Swing Candy Blog

Knitting Patterns Now available

2009-09-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted! I have been working on the project of having vintage knitting patterns available through my store for quite some time now. I finally scanned some of them while on holiday (only managed to get through about half!). Then came uploading, taking more pictures, organizing, etc.... I also had some trouble with the new menu but I managed to figure it out and they can now be seen! Yay! Some of the patterns I have made and am currently making. I will add photos of those when I am able to take them and have the scanned pattern to go with them. Head on over to www.SwingCandy.com and take a peek!

20's Flapper Dress

2009-05-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

I will never attempt to make a dress fairly loose fitting dress in satin and slippering fringe again! What a nightmare! It's probably because I don't have a pattern and am draping and designing as I go but these two materials together are more than frustrating. I'll post some pics when I have it back on my dressform later today.

New Year Update

2009-02-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I have had the motivation and the time to write a post. This winter has been quite crazy here in Vancouver as we got a LOT of snow around Christmas time. While not unusual for Canada, very unusual for Vancouver. I have spent nearly 6hrs just trying to dig my car out on the road way. No thanks to the snow plow that finally made it down the street about a month after the first snow fall. It made getting over to my parents in Comox on Vancouver Island interesting as we left on Christmas Eve day and just made it through the deluge to the ferry in Horseshoe bay before they shut the upper levels highway down due to bad conditions. On the island however, it was beautiful! Sunny and bare roads. Extremely different than the start to the day.

We did do anything very exciting for New Years other than go for all you can eat sushi and watching a couple of movies at home. I highly recommend WAll-E if you haven't seen it. Very cute :)

Since the holidays I have been very busy getting my new Clutter Conquerors site up and running using Joomla! I am also now organizing for the tax season, if you need any help sorting for taxes give me a call! I love to sort paper.

Some pics from Christmas time:

Lazo looking really mad about the stupid anlters!

The tree in Comox at my parents

My tiny little table top tree

The beginning of snow in Vancouver. You can just see a kid on a toboggan going by my window. By the time the snow was all done you couldn't see the car windows as the snow was piled up so high.

Jitterbug Junkies Dec 5 Performance

2008-12-10T14:50:00.001-08:00

This past weekend my team performed at a Christmas Party at the Commodore in downtown Vancouver. These are always really fun and this theme was old Hollywood. They had a big band on stage who was headed up by Gabriel Mark Hasselbach. It was just too bad that they played most of their set before we were on to perform as we would have loved to dance to all the good tunes they were playing. Our performance went really well and our newest member Francois did a fabulous job! I'm just going to start wearing a studded collar so he doesn't go for my neck when doing the DC flip! :P It was definitely a success and the drinks afterward were good too!

Shipping Costs

2008-10-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of a wake-up today when I shipped my latest order that ended up costing nearly $50. The first frustrating part was the lack of choice in boxes. Everything was either too small or way too big. I had to go with the too big option and stuff half the box with paper. Then, because of the size not the weight, Canada Post charged a lot and a good bit of it was fuel surcharge. Therefore, unfortunately, I have had to raise my shipping prices a bit. Maybe, if fuel prices come down (fat chance!) I will be able to lower them again.

Yaletown Treat

2008-09-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was introduced by my boyfriend to a fabulous little place in Yaletown that has the best desserts! It is Ganache Patisserie. Here is a pic of the one we shared this weekend.

Jean Veloz

2008-09-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

It has been waaaayyyy to long since I have posted on my blog. Something I will definitely have to work on as writing doesn't come easily to me, but , is something I would like to learn.
This weekend Suburban Swing is bringing Jean Veloz up for some workshops. I would love to have taken some but time and money say otherwise this time. However, I do plan on heading out to at least one of the dances and meet her. What on opportunity to meet one of the pioneers swing dancing!
Here is one of her movies:
Goovie Movie

Dove Chocolate

2008-06-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

I received my Dove chocolate promo bag about 2 weeks ago. It was really nice, a big read bag, wine glass, foot care kit, journal, and of course, chocolate. There were three kinds of chocolate in the bag: milk, dark, and dusk. Dusk is a mix of milk and dark chocolate. When I tried my first piece my first impression was that it was really waxy. It didn't seem to melt in my mouth, just broke into pieces. After a bit it did and it was quite nice, very smooth. Although my first impression was not a good one I did start to quite like the Dusk variety. I also gave out a lot of the chocolate to people I work with and with friends and all thought it was pretty good. So, overall it was quite a good experience.

