A Country Drive, Moroccan Style

                         

Since it's 'Throwback Thursday' I thought I would post a few photos from my trip this past summer since I didn't post many when it was actually happening. On my second day in Morocco I hired a driver to take me to a few places outside of Fez. The first stop was Volubilis - a city of Roman ruins that had been excavated in the past fifty years, circa 100 AD. I was lucky as it was a very moody day weather wise and hardly anyone was there. It allowed me to really soak in the landscape that would have not occured with busloads of tourists.  The landscape itself was amazingly gorgeous too - as you can see -lot's of rolling grassy hills and a wide expanse of sky with the Middle Atlas mountains in the distance. I hired a guide to explain all of the ruins to me. He was very cute, he kept advising me precisely where  I should stand so as to get the perfect composition with my photos. Also on this outing was a visit to the small city of Méknes, it's souk of which was dedicated a Unesco Wold Heritage Site and Moulay Idriss - a beautiful white washed city. My driver did not speak a word of English but we shared dates and almonds and at one point he pulled over the car, jumped out and and returned with a branch of raw chickpeas that he had picked. It was a lovely day.

Not Your Grandmother's Macrame

Out of nowhere I suddenly became obsessed with tufty things, weaving, macrame and any sort of odd textural wall hanging. I think it started with Moroccan wedding blankets. A friend asked me to bring one back from Morocco and I didn't care much for them a year ago but they really grew on me with their mixture of metallics, soft cotton and fringe. When I got back I noticed Etsy was featuring quite a few different wall hangings in their promo emails and then bam! suddenly they are appearing all over the net and I want one, bad!  I've featured a few examples above of some of my favourites, I think the weirder and bigger the better. I also love when other elements from nature are incorporated, pieces of driftwood or metal. I'm imagining one above my bed that takes up half the wall with lot's of long cream threads with bits of metallic woven in and bits of driftwood. I am even considering making one myself. I found this tutorial if you want to try your own hand at it:

If you'd like to find the source of any of these images I made this Pinterest board where you can find all of these images and more that link back to their original sources. What do you think about this trend? 

Grace Design x Etsy x NY Now

Phew what a week! I just returned from NYC where I exhibited at NY NOW with Etsy Wholesale. To those not familiar, NY NOW is a tradeshow where many of the world's boutiques go to buy goods for their stores. Etsy just officially launched a new facet of their company - Etsy Wholesale - which is a private juried marketplace within Etsy that connects shop owners with designers. Since Etsy Wholesale just had their official public launch at the beginning of August, they decided to make a big splash at NY NOW this year. I was invited by Etsy to come and take part in this massive, beautiful pavilion they created and act as an ambassador for Etsy.

I have to say - what an amazing experience! To exhibit at a tradeshow like this is such an enormous and costly undertaking and I was so fortunate to have everything taken care of - from my booth design to my marketing materials. We had an incredible 90' long space that ran the entire length of the lobby leading into the handmade wing of the show.  There were 24 of us exhibiting and everyone's work was simply fantastic - so creative and polished.  I've included several photos from my booth above, as well as the Etsy lounge - all designed by my insanely talented friends at Workshop. (the same folks that designed the beautiful Etsy Pop-Up Shop that that occurred in NYC two years ago that I took part in.) I am particularly enamoured by the system of boards with wooden pegs they used to hold all of the shelves. Such a smart arrangement and I wish I had thought of it myself!

Beyond all of the fun of meeting so many Etsy sellers whose work I was already familiar with and everyone at Etsy, I was also blessed to meet many shop owners and you will be finding my goods at a whole slew of new shops across the USA in the coming weeks. I will make some announcements as orders go out - that way you can check things out locally if there is a shop in your area.

Now on to the task of actually making these orders!

All of the above photos were taken by Laura Pardo.

Grace X Etsy Road Trip!

A few weeks ago Etsy contacted me and asked if I would be interested in participating in this fun event they have planned this summer - Road Trip!! When I heard their plans my response was a definitive yes. They will be traveling from Montreal to Toronto in a decked out airstream camper and partnering with a few local sellers in each city plus musicians and food trucks for an Etsy extravaganza. I will be at both Toronto locations on August 8th and 9th. If you are in the area you should definitely check it out as I think it is gonna be a lot of fun! More details can be found HERE.

Morocco: Jardin Majorelle

One of my favourite (and more touristy) activities I did while in Morocco was visit The Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech. The gardens were designed by Jacques Majorelle but then bought by Yves St. Laurent. Apparently, Yves St Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé discovered the gardens in 1966 and used to visit them every day while in Marakech.  Eventually the gardens were to be condemned and turned into high rise buildings and they (thankfully) stepped in and bought them in 1980. 

The site was packed with tourists but it is hard not to be completely enchanted by the lush green oasis of cacti, bamboo and palms anyways. I was also enamoured with the contrast of lush green, cobalt blue and terracotta - just gorgeous. They have a great Berber museum on site where I was lucky enough to check out some very old Berber textiles and jewellery. (my favourite!). They also have a lovely outdoor cafe and it is very tranquil with some of the best ice cream ever. I would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in Marrakech but if I were to go again would try to go in the early morning or around sunset. you will get better photos and I think, take in the tranquility of the space in a more peaceful way.

Happy Weekend my friends and a Happy 4th of July to all of my compadres south of the border. 

Have fun! XO

Morocco!

Hello!

I wanted to share some photos from in and around the markets of Morocco. Some of you will have already seen a few of these as I was posting on Facebook when I could but now that I am back, I have a lot to show you. I have never encountered such an array of amazing beautiful goods anywhere in the world. The textiles were one thing but shoes, jewelry, bags and on and on - it was so inspiring. (and dangerous.) The guidebooks joked about cursing baggage restrictions and I shrugged it off but let me tell you it was no laughing matter at the Marrakech airport when my suitcase cost more than my ticket!  I bought mainly vintage Berber kilim's with the most incredible geometric motifs and hints of neon colouring throughout. Very excited to get going on the Fall collection which will be making its debut in a few weeks. I'll post more in the coming days/weeks Hope you are all well! XO

Sale Starts Tomorrow at 9am!

Over the weekend I sewed around 70 new pouch's for the sale tomorrow. Bonkers! I'll have a few different sizes and about a million different fabrics. I've pulled lot's of old fabrics from seasons past and some of the new fabrics as well. All of the pouch's will be $25 and a few of the bigger sizes will be $30-42. 

Other details about the sale: all of the large bags and clutch's will also be marked down around 50%, including some of the new summer stock and some of the best sellers like the linen/leather clutch's and all of the suede/gold clutch's. The large bags will all be priced at $99 and the clutch's, most at around $49.

The sale will last one day and one day only starting at 9am tomorrow morning. The shop will then be closing next week for a few weeks while I do a few shows locally and then leave on my trip! I hope you will stop by and find something lovely for yourself. It's a good chance to shop for gifts - even, dare I say, Christmas (eek) as I only do sales like this about once a year.  Enjoy your Tuesday! XO