bruno canadien’s Neighborhood

Thanks to our buddy Filmcans over at ye old TCR we've decided to move our blogging over to wordpress.

If you want to read more about the shop and our day to day take on running it, visit www.buttonempire.com

Blue Robot

Our robot may be sad but we're dead chuffed that we sold this painting on Friday.

He's not nearly as detailed as our other robot paintings and in that sense he reminds me of the work I did in college. The painting is very loose, with very heavy lines, nice thick paint and it was done pretty fast.

There is a sad little story that goes with this one.

From the listing...

"So sad.

Sent out from the City to chart unknown territory.

All alone.

If they knew how lonely Robot would feel they would have sent someone with It.

So sad."

Aw. Poor Robot!

But he won't be lonely anymore, will he?

Enjoy your new home Blue Robot! You go in the post today...

So long for now,

A~

Post Office Blues

Not much time to "blarg" today.

I am scheduled to put in an appearance at my "real" job and as usual, I have a tonne of stuff to pack for my other "real" job.

I like working at ye old HCV most days, but today I'm having allergies and I feel kinda tired.

*sniff, sniff...sneeze*.

I could easily stay home and chill in my pjs.

Oh well. We soldier on...the peeps are expecting me and I do have a few customers who adore me, so that will make it okay I hope.

 I'm going to quickly rant about various Post Offices.

 They are driving me insane.

This week "R" down at the local PO told "B" that I needed to add a Small Parcel sticker to EVERY button order going across the border.

It's a bloody huge thing, that I fill out at home to save "B" time at the PO. 

Filling this form out adds a good 5 minutes to the packing process.

I loathe it.

 Supposedly I needed it the whole time, but the ladies were doing me a solid by leaving it off.

No more. We've been found out!

Curses!

I would say more, but I can't..."They" could be listening in...shhhhhhhh...

*sniff, sniff, sneeze*

A~

I Ride

When we awoke this morning and opened the shop (ie:logged into our etsy account) we found a convo waiting for us.

A nice peep from a major fashion mag based in the EU requested we send some nice, high res. photos for their perusal.

Turns out, they're working on an article on Bikes and somehow  this set of three   made their way into this nice peeps line of vision.

We think that is pret-ty cool.

Maybe, just maybe, our pins will be featured in a sassy article about babes and their bikes.

We dig Bikes. We *always* wear a helmet though.

A brain is a terrible thing to leave all beat up on the shoulder.

We have a cool helmet though. That's the key.

You can be a delish Bike babe *and* protect your uber cool brain all at once.

All right, lecture over. I know, I'm a bit intense on the helmet thing.

But I have a longtime friend who did a goodish stint in brain damage rehab and trust me, if you can avoid it, you want to. I am so passionate about protecting the world's noggins that I used to give local kids a quarter everytime I saw them riding with a properly done up helmet.

It was a nice program, but it was paid for by me, and only me.

Thank heavens they changed the laws here in AB to make it mandatory for youth to have their helmet on, because, frankly, some of those little monsters figured out how to work the system and it cost me a fortune.

On that note, I've got a tonne of cat chores to do and lunch to make and a vacuum of the old headquarters wouldn't go awry...so, like they say in Italy,

Ciao Bella!

A~

Happy Festivus

Just in time for the post ( we hope! ) a cool etsian bought us out of this devilishy witty card that we made with our gocco printmaker.

I wanted to capture the simplicity of the holiday in the rendering of the aluminum pole and I think I hit the mark, if I do say so myself.

I *adore* typewriter font and use it most everything I do when it comes to cardmaking. I guess that goes back to my youth as a young "punk rocker".

Can you be 11 and be a "punk rocker"?

It's tough, esp. when your Mom makes you wear Sears Roughrider jeans, 'cause you play like a boy!

 Anyhoo, back OT...Festivus cards that sell out on the interwebs make us Happy. We'll put more up next year, should Fate decree it.

Happy Humpday,

A~

About 30 Envelopes Ready To Go.

We ship most items the day after they're purchased, just as soon as we recieve payment.

But not on Fridays as the local PO is closed on Saturdays.

This means that Mondays have 3 days of purchases to pack and ship out.

Thanks to the uber popularity of our "I'd Rather Be Smooching..." series, that makes for a lot of orders.

Here is a photo that doesn't quite do the volume justice. I started packing at 7:30 and I finished at 10:45.

Of course there were breaks to make tea, find Gus a busy ball, take Gus off the blinds, put Gus on his lead outside, get wood, stoke the fire and put a batch of Tabouli on to chill for lunch.

But still...it was Busy Busy Busy.

And we've had a couple of wholesale orders today, so it ain't over yet...no rest for the wicked...heh heh.

Happy Monday,

A~

Skullys from squidglass

We recieved the most delightful gift from etsy's premier glass fusion hipster, the luverly "squidglass", yesterday evening. A tin full o' skully bead coolness!

 We LOVE these little skullies!

Our buddy over at janedean.etsy.com and I did a trade way back when for a necklace she made with one of squid's little skulls.

We loved it so much, we wore it everyday.

This everyday wearing forced us to go back to janedean for more sugar, and she came through in pink.

But we wanted a blue themed necklace.

Badly!

So we went back to squidglass and made enquiries, hoping to make the purchase of a blue skully bead. What does that little  cephalopod angel do, but send us all the skully's that would fit in the cool little tin that arrived in our PO box last evening.

Thanks squid-g.

You rock.

On this rather happy note, I say...

Happy Weekend Y'all,

A~

meren/esty seller

Somedays I get to thinking about the folks down south still living in FEMA trailers.

For some reason, I am particularly able to connect with them in my imagination.

I think it has to do with being a homemaker.

I empathize with their lack of space and foundation...no gardens, no storage, no security...no Home.

I know I would be close to insane by now.

This always gets me to thinking, we who aren't living in a FEMA trailer take so much for granted.

And that is such a cliche I know, but it's a cliche backed by Truth with a capitol T.

Anyhoo, I won't ramble. Just one of those days I guess. Usually I get this way after watching PBS' NOW on Sunday mornings.

About the photo. It's a piece by etsy seller meren. I like this man's work. And I like his humbleness. Somehow, maybe that humbleness is what makes his photos better than ordinary.They're playful images, crisp like good apples, and I want to bite into them all.

Too bad I don't have any wall space...maybe next year, eh.

Ciao,

A~

Shangmi

A~