First off, sorry for the slow updates lately! I have no idea where the summer went!!! June and July just zipped right by. We’ve been busy coming up with new ideas and products and right now we are starting to prep for the CNE, so this time of year is always a little wild! Now until Christmas will be busybusybusy.

The second week of July I spent up North for an annual family trip to Parry Sound. And by family, I mean almost my ENTIRE family. 10 people, 2 dogs. It was the first time both Rose & I were gone from Crywolf Headquarters but I managed to get some sewing done up there as well as take advantage of the nice scenery for some promo shots.

Check out the rest of the set on our Flickr.

On Thursday I’m headed out into the wilderness again for one last break before the madness really begins. While I’m gone, Rose returns from Texas and then we hopefully will see a bunch of you at the CNE where we’ll have a whole bunch of cool new stuff for ya! We’ll be posting the facebook event info soon.

xoxox

For the first time EVER, Crywolf will be on vacation for a week, so we will not be able to ship shirts out! We always try our best to ship shirts out pretty much as soon as we can, even if that means trips to the post office every single day, because we know, first hand, how much it sucks to wait for things to come in the mail. With that said we are giving away complimentary shipping on anything ordered this upcoming week from July 9 (fri) til July 16 (fri), but all orders will be shipped out Monday, July 19th.

Thanks for your patience loverlies! <3
Rose & Steph

Hai guys!

What better way to celebrate Canada & the US Bdays? Free Shipping to Canada on July 1st, and Free Shipping to the US on July 4th.

Boom BOOM Crack! (Fireworks)

Be safe you alls!

Cheers!
Rose & Steph

Recently we noticed a few bees here and there which managed to enter the house mysteriously and suspected a bee’s nest somewhere close by. Little did we know it was actually right inside the house. Since they were honey bees I did some research to find out whether it was possible to have the bees removed by a bee farmer and kept alive (as bee’s are precious to our environment). Unfortunately most of them were too far, and the one that I called that did it in our area was priced ridiculously high. We had to opt for the last resort which was to exterminate.

Actually the bee’s were coming in and out of a small crevice between the shingles and the bricks. We weren’t really expecting much because there would be about 30 bees flying around it at all times. The shingles had to be broken to see what was going on inside, and boy were we surprised at what we found. 11 honeycombs full of honey. We felt really bad about having to get rid of them but unfortunately they picked a bad spot to build a home! I have never before seen any real honeycombs in nature but they were aligned in perfect unison in rows. Truly awe-inspiring.

Closer look at the honey comb.

The neighbors dog trying to sneak a peek.

And how could we do a bee post without mentioning our very own busy bee shirt.

Thumbs up! Until next time..!

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My Grandma used to have the most glorious, massive, colorful elevated garden. It spanned the entire length of the backyard of their bungalow and was deep enough that there was even a rock path in the middle that you could walk through. Now that I think back, I have no idea how she was able to upkeep such a massive garden! I’ll have to dig up some photos of it because that garden is one of the things I will never forget about that house, which I miss dearly.

Both of my Grandma’s also kept abundant vegetable gardens. They grew the most delicious cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, etc. That’s definitely one thing I hope to have in the future, as well as grow my own herbs.

I’m drifting! The point of this post was to celebrate the appearance of a peony in the family garden. We’ve had the plant for years and this is the first time one of the blossoms have bloomed:

Nice, right? Well, it’s disappeared! It was there for maybe a week, and now it’s back to being a boring ol’ green shrub. What the heck? How do you get peonies to bloom and stay? Any tips?

So there is one week until Father’s day!   If you’re dad is anything like our dads, the thought of spending lots money is not really the ideal way to go, so here are some ideas of free and cheap things that you can do to make your Father’s day a special one for your dad:

• Mow the lawn – To get the best out of your day, mow in the morning but avoid mowing wet grass. Mow in overlapping lines to get the most out of your mowing time, not in circles. (FREE)
• Update the wardrobe – This is the failsafe way to go. Keep your dad looking hip by picking out things that you would want him to wear. Let’s face it, most dads don’t enjoy shopping so you can always help update his wardrobe! sunglasses (Mosely Aviators $180), shoes (Asics Colorado $84), shorts (American Eagle $25), SHIRT (Crywolf Crest $25), and yes we realize the sunglasses are not so cheap
• Clean the garage – A quick and easy way to clean up the garage a bit is to grab some nails or some cheap &  easy-to-build shelves (Ikea GORM $25), a bike storage rack ($12). Then hang things up and go to town!
• Computer Clean Up - organize messy cords (Blue Lounge $10), hide hideous power cords (Blue Lounge $30), or just clean up the “desktop”. If you REALLY want to give a gift to the non-computer saavy dad, your time helping your dad with computer lessons! (FREE/Priceless)
• Clean the car – Inside and out.  Once the car is washed with soap and rinsed, dry with a cloth to avoid spots.  Wax by hand and spray the tires with tire shine. Vacuum the insides, and clean the windows with glass cleaner. Tip: Use crumpled newspapers to polish the glass once it’s dry – leaves no streaks & works like a charm! (FREEish)

Hope this gives you guys some (cheap & free) ideas of ways to make your Father’s day a great one for your Dad!

We’ll end this off with a photo of our dads, wearing their favorite Crywolf shirts.

Mr. C standing at attention and Mr. D's blue steel

We are all well aware of the environmental catastrophe known as the BP Oil Spill, the unfortunate incident which has had devastating effects on vulnerable marine and wildlife habitats and the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem.

Crywolf would like to help with rehabilitation/restorations efforts by donating 10% of all online sales to Audubon.

