Even more antiques! Aberfoyle Antiques Market

Antiques again! Yes, I know. Don't care. Planning on going to the St Lawrence antique market on Sunday morning.

My Mom and I hit up the Aberfoyle Antiques Market last week and were blessed with some beautiful weather and some great finds! I was even able to replace the small pyrex bowl my roommate accidentally broke recently. By far the best find though, was a daguerreotype that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Haggled it down to $35! The case isn't in the best shape, and because I haven't photographed it yet, I will show you that later, but the image itself is really clear. I was pretty happy with that find.

Every Sunday from late April until the end of October, the Aberfoyle Antiques Market never fails to impress. This market focuses more on furniture, knick knacks, jewelry, kitchen and housewares. There are a few clothes vendors, more so this years than previous years, but this is a "housewares" market more so than clothes. Prices are generally lower like a flea market, and haggling is almost mandatory. Both my Mom and I have gotten many treasures over the years, slowly redecorating rooms and adding to collections. The field where the market is hosted is really well organized, and has actual bathrooms. Huge bonus so far as I'm concerned.

More antiques at the Junction flea

Last weekend I got up far too early on a Sunday to go to the third installment of the Junction Flea Market near Dundas and Keele. I figured with all the pictures from Osheaga and The Little Shop from last week, this little market needed its own post to not get lost.

 
The Junction Flea is a brand new little market in Toronto, featuring a "curated" selection of vendors of vintage, antiques and new designs from the neighborhood and surrounding environs. I managed to catch the second market last month, and there is one last one this summer on the 9th of September, so see you Sunday!

Held in a vacant lot just east of Dundas and Keele, the Junction Flea features antiques, vintage clothes and accessories, Toronto designers, a few food options, a fortune teller and a great business called The Tintype Studio. Run by a graduate of the PPCM program and some friends, the Tintype Studio shoots tintype portraits for a one of a kind likeness.  I stole from photos from a Globe and Mail article about the flea, and the studio, since I didn't take that many while I was there.

The two above photos are by Kalpna Patel, and were stolen from this article.

The last market netted me some wonderfully kitschy tea towels and a photograph of a bear from the 60s, and this month's found a very large cabinet card of a bride and her bridesmaids from probably 1900. I'm looking forward to the next flea, and Aberfoyle this weekend!!! Pictures to come of one of my favorite markets ever.

Osheaga Recap

I just sent in another draft of my thesis. If this one doesn't cut it, I may have to stab myself with something. Entirely with frustration, not grief. This pack of 40 odd pages of drivel is slowly driving me nuts...

Moving on!

Osheaga was awesome! I managed not to get sunburned and got some shopping and museuming into the weekend. Complete success. Picture time! And a super heavy picture post for the bonus.

First, the festival. The weather held out for us until Sunday afternoon. I had packed my rain jacket and umbrella, which sadly didn't do much for the mud that ran all the way up to my thighs by the end of the day. It was like Glastonbury North (I'm going on what other people tell me about Glastonbury, having never been). I barely took any pictures since I was rocking out most of the time. Highlights were definitely Florance + the Machine and Metric, especially the lullaby acoustic version of Gimme Sympathy. Amazing.

 Fuzzy Florence!! She doesn't hold still much.

Snoop Lion made an appearance.

 Osheaga Hill.

Little muddy after the rain...

M83, very late at night.

As per usual with vacations like this, the much better photos of the festival were taken by my friend Rob, who got a press pass this year and was able to bring the good camera. Check him out, but don't steal his photos, on his flickr feed.

Museum time!

The McCord, one of my favorites.

 The Mary Pickford exhibition, that was actually in Toronto at the TIFF, but I completely missed it due to school. It features posters, playbills, artifacts, costumes and several clips from her movies in a telling of her life, before, during and after the screen.

Moose. And some trees.

And then there this place. The Little Shop was fairly unassuming as I came around the corner from the Metro. But holy crap the inside...

It... just kept going! Vintage and antiques as far as the eye can see! That first picture is from inside the bathroom. You have to push through a lot of stuff to get there, but there is a working bathroom. A stuffed first floor, crammed basement and an overflowing top floor has been under the watchful eye of Jill, the Little Shop's owner, who will get you to sit down for some teas and cookies after your purchase. I think I was still in shock of much of a handle she had on everything in there. A stylist came in while I was there looking for specific material, and Jill found it for him in a second. The Little Shop is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from 2-5pm on those days. Exclusive much?

I lucked out with a dress, a walrus broach made of either bone or ivory (not sure which), and Fred. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him, but he had to come back to Toronto with me. I don't think he liked the suitcase very much, but my options weren't great for return travel.


 And this is the only food I took a picture of. I kind of suck at this. Bite Me. We were hungry.

And this is Rob and girlfriend being cutesy with their PDA. Just makes you want to barf in the corner doesn't it? I love you guys.

Counting down to Montreal, Osheaga and maybe a Fab Gabs win?

Handed in one of the last drafts of my thesis on Monday. I am now ignoring all emails, especially ones from my reader. (insert smiley emoticon here)

I am now going to celebrate by gettin' the hell out of dodge, and packing my bags for Montreal! I get on a bus far too early Friday morning and hit the city around noon. I've got my list of restaurants and vintage shops ready to go, went to Bulk Barn this morning for snack and am doing some last minute laundry later today (Thursday). I'm hoping to clean my place up a bit before I go, give the dust a chance to settle while I'm gone!

I have, miraculously, managed to cook a bit in the last little while, inbetween thesising. One of my favorites is a recipe that my mom has made for years in the summer heat. Needs very little cooking and is mostly raw cold veggies, so perfect for this "feels like 40 degrees" crap that we've got going on in Toronto now. I'm sure there is actually a recipe for this at my parents place, I have the tendency to make it up according to what vegetables I have at the time.

Pasta Veggie Salad
(Makes a hell of a lot)

1 to 1 1/2 cups of lightly blanched broccoli florets
2-3 green onions, chopped
1 -2 roma tomatoes (depends how many you like)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
2-3 tablespoons of pesto
450g of rotini (aka half a bag of it when it was dry, whatever that works out to when it's cooked)

-Boil salted water to a rapid boil and lightly blanch the broccoli florets. Remove from water with slotted spoon and either rinse with cold water or place in a bowl surrounded by ice cubes. You may need to drain the florets again after five, ten minutes to get rid of any excess water that drains off of the broccoli.
-Cook pasta until al dente in same water as broccoli. Drain, rinse in cold water and place in bowl (or in a large tupperware, which is probably a better idea since this is going in the fridge anyway and will take days to eat, unless you're having a party of four to five people).
-Chop you veggies, mix with pasta and mix in the pesto.
-Refrigerate for a bit and enjoy!

I also threw a few a hotdogs in the pasta water to make a dinner version. I love hotdogs. I am not ashamed of that sentence.


Two random things: Friday was the going away party for one of my American friends and classmates since classes have ended and thesising are more or less done. This is a blurry picture of two of my other classmates, and Tipsy the Moose, the mascot of the evening. May she travel well into America.

Second side note: Fab Gabs of Etsy fame now has their own website! And they're doing a contest for a gift certificate! Fuck to the yeah! 

C'mooooonn, Mama needs some more vintage!

They're are also taunting me with a 30% off sale on a lot of the stuff in the Etsy shop. I missed a dress I would have gotten cheap, but there is still a beautiful 50s bed jacket that is now quite reasonable with shipping.... God I need a job.