It's Been A Good Year (Oh, And We're Having A Contest!)

Tomorrow is a big day for us.

The August Art Crawl marks one year of snow cone business for Sweet Ice, and we're feeling pretty nostalgic about it. Only a year ago, we were packing up for the crawl, making sure to focus on all the "important" details (matching shoes?!). We headed to the Art Crawl, so proud of our ten (ten!) bottles of syrup, saying things like "Do you think we'll sell any?" and "What if we sell NONE!?". To our amazement, we sold out very quickly, and a year later we now know better than to make just ten bottles.

Matching shoes!

It's been such a good year for us. We've been welcomed into the small business culture of Hamilton with open arms. We've had the honor of spending time with the most amazing business owners, and have learned so much from them. We have gotten a taste of the food truck world, and have watched in amazement as some incredible people led the way for a mobile food revolution in this city. Hamilton is full of talent and inspiration, and we're so glad we get to play a small role in that.

One year ago!

I think if we could describe our experience with Sweet Ice so far in a few words, they'd be 'fun' and 'humbling'. Owning a business is fun! Who knew?! We get to develop our own flavors, and it's part of our job to spend time picking fresh Ontario fruit. We get to spend time brainstorming with some of the most creative people we know, and call it a “business meeting”. We’ve learned to screenprint, we’ve played ‘postman’, we got to experience the intensely fun process of making a COMMERCIAL, and best of all, we get to chat with all our customers every time we set up shop. That’s the most fun part – all of you! You’re so damn nice! And humbling - we say it all the time, but we are so overwhelmed by the support and all the smiles in this city. Thank you, thank you, thank you. #HamOnt is a friggin peach - and you know it.

We were all smiles!

So tomorrow, one year after our nervous debut, we'll set up in the same spot, and we'll have the same talented lady busking beside us. And hey, we're so excited about our little first birthday that we thought we'd have a contest about it! Starting today at noon, we're going to have a contest where you can be entered to win one of three commercial prize packs!

All you have to do is:
1) Share our commercial (here's the link, or you can share directly from Facebook or Twitter)
2) Tag Sweet Ice (either on Facebook, or on Twitter)
3) Let people know that we'll be set up at the Art Crawl tomorrow night on the Tivoli lot beside the CBC

The prize packs have a retail value of $100, and they feature all the people who played a leading role in our commercial:

A CD FROM KORI POP!

A FABRIC PACK FROM NEEDLEWORK!

A COMBO FROM WEENIES!

(Includes sausage, chips and all-natural soda! Can be redeemed at any time.)

AND A HAIRCUT FROM

THE AMAZING CAMERON ELDER!

(Must be redeemed by the end of November.)

That is a very good prize! And it all comes wrapped up in a Sweet Ice tote bag with two free snow cones! You can enter today and tomorrow (two entries per person), and you must be able to pick the prize pack up at Art Crawl (or have someone get it on your behalf). The contest will end at 5pm tomorrow, and we'll draw the three winners and announce them at 6 o'clock, just before the crawl!

Post away, friends! And we'll see you tomorrow night!

So much on the go!

There is so much happening with Sweet Ice these days - we're going to try and lay it all out for you. Here goes!

First off, do you want a snow cone? You're probably wondering where to find us!

This Friday we'll be at the James Street North Art Crawl, set up on the Tivoli Theatre lot (next to the CBC building). We were there last summer, and it was so fun to be on a little grassy knoll, right in the heart of the crawl.

We'll be serving snow cones there from 7-10, and we've got 5 amazing flavors that we're sure you'll love, including a new flavor - our Raspberry Green Tea snow cone made with an amazing loose leaf Pear Green Tea from Detour Cafe! AND because this is our first Art Crawl of the year, and because we love the ladies over at While Elephant, we've got a super special promotion happening:

So make sure you stop by their shop at 133 James St N - we're pretty confident you'll see something that you love, and then get a free snow cone out of the deal at the same time!

Then, after the Art Crawl, starting at about 10:30, we'll be set up at the Baltimore House serving SPIKED snow cones! Our after-parties have been quite the hit this year, so make sure you get there early as the place usually fills up pretty quickly. Fun, fun, fun! And yes, Ke$ha is a musical genre now.

Just two more things: last week we announced that we're filming a commercial! In order to do so, we need a bunch of props: fruit heads, pinwheels, banners, you know - really happy things! So...we're going to bake some cookies, pull out our safety scissors and meet up to fashion some adorable fruity crafts. We know there are lots of you crafty types out there in Hamilton, so we thought we'd open up the invitation and see who wants to come. We now present:

It's on Monday (a week from today, on June 11th), starting at 7pm. Hope you can come! It should be fun and cozy - because Needlework is always fun and cozy.

OKAY, last thing: just a few photos from our super fun weekend at the Dundas Buskerfest. We were rained out on Friday night, but we had a great time on Saturday and Sunday, and served snow cones to lots of beautiful, friendly people! Also, Dundas is officially the place to go to see THE CUTEST children and dogs - they were anywhere and everywhere you looked!

(Photo Cred: #2 (@katgracepi), #9 (@ashlyn0), #11 (@mikaelson86), all others from Sweet Ice Snow Cones)

(And thanks to Mike Jerome for that adorable elephant + snow cone graphic. That guy is pure talent!)

Those are all of our updates for now! We hope to see you at the Art Crawl this Friday!

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!)

Even More Dancing...

First order of business: Who won the private snow cone party!? We had so many people purchase their tickets ahead of time, and we're so pleased with the enthusiasm! You guys LOVE snow cones! The winner was chosen at the party, and it was the lovely Jenn Arnold! Congrats Jenn!

As promised - we have more dance party pictures! We had such an amazing time! It really was the perfect way to end the Sweet Ice season. It’s been a few weeks since the party, and we’ve already had SO many requests for another one. (Hmm, New Years?)

DJ Donna Lovejoy absolutely killed it on the 1’s and 2’s, and Anne was the best bartender we could have asked for. We took turns on snow cone duty, and spent the rest of our night dancing away. It really was the most fun night ever! More pictures here.

(Photos by Karyn M Photography)