Team Eames

Looking forward to this one! And James Franco is the narrator. Movie date, ladies?

Apfelwein

Blub blub blub. Had a sneaky taste test the other night. Boozey! A few more weeks and I think we'll be ready to bottle.

Store news

I've been finding a ton of sweet stuff that is going to be going up in the store soon. The sort of sweet where I have trouble putting it up for sale because I want to keep it for myself. A couple of pretty day dresses, some amazing, mint condition dark brown leather ankle boots, a vintage fleece-lined Levi's jean jacket, and a pretty good selection of leather purses. Plus wayyyy more. Yeah!

And if that weren't enough, I have an even more exciting piece of news to share. Chisholm Block is growing! Meet our newest employee, Judy:

She's cute, right? And hard working, too. I don't know about you, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing less of me and more of her modeling our fine wares in the shop.

Here's a quick preview of a few things that are coming down the pipes for fall in the shop:

Home brewin'

So it's fall. How did that happen so quickly? As sad as it is to see summer go, I love autumn. I love sweaters, and pumpkins and opaque tights and new prime time dramas. I also love apple cider, and have been fantasizing about making my own boozy batch since reading the seemingly simple instructions laid out in the 2007 August/September issue of ReadyMade. Each fall since reading this article, I have pulled the issue off of my bookshelf, flipped to the earmarked recipe, and debated whether or not fermenting a large batch of fruit juice in a small, poorly ventilated apartment, having limited knowledge of sanitation protocols and using crude equipment was a good idea.

This fall, there was no debate. Now that I am older and wiser than I have ever been before, I can see that of course it is a good idea! My home brew is going to be delicious. And potent. And it is going to have a really cool name, printed on a really cool label. Everyone will be very impressed that I made my own moonshine, because it is an impressive thing to do. Just ask a prisoner, or a guy from the 20's.

This year, conveniently, Darryl got a beer making kit for his birthday. (From me). It includes a carboy, a bucket, and all of the necessary nozzles and hoses (do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?) to make beer, wine or CIDER. We're in business!

So this past weekend we went to an orchard outside of the city, bought 40lbs of apples considered to be "seconds," and got to work.

I started by washing each apple very carefully. I filled the sink with baking soda, distilled vinegar and a bit of dish detergent before dropping them in and scrubbing them up. After rinsing the apples well, I started pushing all 40lbs through the mouth of my juicer, an apple at a time. I filled all of the jugs and large pots in our kitchen with fresh apple juice, and set the pulp aside to strain with cheesecloth in order to collect every possible last drop of booze-to-be.

The next step was to kill off any wild yeast that happens to have survived my powerful apple bath, and the frenzied ride through my Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro Juicer. I had a bit of trouble deciding how best to do this. We have a few Campden tablets, which are used in brewing to kill off any bacteria or yeast present in the juice, however I am a bit apprehensive about sulfite use, mainly because of the hangovers they tend to encourage. Pasteurization, on the other hand, does the same job without chemicals, but alters the taste of the juice, and changes the body of the cider.

We went with pasteurizing - a decision I feel OK about right now, but may feel differently about after tasting our final product. We'll see!

This is where we're at now. I'll try to post some updates soon regarding bad smells, funny sounds, accidents, cider-related arguments, etc.

Long Weekend Part Two

Additional highlights from the long weekend include:

Prehistoric turtle hunting:

Picturesque views:

And lastly, apocalyptic storms:

Kumbaya

Hello, neglected blog! Long time no...blog!

It's been quiet, but things are going to change around here, and this place is going to become much more interesting. We are going to discuss all sorts of wonderful Internetty and Outernetty things. With time, our unique visitor count is going to hit - and possibly exceed -15 and that's when the big advertising bucks will start rolling in (just joking).

Oh, yes. Great things are afoot. For instance! Summer! The long weekend just past marks a very official end to parkas, salt-stained footwear and thick hosiery. (The latter I bid farewell to with a bit of wistful resignation - I suppose regular leg-shaving will have to be in the cards for the next few months).

