Decisions, decisions...

Last night we had the BEST meeting. We have lots of Sweet Ice meetings...usually at least one every week, especially with our season starting up again. But the meetings we look forward to the most are when we get to sit down with our graphic designer Julie. It's just so much fun to dedicate a few hours to being CREATIVE. She helps us think outside the box and step back from the ideas that have been swirling around between just the two of us.

With the trailer renovations beginning and our busy season approaching we met at Mulberry with lots to talk about...but most exciting was our hands-on discussion about trailer colors. Choosing the color of our Shasta is one of those decisions that we're so excited about but the most scared of - so much commitment to one color! We thought we'd test out our options and see how we felt...

So here are the colors we're choosing from. We took them from our logo and we love all of the options! 1 & 5 are a berry/plum color, 2 & 6 are mustard yellow, 3 & 7 are teal and 4 & 8 are a coral/orange color. We're also trying to decide between the two-toned look (1-4) or just the simple lightning bolt (5-8). So many decisions! We'd love to know what you think - let us know by leaving a comment (and the number of your pick) below or on Facebook or Twitter.

After we tried out our options we weren't done painting, so we just kept going. It got a little out of hand...

We were so proud of each other's paintings! It was fun to just sit and paint for fun - it felt like grade school again!

Thanks for checking out our blog, and again, we're really looking for feedback about this one, so throw us your two cents!

Success or Distress?

We did it! YOU did it!

The Art Crawl After Party was on Friday night, and it was AMAZING!

We hit capacity as soon as it started, and the lineup for snow cones basically didn’t end all night!

To everyone who came out – we’re SO humbled by your excitement and support. Thank you for waiting to get in, and thank you for dancing up a storm, and thank you SO MUCH for contributing to our Operation Shasta campaign though buying snow cones and leaving tips!

We’re happy to announce that our fundraiser was a SUCCESS! We raised enough money on Friday night to put us over the top! We're so excited about this project, and are wasting no time - the renovations on the trailer are starting TODAY! 

We'll be having a few more parties like this throughout the summer, so stay tuned! Also, you can see more pictures here! 

 

 

 

(More photos here! Photo Credit: Meagan Tutti-Peters)

Dance Party This Friday!

Lots of exciting things happening over here at Sweet Ice!

First, we were featured in the Hamilton Spectator last week! Lisa Marr put together a lovely article that was in the Business section and focused on our Operation Shasta fundraiser. We had a great time talking with her about the campaign, and we went to Bennett's for a little Spectator photo shoot. Here are a few photos we took on our phones during our very short time at Bennett's. We were just so thrilled to enjoy our first snow cones of the season!

(You can read the Spectator article here!)

Next exciting item: We have our first event of the season this week! And you're invited! We're having an Art Crawl After Party at The Baltimore House on Friday. By that point we'll have about a week left of our fundraiser, so we're looking at this as a 'Success or Distress' party - we'll either be celebrating with you if we're close to raising our goal (SUCCESS!) or crying with you if we're not (DISTRESS!). It starts at 10pm, and there's no cover - all the more reason to indulge in some delicious snow cones! All proceeds from snow cone sales will go towards our trailer fundraiser, and we'll be pulling out some of our most popular spiked snow cones for this special event: The Apple Jack (Apple Cider Syrup + Jack Daniel's), The Daiquiri (Strawberry Lime Syrup + Rum) and the Margarita (Lime Syrup + Tequila)...YUM! Hope you (and everyone you know) can make it!

(RSVP to the event here!)

#operationshasta

We're so excited! Our fundraiser is up and running!

Since Sweet Ice was just a little dream that we chatted about over lattes, we've always thought that selling snow cones out of a vintage trailer would just be the cutest thing ever. Then, wonder of wonders, this amazing 1962 Shasta came our way, and we couldn't resist! Our goal is to renovate our adorable vintage camping trailer so we can serve snow cones out of it this season! We think this will make Hamilton a more fun and interesting city, and we're so excited to get started on our renovations. We need a little bit of help to get this project underway, so we've put together a fundraising campaign on indiegogo.com, to raise $4000. We just launched last week, and we're blown away by the generosity - we're already over halfway to meeting our goal!

If this is something you can get behind, please head over to our campaign page and watch our little video. Every bit helps, and there are really great prizes to go along with your donations, like t-shirts, and buttons, and private parties, and custom flavors, and limousine parties...no joke. We're so excited to start renovating, and we're SO thankful for all the contributions. It's amazing to see what can happen when we're supported by such an amazing community in Hamilton. Thank you again!

You can follow along with our progress on Facebook and Twitter! And be sure to come out to our snow cone party on Friday, April 13th - all proceeds from snow cone sales going towards Operation Shasta!

The Sweet Ice Kitchen: How to Make a Lemon Syrup

Welcome to the Sweet Ice Kitchen! Today we're showing you how to make a lemon syrup! We hope you enjoy this video - we were a bit shy, and there was a LOT of giggling edited out, but here we go...

