DOT CITY.

Last Tuesday, Falconwright released it's latest collection! Spent lots of time in the studio with my co-conspirator to put this collection together, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out. New prints, new bags, fun pics, etc! Here are a couple shots from our lookbook (you can see the whole thing here):

Behind the scenes time (lazy Instagram style, as per usual):

When we started to think about what to do for a lookbook, our first thought was to do something really simple. Because a) we are not pro photographers and b) we had a pretty small budget (so no tiger rentals, air balloons, or champagne towers). I showed Danielle a few pieces of paper I had painted, and this soon turned into "What if we made really huge versions of those? Into columns? And painted all the white paper in the universe with one million slightly wonky polka dots?" So we crossed our fingers and started painting, and thankfully it all worked out. Set designers must have fun. And of course, the set would have been nothing without that foxy lady I apparently talk about in every blog post lately, Caitlyn Murphy. Hi, girl ;) Cool illustrator, mega babe, good company - my kind of triple threat.

And here are a few other random moments: 1&2. Caitlyn and Danielle chilling out with Danielle's puppy Ollie after the photos. Recipe for stress relief and happiness: open one cold beer, unleash one cute puppy, feel good. 3. The two bags that Danielle and I adopted from our new collection. Her: baby blue. Me: bright raspberry. & 4. We sent out our orders from last week on Friday. Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who ordered from us - your support means so much. There is lots of stuff left in the shop if you wanna take a peek!

You know those what's in your bag posts you sometimes see on the web? And insides someones bag is a pretty collection of neat things? I kind of love them. Anyhow, if I dumped my pink bucket bag onto the floor right now, it would not be pretty. I keep a messy bag. I'd like to change this (if that's even possible...).

ONLINE SHOPPING & FLIGHT MODE

1. Lee sporting her new pretzel bag. Total paparazzi shot here. Hi Lee! 2. Our table at Zine Dream. 3. Edible decor. 4. Caitlyn Murphy, logo lover.

We had a great time at Zine Dream eating pretzels, drinking coffee, drinking beer, and catching up with pals. Thanks so much to our ever supportive friends for dropping by and hanging out. News: Caitlyn and I just opened up a joint webshop where you can purchase our collective projects here! How many web shops does one girl need? The answer is 3. 3 webshops.

While I was on a strict money spending ban that day, you could have really destroyed your bank account walking through The Tranzac. So many talented folks making stuff in this city.

Another peek at a few inside pages. Fun fact: I used to work at McDonald's as a youth, so I've kind of got a soft spot for it. Sometimes I even worked at the Wal-Mart location (...the horror!). Remember when McDonald's had pizza?

A couple moments from a recent trip camping: 1. Get real, sunsets! 2. A deer just grazing about like a bunch of people aren't watching it. Oh, Canada. 3. Trying our best to create a fake fire with candles and flashlights during a fire ban. 4. It's been proven: lake swimming continues to be the very best thing.

We disconnected our phones from the web and used them as cameras, watched sunsets, didn't run into the "problem bear" that was apparently lurking around the area, played a few spirited games of Apples to Apples, and read books (real books!). Take me back, please.

SNACKS UNLEASHED.

Here is a real look at my second collab project with fellow McDonald's lover, Caitlyn Murphy. It's called Snacks! and includes a zine with 20 full colour illustrations of all our favourite edibles (with screen printed covers), and a double sided tote bag adorned with pretzels.  

You could carry at least 2-3 large bags of pretzels in this bag. Salt fiends rejoice! Or you could carry other important things too. Like books. Maybe cookbooks?   

It is such a pleasure to collaborate with the right people. Lately, I've been spending the vast majority of my time working this way, and it has been so nice and productive. The right people push you to get things done, they keep the process fun, and they inspire you to be better because they are so good at what they do. Caitlyn is so good at what she does and I love working with her. We had a lot of fun putting this all together!

