Stuff & Nonsense

One thing that we at Stuff&Nonsense have always prided ourselves in is our sock and underwear selection.  Local folks here have long depended on being able to pop in at any time of year to pick up the barest of necessities: Underwear and of course socks, tights & yes baby legwarmers!  Whether you are searching for the perfect camisole or a pair of rugged hiking socks, we probably have it for you.  Tucked neatly in a cosy corner across from our nighties and slipper displays, we happily present our intimates collection.

We are proud to feature Jockey Brand’s “no panty line promise” tactel fiber blend bikini and modern hipster brief, a undie that is so comfy you will forget you have them on!  Pair them with a Jockey Luxe Camisole and you are good to go.  All available in pretty new colours and basics for the spring.  New to Stuff&Nonsense this year is Coobie Intimates and organic cotton panties and bralets from Echo Verde.  Coobies are a fun and colourful line of simple one size bras, bandeaus and matching camis with a built in shelf bra, both which rate high in the comfort scale.

We also love our socks & tights and carry a wide selection of both.  As always we have in stock MacGregor cotton and wool blends for men and women; a familiar and favourite brand.  New to us is the extremely popular Smartwool “Ultra Comfy Socks” a high quality merino wool line that ranges from funky, stripey Ladie’s knee-highs to practical cosy Men’s work socks.  Back by popular demand are the incredibly cozy and stylish BEST EVER fleecy on the inside tights, this year in four fashion colours.  And, finally, Cosy Toes, a brushed wool-blend sock that comes to us from New Zealand are perfect for just schlepping around the house or lining your gumboots!

Whether for work or play, fashion of function, in the socks & underwear department, we’ve got you covered!

P.S. Need another layer to keep your feet warm? We of course carry the very popular, comfy and colourful made in North Vancouver Padraig slippers for babies, children, men & women!

We love this time of year in the store.  All the baskets are filled with sparkly, shiny, felty, whimsical, handcrafted and just plain lovely ornaments to make you and your home glow from the inside out.  Our all time favourite ornament has got to be the German glass Christmas Pickle (shown above in a basket already half empty as ‘The Pickle’ tends to be a favourite among Stuffers too).

We’re told by The Pickle people that in Germany, the pickle is considered a symbol of good luck. Tuck one of these glass goodies amongst the boughs of your tree and the first to find it is rewarded with and extra present!  We’ve shared this with a total of two friends of German descent, and shipped one off to Germany with a customer, and have had as of yet no confirmation of this actually being a German tradition. No matter, we still love the way it sounds, and we still love The Pickle.

Find your pickle (and your extra present for discovering it) here!

When I was little, when asked what my favourite colour was, I often replied “stripes”.  Stripes don’t discriminate on the colour wheel – in fact in the stripey world, the more colours the merrier.  And let’s face it, stripes in nature have produced some the most striking animals going (zebras & tigers to name just two, tho I am rather partial to the tabby cat too).

So I couldn’t have been happier when a big box of SmartWool arrived in the shop this week, in all its warm, wooly, comfy AND stripey glory.  I first met this sock about five years ago and have been trying to convert my entire sock drawer over to them one pair at a time ever since.

Why SmartWool you might ask?  Well I’ll tell you straight from the horse’s, ahem sheep’s, mouth over at SmartWool headquarters: “We’re wool geeks, there’s no way around it. For over 17 years we’ve been combining the latest in innovative design, technology and construction with the best wool nature has to offer, and it’s this expertise and experience combined with our passion for mountain sports that makes our products so unique.”  That and a super stylish lifestyle line, which keep your feet warm and looking super cute to boot.  Seriously folks, these socks are the Best*Socks*Ever!

Next weekend heralds one of my favourite annual events: Salt Spring Island’s 13th Annual Apple Festival.  At Stuff & Nonsense we don’t get to contribute to the tasting (as all we have is a brambly troublesome blackberry bush threatening to take over our recycling shed), but we do get to decorate the porch with April Cornell apple patterned table cloths and trade apple stories with locals and visitors alike.  And if there’s one thing that everyone agrees on is that the Salt Spring Apple Festival is not to be missed (nor is the apple pie baked by Salt Spring’s famous pie ladies).

This year, also not to be missed is our third annual PRE-SEASON BLOWOUT EXTRAVAGANZA!  We’re teaming up with Cedar Mountain Studios as well as Twang & Pearl for a two day sale at the Lion’s Club.  There will be lots of discontinued stock at wholesale prices and some seconds at deeper discounts.  A few pieces of Twang & Pearl’s Indian teak furniture too!  Also joining us this year is Raffleasia Marketplace’s Thai handicrafts & jewelry and Two Loops’ Christmas decor.

If you missed this sale last year you definitely don’t want to miss it again.  If you made it last year, this year’s sale will be even better!

Sales are available in the Blowout location only:

Lion’s Club – just off Drake Road on Bonnet Avenue

Saturday & Sunday, October 1 & 2

9:30-4:30 pm

So take a bite out of an apple (or 100) and then head on down to the Lion’s Club and let us take a bite out of your Christmas spending.  The apples may be tart but the deals will be sweet!

Even though summer isn’t technically over yet, Labour Day always seems to herald the end of it for me.  As I sit here listening to Harry Manx at the store, the last wave of summer family visitors have just sailed away and I’m looking forward to meeting the wave of less rambunctious visitors that September usually brings in at a less frenetic pace.  I for one don’t yearn for the fabled endless summer, and always welcome the return to school and with it the knee high socks, sweaters and tall boots I get to pull out of summer storage.

At Stuff & Nonsense fall is arriving in boxes: boxes of calendars, boxes of Pure Handknit sweaters, boxes of Paperblank Daytimers, boxes of the best ever fleecy on the inside tights, and yes boxes of knee high socks.  We also are happy to welcome a new line of eco-fabric clothes from Echo Verde.  If you haven’t met their organic wool/bamboo/silk drape neck vests & cardigans yet, I can tell you they are divine.  Come in and wrap yourself in one and you too may find yourself excited for the coming of fall.