I’m not usually a shopper of finished products, but a few weekends ago I found myself down on Whidbey Island in Washington, and decided to take a stroll down a rather windy but quaint little street. On that street I happened upon a great antique store. Not one of those overpriced Vancouver stores filled with other people’s junk that they don’t want, but rather a great priced shop full of treasures.

My boyfriend picked up a great set of antique binoculars, and I grabbed an old glass soda pop bottle (that I plan on making into a lamp – but that’s another post) and the cooking pot you see above. It has a great hammered copper finish, and while it’s round bottom isn’t very stove friendly, it would have been great for a campfire. Instead, I brought it home and transplanted an aloe vera plant I had. It fits in nicely on my windowsill with a few other succulents in patina-ed pots I picked up at the flea market in the spring.

After going to a naturopath and running some tests, I’ve discovered I’m allergic to many of my usual daily eats. I was quite torn at the thought of never eating good bread again, and upon a civilized Facebook rant, discovered that there are others out there with similar issues as I. I can’t take the credit for introducing the ingredient list up above, but I’m certainly willing to take the credit for reaching out and the final result.

For anyone interested in the recipe, it’s listed below. I adapted it from 1000 gluten free recipes by Carol Fenster. If you have your own wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free recipe you’d like to share, I’ve love to have it!

1 packet (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm (110°F) 1% milk (cow’s, rice, soy, potato, or nut)
White rice flour for dusting
2 1/3 cups potato starch
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1½ teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon salt
½ to 1 teaspoon finely snipped fresh rosemary
½ teaspoon onion powder
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup honey, at room temperature (corn syrup also works if you have an allergy to honey like me)
2 large eggs, at room temperature (egg substitue works fine here)
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1⁄3 cup thinly sliced black olives (I used green)
1/3 cup thinly sliced sundried tomatoes

1 In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Set aside to foam 5 minutes.

2 Generously grease 9 × 5-inch nonstick (gray, not black) loaf pan. Dust the bottom and sides of the pan lightly with white rice flour.

3 In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer, combine the potato starch, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, guar gum, salt, rosemary, onion powder, olive oil, honey, eggs, vinegar, and yeast-milk mixture. Beat on low speed to blend. Beat on medium
speed 30 seconds, stirring down sides with spatula. Stir in olives. Dough will be soft.

4 Transfer to prepared pan. Smooth top with a wet spatula. Let rise in a warm place (75°F to 80°F) until dough is level with top of pan.

5 Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. With a sharp knife, make three diagonal slashes (1⁄8-inch deep) in loaf so steam can escape during baking.

6 Bake 40 minutes or until temperature reaches 205°F on an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf.

7 Remove from oven. Cool bread in the pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan and cool completely on the wire rack. Slice with an electric knife or a serrated knife.

The organizers put on a great party. There was a blender on a bicycle to mix margaritas, a potato gun shooting beenie babies at regular intervals, and lots of hamburgers, hotdogs and drinks and snacks to go around. People were super friendly and I was reminded by Mark Busse and passed on the information that Vancouver is having it’s first very own CreativeMornings on Friday, September 2nd. CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee! (I copied that straight from the website). Stewart Butterfield, one of the founders of Flickr, will be speaking at the first event at the Woodwards building atrium. Tickets are available 11am Monday morning. Get yours before they sell out!

Having been in the game industry for nearly a year now, and not taking on any freelance projects since 2010, I felt a tad sheepish showing up at the picnic when I’m not really part of either industry. Luckily I brought my friend and motion designer, Shawn Hight, along with me. We met some new people, and part way through he left for previously made plans. At that point in the night I was fully warmed up and found myself chatting up a storm with a picnic table full of game designers, interactive designers, and software engineers from the game design industry. It turns out I was right at home.

Later on I migrated to a picnic table of three photographers, all lovely people with whom I hope to work with in the future. I met a brilliantly talented fine artist who has migrated her skills to a PC tablet, all the while keeping her traditional media style about her work. I reconnected with the president of CAPIC, whom I met last fall at a Likemind event.

I collected a few business cards, gave some advice, and got some in return; but most of all I shared in the smiles and laughter of a passionate group of creative people for no gain that personal pleasure. The people, and their energy is the reason I am drawn to be a creative. I suspect I always will be, no matter what industry I work in.

Since grade 7, I’ve wanted to be a fashion designer. One of the first collections I remember is one from Dolce and Gabbana where they used a slick metalic plastic fabric, and all the models had black lipstick. I covered all four walls and my ceiling in a grid of fashion magazine ads during highschool. In my twelfth year of highschool I applied for an got accepted into Senecca College in Toronto, paid my deposits on tuition and residence, and then quietly backed away from my dream. Comments ranging from “you’ll never get a job making clothes, nobody makes clothes”, to “you’ll never survive in Toronto, you’re not a city girl” coupled with stats like only 5% of fashion students survive in the fashion world 5 years after graduation, scared me enough not to try.

I entered and promptly failed my code class in the first semester of computer programming at Algonquin College in Ottawa. I spent three years earning a Graphic Design diploma with honours at St. Lawrence College in Kingston. I worked for 4 years in the print design industry before going back to school to retrain. The whole time I sketched clothing, designed and constructed my own clothing, and dreamed of a day when I could own my own business.

