Finding My Footing...

Summer Run.

I've been after my dreams again...patterns and one day what I hope will be a line of textiles. Due to my wedding sabbatical I fell a little out of practice...but now I'm back...wobbly and uncertain, but I'm finding my footing and it feels awesome.  Been searching out inspiration where ever I go, and really trying to just get my ideas onto paper.  I hit the computer tonight...more to just play around with some techniques and see what works best...

Hollyhock Tea Time.

One of my biggest challenges has always been combining colours.  It's funny because colours are one of my most favourite things about life...the spectrum, the combo...the beauty...what's not to love when a sunset steals your breath away.  I find that it's actually out in the wild that I see the most inspiring mix of palettes...which got me to thinking...that I should start using my Colorschemer app more and start creating colour palettes from the photos that I've taken of day to day life.  So this is what I tried with these 'Hollyhock Tea Time' patterns.  I've also posted the original photo that I pulled my colours from.  I am really excited about the possibilities of working this way...can't wait to see where it leads...

Again, on a Grey Day

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Original Inspiration.

Summer Soundtrack

Bear-ry Day Card...envelope diorama the birthday edition.

Oh man I love summer.  I've been living in pools and watching the blue skies float amongst the water surface.  Bright bike rides and flapping skirts in light breezes which carry the colours of lavender and hot pink roses around our ankles. Who could ask for anything more.

I've also been obsessed with creating a soundtrack to commemorate this lovely season...so far I've got three tracks:

White Sea - Overdrawn

Austra - Lose It

Justice - New Lands

I am open to more suggestions...

Berry Time

Summer Day Dioramas, piled and ready for post.

Toronto summers are certainly a lovely sight, hot hot heat, blooming city gardens, and wildlife signing along with the city scape and car songs. We've been taking it easy in my neck of the woods and that has been a welcome break from what seemed like a whirlwind spring.  With the wedding and some major work projects I let myself get caught up in a whirlwind of fun and deadlines. But those projects are all cleaned up and closed off, and I am feeling focused again! The next goals are to really focus back on pattern and textile design.  I have so much to learn and try that at times it feels overwhelming, like there is no way I can figure it out...and not to mention there are so many talented artists out there it can be rather intimidating, yet at the same time so inspiring. And speaking of awe inducing designers, I am totally in love with Elizabeth Olwen's work! Make sure to check out her site! It's fabulous and her blog is a wonderful read!

Doing textiles is a dream I've had for so long, I just need to go and do it and not let my fears stop me...it's all about the making right? 

I've also really missed making beautiful mail...so to stretch out my fingers and imagination I thought I would start with making a small run of envelope dioramas...it has been so long! This one is about bears (a favourite of mine) and berries...I've been eating so many blackberries I seriously think I may be turning into a some sort of woodland creature.

Unfold and find a hungry bear, a berry for snaking, a tiny meadow and a mini forest friend for company.

Stuffed into their warm wood-like envelope.

Family on the run.

Berry dreams.

Sweet leafy spirits.

Following the storm.

Sharing

Knot Tied.

Photo Credit: Jen Arron (This was our serious face photo)

After ten years of excellent adventures, Kyle and I finally tied the knot on June 2nd at the High Park Curling Club.  It was a magical day filled with good family and friends, excellent food (delicious BBQ from Barque), dancing, laughing and many many robots and monsters. Thank you to my amazing friend Jen Arron for capturing the memories.  You can see a lovely post all about the day here on her blog.

And another major thanks goes out to my good friend and business partner Bliss, who made the dress of my dreams from scratch.

Photo Credit: Amee King

Now it's back to the basics....finding my pencil crayons and dusting off my journal and getting ready to get back at it.

Lost in Tissue Paper and Tulle

Bliss making adjustments to the proto-dress.

Kyle and I are a few short weeks away from our wedding...though my blog is mostly for my process work and the stuff that fall out of my imagination, but I had to share some of the things we have been creating for our big day of fun and love.

Tissue paper flowers are easy to make and turn out so pretty. Unfortunately cats don't like them.

We've taken a very DIY approach to our wedding party and both Kye and I are happy about it. It has allowed us to spend lots of nights together planing and fabricating things out of paper, wood and LEDs. And I think we saved a few dollars along the way.

Bunting in progress.

Making things makes me happy. It's a simple philosophy, but it works for me...and if I could swim and craft at the same time, well then I would really be onto something.  Koshi on the other hand finds happiness in sitting on things. To each their own.

Sparkle Day.

I didn't think it would happen, but part of my brain has morphed into a frilly bundle of wedding related mess.  It's very puffy and full of crafts.  I knew that once the planning started that required any kind of paper craft it would be over for me.  Kye has been trying to reel me in...but the above is my plan for our little wedding favours...though it's been suggested to me that twine might be a good addition.  Admittedly this wedding business has been awesome fun...but I also feel that it's been a tad distracting from my textile pursuits...which I've more than missed my deadline on....but once this wedding is all up, I will be back on track.

A Bunny Blizzard.

Sugar Mouth.

Life is slowly being wound up with wedding plans.  I am left with only tiny moments to wonder...that is alright.  For some time I wondered about ornamented bunnies hoping around the woods, chasing hearts and being caught in a quiet storm of love.  The following is documentation of said wildlife.

Captain Heart Break.

Sweet Joe.

Heart Storm.

Quiet Benjamin.

Branch Magazine.

Exciting news, my good friend and writer Lindsay Zier Vogel and I, recently collaborated on some written and illustrated work and it was accepted into the newest issue of Branch Magazine!

