, and he's so great with her.

She slept through the night that night. All the way until 6:30am.

He normally would go get her in the morning, change her diaper and deliver her back to me for her "breakfast" while he had a shower, but mommy needed a baby fix.

I leapt out of bed at her first cry and went into her room.

When she saw me she lit up and started to giggle.

Oh, but it gets better.

I picked her up out of her crib, she pushed herself back from my chest (I think to see if it was really me), looked me straight in the eye and, clear as a bell, said "Hi!".

This is the stuff to live for don't you think?

Great friends, great husband, great kid.

I'm one lucky duck.

Err. Bird.

xo Em