guest post: 6 days 6 cities

This week my friend Kait is running a new series on her blog (one of my favourites), Yuppie Love. Starting tomorrow six different bloggers/creative minds will be writing about their favourite cities in the world and sharing what I'm sure will be some amazing images, too. Check out Kait's post on Tuesday. She's sharing her love of Santa Monica/Venice Beach and I know that I for one would rather bet there right now. I guess for now we'll have to live vicariously through her lovely imagery and description. I have an exciting guest blogger series coming up here on the Sadie blog, too, but I'll wait a little while to share the details.

My post about my hometown and favourite place, Halifax, Nova Scotia, will be running on Saturday. I'll be sure to send you that way near the end of the week, too. In the meantime, have you entered the Sadie Designs giveaway yet? You have until Friday, March 4 to throw your name in the hat. And, yup, that's me at about three or four years old in Halifax. It looks like someone's been throwing snowballs at me, too!

guilty pleasure: project grizzly

Not to be confused with Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005), Project Grizzly is Canadian documentary about a dude from Northern Ontario who has some unfinished business with a grizzly in the Alberta Rockies. Essentially, this guy had a life-changing encounter with a bear he calls "Old Man" and it seems, to me at least, that he would like to re-live it, but from within the safety of a grizzly-proof suit. The movie is about Ursus Mark VI: the sixth iteration of the suit. Highlights include several montages of the various suits being tested over the years. Some of the tests they put the suit (and the designer) through are totally brutal and will crack you up, despite the fact that the inhabitant of the suit seems to run the risk of being seriously injured by the experiments.

If you're new to the Sadie blog, let me just mention that this post is part of a great weekly tradition Jeff and I have with some friends to get together, eat a great dinner, and watch a guilty pleasure movie of someone's choice. Tonight was a special night for the GPMC because our pal and connoisseur of fine film, Caroline, is heading out on an adventure, and Project Grizzly was her last pick (for now?), and a fitting choice it was! I know that we all wish her the best, will miss her and her movie choices, and hope that she rides the thunder in all of the places she'll be visiting! Great pick, Caroline, loved the Canadian-ness of this movie! Have fun for us while you're criss-crossing the continent and if you do start another branch of the Guilty Pleasure Movie Club keep us up to date on your picks, oh, and avoid "waffles" as a dinner theme. Still afraid of that night.

weekend worship

This is not what the weather is supposed to be like in Vancouver in February! Okay, my friend Jacqui warned me that there was going to be more snow and more cold this month, but I looked at the cherry blossoms and daffodil buds and thought to myself, "Don't think so!" She was right! It is freeeeezing outside and even a bit cold inside (we live in an old building) and I want to do nothing but watch movies and drink coffee this weekend.

But, for Lola's sake and my own sanity, this morning we went on a long dog walk with my friend Emily and her dog, Hazel. We mostly stuck to the forest where the big trees kept us sheltered from the wind and snow. Hardly anyone was on the trails, we ran into just a few joggers. I suppose everyone is hiding under blankets at home waiting for Hockey Night in Canada to start. Our walk ended by the ocean, so grey and epic and beautiful. We found this strange shrine at the end of our walk. We've been finding weird things on the beaches of Vancouver together these past couple of weeks. Here are some photos for you so that if you live in Vancouver you know what it looks like out there but you won't actually have to go out yourself. Isn't Hazel adorable? I like her attitude about life: happy and excited! Stay warm!

five friday favourites

custom crochet covered river rock by stitch happens!

Lately I've been loving crochet and filigree textures. I'm convinced I'm interested in crochet not just because of the flexibility of the medium, but because I'm also terrible at it. What might look simple to someone who can crochet looks like an impossible magic thread creation to me. These crochet pieces are among my Etsy favourites right now. And filigree? In jewelry, housewares, and vintage frames it has such a delicate and vintage feel. Again, it's a texture thing and I also think crochet and filigree evoke warmer temperatures and summery light. That said, it's so freezing in Vancouver that I practically need to be wearing gloves in my apartment while I write this and I could really use a big crocheted afghan right about now (I might choose THIS one).

