home again

we are on a week long trip back to halifax - planned and booked shortly after moving to ontario. this is my second time back since september, i miss it so much. it still feels so much like home - wonderful friends and food. it started with an excited friend, kyla, waving at the airport [what is nicer than loved ones jumping up and down at the airport?], and 30 degree weather.

and coffee and espressos from java blend on north street, which has the nicest coffee i've ever had. we will be bringing manyt pounds back with us, i'm sure.

our absolute favorite place is epicurious morsels, in the hydrostone area. we both worked for years at this restaurant, and love it [and the staff!] to pieces. the best smoked salmon [done in-house!] that you will ever have. ever. that's jim, chef and owner, slicing it above. we had a wonder ful lunch today, and have many more planned before we go. they also do take out, and the turkey turnovers with baked vegetable rice are the perfect picnic lunch. i just remembered that this was our 'last meal' from there when we moved away - eaten in out 26 foot moving truck on the road in new brunswick somewhere.

this weekend

i'll be at the gladstone hotel in toronto this weekend exhibiting at the made show - please stop by if you're in the area.  

more colour

outside of our back door is an asphalt covered area, which looks terrible.  this week there has been lovely green moss sprouting all over the shaded areas - i'm hoping it covers it all

another great surprise was spotting some of my favorite flowers, ranunculus, at the grocery store.  i had never seen the variegated ones before, so i bought two bunches.  the florist shared my enthusiasm for them, and wrapped them up beautifully, even thought they were just a gift for myself.  i love the dozens and dozens of petals layered on these flowers.

also, the forsythia in the yard is gorgeous - it is about ten feet wide and tall, and full of yellow flowers.

return of the badges

i'm never sure weather to call these buttons or badges - people seem to use both, and both also seem to be easily mixed up.  i had a batch of these made up using up some of the many scraps [that i can't throw out, even if they really are too small for anything!] last year, and they are being re-introduced for spring & summer. 

i love these buttons [badges? pin backs?].  i still have my huge collection from when i was a kid, somewhere in a rubbermaid bin at my parent's house.  they hung on a long, 5 " skinny woven scarf in my bedrooom, and featured michael jackson, garfield the cat, jem and the holograms and anything with plastic rhinestones or glitter.

i've packaged them in sets of three, on shipping tags - they are one of my favorite paper products and i use they for almost everything.

these two clips make me endlessly happy.

tiny the dinosaur

and this, which is making the rounds:

susan boyle

something else blue - i've been printing and sewing more of the burlesque tea towels which i hope to put in the shop soon.

blue spring

the yard at our flat is one of the things that really sold me on the place when i was apartment hunting.  I had come to ontario from halifax without ted, and had two days to find an apartment that would suit us both.  this place has a huge backyard, which is shared with the other tenants, but we are the only ones with a door leading right onto it, which makes it feel like it's ours.  it has been a generally neglected yard, which is understandable as it is hard to spend money on a place when you don't own it, and your landlord isn't the nicest.  

we were wonderfully surprised this spring when these blue flowers started popping up, congregating mostly around the base of the big french walnut tree, but making appearances all over the place, probably thanks to the many squirrels that dig up the bulbs and tuck them away somewhere else.

blue is such an unusual colour in flowers, and to have this mass just coming up is just great.  i hope that the lawn mowers don't come anytime soon.

and here are the cats, sitting in the morning sun and watching the juncos and nuthatches.  i'm weary of letting them out like we did in halifax, as there is a large family of raccoons as well as all those squirrels [we didn't have squirrels like these in nova scotia, they were more like this, tiny little guys].  so when its nice in the morning i'll put a pair of stools in front of the door and let them pine away.  the flat is quite old, and has wonderful details like fancy latched wooden screen doors and porcelain and brass door knobs.  

did you see the rabbit in the first picture?  we also have rabbits in the yard.  i've been trying to get a photo for a while now.

the new tees and onesies are now up in the shop - you can find them here.

thanks!

the spring one of a kind show wrapped up on sunday - it was a lovely show, filled with a number of exceptional artists and craftspeople.  i met some really wonderful people and made a number of trades and purchases that are gifts, so i can't mention them yet.  it was good to see old friends as well, like arounna, along with the very new piper, as well as jenna and meghan.