 

We will have these at Zine Dream on Sunday and leftovers will go online afterwards!  And after years of showing up at Zine Dream zineless - it's nice to finally get around to putting something together to celebrate the format! Zine Dream runs from 12-5 at The Tranzac. Bag and zine combos (limited to 26 packages!) will be $30 or $12 for just the zine. Plus we'll have our dog postcards, and other things, of course. We hope to see you there!

TRUCKS, LOVE, LIGHT, SNACKS.

Here's a sunny little poster I designed for the Bloorcourt Arts & Crafts Fair and City of Craft. I will be out of town when this event goes down, but lots of good people will be taking it to the streets that day to sell things they made while liberally reapplying sunscreen. Maybe you will visit them? And maybe you will enjoy an ice cream from a truck too. 

I recently had the pleasure of designing some wedding invitations for friends. I didn't post the entire thing here, because I felt weird about splashing their personal info on the web (I don't think my blog browsers are wedding crashers, but you never know, right?). This was my first time designing wedding invites, and it was a fun challenge. Unpictured: guitars, banjos, cocktails, etc. Big ups to Steve and Claudine!

Oh hey, meet my new workspace! This is where I spend most the vast majority of my time now and I love it. This is my first time working outside of my house, and I can already say for certain that I am far more productive when not surrounded by my couch and fridge (though we do hope to get a couch and just got a mini fridge...). Can you believe the light? We've been adding art to the walls and still have some work to do, but it's already such a great place to work from. Of course, it was only this clean for only about 45 seconds...

This is what happens when you cut a lot of leather in the middle of the hot summer. SUEDE LEGS. 

Fun fact: Danielle and I are working on some new items for our next Falconwright collection. She wrote a post about it over on our blog with a couple more sneaky pictures, but we're adding a few extra players (aka bags) to our roster. Can't wait to introduce you to the team.

Print, clean, rinse, repeat. I am going on vacation next week (camping) and I'm considering unplugging from the web and not using my phone at all. Kinda foaming at the mouth just thinking about it though. Can I do it? I probably can't do it. Maybe I could do it? I want to do it! I am excited to decrease my screen printing by 100% and replace it with 100% more swimming and afternoon beers (or bears?).

And lastly, my next collab project with Caitlyn is also well under way. It's gonna be a doozy. More revealing photos coming soon! We'll be at Zine Dream on the 12th with it and you should come. Zine Dream is always packed with cool stuff, and your eyes will not be disappointed. Plus, it's very possible we will have snacks...

SQUARES OF TIME.

I've been neglecting my blog and having a hot summer fling with Instagram. Here's a peek at what's been up with the awesome power of words. Long live the details!

 

1. Meet my new giant squeegee, Steve. Steve is gorgeous, untouched by ink and hard work. I've since sullied him up with paint and taught him a thing or two about the perils of repetitive strain. Welcome to the team, Steve! 2. No frills screen burning 101. While I dream about a more sophisticated light table with a faster burn time, this still works just fine. 3. I'm no colour mixing pro, but I try my best. 4. One of my least favourite parts of the screen printing process: reclaiming screens. Big ups to necessary evils!

1. I asked a stranger take a photo of Danielle and I on the street the other day like we were a couple of leather toting tourists. Here we are hauling hides down beautiful Bathurst Street in the blazing midday sun. 2. Packing up some Falconwright wholesale orders. We've added a small selection of neat stores to our stockists page- check it out here! 3. Perfect Leather is the best. It should be noted that I used to think it was the worst and it stressed me out to just walk in the door. I'm glad that things have changed. 4. Danielle models the finest in fancy leather cutting gear - modified batting gloves. Classy!

1. Garlic, basic, and a few green onions. Ingredients from the garden for... 2. PESTO! It's the summer of pesto, guys. Adding green onions might be a little weird, but I just don't know how to get rid of all these guys. 3. A look at my second garden box, where the tomato plants are fairly mighty, but entirely barren of fruit? 4. Lettuce for days! My intake of salad has increased about 100 percent this summer by growing lettuce. The slugs increased their intake of lettuce too.

