IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE CITY.

SECRET ISLAND.

A little while ago I made a poster with this little island on it, but I never had the opportunity to print it due to time contraints. I was always curious about how it would look in real life though, so now it's an 8.5 X 11 print on nice creamy paper! Edition of 25.

CITY OF CRAFT.

City of Craft is fast approaching! This is my first time doing something like this and I'm looking forward to the adventure. Most big public gatherings where I don't know anyone make me pretty nervous though - so please come by and say hello! Perhaps you'll find a handmade gift for that hard to buy for person on your Christmas list? I bet it'll be basically impossible to leave empty handed. Bring on the visual delights!

City of Craft 2009
December 12 & 13, 2009
Saturday NOON-7:00pm
Sunday NOON-5:00pm

The Theatre Centre
1087 Queen Street West, Downstairs
Toronto, ON

$2 at the door

VENDORS!

INSTALLATIONS!

SHOW AND TELL.

I recently purchased this sweet print from Abby Try Again. Who knew a collection of printing tools could look so damn dreamy? The packaging it came in was simple and perfect too. I intend to gaze at it frequently.

My housemate Jordy (fabric manipulator extraordinaire) put on a craft show this past weekend with some of her pals. Lots of great stuff and an A+ atmosphere. I left with a haikukie (delicious), a That Missing Piece puzzle pin (cute), and some wrapping paper from Kid Icarus. I put this gift wrap to work today and it looks awesome.

LEARNING TO FLY.

Check it out - A DW Etsy Shop!

It's currently very bare bones as far as available items are concerned, but that will change as I upload more stuff and get a better handle on how these things work. Experiments!

CONNECT THE DOTS.

More mini apology cards! For that thing you did.

BIRTHDAYS AREN'T BEIGE.

Shout it out.

SAY IT AGAIN.

GET (BACK) INTO THE GROOVE.

Something seasonal to go with all the angry cats and triangles.

Available at City Of Craft (and hopefully online soon).

TRIANGLE EYES.

I've got a thing for crude kid style pumpkins. No fancy elaborate carving in this house! D named him Martin. Martin is a Phillies fan.

PATTERN CITY.

WEB TREATS - BECAUSE STUDIO

Sometimes I wonder if having a lot of time to surf the Internet is a blessing or a curse. Every now and then it leaves me feeling a little overwhelmed, but most of the time I love that in a matter of seconds you can stumble across something inspiring that totally makes your day.

I love these posters by Because Studio (found via DesignWorkLife)! They're simple, but perfect, and the writing on the back is clever too. "The ink coverage on this poster amounts to exactly 50% of the total surface area making it half . . . . "

ISLAND PARTY.

CITY OF CRAFT.

Flyer by Amy Borkwood

I'm stoked to be a part of City Of Craft this year! It's two months away which gives me lots of time to make all kinds of angry cat cards, unimpressed lady portraits, miscellaneous patterned delights, and more. Check out a list of all the awesome vendors here!

FAIL.

As previously mentioned, my friend Shayna and I decided to learn how to garden this past summer by signing up for a plot in a community garden program. Unfortunately, an endeavor once full of hope and excitement turned into a pretty major disappointment. Why? Garden thieves.

After a few months of tending to our garden we noticed that things were starting to go missing. We kinda expected a few things to go missing here and there, but everything started to go missing. Whole plants stripped of their fruits! Immature and unripe plants completely harvested of their mini peppers and beans! Tiny green tomatoes plucked from their vines! Whole parsley plants chopped at the base! We fantasized about setting traps and getting revenge.

You could argue that maybe the food went to someone in need, but the few people I have encountered in the plots grabbing things took no measure to hide what they were doing and made no apology when approached about it. I know that Shayna and I would have been pleased to share our harvest with those in need and would have happily donated a portion of the fruits of our labour, but we've had no real opportunity to harvest anything for ourselves. It has been so sad to see months of activity (not to mention our start up costs) disappear completely. It started feeling useless to tend to things, so we both started neglecting the garden. Now we'll just go by every now and then to check on the squashes and see if the beets are coming along.

Next year I will resort to building some raised beds in my yard and try to make the best of the indirect sunlight. I'm sure all community plots work differently, and ours is in a location off a major street with heavy traffic that surely makes it appealing to passersby. At least we were a good team and learned something new! I know we'll both take what we learned from this year into our gardens of the future. Our highly guarded gardens of the future, ha.

On a less disappointed note, check out these homemade Oreo's I made the other day! Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

HUNGRY THREADS.

Made some t-shirts for pals The Rival Boys this weekend! I manipulated an image they provided me from their album art and added some text. I get pretty nervous about printing t-shirts, but these worked out quite nicely indeed. Future goals: learning to tame dark fabric and its unruly thirst for white ink.

IN LIVING COLOUR.

HUNTERS OF THE NIGHT.

GOOD STUFF.

Some newly acquired favourites . . . .

1. This bearded, grilled cheese lover by Roxanne Ignatius. I picked it up at the latest poster show. She uses warm, gorgeous colours in her work. Love it!

2. This t-shirt by local squeegee master Michael Comeau. He had a slew of wonderfully vivid, frantic t-shirts for sale at Zine Dream II. Wearing orange = a new frontier (for me)!

SUNDAY FUN.

Sunday! 12 - 6 pm at The Tranzac! Zine Dream 2!

UP AND AWAY.

The garden is full of happy looking green teens! Though my gardening partner and I got off to a late season start, things are all looking pretty awesome and healthy (as far as we know). This is very exciting for a bunch of first timers like us!

Lesson #27680 - Squash plants are gigantic and evil.

GREEN LADY.

DO IT: ZINE DREAM II

ZINE DREAM II: A small press art fair with over 50 vendors of hand made arts and crafts, zines, prints, and more! Plus a Toronto Zine Library Open House, collaborative zine making workshop, and a bake sale!

Sunday August 30th @ Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.)
12 - 6 PM, PWYC

PERFORMANCES BY:

Nick Flanagan / Anna May Henry / Zeesy Powers

MUSIC BY:

Carl Didur / Andre Charles Theriault / James Anderson / Braintrust
Wes Allen / Boner Dragon / Body Beautiful

PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE:

Harley Pageot / Nick Mandaag / Hartley Lin / Jason Keifer / Sara Titanic / Leslie Predy / Robert Dayton / Deadweight / Lorenz Peter / Seth Scriver / Jacob Horwood / Sylvana D'angeloBecky Johnson / Worn Journal / Davis Weir / Wowee Zonk / Mike Ness / William Davison / Andrew Bailey / Maria Bui / Vanessa Rieger / Kevin Hainey / Megan Speers / Suzanne Sutherland / Toronto Zine Library / Alex Mackenzie / Twelve Oh Two / Bev Calder / Eunice Liu / Peter Thompson / James Kirkpatrick / Ladyfest / Anna May Henry / Peter Kalyniuk / Ryan Solski / Alicia Nauta / Michelle Kay / Mark Connery / Genevieve Joudouin / Filip Anton / Michael Comeau / Maranda Elizabeth / Siue Moffat / Fiona Smyth / Shannon Gerard / Mark Delong / Jason Mclean / Xenia Vakova / Ryan Dodgson / Reid Jenkins / Jesse Huisken / Tara Bursey / Clementine Cannibal / Funisfree press / Free Drawings

Poster (above) by Jesjit Gill & Laura Mccoy.

PINK LADY.

DYE JOB

Impulse purchase #64876 - flowers.

LIKE RIDING A BIKE.