Business Casual

New business cards!
Thanks to moo.com & Kristin of High Socks!

Five Aprils ago

Travel Tuesday? Tempting Tuesday? Too-sad-I'm-not-there Tuesday?
Need to get back there soon.

Geltendorf, Bavaria, Germany
April 2008

Upcycled m&a earrings on Etsy!

Added four new items to Etsy today: my handmade upcycled vintage earrings. Check 'em out!

Mint-grey silk, coral, pearl

Gold & turquoise

Silver, coral, turquoise

Antique gold, turquoise, antique faux-pearl

I can always make different permutations of what you see here too, as long as the bits and pieces are around! Get in touch if you're interested in any of them, or something similar!

I made some earrings

For my birthday, my mom got me a bunch of jewellery-making supplies and I have been going at it for a few days - things are pretty simple so far but it's been great to put some of my salvaged broken and mismatched jewellery to good use. I've fixed a bunch of pairs of earrings, but here's some of the new pieces I made:

Broken brooch pieces made into stud earrings

Blue glass cabochon clip-ons with salvaged light green beads 

My favourite vintage daisy earrings were totally wrecked (they were super fragile) - so I took bits and pieces and made them into small stud earrings.

Brooch made into stud earrings

Broken-off pieces of vintage clip-ons to stud earrings

Sea glass pieces into stud earrings

Remixed coral cabochons

Broken vintage necklace into stud earrings

Broken bracelet pieces, vintage leather scraps & gold Sharpie stud earrings

Bracelet pieces into drop earrings

Broken vintage gold bracelet pieces, antique pearls, and salvaged turquoise

Antique beads into earrings, on gold wire

Vintage teardrop pearls, remixed

Salvaged turquoise and vintage & antique gold-plated beads

Vintage navy and gold beads from a broken necklace

Vintage necklace and bracelet beads, pieces of vintage leather

Vintage leather scraps and salvaged bracelet beads

More vintage leather scraps and salvaged bracelet beads

Vintage leather scraps, cut into fringe, with black & silver Sharpie

Vintage broken bracelet pieces and beads

Antique plastic beads and pearls

 Looking forward to attempting more difficult and complex earrings! Stay tuned!

Room Rearrangement

Peter and remixed our room yesterday, partly to take full advantage of the sunlight that will be increasingly streaming in now that spring is coming. It feels so different; much more functional, comfy, and reflective of our personalities. Take a look!

I love this Toronto neighbourhoods poster, which we bought on Queen St E in TO. Good thing to learn!

Florrrraaallllsss

Nap Central over here (repurposed bunk bed mattress)

Looking forward to opening all the windows wide and napping in the breeze this summer. Perfect for reading, too. Isn't it great to be excited about where you live?

Mint lace

Oh and here are some selfiez. Loving my (self-cut) hair lately, with these big floppy sideswept bangs. Also, this lace top (thrifted, worn backwards) always gets a snort from my sister, with whom I make fun of 'Pinterest colours' (mint green, shown here, or coral, peach, pink, rose gold, etc).

What would happen if I went blonde? How would I go about doing that? Help, Internet!

Brain sludge

Yo, Internet! Long time, no thoughtful post. Thought I would drop by and say hi. Things are busy here at the Forbes-MacDonald residence, as always, and as a result I've been getting slack about the blog (and lots of other things but that's of no concern to you, Internet). I have lots of stuff to say, as always, so I'll probably be back again soon when my thoughts verge on volcanic.

 Anyhow, I've had a bunch of major sales on Etsy lately, which has been totally encouraging and exciting. I would love to go out scouting for new things sometime soon to expand my offerings. Tomorrow, there may even be some fun new-old stuff to look at! Wait for it!

Also, the above picture is pretty much what Charlottetown feels like right now. I'm pretty sure this is of my dad in Regina in the early or mid-80's. Not that I ought to compare Prairie and Maritime winters, because they are pretty different I hear. (We get a shitload of snow but do not tend to dip into the -50s, phew!) But it is damn cold and, I dare say, a little depressing out there. Nothing a little banana hot chocolate, some Etsy sales, Julie & Julia (the book), Girls, 30 Rock, 90210, and some nightly yoga can't fix!

Cool. Talk soon, Internet!

Etsy Map

Just made a map of all my Etsy sales so far. Little bits of vintage from PEI are off to all over the world! (Locations are all approximate!)

Letter to the Editor

Just sent the following letter to the Globe and Mail. Don't care that it's too long and too angry, just hope somebody reads it.

