i am working on a project with some friends in a band, bruce peninsula.

the image that i designed and will be printing on their tees and pins is a long, skinny design, and instead of purchasing a large screen, which is pretty expensive, I decided to build my own.  I bought some good, straight 1" by 2" poplar, and mesh from aboveground art supply.

i decided to make it very simply, and built them using a butt joint and glue.  then i stretched the mesh, using a staple gun, and many, many staples, and hearing protection.  I wrapped the screen in all-weather duct tape, to protect from water during washout.  if i had to do it again, which i think i will, i will properly mitre my corners, and remember to varnish the wood.

here it is, all finished and coated with photo emulsion, and exposed.  i expose using sunlight, which i will have to write a post about sometime.

* i am having formatting issues with blogger and my photos today.  sorry for the strange layout.

after the rain

after the torrential rain one night last night, i woke up early and popped out front to check for damage or flooded plants in the many pots that are in our driveway/front door section. it was very still outside, and the plants were laden with huge drops of rain. 

i love nasturtiums,  so easy [and therefore satisfying] to grow from seed, and the flowers offer such a great variety. 

portulacas are something that my mom and i always chose at mia's garden centre in east london when i was little.  i bought them every year out east, but they always faltered in the wet, cool summer.  i'm looking forward to them thriving in all this heat.

this weekend

i've been invited to participate in the garden party trunk show this weekend at the workroom in toronto.  come and visit from noon - 5 at 1340 queen street west.

my very good friend lee meszaros is doing a giveaway for some of her lovely badges, over on a blog called chicken dinner candybar.

 you may recognize the 'adult merit badge series', as it is carried in several shops around the country, as well as in the good egg shop online. 

pop on over for the details.

summer

it definitely feels like summer when strawberries are available at the farmer's market.  ted went to visit his family a couple weeks ago, and brought back many treats for me, but most surprising were the tiny, delicious strawberries from a family member's farm.  in nova scotia they don't arrive until late june, so to have they in may - well, i was delighted.

these are some of the four pints i bought, some of which will make their way into strawberry-rhubarb baked goods, thanks to the rhubarb brought over by our great neighbours, becky & derek.  handmade dish by martina lantin, whose work you've seen previously here.

new york

here is what i think is the only shot of the four of us that went on this crazy bus trip, taken by a very reluctant girl who would rather have been text messaging, or whatever she was doing.

the renegade show in brooklyn had perfect weather to bring people out, it was about 25 degrees, and sunny.  we didn't see any posters on our trip over to brooklyn, but the show is very well attended, and we made a good few purchases ourselves.

we stopped in to say hi to some fellow ontarians, serra from Hoibo and hoi-an from MeHoi.  i'm going to have to figure out all of the legalities of taking my work over the border in order to do shows like this one - something i find daunting.  mostly because of some terrible experiences with customs agents when i was a kid, and we went cross-border shopping [and wore four pairs of jeans home!].

linda told me to eat a pretzel, and so i did [while making this face, apparently.  i'm going to blame it on all that salt].  i've decided that new york is wonderful for a number of reasons, and high up on my list is the fact that spicy dijon mustard is a condiment more common than boring yellow mustard.  i love dijon.

we tried to take the ferry over to the statue of liberty, as our touristy thing to do.  all of the tickets to go up the monument were sold out, so we decided to take the staten island ferry instead.  we didn't know when we got to the ferry docks that this ferry is free, and spent a while wandering around, trying to figure out where to pay, like good canadians.  we eventually asked a very nice security guard, who clearly gets that question a million times a day.  don't you just love all of this gracious architecture?

i had wanted to go to liberty island [where the statue is] as well as ellis island, to take photos for my mom and dad.  my parents are immigrants from ireland, and while the came directly to canada, there were an awful lot of irish who fled to america during the famine of 1840.  ellis island is where their ships landed, and the people went through immigration and customs.  being a sentimental bunch, the irish regard this place with a certain reverence.

another of my favorite things about the city, and any city with a subway system, are the subway stations and the tile work in them. these fantastic orange tiles were in many of the stations at the southern end of manhatten, and were found horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.

i have made my first venture into selling my work in a store, and you will soon find some of my teatowels [coming soon to the website] as well as onesies and toddler t-shirts at Love, Me Boutique in halifax.  many thanks to the lovely Chara for helping me with all of the logistics.

i am off on another mini-adventure, this time a little further afield. i am going to see the renegade craft fair in brooklyn, with three good friends.  we will be even better friends by the end of it, as we are getting on the greyhound bus tonight at 8.30, and arriving in new york at 6.30 a.m.  the show starts at 11, and we are hoping to walk there in order to get in our sight-seeing.  we stay the night on saturday, have sunday to wander, and then back on the bus on sunday night.  it is a whirlwind, but should be good for four crafty ladies who are trying to figure out how to navigate the legalities of selling in the u.s.a.

i have made us all little buckwheat hull travel pillows, with some of my old burlesque lady fabric that i had laying around as pillowcases.  i am trying to avoid the sore neck that comes with long travel.  we decided to take the bus because if you book early enough,  it is very cheap - $90 roundtrip!