Hamilton Pickers

We recently bought a diner booth, table and two chairs from a fixture sale to put in our kitchen and it such such an awesome set. I don't have a picture right now because the kitchen is messy and I have no energy to clean it.  And, it's not fully set up yet, we need to put up some art and a new shelf. So when that is done I'll post some pictures of the whole kitchen.

I've been looking for a hutch/shelf to replace our horrible, cheap, horrible, ugly one. I was cruising Kijiji lately, and I found the perfect one! 

We trucked out to Dunville last Friday morning and brought it home with us. It couldn't be more perfect, it's just my style and it matches the diner perfectly.  I'm in furniture love. 

Before: Ugh. Horrible, cheap, ugly, unorganized and A MESS. BOO.

     

                      During:  Picked, placed and ready to go!

                      After: SO GOOD! Pretty and organized and co-ordinating! YAY!

                        Sadie likes it too.  

Internet Cruisin'

Another week has come and gone! I hope you all made the most of your week, did some things you needed to do and did some fun and relaxing things too! It's the weekend, thank goodness.
Jane and Hollie are off to Ottawa for a super amazing dress sale at Victoire, and I'm manning the shop this afternoon.
Here's some stuff I found, liked, and though I'd share.  It's sort of a "video edition".
  Happy Weekend!

I love Jenna Marbles, but I know she's not for everyone. This is probably my favorite ever video, so I thought you all needed to see it.  (Note: If you are easily offended you probably won't like will definitely hate this).

I am pretty obsessed with Bon Iver. The last two albums are definitely on my "desert island playlist". I found this cover of "Skinny Love" my favorite song ever, on YouTube and I thought it was just so lovely.  The video is kinda sub-par, but her voice is so great.

Do you think Florence Colgate, below, is beautiful? If you don't or you don't, the answer why is here.  (Note: I do.)

Doors Open Hamilton is next weekend! May 5th and 6th.  Don't miss a chance to see inside some of Hamilton's most historic, most beautiful and most interesting buildings!  

I love old kid's shows from when I was growing up, and I especially love Bugs Bunny cartoons, Sesame Street and The Muppets.  Whenever I'm feeling a little bummed, I can always watch a few old videos and it cheers me right up.  Rich once asked me if I HAD to have any cartoon character tattooed on me, who I would choose and I immediately knew it would be Kermit. Although I know he's not technically a cartoon character, he's still my choice. (Loophole: baby Kermit from Muppet Babies is a cartoon! Ha!).  

So, here's a little Kermit goodness for your kid-at-heart.                                                                                                   

                                       

And finally, 27 dogs that are growing suspicious of you.

Be Still My Heart

I can't describe to you what this does to my Muppet loving, dog loving self.  It makes my heart explode in such a good way. I just needed to share this. And post it here for posterity's sake.


(With many thanks to Kelly Oxford for bringing this into my life).

Pretty In Pink

I love pink, no, I ADORE pink. If I could live in an all pink house, with all pink furniture (and not become a crazy, pet hoarding spinster) I would. If I could dye my skin like they do in Hunger Games, I'd dye it pink and die happy. (See what I did there?). 

It makes me happy in my heart.  So, after a bit of a stressful/grumpster week I'm doing an all pink post to cheer us up! 

pink lips.

pretty perfect pink skirt.

pink door.

pink hair. 

pink retro fridge.

pink ink.

 pink cake.

pink popcorn.

pink kitchen.

(None of these photos are my own. They are all credited to their original source, when I could find it.)

Thrifted!

On Monday afternoon I had a bit of free time and I decided to head over to the thrift stores surrounding my house. My house is small enough as it is, and Rich has some hoarder tendencies, so we really don't need anymore stuff. But I just can't ignore the siren song of thrifting. I'd love to have an online vintage store one day, so we'll just call it "collecting stock"!

Bibles for Missions, is very hit or miss for me. They almost always have amazing retro furniture (it kills me to leave it at the store. Maybe I should consider investing in a storage unit. I know Richard's ears are burning wherever he is.), but I almost never find anything else good. Needless to say, this post, over at My Edit incited more than a few sour grapes. (I really am happy for her though! What a serious score!)

I also hit Value Village, despite my multiple sworn boycott of them due to their OUTRAGEOUS pricing system. It's just so close to my house, and I usually find good (and overly priced) items.

I found a couple of great things, one not-so-vintage bag for myself, and something quite strange and awesome.

#1. Hand-embroidered Hollie Hobbie in a frame. How darling is this! I had a bunch of Hollie Hobbie stuff when I was wee, and I just couldn't pass this by. It'd be perfect in a little girl's room.

