Smoking Lily: February 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

We're Hiring!

Do you love Smoking Lily?

Do you have retail sales experience?

Do you have the attitude that no job is too small or too large to fulfill?

Smoking Lily is looking for a full-time sales person to work in the Victoria stores: The Milkman's Daughter and the Wee Flagship Shop. Please forward cover letters and resumes to milk@smokinglily.com.

Lily Inspiration: Leather Scraps

-A pile of patches awaiting silkscreened adornment-

You remember the other day how we got a whole bunch of leather patches and made them into adorable little wallets? Well, even more excitingly we just got all of the scraps that were leftover from when those patches were cut out in the first place! Perfect ovals are fun to work with, but scraps! Scraps of anything are so inviting. They are all oddly shaped just begging to be re-worked into something.

-The extent of our small scrap collection-

I sat down yesterday with Mr. Smith our leather sewing machine and started to see what we could come up with... A patchwork bag perhaps?? The girls joked that I should sew ALL of the scraps into one big piece that we could roll onto a tube. Yeah right. Mr. Smith said that he wouldn't have any part of that.

-The beginning of a patch bag I'm working on-

I am excited to see all the great things that will come out of these boxes of srumpled and cast off bits! Very inspiring indeed!

- Scraps being cut into Cameo Belts-

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Snow Sale!

Aaaack! It snowed in Victoria yesterday and it's cold (well, cold for us!). Cold and slippery enough that our delivery guys may not be picking up the weekend shipment for Vancouver. Really!! I know it's sounds ridiculous, but it has happened on previous snow days.

So, in order to ensure that you have some fun times ahead sifting through awesome Lily garments this weekend we've decided to have a SNOW SALE! Select end of season items will be 50% off! And to be fair about the whole thing The Milkman's Daughter in Victoria is joining in on the sale (and yes, we are extending this offer to you lovely mail order customers as well!).

The sale will be in effect Friday through Sunday only. Here are some of the deals available:

Nightingale Capelet reg $102 sale $51

Button Skirt reg $126 sale $63

Wanderluxe Sweater reg $82 sale $41

Portobella Skirt reg $114 sale $57

Nightie! reg $78 sale $39

Velvet Pothole Skirt reg $72 sale $36

Limited colours and sizes available! See you soon!

Spring Weather

These photos were taken on Tuesday at Spanish Banks (namesake of our new wallet) in Vancouver.

How's that for a Springy vista? Sunshine on one shore, thick clouds and rain on the other. Ominously beautiful I thought.

I didn't think I wanted a car...

It has been 6 years since I last owned a motor vehicle. My ancient yet reliable mountain bike, my heavy yet cute cruiser bike and my own two feet have happily been my primary modes of transportation for that period of time. Living close to work helped stave off the need for anything more substantial than sweat powered locomotion. Then an offer presented itself....

My Dad bought himself a retirement present 7 years ago, this red Honda Del Sol. He had fun bombing around in the summers in the zippy convertible, as did anyone buckled into the passenger seat! Then, a couple of months ago, he and his wife decided that forcing their old bones in and out of a low riding sports car wasn't something they were really looking forward to this summer. The solution? Pass the car onto me!

I have to admit to being a little sceptical about owning a car when we first talked about it. I wasn't sure that I wanted back into the world of a bigger carbon footprint and relationships with car mechanics. I figured the sensible thing to do would be to try it out for a couple of months to see if I wanted it, and if not, I would sell it for them. Made sense to me then, but now, after just two days in the driver seat, I'm pretty sure this little machine is mine - that didn't take long!

But really, how was I supposed to resist, it's so cute!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Vancouver Update Part II!

Hello Vancouver! As promised yesterday, here are some quick (really quick--sorry!) snaps of some of the awesome new things we have in the shop now:

The English Bay Dress in a new, smaller size (x-sm, $62)

The fabulous Mt. Pleasant Top (sm-xlg, $85)! I hear rumours there will soon be an olive colour to go along with the mauve pictured below. (I also hear that the powder blue is almost gone.)

Cute new kid's leggings (sizes 2, 4, and 6, $21)

New pillow case sets with fun new prints and colours ($58/set).

Ivanhoe Bag ($220) with bullets and flowers...hee hee...

New Dingle Ball Pillow with a giant beetle and little foxes running riot ($54).

