GRAB BAG.

Christmas snuck up on me again. It always does! Back in November I made a vow to get all my Christmas stuff done (mainly shopping) by December first. Yeah right, Falconer. But now these dudes are hanging out on our clashing, slightly crooked Christmas tree and the holiday magic is happening. Man, did Dennis ever hit a home run when he got these guys last year!

I recently did a few design elements for Yule Britannia. Elizabeth makes delicious treats: figgy pudding, sticky caramel sauce, ginger cookies, spiced sweet nuts, etc! She delivered some treats to me at City of Craft this year (sweetheart) and it was all incredible. Available at The Mercantile on Roncesvalles.

Scenes From The Basement: 1. New rolls of leather to cut and print - dark grey, smokey grey, black, mint, plum, and cream! 2. Making peachy messes. 3. Compiling test sheets full of various patterns and colours (for future Falconwright wrapping?). I love the way these test sheets are layering up, all chaotic but still kinda pretty. Maybe the kind of pretty that only a mother could love, but still.

And speaking of Falconwright, you could win all 3 of these items by leaving a comment on this blog post by Friday December the 23rd at midnight. A winner will be drawn on Saturday the 24th!

THE WALRUS.

Cover = not by me. Just posting a photo to show you what the current issue looks like!

Fun News Alert: I've got some illustrations in the new issue of The Walrus! The special winter double issue is out now. #whoa This assignment was really awesome to work on. The digital output enabled me to experiment with my illustration style a bit, and it was a big honour to be involved with such an A+ publication! Thanks, Jen. And thanks to Shayna for excitedly picking me up a copy (pro friend). These are a few pics of the actual magazine & a few bigger originals that are also in there for a different view. 10 years ago, I would have laughed for hours if someone told me that I'd be masquerading as an illustrator/designer (in my spare time) at this point in my life. What. The. Heck. Life is truly full of adventures.

Feeling pretty weird about constantly writing "look what I did!" or "look what I made!" or "look at meeee!" all the time. But this is an accurate look at what my life has been like lately. Making stuff, doing things, printing away. I've bought a lot of cool stuff lately, from awesome artists, that I'd love to tell you about - but a bunch of those beautiful things are Christmas presents, and I don't want to go ruining the surprise, right? Maybe it's time for a little things-I've-had-my-eye-on post soon. There's never a lack of things I don't need, but totally want, to talk about. I'm sure you can relate.

DEAR DIARY: CITY OF CRAFT.

All photos by Celine Kim.

I had a really great time at City of Craft this past weekend! The weeks leading up to this event were a little hectic (to say the least), but sooo worth the effort. Big ups to my continuously supportive and helpful pals. A lot of work goes into a weekend like this, and it's inspiring to see so many people coming together to make something happen. The vendors were excellent, of course, and it's heartwarming to see a roomful of people supporting their community in this way.

Danielle and I were blown away by the positive reaction to Falconwright. We definitely have less stock left over than we imagined we might, so we've decided to create a new collection of items and release it (blacks! greys!) in mid-January. We're feeling very pumped for future pouches/purses/etc. Stay tuned...

Celine was there taking lots of beautiful photos. She even managed to get one of me not clowning it up or giving the camera a weird face as per usual. For a full tour of the weekend, check out the full collection of photos she took here. In the second last photo up there, you can even spot a couple of my favourite ladies from The Concord Learning Annex (ha!) shopping away.

And now a peek at a few of the treasures I adopted...

Black braided chunky headband by goodnight, day. This is a seriously comfortable piece of knitted head wear. Full ear coverage and totally comfortable. Check out all of Tara-Lynn's stuff here (such great styling too!).

Shannon Gerard's book Unspent Love or, Things I Wish I Told You.

And a slew of excellent greeting cards from the always charming Petra C (individually packaged cards? what!), and a new local fave Gezellig Studio.

THIS WEEKEND: CITY OF CRAFT.

City Of Craft is this weekend. THIS WEEKEND.

Above is my poster design for the event! Though I had no part in organizing this annual shindig, selecting vendors, or doing any of the administrative voodoo that Becky has to deal with, I have been involved in the design year round (one small element), and feel like this weekend is wrapping up something that's been on my mind in one way or another for quite some time. Feelings! I can't believe how much positive feedback I've gotten about the design this year, and I am so happy that so many of you have enjoyed it. Sweethearts all over the place.

It's been a predictably crazy week around these parts and all of my attempts to get on this blog and sound off about last weekends amazing Handmade Holiday event, all the Falconwright printing I've been doing, the amazing screen printed version of this poster that Kid Icarus printed, or the beauty tote bags that Shannon, Roisin, Becky and I printed up have gone unwritten. But in lieu of these GHOST POSTS, I can tell you that Danielle and I will have more Falconwright change purses and pouches available (including some metallic GOLD printing and 4 very special large GREY clutches!) just in time for the weekend.

There's also a large chance that I'll be bankrupt after this weekend because there are so many amazing things available that I'd like to pick up for myself. Seriously, the sheer volume of talented people who will be at City Of Craft this weekend is ridiculous. Hope to see you there!

MILK & COFFEE & LEATHER.

2 new small prints: milk & coffee! I personally prefer cream in my coffee, but cream print doesn't quite have the same ring to it. And this marks the end of my holiday fair screen printing marathon. Still lots of organizing to do, but tonight I celebrate by eating a truly ridiculous number of dumplings!

Also, check out the headbands and bangles Danielle & I added to our small army of Falconwright goods! Maybe my zigzag headband will help conquer my fear of going bang-less in public?