Vancouver Joomla Day

2008-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Even though I am still really sick I wanted to support Rastin and his partners with the Joomla Day here in Vancouver. So far it has has been pretty good with a few technical glitches. One thing that would be really good in the future would to be sure that people asking questions should have access to a microphone. It is pretty hard to hear some of the questions and it is compounded for me right now because my head is so stuffed up that I can barely hear under the best of conditions. We did have a tasty lunch provided by the Bread Garden. Now on with the rest of the afternoon.

Check out a much better synopsis of the day on Raul's blog Hummingbird604

Pro-Choice

2008-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

On my way to the drugstore this afternoon at Broadway and Commercial there was the usual crowded streets with added the addition of protesters on the corner. This is a very colourful neighbourhood and a protest is not unusual but this one was different. The unfortunate thing about this protest is this it occurs a couple of times a year and is so totally ludicrous it makes my blood boil. This was a group of 70+ year olds with "Abortion Kills Babies" etc on placards around their necks handing out pamphlets with religious rhetoric on them.

OK, in my opinion, I am most definitely a pro-choice supporter for the correct reasons. I don't think that it should be used as a form of birth control, but if there is a legitimate reason I think it is the woman's choice. It something that has always happened and always will happen. Women used to die undergoing poorly sanitized and extremely unsafe illegal abortions. Now they are at least given a safe alternative for what is quite likely the one of the most traumatizing moments of their lives. Also, the term "baby" annoys me. It is a fetus, not a baby, until it is born. The size of the fetus is also incredibly small during the term which most abortions occur that the protesters wouldn't even be able to identify it if they were shown a picture

Do these protesters plan on being to be able to stop the continued trauma inflicted on a woman if she is forced to carry to term a child that was conceived during a rape? Are they going to be there to pay for the costs of the pregnancy and for the rest of the life of the child? What about potential complications? What about if the pregnancy poses a threat to the life of the woman if she tries to carry it to term? Are they going to save her life? If she dies, the fetus dies too. Are they going to provide the financial support for the reduction in earning the woman will face? As much as we would like to believe differently the workforce still doesn't have wage parity and there isn't enough childcare out there for a woman to be able to continue her job after having a child. There are way too many things that I could put here to add to this list that I am not even going to try.

What I found most interesting about this protest was the *age* of the protesters (they were also all of northern European ancestry too)! As they stood there trying to hand out religious pamphlets to the passing crowd not one person took anything. Some people however were even engaging them in discussions that they had absolutely no answer to! All they responded with was religious rhetoric. They can't even remotely identify with the demographic they are trying to preach to. The world they grew up in doesn't exist anymore, and for the most part, I am glad it doesn't.

Well, that was my little rant about what annoyed me today.

Showboat Swing Dancing in Vancouver

2008-06-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

Since it appears as though winter has again come to Vancouver dancing at the Showboat won't be on tonight I thought i would blog about instead. This 'venue' is probably the best one in Vancouver. It is free, outside (which helps with the heat of dancing) and over looks English Bay and downtown Vancouver. You can't get much better than that. It has also been going on for 9 or 10 years now. I remember the first ones where we would all pool our money to pay for batteries that we would go through like crazy! Hears to hoping that the weather finally gets better and we can go dancing again.

Dove Chocolate Promo

2008-05-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have just been contacted by a marketing company Matchstick about their promotion of Dove chocolate and apparently I qualify. I am being sent some chocolate to try and pass out to people that I know. I wonder why they chose Dove for a name? Isn't there going to be some confusion with it and Dove the soap, shampoo, etc products? Do I really want the association of soap when thinking of chocolate? Hmmmm, I'll have to see what the stuff is like and I will post about it again in couple of weeks time.

