A little pre announcement: starting Nov 23rd and running until Nov 28th, I will be having a big sale in my Etsy shop. I have so much older inventory in boxes here in my studio and it just needs to go. So, that being said, I will be selling off many cute things and mostly everything will be under $30. Cute little obi pouch's and cosmetic bags, clutch handbags and purse's. Also some one off experiments, samples and prototypes. I really want to clear space so I will be pricing it all to sell. I will post more info closer to the date but just wanted to give my readers a pre-heads up!
I hope you have all had a fantastic and festive Halloween weekend! Mine was great, I dressed up as Kali, the Hindu goddess and I do believe it was a hit. I will post pictures later in the week. Much much work to be done now as Christmas is around the corner so entries may be a bit sparse but I will keep you posted on events coming up and such. Enjoy your week! XO
If I am a hedonist, then this is definitely my mantra. I found this on Flickr the other day and am printing it out large and posting over my desk. I wish I knew who made it, as I would buy a print but alas, it is anonymous for now...
Some photos from my Thanksgiving weekend. We had a last kick of hot sunny weather this past weekend and I made sure I enjoyed every last second of it. I went to a gorgeous farmer's market on Saturday morning at Wychwood Barns and I lamenting right now that I didn't have my camera with me. Ontario has some of the richest farmland in the world so, come Autumn, the harvest in this part of the world is quite bountiful. All of the root vegetables are now coming up along with the greens like kale and chard. YUM. Later that day I decided to ride my bike over to Toronto Island and lay on the beach for a few hours. It was warm enough that I was able to go for a swim in Lake Ontario which was awesome but also bitter sweet. Summer please don't go!
Sunday I drove out to the country to spend some time with family and we visited an apple orchard. These apples are DELICIOUS. I ate three of them yesterday. Such a spectacular weekend - time with family, time with friends, so much amazing food, the harvest, nature, quiet, the warm sun ~ I have so much to be thankful for!
Some Fall and Winter fashions that have been inspiring me lately. These are the practical ones. Perhaps tomorrow I will show the highly impractical ones. I am on the lookout for a great coat. I have a vintage fur hat and would like to find a nice coat to wear with it, maybe a mustard colour or a tweed. I am going to scour a few thrift shops today in search of something. But for now the weather in Toronto has returned to sunny and hot, thank god, I am not ready to let go of summer yet! Looks like we have several more days of this. I am going to squeeze every last minute and take my hammock to the beach on Saturday. Not much else happening on my front except my new fabric shipments from Japan are starting to roll in and I am getting quite excited about implementing some of my new ideas. I hope wherever you are you are enjoying some sun or maybe basking in the coziness of Fall and sipping on a warm cup of tea. Bye Lovelies! XO
My favourite letterpress studio, Hammerpress, has come out with their 2012 calendars. I am in no hurry to start thinking about the impending 2012 but these are pretty magnificent.
I just wrapped up my last show of Fall today. Phew. I have a bit of a break now until mid November - except it is not much of a break because I have signed up to do six Christmas shows this year and I have a whole new company to launch next month. I usually find it hard to motivate myself if there is not a tight deadline looming so I am hoping that these next few weeks I will find it in myself to be totally driven and get lot's done well in advance.
This year I have been trying to change the face of Grace Design, bringing in more of the kinds of things that inspire me currently like First Nations culture, tribal motifs and elements from nature. The above photos are a few of the photos that have inspired me as I was pulling the look and feel of my booth together in the last few shows I did. I am always collecting so I have tons of sweet little treasures from nature in my home. I brought in tiny wooden bowls and used them for display, filling them with shells, stones from Vancouver Island, pine cones and citrine crystal. I also brought in many pieces of driftwood and painted some myself which is a bit of a trend now and a look that I absolutely LOVE. I made my own mobile with found feathers and driftwood and I also visited some antique stores a few weeks ago and found some awesome old wood boxes and furniture. So, overall I am really happy with everything. I was able to bring it all together relatively cheaply too which is always a plus.
I have to admit that I have found the whole feathers trend to be rather annoying this year. I know it is a bit hypocritical of me as in past years I was all over it like white on rice but when I started to see it being sold on such a mass scale all I could think about was those birds. Seriously, are there a lot of bald and battered peacocks in China right now? It makes me sad. So I've stopped buying and/or wearing any more feathers except for a few found ones I have around. I prefer to immortalize their beauty in the form of screen prints!
Bye for now, XO
