this is Wortley Road here in London - the most wonderfully vibrant red Japanese maple ive ever seen. it just seems to glow when the sun hits it. such a great front lawn with the yellow maple leaves in front.

knitted armor

i found this knitted armor on Etsy tonight, made by knittles, who is really Olga and Mavis of Calgary. can you see the detail in that ceramic button? just lovely.

i think that this headpiece would perfectly cover that gap that develops between your hat and your scarf - the one you can never properly fix on blustery days when you don't want to take your hands out of your pockets. so beautiful and functional.

today at the workroom is the first ever all-rummage trunk show. i have spent an entire day with my mom sorting out the bead-hoarding problem I had from about age 8 to 16, and have heaps of beads to sell. it took the day because there are a lot of beads, and because it was filled with my mom and I saying 'oh, remember these?' every few minutes. and I also made a fresh batch of repeat remnant bags, too.

noon - five, 1340 queen west, hope to see you there.

I'm an auntie!

congrats to my brother Colum, and sister in law Masayo, on little Roisin [!] born a few hours ago. I can't wait to meet her, and my mom and dad are ecstatic. the phone is ringing off the hook 'round these parts, with all the news flying around.

finally decided on what to do with the aercraft teatowels - i wasn't satisfied with the solid background on the original teatowels, and finally today figured out that I could use the lined image from my onesie - sometimes the obvious takes a long time to get noticed around here! new colours as well - rust red and navy.

and because I have a bit of trouble with online shopping, and because I drove home in the SNOW last night and when I woke up it was STILL HERE, and the week in general has been more than a bit trying, I bought myself the earrings, above from Yoola

and also this knitted wire necklace, from nanouke.

montreal

this is our very last breakfast in Montreal - a city we were very tempted to stay in for good. so many cafe au lait, so many croissants - so much food in general. there are very few photos from this mini vacation because our hands were constantly full of food.

it was a bit of a disaster to start - we left london at 3 a.m. to drive to Toronto, to catch the train at 6 :30 a.m. because i have a tendency to worry, we left so early and arrived so early - this is Ted at 5:30 in the morning at Union Station playing the motorcycle ride-on video game, because there was nobody there but us.

we arrived in montreal to discover that the apartment i had booked and put a deposit on was a scam, and i was so tired i started to cry on the street, in front of the non-existent apartment we had just taken a cab to. saved by my best friend's little brother, we cabbed up to his house to sort ourselves out.

we ended up finding the great Hotel Champ-de-Mars, which is like a fancy Motel, really. it was well located [in the Old Port] and well priced, and clean. and it gave us continually fodder for laughter and jokes, as the room was horrifically decorated and involved hauling our bags up a spiral staircase. this is Ted after check-out, on our way to drop off our bags at the train station before heading up to Jean Talon Market, where we had the fabulous breakfast in the first picture. This is also what we both looked & felt like the morning after eating at Au Pied deCochon, by far the best meal either of us has ever had. we ended up staying at the restaurant until 1 a.m., and drinking bourbon with our server, and were so stuffed we couldn't sleep afterwards.

that last day, Monday, was spent running around trying to eat as much as we could. after breakfast at AU Pain D'Or in Jean Talon, we wandered back downtown to shop in fripieries [best word!] and eat as much as we could. we went to Fairmount Bagel, and sat on a sunny bench in front of a fire station eating fresh, hot bagels. then we went to Café Santropol, and had the gigantic sandwiches above [we saved half for the train ride home]. then we went to Schwartz's Deli, and this was all before 3 p.m. I thought we were going to burst from overeating, what a day!

i have no photos from the craft show we were to Montreal for, PucesPOP, but it was great. Becky over at the sweetie pie press remembered to take some photos of the show, which you can see here. as always, i met and traded work with a number of really lovely crafters, including Danielle from stitchface [she's from Toronto, but we met in Montreal], and coucou salut, who's real name escapes me. thanks for the lovely things.

giveaway!

arounna's doing another great giveaway on her blog - go here to leave a comment by Monday for a chance to win the wonderful goodies above.

i've been using this bright royal blue in my pillows and smock dress since the summer, and wanted to use it in the repeat work as well. i printed the light grey on it as an experiment, and i just love it. soon to be available in the shop, i'm going to put it in the etsy shop this afternoon.

bookhou has another batch of sets for sale in their etsy shop - i was quick this time and got the one above.

design contest

the city of craft show is gearing up, and you can win a bunch of goodies by designing our swag bag this year. your design will be printed onto cotton totes, which are filled with goodies and handed out to the first 100 people at the show. you can find out all the details here.

some things never change - I still like cake on my birthday, and I will be sharing it with my family.

I'm also crossing my fingers that my niece will be born on my birthday, so cross your fingers, too - there are only a few hours of the day left in Japan!

we leave early in the morning for montreal - the puces pop show is this weekend. i am happy to be taking the train and not driving, and also happy to go to a city with all kinds of eating plans - santropol, au pied du cochon, schwartz's and of course bagels.