Happy Birthday

2008-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and as I have started to do the past couple of years I buy myself a pair of shoes. Usually just cheap ones from Payless or some similar store. No different this year as I needed a pair of shoes for walking in so I got a cheap pair from the Shoe Warehouse. They are kind of cute and fit better than anything else there. Plus just about everyhthing else was an ugly dark brown.

Tonight I am heading out with Rastin to Capone's in Yaletown for dinner and some live jazz. I decided to wear a skirt that I have had in my closet for ages but never worn for some unknown reason. It too has shoes on it. Can you see a theme here? I LOVE shoes! Now just to decide what shoes to wear with the skirt for tonight....... maybe one of my black patent pumps. What do you think?

Afternoon on Main Street

2008-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

I just had a nice, relaxing afternoon on Main Street here in Vancouver after a fun night of dancing and Chinese food. I was pleasantly surprised by the dance last night and was able to get in a few really good dances that made the whole night worth it. The karaoke downstairs didn't add to whole experience though.

Worked a little at the Bean Around the World at 10th and Main and then had a great dinner at a Mongolian grill place before heading for a last cup of tea at JJ Bean on Main and 12th. Why oh why doesn't JJ Bean get free wireless access? There have been threats of creating a petition to get this done. Anyone else out there who would support JJ Bean having wireless internet?

The Lack of Swing Dancing in Vancouver

2008-05-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time now. Vancouver doesn't have any good swing dancing venue right now. There are two dances outside the city, Fat City in Langley and Suburban Swing in Abbotsford, but they are a fair drive from Vancouver and are on Friday and Sunday night respectively. Fat City in particular has a fabulous venue but Friday nights are tough for most people as we are tired after a long work week. If it was run on Saturday night I probably wouldn't be making this post in the first place. Vancouver does have a dance running on Saturday which for the most part I don't go to anymore and that is the reason for this post.

A little history:
Vancouver's swing scene originally started in the downtown night clubs (The Gate in particular) and there was dancing pretty much every night if you wanted to. After a while down there we moved out of the downtown core largely because we didn't drink, we were there to dance, and that wasn't lucrative for the night clubs as they primarily make money on selling alcohol. The next place we moved to was the Legion on Commercial Drive. This place became "home" for the swing scene. The atmosphere there was indescribable! There were several hundred people there every night and you wanted to dance every song! No sitting down at all, the music was that good :-) and we were all addicts. The group that ran the venue then disbanded and we tried another legion over by Joyce but that was short lived. It seemed that swing was largely gone in Vancouver at that time.

There was also a change going on in the community as well. People were beginning to differ in what kind of music and "style" of dance that they chose to do. As a result of this two new venues run by dancers sprang up. They worked quite well for some time as people could chose to go to either and listen and dance to their more favourite kind of music. Then one of them stopped as it wasn't getting enough people out and a while after that the other one stopped as well due to a "disagreement" between the venue operator and the dancers to put it nicely.

At this time someone else decided that it would be a good time to resurrect the Legion again and bring the two groups of dancers together again. We were going home! Everyone was excited! The plan was to have two dj's a night one from each "group". It worked well for a while. The dance floor would undergo a complete change of dancers when the dj's switched over. Everyone for the most part was happy, you knew that if you didn't like the songs currently being played you would only have to wait a few and some you did like would be on again soon. This also allowed for a bit more socializing time too.

There was a problem though, new dancers were not sticking around. They came to the drop in lesson but did not stay in quite the same fashion as they had before. In my opinion this was because of the change of drop in lesson teaching. When a good number of us started dancing we learned East Coast swing at the drop in. It is very easy to pick up, allows the leads to learn to actually lead without worrying too much about their feet and allowed follows to learn to actually follow for the same reason. The newbies were able to dance (and well!) the first time out! They loved it! and came back for more! Then they would notice another kind of dance going on, Lindyhop. Which they then learned in workshops as it is a much more involved dance. So they could then go out and have fun dancing East Coast and work on their Lindy at their own pace. The frustration level that is seen now wasn't there because they could still have fun. The new dancers now trying to learn Lindy at the drop just don't stick around. There isn't a large group of up an coming dancers anymore.

