I Started a Vintage Business!

This is old news if you already follow me on Instagram, but in case it’s new information…I started a vintage business! It’s called Fox & Phoenix Vintage — ‘Fox’ is for our family dog, and ‘Phoenix’ represents the rebirth of giving antiques and vintage goods new life. I love history and preserving items from the past — these unique items tell a story that I want to live on. I opened an antique booth at the One of a Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock, ON on March 1st, 2020 and it’s been a mild success these last several months. Despite being shut down for a couple of months due to Covid-19 (and only two weeks after opening!!!), I’ve managed to cover my booth rental costs and commission fees once they re-opened, and turn a small profit as well. My definition of success during the pandemic has been not losing money doing this, so even if profits are small, it’s still a win to me!

I’ve always loved antiques, having grown up surrounded by them both at home and at the cottage my family owned — my dad was an avid collector and his love of antiques was obviously passed on to me! I’ve written several posts about antiques and antique shopping over the years, and in hindsight, I’m surprised it took me so long to finally realize that becoming a vintage reseller was the perfect business for me. It satisfies a few things for me — for one, it allows me to indulge in the pastime of thrifting and antiquing but without filling my house with things I don’t need or have room for, nor breaking the bank since I’m reselling what I buy. Having a vintage business is also very practical as it adds a little extra income to the family bank account each month. And finally, it fulfills me professionally and is the perfect job as a stay-at-home mom of an almost 2 year old with a second baby on the way. It’s also been a fun creative outlet for me when it comes to certain aspects of the business, and I’ve really enjoyed styling and photographing the products I sell. Follow my Instagram account to see what’s available and get in touch if you see something you like! In the meantime, if you live near Woodstock, or are looking for a fun day trip, check out the One of a Kind Antique Mall, it’s located at 97 Wilson Street and my booth is number 965 in the middle aisle of the third floor.

Here are some of the vintage treasures I’ve either sold or are still available, and will give you an idea of the type of goods I curate for my booth:

And here are some booth photos! Booth design and merchandising has been quite the evolution and an ongoing labour of love. :)

Axel's Nursery Room Tour

Baby Girl won’t be here for another 4 months, but we want to be ready for her, so we’ve already started rearranging Axel’s nursery to accommodate her. It made me realize that even though I shared my design plan for Axel’s nursery, I never shared the completed room tour! These photos are from his first nursery at our old house, but we set his room up in more or less the same way at the new house. The design of the space is very neutral — I wanted the room to be calm and serene, a space that was inviting and enjoyable for me, and not overly babyish. Here’s a tour of the nursery, and I’ll do another tour of the room once it’s been converted to a shared toddler/baby room. Sources shared at the end of the post!

SOURCES:

Crib, wall shelves, bookshelf, dresser (doubling as a changing table), lamp, drapes, picture frames above crib, gold-painted mirror: all IKEA
Moroccan rug: RugsUSA
Hexagon side table: CANVAS by Canadian Tire
Rocking chair: JYSK (While I’m sharing the source of this chair, I actually DON’T recommend it — it didn’t rock smoothly and wasn’t comfortable. But for something very similar and good quality, check out this one from Structube.)
Sound machine, changing pad, diaper caddy, diaper pail: all from Amazon
Laundry hamper, large mirror: Homesense
Candle: Coal and Canary’s Chubby Cheeks & Flannel Sheets scent (smells like new baby!)
Baby animal prints: Crown Prints

* Affiliate disclosure: The Amazon products mentioned in this post are affiliate links, and if you click through to make a purchase I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I would never recommend a product I don’t believe in. Thank you for supporting the brands that make it possible to maintain this blog!

Beige & Blah to White & Bright Bathroom Refresh

It’s about time I shared a decorating project on here! I’ll be giving our main floor bathroom a much needed refresh. The room is extremely dated and needs a complete renovation, but we won’t be able to start doing any major work in there until at least a year from now. There’s no way I can live with it for that long in its current state though, so it’s going to get an inexpensive cosmetic makeover with paint and a few accessories. I’ll show you the space, but first, here’s a mood board I put together with my vision for it:

Here’s the bathroom in its current state:

The walls are beige, the ceiling is beige, the vanity is beige, the shower is lined with floral-printed beige vinyl sheets (that’s not even real tile!!), the tub is beige, the toilet is beige… I think you can see the issue I have with this room. It’s very dull and there isn’t a window in this bathroom, and since beige is a light-sucking colour, the room needs as much brightening up as I can manage. When I’m done with it there will be no more beige in here!!!

