Crafting Borne of Boredom
Today I got a lot of little crafty things accomplished. But there was definitely one project that stood out from all the rest.
Ash trays for my deck. Some of my friends like to smoke and need somewhere to put their cigarette butts.
I have a sad, twisted sense of humor as you can see. I’m ok with that.
Take a mini ice cream container or two
Paint over the labels
Come up with something hilarious to put on them
Like "Seymour Butts"
Or "I Like Big Butts"
I’d say that the butt-catchers were more satisfying than the ice cream. The ice cream kinda sucked, I just threw mine in the sink. (If you want your own butt-catchers you can get the Skinny Cow ice creams for free if you like their Facebook page and print out the coupon!)
The Big Idea
I haven’t been around much lately, but for good reason this time.
I have been spending my funemployment time working on a business idea that I hope to launch in the next couple of months.
After much soul-searching, I decided to take a break from the corporate world and do something that I really wanted to do. Truthfully, that would be travelling and adventuring but I don’t have the money. So instead I thought I’d finally get my act together and become an entrepreneur.
I was always the persuasive kid selling something — lemonade, cut flowers, anything I could get my hands on to make some money. In high school I ran a web design business with my friend and actually turned a profit. I also ran a Junior Achievement company and also turned a profit there. I was invited to an exclusive business camp for young adults, even though I had never taken any business courses. I excelled in college as well (Faculty of Business, of course!) and graduated with a 4.0 and a bunch of awards and recognitions.
I always knew I would end up working for myself, but somewhere between college and my dreams I got sidetracked, and sucked into the corporate world. I’ll be honest here, it didn’t really suit me. I was always chafing at the restrictions and felt like I was never valued. I didn’t get to be creative or really grow all that much. It just really wasn’t a good fit.
Being laid off/quitting my last job may have been a blessing in disguise. I didn’t “die” like I thought I would, and was given a chance to really think about what I wanted to do with my life. Do I want to be another cog in a machine, or do I want to strike out on my own and make history–if only in my small circle of friends?
I think you know where this is going.
Long story short, I am currently working with the Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) to apply to the Ontario Self Employment Benefit Program (OSEB). Essentially OSEB pays your living expenses for 42 weeks while you undergo intense business/entrepreneurship training and get your business off the ground. For the past month I have been hustlin’ and bustlin’ to get all the paperwork filled out, meetings attended, etc. so I can get myself into this program. For this point in my life it would be a real boon to be part of it.
And you know what? I have an absolutely excellent chance to get in. My drive to succeed, marketing and business know-how and interest in all the workings has already set me apart from everyone else I have met at the TBDC who are also applying. I’ve got an edge, and I’m going to make this happen no matter what.
So what is my big idea?
Not so big, really. And not totally unique, either (there is more risk in completely unique ideas vs. an established model with a twist). I’m opening an online store that will cater to folks like you and me who love creative, crafty things, handmade stuff, or just plain cool stuff. Jewellery, housewares, accessories, books, whatever seems right will be sold in the store.
I’ll be curating the collection and working closely with the artisans to bring the best stuff to the front. There will be a blogging/community component and the model will be beneficial to both myself (the business) and the artisans I work with.
There are still a lot of details to work out (including the name!), but going through this program will help me craft a realistic business plan to seek funding if I need it. After this program (or during, since I’m so eager!) I’ll hook up with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation and see if I can get a loan and/or mentor from them. Other avenues will also be explored.
Right now, I am putting together a presentation for my final evaluation on Friday. I have to present some topline research and my business idea. This is where I need your help!
I have created a quick online survey to get some demographic and psychographic information on my potential market… aka YOU. The anonymous data will help me with my case, and will also show me what my customers really want. I’ve even thrown in a few name choices!
PLEASE, help me by filling out the survey and passing it onto your friends and family.
It doesn’t matter what country you’re from since I’ll be online. Any age or gender is ok!
To make things easy for you, the link is here: http://svy.mk/lXxJxr
And if you would like to help out by tweeting/posting as well, here you go:
I’m helping @gingercorsair create an awesome business! U can contribute too with this quick survey! http://svy.mk/lXxJxr
As I said, the more people that fill this out, the more it will help me understand you and what you would like to see from my store. The survey includes a brief summary of the idea (which may change!) and is completely anonymous.
As added incentive, when I launch this business, I’ll be doing my big “reveal” as well. You’ll be able to meet the real me, see my face and everything. No more hiding behind anonymity anymore!
…but this only happens if and when I get this puppy off the ground. Let’s do this!
The Benefits of Freecycling!
I’m not sure how many of you are already familiar with the Freecycle organization, but I thought I’d post this to show that it works!
From their website:
The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,949 groups with 8,506,854 members around the world. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them’s good people). Membership is free.
It’s a really awesome idea and it works! I’ve been freecycling for years, both getting rid of stuff and finding stuff. A lot of it is in decent condition, and I like to think that it’s a bit less sketchy than the craigslist free ad section.
Today I totally scored and got the following:
That’s 41 mason jars for me to use for canning this year! What an awesome deal! All I had to do was pick them up. I posted an ad yesterday and someone answered it right away. Today I picked the jars up and saved about $42 by doing so.