This issue focuses on the theme 'Make Believe'...a perfect place for mine and Lindsay's imagination to marry.

Check it out! There is a ton of other incredible work to see and read.

Spring time.

sky stories.

It's warmer now. I can cycle, I can run, I can wander the city streets without frost bite.  It's spring!

The other night I took to the track and was witness to a very big performance of sky stories.  It was moody, it was bright, there was rain and sun and all the colours that make your heart burst with exhilaration. It was magnificent.  I ran with my eyes glued to that sky...I suppose it inspired these stories...

I tie myself to a handmade cloud. Sewn out of cotton candy and dandelion fluff.

i lose myself in a spring storm.

lost in sunset now...and ready for sleep.

Secrets in the night.

It's so quiet tonight. Only a fan and the humm of the city sky. In the midst of the spring one of a kind show here in Toronto, it steals time. But I am squirreling away moments to jot down ideas. Projects percolating!

Mountain of Mail...

So, over the last few months things have been busy, and the beautiful stack of mail beside my desk has been piling up.  Actually it has become more of a mountain of wonderful words, and images and paper secrets. My penpals are so wonderful, and I apologize to them all while I am so behind in my own correspondence back.  As mentioned in an earlier post today, Kyle and I finally finished our wedding invites and most of the organizational details which were occupying much of our free time outside of work. But now I am back on my game.

So to start I have a HUGE backlog of mail art goodness to mention, beginning with a wonderful zine that came to me from Sewon who keeps up the most beautiful Maps and Fragments blog.  Her zine is full of her photographs, which I just adore.  Somehow she manages to capture so many stories in a single frame...and now I have pages of stories all wrapped up in one lovely book!

The envelope was also so cool. There was a hand painted speech bubble for the address...and i can't lie, it totally inspired our invite envelopes!

I received a little bit of spring in an envelope from Jaime! And it was a welcome treat!

 This stationery blew my mind! Love it so much.

I just love the tiny bits of flare that J adds to all her letters! This washi tape is like a tiny whisper of spring hanging on to the edges of my eyelids.

From Phillipa, I received two beautiful cards...that both look hand printed.  One was of the type writer above, which just makes me long for the click clacking of keys...

...and the other was of a friendly panda bear, who came wrapped in the most delicate envelope I have ever seen.  It was transparent...and I could see the bear looking up at me when I peeked into my mail box.

Anika sent me an incredible package. It was FULL of beautiful things.  Including a piece of her art, which I find so interesting.  Her experiments with patterns and shapes are facinating to me.  I made a collage of a few of the things that stumbled out of the envelope she sent me.  For some reason the collection of colours and textures reminds me of the beach at sunset...running in sand as the landscape changes in big sweeping gestures right before our eyes.

Jeannine from Saylor Made also sent me a beautiful package, full of other little packages. It always feels like her mail takes me on a tiny journey, through images and textures.  These round circles came tumbling out of a brightly coloured orange envelope.  They looked like ideas caught in the wind to me...so I tried to illustrate that concept above.

I also found this older print work she made stunning! Made me want to try some creatures using this technique.

My lovely Lindsay sent me these paper snowflakes...I love them!  I want a room full of them.  I want to dance through streams of paper snow flakes with playing a loud love anthem! I'm pretty sure Linsday could make that happen!

Valentines also came and went while I was in the wedding storm.  I received so many lovely heart filled cards! Tanya's simple yet sophisticated Valentine was just so perfect....i think i may need to frame it! And Jaime's embroidered heart made me swoon!

A week ago I came home to this wild work of art...and thought it had to be from Jessica! I love the collage and altered postcard.  But I especially love the 'oh hey'. Don't you? There is something so humourous about that statement with this image.  It keeps me chuckling.

And last but certainly not least, Kye sent me an entire TUBE of papers...incluing vintage wallpaper...which I don't even know how to start using...so many ideas.  She also sent me on old map which I couldn't resist using on a little character.  Thank you so much Kye, your generosity is out of this world.

Well that sums it up for now...next it's my turn...I think Jaime's spring letter has stirred an idea in my brain for a new envelope diorama...and possibly a zine...Happy Spring to all!

Macaron Day!

Macarons!

I don't usually post about the Monster Factory here, but one of our monsters made an adorable post all about Macaron Day and our favourite macaron shop in Toronto, La Bamboche and I couldn't resist sharing!  Check it out if you have a chance.  Oh and go get some macarons in support of a great cause!

The Invite

The invite.

Originally this post was intended to be all about the incredible mail art I have been receiving in my post box for the last few months...but alas, when I went to edit it this morning off site this was the only image that had saved in the draft....drats! So I will be re-posting those images later tonight!

The image above is of the final wedding invite that Kyle and I finally completed together a couple of weeks ago.  I am still in working on getting them all out...I have been terrible with address collection! But it's a relief to have them done and making their way out the door!

I am also excited to start to work on some other projects again! The invite and wedding details took up a bundle of my time and I haven't been able to properly document some of the lovely treasures coming in the mail for me these days and thank all of my friends for their sweet posts about my little packages on their blogs.  apologies!

But there will be a mail rich post later this evening...and then I am tackling my first textile line!

ps...This is my spring anthem!

As winter fades...

I snapped the following images on a winter's drive in Grey County, where I grew up.  They are so quiet and minimal. I love the silence and simplicity of the winter season.  The sounds all dampened by snow. The colours all muted and hiding.  These images seem like a distant memory now as spring creeps into the picture.  Who knows, Ontario still maybe due for another huge snow storm the way this winter has gone...but I would be okay with just looking back at these images for now, instead of the real thing.