thinking small

Pop-up treehouse card from The Folded Forest.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about small spaces, trying to remember how special it is to be a kid.

When I was small I loved to hide out in tiny nooks. My Grandma had a great one under her stairs that held shelves and shelves of toys. More stuff than any kid could ever really need, here lived toys from every decade imaginable. Some of the permanent residents (a small musical wooden rocker, for instance) had belonged to my Mother years before, while some of the newer additions (my Grandma's homemade Cabbage Patch Dolls) were only ever loved by me and my brother. It was a treasure trove for the imagination.

At the house I lived in until I was around 5, my parents had created an amazing basement playroom for us. Complete with "Tiger Tiger" shag carpet, I remember a section of this playroom that was reserved for playing house. It had all of the conveniences of a modern make-believe home - a stove, doll beds, plastic dishes.

I'm afraid of trying to remember this place to hard, for fear that I'll forget it.

One of the kids on my block (who coincidentally is now married to a good friend) had a tree fort in his backyard. A tree fort! In the actual trees! With a ladder and everything! I was super jealous of that, and because I was a girl, I think I only ever got to play in it a couple of times. They just had a baby boy, and I hope the city bylaws don't restrict them from building just as awesome a structure for him.

Each time I see photos of someone's treehouse or playhouse online I'm secretly jealous. I think if I ever own land with lots of trees, I'll build an entire treehouse village, Ewok-style.

In the meantime, I'll just have to look at what other people have built - like this one, found via Apartment Therapy, and drool.

I really love this shirt, from Jordan Grace Owens.

trying to be IT hurts my brain

I'm re-working my website/blog configuration, so things might go a bit haywire for awhile.

I'm currently trying to re-direct my domain (through 1&1) to my blog, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it correctly.  I've found a few resources online, but none of them seem to work correctly. But there's also a strong possibility that it's me, and not them...

I'm sure I'll get it after enough button pushing and swearing. If anyone has any experience with this, let me know!

Patience, please!

Puces Pop 2011 Recap

I hope that everyone went to check out Puces Pop this year. If not, shame on you - it was one of the best years yet.

Some of my faves from this sale:

Awesome knits from Million Dollar Swim. Check out her swell silkscreened tags - they're as beautiful as her mittens!

Gorgeous belts and recycled handbags from Deborah Adams. I love Deborah's work so much. She made that awesome snakeskin handbag (oh my god I'm sorry for the crappy photo!) from a recycled shoulder pad!

Cute hankies from Olivia Mew.

Simple and cute earrings from Val of Instant Crimson. I love this girl and her work.

Beautiful tops and dresses from Les Enfants Sauvages.

Adorable monsters from Velvet Moustache. The eyeball pops out, in case you were wondering. This made me giddy.

Beautiful and fun prints from Rosin of Bespoke Uprising. As a fellow printmaker, I can vouch for how much work this girl puts into her textiles, and they speak for themselves!

Adorable Iveth and her cute banner for the Angry Weather. Her jewelry is also adorable.

I always find this sale crazy inspiring, and I have to admit that once I was there, I was a bit bummed to not be participating.

As an aside: as someone who's been on both sides of the craft show table, please always ask before you take photos of someone's product. They put their heart and soul into what they sell, and it's rude to just take a picture without even saying hi. I see so many people doing this, and it's just plain silly. Craftspeople love to talk about what they do, so if you love their stuff, ask them about it - seriously. I trust that you'll be amazed at the care and thought that they put into their product. Don't just take a picture it will last longer and walk away. Please.

Puces Pop!!

It's that time of year again - Puces Pop is on this weekend!

I'm not participating this year, but I'll definitely swing by to check out the talent. It's always exciting and inspiring to see what new goodies some of my favorite brands have cooked up. I'm actually kind of excited to be on the other side of the tables this time around, so I can just enjoy myself and shop!

Along with checking out the new talent, here are a few of my must-see booths:

Bespoke Uprising - I picked up one of her wallets a couple of years ago, and I get a TON of compliments on it.

The Angry Weather - I love her sweet and simple aesthetic.

Supayana - I'm crazy excited to see her new baby line!

Million Dollar Swim - Amelia makes the loveliest knits (and jam!).

Broundoor, who makes awesome recycled leather goods (I may have to finally pick up my iPhone case).

The sale is on September 24 and 25, 2011, from 11:00 until 6:00, at St-Michael’s Church, 105 St-Viateur West. See you there!

playing around

I've been playing around with some different colour combinations and patterns. Sometimes when I need inspiration, I just draw out a quick shape and see what happens. I'm pretty happy with these little tents.