The next thing that happened was the music. It changed. There wasn't to two opposite sides anymore. It was taken over and dominated by one side. I tried for several years to see if the original concept of two dj's could be brought back to no avail. The community also began to change again towards another kind of music, Hot Jazz.

In essence this brings us to where we are now. The music is what brings me out and makes me want to dance. The music being played now does not make me want to dance. The atmosphere is dead. It is not fun anymore. The Hot Jazz music lends itself more to Charleston dancing and other various line dances and other vernacular jazz dancing variations. I enjoy dancing Charleston and know a number of the other dances as well. However, for me, it is not my passion. Do I never want to hear any of that kind of music? Of course not. I like it and I like the dances that go along with it, but I don't care to do it all night long. It is not swing music or swing dancing. I want variety. I want hear music from all the eras and, yes, I like some neo-swing music. I want a mix of everything. But, the most important thing is, I like Swing music and what is played right now is for the most part jazz music not swing and it tends to be very long arrangements (ie 5mins or more for one song). There is no doubt that a good number of people really enjoy this and by no means do I want them to have to give it up. I know all too well what that feels like. I would, however, love to start another venue in Vancouver on a Saturday night. This has been in the works for a long time now but we haven't been able to find a suitable venue as of yet. I do not think that it will impact the venue that is currently operating right now because there are again two large groups of dancers out there. Another venue would attract the dancers that simply just don't go out dancing anymore because they cease to enjoy it at the venue currently available. Yet, every time I meet up any of them they ask if there is somewhere to go dancing because they miss it so much.

A number of other dance teachers in the Lower Mainland have also stopped teaching East Coast to their students as there is nowhere for them to go and dance it anymore. Their students were going out and trying to dance, but were only coming back and saying that they did not enjoy their experience. When did swing dancing cease to be fun? I am not interested in dancing to complicated jazz numbers (I would however love to sit and enjoy a martini while listening to them). I want to go out and be silly and dance to all the cliche'd swing tunes. I love them, they were what started me dancing in the first place and a new dancer wants to hear them too. Unlike many of us who have been dancing for a number of years they haven't heard them over and over and over again. I don't see that there is anything wrong mixing them up with some of the other songs that are not as common or played as often. As I said before, I like variety.

I will continue to go out occasionally dancing here in Vancouver and make the best of it. I love to dance. But I will miss seeing a lot of the old faces since they no longer come out. I will also make the trek out to the other dances because they are so much fun and worth the drive when I get to the point of missing dancing too much. If anyone out there knows of a place that has hardwood floors, is big enough for at least a 100 to 150 dancers, is reasonably close to transit, and isn't outrageously priced and is available on Saturday nights please let me know! Although the ideal thing would be for everyone to be in the same place however, sadly, that doesn't seem possible at this point and time yet.

Laundromat Ettiquette

2008-05-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how inconsiderate some people can be. I was again confronted with the challenge of doing laundry at the local laundromat when there was one person there who took up 12 dryers! Even though there are signs that "encourage" using only two machines at a time. How could you possibly have 12 industrial size dryers (or washers for that matter) of laundry to do?! It also means that anyone else who is unfortunate enough to be there at the same time has to wait forever to get your own stuff done. Anyone else notice this problem elsewhere?

Tazzu WordPress Camp

2008-05-01T23:45:00.001-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post I attended the Tazzu WordPress Camp here in Vancouver yesterday evening. It was a great success and I thank the organizers who had the inspiration to put it on. I only have a camera phone so the only photo I took that I liked was one of Rastin and Raul

I had a great time and it was really fun to meet and see so many people there last night.