I got really inspired by a lecture about design at school today and for the first time in a couple of weeks I can't wait to get back to work on my grad project. That's what I'm doing this weekend, what about you? I hope you have a great Friday evening, don't forget to enter my getting to know you giveaway if you haven't already! Oh yeah, I want to mention that I love reading all of the fun facts you have left in your comments! We're going to have to do this more often!

little lichen necklace by elinTM

petit crochet post earrings by lilyja

vintage crochet tablecloth by la pomme

vintage filigree basket by vintagous

getting to know you giveaway

I so enjoy reading all of the comments that my posts inspire and getting to know many of you better. In celebration of hitting 150 followers, I'm going to host my first giveaway here on the Sadie Designs blog, starting today.

Up for grabs is this one of a kind rutilated quartz and gold tone necklace, similar (but never the same!) to ones that I have availably in my Etsy shop. These quartz points are struck through by mineral deposits of white and green, each with a unique and organic feeling. Spherical gold beads and a Japanese gold tone cable chain finish the necklace.

There are three ways to enter, please leave a comment for each entry:

1. Tell me one interesting fact about yourself (one entry/one comment).

2. Become a follower of the Sadie blog (one entry/one comment).

3. Tweet or blog about this giveaway (leave me a link, one entry/one comment).

Make sure that your e-mail address is easy for me to find (either on your profile or in your comments). I'll be selecting a winner Friday, March 4th, and posting the results here. This giveaway is open to anyone, no matter where you live. Good luck!

photo by blair cheredaryk

guilty pleasure: the professional

Dear friends, this will just be a very quick Guilty Pleasure Movie Club post today, as my attentions are required elsewhere momentarily. However, let me just say that this week's movie pick, by Guilty Pleasure member Drew was a really, really good one. Like, actually, honestly really good. It made for a nice genre change, introduced us to some '90s film and was accompanied by an awesome dinner with double dessert!

Nothing about The Professional (1994) made it feel dated, except for how young Natalie Portman is and Leon's round glasses. It's riveting from the start and I can highly recommend it. A New York themed dinner goes well with this movie, too. Check out the trailer below.

Please make sure you watch the trailer for our runner-up movie, too: Hercules in New York. Can you understand a word Arnold says? I sure can't.

And finally, CHECK BACK TOMORROW because that's when the Sadie Designs GIVEAWAY begins. To thank you all for your support and interest in my work I'll be giving away a beautiful Sadie piece to one lucky blog reader. Have a great afternoon!

focus

Sometimes I can't focus because I know that this (blue skies, ocean, mountains) is on the other side of the door. Luckily today it's snowing and probably pretty cold out there, so I can stay home and get some work done. At least, that's the idea. In prime procrastinator style I've put together this playlist. The selections reflect my scattered tastes and thought processes. Oh yeah, and a recent reminder that Elliot Smith was amazing and I should go back to being obsessed with him. I feel like this is all '90s music, even though I don't think any of it was really from the '90s.

Hope your week is off to a great start!

weekend worship: fort langley adventures

Weekends like this one start to make me feel human again after a cold, rainy winter and living and breathing school for so long. Jeff and I drove out to the Fraser Valley this afternoon and went to the Fort Langley Antique Mall. The last time we were out there was with our very good friend Marigold. We spent hours out there with her that day, and I got an amazing photo for Jeff's birthday, but that was almost a year ago. Today we decided it was time to go back.

How beautiful is this part of the world? It's all river, mountain, ocean, and forest. I love it here and these early (in Canadian terms) spring days make all the overcast days seem so worth it. Below are a whole bunch of images of some of the treasures we found. We left empty handed but had ice cream before heading home. It was such a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Oh, and if they still made the type of film that the KODAK Pony 828 camera requires I would have bought it in a second. It looked like it had a lot of potential, but, alas, 828 film is difficult to find. I've discovered that you can use 35mm film if you make some modifications but I need to do more research before going for it. I like to use my vintage cameras a lot and would love to add that one to the collection. I might stay on the lookout for the Pony 135, which would be a lot easier to find film for. Click on the photos to find out more on flickr. 

