wanted (lost found canadian)

trying to find things to write about that others might find interesting on a daily basis is new to me, and a little daunting, not to mention hard to get into the habit of! so this is a photo i took not too long ago. there's my alyson fox drawing, and a jill bliss gocco print, and the little pot is a thrifted find (one of 2) i got for 25 cents, and i got the little plant from great shop in chinatown. it's called wanted (lost found canadian), and i think the owners are real pioneers. they opened shop in about as bad a vancouver location as they could possibly find -- tucked down a side street, one shop in from an alley where junkies shoot up without any effort to conceal their illegal activities, and a half block from the bottle depot, where bottle pickers and bike thieves congregate. that's my neighbourhood, and as depressing as it can often be, it's neighbours like the plant shop owners who make me love it here.

their shop is beautiful, and they carry some pretty unique house plants including fiddlehead figs. i need a bigger home before i can buy one of those. i have to limit my visits there as it is because i already have too many plants. i am going to have to donate some to charity - you can actually do that! the cool thing about these shop owners is that they've really become part of the neighbourhood. their clientèle ranges from people such as myself, to nice old ladies from chinatown, to tenants of single room occupancy hotels. and the bottle pickers will bring them treasures like vintage sleighs, and ploughs and all sorts of weird things you wouldn't expect to find in downtown back alley dumpsters. one of the owners (susan) makes super cute pointy kitties, and other softies, and beautiful pillows made out of recycled wool blankets. it's a great store, so if you're in vancouver and find yourself in chinatown, turn north on columbia off pender and you'll find one of the best shops in town!

pinch punch, first of the month

the beautiful new design sponge is online today. seriously, the new design sponge is beautiful, and grace seems to be updating it hourly! she launched the new site by offering a tour of her brooklyn home, and i am completely in love with that weinrib rug. coupled with the john robshaw quilt? i am so jealous...

and... poppytalk handmade is also online today! jan is acting as the curator of this virtual flea market / craft sale, where each vendor pays for a "booth" where their work is profiled, and then the visitors can buy directly from each artist, designer, or seller of vintage things. it should definitely help to promote their wares, and it's a great business for jan to have started up. in fact, i'm kicking myself for not thinking up that idea myself!! there are really some beautiful things featured, so you should check it out. i love the print featured here by olivia jeffries. you can read her blog sweet as a loon, or just go straight to her etsy shop, restless things. are loons sweet?

thrifted finds

i had such a busy weekend that i didn't get a chance to do much thrifting, and if you noticed the photo of my very sad, stark, and empty white hutch in the post below, you'll understand why this is a priority. so when i had a bit of an afternoon lull yesterday, i snuck out to the two closest charity shops. i didn't find anything for my bare cabinet, but i did find the balls of yarn pictured above. there are two alpaca-mohair blends, and I think the camel brown yarn is linen with some alpaca. they're so soft and they coordinate so well together that i started another little rabbit. you can see its head and ears and the beginning of its body above.



despite the busy weekend, i did manage to make it to the 21st century flea market on sunday. it was so cram packed full of people (and random collectibles) that i couldn't really pull my camera out without either getting trampled or shoved. there were loads of knick-knacky collectible sort of things i suppose i could have bought, but the prices just weren't great. i like a good deal, and there just weren't many to be found. i did find a really cool, old boomerang for hans though. he's scared to use it because this one looks like it's killed a few kangaroos in its time, and he's already almost scalped one person this year with his little kids boomerang. i didn't want to leave without a little something for myself, so i picked up a small paperweight for $4. i'm sure i can find some loose paper to stack on my desk, so it will be put to use even if only decoratively.

ceci n'est pas une souris

i just finished another dachshund, and have added her to my etsy shop if you're interested. her name is mouse and for a little grey dachshund, she looks an awful lot like my black whippet-mix, bowie. bowie looks just like a fruit bat when her ears pop up greyhound-style.

i was reading gracia louise's blog the other day and found a polaroid she'd posted of a strange, but beautiful flower called blushing brides. i had never seen them, or heard of them before, and i'm sure you can imagine that googling "blushing bride" and "flowers" did not yield the results i was hoping for. does anyone have any idea if they're known by another name? i'm usually really good with knowing my plants, but this one has me stumped. i might have to go hunting for them this weekend.