1 & 2. The right and left view from my spot at the table on my back patio. The buildings that surround my yard are pretty beautiful, and it's really quiet for being in the center of the city. The backyard is definitely my favourite part of our house. 3. My second favourite part of my house = these windows in my living room. 4. Do all freelancers have a hard time feeding themselves? I sure do. I'm trying to force myself to eat more regular meals, and maybe a healthy snack or two. Like these cherries. I can't survive on coffee and handfuls of chips and spoonfuls of Nutella alone. Or can I...


PS - Huh, blogger is making some of my words look like links, even though they are not. And life continues to be full of little mysteries!


PS PT. 2 - Instagram ups the dramatic gauzy romance of my life by at least 75 percent. Do not be fooled - it's also full of greasy summer skin, leg bruises from bikes and baseball, fruit flies, and floors that desperately need sweeping (boring).

ALLAN GARDENS CONSERVATORY.

I'm guilty of taking my city for granted. Toronto is the largest city in Canada, and it's way too easy to live within your neighbourhood. That's also a big perk, but we're talking about exploring here! So, it's with this post that I vow to start checking out areas of the city that I just haven't bothered spending much time in (because there has been Netflix to watch, or I'd have to, like, take a bus). Starting with: Allan Gardens. More specifically, the conservatory. Which is ONE BLOCK away from my house. And free. And full of humid plant magic. I went there once with Jason, but it was after we had a bottle of wine in the park, so we didn't really take in the whole show...

My personal highlights included: a banana tree, The Cactus House, and the beautiful shape of The Palm House. There are benches throughout, information boards on the various plant varieties, and if you go there during the week (as I did today) it was pretty damn peaceful too!  Note: don't go to the Eaton Center afterwards if you'd like to maintain that sense of peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MONTH OF MAY.

Oh hi! It's hard to believe that it's been a whole month of freelance life. The biggest surprise so far has been how fast time flies. I hope everyone has been enjoying the glorious start of summer - here's what May has been all about around here:

1. FALCONWRIGHT Danielle and I have been working away all month preparing some new summer leather goods. We updated our shop today with some old faves and some new kids on the block all dressed up in gems, waves, pyramids, and party mix! YEAH. We've learned a lot about leather this month. We've experimented with new inks, we've learned how to use our new sewing machine, we've standardized the size and shape of certain items, and we've ordered some pretty new mailing stuff (stickers, wrapping, etc). It's felt great to dive into things and work hard to improve our stuff - we hope it shows! I've decided to steal this guy below for myself:

2. THE GARDEN. I constantly flip flop between thinking that a garden is the greatest thing ever and a total waste of energy.  For instance, I could buy tomatoes in a second and eat them immediately, or I could grow them for months and lose half of them to the evil squirrels that run my hood. But practicality is never really the reason for doing things yourself, right? It's about the experience, man. And the smell of tomato leaves is pretty much the greatest thing in the world. So, despite my bitterness towards all of natures creatures, I decided to fill those boxes UP. These pics were taken a couple weeks back so everything has grown considerably. Except for the chard, which all died. And only the chard. Is chard fussy? Chard is a mystery!

 

3. TRAMP BY SHARON VAN ETTEN. This album is good. That's all. 

 

4. GLAZING IS AMAZING PART 3. Ceramics: so hot right now (kiln jokes!). These are the very last pieces from my ceramics course. I've now got many little bowls sitting on my kitchen table. I'm not really sure what to do with all these little bowls, but I really want to take another class anyways. Or find a place in Toronto where I can just pay to fire and glaze. Does that exist? If anyone in the know has any recommendations, I'd love to know!

 

 

Other then that there has been lots of eating unhealthy fistfuls of food, painting text, photo editing, summertime beer drinking, and the triumphant beginning of softball season (Go Rebels! Go Bottle Rockets!). I'm also starting to flesh out some ideas for a new series of prints. More to come...

QUITTING TIME.

Something big happened a week and a half ago - I left my office day job! And I'm just writing about it now? Apparently I did the vast majority of my web stuff while I was there (shhhhh). 

