Back in the Swing of Things!

The warm weather is here, and Sweet Ice is back at the Art Crawl! We weren't sure if we were going to make it back, as our regular spot at the Tivoli is no longer an option, but we found a cute little home on the Mulberry patio! We'll be there during July and August Art Crawl as well, so make sure you stop by. :)

We made sure to savor the Art Crawl over the Fall and Winter, because now that it's snow cone season, we don't get to see too much! I think this month's crawl was one of the busiest and most jam-packed that I've ever seen it. On every corner and in every store front, there was something magical happening! Very cool, Hamilton.

Our bud CJ was SO ready for a snow cone.

Emma had never had a Sweet Ice snow cone and was very excited.

Our new home!

We did make sure to get away from our booth to stop by and see our friends, Joel and the Jukes, playing at the Lister Block. If you're ever looking for an amazing wedding/party band, these guys are so good.

We also popped out to make some special deliveries to some of our friends along the street. Hey Hollie and Jane, HERE ARE SOME SNOW CONES FOR YOU.

All in all, it was a delightful night! Thanks for being so great, Hamilton.

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!

July Art Crawl + The Cutest Wedding Ever

Hello dear friends!

Sweet Ice had a whirlwind of a weekend! I (Meg) was on bridesmaid duty, which meant it was our first event without both of us slinging cones! Kind of bittersweet - bitter because I missed out on the snow cone fun, but sweet because I did get to enjoy Sweet Ice as a customer and we got to welcome some new faces behind the stand. Anne and Jaimi rocked it!

We participated in a campaign with Kitesting and Core Urban lofts - if you tweeted something that you loved about the core you'd get a free snow cone! There was a live #iheartthecore Twitter feed set up at the Lister Block, and it was so great to see all the uplifting responses that came in about why people love this city! Read all about it at iheartthecore.com.

CBC Hamilton is so nice - we just love 'em! They allow us to plug in at their building (thank you!), they played our new commercial on loop during the crawl (thanks again!) and they had a super cute photo booth set up. Look at those adorable snow cone fans!

I got to stop in at Sweet Ice on my way to the rehearsal dinner and when I walked up I was surprised to see...ACROBATS. Yes, acrobats. This is Hamilton's art crawl, which is consistently amazing and interesting, so I shouldn't really be so surprised, but it was a little unexpected! Kevin and I indulged in some Apple Cider and Raspberry Green Tea snow cones, respectively, and I had a great time checking out the art crawl!

A highlight: Cameron Elder doing his thing in the Needlework window and stopping by the booth with his new buttons and adorable hair model, Sharon.

Another highlight: Stopping in at the Blush mobile shop! Michele has turned this vintage caravan into a super cute pink shop and she came from Guelph to enjoy the art crawl! As always, it was lovely to run into the Beaux Mondes ladies here as well!

Then we moved on to another amazing event! My sister-in-law got married on Saturday and we were so honored that they requested Sweet Ice to be a part of their big day. Karyn and Nic are the cutest couple to walk this planet, and their wedding was just SO BEAUTIFUL!

What a great day - we're so excited that we have a few more snow cone weddings to look forward to this season!

(Art Crawl Photo Cred: #2 (@taylorshadney) #3 (@margaretlintott) #5 (CBC Hamilton) #7 (@helensavestheday), #9 (@michaelpett), all others from Sweet Ice Snow Cones)

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!

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!)