UsedEverywhere.com

Playing with rocket balls

Sometimes I feel wistful about olden days, and by oldenI mean the 1970s (egads, I sure am dating myself), when kids were happy to ride their bikes, play baseball and hide and seek until it got too dark to see.

The toys were simpler back then, and perhaps, in a way, more fun. (Agree? Disagree?) Sometimes I just wonder if we kids were more resourceful.

When you were a kid, did you ever play with a dead tennis ball wedged in the cut-off leg of your mother’s old pantyhose? I did, all the time. It was a great toy for something so simple.

1. Take a pair of old pantyhose* and cut off one leg.
2. Push a tennis ball as far up into the toe as far as it will go.
3. Tie end.

* (My mother’s pantyhose came in plastic eggs, remember those? They were called L’eggs. Ha ha.)

Anyway, that’s it. And, if you cut off the other leg, and stuffed it with a second ball, you GOT TWO. Genius!

I bet if you were so inclined, you could tie a ribbon to the end to make a longer, fancier tail, but that was up to you.

For the sake of today’s post I decided to call this invention a rocket ball but I doubt that this was the proper name for it. Was there one? I think we just called it a-tennis-ball-in-your-mom’s-old pantyhose.

Not only was the rocket ball great for winding up like a lasso and for throwing long distances, but we also played with it against a wall, holding the loose end while flinging the ball end wildly all around us. There was a song that accompanied this action – while the ball flew dangerously to either side, above our heads and between our legs – but it eludes me right now.

I was reminded of the rocket ball a couple of summers ago while shopping at a local toy store. I was browsing the section of the store that had loot bag loot; smaller playthings like wind-up toys, dice, paper butterflies, etc. That’s when I saw it. Their version of the rocket-ball toy was about 18 inches long (I’m guessing) and made of brightly-coloured nylon. The toe (or what would normally be the toe if it was made out of old pantyhose) was a little more aerodynamic. It came down into a loose cone shape which was slightly weighted, perhaps filled with some kind of beans. The cone was covered in a layer of foamy material. Maybe so it would hurt less on impact (?). It was pretty lightweight, and I wondered if it had enough heft to go any kind of distance.

I glanced at the price: $1.99. Considering what it was, I totally thought that was a fair price and thought about buying it for the girls.

I didn’t grab it right away, we were there on a birthday-gift buying mission, but I wandered over a second time and took it in my hand for a closer look. I realized I had misread the price. It wasn’t $1.99, it was actually $11.99. Crazy! Twelve bucks for something I could make myself out of a few recycled materials.

I’m going to save my next pair of tights (I have a silvery pair that is well past its prime) and stuff it with a couple of old tennis balls. If the kids don’t play with it, at the very least the dog will get a couple of new toys.

What about you? Did you have a rocketball? What on earth was the rhyme you sung with it? Did you make any of your own toys when you were a kid? If so I’d love to hear about it!

A UsedVictoria Success Story

It’s always nice to hear happy feedback from our UsedEverywhere community. Dee, owner/operator of Icing Hair Design here in Victoria, shared one story with us that was truly incredible, and so I decided to pass it along to you all as well!

Summer of 2009, some relatives of Dee’s moved to Victoria from Ontario with little else but what they could carry – clothing, and some personal belongings. Before the move, Dee and her husband took some initiative to help them get started in their new home, and about three weeks before their arrival started scouring the classified ads on UsedVictoria for items they would need when they got here. They initially aimed for just the basics, just enough to get them through the first stages of living somewhere new. But searching for items to make a home for this family of 5 took hold of Dee and after three weeks of ad searching and contacting people ended up with much more than she first set out to find. From couches to coffee tables, dining room furniture, kitchen appliances, to bunk beds, a crib and more, they had managed to get everything they needed to set up a three bedroom apartment.

Items came from all over Victoria, and even as far away as Shawnigan Lake, Sidney, and Metchosin. Dee said “We got so much more than we expected from many of the people we contacted, once they found out what we were doing… I was amazed at the open generosity that was shown to us – people threw in extra things that they might need, keeping the prices reasonable and giving good quality household items for free!” With Dee’s hardwork and help from you her relative’s move to the Island was made so much easier, and the transition into a new life a very positive experience.

This story is so important to share because it really speaks to the values of UsedEverywhere.com, particularly our goal to foster a sense of community. So from Dee and everyone here as UsedEverywhere.com, a big heartfelt thank you to Victoria and all the other UsedEverywhere.com communities for your continued support and for being there for each other. I’m continually impressed with what amazing people we have in our community! Thank you!