I'm not generally a big risk taker, so this move was a pretty big deal for me. Big ups go out to my pals for encouraging me to take the leap. 10 days in and it's really feeling like the best decision ever. Scary and exciting.

Danielle and I can now devote more time to Falconwright (check out the new sewing machine we scored above - it's a beast!) and hopefully I will eventually settle into some kind of routine that will enable more drawing, more screen printing, more music making. Who knows!

The past week and a half has definitely been a bit of a blur. I've been to the burb-y outskirts of town looking for sewing machines and various leathers. I've printed and cut and taken pictures. I've been working on some wedding invites for a friend with my new favourite thing in the world: ink and a paintbrush. I skipped out of work on a Friday afternoon to drink wine in the park with Jason. My google reader has ballooned to a truly intimidating number of unread entries. There have been highs and there have been lows. And time has flown by much faster than anticipated.

So! If you want a scrappy illustration to accompany your article, to adorn your book jacket, to advertise your event - I am officially open for business. Custom (unrealistic) portrait? Sure, why not.

And I also caught up to the present day phone-wise and joined Instagram. If you crave more gauzy photos of screen printing, plants, snacks, leather, and baseball in you life - you can find me here: @dead__weight

LATELY: PAINT, LEATHER, GLASS.

What's been happening lately: 1. Super scrappy paint mixing experiments. 2. My "studio" looking tidy for once (this lasted for about a second). 3. Canary leather. 4. A canary leather makeover! 5. Thread city. 6. Printing haystacks and making messes. I'm thinking I should have painted my tabletop for a more cleanable surface, but this whole crime scene vibe is pretty cool too. 7. Transporting leather back and forth and back again - Danielle and I really need a joint work space! If only to save her from calling a leather storage facility home... 8. I've been breaking A LOT of glass lately. I can barely keep it in my hands. At least I'm not breaking mirrors? 9. City of Craft was this past weekend and it was a huge success! Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by, organised the event, and filled up the room with their awesome stuff. GOOD TIMES.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME.

Crappy pic of me wearing...the largest Blue Jays hat in the world! A totally reasonable umbrella. Not showy at all.

Baseball is back today. The new uniforms look hot and there is hope in the air. It's a good day!

I am ready for: the struggle, the heroics, the strategy, the double plays, the potential no hitters, the stupid Brett Lawrie tweets, the heart breakers, the blind optimism, the weird group activity that is cheering on a team ("Canada's team"), consuming more hot dogs than I should, the blown saves (by other teams, of course), Bautista's one million homers, sunshine, the open dome on warm summer nights, the comforting sound of baseball on the radio, and cold drinks on hot days. And no matter how sunny I sound to you here, believe me, I will still hate the wave with every ounce of my being...same goes for you, guy who will sit behind me at at least 2 games saying the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life.

Amelie had a great post about her feelings about baseball on her blog. Check it out!

Really loving how the Blue Jays are being marketed these days too. Lots of moody drama. Deep blues, crisp whites, serious men!

MAGICAL THINKING.

Something fun? My band has a new song called Magical Thinking and our pal Ryan Mounsey made us this wild new video for it. In his words: "In the Magical Metropolitan land of Chatham; the King's number one Wizard set's out on a journey of self discovery and self loathing." It's pretty fun to hand your music off to someone and see what they come up with. Thanks, Ryan!

This video features all kinds of weird stuff: our friend Corey as the King Of Chatham, a wizard on a mission, and some very Toronto-centric appearances by Rob Ford (our total train wreck of a mayor) and Zanta (remember him?). Moose run through the streets, there are ads for baby sunglasses, and public transportation prices skyrocket. Doesn't it sometimes feel like the escalator is always broken? GAME OVER.

WISHBONED.

Got a new tattoo by Lissa at Pearl Harbor Gift Shop in Kensington Market this weekend. I'm no tattoo expert (this is only my second) but I really liked my experience here. Awesome people + great decor (the personified strawberry face in particular). Recommended! I'm already thinking about what I should do next...