Honest Ed’s is a funny place. It makes me feel a combination of excitement and depression when I’m inside it.
It’s so old fashioned with it’s flashing lights, it’s antique entertainers eight by tens, and hand painted signage. There’s the smell of cheap, Chinese plastic, thick in the air – obviously toxic.
But then I find certified organic shampoo for sale, and all is forgiven.
You can’t go in expecting to find exactly what you want, but often you’ll find something you need anyway.
We’re sitting in a friend’s shady, cool backyard, with a couple of beers, and their dog who we just tuckered out – pretty much completely.
It’s a fancier part of the Annex, bordering on Yorkville and it’s fun to imagine living in one of the beautiul old victorian mansions somday, ripping out the walls and finding treasures and secrets burried inside.
Despite the rather European calliber of strikes in this fair city, it’s been a swell summer so far, and I’m willing to bet it will continue to be one.
I’ve been realizing something: there are only 3 months left to the wedding. So I’ve also been realizing: it’s time to get cracking!
These past few weeks I’ve been trying to focus on the invitation. As an illustrator and a designer, this is probably one of the most important elements for me… Therefore it is also the most nervewracking! It may just be ephemeral to some, but to me ephemera is so so important!
I’ve been letting ideas steep in my mind, but rather than infuse me with inspiration, they’ve kinda overwhelmed me.
Thankfully, I think I’m finally on to something via Anna Melcon Bond’s lovely Rifle Design.
She. Is. Amazing.
She does some of the most adorable, pretty, illustrative, invites I’ve ever seen, and opened up a whole new world of what an invite can be to me. Check her out! She may just blow your mind too (and her blog is pretty darling as well)
Now I’m excited. This is gonna be good guys. You’re going to like what I’ve come up with!
Yesterday, we took a little wedding related day-trip. We went to Guelph to visit the Biltmore hat company – one of the last places in North America still making gentlemen’s hats the old fashioned way, and have been doing so since World War One.
We went to the factory outlet there, and got a pretty good deal on a beautiful little pork-pie for Liam’s wedding ensemble. In case you were wondering (and I just know you were) Liam is a 7 and 1/8 hat size.
While we were there we also tried on various fedoras, trilbys, bowlers, ten-gallons, newsboys, and boaters! Fun!
I picked up new glasses this week.
I wanted something a little more nerdy, but also sophisticated, and I think I achieved that.
I went all the way to the crazy, gigantic, asian mall here (also known as Pacific Mall) to find them, as I heard from a fellow blogger that there was a good little glasses kiosk there.
The frames I found are by SALT – which is apparently a very trendy california company whose styles are worn by all the celebrities. I just liked that they were a sturdy, classic design, made of a funky, gradated, grey plastic (I’m a sucker for flashy, layered plastics).
We love pie. You know that. It’s a major theme for our wedding, for goodness sake!
So when we heard there was a new pie shop open in our neck of the woods, we had to swing by and check it out.
The place is calledthe Pie Shack, and it’s a cosy little beachy spot with lovely communal harvest tables, and a doghouse outside for the requisite, resident puppy.
But more importantly, the pies! Oh the pies!
They are indescribably good – buttery and impossibly flakey – I have a sneaking suspicion that the pie dough is not exactly regulation. A sign mentions that those with nut allergies might be wary, as there is almond in the crust, but I feel the secret is that it is more akin to puff pastry, or a croissant. Imagine: layer, after buttery layer of flakey delight!
I got a slice of apple pie, and there was an option for cheddar, so I took it. Because if there’s one thing I love more than pie it’s cheese, and if there’s one thing I love more than cheese, it’s pie served with a side of cheese, and the only thing better than that, is when the cheese is MELTED ON TOP OF THE PIE… DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL…
Yeah. It was good stuff.
We have been making beer at a local u-brew in preparation for the wedding. Not only does this save us money, but it is a whole lot of fun to experiment with!
We’ve found a spot that can make pretty much any kind of beer you can dream up – so far we’ve made an easy-on-the-corriander belgian white beer, and next up is oatmeal stout with a whisper of coffee!
Despite the rather cool weather we’ve been having we managed to find a sunny afternoon to enjoy our beer in our new lawn chairs (they were Ikeas’s last two in the whole province. I love their bright red colour – it really pops against the grass, and makes them feel funky and retro and maybe a little european to me).
Christine on tweets for 2010-01-25
the Sis on christmas ready
kickpleat on a chicken (and rice) in every pot Christine on married kickpleat on married