Cause for Celebration!

Today I completed my first Etsy sale! Hurray!
A fresh Cedar House Sews creation is on its way to Ohio.
It is a pretty awesome feeling to know that someone far away will be enjoying what I made.

Its a happy day for me!

Island Life

Finally made it outside in the sunshine this evening to photograph a new item for the shop that I mentioned in my Market Trifecta post. This is the Cotton and Hemp Zippered Pouch I made in mint coloured cotton and natural hemp after being inspired by the wooden whale I saw in a Cloverdale shop. I'm really happy to be working with hemp. Its durable and soft and requires less pesticides and no herbicides to grow, meaning it makes less environmental impact than traditional crops.

I fell in love with hemp a long time ago on the Gulf Island of Salt Spring here on the West Coast. Each Summer I would get to tag along with my best friend's family to camp by the waterfront for a week. Salt Spring Island is littered with interesting shops and unique people. People that opened my eyes to the fact that it was possible to live life in a way that was different from what was going on in the city. The lifestyle I saw on Salt Spring was more in tune with my interests and I have never felt more at home then I did during those long days of summer when I could go and absorb the island lifestyle for a little while and feel more comfortable in my "hippie" skin.

It was in a tiny shop on the dock of Fulford Harbour that I bought my first piece of hemp clothing. As a teen, I was certain that this hemp shirt was the best way to identify with my new hippie idols. Shortly after returning to Vancouver that summer, I proclaimed myself a Vegan and tried to give myself dreadlocks by convincing my friend to back-comb tiny sections of my frizzy, hay like hair for hours until my head was covered with long finger-like projections of fuzzy knots that stood straight up in the air! The dreadlocks lasted 2 weeks, the Vegan lifestyle lasted only one year, but my inner hippie is still circle dancing in my heart to this day.

Check out the new Hemp Zippered Pouch in the shop. Hemp for all, Hippies and Non-hippies alike.

Market Trifecta

The Market Trifecta: Night Market, Farmer's Market, and Antique Market

Each Winter, Summer beckons me while I reminisce about weekends spent outside with my friends and family seeking out the local night markets, early morning farmers markets, and antique markets. Since I was small child, weekend markets have been a tradition. My Opa would head out to the "flea market" in Cloverdale every. single. Sunday. If Junking was a religion, this was his church and no one else in the family would join him on his pilgrimages. As a young girl I started tagging along with him and it was a great adventure. We would wake up as the sun rose and head out in his loud, clunky 'A-Team' van and I would proudly sit up front and listen to his one sided dialogue with the talk radio station. He was a heavy smoker and avid Kleenex user. He would habitually ash onto the floor of the van just inside the passenger door, all the while dropping his crumpled Kleenex in the same spot. There was often a small fire involved in most of the 35 minute journeys to the flea market, resulting in several traffic violations as my Opa would abruptly stop his van, throw his door open, jump down from his seat and flail about in the roadway while sending bits of ash and flaming Kleenex flying into the street. I learned to curse from my Opa on those Sundays.

More importantly than expanding my vocabulary, I learned about the satisfaction that comes from seeking, finding, and finally bargaining for something you seemingly can't live without. For my Opa, that applied to almost anything he could get for a good price. Thinking ahead to what you might discover at the markets is the bulk of the fun. I know that for myself it is the unknown surprise of what I might find that keeps me going back. I keep a mental list of the things to keep my eyes open for. I really enjoy finding things that are old, quality made, and unique. The sun has been shining around here lately and it really reminds me of the old market days and makes me want to go searching for things to add to my collection.

I'm currently searching for a rotary phone.
I really want to plug a phone into the wall. Hear that universal metallic'y' ringer noise that comes from old rotary phones, and pick up a heavy receiver. Only to be stuck standing at the kitchen counter by a short, colour matched, coiled cord, while I listen impatiently to my friends or family on the other end. Yes, just like the good ol' days. I don't want caller I.D.  I want to actually hang up the phone on a telemarketer. After I thank them for their time and wish them a good day.

So after volunteering at our small local farmers market in North Van this morning (after visiting the local Night Market the night before), I convinced my family to head out to Cloverdale to go searching for my newest treasure. I have seen many rotary phones online but the cost of shipping is greater than the phone itself and I want to see and touch the phone before I buy it, plus I want to support local business' and anyone who sets out to preserve a little bit of the past. We are all too quick to throw things away. My Husband and kids patiently followed me from shop to shop, in and back out, with nothing. I found a few black rotary phones but I'm hoping for a brightly coloured one. Although I'm wondering whether they were even made, given that plastics were relatively new at the time(?).

I certainly wasn't planning on falling in love with a most precarious and handsome whale in a neat little shop. I was captured by his colouring and the alive look of sadness in his little wooden whale eye. I will bring him home one day when his price tag is no longer three digits. All in all, we all had a few laughs, saw some new sights, and met some new people on our adventure out to the rodeo town and it was definitely worth it.
I hurried home, having been inspired in a natural and nautical way by my whale friend and set to work on a makeup bag for my friend over at She Is So Eco. I think she's going to love the colours of the cotton combined with and the natural hemp fabric. I know I really, really like how it all came together. Like, not sure if I can let it go kind of like love. I'll be making a few for Cedar House Sews on Etsy in different colours, watch for those new items soon.
Can't wait for next weekend's vintage market in Cloverdale!