We were lucky enough to spend the weekend out of the city and near a lake. Canoeing, swimming and, most especially, BONFIRES were on the agenda.

Baby trashes bar in Las Palmas

I thank Darryl for posting this.

And I thank Johannes Nyholm for making my day.

Special Delivery

Ok, this isn't a Valentine's day gift, but it could be!  I left this mini package in the mailbox for Kemp on his birthday and now seems like an appropriate time to share.  

 

In my opinion, the best thing about today is the cinnamon hearts.  And by tomorrow, stores will be eager to get rid of them.  Yay for sales!  Boyfriend, I hope you get the memo.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Karaoke-town

For the second day in a row, I have been unable to remove myself from the couch.  I found out that Liz and Darryl have been sick as well!  I think we all partied a little too hard this weekend, celebrating at our friend Julia's birthday bash, which was followed by late night karaoke in Koreatown.

I attempted to upload my photos from the night yesterday, but somehow DELETED THEM ALL.  I have never done that before.  Apparently my brain was not up to par.  So, here are a friend's blurry iPhone photos:

I have been to this karaoke place before, but had never rented the big room, which comfortably fits 20+ people.  It has a flat screen TV in one corner with surround seating spanning the perimetre of the room.  It's sort of like being in someone's parent's basement, but with flashing lights and a bar on the other side of the door.

After a few beers and some sips of Soju, almost everyone was up.

 

Here are Liz and I hogging the two available mics.

 

I'd like to think this was because we're short.

One of our favourite songs to sing?  Mr. Big - To Be With You.  If you're not familiar, check out their video.  You're in for a treat!

In case you've ever wondered what 1134 sheets of Letraset looks like...

...now you know.  I've got a couple of weeks off of school right now, and have been trying to use my time productively. I've had varying degrees of success with this, but one of my self-directed projects has been to organize the Letratype pictured below. 

Courtney and I found this mother lode on one of our scavenging trips last year, and this pile of letter transfer sheets had been sitting in the trunk of my car in a huge, embarrassing, messy pile for weeks longer than it ever should have. I wish I had a "before" picture to share, because the haul's next home was a wild, haystack shaped pile in the middle of our second bedroom before I set about the task of sorting them by font and size (and creating an accompanying inventory spreadsheet).

I love that we now have a lifetime supply of this stuff, though!  Each of the sheets is in its original packaging and is perfectly usable. I used some of the lettering to make Christmas cards and to label presents.  I've also rubbed some letters on to vintage wallpaper to make thank-you cards.

I'm trying to think of some new projects to make with Letratype. If inspiration strikes, I'll be sure to share. In the meantime, any suggestions or ideas are much appreciated!

The Little Crooked Christmas Tree

Oh, hello.  It's been a while!

I thought that if enough time passed I could get away with not sharing my little Christmas tree project.  It was something I had high hopes for, but I ultimately ran out of time and literally threw something together at the last minute.  Story of my life at that time of the year.

So, I decided to whip this project up at about midnight on the 23rd.  We were leaving in the morning for several days of family affairs and I still had a couple of hours worth of sewing to complete.  We had decided to exchange gifts that night and I felt the need to do so in the presence of a tree.

Oh yeah, I forgot that the reason we have this ladder living in our corner is because it was rescued from a pile of garbage in our back alley.

Obstacle 1: uneven legs

I thought I had an abundance of lights but discovered to only have one short string (obstacle 2).  It looked a little bare with only one string of lights, so I threw up some greenery.

Here's what happened:

I snapped this photo with the intention of it being a rough draft, but immediately afterward I threw in the towel, realizing that I was too tired and too busy to make another attempt.  I discovered there's a fine line between impromptu decorating and art installations.  We had a good chuckle about it while opening gifts.

On a more positive note, I picked up these two little guys at an estate sale last week.  They are sure to step up my holiday decor next year, which I've promised myself to begin as soon as December hits.