Upside of ...Love?

Ang and I were dreaming up these windows for a few weeks now, but 'cause the busy/lazy bug can bite real bad sometimes, we didn't get them in till this Wednesday. But here they are! Not as lavish as we originally wanted, but I think they look swell. A hint of Valentines Day, amidst the choas. The decor side with the title of Love Potion No. 9 tells a vague story of a mad scientist trying his best to decipher the female species and attempting to create his own. The attire side, titled Mad Love, is possibly a Stepford Wife who has gone bonkers over the pressures of being house bound and so she releases the Bride of Frankenstein within. And did you notice the new blue hue on the side walls? Yeah we thought it was about time to switch out from the acid yellow into something much more spring. Come by the shop and take a peek, there's lots of lil' bits to play eye spy with.

Upside of ...Collaborating

Something clicked late last year. Possibly from the ends of my fingertips. A throbbing need to make something with my hands was pulsing from deep within. Unannounced a project came up. My friend Grant Heaps was looking for someone to help with a big, big, big sewing project. I accepted with a jump. I've taken a basic sewing class and my mother has always had a machine, which I stealthily moved to my lodging. And for the last nine-ish years the machine has lived with me. But only on occasion would I play around with her. A small messy project here, some quickly hemmed pants there. And yet I jumped. I told Grant I'd love to help out and so we began. Now to clarify: I only really did maybe 5% of the entire piece, but I really, really enjoyed it. It lit some dead spark. I think a lot of it is because of Grant and his encouragement, but I'm itching for more. The photo included is of Grant's Garden Chairs from the Radiant Dark show put on by Made. They are truly beautiful and need to be seen in person to appreciate the detail and care and passion put into this band of six.

A couple of weeks back I also attended an artist talk by Tobias Wong and Cynthia Hathaway at Harbourfront Centre. The talked of their collaborative work and how strength and clarity come from more than one viewpoint. Cynthia spoke of her works with Platform 21, especially the Repair Manifesto; an amazing project she worked on helping folks mend the broken bits of loved things. Tobias only does collaborative work now, and it's inspiring to see an artist/designer embrace a real sense of community in his or her work. His ideas wouldn't develop into much without the help of many other hands. And how humble is that, an artist that can admit his own flaws, that can move forward and seek out the right people to get the job done, and done perfectly.

And so I can't help get the fever. I want to make things, beautiful things, and I want others to make it with me. I think it would be great to start a creative community that people could help connect and complete creative projects, kinda like a craigslist for skilled people and interested apprentices (maybe this exists already?). So I will be writing some posts on the projects I’m working on. I figure it's also a good thing to talk about on the blog, bringing light to the people I'm so grateful to work with. I don't have it all figured out just yet, but Project 1 will tie in to men's accessories and an interesting way of producing them. Confused? S'okay, so am I.

mike.

Bright like neon love.

Some shots of the shop from the past few weeks. Love a lil' pop of colour once and a while. Put in Cut Copy, press play.

UpsideDive in 2010!

Wow, it kinda feels like the future, no?

Just a quick shout out to say thanks to everyone who supported us in quite a busy year, what with the jump to a new retail location and all. It makes are hearts swell to see our customers not only move with us but keep coming back in. We're still in that newbie business stage, where we can get easily caught up in all of it, and feel swamped, but we look forward to the steps it takes to grow a business. And no doubt that 2010 will be just as amazing and full of new challenges.

Lastly, starting Mon., Jan. 18, UpsideDive will be closed on Mondays for the winter season. But don't worry if you'd like to book an appointment for a Monday in the near future, shoot us an email at upsidedive@gmail.com or leave a message at 416-546-3037.

New Years resolution number 1: try, try, try to blog more. This year we promise ;)

xomike&ang
UpsideDive

Upside of holidays!

UpsideDive wishes you a Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year.

Our holiday hours are:

Thurs. Dec. 24 10-4pm

CLOSED Fri. Dec. 25,

Sat. Dec. 26 10-3pm,

Sun. Dec. 27 12-5pm,

CLOSED Mon. Dec. 28 & Tues. Dec. 29,

Wed. Dec. 30 10-6pm,

Thurs. Dec. 31 10-4pm,

CLOSED Fri. Jan. 1 and back to regular hours Sat. Jan 2.

xoxoUpsideDive

Oh Holiday Joy

Is it really time again for xmas and new year?? geez, blink and the season changes...

Well, we've sprinkled a little festiveness around the shop. A little view from here:

Loose and boxed ornaments start at $4 each. Pretty brass and silver deer at $15/pc. Little lovely metal tins from $5-$18 (ciggy to rum to cake containers) great for packaging homemade cookies, gifts, or as knickknack holders.

For the mid-century lovers on low budgets, we've got some great black rod metal racks: magazine/book/log holders. $40-50 range. J'adore the book-shelf mag rack -these days they're harder to find. And we love the dual log holder with removable brass basket. But of course it can hold mags and books too.

Well as quickly as it goes, we hope you take the time to relax and share moments with the important fs this season -family, friends and food. Drink in a little music whether its John Waters style or Messiah. Joy is a choice, blinking is inevitable.

Upside of going out!

Well we hope you all had as much fun as we did on this past Halloween weekend. Ang and I went a dancing at the Worn Fashion Journal's Issue 9 Release "Slow Dance of the Living Dead", which was a bona fide blast! We had loads of fun, met bunches of new people and had the best time dressing like the dead. Check out Worn's Flickr page and see if you spot anyone you know, perhaps one of the UD gang? (hint: during the day, we were in the living flesh -see pics below)

If you haven't heard of Worn, though I do tend to talk a helluva lot about them, check them outonline. UpsideDive is now carrying the magazine in the store, and soon we'll have it for sale through the online shop as well. We have a copy of the back issues too, so come by and peruse.

mike.