bliss in a teacup

Belated New Years Sale

2012-01-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! We're having a little sale over in the shop this week to celebrate, albeit a little bit late. But, that's what summer holidays are all about, right? Just enter NYE2012 at the checkout to get 25% off everything in store.

Hope you're all well!

Watchful Eyes

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

A new bookmark series featuring some of our favourite writers and thinkers is now available in the shop. I've really enjoyed working on these, basically scouring through cool images of people I like! There are 27 bookmarks in total but I'm already scheming up more inspiring folks I'd like to include. There's a pretty even split between men and women, and I'm so happy to be promoting so many amazing lady writers.We're also open to custom orders, if you don't see your favourite writer on the list, although I'm in no hurry to do a Dan Brown edition...ahem.

Just so you know, our bookmarks make pretty great stocking stuffers and if you're looking to pick one or two up for Christmas our 'order by' dates are as follows:

New Zealand - Friday 16th December
Australia - Wednesday 7th December
USA, Canada, UK & Europe - Wednesday 30th November
Elsewhere - Friday 25th November

Have you liked our Facebook page yet? We'll be running a little giveaway over there later today to celebrate the new bookmarks so be sure to head on over so you can enter!

In other news, Richard starts his first New Zealand job today! It's at our local health food store which is next to an amazing little bakery, and I'm pretty excited for some sweet (organic) treats. Sadly he'll be working a weekend day, but it's almost summer holidays for me so I'll be free as bird. Bring on ciders, beach hair and orange fruju's!

Color Fields

2011-11-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

My clever friend Jen has recently released her Fall/Winter collection, Color Fields and it is so beautiful. I've known Jen for a bit over a year online and watching her clothing line Hound develop has been really exciting. Not only does she make beautiful clothes, but her lookbooks are always styled in such an effortlessly beautiful way. I love how Jen really has her own point of view (can you tell I've been watching Project Runway non-stop?) and her collections aren't just more of the same of what else is out there. Also, that print at the top kills me. So good! Head over to Hound if you want to snap any of these pieces up for yourself, I love that they also work for our Southern Hemisphere upcoming summer.

Wellington and beyond.

2011-11-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

A few iPhone snaps from our trip down to Wellington last weekend. For some reason I've always felt a little weird about using iPhone photos on here, but really the whole point of having a camera on your phone is to be able to capture things when you don't have your camera with you or the time/energy to pull it out. I love instagram and don't care what film snobs know it!

We went down to Wellington to take part in Craft 2.0 and I have to say it is one of the best markets we have ever done. Just being in a city that has such a focus on art and culture is so inspiring, and Craft 2.0 was beautifully put together (such a fantastic venue) and we were lucky enough to be neighbours with the lovely Colleen. Everyone was so lovely and friendly, we met lots of great people (including a few blog followers, hi hi!) and got some really great feedback about our new bookmark design which we'll show you soon, and some necklaces that are going in a bit of a new multi-wood direction. One of which has already been snapped up but I hope to have a fresh batch to reveal for Summer fairly soon!

Aside from the great market, we also got to spend a couple of nights in Featherston with our lovely hosts Emma and Tom. Featherston is a small little town about an hour north of Wellington, so we hopped the commuter train out there on Friday for a country mini-break. Emma was also selling at Craft 2.0, which was perfect since we had no car, but it was also just a real treat to be able to have a few nights in their lovely old villa, eating yummy food, laughing about crazy craft fair questions and borrowing all the things we'd naturally forgotten. We even were made a delicious packed lunch for our day at the fair, so sweet!

A couple of heads up...

- We're going to be at Fruit Bowl Craft Jam at Hawkes Bay Opera House on the 3-4 December so if you're down that way please come along and say hi! There will be lots of great Christmas shopping I'm sure.

- The Auckland Art & Craft Fair is also getting pretty close! It's on December 10th at the Aotea Center in Auckland and with how much fun we had at the one in the middle of the year, I'm sure the Christmas fair is going to be a blast.

- Lastly, if you're in New Zealand be sure to keep your eye on Shorties this Monday evening as you should be seeing a bit of a Bliss in a Teacup jewellery cameo!

