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.

Make Believe.

Walking with rainbows.

Forgotten lunch.

Mythical beasts.

Wind racer.

Slow poke.

The sneak.

Secret Fort.

Sweetness.

The entire cast.

The setting.

Sometimes simple is best...

simple always wins.

Monster and Robot.

Monster and Robot...in love.

So kye thinks I look like a bear...and he's right...but frankly I like this little monster bear...we may choose to change the colours up and add a little tooth to the 'monster'...but at this moment I do like these two little characters.  Invites are almost done! phewf!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's to all my friends. Hope it's filled with lovely things that make you laugh.

A Valentine Diorama...

Hearts in disguise!

A quick post tonight dedicated to the season of love notes! I've been seeing many tutorials over the tubes that show you how to fold a paper heart into an envelope. It turns out that these heart's in disguise are the perfect home for my valentine dioramas!

Surprise...a folded away friend!

piles of sweetness.

Valentine diorama unfolded.

Team Heart Beat!

A love story.

This week i need to try and finish our invites to this marriage thing we are doing this summer. As a lover of all things DIY, I can't lie, planning a DIY wedding is frankly a hoot! But I do have a tendency to live in my dreams...where every happening is heavily choreographed to swooning pop songs across wide open skies.  Bringing dreams to life is much different...

Above is our latest pass at the invites...a little more graphic and a little more simplistic. I still need to design our characters, the robot and the monster and address the font...but I am enjoying this direction.  It also is in the vein of the themes that I am hoping to incorporate into my first textile line...so it's a good try two things at once project. 

Finally on another exciting note...fabric sampling has begun for the dress making! Bring on the mood board!

Paper Sunshine!

It's January in Toronto...that means...snow...or well it used to.  These days we are flip flopping between freezing skies and rainy afternoons.  Either option would be improved with sunshine. 

So for my latest mailing project, I created some little bursts of sunshine packed up in the tiniest of envelopes! I am shipping them out tomorrow...so hopefully some familiar friends will have a little bit of extra warmth pass through their hands this month. 

Paper Sunshine: inside the a tiny burst of happy!

I am also getting really excited about making some valentines...i have some ideas cooking in my imagination. Next step, put them on paper!  Also, my other life's work, the Monster Factory is running an awesome contest/activity for this very love filled holiday. Essentially you write a monster a valentine, and they will write you one back! All the details are available via the link above. 

Bear in the snow.

Bear making a million wishes.

The tiny envelopes for the tiniest of letters!

A little letter made out of paper sunshine.

And now back to my blanket fort a.k.a. hibernation station!

January Wind

The wind twists and ties my memories down
It howls and sparks and would rather I not forget...

January has been such a peculiar month so far.  I feel terribly behind in my creative pursuits but yet at the same time energized and excited for the year to unfold.  I think it's just been hard to get back into work mode after such a long holiday break.  My mind still seems to be focused on boiling large root veggies for stews and curling up in a nest of comforters on my bed and napping hours away.   

You leave tiny stab wounds, slivers of small branches.
Leaves flutter around us, an added drama.

To curb these lazy actions, I am giving myself little goals and creative adventures.  Sketch for five minutes before I head to work (meaning get up 5 minutes early already...lol).  Or next week I have challenged myself to swim at least once.  I need to be back in the pool...let my mind wander through lengths of chlorinated blue.

I suppose I have also been a little preoccupied with planning a wedding...kye and I are finally getting married.  Anyone who knows us well, also knows that we have been engaged for a very LONG time.  It's fairly ridiculous.  This is our ten year anniversary year, so it seems fitting to throw a party and get hitched.  Of course with a wedding comes invites and decoration and thus crafting! Hello favourite things!

 Our theme is robot marries monster.  I've been sketching out some ideas for the invites...nothing but ideas at this point...and we have many...I like the one above...and want to colour the tie and head band with pinks and orange, leaving the rest of the line work black.  I think that would look sharp.

We are also playing around with some 8Bit imagery...might be a fun take...I like this image...but it's just not entirely there yet.

I am also in love with these lithuanian wedding head dresses...something tells me I will be making these!

My dad has also offered to help construct these hats...they are so crazy...but I kind think they would be a real show stopper!

New year, new journal...

a new beginning.

Kye bought me a new journal for Christmas this year and I love it! A size change from my last journal...more roomy, and it has a horizontal layout, which makes me feel like i'm journaling on long landscapes...and that makes for many happy pages.

treasures from sewon!

The first few pages i've worked on have included some of the treasures i've received in the mail from my art pen pals. There are a couple collages of small special secrets from sewon, whose blog i absolutely adore following. Her photographs are so lovely and really capture the everyday!

handmade stickers make everything better!

Along with sewon's secrets, there is a collage of handmade stickers that jeannine sent me from the west.  They are so fragile and sweet. I had to use them in collaboration with some illustrations.

a trio of owls.

And of course i received a package of sunshine and rainbows from my friend jessica, which included a trio of handrawn owls! I've yet to journal with these wonders, but my mind is racing on how i might...so many possibilities!

rain dancing.

Another creative beginning that I am really excited about is getting back into poetry with the help of one of the most incredibly talented writers I know Lindsay ZV. On the second day of 2012 we ran into each other on our way to work and challenged each other to write a poem or poems each day and send them to one another. 

Way back before the monster factory began, i used to write poems and pair them with images and drawings. As the monsters took over, I continued the image making but let the words fall aside...but it's time to collect them again.  I feel a bit like a baby deer on wobbly legs falling a whole lot, and writing hilariously bad verses...but hey we all have to start somewhere right! Oh and thank you Linds for bearing with me while i try and find my words again.  I've sprinkled some of my first attempts in amongst the images.

a winter collage.

i hear a song
a blue jean melody

and then

worn memories
catching in my chest.

handmade stickers from jeannine...i love the sprinkles...like rainbow snow flakes.

in the cold months
i carry bits of green and sun,
tucked in with bank statements and receipts.
my wallet burns.

our resolutions.

the cotton flowers in the closet
softly mimic
the sounds of summer.