Looking for something more but not knowing what it was (a little bit of fashion no doubt) I attended Vancouver Film School for a year in the Digital Design program where I met an abundance of talented people in every field. I introduced myself to the game designers on campus, met some sound designers, makeup artists, producers, and chatted up the guys down in resources on the film campus. I got a game design job that I love (and I’m not leaving any time soon) at Microsoft a few months after I graduated through one of my past instructors at VFS. I’ve co-produced two films, worked on some probono projects, and lucky for me, had a great time in the process.

near the end of my student career, one of my contacts in resources asked me if I wanted to interview models, hair stylists, makeup artists and fashion designers at Vancouver Fashion Week. It was during my final project at VFS, and I took 4 nights off to do it. It was the best 4 nights out of that year I spent at VFS. Any and all of my passion for fashion and everything that comes with it came to the surface. I was on an eternal high, cloud 9, and nothing could have brought me down.

One of the things that had kept me from ever wanting to enter the fashion industry was the diva’s and the elitists of the fashion world that I had continuously seen on TV. But Vancouver fashion isn’t like that. The designers I interviewed were down to earth. They just loved their craft. The models were real girls, volunteering their time to strut down the runway in cool clothing. The whole venue had a wonderfully creative and youthful energy about it that I’d never felt before.

I’ve slowly been formulating an idea about selling my fashion wares ever since. I recently decided on a name – Mulierose – which means fond of woman. I’m fond of womanly shapes, feminine colour palettes, romantic words, and vintage pieces. Mulierose was an adjective used for little more than 20 years in the 1870′s, and I loved the idea of recycling it and making it new again. I’ve been collecting larger sized dress shirts with the intention of cutting them into sun dresses for the summer, and cutting scrapes of satin and fashioning them into flowers.

I originally wanted to work it all up and present it online in one big, scissor cutting the ribbon moment. But then I read the book Running Lean, which told me what I already knew in graphic design, but failed to implement in trying to start my own business: find a problem worth solving, before defining a solution. I’ve been trying to work out details here and there without fully determining or understanding my target audience.

So here I am. Putting my idea out there, on the interweb, never to be taken back or hidden away again. I’d like to ask a favour and request your feedback, suggestions for improvement, and to forward this article along to interested friends. I’m interested in why people buy what they do, and plan on writing a survey to send out soon to ask the right questions. For now, this is my first baby step. Testing the ice to see if it’s safe to walk on before putting my full weight on it. Feel free to leave comments on my blog (They’ll be pending moderator approval and make take a bit of time to show up) or email me directly at amanda (at) mulierose (dot) ca. Thanks in advance for your support.

I’ve grown up in a society that puts a stress on recycling and composting, and not putting so much in landfills. I don’t have a beef with recycling at all, but what I do have a problem with is the lack or resources to accommodate the first two R’s: Reduce, and Reuse. Although Fergie’s dress is probably made of never-been-played-with lego’s, I still think it’s pretty innovative and inspirational in it’s own right. As a lover of fashion, individuality, and saving the world, I see this as one more little step to linking them all together. I have some more ideas on that, that I’ll be blogging about in the future.

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Seattle for the weekend to explore the city. I had no real destinations in mind other than the Pike Market, but I’ve lived 3 hours north of this city for the last two years and I’ve never been. So I went.

I went armed with only two pair of footwear. For any of you that know me, yes, shocking. For those in Seattle, yes, shocking as well, because one of those fancy pairs of footwear were my rubber boots. It rained most of the weekend, and half of it I wore my boots. I swear half of the passerbys took a glance down at my feet as well. Once I caught on, I to started examining everyone’s feet as they passed. Over two full days of wandering, shopping and eating, I only saw one other guy with rubber boots on, and they weren’t nearly as fancy as mine.

I also didn’t see anyone meandering about in a dress either. But that’s besides the point. I can’t be the crazy one. In my head, the sensible dress of the Seatlites (while no one had bare legs, they also weren’t completely covered head to tow in a parka like some unclimatized individuals of Vancouver) represents the types of people that live there. (Although that’s pure speculation because I only know people who live there) While the more decorative rubber boots of the Vancouverites, and the various groups of people who are not used to the wet and rainy (and for some, chilly) weather of the coast, symbolize a more creative community where everything is always changing.

It’s interesting to compare and contrast our American neighbours only 3 hours to the south and see how different they really are from us north of the border.

Or maybe I’m just the crazy one….

The story is about a woman in her 40′s suffering from cancer, and who’s dying wish is to swim with her husband. The only problem is, he’s afraid of the water. There’s not much to it, but it’s a beautiful story, and I don’t want to ruin the ending for you. I’m not sure when it’ll be on TV, but I will be sure to post it on all of my social media accounts when it does.

I worked with a crew of about 35, and a cast including about 45 extras. It was a great experience, super chill and professional group of people to work with. I hope I get a chance to work with them again in the future. You can see more of the photos from the weekend on my Flickr account.