i've been working from home all summer, and while mostly everything about it is great, i've been suffering a bit from cabin fever lately. so yesterday morning i had a meeting with a client at the local coffee shop. i was pretty happy to be out of the house, and got there a little early - just in time to witness a huge fist fight! it was actually more of a clumsy cat fight between 2 slurring drunks. i think that being staggeringly drunk by 9am shows a great deal of commitment. or something... tables were knocked over, faces were scratched, and i retreated into the kitchen to stay out of the way, until finally one guy agreed to give the other guy back the $5 he'd stolen. i didn't think it was possible, but it looks like gastown is taking a turn for the worse(r).

fly away peter, fly away paul

i am just finishing up another little dachshund, and will post photos tomorrow. i plan to finish this one while watching the first episode of america's next top model, cycle 18. it's very exciting and something that will be made all the more enjoyable by a nice glass of red wine. since each of of these little creatures take so long to make, it's always exciting when they're done. that said, sometimes i wish that i could just whip one off really quickly as inspiration strikes.



i've seen ashley's little fern animals featured on decor8 before, but today's post was a nice reminder, especially since she has an etsy shop up and running now. you should definitely go check out her creations, which include funny little lions with crazy manes, and like so many other crafters this year, she has made some very sweet wire legged birdies. pictured above are fern animals, little birds, and ann wood.

i just looked at my ical and realized that the 21st century flea market is this sunday! i honestly didn't even know about it until a few months ago when i was looking at the flea market links over at sfgirlbybay, and i have been waiting for this weekend ever since. the timing couldn't be better, as evidenced by my very bare buffet and hutch pictured in the post below.

make work projects

poppy posted about an ironing board that got powdercoated a shiny new red finish. my first reaction was "oh my god, i wish i had a band that i played keys for so i could use that as a stand." and my second reaction was to look around the loft to try to find something i could powdercoat. sadly, i don't have a thing. but we've recently inherited a secretary desk that i think needs an airy and light wire or metal share, or maybe brightly painted bentwood number, and after seeing the pretty red ironing board i'm thinking metal.



we also recently inherited the white lacquered cabinet in the photo on the left. it was my boyfriend's mother's and i think she bought it back in the late '60s. the trouble with the cabinet is two-fold... 1. i don't yet have enough to fill it so it looks rather bare. this isn't really a problem because it gives me a pretty good excuse to shop. 2. all of our dishes are white, and almost all of our glasses are, well... glass, and so it looks pretty severe and uninspired. i'm debating papering or canvasing the back in a bright colour like the gorgeous teal shown in the cabinet on the right that was featured over at design sponge. i'm not sure what to do... thoughts?



a couple of months ago i was visiting with my mum on vancouver island, and we ran into the local thrift shop where i spotted this mirror and wanted it immediately. that said, they wanted $40 for it, and i am never willing to buy something unless it's a good deal, and i just didn't think that was a deal. a month later it still hadn't sold so the shop dropped the price to $8 and my mum scooped it up for me! i love the embroidery, but the frame itself is just hideous. so what do you think -- shall i paint it a dark burnt orange pulled from the embroidery thread colours, or should it be black? i'd do super dark chocolate brown, but brown and orange are way too A&W root bear for my liking. i'm not so sure straight up black is the best way to go, but maybe i'm wrong. what do i do?

do you know one girl?

leslie keating and her creations have been a huge inspiration for me. under the name one girl she combines colours beautifully, using all natural materials and mostly vintage finds, to create some of the sweetest toys i've ever seen. i love this new windsee named phoebe she just posted in her etsy shop the other day. the colours and corduroy remind me of back to school clothing so much they make me want to bust out a pair of knee socks!

i read leslie's beautiful blog regularly, and today she was sweet enough to feature my work! leslie has been so supportive and helpful and i can't say how much i appreciate it. i only wish we'd known each other when she was living in vancouver!

