City of Craft

It's happening! Tomorrow! And it's gonna be sooooo good:

City of Craft
Saturday, April 22, 2013
11am-6pm
Trinity St. Paul's United Church
427 Bloor Street West
(one block West of Spadina)

Check out the sweet lookbook for the show here. 

See you at the show!

xo
Alison 

One of a Kind Show

I am at The One of a Kind show (still) for five more days. It is going well, albeit exhausting. A few shots from the booth. I had the shelves made especially for the show by my friend Richard Perri and I am very happy with them. Seeing everything out and displayed in this way is really helping me imagine what a Grace store might look like. It's funny, the fabrics I use are almost exclusively from Japan; vintage kimono's. Yet, they all have a decidedly Southwestern feel to them. I find that cross cultural similarity fascinating. I didn't think about this when I sourced out terrariums and antlers (that sort of look like bones) to use for my display but now when I see everything together, find that there is a real desert feel here. It is funny, I don't always have a conscious concept in my mind, it is just totally intuitive but then when I see everything together I realize how it all comes together in a cohesive theme. Anyways, I am there until Sunday, open late every night. (even until 11pm on Thursday if that's your thing!) Hope you can come by!

The Latest

I have crawled out from under my piles so I can give you the heads up of all the great craft events coming up as well as some other Grace Design news bits. First, here is a listing of all of the craft events I will be at in the next four weeks. The photo above outlines the Fab 4, that is, the most fabulous four indie craft shows in Toronto where you will find a positively amazing selection of creativity and stellar gifts for everyone on your list, including you! I will be at 2 of these 4 shows, the Kid Icarus show and Movies and Makers. But I guarantee that if you visit any of these shows you will not be disappointed. The other two that I will not be at, but I highly recommend are Crafternoon Tea and City of Craft.

This weekend I will be at The Good Earth Winery for the Handmade Market. You may remember the gorgeous photos from the Spring show I exhibited at, outdoors in the vineyard when everything was blossoming. I have such fond memories of that show and that place, I am pretty stoked to get back out to wine country, even if it is winter. Nothing goes better than wine and shopping so should be a good one. A few days later I will be in the CBC building, all day Wednesday, Nov 30th. You can find me in the Atrium so if you work in or near the financial district and need a dose of colour and creativity then come and say hello.


The following Saturday I will be at St. Stephen's in Kensington Market for the Kid Icarus Handmade Holiday one day show. (Dec 3rd) This will be a good one! Highly recommended! If you come early you might be able to score one of Kid Icarus's grab bags which, if you have ever seen their luscious paper goods, you will understand why these loot bags are so coveted.


The following weekend you will find me in the Artisans Marketplace at 401 Richmond building in Toronto, Dec 8-11th, in the long hallways just outside of Swipe Books. This show runs all day Thursday-Sunday and goes till late each evening. There will be art studio tours running through the building and it is a great place to gallery hop and check out this historic centre for art and creativity.


Finally, last, but certainly not least, is one of my personal faves, Movies and Makers, put on by the most delightful Ms. Lisa Pijuan-Nomura. Held inside a movie theatre in the Beaches, it is a total blast! It was my fave show last year. It is so fun, the lineup is awesome and there will be cupcakes!! All day Saturday Dec 17th.


I know that was a real mouthful. If you're trying to wrap your head around all of that information well, try sewing for it! Things have been insane around here but I like it that way. To pile on more of the crazy, I have am having a big Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in my Etsy shop, on now until next Monday Nov 28th. Many things have already been marked down and I will be adding new items throughout the next few days.


I really hope to see some of you at some of these shows. If giftmas gets you down, try handmade! Seriously, when you buy handmade you are supporting individuals, not corporations and helping people like me have financial independence while fostering creativity and local economies. It really is the perfect antidote to the commercialization of all that is going on over at the mall. Hope to see you there! XO

 

Some photos from Cabbagetown this past weekend. Even though it was an extremely hectic weekend and even though I spent three days recuperating from the fact that I had to get up at 4am on Friday to go and get a spot in the park - I am very very happy with how the weekend went. I had a great show and so many people came to visit, the weather held out and I had the most wonderful location, right next to a great big oak tree. Beautiful. I almost cancelled but now I think this show will become part of my yearly roster. Gratitude!

This week is proving to be just as hectic as last, started off with a bang with a big presentation of the new company I am starting to some Toronto entrepreneurs. (more on this later!) Needless to say, I did not get much sleep over the weekend or any night leading up to this but felt good about it afterwards...and especially relieved. Next weekend is The Queen West Art Crawl, another great show.  I will only be there on the Saturday as I am heading up north to one of my favourite events of the year - The Harvest Festival. I almost decided not to go but a friend offered to take care of my booth on the Sunday so I was able to make it happen. So, if ya wanna see me, come on the Saturday! I will post the details on Facebook, later in the week. Have a great week y'all!