Happenings

2011-10-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

The school holidays are just about to draw to a close and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for heading back into school tomorrow. Despite having had school work to do over the past couple of weeks, having time at home without a schedule is always such a welcome change. Aside from schoolwork I've been spending most of my time in our studio getting ready for upcoming fairs and working on some new jewellery designs. I feel so lucky to have that space down at the bottom of the stairs to close myself up in and hatch plans.

I must admit that I've been feeling a bit jealous of all the beautiful Autumn photos, tweets and updates from North America, it really was my favourite time in Vancouver. However, Spring has been pretty glorious here so far (if by glorious you count some intense rain storms!) and for that reason along with some Spring cleaning we've decided to have a bit of a sale over in the shop. You can read about it more here on our Facebook page.

Off to bed for me, back to reality tomorrow! Hope you're well, friends.

mornings

2011-10-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

I must confess that I am a terrible breakfast eater, despite generally really loving breakfast foods. I mostly eat breakfast at work these days because I have to get there so early that there is no way it's happening before I leave. So, on weekends I've come to really enjoy taking my time to sit down to a relaxed breakfast and potter around in the morning a bit before starting the day. At the moment my current breakfast fave is Vogels Cafe-Style in Light Berry. It's a perfect mix of fruit and grains, and I love the giant almonds. Perfect crunch! Now, if only I could find some non-crazy expensive almond milk over here I'd be a happy girl.

What's your favourite breakfast choice at the moment?

first sun

2011-10-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

Although you wouldn't know it if you were looking out my window this minute, Summer is on it's way. Being back in Auckland I now realise how much the seasons blur together here, and I guess that's why we're having a huge downpour despite me taking these photos above only last weekend - it's Spring, only I hadn't really noticed.

We're only a week out from school holidays (just a two week-er), and then it will only be a short seven week term before Summer break and we can all catch our breath a bit. I'm planning on embracing Summer a bit early though, with beach trips and more of that incredible ice cream (Richard had the lemon curd yogurt and for the first time in my life I regretted choosing chocolate). This transition time is one of my favourite parts of the year, warm enough for bare feet and shoulders, putting in the veggie garden and evening walks, but still with days like today where I can watch the mist and rain roll over the harbour perched up here on the couch.

Fresh Air

2011-08-30T02:48:00.000-07:00

A few things that have been happening around here. Getting that work/life balance going, waiting for Spring. Bare feet on the rug, windows open and lemon cake. Feels good.

Holidaze

2011-07-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

It's the second week of the school holidays here, and I can hardly begin to tell you how welcome the break has been. Richard came into school with me on the last Friday of school and we skipped out early to drive down home for a few days. I only teach the first three periods on a Friday, and my whole plan for the morning had been 'henna tattoos* and a shared lunch' so it was a pretty perfect end to the term. Driving the 6 hours out of the city was exactly what I needed, being able to both physically (hello, sleep!) and mentally check out once we got there.

It's been almost 7 months since we moved, past the magic 6 month mark (I remember being told, when you move cities to not visit home until you've been gone at least 6 months lest you never properly leave) and in lots of ways it feels like we've been away from Vancouver for much longer than that. Things have definitely taken longer to fall into place than we ever expected, and there have been many tears of frustration and doubt. However, after a term of teaching under my belt, having real furniture in the house and getting our workshop and studio almost all set up, I'm feeling pretty settled. In saying that, all it takes is a look through Jeannette's instagram feed or to think about the streets of Chinatown to feel quite a giant flood of homesickness. I am happy in the decision we made to move, but Vancouver still holds pretty tightly on to the part of my heart reserved for 'home'.

As I was driving about running errands yesterday, I noticed a store that looked like it was in the midst of getting ready to open, that had these beautiful Japanese textiles hanging from the ceiling and my heart leaped a little at the thought of going to check it out when it opens. Then I realised there were actually all these great Auckland (and beyond) places that I've been meaning to check out or places I've loved for a long time but should go back to and share them with you all here. So, this is my goal going into the next 10 weeks of school. I aim to pour all of my energy into my students and teaching while I'm at school, and then set aside time for exploring, documenting, friend-ing, making. A bit of balance. I think this will both help me be the best teacher that I can be (and have less mini-meltdowns in the staff room), and also give me room to celebrate what is really a pretty great place to live.

Oh, and time will also be made for sitting in a striped lounger on the deck with a book when the sun comes out. That's essential.

*Our art unit for the term was based around the idea of tattoo as symbolism and expression, so that wasn't a completely crazy idea.