***

Good day,

As a young, educated, liberal-minded Prince Edward Islander, I know well enough by now I ought to steer clear of Margaret Wente's articles. I experience her contempt for all of those components of my identity every time I struggle through one of her pieces. Today's commentary was a little different, somehow; I am used to middle-aged writers in center-right publications writing condescending pieces about how entitled and lazy young university grads are. I am even used to, at the ripe age of 23, politicians looking for ways to euphemise or step around Atlantic Canada's perennially sluggish, precarious social and economic situation. But I will never get used to out-of-region, out-of-touch armchair journalists offering criticism of Atlantic Canada's people, nor our persistent efforts to cope with our hardships.

In fairness, some elements of this article aren't completely off the mark. Atlantic Canada disproportionately uses EI funds. Some workers abuse the system, and it becomes habitual, perhaps even encouraged. However, Atlantic Canadians also participate in a different sort of "transfer": we migrate to high-employment areas, in shocking numbers, and leave families and friends behind. The East Coast's young and bright head up and out to Alberta, British Columbia, and elsewhere, in an ongoing 'brain drain' to find work. And you thought we weren't up for commuting. For combating oil town labour shortages, you're welcome.

I can criticize our provincial policies and politics as much as I want because I'm here, I understand them, and in the end I want what is best for my province and its citizens. When someone like Ms Wente offers her opinion, which is entirely unhelpful, callous, and distasteful, I cringe. It is an ignorant suggestion that Ms Giersdorf give away a considerable chunk of her day's earnings to commute for nearly two hours per day, plus additional child-care expenses, taxes and - the irony - employment insurance, because the take-home pay would be pitiful. I know, because I'm underemployed as well, like so many who make up my province's labour force.

Every day, people try to figure out 'the answer' to solving Atlantic Canada's work woes. Editorials like this are not part of this effort, and never will be. (Unless you fire Wente and have her move to Montague, then she might have something of worth to write.)

Thanks,

Katharine MacDonald,
Charlottetown, PEI
PS. Most of your readers would likely have expected Ms Wente to be seeking EI after last year - maybe she should hold back a little on others whose employers aren't so understanding. 

Christmas List

Here you go, Mom, siblings, other friends and family - as comprehensive a list as I can muster on a  Friday after a long week!

- Frame for my degree

- Frame for our Toronto neighbourhoods poster

- Sewing machine

- Liquor / wine

- Shoe rack

- Garbage can

- Diorshow Mascara (black)

- Aveda pressed mineral powder (Aster)

- Locally made soap (Moonsnail or The Soap Drawer at Emmett & Ellie's)

- Reasonable quality camera

- Domestic stuff (spices, EV olive oils [like from Liquid Gold downtown], nice tea, fancy sugar, Epsom salts, etc.)

- "Coupons" for borrowing the car *wink*

- Shearling mittens (maybe from Northern Watters if they have 'em)

- Stanley Pottery tree mugs

Kitchen stuff

- Cast iron pan

- Wok

- Slowcooker

- Wine glasses

- Garlic press

- Bread boards

- Other utensils I wouldn't think to buy myself

For my Etsy shop

- Padded envelopes

- Ribbon

- Bubble wrap

- Stamps

Gift Cards

- Superstore

- Value Village

- The Body Shop

- Drink places (Starbucks, Timothy's, David's Tea)

- Shoppers Drug Mart

- Nakai

Homey

Peter and I were hoping to host some visitors over the weekend, so the apartment is still unnaturally neat and tidy right now. So here are some pictures.

The living room (with my family's dog, Mia, for the afternoon)

Sniffing around. Conclusion: yes, I do in fact live here.

 

And the sun room (or, the laundry room, I guess) - the best hangout spot in the apartment.

Orange! The table was repainted orange; thrifted Navajo-patterned rug, pillow cases, Hudson Bay throw.

You need a wool blanket if you hang out in there!

 

The JR's sign - an old bar in Charlottetown until the 90's, I think - we found at the flea market. 

For Papa, lest we forget

This post is for my grandfather, George Sauer, who was drafted into the German forces in the Second World War at age 16. He was shot in the back shortly before the war was over, on duty in then-Czechoslovakia. He was rounded up with other wounded soldiers, and rather than being brought back to his home or even a city, he and the others were dumped on the side of a railway, only to be picked up by Russian soldiers and taken to a Prisoner of War camp, where he spent nine months before being released to return to Germany.

 Not long after the war, he immigrated to Canada, followed by my grandmother, and decided to settle in Prince Edward Island, where "no one will ever fight a war."

The Eagles

First Saturday off in over a month, you know what that means: Farmers' Market! Peter and I walked all the windy way on the trail this morning. It was so cold, I really needed this parka! But it was sunny and beautiful, very much worth the chill.

+ Thrifted vintage wool parka, with fox fur and

four (count 'em, four) embroidered eagles, made in Canada

+ Vintage lilac grape earrings

+ Mom's vintage brown scarf

+ That thrifted Alternative Apparel shirt I haven't stopped wearing

+ Old Navy Rockstar jeans

To market, to market!