rubydog's art house

Today i went to the fresh and new RubyDog's at Kingsway and Fraser. They have TONS of cool craft shit - everything from old family photos of people you don't know to textured paper to vintage keys, plus a dog named Ruby :) Everything you didn't think you needed but honestly do! RubyDog's Art House.

Collage Collage right next door is also now open.

hard graft hats

hard graft just released pictures of their new line of hats!  some of you have seen my grey felt hard graft macbook case.  it's made of pure awesome.  marcia has their mouse pad, also made of awesome. 

in this age of widely available cheap leather products milled and tanned in Bangladesh where large leather operations are polluting the drinking waters and exposing their employees to sickening toxic chemicals it's nice to know that some companies out there have a commitment to sourcing leather sustainably. 

do-over

wow, can i go back in time 4 months?  and get married again?  in all of these pretty dresses?  that are all under $1000 each?  click to enlarge, the details are nice. 

by saja wedding

their website intro gives me the warm fuzzies.

paper topos

 

beautiful hand-cut layered topo cards and wall art by crafterall

you've got the love

i like to listen to 2-steppy music more than i like to dance to it.  this super nice Florence and The Machine remix/cover by The XX reminds me of of the late 90's except... much cooler. 

listen at hypemachine

nap time

from the pandaworld flickr group

glasses for sale

I am selling these unisex J Crew "Rivington" glasses by Selima Optique. 

Right here at my otherwise empty Etsy store!

SOLD! yay!

socks!

another fantastic pair of socks!

fall shoe roundup

in addition to these Camper boots i posted about before here's all the shoes i want for fall if i win the lottery, inspired by today's cold, wet, and blistered feet:

clockwise from top left:  trippen bomb $450, gravis tasha $80, trippen long $585, stella mccartney for adidas mantra $160, gravis tasha super-hi $105

arial and helvetica

from ragbag

i grew up in an "IBM compatible" house, now affectionately known as a PC.  other kids my age had Apples.  some had IBM compatibles.  my dad liked to put together his own computers and also worked on his own database software for his work so it made sense for us to have an IBM compatible. 

this meant i was exposed to Arial rather than its predecessor Helvetica.  as a kid i thought Arial was the bee's knees.  i used it for everything.  it wasn't until i met Helvetica that i realized a typeface could actually feel perfect.  solidly constructed.  and so generic that it can't offend. 

socks

socks! a fantastic pair of socks!

speaking of my birthday ...

From the boyfriend this year (alongside some friendly hint-dropping) i got the Eames Swivel Office Chair from Fullhouse and i picked up some hot birthday boots from Bohemia Gallery on Main street near 16th Ave. Upstairs in The Loft are some great re-purposed designs by local Karen Green of ODP.

happy birthday, marcia!

yesterday was marcia's birthday!

marcia loves manatees.

make a donation to the save the manatees club!

grizzly bear in japan

from grizzly bear's blog.

listen to them here or here.

excited to see them in october.

pottery class and handbags

marcia and i had our first pottery class yesterday.  i won't get to do or learn as much demi moore/patrick swayze wheel work as i'd like to (not enough wheels for the entire class) so look forward to lots of boring lumpy stuff, and watch out if your birthday is coming up in the next 10 weeks.  har har.  NOoooooo...

in other news, i want this bag (pictured below)!  i didn't buy one at the erin templeton sample sale last week, which was awesome, by the way.  i mean, who has sangria and chips and salsa at a sample sale?  she does!  i did buy a belt that was made from a tragic pair of leather pants that desperately needed to be re-purposed. 

anyways, this bag is made of recycled leather straps and a reclaimed WWII military stretcher: 

by forestbound

ok, one more note about bags.  after seeing a Fjällräven kanken mini backpack on someone else's blog i scoured the internet for one for myself.  i'm a sucker for anything cute that i can ride my bike with.

i recently discovered that my secret love J.Crew is now selling them.  i'm both angry and impressed that a large corporate giant is stocking something i think is awesome.  angry because it's a large corporate giant and i come preprogrammed to hate those kinds of things because of my social, generational, and educational spheres of influences.  impressed because J.Crew continues to sell and style things i totally dig.  like heels worn with socks.  i'm sorry, ok? i'm sorry!  

today's best picture ever

by alvaro puentes