Meet my neighbours at the Hamilton Market

I have to say that I look forward every weekend going to the market, not only because I am meeting new people and repeat customers, but because I get entertained by my two neighbours, Sharon and Peter and his wife (who was not there yesterday - we missed her!).  Peter does custom t-shirts and it is hard not to make a purchase from him every Saturday that I am there!  Check out his Hammer t-shirts - they are a big hit with super reasonable prices.  Then there is my other neighbour - the super talented Sharon, who does one of a kind art work on glass and tiles.  All three of us are ready for you to come by and do some Christmas shopping!

Holiday Shows

There will be some changes to our dates that we will be in the Hamilton Market Cart program which runs alongside the Farmer's Market at Jackson Square.   An update:
We will not be there on the following dates:  November 16, 23 and 30.  Pura Vida Spa...ahh! will be at the following:

Brampton Downtown Development Corporation's (BDDC) Christmas Market
(sponsored by Lowes)
November 14 – 17, 2013
November 14, 15: Thursday and Friday:  4:00pm – 9:00pm
November 16: Saturday:  12:00pm – 10:00pm
November 17: Sunday: 10:00am – 4:00pm

Mrs. V's Preserves Made By Hand Holiday Market

Over 10 different vendors 

November 22nd from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
November 23rd from 10:00am to 2:00pm
November 24th from 10:00am to 2:00pm
15242 Creditview Road, Caledon

(2nd house south of Olde Base Line on the west side)

Caroline's Crafty Corner #1 - DIY ottoman

So, as the owner and creative director of Pura Vida Spa..ahh!  I have always kept this blog about Pura Vida.  But today, I am going to personalize it a bit, and maybe even have re occurring Caroline’s Crafty Corner posts.  I am going to tell you about a project that I recently did.  Feel free to comment (or not) on what you think about it.  So I have this coffee table which I don’t really love, but it does the job of doing what a coffee table should do.  I recently got this toy for my son who is 14 months that has a suction cup on the bottom of it, so that you can spin this wheel thingy.  I suction cupped it to my coffee table, and lo and behold one day he pulled it off.  Well, the faux marble came off and now the table has a piece of faux marble missing from it making it look very ghetto.  Furthermore, my son just whacked his face off one of the corners of this table and two days later, looks like he has a black eye, but that’s another story.  I decided to turn this ugly looking coffee table into an ottoman.   

This project cost me all of ten bucks – partly because I already had most of the material from another crafty project (made my own headboard).  So what you need for this crafty project is:

 

·         a staple gun (the kind you plug in – borrowed from my dad so again, no cost)

·         Foam padding (bought this at Walmart, supposed to be the foam pad for a twin bed.  You can buy from Fabricland or any other fabric store, but it was more expensive, and this does the trick!)

·         Batting (this I did buy from Fabricland)

·         Fabric Adhesive (I have Elmer’s Multipurpose Spray Adhesive because you can use it with fabrics, metal, wood , cork – a whole slew of items)

·         Your fabric of choice (make sure you measure enough to cover the table and be stretched over to the underside so that you can staple it)

Ok, so I cut the foam to the size of the table.  As I used leftovers from my headboard, this was not one solid piece but rather different lengths cut and put together to cover the table. (you would have thought I would have taken a picture, but, I forgot!).  You spray the adhesive on the table and then stick the foam on.  The adhesive is kind of stinky, so open a window up and don’t have your fourteen month old in there inhaling this stuff for a while.  Cut batting so that it covers the foam and table completely but can also be stretched to the underside of the table where you will staple it.  Staple it making sure to pull the batting taut.   Do the same for the fabric.  Stretch it over the batting and pull it taut to the underside and staple it.  Watch your fingers!  The corners were a little bit tricky, I ended up carefully folding in and pulling it tight to the underside.  The underside, let me tell you, is a hot mess.  Good thing you don’t see it.  Finally, I got my dear husband to cut the legs down to size so it is more of an ottoman where we can rest our feet.  Voila!  Photos below…good idea? Well, now….where do I put my coffee and beer???  I am going to look for a tray tonight that can be placed on the ottoman for just that purpose!  Let me know what you think!

 

 

Back at the Market!

Back at the market today!  We have a new t-shirt vendor sharing our space.  I bought a very cool ‘THE HAMMER” shirt from him.  We are now getting ready for the Christmas season and Pura Vida has just finished making two new batches of soap – one a new scent and one a top seller (Spiced Mandarin, made with French green clay and oatmeal – great for your face).  Both of them smell like Christmas! We will be putting together a stocking stuffer package of EXCELLENT value:  the two Christmas smelling soaps plus a sample size hempseed lavender hand and body lotion for $10.00.  What a bargain – it’s like getting the hand and body lotion for free! 

Pura Vida has also just finished making another batch of soap made with sake kasu/lees from the Ontario Spring Water Sake company.  This is our third year in business with the sake company and we are proud to be their supplier of sake soap.  Check out some of the pictures.

Locke Street Festival!!!

What a day - rain, rain, go away, come again another day!  But people from the Hammer are troopers!  I was surprised to see such a lot of people braving the rain and chilly weather.  In the final hours of the festival, the sun did come out.  Many thanks to BITTEN for the nice dump of water I got whilst in line for an Eastwood cupcake....that's ok though, I did get two FREE ones as a result of being sopping wet!  Sharon, my tent mate, kept the jokes coming so the day was fun despite the weather.  I also met a lot of great new customers who promised to make it to the Artist Market at Jackson Square.  FYI:  Pura Vida Spa...ahh! will NOT be there, Saturday September 14, 2013, but we will see you the following week!