Oh yes! I'm going to host a giveaway here when I hit 150 followers, so look for that to happen soon, I hope! Have a lovely Sunday! It's my last day of vacation and I plan to celebrate with sleeping in, homework, and a guilty pleasure movie with friends!

meet my friend and some of her friends

This is Lola, our border collie x, straight from the Cochrane SPCA in Alberta. We got Lola just about three and a half years ago. Since then, she's come along with us on many adventures, from Powell River, BC, to Portland, OR, and moved with us to Vancouver.

I've been spending a lot of time with Lola lately (and, well, always...) and we've really gotten to know each other. I think she has come so far from the orphaned dog that she was when we first adopted her. She can walk on a leash, play with other dogs, run around at the beach, and even manages to lay down in the car sometimes, rather than just running around in the back seat. Having Lola as a pet has never been easy, but it has always been rewarding. I think this might be the case with a lot of rescue dogs and I am a huge advocate for adopting animals. A man who runs a kennel that Lola used to go to in Alberta told us something that I'll never forget. He said, "When people have SPCA dogs I just tell them to never give up." How many times I've said that to myself I don't even know. 

Lola and her pal Bingo

Lola and her BFF Fergie, my mom's Westie

My mom always says that Lola is lucky we picked her. I think we're lucky we found her. Watching Lola's improvements has been so great over the years and since day one she has been a loving and loyal and totally crazy member of our family. I love her so much, think she's the most awesome dog in the world, and just wanted to tell you all a little more about her. We went on a two hour winter beach walk today with a friend and her dog, just a small example of the great things we do together. Lola dreams of being able to help out in the kitchen or drive someday. Her two favourite things are FOOD and CAR, I think her only real dislikes are lettuce and camping. In these photos she's with us in Deception Pass, WA, Powell River, BC, Vancouver, BC, and Mayne Island, BC, respectively. Do you have pets, too?

time wasting

0029 by provax

Thanks to Etsy's new circles and activity feed features I just discovered this amazing project by provax via erin from the atlantic treefox. As a designer I can relate to every single one of these documents of time wasting. Spending so much time inside my own head trying to figure out if I'm on the right track, if what I want to do is even possible, if anyone will listen to my reasoning, if I'm just rehashing old ideas, if I have enough time to do all of the drawings I need, and on and on. I wonder if I had one of these prints above my desk if it would help me stay focused on the task at hand or if I would be better served keeping it around as a reminder that such thoughts and moments are part of the creative process. At least, they're a big part of my creative process. One hour and thirty-two minutes of comparing nearly identical options. Yup, sounds very familiar.

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guilty pleasure: roxanne

This week's Guilty Pleasure Movie Club theme was romantic comedy. Jacqui brought along three choices that fit the bill: Splash, Overboard, and Roxanne. Well, you can tell from the title of this post what we chose. Was it a good choice? We'll never really know. We watched all of the trailers and I'm still at a loss about which of these movies would have been the best. Truthfully, Roxanne was pretty good and they all have things in common with one another: Daryl Hannah, the ocean, and, of course, unrequited love. Or misunderstood love.

Have you ever seen Roxanne? It's pretty weird. Steve Martin stars as a large-nosed fire chief goofball with a crush on an astronomer named Daryl Hannah, I mean, Roxanne. Can he get the girl despite his physical appearance? You'll have to watch it to see. The thing I enjoyed the most about this movie was that it was filmed in Nelson, BC, which acted as a stand-in for a small American mountain town creatively named "Nelson". Jeff used to live in Nelson and he has given me permission to tell you a story about a job he had there.