Technical difficulties

2011-06-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say that we've had a few issues with getting the new jewellery photographed over the past week, including a crazy half blackout last night, so the shop update will now be happening this Friday. Today is the winter solstice, so hopefully we'll be getting a few more glimpses of sunlight as the days go on. I'll be sipping a glass or two of wine tonight to ring in the change of seasons!

Geodesic

2011-06-14T02:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to show you something we've been working on lately, and to let you know that after making a small debut at the Auckland Art & Craft Fair last weekend, our new jewellery line will be released this Monday 20th, June. It will include the above wooden rings (and hopefully a few more) that I am really excited about. I think my dreams of a geodesic dome (and hello, I've found one!!) were playing heavily on my mind when I made these. Each ring is totally unique as I'm not big on following set patterns (read: I am not patient enough), and while there will be similar shapes and lines, I like that they are all one of a kind pieces. We're still figuring out the sizing, but are more than open to creating custom rings in a particular style if your size isn't available.

Speaking of the Auckland Art & Craft Fair, we had the best time there and thank you so much to all of you who stopped by and said hello! Annoyingly, I forgot my camera but you can take a look at some here. I particularly like this one of Richard working on new necklaces that sold as fast as he could hang them up!

A few things:

- This child is incredible.
- Too Much Success, and interesting and important conversation being started over on Poppytalk.
- Incredible sleepwear in perfect colours with the comfiest looking fabric by Poplin
- A song I keep going back to, and back to at the moment. The beautiful Sandy Denny.

Hope you're all well, friends.
xo

Spring Winter

2011-05-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

We've been busy getting our new jewellery collection together over the past few weeks, which will hopefully be up in the shop fairly soon. When I first started collecting images as inspiration I accidentally titled our pin board 'Spring Winter', thinking of the Spring/Autumn opposite seasons for northern and southern hemispheres (obviously I was planning to have this finished much sooner than we have!), but I really love the sound of those two words together so I think I might keep it for now.

As both of us really love mid-century Modernist design, we always seem to be influenced by that so the shapes in this collection have come from looking at a lot of incredible architecture. There's some similar motifs to last time, and lots of prisms and raw gemstone type shapes. I think that the pull between my hippy, cosmic loving tastes and Richard's love of clean, more defined lines has found a really happy medium in the warm wood pieces. I hope you like them!

Settling in

2011-05-28T04:33:00.000-07:00

Hmm, so posting here more regularly doesn't seem to have happened quite as I would have liked. I'm sorry about that, being back at work has been a little overwhelming and I have become quite the hermit. I do have things stored up to show and tell though, beginning with our new house. I'm feeling pretty lucky to have these beautiful roses blooming outside our bedroom window at the moment, and despite the fact that I am currently sitting amongst piles of boxes due to our stuff from Vancouver having just arrived, I am in love with this new house of ours.

Our bedroom gets the most amazing light during the day, and walking through the house in the morning I can look out the windows to the mangroves and harbour, watching chimney smoke waft up into the sky. We have a backyard that stretches out for quite a ways, and that is inhabited by a few fruit trees and a family of pukeko, which you can look out over from the little sun-room off the dining room (through the brick archway). We've been slowly unpacking all our boxes from Canada, which just makes it all that much better to come home to after a day of teenagers jumping through windows and playing basketball during health class.*

I'll be sure to keep the photos coming, we've got lots of plans for the place. A veggie garden and chickens out the back, music room in the basement, workshop in the garage and lots of plants and rugs everywhere.

*I wish I was joking.

Warm Welcome

2011-04-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

As we've been in New Zealand for almost 3 months now, it's probably high time I fill you in with what's been going on. Despite a few hiccups, and feelings of surreality with things feeling so very normal and not at all normal at the same time, it has been really good being home.

Our initial plan had been to move down to Christchurch after visiting friends and family, but as I'm sure most of you know a major earthquake hit the city in late February, devastating much of the city and was pretty much centred right in the little town of Lyttelton that we were hoping to move to. Thankfully our friends down there were ok, but many people weren't and it has been heart wrenching watching it all unfold from afar. We debated still going down, but with the need for work and accommodation amongst the people of Christchurch so great it just didn't feel right. We still hope to get there in the future (and in the near future for a visit, for sure) but for now we've decided to stay put in Auckland for the rest of the year. I must admit I was pretty anti -Auckland at first, I'm not sure why, going back to the too familiar perhaps? And living in the expensive city that it is while looking for work and an apartment hasn't been done the best job of endearing it to me (three months with no pay cheque!). But being here with Richard has made me see the city with new eyes, and despite being fairly broke we've been out exploring it's many diverse little pockets, visiting friends, cuddling new babies and driving along winding roads to wild west coast beaches which has given me the chance to fall back in love with this place a little (a lot).

