Folding a Fitted Sheet

It's been ages since I did a tips and tricks post, so here goes. I'm using a king size fitted sheet with shower cap construction (elastic all the way around) to illustrate. After laundering (cold water with mild detergent and low dryer until just dry) remove from the dryer promptly and shake out the sheet over a large flat surface and fold as follows.

1. Place your hand into the pocket of the sheet with the underside of the seam facing out.
2. Bring the next corner on the short side of the sheet, the width of it, to the inside out pocket on your hand so that they are one over the other with the underside seams together. You should be looking at the good side of the sheet.
3. Repeat with the remaining corners so that all four corners are folded into one. Place on a flat surface and smooth until the edges sit as flat as possible. Don't worry if you find yourself pulling the elastic quite far into the the middle of the sheet. Smooth flat.4. Fold the side with the longest of the two elastic edges into the middle of the sheet. Smooth flat.
5. Fold the opposite side into the middle so that the two edges meet in the centre of the sheet. Smooth flat.

6. Fold in half lengthwise. Smooth flat.7. Most of the elastic is now in the top end of the length of sheet. Fold the top third of the sheet into the middle. Smooth flat.

8. Fold the bottom third over the rest of the folded sheet. Smooth flat.

That's it!

The Winner Is . . .

Kelley is the winner of the Oleander for Home + ecochick Giveaway. She has been notified by e-mail and will soon be enjoying her bucket of lovely Ginger Pomelo goodness.

Thank you to every one who participated and I promise (yet again) that the powers of our mailing list will only be used for good and never evil. I'll keep the mailouts relevant, exciting and worth the time you'll spend reading them.

A big thanks to the fabulous ecochick for coordinating the giveaway. Keep reading her blog! She's informative, funny and likes to give stuff away!

This picture is a dramatic re-enactment of the very low tech, old school style draw we did to pick our winner.

Thanks again!

Oleander + Ecochick = Giveaway!

For my first ever giveaway I'm going to send you the fantastic eco-friendly shopping blog that my friend ecochick writes. In her own words "ecochick is a consumer who's tired of "environmentally friendly" really meaning "expensive, inconvenient and ugly". It's time to make living green mainstream, fun, fresh and cool. Here you will find the latest in trendy, stylish fashion, beauty, home and more - all with the lovely aura of green." All that and she is awesome with the giveaways too! So when Caldrea sent me a bucket of Ginger Pomelo goodness I knew who to call to help me give it away.

Head over to www.ecochick.ca for all the details!

Edited to add: Today (April 9 2010) is the last day to sign up to be eligible for the giveaway. Do it! You could win!

Easter Holiday Hours

With a beautiful forecast for the holiday weekend and lots of great new arrivals in the store I'm looking forward to seeing lots of happy people in the Byward Market this weekend. I'll be open the following hours:

Friday April 2 12-5
Saturday April 3 10-6
Sunday April 4 12-4
Monday April 5 10-6

Now, I've said that I'll be closed on Sunday, but if it's crazy nice out and the Market has been busy on the Friday and Saturday there's a chance that I'll open for a few hours. It would be best to give me a call (613.789.5999) to see if I'll be there, o.k.?

Edited to change the Sunday hours. It's been crazy busy, mostly due to the unbelievable weather we've had, so Oleander will be open from 12-4 on Easter Sunday.

News and White Sale!

Things have been a little hectic around here lately. A few posts ago I wrote about the damage the store sustained due to flooding and that we would be undergoing a bit of renovation to repair the floor. Well, I've been in a bit of a holding pattern since then as the repairs and work all needed to be approved by my insurance company and then co-ordinated and scheduled by the contractor. That has taken a lot longer than I expected it to. I had been hoping that the work would be done late January or early February in order that I could still start my annual White Sale on the usual February 15th start date. Not so much. So without any idea of when the repairs would begin I put off the sale until the 22nd, started it without as much fanfare as it usually gets and hoped for the best. For better or worse, I'm not completely sure which, I got an e-mail just a few days ago letting me know that the repairs would begin after hours on the 8th of March. I'm optimistic and hopeful that Oleander will remain open and relatively normal during store hours and that the replacement of the damaged sections of my wood floor with shiny new tile will go quickly and without problems. Hey, I said hopeful and optimistic didn't I? I'm going to hold on to that!

