my mom and i took the train to toronto on friday morning for a mini-vacation. i found a great deal on a room at the royal york hotel - wow, what a beautiful building.

we spent friday at the one of a kind show, visiting friends and trying to get through the huge amount of vendors there. it was nice to be a shopper and not an exhibitor for a change, and it was really wonderful to see all of my far-off friends like kyla [booth j-09] and rilla [t-21] who are in town for the show. my mom was thrilled to spend a little bit of time with arounna and john's kids, piper and lliam as her own grandchildren are so far away. above is arounna's field wallet [booth Q-11]- the contrast of the leather and linen is lovely.

we went to the st.lawrence market for breakfast [croissants! pastries!] this morning, that place is so busy and there is so much to look at.

distraction/procrastination

it's really not fair - they spend all day sleeping and eating. i find that in the lead-up to a show i'm just looking for anything at all to distract me. the chubby cat eating out of the Chunky Soup can was irresistible.

repeat wallet

it's wonderful to have new prints to work with - the wallets in all the stacks in the last few posts feature the power lines and jars prints from repeat. i'm having a hard time packing this one away in to a suitcase to take to Halifax next week...

he'd make such a good travel companion, what with being able to sleep and keep a paw on his suitcase.

and stacks!

at last, the wallet stack is done. these require so much pressing and ironing, it drives me crazy.

i'm trying to decide whether or not to put some up in the Etsy shop, this is all I have for the Halifax Crafters and City of Craft show.

they reminded me of a quilt, all laid out like this. i'm going to get a few baby blankets with quilt details done for the shows, too, inspired by laying these out.

and stacks

and stacks [of wallets, this time].

stacks

the studio is starting to lose it's neat and tidyness from the massive clean out and re-arrange i did in mid october [it took me a week. 12 hours a day for a week!]. it is slowly being overcome by stacks and stacks of things, in this case, burlesque tea towels that are being printed and sewn for the halifax crafters and city of craft shows.

rosehip jelly

we live in a lovely area of london called wortley village. it is a bit like living in a small town within the city - there is a main strip of shops, a couple of cafes [including the black walnut, which doesn't appear to have a website], a small grocery store, a tavern and a drugstore. there isn't, oddly enough, a post office. that is about a 25 minute walk away, which i don't mind at all because for the most part it is a walk through a residential area with very interesting houses.

on the way to the post office yesterday, ted came with me so that he could stop part way and pick the rosehips growing at the side of this lady's little house. we'd spoken to her the week before, and she was more than happy to share. above is another neighbour, chatting with ted about rosehip jelly and dandelion wine.

winter, i'm ready for you.

one of the most exciting things for me about making fabrics with arounna for repeat was getting to see what people make with them. Lois took the snap purse class at the workroom, and made this lovely pleated coin purse with the royal blue jars fabric. thanks so much for sending us a photo.

my parents were awesome

i don't remember how i found this site, but i think it is just wonderful. i love old photos, and i can remember the first time i realized my parents were 'people', and not just mom and dad [these are not my parents, by the way]. visit my parents were awesome

ted found these tonight - so clever.

by Italian designers zo-loft.

mittens

another of my favorite things are church bazaars - for the rummage or white elephant, crafts table and the lunches. my mom and i attend them every saturday that we can, mostly in my old neighbourhood which has lots of churches. ted joined my this past weekend, and after going to the farmer's market, we went to a church on Elmwood that I chose because their ad in the paper mentioned the knitting table [and pickles, and preserves!].

i needed new mittens - i lose several pairs a year - but unfortunately most were made of acrylic yarn in the strangest colour combos. ted found this tiny pair made of gorgeous wool in great colours, so we bought them for a little girl we miss very much, and I'll post them to her tomorrow.

woke up this morning to a wonderfully thick bank of fog over the house [and i'm sure everywhere else, i just didn't venture out]. fog is one of my favorite things, and one of the things i miss the most about living on the coast. above is looking west, with the huge walnut tree in our yard on the right.

this is directly into our yard - fire pit in the distance and our newly-fixed laundry line cutting across the middle. it was down last week due to a large walnut branch falling on it in all that wind the night before halloween. the forked, dead tree at the back on the right is home to woodpeckers and bats - at dusk in the summer you can see them swooping all over the yard and hear their sonar clicks.

penguin

we went to chapters the other day, on our way to chatham. i had just bought a moleskine planner, and ted wanted one too. close to the entrance was the most beautiful selection of books i've ever seen - a set of cloth bound classics re-issued by penguin, and featuring gorgeous, gorgeous repeat patterns foil stamped onto the cloth. i can't find them on the canadian site, but here they are on the UK site. i was trying to find the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland cover to show you [white with pink flamingoes, above] but i couldn't find a good large image. look at this edition of Cranford, instead:

i just love the patterns on these, and may have to request them for christmas. as i went searching for images, i found this feature from design*sponge last week, with the designer, Coralie Bickford-Smith, and also a mention over on the Skinny laMinx blog, too. they are such a steal, at $15 each.

hotel canzine

city of craft is putting on an installation that coincides with the canzine indie media fair. today at the gladstone hotel on Queen West you can visit us at the city of craft general store, a one day, old fashioned pop-up shop featuring all kinds of wonderful craft. we'll be up on the second floor from 1pm - 7pm, with a slew of other artist's rooms.