We've been so busy lately. We took a much needed weekend away from the city to go to the cottage. The weather (and everything else) was perfect.

sneak peak

I have been busy working on my fall collection. The new big bins are made with Organic linen, lined with natural cotton canvas and will come in four different prints. I am also pretty excited about this season's hats and bags. The hats are made with such a lovely wool and lined with Organic cotton flannel which makes them super soft, comfortable, and warm.

wedding shower. handmade & vintage.

My very kind and generous aunt held a wedding shower for me last weekend. Although I am not getting married until Thanksgiving weekend in October, all of my pre-wedding celebrations seem to be taking place this month which works out well for everyone with the busyness that comes with summer. All of the gifts I received were so thoughtful and appreciated, but I thought I would share with you some of the ones that were hand made or vintage since those two subjects seem to be what I talk about most here. This cake plate has been on my wish list for quite some time now. It was made by the lovely potter Michelle of Kosoy and Bouchard and given to me by my mother. I'm not much of a cake or sweets eater, but I love cake plates and I will use it for my fresh fruit. The clay is pressed with wood blocks which adds such lovely pattern and texture to her work. The plate is glazed in a lovely robins egg blue; I love the colour so much. I have a mini collection of Michelle's work that started three years ago. This past One of a Kind Show our booths were next to one another so I was lucky enough to get to know her even better. She is so lovely and so is her work. When my parents went to pick up the plate she sent along a shower gift from herself- a little ceramic dish with a paisley imprint. She noted that it was for our wedding bands so it now rests on my kitchen window sill for when I remove my engagement ring while gardening. Another potter who's work I collect is my Aunt Arlene. She does it more as a hobby but is so talented and just happens to also use the pale blue glaze that I love so much. She made me this lovely bowl that I will add to my collection of dishes that she has made. This one has three little blue flowers painted inside- they are forget-me-nots, I believe.

With new kitchen wares being added to my cupboards I had to make some room inside of them so I removed my recipe and cooking books and decided that they, along with this lovely bowl, were something that could sit out in the open. Our kitchen has a floor to ceiling brick fireplace in it. I decided to display these things along the mantel and I think I will keep adding display worthy items to it.
My aunt also knows that I have a soft spot for vintage kitchen wares and got me this neat little item- a ceramic cactus-like holder for measuring spoons. It's to be mounted on the wall and has little slots where the spoons rest- so sweet! These are a couple pieces of the vintage black glass dishware set that was passed down to me from my grandmother. I think this set is so classy and will mix in well with my modern white dishes.
This unbelievably lovely little painting is actually only about 4x5 inches in size. It was painted and given to me by one of my closest friends, Sara Caracristi. Sara and I studied at NSCAD together and I am so lucky that she was able to make it to the shower- She just moved to Hamilton, of all places, last week and after three years of being separated we are now living in the same city. She is represented by Argyle Fine Art in Halifax and Terence Roberts Gallery in Ottawa. Her other work can be seen on both gallery websites under the Artists profiles. My Aunt gave me two of her lovely vintage teacups. I love the blue polka dots- they are so unexpected. These are the first two real teacups I have ever owned. I think they are the beginning of a new collection.

Each of my designs are drawn by hand on tracing paper and the original drawing is the image used to expose the screen for printing. Drawing a repeat by hand is very time consuming, expecially when it's this intense, but it's also a process that I enjoy and I love the finished look of a hand drawn pattern since each of the elements that have been repeated are slightly different from one another. On the left is the tracing paper drawing and on the right is the design printed on linen. There is such satisfaction in printing a pattern for the first time that took so long to draw. I am really excited about this one- a design for my fall collection.

My work is now available at goodEGG - an online shop of Canadian independent craft. Also, my studio will be open for the James Street North Art Crawl tonight from 7-10 pm.

feeling loved and being thankful

I have been away for the past week in Halifax. A couple months ago I received a plane ticket in the mail from my three friends (and bridesmaids) who all live on the east coast. They had planned a surprise pre-wedding week in Halifax for me and there were many more surprises when I got there, such as our other two girlfriends (one from Savannah and the other from Montreal) who also flew in for the week. It's been three years since the six of us, who all met at school in Halifax, have all been together and it was such a wonderful time. Before I left for the trip I made each of them embroidered linen handkerchiefs. These gifts don't even begin to show how appreciative and thankful I am for the care, effort, thought, and generosity that was put into this lovely week.

teleplone bench

Back in the fall when I read this post on Design Sponge about a great telephone table make over I was determined to find one to makeover myself. I searched all the thrift and antique shops in Hamilton and finally found one. It wasn't cheap but it's from the 70s and the wood is in perfect condition. Because of this, and the fact that the upholstery is a little more complex, that telephone bench is sitting in my front hall at home untouched. I can't seem to commit to a colour or a fabric. The weekend after I found that bench, I went to the Aberfoyle Flea market and found another bench for only $5. The wood was in horrible shape and it was upholstered in a dusty rose corduroy. I wish I had taken a before picture. I decided to put this bench at the studio and it has sat painted white but still not reupholstered for months. I finally got around to upholstering it in patchwork of my screen printed remnants.

I really like the pieced half square triangles and if I had the time I would love to make a quilt just like this.