#2. This pretty pretty Pyrex mixing bowl with blue flower pattern. I don't know much about Pyrex patterns, it's definitely something I need to look into. Currently I pick up serving ware based on prettiness. It's working out for me.

#3. The most amazing, and almost mint condition, kitchen storage boxes. Coffee, Tea, Sugar and Flour. I can never pass by a great set of these, they just call to me. In fact, I may already have half of this set in my kitchen from a previous thrift! I'm pretty tempted to keep these ones to be perfectly honest.

(These are the ones already living at my house!)

#4. This very strange, and awesome framed photo of a little girl. I was iffy on this at first, I wasn't sure if it was a poster or a reproduction. I brought it home and it seems to be an original photograph from Italy. It has a kind of tag on the back, and it's embossed on the front. I'm going to put in a little research time and see if I can find out more about this gorgeous little girl. If you are an old photo buff, get in touch!

#5. "Phillips Beauty Set". This is the second, random, retro "esthetics" related purchase I've made. I'll have to do a thrift about my other item, it's one of my favorite things ever. It's a combination razor/nail kit/face massager. All the little heads interchange to do different thing, and it comes with the original manual, and it actually works. So random. So fun.

#6. I'm a sucker for anything with a pop of color, and this Victoria's Secret duffel bag was just too pink for me to pass by. It's perfect for sleepovers! And gym runs! And weekends away! How could I not buy it? Right? Did I mention that it's neon pink?

That's my haul for now!

Auchmar House

Rich and I love to take the dogs and go exploring, and we are lucky enough to live in a city that has more than its fair share of great places to explore. The weather was so amazing today, and we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get outside.

One of our favorite places to go is Auchmar House. It is such a beautiful old building, and it holds so much awe inspiring Hamilton history. If only those walls could talk!

Auchmar House was built in 1854 by Sir Isaac Buchanan, a prominent Hamiltonian. It was originally to be his family's summer home, but they loved it so much it became their permanent residence. This house was not only a family home, but was also a rehabilitation center for the Royal Canadian Air Force after World War II, and a religious retreat by the name of Holy Spirit Center run by the Hungarian Sisters of Social Service. The sisters occupied the house from 1945 until the late 1990's, making them the longest standing occupants. The house has been abandoned ever since.

It is such a nice place to walk around, as it is enclosed in by an old wall, and you can even see where the old apple orchard and carriage way ran through the property. Standing inside the gates you can almost imagine what Auchmar would have been like in its heyday.

Unfortunately, no one has been able to find just the right use for the house, and it is in pretty sorry shape. Hopefully soon someone will take this amazing place on, and restore it to its original beauty.

If you haven't been out to Auchmar, I highly recommend it. The property is recognized as a historically significant site, and is owned by the city of Hamilton, making the grounds freely accessible for us all to enjoy. Please, if you do visit the house, treat it like the treasure it is. It breaks my heart to walk by yet another broken window, or destroyed brick. Auchmar House definitely holds a special little place in my Hamilton-loving-heart and I hope you love it as much as I do.

You can also see inside of the house during Doors Open Hamilton, May 5th and 6th.

More information about Auchmar House here, here and a video of the gorgeous interior here.

Internet Cruisin'

Listening to some Fleetwood Mac and manning White Elephant today. Crusin' around the internet and thought I'd share some fun things I came across.

Happy Weekend.

I like tattoos, I have some tattoos and I want more tattoos. I have lots of ideas, and I'm trying to find an artist I love so I can commit and settle down into a serious, long term, body art relationship. I think I may have found him.

I like rules, boundaries, schedules and time lines. I also (sometimes) like working out. When I found this lovely lady's workouts online I couldn't have been more pleased. I'm now the one at the gym checking her iPhone to see what I'm supposed to be doing. Don't judge.

I'm a bit obsessed with the double cuff right now. I don't know if it gets too "super hero chic" though. Here. Here. And Here Are good examples of working a double cuff, and I think I can pull it off without getting all Wonder Woman-y. (Who are we kidding though, I'd love to run around in a Wonder Woman costume all day!)

I know a bit of sign language, I think it's amazing and I wish I was better at it.

I have an enormous girl crush on Natalie Portman, and if you tell me you don't love Johnny Depp I will call you a liar to your face.

Natalie and Johnny perform Paul McCartney's "My Valentine" in American Sign Language.