Change of Blog focus

2008-05-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

I had originally intended this to be a blog specifically for my business. I was really inspired yesterday to change the focus a bit. The main motivator was a gentleman at the Tazzu Wordpress camp that said "I have an opinion and the world is entitled to it". I quite liked that and therefore have decided that I am going to write here from now on when I have something on my mind instead of bottling it up. So, I fully understand that I will more than likely offend some people and they are more than welcome to post comments as they have an opinion and the world is entitled to theirs too.

Swing Summit Weekend

2008-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a lot of fun and totally exhausting at the same time. It was Swing Summit here in the lower mainland out in Abbotsford plus on Friday night the was a great band at Fat City in Langley. I taught the drop in on Friday night and then went on to help teach some of the aerial workshops out at the camp in Abby. My legs are so sore from essentially doing tons and tons of plyometric squats over this weekend demo'ing the various moves. I also had some of the things from my store available at the Saturday night dance which meant carrying lots of heavy clothes right after having been flipping the guys in the Saturday advanced aerials workshop that we did. Needless to say most of my body is aching and I am sooooo ready for bed! Here are some pics of Friday night and a couple from our last workshop which was on balancing and stacking people (not really an aerial one but it was a lot of fun!).

This is Bria and her band on Friday night.

A little food and refreshment afterward. I was the one driving that night :-(

This is one of the guys in the class getting the chance to do some of the balancing where a follow would normally be. It's a good thing for them to feel a bit of the nerves that we go through!

Rockabilly Round-up

2008-03-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

The monthly Rockabilly Round-up was on last night at the Fairview Pub and while only a couple of us went this time it was one of the best music nights so far. The first band was too loud and played all the same tempo songs, but they were still entertaining. It was really unfortunate that the second band was so amazing! I was too tired to really get my dancing in and couldn't stay awake for the second set. Still, it was a really fun night and it is always good to see everyone dressed up :-)

Plus, I have been playing with my camera phone and trying out some photos. I'm not good at all yet!

Just about everything is on sale!

2008-03-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

I need to make room both in my closets and on my site for new products that I have coming in. Many things are up to 50% off right now. Please take a look and if you have been putting of getting something now is the time to do it!

Relaxing Sunday

2008-03-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

I was out having coffee at JJ Bean on Main today. It was nice to relax for a bit after spending most of yesterday and this morning taking photos of my stock, going through them, uploading (and downloading) them to various computers and places online. Plus, I love the shoes! Who can resist polka dots? and red shoes to boot?

New Inventory!

2008-03-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

I finally had the chance (both time wise and light wise) to take photos of the new items that I picked up over Christmas. My mum and I finally found some of the gloves that my grandmother had stashed away and we don't think these were the ones we had originally looked through earlier last year either. Hopefully they will show up soon. We also found another stash of vintage costume jewelery too. I have take the photos now but still need to catalogue and then put them up on the site. You can check out the photos on flickr for now.

Draping the Skirt

2008-01-22T12:36:00.001-08:00

I worked on draping the skirt part of the dress last night. Much easier than the top! Plus I only needed to do one side as the yolk part of the skirt fit so well with little to no alterations needed. The photos are a little dark as it was at night but hopefully they still give enough of an idea of what I was doing. Now I need to get some cheap muslin to try sewing the dress together before I do it in the wool crepe that I would like.

First Dress Design

2008-01-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

I am currently attempting to make a dress of my own creation. It is inspired by a photograph of my grandmothers wedding dress.

My mum found the actual dress over Christmas and I have taken photos so I can re-create it. Since I have been learning flat pattern making I am trying a combination of that and draping to make this dress. Lots of running back and forth from the computer to look at the photos but I think I have done a reasonable job on the top.

What I am doing right now with it is using the draping to create fabric pattern pieces that I will then use to cut the fabric that I will actually make the dress out of. Very labour intensive and I am going to have to make a number of cuts and additions but so far so good. Here is where I am at this morning, still haven't cut off any excess fabric yet as I want to make doubly sure before I do!