Ransack the Universe Blog!

Upcoming Events

michelle — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:54:30 +0000

Join Ransack at two local events on August 14th!

Visit our table at the Bloorcourt Sidewalk Sale and Festival!
from 1-6pm (Bloor St W and Salem Ave.) featuring local arts and crafts in the Salem Ave parkette. Plus, an all day sidewalk sale by businesses along Bloor St.!

Also, on the same day Ransack will once again be at the Parkdale Bazaar!
from 11-5pm (Parkdale Town Square) an outdoor market with tons of vintage and handmade goodies.

The Parkdale Bazaar provides locals with an outlet for showcase and sales to promote craft, recycled and homegrown merchandise. As a response to the neighborhood’s thriving vintage and craft communities the event will take place 5 times throughout the year and include over 60 vendors.
The summer markets take place along Cowan Ave. at Queen in the Parkdale Town Square.

Ransack at the New Bloor Festival

michelle — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:03:13 +0000

The New Bloor Festival is coming to Bloor Street, between Dufferin and Lansdowne on Saturday, July 24, from 1 to 9 pm. It will be a fun, car-free space for the neighbourhood to come together and celebrate its wide range of businesses, community groups and cultural producers. There will be all kinds of fun for everyone, lots of activities for children, families, all ages.

Not only can you walk Bloor without having to dodge cars but the whole 69 Vintage Collective will be out strutting their stuff. Can you say deals, deals, deals? You can find Ransack’s tent somewhere between Emerson and Margueretta. We’ll have our best crafts, tees, funky vintage kitsch on display plus a special section of “lower priced items”.

Hope to see you there!

More info at: http://www.newbloorfestival.com/.

Good thing our clones were ready on time

michelle — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:58:04 +0000

July 17th is a busy day for Ransack. Two, count em’ Two events in one day. How we gonna do it?
From 11-5pm we will be at the first ever Parkdale Bazaar. Located in the Parkdale Town Square (Cowan Ave @ Queen ) the Bazaar (a first in a series of outdoor markets) will feature a ton of vintage and handmade wonders. The event will provide an outlet for locals to showcase crafts, recycled, and homegrown merch. Come visit our table and receive a coupon for 10% off that can used towards any in-store purchase.
Back at home base (1207 Bloor st.) is the next event- HOT DOG DAY!
The sun is shining and our garden is growing.. so we’re havin’ a BBQ! With every purchase up to and on July 17th, you receive a coupon for a free hot/veggie dog and pop pop Popsicle. Come in with your coupons on July 17 from 12-7pm because that’s when we’ll be handing out the free treats. We will also be setting up stylish goodies in the garden. Come shop and lunch is on us. Plus, we won’t tell your mom if you eat your popsicle first.

Pics of Ransack Merch now on Flickr

Jess — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:10:43 +0000

What sort of things can you expect to find at Ransack? Well, good things. Pretty things. Strange things. Funny things. Old things. Plus, expect the unexpected! We’ve got shtuff you won’t find anywhere else. If you are more of one of those visual learners, here’s a link to our new Flickr photostream where you will see a sampling of things that are or were in the store.

Don’t forget to check us on Facebook

Jess — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:10:32 +0000

The title of this post pretty much says it all … for now. But we’ll be back, oh yes we certainly shall, mwwwa ha ha. Here’s a Facebook link.

Mysterious Parcel’s Stealthy Arrival

Jess — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:18:13 +0000

Ransack has recently been the beneficiary of a magnanimous gesture. Nestled among our wares, like a baby placed gently in a cabbage patch by an innebriated stork, was a little bundle of joy! Was it brought as a replacement for our missing Eiffel Tower? Who knows! And what would we find inside?

So we commissioned some Hazmat suits from The Make Den, surrounded the Improvised Edible Device, and then opened the lid. Not since Geraldo was about to crack open Al Capone’s safe have we felt such a thrill up our leg.

Lo! Some kind of potato-cheese curd-gravy concoction de la belle province. If you would like to sheepishly claim your snack, we will hold it for 26 weeks, not a day longer, after which we will make crafts out of it.

Indie Craft Market returns to The Garrison

Jess — Sat, 29 May 2010 03:57:25 +0000

Ahoy! Our traveling Crafty-Artsy-Vintagey Market returns to the scene of a recent triumph, The Garrison at 1197 Dundas St. W., on Saturday May 29th from 12-5 pm.

We’ve selected only the choicest morsels for the discerning aficionado. The line-up includes purveyors of paintings, patches, and fuzzy monsters; leather accessories and accessorized feathers; bags, baubles, books, and buttons; clothing and cards, soaps and popes*, mosaics and shnozaics*.

Really, if you need a fun present for someone in the foreseeable future, you’d be a right pillock to miss this. As before, the Garrison remains an establishment licensed to sell you alcoholic drinks, so feel free to wander about, have a tipple, and wander about a bit more.

* = while quantities last!

Holy Frock!

Jess — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:21:51 +0000

Spring! This coming Saturday, May 8th, come get well and truly frocked. 69Vintage Collective at 1207 Bloor is hosting a building-wide party, complete with an ice cream parlour and loads of new stock at all the upstairs boutiques — including two new vendors (Tomorrow Never Knows and Electric Eel). Will the staff of Ransack the Universe also be wearing frocks? Let’s answer that question with another question: Would we have to shave our legs?

If you are humming and hawing, this super cute and colourful poster should convince you:

Earth Day Book Swap Approacheth; Repent and Recycle!

Jess — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:26:52 +0000

Attend our Book Swap, or the Earth will be very angry. The Icelandic volcano “Engelberthumperdinksdottir” is just a tiny glimpse of what is in store if we do not make a sufficient sacrifice.

In the spirit of recycling, through the miracle of cut/paste technology, here is the text from an earlier blog post:

For 4 days, in honour of the Earth, Ransack the Universe is hosting a Book Swap. On the other 361 days of the year, the Earth can carry on falling apart for all we care.

Here’s how it works: you bring one or more books to drop off. You snoop around and take away with you one or more books. For free. That’s it. Maybe there will be CD’s etc. as well, maybe not.

What a terrific time to visit Ransack if you haven’t yet.

Reading: too elitist? You decide!

Storm the Garrison! (in 4 more sleeps)

michelle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:49:55 +0000

The countdown is on — this Saturday (April 10th, 12-5pm) we take our show on the road to the heart of Where It’s At. That’s right, it’s another Indie Craft Fair, this time a joint effort with The Argyle Acorn and held at The Garrison, 1197 Dundas West, a little west of Ossington.

There will be a smorgasbord of ingenious and lovely objets de craft, including t-shirts, cards, vintage, buttons, ties, bath stuff, zines, earrings, photography, hair clips, jewelry made from piano ivory!!!, stuffed critters, turned wood mushrooms, and loads and loads more. All with the added satisfaction of meeting the artist. And if somehow that’s not enough, it’s in a bar — you can probably get BOOZE, you lushes. If we were you, we’d ring up a pal and toddle on over.

Here’s an event page over on ze Facebook.

And here’s the official poster: