Hello, December.

I've been away from blogland for the past week and a half, so am late announcing the arrival of gift certificates in the shop. They're a Sweet Shop first.

Once again, I'm helping out this sweet gal at the One of a Kind Show, which is one of the reasons for the lack of blogging. The other is that I picked up some part-time work at a design firm down the street from us. Go figure that the almost perfect job for me was almost right under my nose, or only a 10 minute walk away. While I can handle working retail every once in a while, it is certainly not my favourite job in the world. Candice's booth can get pretty hectic at times - as her undies and briefs are a big hit - so by the end of a shift, I'm eager to get home.

Still, the crowds at the Show have not been that bad, and I'm sure they are nothing compared to the one that was gathered outside that Wal-Mart in New York this past Black Friday. Disturbing and crazy and sad all at the same time. Poor man. Matt told me about that incident while we were grocery shopping this morning and I almost couldn't believe my ears. My mom used to work as a greeter at Wal-Mart, and though Saskatoon is not nearly as populous as New York, when there are deals to be had, I know people can be pretty fanatical about getting them. I remember seeing long lineups outside stores on Boxing Day morning in Saskatoon. Heck, I think I may have even stood in one myself years ago. And all to save a little big of money on stuff you probably don't even need. Was it worth it, people? A man's life for $50? May he rest in peace.


On a happier note - I don't want to end the post on a dour one - I received a lovely email from one of my sweet sweet customers the other day. She bought the painting above from me a while ago and had it framed. Her daughter is now the proud and happy owner of this piece and I feel blessed to know that someone else is enjoying this in her home.

Catching Up

I'm getting back into the swing of things here, now that the One of a Kind Spring Show is over. An awesome fellow clothing designer asked me to help her out for the 5-day event and seeing as how I had not been to a show in ages, I thought it would be a great chance to see all the great stuff they have there. Plus, the extra cash didn't hurt.

The first day was alright though there were a few issues with the lighting in our booth. Luckily those issues were resolved and the rest of the day went smoothly. It wasn't too too busy since the show started on a Thursday...

Friday was MAYHEM though. I wish I had a picture to show how busy it was, not only at our booth, but pretty much in all the aisles. Photos were generally not allowed though, plus I didn't have much time to eat or sit down, let alone take a picture that day. I think it was the best sales day ever for a lot of the designers who are a part of the Collective. This is kind of how I felt for much of the day I was there:


A bit frazzled to say the least.

But after Friday, things were pretty much a breeze the rest of the show. I was able to trade for these two cute cups and saucers by ketto design who are from Montreal.

I'd been longing for some more generous sized cups for tea and hot chocolate for some time now and had picked up another piece by them years ago, at the first One of a Kind show I went to. So these were purrfect!

Candice was also gracious enough to give me one of her beautiful new tops (no picture as of yet as it is in need of washing) and a pair of her rather famous undies. It's very true, they ARE "super cute and seriously comfortable!" I had bought Matt a few of these before but had never treated myself. The undies were such a show-stopper that they even managed to get on tv. You can catch a glimpse of me too in the background in the first few seconds of the clip.

Other things of note during the show:
- I met one of my blog readers though I didn't get her name. Sorry (if you're reading this). I guess I was surprised to find out that other people besides a few friends and family read this. I feel like a relative newbie in the blog world and am flattered to know that I do have a readership too. There are some great blogs out there, so thank you to anyone who takes the time to read mine :)

- I also ran into a college peer and chatted for a bit about what's been going on since then. Ah, the college days. Feels like only yesterday, but at the same time it doesn't. How time flies.

And speaking of which, I best get a start on catching up with work. I'll finish the post with a photo of Suki and Dex from earlier today: