Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Oh, Fort McMurray and the rest of the world. My name is Elliot Pierre. You're tuning into the Mac city morning show. Once again, we're going to start the soft, like we start every episode off with gratitude. It blows my mind. How many of you were tuning in continuously and for the first time? So it warms my heart. So I just want to say thank you. Cause I know you could be doing a million other things with your time on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:29 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the next anymore.
Speaker 0 00:00:38 All right. Now we got a, we got a really fun guest here today. Local business owner, a cool business. I've spent some time there, definitely a hit with the ladies. So for all the gentlemen out there, if you want to, uh, while your mom, your significant other or a daughter or something, this, uh, this is where you gotta go. So as everybody knows at this point, I do not introduce my guests. They can do a better job at that than I ever will be able to. So on that note, can you please introduce yourself and tell people who you are?
Speaker 2 00:01:05 Well, I'm Amy, I'm the owner of color, me, mine, which is a paint, your own pottery studio.
Speaker 0 00:01:11 Cool. And that's here in format.
Speaker 2 00:01:13 It's here in Fort McMurray. Where's it located? And we're located in Eagle Ridge right beside a Tim's. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:01:19 Okay, cool. Now I've been there many times. I think it's cool. Um, how did you get into this business?
Speaker 2 00:01:26 Uh, well, uh, so back in 2016, we had a little fire and, uh, everyone evacuated and, uh, we ended up in Edmonton staying with my parents and, uh, we had a birthday coming up. I believe it was my mom's birthday coming up. And we were walking through Western tamale and we saw this little store called color, me mine it's a franchise. So we went in and we decided to paint something for my mom for her birthday and also, uh, paint something for my daughter, um, as an activity. So we were in there and as I was sitting in there, the wheels started turning a little bit and thinking, wouldn't this be so great to have this informant, Marie? Uh, there's not a lot of artistic activities that you could just drop in. You usually have to be part of a, uh, um, either part of a class or part of a membership type deal, a Guild. Yes, that's what I was looking for. Um, there you go. So for, for me to open up something like this, it was more so to have, uh, bring something to the kids, to the parents to have an activity. That's not just the kids running around, you know, having them sit down at the table and, you know, having an artistic experience.
Speaker 0 00:02:49 Okay. Very cool. So the fire was kind of the starting point.
Speaker 2 00:02:54 Yeah. It was kind of the catalyst that kind of I've, I've seen color me mine before they really good at posting. Like when celebrities come in and paint, it's, uh, it's a US-based franchise. Okay. Um, so I saw that and I was always kind of jealous, wishing we could have something like that here and then yeah. The opportunity came up and I thought it was a great idea and yeah, I think people really appreciate us being here.
Speaker 0 00:03:18 Yeah. No dose. And so when, when, when did you open exactly?
Speaker 2 00:03:22 Uh, we opened in 2017, so we're going on our fourth year and we've actually are hitting our actual four year anniversary of being open on Wednesday. That's when we first opened our doors to people coming in and painting, obviously you've got to build up the business and put it together before you open. Right. Um, and prepare for it. Right, right. That's
Speaker 0 00:03:45 Awesome. And so during,
Speaker 2 00:03:47 Oh, it's Wednesday, the 3rd of March. It is, yeah. This Wednesday. And, uh, I, I kind of feel like I'm not doing anything so far for so far for it, because I feel like it's a little bit of a jinx to do step before your five year. Do you know what I mean? When they say you hit your fifth year in business, that's the year that, you know, you've you survived. Right. Right. Well, we'll see.
Speaker 0 00:04:16 I might change my mind. Yeah. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, if you made it through 2020, you feel pretty good as a business. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Yeah. It's, it's been an interesting adventure starting from, uh, after post-fire to pandemic, to flooding and let's not forget economic downturn. Correct. Um, but you know, it's, it's, you have to really believe in what you're doing. And I really like it like makes me so excited. Well, not just the kids, they're like excited to be there. Like what job do you have that people are excited to come in and paint that little unicorn that they've been staring at every time they come in and out and mom said, yes, you can paint that fluffy unicorn. The next time we come, like kids are so excited. And the parents, like they say how nice it is to sit down and just relax and paint, that's it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:05:15 And it's something different. It's definitely different. And we will let me paint unicorns if I wanted to. Yeah, that's right. Well, me as somebody who is not the most talented, when it comes to painting, drawing, I just don't have a knack for it. I've been in there a bunch of times, maybe as like a business outing or my family's been there during Christmas. It's been like an event that we've done. Um, I've done it for the boys and boys and girls club for, um, the food bank. Right. And so I've been there tons of time. And for somebody who, honestly, the first time I was told I was doing it, I'm like, Oh, because I'm not talented at it. I don't like to do things. I'm not good at leading people. I've had a ball every time. It's so relaxing. And like, there's no TV, that's my favorite, no TV. And because of your painting, you can't touch your phone. So you literally just focused on that and the people you're with. And it's a great, great thing to do individually or with a group,
Speaker 2 00:06:10 For sure. For sure. Like, it's funny how a lot of people do come in. Like I find usually the man is like, Oh, we're going to be doing this. And, uh, uh, they sit there, they watched the mom paint, they botched the kids paint and all of a sudden they're grabbing a mug or they're grabbing a Spider-Man bank and they're starting it. And like, they have so much fun. They, and then they think, okay, this would be such a great note, uh, have a date night. Yeah. Yeah. They get into it, you get into it. And it's not it's, you really don't have to be a talented painter to do it. If you follow our rules and we explain everything to you is you're not going in there and starting from scratch and not knowing nothing, we help you along the way. Um, and we give you tips and tricks. Um, like you can, and there's items too that have details on them that you can just follow. Or you could just paint your mug, like black. Yeah. That's it. And then just put love you mom. Love your mom, big heart on there. Like you don't have to go crazy. Yeah. Just the act of itself, a painting is very like soothing and like, you kind of get lost in, um, you know, the, the painting process in your mind. Right.
Speaker 0 00:07:24 Well, I can't tell you how many brownie points I've received from going in and making something from the ladies in my life. So for all the fellows at home, I said it at the top of the show and I'm being a hundred percent serious. Like if you have a significant other or a daughter or a mom, or like a mother-in-law anybody, any lady in your life, and you're just like, what should I get? They're so hard to buy, buy for, listen, go in, paint something and give it to them. And even if it looks like trash, because sometimes mine look horrible. Um, they're gonna love it. It's built in brownie points. So maybe you just want to go for yourself. Yeah. There you go.
Speaker 2 00:08:03 A lot of men coming in on their own, they come like during the week, um, I sitting down and working on a really big project. Right. Like art isn't just for women and kids. It's for everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:14 I love it. And I think I've told a bunch of my buddies about it and they like typical men site workers. I'm not doing that, but anyways, I've dragged some in or some of them have gone on date nights and stuff. And it's exactly how you describe it. They go there and I'm like, and then all of a sudden they're like hijack the whole day. And now they, they become artists.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 It's, it's funny how you say like, uh, like Siteman it's like, I've gone, been going out to, uh, not recently bind you, but like been going out to, out at site, uh, ConocoPhillips. And usually it's a big chunk of ladies that are painting, like as an activity. And then slowly the men come and they check it out. Cause we're usually like in the cafeteria or something, some big open. And they're like, can I join in? I'm like, Oh, of course. Like as long as they say you can and we're starting to have like a big, uh, man following. That's awesome. And it's great. Like it, and, uh, it really is relaxing. Yeah. It is a good experience right
Speaker 0 00:09:12 Now. We were talking about something before you came in, in regards to growing up, where did you grow up?
Speaker 2 00:09:18 Well, I grew up here. I was born and raised here. So I'm a Fort McMurray, right? I'm a unicorn.
Speaker 0 00:09:25 It's like myself and Tanner. Yeah. We're everybody here. Like, listen, this show, the more people that come on, we've had more people. I don't even want to call us unicorns anymore. We've had more people born and raised in Fort McMurray on the show than people from abroad. Right. So what school did
Speaker 2 00:09:42 You go to? I went to Westwood.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 Oh, another Westwood person here down there. Another one, another one. And he's called <inaudible>. Well, we were talking like, I'm not going to give anybody's age away here. No, but when I went to high school, they stopped the tri high dance in regards to, they still call it to tri high, but comp was no longer invited. Oh no. So some things went down the year that I was in grade nine and they said, yeah, coughs aren't coming anymore. So they still call it to try high, but no pump.
Speaker 3 00:10:21 So comp does, at least when I went there, I came from an elementary school that like every elementary school did dances and then we got to comp and it was just kind of mutually decided that we weren't going to do that anymore because nobody was going to show up. And like a bunch of the kids from like certain elementary schools tried to get together and be like, Hey, let's throw dances. And like, they did like this whole petition thing. And everybody was like, yeah, no, we don't do dances. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:10:45 Not our thing, not their thing. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:10:48 I remember.
Speaker 2 00:10:49 Hi. So it must've been, I must be a little bit older than you because I don't remember that going down. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:10:56 Situated with my cousins, Justin and Erica, right?
Speaker 2 00:11:00 Yeah. I think maybe we're. Yeah. Me and Erica would have been the same year.
Speaker 0 00:11:06 So you graduated when I was in grade nine.
Speaker 2 00:11:11 Yeah. So yeah, I pass. Yeah. So we can say it. I graduated 2000. I'm not ashamed of my age. Like that's not a high age group,
Speaker 0 00:11:22 6,000. That can't be wrong. The math has got to be wrong there.
Speaker 2 00:11:25 Why? Well,
Speaker 0 00:11:27 I graduated in 2001.
Speaker 2 00:11:29 It could be that Eric is a little bit older than me. I always thought, geez, you get to a certain age where you think everybody's your same. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:37 Everybody's the same. Yeah. Eric, Eric is older than you. That she's older than me. Sorry, Erica, putting you on blast. Yeah. They got her to try highest maybe. Yeah. It was a comp. So before Mark, where did you go then? If you went to Westwood? Um, so
Speaker 2 00:11:54 I'm actually French. So I went to the Francophone school. It called buddy ad, which is, uh, uh, a fully French school. So you know how you guys would learn French for like an hour? I would learn English for an hour. So just the basics. Um, my mom's from Quebec and my dad grew up in Quebec, but he's from Edmonton. So they both are the reasons why I was born, born here, back in the eighties, they came up, um, and started, my dad started working at Syncrude back in the day when Syncrude and Suncor were like, the kids are like, you, your dad works at Suncor. My dad works at sincrude like the competition. Hey. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:12:38 And they're the exact same always work. But it was Syncrude verse Encore. It's not the same as the one your dad went to was better. Yeah. Well, Syncrude was better. My dad worked at St. Crude. That is fact yes. And Syncrude was the best. They used to have Syncrude barbecues for everybody watching at home. They were the best they used to give you Fanny packs, which my parents still have the mugs are those. I don't want to say horrible because I still wear them at home. But the synchrony barbecue t-shirts are like a fluorescent color of some sort. And then they also had like the Syncrude lobster boil
Speaker 2 00:13:11 Lobster, boil. Yeah. I miss those things. Like those were nice. Those are fun. It was like a different era back in the like 1990s, early two thousands of, of like Syncrude and Suncor.
Speaker 0 00:13:23 Yeah. Well, nobody really knew about Fort McMurray. I remember growing up and like, it wasn't until John crit Shen came and like 1999, the Canadian government said, Hey, we're going to invest X amount of billions. And then all of a sudden it was like blew
Speaker 2 00:13:39 Up. It was crazy. Hey. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:13:41 But prior to that, like, it was like, nothing changed. Like it just, everybody kind of just stayed parents work, but like there wasn't a boom there's actually, we were talking about it before and Tanner mentioned it as well. There was a number of oil crashes leading up until then. So people who were like, Oh, this is so rough. It's never happening for him. Or before. It's like, if you grew up here, you remember this has happened before
Speaker 2 00:14:06 The eighties were a hard time. Yeah. I don't remember it as much. Cause I was super young then. But uh, we'd been through this before and it, it will pick up again. It's the way it's just the cycle. Right. Of the boom and bust. And like, unfortunately with oil, it's not like a consistent thing. It was for a really long time, which was, you know, great for this community and how much it added to like different venues, like, uh, Mac Island. Right. Creating like a better venue for families to go and, you know, spend time together, different activities, right?
Speaker 0 00:14:43 Yeah. Yeah. Definitely the community developed big time because of that stretch of, well over a decade of high oil prices. But yeah. It'll come back. We're still here. I love it. I ain't going anywhere. Yeah. So this is part of the show though, where it's called the Mac city minute. Okay. I don't know if you've seen the show, but a town. Just going to ask you some questions. Five. I don't know what he's going to ask you so best luck Tanner hit her with the Mac city minute
Speaker 3 00:15:09 Question. Number one. What is something you see in Fort McMurray that makes you feel nostalgic?
Speaker 2 00:15:16 I don't know if it's like seeing it, but it's so weird. Uh, uh, when it rains, there's a smell. You smell the rain and that's it. Some people might think that's kind of gross, but for me, it's like I can smell the rain coming.
Speaker 3 00:15:30 Question number two. What is your favorite part of working with art in Fort McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:15:36 Oh man. There's such a great art community here. Um, and like each artist is so supportive of each other. It's great. And it's from like comedy to like, uh, Aboriginal art to like even the pottery Guild. Like everyone's so supportive of each other. I love it.
Speaker 3 00:15:53 Question number three. What is one service you offer that people might not know?
Speaker 2 00:15:58 Um, well we do a lot of baby prints, like baby hands, baby feet. And we kind of amass like a little bit of a following because we do like back in October, we do AB bums, like baby hand prints. We're doing like spring and Easter prints here soon. So that's one thing that people don't know when they think about ceramics.