Jeff was living in Nelson to be with mountains and snow (he was really into snowboarding at the time) and he needed a job. He went to a local hotel where they told him they didn't need housekeepers at the time, but they did need a server in the bar. He said he'd be interested and showed up the next day at 10AM. Around 11:30AM the bar started to fill up with the lunch crowd. As Jeff was picking up drinks from the bar a woman walked on stage wearing a robe, was introduced, and began to strip...much to Jeff's surprise. He had no idea that the bar was a strip club, and to this day he has no idea why they hired a male server. He says his tips were pretty bad. I think it's totally hilarious and kind of unbelievable that he didn't know the place was a strip club until the first stripper performed. Aren't there usually visual clues? Jeff worked there uncomfortably for a couple of months before finding a job he liked a little more at the ski hill. Yeah, right, Jeff. Yeah right. We're both laughing right now as we talk about this story. He wants me to add that it was only a strip club twice a day, at 11AM and 7PM and that a rival bar across the street would bring in male strippers once or twice a year. To the best of my knowledge he never worked there.

And now a couple of apt videos:

happy valentine's day!

I have had quite the busy day. This morning I totally turned my alarm off instead of hitting the snooze button (which I generally make use of about ten times every morning) and was late getting into studio. My friend Sara and I are working on the re-design of a Burnaby elementary schoolyard. We're trying to get it done this week, but we kind of worked in slow motion for most of the day. Even though I don't have class, I did find myself back at school today wishing for freedom, despite the fact that our project is kind of awesome and we spent a good part of our time colouring.

As you probably know, I also listed some new Cave Explorers today. One is already headed off to live in my adopted hometown, Calgary. I hope he has a wonderful life full of adventures there! There are still two more in the shop, including my favourite of the batch. In further Sadie news, a pair of my baltic birch earrings were featured in the Etsy Finds newsletter today. I'm pretty excited about that, because I haven't been featured before. 

sycamore street press valentine

I thought that I would share some Valentine's love with you all, too. Above is the card that I got for Jeff this year. I like to make things for him, too, but this was just way too awesome to pass up. I want a second dog and I want it to be a Frenchie, just like Martha Stewart. Below is a photo of the amazing necklace that Jeff made for me and it's basically my new favourite thing. He used a vintage bar chain and filigree pendant, which has a beautiful purple sugalite stone inside. I'm very excited that Jeff made this for me and I'm going to wear it all the time. We aren't really into Valentine's Day, but we're making a nice dinner tonight and relaxing in our newly cleaned apartment! I love days off. Not only can I see the floor now, the dog has had a bath and we have groceries in the fridge. We were pretty productive this weekend. 

How about some CanCon to round out this post? For those of you who don't live in Canada, it might be worth mentioning that Canadian radio stations have to play a certain percentage of official Canadian music in order to keep their license. Well, this counts, so here's the Sadie CanCon for the day:

This one is for you, Jeff, and you, Jill R. You know you love it! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

meet the new cave explorers

Three new hard-working cave explorers will be up in the Sadie shop tomorrow. All are diligently working away in beautiful one-of-a-kind agate geodes. There are some new favourites for me in this batch, for sure. I hope that you like them, too. These figures are just 10mm tall! Incidentally, the amethyst core samples will be in the shop later today, just in time to catch the 20% off coupon code BEMINE. I know I've been showing a lot of jewelry on the blog lately, but I'm in major catch-up mode right now! I've been wanting to update the shop for quite a while and school has been keeping me ultra busy. I hope you are having a great weekend!

UPDATE: Amethyst core samples are up in the shop now! Take a look!

a few new things...

mook jasper

The great reading break Sadie shop update begins! I was able to add these three pieces to the shop this morning and photograph a bunch more, so more is on the way! Tomorrow I'll be introducing the three newest cave explorers here on the blog. In the meantime, I'm really excited to be able to offer these amazing pink and green rutilated quartz point pieces again. They are my favourites! Whether you call them magical pan flute necklaces (like my friend Carrah) or dirty crystal necklaces (like my friend Sarah), there is no denying that these stones are the best! I've also added a one of a kind mook jasper piece. I just couldn't resist those colours! Have a great Saturday, I'm off to get more supplies. 

