100 Mile Finds now has e-commerce

100 Mile Finds, a website which allows you to locate local businesses for unique gifts and services, now has an e-commerce option, meaning you can purchase directly from the vendor. I've set it up for my
Zippster store. Not every vendor has enabled this feature yet, but I'm sure more will get on board soon. In the meanwhile, here are some of my picks for Toronto vendors:

Vintage Paper Parade: whimsical, stylish paper goods with a modern twist for children’s birthdays, baby and bridal showers.

Love, Poetry Corsets: specializing in one of a kind, hand made corsets, often using rescued, recycled, or vintage fabrics. Beautifully hand painted!

Dear Sukie: Handmade wallets made in small quantities using a variety of patterned papers and clear vinyl. Very cool, and reasonably priced.

Yes, it's time to start thinking about holiday gift shopping, so why not support local businesses!

Bazaar of the Bizarre show

This past Sunday I participated in the annual Bazaar of the Bizarre show, at the Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement, in the Queen and Dufferin area. Despite the fact that it was a long week-end and a day when many were probably feasting on turkey, I was pleased with the turnout. It was a long day, but I'm happy with what I sold. I was very impressed with the quality and variety of goods, much more so than most shows I've done, and especially pleased to discover that the baked goods being sold by Bunner's were gluten-free - yay for tasty treats for me! I have two more shows lined up before Christmas, details to come soon.

Wrap dress

OK, I lied: I said I wasn't going to make anything new for myself until I was done with the fall craft shows, but I have enough inventory and am on a roll with the sewing, so I decided to keep going. This is a wrap dress from Simplicity (#6674).




I've made a dress before, from the Japanese pattern books, but I have to say this one gave me a bit of trouble. I had to re-do the back collar, and I'm not happy with the front panel - somehow there is a seem right down the middle. I think the skirt pieces were too big and I ended up with a whole panel too much. All the pieces for the trim, waistband and ties were a bit tricky to line up. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out but I'm not sure if I would use this pattern again. The fabric (Katie Hana by the Henley Studio, Petite Flowers) was purchased at The Workroom. My grandmother recently passed, so I'm planning on wearing this dress to her memorial service; I think she would like the idea of me wearing something I had made myself.

Bridge club cards

Recently my mom asked me to make some cards for her bridge club, named Petticoat Bridge. She wanted cards that would hold their tally sheets. I decided to make each card different so the ladies could pick a unique card. This project was a lof of fun to work on, plus it gave me the chance to use some of my vintage trim.

New top

This is tunic "E" from the Japanese pattern book "Stylish Dress Book". For some reason, I had a terrible time with this top - I had to re-do one of the sleeves, and although I was as careful as I could be lining up the pin tucks along the front, they aren't quite even at the outer ends, even though it is centered. What I discovered is that my body is not symmetrical, I have one shoulder higher than the other and it also protrudes more forward than the other, which means that my clothes always seem a bit crooked. It was more obvious with this top because of the pin tucks. I don't even know how to adjust for this.


As much as I love pockets, I didn't add them to this top because I felt it would have added too much bulk with this fabric, which is another batik called "Elementals: Lots of Dots" by Lunn Studios. I also shortened the length, and opted to add darts in the back rather than gathers (which I hate doing).

This will probably be the last piece of clothing I'll be able to make for myself for a while, as I'm busy preparing for several fall/pre-Christmas craft shows, including this one:

Annual trip to the Aberfoyle Antique Market

Every year, I visit the Aberfoyle Antique Market, located just outside of Guelph. This is a huge outside antique market, and I love spending the day looking for treasures. I like this market because the quality of the items is high, and the dealers must sell antiques, so it's not just second-hand junk. It's a great place to find collectibles and unique items - sometimes very unique items, like this truly ugly crab dish (pardon the photos, I didn't want to carry a camera so I used my cell phone); take a guess at the price ...

I recommend visiting either at the beginning (May) or end (September) of the season, as not only is it not as crowded, but not as hot. There is a restaurant and ice cream booth on site (yum!), and places to picnic.

Sometimes I have something in mind to look for, otherwise I just browse. Here's a selection of interesting things I saw (I'll leave it up to you to determine if I thought it was cool or not):





















One of my favourite items was this cabinet - I would love to have a house big enough for this!:



I did manage to score a great deal on this set of melamine dishes, which look like they've been sitting in a cottage and hardly used (they happen to go great with our Formica table, which we rescued from the garbage):



We also picked up a fantastic orange stool for our cats, who are 18 and have some trouble getting up onto the couch. Here is Hank, trying out the new stool (this is his chair):

















There is always a good selection of dishes, glassware, silverware, art, musical instruments, books, toys, cameras, tools, purses, jewellery, knick knacks and small furniture. I was hoping to pick up some vintage fabric this year but didn't find any. Can't wait until next year!

Getting ready for the fall

The fall and pre-Christmas craft show and shopping season is quickly approaching. After a slow summer, sales have started to pick up in both of my Etsy stores, and I have a few shows lined up. I was able to make a few items of clothing for myself over the summer, but now I need to focus on building up my inventory.

I just added a whack of new buttons and magnets in my Zippster store, many of them made with either images taken from vintage magazines or beautiful Japanese papers.



I've been shooting more on film lately, and hope to use some of those prints on a new line of greeting cards.

Show info to be posted soon.