Speaker 3 00:16:23 Question number four. What is one thing you've learned from your business that you use in life?
Speaker 2 00:16:29 Wow. Um, this, this whole year, uh, pivot. It's like, don't let the hard stuff keep you still, you got to keep moving. If you don't keep moving, like things that stay in motion or in motion stays in motion, things that are still stay still. So you just got to keep pivoting God, keep moving forward. Like just when you think you're almost done, you're like probably only halfway there. So you gotta keep pushing.
Speaker 3 00:16:59 And your last question, what is your favorite part of running your business in the town you grew up in?
Speaker 2 00:17:05 Oh, I would say like the kids, they like, like I said before, the kids, they come in the excitement, like not only when they they're painting, but when they pick up their pieces and they see it. Oh, it's just such a good feeling.
Speaker 0 00:17:21 There you go. You're number four, super inspirational in regards to keeping moving. Like that was great. Good response. Now, in regards to something you were talking about before you went to a totally French school, are you doing that with your children?
Speaker 2 00:17:37 Um, I tried. And it's my mom's going to be so mad at me. If you don't speak enough, French at home, it's really hard to translate that into school. And like we had the set up, my husband's completely English, so, and I kind of, um, I would say English is my first language because my mom came here, did not know a lick of English. So she learnt, um, by soap operas, her English. So she would always try to speak English to me to practice her English. So for me, my first thought is to speak English to her. Right. Um, but yeah, my children, they know French. They understand it, but they don't, we don't.
Speaker 0 00:18:25 Yeah. You're in trouble. I know I'm so much trouble. Yeah. I grew up English struggling with French and you live vicariously through your kids. So my little boy Keegan, um, from the get-go when he was one years old and he went into a day home, we put him into not a French immersion day home, just a straight up French day home from the get-go. And so he was going there. He said, Oh, how about anybody saying like, you're about to figure it out. So now he is a bit older and he's in French immersion. And so like my game plan is like, you're going to learn something. Your dad doesn't know. Basically. I think
Speaker 2 00:19:06 So many doors, so many like, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 0 00:19:13 He already talks trash to me in French. And I have no idea what he's saying. I'm like, what did you say? And he's just like nothing. I'm good. I'm like, I know like, I don't know what you're saying, but I see your face and you're grounded.
Speaker 2 00:19:25 That's how my kids are. Right. Like you think when you're learning a new language, like, uh, like you have a friend that speaks another language, the first thing you ask them.
Speaker 0 00:19:34 Yeah. You ask them. Yeah. That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:37 And so like, that's what kids do. They like learn the swear word. So like, yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough.
Speaker 0 00:19:46 Flections on words. Like I will say, what, what, what did, what did you say? And he'll say, what did you say? And he just like, but that's how he learnt to say what did instead of. And so it's a beautiful way of like, I didn't hear you. Like, can you say that again? That's how I would say, what did you say? I'm like, Oh, please never stop saying it like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:20:07 My daughter, she went through the most French. She would always say again, Becca, like, it's cute. Hey, the little accent speaking English. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:20:20 Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it's a, it's a skill and a talent to have, but it's a, it's a tough one.
Speaker 2 00:20:26 You have to be committed. And um, I maybe in a sense that I wouldn't say I was lazy by any means, but it easy for me. So you think it's easy for them, right. But it's not, it's like anything, you have to learn it. Right. Right. And you have to be consistent.
Speaker 0 00:20:43 Yeah. And you were kind of immersed in it. I'm not so much, but Hey, listen, if they can still have a somewhat conversation with grandma and grandpa, then you're all good. Better than nothing. Yeah, exactly. So on that note though, I was 20 minutes. We're done. So there you go. So before you go, though, uh, this is, uh, the time of the show where you can get a shameless plugin, please do tell people once again about your business, where it is, how they can get in contact with you and how they can support.
Speaker 2 00:21:10 So, uh, we're doing two goes and obviously we do painting a pottery. Um, we're here to like entertain you guys. You can come in store, uh, and paint. Now. Um, you could take things for home. Uh, if you want to purchase anything to go or see what stock we have, you can go to Fort McMurray dot Cullen, remind.com and look for the little shopping cart. And I'll take you to our online website. Um, you can come in the store as well and pick, see what we have. Um, but we are, we have to unfortunately stick to age as regulations. So,
Speaker 0 00:21:45 Uh, um, come
Speaker 2 00:21:48 In, stop by check out what we do. And we're here to entertain families on the weekend or
Speaker 0 00:21:53 There we go. Very cool. Awesome. Well, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. That's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you very much for tuning in. It really does mean the world to me on that note, have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 1 00:22:12 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
