It's official...

...my office is always a disfunctional wreck. This week, after a long, semi-relaxing vacation I decided to get it organized. It was a tough battle but finally whipped it into shape and hopefully when my shiny new camera gets here in the mail, she will find it a lovely working environment.

Waterloo Totes

I have been playing with new designs for bags and I really
love this one. They are all made from upcycled WWII era
tent canvas so are super durable and water resistant. The
fabric also gets a lovely patina over time. Hopefully, these
will be in the shop sometime this week!

So many shoes, so little time...

Sneak Peek

Here's just a little sneak peek of the goodies
I gathered yesterday. Enjoy!



Lovely vintage velvet matador painting.



Vintage punch for old train & bus tickets.



Vintage modern Manitou ironware teapot.



Adorable Danish modern cast iron covered casserole pan.

Last night Aislinn and I had an ice cream party! We made Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream and it was wonderful. I believe no ice cream is bad but when you put your hard work into it and know exactly what the ingredients are it tastes a million times better! Below I am going to outline how we made this treat as best I can. It's a slightly complicated process so invite a buddy over and make a night of it!




The first step is to make the cookie dough:

3/4 cup dry sweetener
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup oil
3 tbs. water
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
1-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream together wet ingredients and sugar. Sift together dry ingredients in separate bowl, except chocolate. Add chocolate to wet mixture and blend thoroughly. Slowly add dry ing. to wet mixture until mixed. Make dough into 1/2" to 1" balls. If you are using a real ice cream maker then you should freeze the dough balls for an hour. It will help them stay together.

The Ice Cream is made up from:

1 package silken tofu
Between 3/4 to 1 cup plain soy milk
1/3 cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup
2 tsp vanilla

In a food processor blend all ingredients until very smooth and creamy.

In a real ice cream maker:

Add ice cream base and frozen dough balls into frozen cylinder. As you churn the dough balls might clump together but just open cylinder and poke apart with a spoon. After churning occasionally for about 20 minutes (or however long your model suggests) you should have delicious ice cream. Vegan ice cream stays a little softer so If you want to it firm up you can put it in the freezer once churning is done.

If you do not have an ice cream maker:

Put ice cream base in a sealable container and freeze. Remove from freezer and defrost for 20-40 minutes. Blend again in food processor. Spoon back into container, mix in your cookie dough balls, and refreeze again. Remove from freezer 5 minutes before eating. (these instructions courtesy of How it All Vegan)

*If you cannot find vegan chocolate chips at your local grocer buy a dark chocolate bar and chop it up with a knife. You can add interesting flavours this way as well!

Man Cave Make-Over

I have been trying to arrange this room since we moved here almost a year ago. It didn't help that most of my stuff was in storage for 10 months of that. So, this is the newest permutation of Alex's "Man Cave." I never thought I would say a room could be too big to decorate easily but this one is. That combined with a million windows and heaters makes it very precarious to put furniture around. This time I split the room in half with my 4x4 Expedit which turned out to be the perfect solution because now I can store books on the front and back, space I desperately needed for our extensive library. Judging by these pictures Alex and I have a media problem. I just love books, music and movies so much!

Splitting the room in half also provided a space where we could hide the mess that is our storage. Another wall of shelves, shamefully blocking a giant window, is all that is keeping this space from total chaos. As part of this make-over I erected my vintage kitchen table as a work space when I'm listing as packaging stuff. This table was originally going to go in my studio but it doesn't fit now! The problem with storing everything you own is that you get new stuff and it squeezes out the old. Anyway, my darling cat, Valhalla, likes to help when I'm at the computer. I wish she could list things on Etsy for me.

Hello Boston.

I just got back from our whirlwind trip to Boston this weekend and I am so tired! But, the car was loaded down with tons of goodies that will soon be listed in the shop or eaten. The trip down from Montreal was fraught with trouble. Everything from locking the keys in the car to getting detained at the border, but we finally got to Welfare Records in Haverhill, Massachusetts where I feel the universe payed me back in good records. Saturday I spent all day running around to thrift stores in Boston, with a fair amount of luck on my side as well. I will hopefully get most of these things posted to the shop in the next few days. I also went to Whole Foods, which despite being a questionably big mega-store, was a relief from price gauging and poor variety here in Quebec. Anyway, now I am going to kick back with one of my absolute favorite beers, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat and start listing! Thanks Boston, see you soon!