Don't forget to use coupon code BEMINE in the shop all weekend for 20% off.

rutilated quart two

rutilated quartz one

five friday favourites

This is going to be a quick post this week because I'm not free from overwhelming school obligations until tomorrow, but here goes...five favourites for mid-February.

1. Dolce Vita

Micaela's blog is one of my new finds and instantly became a favourite and must-read. Her posts are personal and inspiring. When she told me that she jogs to Nirvana I knew we'd get along! Make sure you go take a look at her blog and enter her giveaway!

2. These amazing Bowery Lane Bicycles

the broncks black

Made in the USA with American steel (sounds good to me) and super affordable. I wish they shipped to Canada and that I could justify the purchase of a new bike. Alas, my vintage cruiser (the "Commuter Special") and Lemond road bike will do for a while now. 

breukelen white three speed

3. Chocolate Arts

If you live in Vancouver you should go to Chocolate Arts. Try the lemon and basil truffle. Enough said.

4. FRIDAY NIGHT! That's right, tonight tonight. Because it is finally the night before reading break officially begins and we have a big presentation today and then...a week off! Well, sort of off, a week without classes nonetheless. I'm looking forward to celebrating with my classmates tonight and I can't wait to grocery shop, do laundry, clean my house, update the Sadie shop, and so on. FREEDOM!

5. You.

As a special Valentine's Day thank you to all of my blog readers I'm going to have a sale in the Sadie shop this weekend. Coupon code BEMINE will get you 20% off until Monday. Anyone using the coupon code will also get a special Valentine's Day gift along with their package. By the way, this photo is one I took of the Science Centre here in Vancouver and it made me kind of love my mom's camera.

Take a peek at Mucho Mucho Bueno Bueno today and have a fabulous Friday! Check back later this weekend to see the new Cave Explorers!

guilty pleasure: dirty dancing

For those of you who have recently joined my blog, let me just mention that the Guilt Pleasure Movie Club is a weekly get together that I am so happy to be a part of here in Vancouver. Every week a member of the club takes a shot at picking a movie that's probably awesome, maybe a little embarrassing, and likely something that no one has seen in a long time. Take a look at some of our past picks to get an idea of what we usually watch.

This week we had a special event and watched a movie that should need no introduction: Dirty Dancing! A downtown theatre is having a mini film festival, playing old movies on the big screen for just $5, and we couldn't miss the chance to see Dirty Dancing in all its glory. My friend Shaun was with us, watching (for the first time!!!) Swayze teach Baby to dance. A man sitting next to him in the theatre was really into the movie, even conducting at times apparently. That guy wasn't the only one really enjoying the movie though. There was much cheering, whistling and even some screaming and fist pumping going on in the audience. They're still playing more old movies until the end of the week, so if you live in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, or Montreal check out the listings.

In the meantime, here's the trailer and a special moment:

Amanda, a Guilty Pleasure regular noted that Dirty Dancing might be the guiltiest movie we've ever watched. I love it! LOVE IT! And don't we all miss Patrick Swayze? I know I do, and this movie makes me miss him more.

Remember this?



Jacqui made it into a true junior high party by eating Smarties and drinking orange juice, while I slightly regret smuggling in an orange because it was a weird and sticky food to eat at the movies. I'm looking forward to next week's Valentine's Day edition already! Jacqui's movie pick is next...round three. What will it be?

amethyst core samples

I'm planning a big Sadie shop update over the February reading break (the 14th to 20th) and thought I'd give you a little sneak peek at some of the items that will be available. These gold dipped amethyst core samples will be among the new crystal pieces that I'm going to post. I also have some new Cave Explorers, which I'll share a day or two before I put them in the shop.

Amethyst is one of my favourite stones, perhaps because I think it was the first stone that I was ever given. My parents gave me an amethyst ring when I "graduated" from preschool. I lost that ring in a brook on my grandmother's farm, but my mom actually miraculously found it the next day in the water! I love how each core sample is really unique and tells a story about different geological conditions that formed the colour bands and crystal structures. These gold-dipped pendants will be in the shop soon!