Hillside or Bust!

I tell you, Craig's List is a fantastic resource.

I managed to nab not one, not two, but THREE tickets to this year's Hillside Music Festival.

All tickets on-line were SOLD OUT! So naturally, I switched into investigative mode and began monitoring the "tickets" section on Craig's List to see if anyone was selling tickets to the event. Well, I was in luck. Many people were selling tickets. Some were selling weekend passes and others were selling day passes. I just wanted 3 Saturday passes. And viola, I found two available tickets from one seller and one sole ticket from another seller.

Next, it was hubbie's turn to do his part. He hopped onto his bike and zipped through the city traffic like a bat outta hell trying to meet up with both sellers. That's my boy! He bought the tickets and now we are sitting pretty waiting to head over to Guelph with some friends for the big event on Saturday.

Good times...good times!!

I've been to the Hillside Music Festival twice before and always look forward to the various FREE workshops, the handmade crafts for sale and the fantastic local food vendors. And let us not forget the music. It's all about the music!! A vast selection of live music on three different stages. You can pick and choose to your heart's content.

I can't wait to chow down on some spicy Indian pakoras and samosas, or maybe I'll have some pierogies instead. For dessert, I'll indulge in some Mapleton's Organic ice cream, or fair trade chocolate or some syrupy baklava. Then, I'll sniff out the handmade soaps, drool over the jewellery and the pottery, join in on a meditation workshop or even a belly dancing workshop (gasp!) and groove to the music out in the hot sun.

The Weather Network says we are in store for rain on Saturday. Oh well, I'll just have to make a mad dash for the food tent yet again - yum! Woodstock has got nothing on this event!

Here's the musical line-up for the weekend:

• Broken Social Scene
• Bell Orchestre (Sunday)
• Black Cabbage
• Born Ruffians
• The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir (Saturday evening)
• Cowboy Junkies (Friday)
• Hawksley Workman (Friday)
• Hayden (Sunday Evening)
• Plants & Animals
• Harry Manx
• Kelly Joe Phelps
• The Sadies
• The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean (early Sunday evening)
• The Acorn
• Joseph Arthur

And for you beer lover's, there is even a beer tent with Canadian beer from local microbreweries. As for me, that's my cue to make another mad dash to the food tent for some iced tea of freshly squeezed lemonade. Cheers!

Disclaimer: Okay, this post is not about anything design related but what the heck, I'll find something at Hillside on Saturday to tie it back to the design theme of this blog.

Bijoux's new jewellery on Etsy

After a bit (who am I kidding) - A LOT of thinking, I decided to give my jewellery shop on Etsy a bit of a makeover. Nothing too major. Just a new banner which I created myself and some new items, like the earrings that you see on the right sidebar.

The rings, although not recently made, have been re-posted on the shop with a new, lower price point. These are the only rings I have in my collection and I won't be making any new ones until these sell, so get 'em while they last.

One of my inspirations for creating new pieces of jewellery, is thinking about exotic, distant lands, that I would like to visit one day: I was inspired by Morocco! I love the use of vivid colours in Moroccan tapestries and home decor. I love Moroccan jewellery. Heck, I even love Moroccan food. I made a necklace with this in mind. I pay homage to Morocco by using an assortment of second-hand beads that I picked up at a flea market over a year ago. These beads just shouted "Morocco!" and so a new necklace was born.

I have only listed 10 items for now but will be adding more to the batch on a regular basis. Coming soon are some new bracelets that I am working on and many more necklaces, some new and some re-structured.

Go ahead, take a peek. Tell me what you think.