Saving money, saving the environment… works for me!
Check out the link above to find your local Freecycle group and sign up. It’s definitely worth a gander.
I’m so excited about these jars, I can’t wait to put them to use with all the preserving I’m going to do with my friends this year! I think I should consider keeping a tally of how many jars I fill this time around, it’s starting to get legendary!
Om Nom Nom
I’m a little late to the game with this post, but for good reason! Considering the cold rainy weather we’ve been having, it didn’t seem appropriate to talk about summertime frozen treats like this Nestle Mini Drumstick I’m about to devour.
The classic - double chocolate with nuts!
But with that 2-day heatwave (in which I nearly perished) this week, the time seemed right.
A few weeks ago Nestle sent me a couple of boxes of these adorable little mini Drumsticks. They’re like the big ones we all know from our childhood, except itty bitty!
After finishing off 2 boxes of these things I think I can comment on a few of their features.
Things I like:
- They are so cute and little and adorable! You just want to eat them up! (Which I suppose is the point!)
- They are portion-controlled so you don’t have to feel guilty afterwards
- They are small enough for little kids and aren’t as hard to eat as their larger brethren
Things I don’t like:
- They are a little too cute and tiny. You may find yourself easily mowing down on 3 of them if you’re not careful
- They tend to melt a lot faster than the normal ones
- I feel guilty producing so much garbage from the packaging
- The quality/taste is a little lacking compared to the big ones
Ultimately I think they’re a decent entry into the portable ice-cream section of the grocery store, and I think they’d be great for an event like a birthday party or something. Or ya know, just ‘cuz. I definitely enjoyed my boxes.
What summer treat are you most looking forward to?
Tea Party Fashion 2011
Haha people are after me already to post photos of the tea party outfits. I aim to please!
Here are the fashion choices my guests made this year! Personally I think everyone looked awesome. The challenge was to use their existing wardrobe and come dressed in their interpretation of “tea party”. I am thrilled with the results!
My friend came as a member of the tea party in the US... LOL
Tea Party Success!
Well, it went pretty great on Saturday!
Everyone (except for Ellie) showed up late, which was fine by me since once again I was late this year! Folks started arriving before I was dressed and had the scones done… AGAIN.
Oh well. New tradition?
The menu included 15+ kinds of tea to choose from (10 of them were from David’s Tea… check them out! Chocolate Rocket was the big winner that day) 4 kinds of tea sandwiches, an assortment of petit fours, my signature strawberry panna cotta, and of course, homemade scones and jams, with Devon (clotted) cream.
Here are some photos with my new camera (omg I love it!) for you all!
The Tea Bar
The view from above
- Petit fours tray
The buffet
Delicious scones!
Close up on a plate of treats
A tradition: Strawberry-Yogurt Panna Cotta
Let the party of tea commence!
Tea Party Deux!
It’s baaaaaack!
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, I am hosting the Second annual spring tea party this weekend!
Some of you may recall my series of tea party posts from last year (if you don’t, go check them out!). It was such a hit that all year I kept being asked if I would hold another and if I would invite so-and-so…
As a result, this year’s party has doubled in size and I am very excited!
I’ve learned a little bit from last year, too. This time around I am asking for (and more importantly, accepting) help from my friends. Everyone is contributing something which takes a lot of stress off of me. I still have to decorate & bake and clean and cook, but it will be so much less. Maybe this year I’ll actually be dressed when the guests start arriving!
So, taking into consideration what I learned from last year, I am starting early with the preparations. Today I began work on the strawberry panna cotta I will be serving, and am pulling together all the odds & ends needed to set the table:
Freshly cleaned, time to make puree!
I love my immersion blender
Panna cotta base chilling, the puree will be gelled on top later!
Pulling together the odds & ends for the table
Once the panna cotta has set, I’ll use the strawberry puree and make a jelly to go on top. It’s incredible.
Once again this year I have challenged everyone to come dressed in their interpretation of “tea party”. I have a male guest this year too, so I’m really looking forward to seeing all the outfits!
Stay tuned for more details & photos, I promise I’ll actually post! I have a fancy new Canon Powershot S95 camera to play with!
Long Weekend Wrap-up
Just so you don’t think I’m all about the negative stuff (see my last post), this weekend I also had two instances of excellent service.
This is one of my favourite shops and is one of my inspirations for my own business I’m launching (more details soon!). The place is jam-packed with just plain old awesome stuff. I can get bacon band-aids there, spiffy water bottles, hard-to-find boutique skin care lines, funny greeting cards and all kinds of awesome. I used to work in the area and would go there almost every day at lunch to shop & look around (Hi, Jett!).
I stopped in this weekend while out with a gal pal and met some of their new sales staff. Maggie was really great and helped me pick out a new business card case. She didn’t pressure me to buy anything and actually spoke to me like a person rather than just a “customer”. I felt like I had a great shopping experience and I’m glad it lived up to my past experiences with the store. It’s all about consistency!
You can follow The Outer Layer on Twitter @theouterlayer or visit their site here.
