This is the last of my August lake porn shots, I swear. Last weekend I went up to a cottage with my bandmates and a few of our favourite partners in crime. We listened to copious amounts of classic rock radio, floated in the lake, drank beers, played a rousing game of Apples to Apples, hypothesised about what the loud shirtless dudes at the cottage next to ours were doing, and lit up some marshmallows. There was a surprise fireworks show across the lake one night which seemed to happen shortly after discussing how much we wished we had brought fireworks - magic! And last but not least, on the morning of our departure we woke up to Nigel's note and accomplishment - somehow he managed to put together this snake cube brain teaser thing that tested the patience of a few of us over the course of the weekend. We looked it up online and watched a torso and hands put it together on youtube, only to have the end shot reveal a 12 year old boy. See ya next year, summer.
Behold! A couple artifacts from Zine Dream...
Have you checked out Let's Swap it? It's a cool idea: a place where artists and designers can swap art for free. There is always one featured item up for swap (an edition of prints, etc). If you like what's up for grabs, you can submit what you'd like to trade (anything!), and the artist will choose the swaps they are interested in. I recently swapped with Mike Perry for this big, bright geometric print! Connecting with artists I like is always a total pleasure. Follow their twitter feed for updates on new swaps.
The second half of my vacation was spent small towning it up in Sackville, New Brunswick. Dennis' family lives just outside the main drag. Take a walk in his hood and you'll find barns, covered bridges, and hay rolls. Though the highway is close, it's refreshingly quiet out there at night (no upstairs neighbours practicing metal riffs or having Monday night ragers!). We ate at one of Dennis' old places of employment (Pizza Delight), and I tried fried clams and scallops at a seafood place decorated with a ridiculous number of fake flowers and butterflies (weird). We saw movies, read books, went cosmic bowling, hung out with the cat (Frank), chilled out at a cottage on the ocean for a day, and generally moved pretty slow. That recipe up there is Dennis' grandma's handwriting - her squares a fixture at every meal (along with her beets and mustard pickles).
Tomorrow is Zine Dream 4 at The Tranzac! As per usual, I did not get around to putting together a finished zine (I'm starting to think this might be an impossible task for me!), but I did manage to put together a couple new things today. The eleventh hour is my hour.
Week one of my vacation was spent doing a very foreign activity (for me) - camping. I never went camping with my family when I was younger, and classic outdoorsy things (besides drinking in the backyard) were not a big part of our summer schedule. I did spent a lot of time outside in my various neighbourhoods as a youth, but never really in anything you could classify as wilderness (some fishing, the beach, etc). So I got in the van with my pals Rob, Lee, and Tim and headed to Killbear to test my ability to sleep in tents, fend off mosquitoes, and jump in lakes. The verdict? It was awesome. It would appear that I mainly took photos of sunsets and water, because like a typical city dweller, that shit makes me dizzy and jealous. Swimming in the quiet lake 3 times a day was such a treat. Imagine living in a house on the water? Hello new life goal - nice to meet you. If you're going to go camping for the first time, it's helpful to go with someone who knows everything (aka Lee Rose: Master Of Camp Life). She reinvented my perception of what "camp food" means - burritos, pasta, pancakes, etc. And for a little excitement, we almost had a run in with a bear. Grade: A+.
I recently participated in a sweet mail swap with US illustrator John Malta. As you can see here, he does amazing things with colour, texture, lizards, prickly plant life, envelopes, and shaky text. My new well dressed mini lizard painting and the refreshment lover on the tote are both A+. He also makes necklace charms, like this shade sporting cactus (series also includes: melting pizza, bones, big gulps, etc). Check out his website for more! And for those of you not quite ready to usher in the fall with open arms (like me), he's got some sharp summer party shirts in his shop.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of a two week leave of absence from Toronto life. In other words? VACATION TIME. I'm already scheming about all the things I want to work on when I get back, but until then I am going to be embracing the joys of camping, relaxing on the East Coast, and neglecting computers. Yes!
This Rob Hodgson graveyard print taunted me from my Etsy favourites list for quite some time. You know when you see something and you're immediately in love with it and kinda jealous at the same time? Well, this one can now haunt me from the comfort of my home. It's the perfect mix of pretty and spooky. What a beauty! 
The haphazard fences protecting my two garden boxes look a little intense, and they're kind of a pain to navigate around, but a family of raccoons frequently tramp through my yard like they own the place. Scrambling up the fence in a line 5 deep, hanging out under my deck, making their noises. Watching the little guys learn how to climb fences and get their sneak on is actually kind of cute though...
I've kind of been kind of missing in action on the design and printing front lately - been busy the past couple of weeks soaking up the summer, doing some music stuff, and generally avoiding excessive extra curricular computer use. But there are some things going on behind the scenes - reprints, general scheming, and maybe a collab with a friend? In the meantime here's a more extensive peek into where I've been spending Friday nights lately... 