Creative Commons Image Courtesy of The Ticket Collector

Used Around Town: Hunter Gatherer

Hunter Gatherer is an unassuming little store, tucked away in Victoria’s Fan Tan Alley. If not for curious wandering or the big sign out front on the sidewalk, you might not notice this walk-in closet full of vintage apparel.

Owner and operator, Kim McCuaig, took the time to talk to us a little bit about Hunter Gatherer. The store is coming up to its 9th birthday, and was born out of Kim and a friend’s shared, longstanding passion for vintage clothing. Kim’s passion for vintage clothes shows through the collection she has for sale: she strictly stocks the store with only high quality items from the 1980s and earlier.

Business really picks up for Hunter Gatherer in the summer, Kim told Eden and I. It is almost a seasonal business because of this. With the onslaught on tourists that come to Victoria via ferries and cruise ships, it helps that Hunter Gatherer is located in one of Victoria’s tourism hotspots: historic China Town. There are even seasonal regulars who come to Hunter Gatherer across the straits, from Vancouver and Seattle, with bundles of vintage clothes for Kim to sort through and sell. Apart from donation and some consignment, the bulk of the clothes at Hunter Gatherer come from estate sales and sometimes wholesale.

We also talked to Kim about what she thought about online classifieds and the business of used goods. While she conceded that online classified sites like ours are not in competition with stores like hers, there are some disadvantages to running an offline store in comparison to an online counterpart. The primary disadvantage is the overhead – the rent for commercial space versus online space is incomparable.

The Sweet Shoes Eden Bought at Hunter Gatherer

However, one of the reasons online clothing stores haven’t taken over classic brick-and-mortar is because, try as you might, you just can’t try on clothes through your computer. This is especially true when you are selling one-of-a-kind garments: you can’t try them on in store for fit and then buy them online either.

If you love vintage, why not check out Hunter Gatherer and say “Hi” to Kim for us? Thanks for having us over for a chat, Hunter Gatherer!

Hunter Gatherer is located at 102-3 Fan Tan Alley in Victoria, BC.

The one chore that sucks the most

The one chore I don’t mind doing any more is vacuuming. I used to hate it. Once upon a time we had a vacuum that had belonged to my husband’s parents. We kept it in the basement. It weighed about 100 lbs and was really difficult to carry. It was difficult to steer too. And you might not believe this but it was actually mean to me. It tripped me up about a million times, and had a hose with sharp edges that scratched my legs as I yanked it across the floor. I’m convinced that it must have had the engine of a lawn mower because it was absolutely deafening. I hated that thing.

It was for all those reasons – and more – that I avoided vacuuming at all costs. Thankfully we had an area rug underneath our dining room table that camouflaged all the crumbs. It never looked dirty down there! Ha!

But now we have the Rug of My Dreams. It is a deep chocolate brown area rug with an asymmetrical pattern of variously-sized sky and wasabi-coloured dots on it. The rug is a good news/bad news kind of situation. It is a work of art. (Yay!) And every crumb can be seen from across the room. (BOO.)

And this might sound statistically improbable, but if someone drops food on the carpet (not that I would EVER do that), it is amazing to see how often it lands saucy-side down on the lightest parts of the rug. Can someone explain this phenomenon? Because it kills me.

But that is neither here nor there. This rug, pretty as it is, amazingly magnifies the crumbs/bits of cheese/cheerios if they happen to find their way down there. This is something that happens quite often in our household because, silly me, I bought a designer rug and put it a place where the four people gather to eat two, sometimes three times a day.

Not long after the purchase of the new rug we realized that the old canister vacuum was sorely inadequate. It had been lying to us. Its roar was misleading. It was all bark, no bite. It just wasn’t hoovering like it used to, so we went to our neighborhood vacuum store (yes, there is such a thing!) and saw The New Vacuum. And we bought it. It was small. And light. And it SWIVVELED! And it had a specially-designed floor attachment that didn’t just push the crumbs around, but sucked them up faster than you can wonder “heyisthatabarbieshoe.”

I am fairly certain this glorious appliance was invented by a woman.

So now we have a Miele. I use it to vacuum crumbs off the table. I use it to dust. I use the lint brush attachment to vacuum my black wool coat. I just wish it came with an special attachment I can use to brush my dog.