a long story, long

when i was a little girl my maternal grandmother tried to teach me to knit by giving me her scraps to knit squares from. knitting squares is not so fun for a 7 year old, and i decided that knitting was tedious and added it to the list of reasons for hating visits to grandma's. that said, the thing that i learned from visits with my grandparents is how to make things. this grandma married a wonderful man who came from kenya, by way of kashmir. he grew up fairly poor and any toys he and his siblings played with, they'd learned to make themselves. he once bought me an old, red and chrome, non-functioning tape recorder at a garage sale for 10 cents, and fixed it in under a minute. so i believed him when he told me he knew how to make a helicopter from a tin can that would actually fly. now that he's not around any longer i wish that i'd asked him to teach me how to make one of those helicopters! i also wish that i'd let my grandma teach me how to knit more than squares, because to this day my knitting repertoire begins and ends with the scarf.

on my dad's side of the family i have around 33 cousins. i think... you get to lose track after 20! you'd think that with all these grandchildren running around my grandparents would have had some toys kicking about to keep us busy, but they didn't. nevertheless, the house was always full of noisy, but happy kids and that's where i learned to pluck out songs on the piano, play ping pong and darts, and how to make crepe paper flowers, but most importantly how to sew. my grandma had a closet full of scrap fabric and jars of buttons and other things that she'd collected from decades of mending the jackets and darning the socks of her 9 children. this is where i learned how to make sock puppets, and how to sew rag dolls from the old burp cloths left behind by my many, many baby cousins. this is also the house where my uncles would cleverly get me to wrap all their christmas and birthday gifts. gift wrapping appealed to the obsessive compulsiveness that was starting to take shape in my 8 year old soul.

my dad died when i was 8, but before he did he taught me how to draw. all the rainy weekends when he'd stay at home with me and my brothers while my mum worked, he taught me how to use shapes to make people and animals. drawing, gardening, and a love of this old house, star trek, aquariums, and the smell of lumberyards are all things i have my father to thank for. it's amazing how much he was able to influence me in the few short years we had together!

so, fast forward 2 decades later... when i finally decided i could no longer watch bad television without feeling the guilt that i'd also learned from that gigantic catholic paternal side of the family, i decided that rather than cancel my cable subscription i would do something while watching TV. i tried doing jumping jacks, but you can't do those through an entire hour of america's next top model without developing serious charlie horses in both calves. you just can't do it! so inspired by the intense guilt i felt as a result of watching ANTM, i decided to teach myself to crochet so i could start making things like my grandmothers taught me, but in a new way.

and that dear reader, is the long story behind my new etsy shop.

blueberry banana bread and the riley park farm market

today i went to the riley park farm market at main and 30th. i'd been to the trout lake farm market off a few times and it felt like i'd been transported to europe. the trout lake market is smaller than the average european ones, and sadly this means that it boasts much less in the way of cheese. despite the cheese deficiency, i love the trout lake market and it's something i look forward to each week.

i didn't make it out there this weekend because of our blueberry mission in the valley, so i decided to take a half-day from work and head up main street today instead. while blueberries are on the mind... the town i grew up in was either literally, or very near close to the blueberry capital of canada, if not the world. since moving to vancouver 10 years ago i haven't been able to stomach the insane cost of my very favourite fruit. i have not once in a decade bought blueberries without making the trek to the valley. blueberries in the city cost 4 times as much as if you just drive a half-hour into the suburbs.

back to the market... i got a 3 pound mix of every kind and colour and stripe of tomato i could find, some fennel, arugula, a medley of beans, beets, summer squash, zucchini, and gigantic similkameen peaches. i've never actually made anything with fennel before, so that will be interesting. i got halibut cheeks too, and i've never tried those. i don't know what to do with any of it so i decided to work my way through the 8 lbs of berries that remain in my fridge. i froze a ton and then made a blueberry banana bread adapted from this recipe i found through orangette. i've use this as a base quickbread recipe all the time, but i always use spelt flour and add ground flax and rolled oats to mine, and cut the sugar by 1/3. this time instead of adding chocolate chips, i added a cup of blueberries.

know your pear

we used to have loose themes in the boompa office, like "pirate" and "beer".

