Beaux Mondes

To Our Moms

To our moms, who gave us the wisdom and strength to be independent and impassioned young women. Who gave us the courage to dream big and follow our dreams through. Who are there for us for 1 a.m. phone calls and always know the right thing to say. We are so fortunate to have the moms we do. They are beautiful, funny and smart. They teach us of love and kindness and we are grateful for them every single day. We love you. Happy Mothers Day.

Sweet Ice Snow Cones

There's no question there's a frenzy for food trucks in the city. For Meg Makins and Lindsay Churchman, Sweet Ice Snow Cones started as a simple idea, serving sweet treats at a friend's wedding. With the support of the community the girls are soon taking their venture to the streets, renovating an adorable 1962 Shasta trailer that will pop up around town this summer. Using all natural, locally sourced ingredients, their snow cones come in yummy flavours like peaches and honey, espresso and boozy party varieties like apple jack. Try their cocktail ice cones tonight at Battle of the Brushes or at The AGH for CLiC Landscapes later this month.

(Exerpt from Beaux Mondes City File in Hamilton Magazine)

And now, time for a fun Q&A!

Describe Sweet Ice in three words.
Our little baby.

Where did you meet?
L: We met through mutual friends SO long ago, but a friendship didn’t spark right away. I used to always tell my husband that I had a ‘friend crush’ on Meg and her husband Kevin and it was only a matter of time until we’d be great friends. (He laughed at me. But who’s laughing now?!) We then started going to the same church in 2010 and decided to plan a wedding together. In the thick of the planning we realized that we were ‘ALL IN’ this friendship and that we're pretty much the same person in a lot of ways. So that’s that. Now we’re all-ins, ok?

M: That cheesy term came out of a moment when we were in line at a coffee shop, reflecting on our new-ish friendship. It's pretty cute/embarrassing in hindsight: "I'm all in, Linds, if you're all in." "Oh, I'm definitely all in."

What is your favourite Sweet Ice cocktail snow cone?
Meg’s favorite is the Strawberry Lime Daquiri. Linds loves the Apple Jack. YUM! Gimme.

What would surprise people about you?
L: Meg is ADORABLE and CUTE on the outside, but she’s pretty hilarious and punk rock to her core. Maybe not punk rock in the true sense of the term, but you’d be surprised at what you’d find on her iPod. 

M: Yeah, sometimes we're not so 'sweet' behind the scenes. Everyone thinks owning Sweet Ice must mean unicorns and rainbows all the time. But we do have our dark days once in a while which are usually hilarious and full of cursing. Another surprising fact: Linds is a mortgage broker. Hilarious right? By day she crunches numbers and by night she serves up delicious all natural frozen treats! Weird.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Justin Bieber. Hold on, we’re not guilty about that. Okay maybe a little. Our number one goal is to get him to follow us on Twitter.

What was the last restaurant you went to and what did you order?
L: The last restaurant I went to was La Luna. Have you been? If not, drop everything you are doing right this very second and go. Their fattoush salad is probably the tastiest thing in the world. That, and their hummus, falafel... I know you asked what I ordered. I ordered all of that.

M: Jack & Lois, and I had The McCartney. It was amazing, and their homemade kettle chips are divine!

Do you have a favourite food truck?
Oh goodness gracious! GORILLA CHEESE! We love them for a million reasons but here are a few: They are classic Hamilton people and we LOVE that about them. They fight for other businesses, they’re creative, they’re leaders in the industry, they’re inclusive and supportive and super bad ass. Just love em.

What do you love most about Hamilton?
It’s a very unsuspecting city. There is community of people here who are so passionate and have so much love for the city, and it's infectious. There is an attitide that we can bring the change we want to see, and there are so many people just going ahead and doing that - leading by example. It's inspiring and empowering just to walk around and bump into all the amazing people doing incredible things in Hamilton (it's the worlds biggest small town!). Businesses support one another here. Movements actually take off. People get behind one another. It’s just a great city, and the people who believe that share a common bond.

Where would we most likely find you on a (non art crawl) Friday night?
You’ll find us mostly at festivals! We’ll be at the Dundas Buskerfest and Supercrawl to name a couple. We’ll also be parked outside of the Ti-Cat home games this season with other lovely food trucks for the ‘pre-game festivals’! If you're wondering what we do when we're not serving up snow cones - we're usually hanging with friends, exploring the city. Last weekend we went bowling.

When will your adorable Shasta trailer hit the streets?
Renovations are in full swing! We’re aiming for the trailer to be done by the end of May and it’s looking promising. If all goes as planned, we’ll be debuting early June! Can’t wait!

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We can't wait either! To see the behind-the-scenes process of designing their Shasta trailer, visit the Sweet Ice Snow Cones blog and let the girls know your favourite design.

TH&B Collective

The Mill gallery space on the third floor of 270 Sherman makes quite the impression on its own. Fill it with the works of TH&B Collective and it's kind of mesmerizing. Hundreds of people showed up to the opening in April, ourselves included. When a bus shows up with art students from OCAD, you know its going to be great. As a follow up to the original exhibition back in 2008, TH&B2 highlights 18 artist projects that address the context of the unoccupied third floor of 270 Sherman, a historic textile mill located in the industrial sector of Hamilton. TH&B (named after the inoperative railway that once serviced the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo corridor) aims to reconnect artists working along the borders of these cities and foster the development and exchange of ideas, art and culture amongst them. As a rail junkie, I think this artist collective is super cool. The closing performances are this Saturday, so if you haven't had a chance to take in the exhibition, take our word for it and go.

Textile production was one of the larger industries in Hamilton, second to only the steel mills in the early 20th century. That being said, we were kind of spellbound by Janet Morton's mixed media installation emissions/ omissions with the textile overlay on the factory mill and the floral emissions (above). 

Above, Torqued DC-3, installation by Niall Donaghy 

For this installation, Dave Hind and the Aluminum Quilting Society salvaged aluminum, windows and rivets to create Cottage Industrious, a functional 10'x14' cabin. Using reclaimed metals, he layers them to create textural and colourful mosaics like the one featured on the cabin (above). You may recognize the image referenced from a 1950's Life Magazine photo.

Above, Open Ended, video and mixed media installation by Vessna Perunovich

Above, Phosphorescence, sculpture by Susan Detwiler

Constructed from ordinary materials like cornerboard and coffee cup lids, Pylon is Ivan Jurakic's interpretation of the transmission tower within the urbanized landscape. It's only up close that you realize the fragility of the materials that form the lattice.

Have you seen the exhibit? Let us know what your favourite art project is at TH&B2. Between the Art Crawl, West Hamilton Artist Tour and the closing performances of TH&B2, this weekend promises to be a great one for art enthusiasts in the city. You'll be sure to see us around!

TH&B2
270 Sherman Avenue North
3rd Floor
Hamilton, ON
L8L 6N4