"Anna Giordano's recent work is indeed a good cue to reconsider both the subjectivity of cultural standards (in facts, ours are so different from the past ones) and the inclination of modern society and advertising companies to edit most images of feminine body in order to reach a fake perfection, corresponding to an unreachable reality." Or as I like to call it, "Why girls feel bad about themselves".

And lastly 33 Animals who are extremely disappointed in you and one corgi who thinks you're doing juuuust fine.

Caine's Arcade

I saw this today and it totally touched my heart. There may have been some tears. You should take a few minutes and watch it. I love this guy for taking a minute out of his busy day to make a kid smile, and taking it one step further. It's all about the little things people. I personally pledge to stop at every kid's lemonade stand I see this summer. Take a minute and do something nice for someone. Go! Now!

PS- The internet is so awesome, it made this happen.

Happenin' in Hamilton

It's no secret that I love Hamilton. (I do hate when people call it "The Hammer" though, I think it sounds trashy.)

I love getting out and about, seeing new things and meeting new people. There's a few fun things happening in the city this weekend so I just thought I'd post them here so you all can make some plans and come on out!

Thursday

Said The Whale are playing at This Aint Hollywood. They are an awesome Vancouver based Indie band. They played at the 2011 Super Crawl and just killed it. Show starts at 8pm and cover is $15. All Ages.

Friday

Art Crawl. For those of you not familiar with Art Crawl (GASP!), it happens the second Friday of every month, year round. All the stores and galleries on James North stay open late, and you can mosey on down at your own pace and check everything out. It's a great night, even more so when the weather cooperates, and definitely worth checking out.

Bring a canned good to James North and Cannon this Friday night and help out your community!

The Hammer City Roller Girls are having an event to kick off their 2012 season. Come and check out some awesome Roller Girl-inspired art at This Aint Hollywood and Hammer City Records, meet the girls and get yourself some awesome HCRG gear.

Art Crawl After Party with Sweet Ice Snow Cones at the Baltimore House kicks off at 10pm. The lovely girls from Sweet Ice are currently holding a fundraiser to raise money to revamp their trailer and make it snow cone friendly (support their efforts here). The after party will feature some amazing alcoholic snow cones (Apple Jack, Daiquiri and Margarita flavors!) and cover is free. It's going to be a rockin' good time, and the boozey snow cones have been approved by me.

Saturday

White Elephant's girl's night. But it's kind of a private party. We will be the loud ones.

However, if it wasn't going to be an epic girl's night, I would be going to Haunted Hamilton's Downtown Ghost Walk. HH takes you through the most haunted areas and buildings of our great city, and it's always a fun night. Tour meets in front of the Connaught Hotel and starts at 8pm. $13 for adults, $5 for kids and $25 for couples. Bundle up!

This is what I will be doing this weekend! What are your plans? Hope to see you out and about.

Green Monster Smoothie

My current morning obsession is the green monster smoothie. It's perfect before a workout, and it makes a great, tasty, fast breakfast.

This recipe makes enough for 2 grownup smoothies.

Ingredients:

1 cup of spinach (I usually use more, you can't taste it at all)

1 1/2 cups of orange juice

1 cup of frozen mango chunks

1 apple

1 banana

(I'm currently adding two scoops of the President's Choice Soy Protein powder, but that is optional. I really like this powder, it's the vanilla flavor and it doesn't taste too strongly).

Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend! You can add some honey for added sweetness, but the OJ I'm using is super sweet already so I skip on the honey.

You're going to get a seriously green smoothie here, but I promise you can't taste the spinach at all. I've been having this smoothie almost every morning for the last month, and I think all the fruits and veggies have made my hair and skin lovely.

Enjoy!

Bits and Pieces

Since we're all new here, I thought I'd do a few posts just to let you know what I'm all about and what the life I'm living is like. (Say that ten times fast). Miss James over at Bleubird Vintage is a bit of a blogger goddess in my books, not to get all "fan boy" on you, and she does a "Bits and Pieces" so I thought I'd borrow that concept.

I hope you all have an amazing long weekend and a Happy Easter! I'd love to hear about what you got up to.

Ps- Some of the images have been put through "Instagram". If you have a smart phone, and you don't know what Instagram is, you should look into it ASAP. It's easily my favorite app, and it's free!

1. First bonfire of the year.

2. A walk in the woods.

3. Giant White Elephant logo cookie from Cake and Loaf Bakery.

4. I am obsessed with pink, girly everything.

5. Memories from last summer at the cottage.

6. The second fanciest my nails have ever been.

7. My new friend Hunter.

8. I have a product addiction.

9. Last weekend's brunch with my gal pals.

10. Funny faces.