(Watch in HD here!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

If you saw last week's post, you'll know that we silk-screened some t-shirts at The Print Studio. We made these as gifts for some of our favorite business partners in Hamilton - here are a few more photos from our time at the studio, since we didn't do the big reveal last week.

Again, we had such a great time at The Print Studio, and highly recommend taking a workshop there. It was so fun and a really wonderful learning experience and now that we have memberships, we can go back and screen-print any time we want to!

Okay, so here we go with our Valentine's deliveries! Gahh, so much fun!

Stop #1: Cake + Loaf! (The best bakery in town...in our opinion). They are so sweet - they knew we were coming and had amazing Valentine's cookies waiting for us. YUM! Cake & Loaf is such a nice place to stop in - you're always greeted with a big smile and an amazing selection of goodies to choose from.

Stop #2: Needlework! This stop was so fun and giddy. Kate and Liz squealed and immediately tried on their shirts. We had a hilarious argument: "You're the cutest business partners" "No, you're the cutest business partners!". It was also the day of their grand opening (which happened during the Art Crawl and was a huge success), so there was so much excitement in the air! Congrats on such an amazing endeavor, Kate and Liz!

Stop #3: The Cannon! This is our favorite coffee shop in the city, but I suppose we're a bit biased. But REALLY - it's so great. Anne and Cindy are dear friends of ours, and have recently opened Cannon Coffee Co., where they serve amazing coffee and bake up absolutely delicious treats. There's a great fresh-but-cozy atmosphere and you'll always be swept off your feet with Anne and Cindy's pleasant smiles and conversation. Go there, k? 

Stop #4: Kitestring! Well, this was fun! There was just so much screaming and laughing and of course we got to partake in the Kitestring-stash-o-candy. You can tell that Chris and Jenn have a lot of fun together but there's also a really deep friendship and mutual respect that is really evident, and that's so great to see. What nice business partners!

Stop #5: White Elephant! If you know Hollie and Jane, or if you've ever been to White Elephant, you'll know that these girls are a power couple (in the business sense of the word)...there's nothing they can't tackle! Their store is gorgeous, their banter is hilarious and they're just delightful people in general! We stopped in here during art crawl, and as usual, the shop was just packed (with people and amazing merchandise!) Yay!

Stop #6: Detour! Unfortunately we couldn't catch Kaelin, but we did stop in and see Crystal. This husband-wife duo and their wonderful coffee shop is a reason to visit Dundas in itself...what began as an amazing direct-trade roastery has turned into an incredible cafe, and it's been amazing to see these two work together towards their dreams. Also, they are our source for the beans we use for our Sweet Espresso syrup!

Stop #7: Our final stop! We met with Chris and Amy - future owners of what will surely be an amazing coffee shop in the core (#cafeoranje). While their doors aren't open for business yet, you can already see that these two are an amazing match when it comes to working out your dreams and running a business together. It was such a joy to sit down for coffee with them and hear about their process so far, and we can't wait to support them on this amazing whirlwind adventure!

We had an amazing time delivering our Valentine's Day gifts! It's such a honor to know all of these people and to gain from their knowledge and experience. During this process we've realized that this is only be 'Round One' of handing out these shirts, because there are just so many other talented and inspiring (and cute!) business partners in Hamilton. It's just thrilling to be part of a city with so much talent and with such excitement in the air! It was also nice to catch up and share a bit about what we have in store for Sweet Ice - which you'll be hearing about soon! Lots on the horizon for these business partners!

(See 'Part 1' of our silk-screening adventure here and little video from our workshop here!)

Back to School!

We tried something new! Silk-screening! We wanted to make something (to be revealed soon!) for some friends of ours, and in regular Sweet Ice fashion, we thought the best option was to do it ourselves! 

We signed up for a membership at The Print Studio on James St North, and registered for their one-day silk-screening class. Paula, Matt and Chris did a great job of walking us through the prep for the class - creating a simple graphic for the t-shirts we'd be printing. 

Once we got there, Chris was just spectacular at showing us how to transfer our image to the screen in the dark room, how to rinse the screen, how to set up their super-awesome-carousel-printing-station, how to ACTUALLY PRINT, and then set the ink, and then he even tried on one of the shirts we made, just for good measure! Yay Chris!

Here it is, guys. It's official - we highly recommend taking a class at The Print Studio. Our experience was an absolute delight, we learned so much, and now, with our membership (the basic fee starts at just $50/year!) we can't wait to go back and print everything we can get our hands on!

Oops. Meg accidentally got ink on her finger and then on a shirt and then used what she thought was dish soap to get it out, but then it wasn't dish soap, it was vegetable oil. That was interesting. ANYWAYS, we'll reveal what we made next week. Here's hint: It's a Valentines gift for some of the coolest cats in Hamilton.

(See 'Part 2' of our silk-screening adventure here!)