way back when

i made this clutch back in 2007, when i was going to add a line of bags to bespoke uprising. it is still something that i want to do, but i just don't have the time. i wonder sometimes about sending out some of my work to a sewing studio, but that too, takes time to sort out.

i never noticed before that it looks so much like a house when open. the leather handle is made from hide off-cuts that my brother gave me for christmas one year when he worked making beautiful shoes in vancouver.

and since i was waitressing at the time, it had a little zippy pouch inside that snapped out so that i could leave my purse in the staff room, but keep all of my cash with me.

museum of animal perspectives

i found this on flickr late last night, and then spent some time watching every single video.

the museum of animal perspectives on flickr, and they also have a website with even more videos on it, here.

i bought these thinking that i would use them as gift boxes for my work, but i really can't part with them. i'd forgotten about them until i began a much needed studio clean & purge yesterday, and found them under a lot of stuff under my print table.

look at that - i'm pretty sure they are screemprinted.

i have fifty of them - well, maybe a few less, i've given out a couple with very special gifts in them.

to market

we had a party last week for our good friend Misha, and since we have a firepit in the yard i bought two dozen ears of corn to cook on it. but i forgot them in the trunk of the car, so Ted went to the market today for corn salsa ingredients. above, tomatillos. i love that word, tomatillos, and how it just rolls out of your mouth.

and heirloom tomatoes, including the green-brown-red stripes ones that i always admire. we have a couple of heirloom tomato bushes in our garden, but we don't know what they are yet.

repeat is here!

i was in toronto yesterday after the trunk show, and arounna and i got together to fold fold fold fat quarters, as well as to make our scrap bags for repeat. the website is live now, so you can order our goods to make projects with!

it was all so much fun, especially the scrap bags. it was great to group all of our fabrics together, and to talk about all of the possibilities for projects to make. they are packaged in great reusable muslin bags, they arounna stamped with our repeat stamp.

kid's trunk show

i'll be at the workroom in toronto today for the kid's trunk show - karyn did a little interview with me that you can read here.

repeat giveaway!

it's here! you can win all of this wonderful stuff from repeat over at Arounna's blog.

repeat's launch will be on tuesday, which explains my lack of posts lately. we've been busy printing and cutting and preparing for this - i can't wait to see what you all make with our fabrics and notions!

teenagers

the baby raccoons we've been spying on since the spring are now teenagers, they were out yesterday morning at about 7 in the morning, which is a good bit past the time they normally retire to the trees for the day. when we left the house to get a better look, all three skedaddled up a pair of trees, two of them went up a tree beside the one that they live in. the fella above was braver than the rest, and climbed down to cross the fence to his home.

this little one just hung out, watching us, not seeming to mind that we were there at all. it was hard to get clear photos of them, as they moved around so much.

and the winner is.....

congratulations! the winner is:

#52, erika!

please contact me with your shipping address, so I can send this out to you!

thanks to everyone for your lovely comments, this was so much fun I'll have to do it again soon.

giveaway!

so exciting - i've never done one before! i had said i would do one to celebrate my 100th blog post, but i missed that at some point last week.

the details:

- size 2 tee, in dijon with the daughters & sons barn on it

- 18-24 month cap, in red aercraft and organic linen [the last of the red aercraft fabric!]

- two repeat fat quarters - jars in turquoise and nasturtium in rust on a hemp/organic cotton blend

- a repeat pin-back badge - jars in pickle green on organic linen

- fuchsia ruffled knickers, will fit about 18 months- 3 years

more info on cap sizing can be found in my shop, here.

leave a comment below, with some kind of contact info, and the winner will be announced on monday morning! you need to claim your prize by monday at 6 p.m., otherwise i'll do another draw.

hooray!

two fun blog mentions today:

*jan over at poppytalk wrote about repeat.

*lesley-anne wrote about bespoke uprising at fashionable people, questionable things.

thanks!

also, we are both a bit under the weather here, and so last night we watched movies. one of them was coraline, which i had been very excited about. i didn't think the movie was very good, but it was all stop-motion animation, which was fantastic.

also fantastic was the teeny, tiny knitting by Anthea Chrome. look at those tiny gloves! there is a video of it here, on youtube.

* giveaway tomorrow!*

finally, the stamp is here!

buttons on cards for repeat - i just love covered buttons.

* my very first giveaway happens on friday - stay tuned!*

garden update

tomatoes are my favorite plant to grow, i love the smell of them. i don't really like to eat them, though, only if they are cooked. we have nineteen tomato plants this year, all grown from seed. most were planted from a mixed package of heirloom seeds, so we don't know what they are.

pickling cucumbers - so many mutant ones on the vines, like the one above.

i re-drew and re-exposed my screen for the nasturtium pattern, the lines were just not right the first time around. the detail is much better now, and the broken lines in the leaves add a great texture.

speaking of texture, this hemp & organic cotton cloth has a great surface.

the printed power line fabric, all cut and folded nicely into fat quarters for repeat, which will be ready to go soon.

here is what a fat quarter looks like unfolded, i am happy with the way this pattern moves around and has small points of interest, like the birds and the scribbled-in insulators on top of the poles.

power

more drawing today - this is about 25 inches x 20 inches, and took the entire day to work out.  it is much more structured that any of my other patterns, but i think that the power lines even things out.

i miss the halifax crafters dearly, and have gotten involved with the wonderful ladies over at City of Craft in toronto.

the deadline for applications is coming up for City of Craft - more info can be found here.

process

this is what my drawings look like before they are exposed on a screen and printed on fabric, these two soon available from Arounna and my new venture, repeat.

i have found some great tape for making my patterns - it's repositionable tape from scotch tape, well worth the extra couple of dollars as it doesn't tear my tracing paper drawings when i take it off to store them.  

market day

i still read halifax's weekly newspaper, the coast.  i miss flipping through it at the table, but reading it online still keeps me in touch with the happenings out eat.  yesterday i read this article about independant dairy producers in nova scotia, and then today at the western fair farmer's market here in london, i found milk in glass bottles.

  when i was small and we would visit my grandma in ireland, i was thrilled about the milkman that came everyday and left the glass bottles on the steps.

we had another furry visitor, desmond ,she is a chihuahua & jack russell puppy, and we were watching her while our friends moved.  i just couldn't get a good photo of her, she wiggles so much.  the cats were not impressed.