on wednesday i stopped by t&t, the asian supermarket, on my way home from work. we were out of fruit and last week was all about apples for me (with peanut butter), so i was trying to find something different. i discovered that that one produce department had about 6 varieties of pears! yes, i was legitimately excited about the pears. they're pretty, smell nice and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. that said, i've never really been much of a pear fan, but i decided that i should become one so i bought almost $20 worth. i decided that i'd get to know my pears and i'd get the boompa office and my boyfriend in on it.

the following day i had a bosc with breakfast. it was lovely, but i had had boscs before. it was perfectly ripe, not overripe and mushy at all and it tasted like a real pear but had that coarse skin i hate in pears. a bosc is a bosc... not horribly interesting but always good, especially poached, or sometimes with blue cheese. hans and i agreed it was very good.

i brought four other pears with me to the boompa den: sun moon and shinseiki (both japanese) and then yali and golden from china. i ran the idea of "know your pear" by rob and david, our new intern. david, being new, was really interested and talked about t&t and how it's a great place to bring dates because you can eat, watch the fish swimming in tanks, etc.

back to the pears, the sun moon and shinseiko pears are both japanese and are therefore "nashi", (nashi being "pear" japanese), whereas the bartlett or bosc, being english are known as yonashi. awesome, right?

so we tried the sun moon first. this pear was crunchier than your average apple, even a granny smith, but it wasn't at all gritty. it was as juicy as a peach and had a light flowery pear flavour. the skin wasn't terribly tough, as can often be the case, and it was a really beautiful dappled rosy brown colour. pretty, juicy and crunchy - david, rob and i agreed the shinseiko is a very good pear.

we had to leave the office early because it was car free day and sparrow and catlow were playing a huge outdoor stage down the street so we had to cut the pear thing short. i told shannon about it on the way to the show and she didn't get it. i said "you know, like know your onion?" and she said "oh, like spanish, walla walla, red, white, yellow, sweet..." to which i replied "no, like the shins ep."

the next morning (friday) i cut up a yali pear and the chinese golden to have with breakfast. i could tell right away when i cut into the yali that it was going to be trouble. this pear was tough, dry and gritty. it actually looked like it was made up of tiny glistening grains of white sand aggregated together. on top of the texture issue, the yali pear was, thick-skinned and honestly pretty flavourless. according to my research the yali was supposed to be more aromatic and sweet than japanese pears but i found this wasn't the case at all. apparently asian pears don't rippen once they've been picked so i guess it's possible that the yali is really a great pear that was picked to soon. i may never know... the dog wouldn't even eat it. the golden pear looked really nice with it's fine, white skin, but tasted like peas. no offense to china, but my faith in the selective breeding techniques of their horticulture experts over the ages isn't great. these were some bad pears that looks nice.

friday afternoons at the boompa office are really more about building office moral than work. companies on the east coast stop calling at about 2pm our time and we are left to our own devices. so we drink. jen fritz came with beer, patrick breeley came with his whit, and torq campbell came with his snazzy purple velvet jacket. our other intern rachel was there along with david, rob, shannon and scott, and anyone who's been to the boompa office will appreciate that 9 people in that tiny room would make work impossible. so i told patrick all about "know your pear" while sitting on a stack of my project: blue posters, as there were no chairs left in the office. patrick liked it. i told him about how the golden pear tastes like peas and he was down. he agreed that the golden pear tastes like peas and added that the flavour gets stronger as you get closer to the centre. scott was really excited about "know your pear" because he had packed an bartlett with his lunch. the bartlett is the most popular pear around the world. if you've ever bought a can of pears they were probably bartlett. scott's was overripe and dripped all over the place but he said it was excellent, and his favourite variety of pear.

so i've gotten to know my pears and i still don't like them as much as apples. my favourite is the homely looking bosc, followed by the shinseiko. my least favourite was the yali. i like peas, but don't like my fruit to taste like them so i'd never buy the chinese golden again no matter how pretty it is.

i still haven't tried a slough of asian pears and i haven't had butter, comice, forelle, red, packam or seckle. i have a d'anjou waiting for me though so i will leave this rivetting blog entry at that.

ps. "pirate" and "beer" are still alive and well.