Or are they cupcakes?

ZOMBIES, RUN!

I don't talk about it much here, but I guess I'm a "runner".

My joints aren't awesome, so I don't run as often as I once did, but I try to log a couple of 5-6 mile runs a week. Which still pits me in the "beginner" category of runners, I should add.

Sometimes when I'm out for a jog, I day dream that I'm the sole survivor of some crazy apocalyptic event, and have been sent to run somewhere to get help.

Weird? Maybe.

Motivating? Totally.

Enter ZOMBIES, RUN!, which I discovered via boing boing. Uh, hello! Now that I have my fancy new iPhone (still super excited about this), I can finally get excited about amazing ideas like this!

From the creators:

You’re Runner 5. Hundreds of lives are counting on you. You've got to help your base rebuild from the ruins of civilization by collecting critical supplies while avoiding roving zombie hordes. Can you save them?

Contribute to their awesome idea via kickstarter here.

brooklyn print

I really love prints by Bree,ree., a.k.a. Todd Stewart.

I have one of his Montreal prints stuck to my fridge with magnets because I haven't gotten around to framing it yet. Thankfully it hasn't been destroyed by food stains...I should probably do that this weekend.

When I bought my print at Puces Pop last year, I asked what his inspiration was for making prints of specific cities, and he said that it started as a way to document places he wanted to visit. Now, he said, he's actually been to most of them.

He describes it better here.

Print of Brooklyn available here.

thinking about writing about thinking

I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about my online presence. The reality being, that I don't really have much of one. When I starting thinking about my own business seriously, I started to sensor myself online. I abandoned my old website and started afresh.

I wanted this site to be more of a reflection of what I find interesting in the world, because the reality was that most of what I loved about the "diy" and "craft" culture was the people, and the amazing things that they were creating.

But somewhere along the line, I feel like I've lost my voice. Inspired by this post, I just spent a good hour reading over my old blog. The blog I wrote between the ages of 26 (seriously?) and 29. I'm 33 now, and of course my voice has changed - that's inevitable. I'm less sad, but still not the most optimistic person you'll ever meet. I'm doing what I want to be doing - which I really struggled with back then - but I'm still not exactly where I want to be. When I started writing that blog, I always thought that at some point I would go back to it and cringe at my words. Mock my sentences. Belittle myself. But the opposite has happened. I find myself kind of missing that girl, in a way I never thought possible.

And it's not just because she had good hair and an amazing jacket.

Six years is not very much time, but in the internet realm, it kind of is. The internet has changed, adapted, become something incredibly amazing. And blogging has changed with it. I said to J the other day that everyone who blogs is trying to market something. And I think that's for the most part, true. I would be a hypocrite to say that I'm not doing it too. And I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. Ideas are marketable, too. I feel inspired by and connect to hundreds of people every day who don't even know that I'm there (which is sad), and I know that this way of communication has helped so many people to achieve their dreams and make a real difference in the world (which is amazing).

I guess I'm bummed because I feel like my conversation with the world has changed. Things are still exciting. Sometimes things are still shit. And THAT'S what I think is missing - I think I need to talk more about who I am in this city, rather than just what's going on around me. Which, to be honest, I was kind of doing a bit of a piss-poor job of, anyway.

Montreal is amazing. Maybe, just maybe, even as amazing as New York.

So, welcome to my life here.

Picture above from Lilac Saloon.

hoosier cupboard kitchen counter

I always know when my Mom and Stepdad have been in town, because once they leave my apartment is just a little bit more awesome. Not because their gone - it sucks when they leave - but because they are also awesome and do a little DIY for us when they're around.

This trip, they brought us our new kitchen addition - the hoosier cupboard-turned kitchen counter. J and I had been on the hunt for more counter and storage space, and this does the trick. We originally had the table in this corner of the kitchen, but it wasn't working out. It was too much of a pain to pull out to actually eat at, and as a counter it was too low and awkward.

The base of the new counter was originally the top of a hoosier cabinet. When I was home this summer and hunting through my Mom's garage for stuff I might like to "borrow", I saw this beauty and thought it might work for us. She stained the outside and painted the inside, and it looks beautiful below our crate shelving.