I never thought I’d say this, but I have actually come around to enjoy vacuuming. I vacuum much more than I used to, and it has become the kind of experience that is almost, almost, kind of fun. (I know. I can’t believe it either.)

What chore do you think sucks the most? Other than vacuumming of course.

There's Something Fun to Do in Ottawa!

Great news! The 7th Annual Molson Canadian Cup presented by the Team 1200 and Stanley’s Restaurant and Bar to benefit the Sens Foundation (that was a mouthful) is back and it’s happening this weekend at the Bell Sensplex!

In addition to benefiting the Sens Foundation, supporting children and youth in Eastern Ontario and Quebec, the weekend is a guaranteed to be a lot of fun.

creative commons image courtesy of Wiros

There will be some UsedOttawa angels at the tournament on Saturday between 12 and 4pm, handing out hockey cards for kids as well as entry forms for prizes.

That’s right, I said prizes. You read it right.

So what are we giving away? Anyone can enter to win mini golf tickets to A Putt Above glow in the dark mini golf (the best kind of mini golf, in my humble opinion). As if that wasn’t awesome enough, you can also enter to win a Macbook from Computer Concepts.  There are three ways to enter to win the Macbook:

1. By finding a UsedOttawa community angel at the event on Saturday (between 12 and 4pm) and filling out the ballot form that they give you
2. By bringing in donations of used sports equipment to the UsedOttawa booth at the event all weekend long
3. By finding a community angel somewhere on the UsedOttawa.com webpage

Don’t miss out!

Update: Want to be on the UsedOttawa.com team for a day?  We have 2 promotions positions available from noon to 4pm on Saturday April 9th at the Sensplex.  Contact Charlotte@UsedEverywhere.com for details.

Kiddie art, and what to do with it

A couple weeks ago I posted about a birthday party my youngest was attending. The hosts had requested that the gifts were to be handmade or secondhand. We decided to give the birthday girl some original artwork (painted by my youngest) and tuck it into a secondhand frame.

Pictured here is a version of what we came up with. I’m not sure who was more excited about it, me, or my daughter. (You can click the image to enlarge.)

Neat eh? But what should we do with the REST of the art that’s lying all around the house?

When my kids were younger they seemed to come home with piles of artwork every day.

The issue of children’s art can be a pretty touchy subject. More specifically, what to do with your children’s art can be a sore point at home when the kids are unwillingly witness to Recycling in Action.

The conversation begins innocently enough. It often happens when they catch you with their artwork in hand, poised over the recycling bin.

“I thought it would be a good idea to recycle this painting,” you say cheerily, helpfully, because you can’t remember what your fridge looks like underneath the layers of art and you’ve decided that you need to clear a space RIGHT NOW.

Silence.

“You made it a year ago,” you add, looking closer at the work in question. “In fact, it looks like you were trying to get some brown paint off your brush or something. Actually, I’m not even sure it’s a painting…” Your words trail off because you suddenly look up and notice that the baby blues staring back at you are starting to well up. And overflow. Egads.

The words finally come, punctuated with hiccups: “B-But mom! That was a painting of a bearrrrrrrr!”

Oh, don’t you feel like a terrible parent. So what is a mom supposed to do?

I had a few ideas in a past post about household art. My favourite thing to do (to this day!) is to either scan the art (if it’s small enough) or take a photo. The latter works especially well if it’s 3D art. For example, we once had a couple of  ”snowmen” kicking around the house that were made out of white tube socks stuffed with sand. And leaking all over the place. CLICK.

Other things we’ve done with kiddie art include:

• wrapping gifts in large preschool paintings (in fact we’ve had great success with this)
• laminating smaller pieces and creating placemats for the dining room table
• cutting up paintings and making bookmarks, gift cards and gift tags

What advice do you have for parents who can’t deal with the influx of art? Other than not getting caught recycling it?

Used Around Town: Good Things Household Consignments

Eden and I walked into Good Things Consignments unsure of what to expect. The first thing that was immediately apparent was how busy it was – around two o’clock in the afternoon and Good Things was the most bumpin’ spot in Oak Bay. We were quickly spotted by Gita Da Costa Reis, the son of owner Junice Da Costa Reis, thanks to Eden’s strategic placement of a UsedVictoria purple bag. He welcomed us to take a look around – this place had everything from collectables to kitchenware, jewelry, furniture, books, art and curios galore. The first item I was drawn to was, of course, Lily, the family dog and store greeter; Gita wasted no time in telling me, “she’s not for sale”.