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We're Expecting Again! Comparing My 2 First Trimesters

Taylor and I are so excited to announce that we’re expecting our second baby in November 2020! And since we’re an unconventional family, we chose to announce our news in an unconventional way — with four different sized gin bottles, ha! (Gin is Taylor’s favourite drink.) This pregnancy is already so different from the first — the first time around I barely experienced any morning sickness, but this time I was constantly queasy for almost the entire first trimester. I was looking back at my blog post about the first trimester when I was pregnant with Axel and while there are some similarities, most of my experience has been different this time around. For example, I’m not experiencing the same frequency of urination as the first time around, my boobs haven’t changed in size, I have an annoying lower back pain that might be sciatica, and I’m so repulsed by meat (mainly red meat and pork) that I think this child has already decided he or she will be a vegetarian!! I’m also feeling a lot less round ligament pain, and that’s probably because my body has done this before and those ligaments have already done their fair share of stretching. One thing that remained the same during both first trimesters were the frequent migraines. I had about a dozen of them over the course of 10 weeks. I’m very thankful to have my husband at home with me during this time (his industry was laid off due to COVID-19) because it would have been challenging looking after Axel while I was incapacitated by migraine (I suffer from complex migraine, which involves aura, weakness and numbness, aphasia, and headache). Also, the exhaustion! Obviously I would have managed daily life with a toddler while exhausted from pregnancy, but I’m not complaining about having the extra help. :)

Being pregnant during a global pandemic sure does add anxiety to the experience. I feel more vulnerable (well, I am more vulnerable), and a simple task such as grocery shopping is very stressful. But I’ve been staying safe and going out as little as possible to keep myself and my family healthy. I’m already at 18 weeks pregnant at the time of writing this and we have our anatomy scan next week so my next update will be very exciting, so stay tuned!!

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Life Update: Living in the Age of a Global Pandemic

Today marks 52 days (7 and a half weeks!) that I’ve been practicing social distancing because of COVID-19. My husband was laid off a week and a half after I stopped leaving the house, and we’ve both been staying home ever since his last day, with the exception of infrequent trips out for groceries and essential items. I know I’m not alone in saying that it’s been a struggle getting used to this new normal, but we’re committed to doing our part to help stop the spread of the virus. We miss our family and we miss our friends but we want to keep everyone safe and healthy. We had a burst of productivity in the early days of isolation — we finally organized our storage room, hung some art that we still hadn’t unpacked, and decluttered our living space (our living room had been jammed full of furniture that I acquired for my new business, Fox & Phoenix Vintage — all of that is now tucked away in the basement, waiting for the antique mall where I rent a booth to re-open). But we’ve since spent the rest of our time in isolation being rather lazy. It was tough finding any motivation for a while there, but we finally started doing more and have been prepping some walls for painting, continuing where we left off before the holidays. The weather’s getting nicer, so we’ll be able to spend more time in our backyard. We have a very busy 18-month-old son who needs us to be more active with him. It’s getting tougher to keep him entertained when everyday is the same but we’re trying new things to occupy and keep his attention. I’ve been cooking regularly (no change there, I cooked all the time before) and even though I wasn’t wasteful before, I’m especially mindful now of making our groceries last longer. So before, I might sometimes throw away uneaten leftovers, but now I’m meal-planning so that leftovers aren’t just an option, they are specifically planned for an upcoming meal. I’ve also been trying my hand at baking (it seems we’ve all been doing a bit of that, lately!) and I’m learning that I’m not as bad at it as I once thought I was, and I’m starting to gain the confidence to get experimental with recipes and ingredients. It’s also nice to have the extra time to spend in the kitchen (outside of necessary meal-prep time). Speaking of extra time, with a husband home from work to help share in the parenting duties, I should be taking advantage of my newfound time to create more content for my site! I actually have a ton of partially-written articles in my drafts folder, ranging from recipes to motherhood resources to decor tips and more. If staying home all the time is going to be our new normal for the next little while, I may as well make the most of my time and start paying more attention to my blog!! I switched to a new website template at the beginning of this year, but I haven’t finished updating all the parts of my site yet, so if things look funny or inconsistent or if links are missing, that’s okay and I’m aware of it…and it’s another thing on my list of things to do while in quarantine! It seems we’re all spending a little bit more time online lately, and I hope that I can offer something of value here in this little corner of the internet that I occupy. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. XO