We weren't sure how to create the work surface, but decided on a Värde countertop from IKEA. It's held on by screws that were drilled through the top of the cupboard (the top wasn't in great shape anyway), and is braced in the back with a few angle brackets. We discovered the hard way that the weight distribution in the back was too uneven, because the counter is about twice the width of the cupboard. We may have to brace it to the wall in the future, but so far the angle brackets are working. I was uncertain about the length of the countertop - and specifically how the overhang would look - but our kitchen stool fits perfectly underneath, making a nice little breakfast eating area.

The space behind the cupboard serves a purpose as well, as we have a radiator behind the cupboard. If it went flush to the wall, it would mean no heat in the winter, so it worked out perfectly.

I love how it all turned out, and our kitchen is at least 80% more functional now! Yay for handy parents!

PS please excuse my picture quality - I've been playing with my new iPhone (!) and haven't completely figured it out yet.

featured!

I have some incredibly exciting news to share! I'm a featured artist for this year's One of a Kind Show in Toronto!

The lovely OOAK team came to visit my studio back in July, and they were all really awesome to work with. I have absolutely no dreams of becoming a model, but I think the photo turned out really well. Props to them for their fantastic ad campaign!

I'm absolutely thrilled to be one of their "stars" this year! You can read my interview here.

You can also still buy one of my limited-run pillows here.

Now it's back to the studio for me!

here we go techno

Because it's back-to-school season, I'm getting the urge to go crazy and organize every last inch of my life.

I'm at best horribly organized, and have been making a huge effort to amend this. The latest advancement has been to circle important dates on my crappy (and frankly, poorly designed) flip calendar at work, which has been surprisingly helpful. I even tried to save a couple of dates in the "planner" on my crappy cell phone (I own the same model as Jesse Pinkman, if that's any indication), but that didn't really work out.

I've been mulling over the iPhone debate for awhile now. As in, whether or not I'll actually use it, or whether - and this is by far the more likely scenario - I will just accidentally dump it on the side of the road one day and be out $600.

I've been playing around with J's lately, and have determined that it might actually benefit me in a lot of ways. Organization aside, I think being able to blog and take awesome photos (seriously, some of J's Hipstamatic pics are amazing) on the fly is going to be invaluable for me.

One of the biggest challenges I've been facing lately is trying to fit everything in. Working 9-5, a coma-inducing commute, attempting to have a sliver of a life, AND managing my personal work are all being crammed into far too tiny a space. I've complained about this before, and this here blog takes the biggest hit. I do take pictures from time to time, but find that the process of loading them on to my computer, editing them and making it pretty takes WAY too much of my time and energy. I'm sure there are neat-o efficient ways of doing this (suggestions welcomed!), but I don't have the time to investigate right now.

So maybe I'm just sugar coating my ideas about an iPhone because I really just want to play Plants vs. Zombies all day every day, but I really think it will help me.

So I think it's decided. I'm getting an iPhone and am pretty durn excited.

Beautiful blue leather iPhone case from Broundoor.

little boxes

I really love these little ceramic houses from etsy shop The Little Red Door.

OOAK shop open!

1. Needle Felted Lion by Lesley-Anne Green
2. Citrus Juicer by Amélie Lucier and Julien Mongeau
3. Anchored Cushion by Shannon Adolph
4. Animal Print Scarf by Eve Gravel
5. Pointed Collar and Bow Tie by AnneMarie Minardi and Gillian Ward
6. High Park Journal by Roy Liang
7. Chocolate Box by Odile Chatelain
8. Listening to Records by Kelly Grace
9. Leather Pouch by Sarra Tang
10. Modern Mala Bracelet by Trudy Wynans

The OOAK show online shop is officially open, and it looks amazing!

I only have enough fabric for 25 of my pillows, so get one while you can!

long live the long weekend

Happy long weekend!

It's hot and humid in Montreal, and dare I say it - I'm acutally kind of missing the end of summer cool breezy days we've had of late. No, I take it back. Forever summer.

A good friend is visiting from Toronto, and we'll be bbq-ing, patio-sitting and catching up in the sun over the next few days. It should be great!

Before I disappear into the final long weekend of the summer, I wanted to share the exciting news that I'll be vending at this years One of a Kind Show in Toronto! I'm incredibly excited, and can't even comprehend how much needs to get done before the end of November! I'll be sure to give updates of my progress along the way.

But in other exciting news, you don't have to wait until November 24 to take advantage of the sale! The OOAK show is opening up an online pop-up shop, starting on Monday, September 6. I've created a series of limited-edition pillows for the sale (sneak peak above), and they'll be available online from the 6th to the 19th!

Get them while you can!

Now get out there and long weekend!