And last, but not least, we finally have some new colours for the men's tees! The colours turned out kind of crummy in my photo (don't tell Glenda, she hates it when the colours are off!), but they include a bright fushcia, dark grey, light blue, and and olive-y green. Awesome! So far we've just ordered in medium and large sizes--the most popular--to test the waters, but if they're a hit you can expect to see them in small and extra large, too. ($34)

Vancouver Spotlight: Wallets

We like to provide you with ever-changing options for organizing your personal assortment of identification, financial plastic and good ol' fashioned hard currency. Wallets can be fun! Well, at the very least they can be practical and pretty.

Here's our latest creation, the Spanish Banks coin wallet. It has a key-ring so that your coins will be jingling close at hand for parking meters, or for a tray of those fries from the Spanish Banks beach concession stand. I just got one to hang from my new car key (I'll have to post photos of the cutie - can't believe I'm a sports car girl now!).

These cute wallets are made from suede elbow patches! Ingenious - $19.

The Good Wallet continues to make people happy - especially Erin, who loves to show our customers her well-loved wallet in action. Our most beautifully engineered wallet to date has fully divided compartments, a pen holder, lots of room and a wrist strap - $101.

The Pat Wallet is a small, snap closure device that is great for travel, or for everyday use for those of you who like to carry only the essentials - $35.

The Jack Wallet is a larger version of the Pat, with more room to cram (I mean organize) your receipts and that favorite lip gloss. This is Trish's wallet of choice - $55.

Where I Live: Where you can go prawning in February!

Oh West Coast, you can get us down will all the grey and rain, but thankfully you do often provide a great February break, giving us a nice glimpse of Spring.

This past weekend I went over to Vancouver Island to visit my Dad and his wife (Happy Birthday Janet!) in Chemainus. We took advantage of the good weather and headed out on my Dad's boat to seek out some prawns.

* Warning to vegans, vegetarians and the squeamish, we were seeking them out to catch them and feast upon them for dinner*

We launched the boat right in front of my Dad's house (it's on left-hand portion of the pretty coastline) and headed out for a short ride to drop the traps.

We putted over to Tent Island, moored in the bay, watched young eagles soaring, a bald headed eagle chase a seagull until it dropped the fish in it's mouth for the eagle to have for lunch, and a heron swoop and squawk over head. After 2 hours of nature shows and a snack chased down with lovely Sunday afternoon beer (one of my favorite beers), we headed back to check the prawn traps.

They were loaded! Between 60 and 100 prawns in each of the 4 traps.

We had to juggle things about to find a second bucket to hold our haul.

Upon cleaning and sorting the prawns (and counting the 5 we ate raw with soy sauce on the boat) Christopher and I discovered that we had caught a total of 381 prawns!

We served quite the tempura feast that night for Janet's birthday, and had a second amazing seafood dinner the following night in town with friends. Our freezer is well stocked and our minds are full of all the funny, beautiful and happy memories. Oh West Coast, thank you! and thank you too Dad!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Vancouver Update: Awful Films

There are all sorts of new, beautiful things in the shop today, but I forgot my camera! Sorry Vancouver Lily-ites, but you will have to wait until tomorrow for snaps.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share this hilarious series of reviews featured on a film blog site called Videogum: Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time. People write in, suggesting movies they hated, then the guy in charge of the project writes a piece evaluating the film's relative horribleness. They aren't especially grammatically correct, balanced, or lacking in bad language, but they are pretty funny (I found the review of Eat, Pray, Love extra guffaw-inducing...sorry if you liked it. Or the book!). They are also an excellent way to kill time on the internet, particularly if you wade into the comments section, some of which are also pretty funny....

Ok, tomorrow, photos--I promise!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Bill Murray

Our sewing machine repair guy's name is Bill Murray...I know, pretty cool, eh? Well, recently I was searching the web for a sewing notion, and was side-tracked with this photo of the other Bill Murray...

Rides a Bike is a blog dedicated to movie stars and their self-propelled vehicles.

Victoria Update: Tim Hoey Creations

Currently at The Milkman's Daughter, we have a great selection of art pieces created by Tim Hoey. Stop by to see them if you are in the area, or check out his website for more information at www.timothyhoey.com.

Here are a few photos of what we have at the shop: