Tape

I found some really cute tape while I was walking around Ottawa this weekend. These were found from a store called the Papery and it's located in the Glebe. Don't let the website fool you, the shop is adorable. The site does not do it justice.

How cute are these? Little cherries on one roll and food on the other. When I saw the serving of fries saying "Hi!" I was sold...

The Glebe

In the series "things I never knew until I bumped into them", there's a part of town in Ottawa called the Glebe. I ended up there last Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It doesn't seem like very large area, but it was very picturesque.

We had brunch at Von's Bistro. A cute little restaurant with funky decor. If you're in the neighbourhood, I recommend walking around for a bit. There were some very cute shops, restaurants and quaint little buildings.

Have you been to the Glebe?

Back home from Ottawa

Like mentioned, I was in Ottawa for the weekend. The main purpose of the trip was to make prototypes for the upcoming wedding and I have to say we did extremely well. We managed to make several prototypes of things that will, for sure, make it to the wedding. Of course, this means there's not a whole lot to show you yet.

There was plenty of cutting, measuring, gluing and designing going on. These are the only photos I can show you right now...

The weekend was a blast. How could you not love making stuff all weekend? Oh, combine crafting with eating and drinking well and it gets even better.

See, add these to the crafting table and you're good for hours!

I took some photos from around Ottawa when we went for brunch on Sunday, I'll post those soon.

P.S. If you are craftily inclined and if you live in a place that gives you access to a Michaels craft store (Quebec does not have one, yet. I hear one is opening up though...), you might want to drop by. We went in for materials for our prototypes and found out almost everything was 40% off. Check if this sale applies to your local shop! This is a good time to stock up! Just saying...

Questionable trending

As much as I love following fashion and trends, every now and then I run into a few that leave me confused or even baffled. By this I don't mean that something looks good, but I wouldn't try it out myself (which happens all the time) but those WTF moments...

The latest one of those is the clear shoes.

Don't know what that is? No worries: clear shoes are exactly what they sound like. Shoes made out of completely see-through, clear material. A.k.a. plastic.

This is the predecessor of the somewhat recent rise (or attempt at least) of the see-through bag/purse/clutch. (Which, like with this one, I applaud the idea, but am baffled by the execution for two reasons: 1) your bag has to be extremely organized and not have random crap like receipts floating around and 2) wouldn't that show the potential purse thief exactly what's in there and if its worth stealing?)

Photos from here, here and here

Now, I can actually appreciate the novelty of this. I really can. They do create a very interesting visual and can look pretty funky when done right. (and to clarify, I am talking about the recent updates to this type of shoes, not their predecessor, the proverbial stripper-heel)

What I don't understand is the execution and practicality of this. Without getting too graphic, I will skip the more... umm... life-like (!) examples and just say this:

Since these are plastic (or some other presumably water resistant material) and most often worn on bare feet, what happens when it rains?

I mean think about it... What will these look like when water gets on the inside of the shoe? Let alone wearing these when it's warm outside combined with rigorous walking around? I don't even want to mention attending an outside music festival/concert... I'm sure you catch my drift...

Where did this come from? Presumably Prada spring 2010. I know it wasn't started there, but those got the most visibility. In all honesty, I was baffled by those shoes. Especially the ones with the chandelier look. However, all was soon forgiven since the Prada Fall 2010 shoes were phenomenal. I still dream of them! Anyhow, the plastic/PVC/Lucite shoes needed a bit of time to digest, but looks like they are coming. Check street style blogs and see that the culprit is Cheap Monday SS2011. Marc Jacobs had some in the SS12 collection. Looks like this time it might come for real...

Ottawa

So, I mentioned that this weekend there will be a lot of crafting going on. What I didn't mention was that this crafting will take place in Ottawa. I am in the wedding party for an upcoming wedding this fall and have promised to help out with some wedding related crafting. Now, since I know that (at least) two people who will get an invite to the wedding are also reading this blog (Hi guys!), I will not at this point say more about the crafting.

Now, there will be some prototyping going on, so I can probably show something that will not make the cut and is therefore safe to post here for public ridicule. Don't get your hopes up though, as it has happened before, that the bride-to-be and yours truly end up too distracted to actually get any proper crafting done, so it's also very possible that there will be no actual results to show.

Anyway, this is to let you know I am in Ottawa for the weekend and will return again next week with more random posts. I have scheduled a few posts while I'm away and if I happen to get a free moment or have something good to share, I'll do that as I see fit.

Have a great weekend!

Photos in this post are from my first ever trip to Ottawa in 2006 after I had just moved to Canada. It was very rainy that day.