In the meantime, the White Sale has been on for thirteen days and there are lots of great deals to be had until the 23rd of March or I run out of stuff! My beloved Organika towels have been discontinued by the manufacturer and I have all my remaining stock at 50% off. I've also decided to move away from the OhSo Soft bamboo rayon/cotton towels and robes to something new so the last of my stock in that line is also 50% off. I have some great bedding by Revelle at fantastic clearance prices, they have discontinued a number of collections and as always I'm passing on the huge discounts to you. I am letting go of floor model bedding by Bella Notte, Alexandre Turpault and a few Canadian manufacturer at discounts between 15% and 30%. I have a few Bedhead flannel robes, one pair of flannel pj's and a great little cotton gown all at half price. Half price Beadhead! There are also sales on Talesma Turkish waffle and waffle/terry towels and robes, White Moss and 1869 by Acca Kappa, throw blankets, accent cushions and Brome Lake duvets.

Trade Show Talk

Over the last month or so I was able to get to four shows, two of which were new to me. First up, I hit Dallas for Dallas Market, which is a medium sized show with lots of large permanent showrooms and a few temporary booths, but unfortunately without much interesting product for me. I was able to see one of Bella Notte's big showrooms, which was really quite nice. Usually I see new collections from Bella at a small booth New York or when my rep comes to visit with samples, so it was really great to see a big room with many beds dressed in the new fabrics and colours. I took a couple of ideas from there that you'll see on my floor later this spring and summer.

The next stop was at the California Gift Show in Los Angeles. This show was unfortunately another slight disappointment. It was a very small show with only one or two interesting stops for me. One of them was highlighting Italian made organic bedding by Muse. It is really quite pretty, beautifully made and at a reasonable price point, but it's a new-ish collection that I think needs a bit of time to fill out a little before I make a decision to bring it to the floor. One of the highlights of the LA trip was a quick visit to the Amenity workshop. I've been dealing with those talented women for years so it was a real pleasure to get to meet them and get a sneak peak of their new spring patterns. I'll have lots of the new duvet covers and cushions on the floor by the middle to end of March.

After a few days back at the store I was off to the CGTA in Toronto. This show is where I check in with almost all of my Canadian suppliers to see what's new and what's changed. This time out I picked up a pretty printed sateen collection from St Geneve, two new patterns from Revelle and a great new pattern by a French company called Essix. I can't wait for it to start arriving!

After just a day and a half in Toronto, I was off to the NYIGF in New York. This show has been the place to find the newest of the new, and some of the most exciting things I bring into to the store. The last few seasons, given the economic situation in the US, the New York show has been a little unpredictable and occasionally disappointing. Vendors have been scaling back their collections and sticking to safe colours, some manufacturers have been downsizing their booths and others not going to the show at all. In August last year I was only able to find one new company - Alexandre Turpault, and had a bit of a difficult time filling the days I had allotted to spend at the show, so I went into this seasons trip thinking that it would be more of the same. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. This show was one of the best I've ever been to. Due to the down scaling of the larger manufacturers there were many new companies presenting collections. There were tiny little vendors, some of them more artisans than manufacturers, introducing collections for the first time and small scale manufacturers showing three times as much as they had in the past. It was amazing. I bought more new product this season than I have in a long time and I am very excited about all of it. I have gorgeous organic robes and gowns on the way, hand loomed organic Turkish towels and linen bath towels arriving this spring! New collections from some of the old favourites were also very strong and I'm really looking forward to the fuchsia Onam bedding I bought from Alexandre Turpault.

It will be a hugely colourful spring and summer at Oleander for Home. I can't wait!

Store News

Yesterday morning, Monday the fourth of January, I came in to find a bit of a mess. The store has taken a bit of water damage from what our insurance company is calling an "unexpected plumbing failure" from the condo unit above us. The damage is limited to one part of the store, and while we lost some inventory and will have to do some restoration or replacement of the floor in the area, we are still open for business as usual. Even though we're a little disheveled, you're more than welcome to come in and shop, browse or even just pop in to say hi.

On a more pleasant note, it's nearing show season, so I'm getting ready to do a bit of traveling. This month I'm going to be heading to Dallas and Los Angeles to visit shows that are totally new to me. I'm hoping to find some smaller companies offering new and exciting collections that aren't currently available in Canada. Also, I'm planning on doing a little trend spotting in LA. (Trend spotting = shopping. Yay!) It will also be really nice to get out of the snow for a few days. Come February, I'm back to the shows I always go to, Toronto and New York. At those ones I'll be looking at the new lines from companies I already work with as well as looking for some new hidden gems.

At the shows, I'm expecting to see a lot of purples, greys and dove colours. I would like to see some rich reds as lots of clients are asking for them, but I'm not really optimistic about it. Is there anything you are really hoping to see in store for spring/summer?