While Eden was transfixed by a trove of vintage purses, I tried to make eye contact with an obviously very busy Junice, hoping to introduce myself the second she seemed to be free. This second never came. But she finally noticed my desperate glances and asked me to come chat with her while she helped out the customers looking to sell some of their effects.

“I’ll take this, not this, not this, this…”, Junice said as she quickly went through

Miss Lily

the items brought in, filled out a consignment form, and told me about Good Things, simultaneously. Previously working in antiques, Junice and family opened up Good Things Consignments in 1994. Despite never advertising (beyond word-of-mouth), a fire, and a flood, business was still booming. In fact, they recently expanded the store a second time to make more room for inventory. After a month, items not sold are reduced in price, and after another month they are given back to their owners or donated to one of the many charities in need in Victoria. This keeps the inventory fresh; and with her keen eye from years of experience in the used goods market, Junice only accepts high quality items.

While the success of Good Things Consignments can be attributed to many factors, including excellent customer service, Lily, or the high quality and variety of items that can be found there, Junice attributed much of it simply to the fact that there is a need for

Inside Good Things Consignment

Good Things in the community. What was perhaps most interesting was the way she described the relationship between Good Things and online markets like UsedVictoria.com as complementary, rather than in competition. Junice told us how customers will often bring in goods that they had a hard time selling online, and items that couldn’t find new owners through consignment were sometimes put up for sale on the site. As two different marketplaces for selling used items, online communities and consignments provide different options to meet the varied needs and preferences of sellers.

Thanks Good Things Consignments, for welcoming us into your store and teaching us a thing or two!

Good Things Consignments is located at 104-1841 Oak Bay Ave. Victoria, British Columbia.

A hot lunch buy

Sometimes it pays to spend more on certain things. It took me awhile to learn this lesson. Take thermoses (thermii?) for example. Whenever I’ve cheaped out on the purchase of a thermos for hot drinks it has always leaked. It is Law.

I’ve been promising my daughters that I’d buy insulated food containers for ages. I haven’t been able to find the right one. Until now.

We were browsing the aisles at T & T Supermarket (an Asian grocery chain) over March Break and I stumbled upon this beauty:

The pricetag was a hefty $32.00, and it was the last one on the shelf. (This is probably a good thing because I could only afford to buy one at that price.) I picked it up and turned it over in my hands to take a closer look, praying it would become a good buy and not end up in the garbage like some of the other insulated containers we have purchased in the past.

It is a thing of beauty; steel walls with an easy-grip lid. And there’s even a little bowl which nestles comfortably inside, helpfully (and hopefully) separating two potential food groups while keeping them warm at the same time. It also comes with a cute little carry bag.

This is going to do wonders for our lunch menu. I can finally pack hot meals… like spaghetti and meatballs! And maybe even oatmeal! Or a stir fry with rice! Suddenly my future seems a little brighter.

But here’s the problem, my $32.00 didn’t buy English instructions. If you are able to read the scan below, can you please let me know if I’m missing anything important?

Click to embiggen. And thank you from the bottom of my hot-lunch lovin’ heart!

Do you feed a cold? If so, what do you feed it?

It’s March Break for us here in Ottawa and (of course) a cold has been making its way through my family, taking down one person at a time.

It’s times like this that I realize that cold remedies are essentially a product of our childhood and our culture. When a cold hits, we flock to things that bring us comfort, regardless whether they’re a medically-proven remedy or not.

I’m the first generation child of eastern European parents, and when a cold rears its ugly head it’s all about ingesting as much garlic as possible. And when we’re not eating garlic we need to be drinking tea with honey and lemon. As much as we can possibly stomach.

When I was pregnant I got tired of the tea and switched to “faux” Neo Citrons when I had a cold; hot water with lots of honey and lemon. Ahhh. I still love it.

The husband, who wears several generations of Canadian genes with a fraction of British heritage thrown in for good measure, craves nothing but canned chicken noodle soup (I can’t stand the stuff) and warm blankets.

Neither is wrong, but it certainly is interesting.

Who knows what food will comfort our children when they become germ-infested adults. Maybe it’ll be a combination of the two.

What about you? Do you feed a cold or starve it? What’s your favourite cold remedy?

Our Funky New Office!

This past week our office was under a major renovation. This rainy Monday morning we walked into our brand-spanking new office in Victoria, and what a transformation! Let me just show you rather than tell you:

And….

You can see more before, after, during pictures here.

What do you think? Do you like our funky new office?