On our way home from the cottage we stopped in to visit with the Stinsons. Don is Jeff's Dad's cousin, but we call him our Uncle, which I guess makes his son Jesse our cousin. They are the father and son woodworking team behind Stinson Studios. I love visiting their studio because it's such a nice example of a country home with an outbuilding studio on the same property (inspiration for if we decide to leave the city one day). The day we visited they were having an open studio and for their guests they were making homemade apple cider.

Don pulled up with a crate of apples in the back of his truck and we stood in the back of it, throwing the apples into their home made chopper. Bits of apple flew everywhere, but mostly into a bucket. Beau was covered in it.

The chopped apples where then put into a cloth bag inside the home made press.

The apple cider would trickle off the wood into another strainer.

Within minutes we each had a glass of fresh apple cider and jug of it for the road.

We spent some time up at the cottage this past week. It was supposed to be an end of summer getaway but got delayed until now. It ended up being a lovely fall week and there's something nice about having to put on a fire in the morning.

There was lots of crocheting, reading, pickling, canoeing, fishing, and ukulele. I'm teaching myself to play, and have about 7 songs down right now thanks to youtube and this website.

I ended up getting a surprising amount of work done too. Things like drawing and working on my new logo. Things that take time and that I often don't make the time for while busy producing. I can't think of a place I would rather do this kind of work than in the sun on a quiet lake. These birds are a part of a new special project I am working on for the fall.

I had a different natural dye pot on each day and was sure to dye lots more madder yarn this time. I have been crocheting it into my blanket squares and I love this muted coral colour so much but didn't dye near enough last time.

My Aunt and Uncle have a cottage on the same lake. Jeff and I canoed over there because I had to take a look at the finished tree house addition that they were working on last time I was up there. It's no secret that I have a thing for tree houses as my tree house print has been a favorite for years, but really, I would love to have one just like this some day, amongst the trees with nothing but a drafting table and my art supplies inside.

The original tree house they build was the back section with the steps. They added the front section this summer so they that they could also use it as a sleeping cabin. The entire thing was built with reclaimed windows and the structure was designed around them. Supposedly my Uncle would stare at this for hours figuring how to build this addition around the trees with all the unique angles.

Complete with window boxes and a tiny clothes line this is hands down the best and cutest tree house I have ever seen.

Last weekend was such nice weather and the show was great, as always. Thanks to everyone who came by my booth! The Beehive's installation in Hamilton was so great I had to come downtown late Saturday evening to check it out in person. You can see photos and read more about it on the beehive blog.

It's been a busy week working on wholesale orders. I also made some more seasons tea towel sets in the new hemp/organic cotton that my tea towels are now made with. The colours are slightly different than before and they're now available here.

The car is loaded and I head into Toronto early tomorrow morning. Cabbagetown is not only a nice outdoor show in a beautiful city park, but it's also a special one for me because it's the first time that I have my entire new fall collection made. It was nice to see all my new pieces all together today as I packed up.
If you are in the Toronto area please come by this weekend. It's a lovely show and runs tomorrow afternoon as well as all day Saturday and Sunday.
I hope you have a nice weekend.

It's a busy week around here with the Cabbagetown show opening on Friday and Supercrawl happening this Saturday. The two events conflicted this year so I won't be able to be a vendor at Supercrawl, but I do hope to return from Toronto for the evening to check out some of the great music they have lined up- I'm especially excited to see Basia Bulat live.

In preparation for Supercrawl, everyone from The Beehive has been busy working on our installation piece. I don't think I mentioned this here yet, but the collective, along with the help of family, friends, and volunteers, are knitting the facade of a three storey building, brick by brick. It will be installed this week so there are lots of last minute pieces to build and parts to assemble. It is made up of about 70 scarves, which will all be donated to the Mission Services Opportunity Centre once the installation is dismantled. You can read more about the project here.

I love concord grapes so much and after picking up a basket from the market I was reminded of a recipe I had book marked ages ago for a rosemary grape focaccia. Grapes, rosemary, salt, and olive oil- the flavours are so good together! Also pictured is my new berry tea towel, which is now available in my shop, along with these two:

Hope you have a nice long weekend!