2. Starbucks @ Yonge & Shuter St.
On my way home from seeing Bridesmaids with some friends I popped in for a latte. The gal there was totally pleasant and explained the differences between a couple of drinks to me. I ended up ordering one and she gave it to me for free! She said that “it was an experiment” for me, so no charge. Totally awesome. I thought I was just getting a free flavour shot, not the whole drink!
A very nice end to the weekend. There is still hope that good service exists out there!
Have you had any great or horrible service lately?
Just say NO to MoRoCo
Just came back from a lovely night with fellow bloggers Krystal and The Asian Pear. We started in Yorkville with dinner at Ginza which had good service, followed by MoRoCo Chocolat which had terrible service.
Let me share my experience with you so you can decide where to spend your money next time you’re in Yorkville. Hopefully it won’t be at Moroco.
I’ve been to Moroco numerous times. It’s a little expensive, but I love the atmosphere and the chocolate is pretty good too. It’s a real fun experience for a date or girl’s night out. It’s also great for an office Christmas party. Oh yes. I got my office to have their party there this year and it was awesome! We had everything on the chocolate menu and unlimited champagne and lattes. Go big or go home, I say.
Every time the staff was attentive, the food delicious and presented nicely.
But not this time.
Tonight we stopped by for a few tasty treats including macarons, frozen hot chocolate and French sipping chocolate. Our bill was near $50 for the 3 of us.
We seated ourselves on the half-full patio and ordered our items. We had no problems getting our food, but afterwards, oh my! It was atrocious!
As we were finishing up, gabbing away and enjoying ourselves (it was a lounge, after all) the downward spiral began. Let me illustrate it via a list of strikes against Moroco.
Strike #1
Normally when I order the sipping chocolat, I swap out the truffle for a macaron. In the past this has never been an issue, but this time the waitress said it was not possible at all (not even if I paid more) and I was stuck with a truffle. I don’t really like them and was surprised that she was so brusque about it.
Strike #2
The waitress cleared our dishes away before asking if we were done or if we wanted anything else. Had she asked, I would have actually ordered some more macarons.
Strike #3
The bill was dumped on our table far too soon, and we felt like we were being pushed out. We ignored it for a while while we were enjoying our remaining drinks, but the waitress kept coming back and huffing every time she saw there was no money sitting with the bill. Finally she came back and told us that there was a 30 minute limit for sitting on the patio if you’re only ordering drinks. She said this was written on the menu and that there were other reservations coming in.
There are several problems with this.
- It’s a LOUNGE. People go there to LOUNGE while they eat and drink. Why is there such a short time limit for this? Why wasn’t this actually printed on the menu? Here’s a screenshot from their site:
Notice how they refer to themselves as a lounge & tout the MoRoCo experience
If we just wanted a cheap & quick coffee drink we would have gone to Tim Horton’s! Why would we pay $50 to be rushed out?? - The patio was nearly empty, and there were other patrons having nothing but drinks who were there far longer than we were. Why was our small party singled out? We weren’t being loud or unruly, and we were dressed well.
- I didn’t order a drink at all, but one of their specialties from the menu. Even if there was some kind of rule, I would have been exempt on that technicality. It also wasn’t nearly as good as last time.
- If they really did have a reservation, they could have politely asked us to move to another table. We would have obliged, but this was never brought up. We were rudely told to leave, instead.
Strike #4
The final strike was like salt in the wound. We looked at the bill to find that we were charged the group gratuity rate of 18.5% on our order. Outrageous! We weren’t even a group or large party, there were only 3 of us!
According to their own menu, there is a gratuity charge, but only for groups of 6 or more. When did 3 become 6??
From their own menu, only groups of 6 or more will be charged the gratuity
At that point we were livid. We went out for a good time and some luxurious treats and instead were treated like we were scum. I was SO embarrassed since I had recommended this place! What a great impression of Toronto/Yorkville to give Krystal on her first visit to the area.
We decided not to pay the stupid automatic gratuity (and why the hell was it so high!?!?) and just paid the bill plus a small tip since we’re not misers. I also left a note on the bill explaining that it was unacceptable to charge us the tip in advance AND kick us out after only 30 minutes. After that we high-tailed it out of there, afraid that the waitress would come chasing after us when she saw the small tip. (Did I mention that the money hadn’t been on the table for more than a minute before she swooped in like a vulture and scooped it up???)
I am really disappointed by this whole experience. I really want to like Moroco, I really do! But if this is the way they are treating their loyal customers these days, then I guess my romance with fancy chocolate is over.
I just can’t get over our treatment. Here we are being snubbed by a waitress at a fancy establishment. HELLO. OBVIOUSLY WE CAN AFFORD TO BE HERE since, ya know, we ARE here.
Think about it, dear readers. Is this a place that YOU would like to visit??
That’s a Wrap!
OMG! Food Network’s Dinner Party Wars called me back! They’re doing a 3rd season after all and the new casting gal found our application in the files and called! (That means 2 people there liked it!)
Me and my bff have our interview with them next Thursday. They’re going to see how well we cook and get along and too see whether we are too crazy (or not crazy enough!).
Wish us luck!!