Audubon is a charity which does hands-on work with wildlife and their mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.

They have a donation fund specifically dedicated to the oil spill and they have outlined how donations will be put to use:

• Marshalling volunteer resources to help with wildlife rescue, clean-up, and to support heroic emergency responders.
• Monitoring response efforts and guiding them toward designated Important Bird areas and sites in need of special protection.
• Researching bird and habitat impacts to inform recovery efforts.
• Leading restoration of resources along the Gulf Coast for the long-term.
• Alerting the public to risks to birds and fragile resources.
• Working for safer energy solutions.
• Working to support sound public policy.

We will do what we can over the next little while and hopefully together (as a species) we can get this mess cleaned up and avert or at least minimize any long lasting effects. Every little bit helps.

xo

ps, You can always donate directly

Please feel free to share this/pass it along!

Hope you like the new blog makeover! It’s still in the works but it’s coming along. We decided to start expanding our blog content and so here is our very first CW Product Review.

So, for a while now I’ve been looking for a cheap large black tote, and by large I mean HUGE. More often than not I find myself having to carry more things than I can even handle (ie. 20+ shirts) and lugging around a box isn’t always the most convenient thing in the world. Doesn’t sound like that would be too hard of a thing to find, right? Wrong! I did come across a couple of totes that were perfect in all aspects except for the fact that they cost a small fortune.

This tote by Oak = pretty awesome. Price: $128 = not awesome.

They say that it’s when you’re not looking that you will find and that’s exactly what happened. I randomly came across Baggu bags from someone’s life/style/design blog.

Big Baggu $14

Gives you a better idea of the size.

Along with the big Baggu I also grabbed a regular sized Baggu and a recycled cotton canvas backpack. They have tons of colours and patterns to choose from but what can I say, I’m partial to black.

The customer service was exceptional. Shipping charges were cheap/accurate and it shipped out within 24 hours. The Baggu philosophy is that “good design should be functional, beautiful and affordable. Our goal is to make basic products that fill lots of uses, not just one, so you can own less stuff.” I’m down with that and I feel good about buying stuff that I can use every day for the rest of my life if I wanted to, and in this case it’s very likely that I will do just that.

10 / 10 wolf howls

There is nothing we love better than being able to support good friends, especially when it comes to art/music/craft/performance/etc. We have experienced first-hand the incredible generosity of friends and family. As one example, their support has sometimes made the difference between a good and bad show for us and we are so humbled by and eternally grateful for the support and kindness we have been shown over the years. Nobody can ever make it out to every event or have money to spare at all times, but when we do it’s always a nice feeling to put it towards our community and to peers and friends who are working on incredible things.

When we started out as p0isson, we both agreed that we wanted to invest some money into art that we both loved and wanted as a mutual art collection. It started with us collecting animal themed pieces and went from there. We brought home our newest addition today, Nas by our very talented pal Nik Dudukovic. Check his stuff out!

This weekend I decided to make  my way down to Pedestrian Sunday in the Market to watch our good pal Steph belly dance on the street with her troupe, Serpentina. They drew a crowd as usual and were awesome. Steph was nervous but she kicked serious butt (as usual). I always feel like a proud mama when I see her perform.

There was so much twirling and swirling going on that I couldn’t get a frontal shot. At one point she lost her shoe (and necklace to boot) so I was trying to get a photo of her feet for lols but that didn’t really work out either.

All in all it was a really great weekend and I’m sad that it’s over but as the song goes…

xo

If somebody asked me if I’m an organized person I honestly wouldn’t know what to say. I fall into traps of being either extremely disorganized and anally organized and I can’t explain it, it just happens in cycles! One bad habit is putting things I’m not sure what to do with in baskets until they accumulate into one huge bin of crap that I probably don’t want or need but feel I shouldn’t throw out. At times I can become overwhelmed and build up piles of things around me, but generally there is a method to my madness. When things do get too overwhelming and I’m in the right mood, I can clean and organize for hours until everything is back in proper order.

A perfect example of this is displayed below. I decided it was due time to dedicate a couple of days to cleaning my workspace. I am SO happy that I did because it’s actually enjoyable to work there now. I recruited Rose for a half a day for some help and support for the daunting task and once it got started there was no turning back.

Before:

After:

The “before” photo doesn’t look as bad as it actually was. Things were getting hard to access and it probably took me longer to do things just because I had to dig to get to everything. You may not even notice it but spending most of your day in a giant mess can be toxic and just straight up exhausting. One of the biggest improvements was putting up the shelves on the right (Ikea, $24!) and organizing our printed stock in there. Before they were in bins but this way makes so much more sense and is much easier to deal with. Sadly I had to remove the Kelly Gruber lithograph from above my desk to make room for a shelf but sometimes you just have to sacrifice for the sake of function.

It’s not completely tidied up, I still have to find some space for some extra stuff but it’s already so much better than it was before. Not to be COMPLETELY corny but okay, I will; a clean space really IS a happy space. Maybe this will inspire you to do some Spring cleaning of your own.

Crywolf’s cleaning tips:

• throw on some music, roll up your sleeves and get to it. the longer you leave it, the worse it will get
• recruit a friend, family member or someone who owes you a favor to help you
• invest in shelving/bins/organizing units. they’re relatively inexpensive and can make life much easier
• when in doubt, throw it out (or donate/recycle/you know)
• if you’re feeling defeated, take a break or move onto another section
• if you haven’t used it or seen in a year, you’re probably not going to miss it
• take a before & after so you can see how much you accomplished
• when you’re done, reward yourself

xoxo