Also, good news is that I now have a job! Starting next week, I'll be teaching again making me both nervous and excited. It's been a good few years since I've been in the classroom, and this time 'round I'll be teaching high school which is new for me. I plan on channeling a bit of this lady (joking.....only half) and being thankful that high school works in blocks of time not full days. My best friend works at the same school, and having her there is going to be pretty great as she is easily one of the funniest people I know - perfect for post crazy class debriefs. I am actually looking forward to it, and the stationary shopping. Natch. We also have a house to move into this Friday! We've been very lucky to have had the use of my Dad's vacation rental property while we've been getting ourselves sorted, but I am looking forward to setting up house and really feeling like we're settling in here. The 'all coming together' feeling is very much welcomed by us both at the moment!

That feeling also means I intend to start posting here a bit more regularly again, and also keeping our Facebook page up to date so you can be sure you'll be hearing from me again soon. Sorry for all the radio silence lately! Hope you're well friends. I'd love to hear how you're doing. xo

Fond Farewell

2011-04-10T01:42:00.000-07:00

I had always intended to write this post before we left Vancouver, but it just never quite felt like the right time. I'm not sure if there ever really is one right time to do things, but after my first real bout of missing Vancouver yesterday and sprucing up the blog a bit I figured now was as good as ever. So, Hello! Good to be back.

We were really lucky to be able to do a few trips around B.C. before we left Canada, and looking through my photos of the Gulf Islands and moody Francois Lake mountains has both made my heart ache and made me feel really, really lucky that I got to call that spectacular country home for awhile. There is something special about the Pacific Northwest, with it's thick forests and mossy, damp smell that lingers even into the summer months. It gets under your skin.

I love that our last couple of months in and around Vancouver were full of exploring, spending time with friends and a whole lot of joy. Leaving was always in the back of my mind, but I never felt really sad because each place we went was so beautiful, and each meal shared so full of laughs. It wasn't until flying out of Vancouver airport and peering out the window, mesmerized once again by the Coast Mountains that it really hit me, and I cried and cried. I think I found myself in Vancouver in just that perfect time in my life that made not just my growing up but the city itself have a really strong impact on the person I am. Does that sound a bit dramatic? In some ways I don't feel like I've changed hugely in the last 5 years, but in so many ways I have and whenever I catch a glimpse of those dang mountains I'm reminded of a place where I really felt free to be and grow into the person I wanted to be. Vancouver, with your crazy weather, hippies, large amount of active-wear and pot smell, you still have my heart.

So, it has been a bit of a tough transition. There have been a few hiccups along the way which I'll go into in a later post, but we have been lucky enough to come home to a New Zealand summer, which is just about one of the best things in the world. Watching the sun set over Lake Taupo with my Dad on our first night home, eating fish (really, potato fritter) and chips out of newspaper with a cold beer, helped me feel like we had made a good decision. Spending time with family, catching up with old friends and dipping my toes into the ocean at wild, west coast, black sand beach was pretty great, too.

I'm really happy to be back in this space, to share with you what we've been up to and to hear how you all are. Kia ora, from our new (old) home.

Yard Sale! Open House! Hot Apple Cider!

2011-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

via cosmic_parachute

I feel a little bad that this is the first post after a long silent period, but being at the under two weeks until New Zealand mark I'm sure you can all appreciate how nutty things are around here! Also, I'm kind of putting off the year in review/farewell type posts until I have the time and emotional space to get down something coherent and is able to express properly how I'm feeling.

So! If you're in Vancouver, I would like to invite you to a yard sale/farewell open house/hot apple cider drinking event happening at our place this Saturday Jan. 22nd, 1pm - 6pm. Please come!

We live in an apartment so a yard sale in the traditional sense is a little tricky, but we have a bunch of stuff in our apartment that need to find good homes to go to so we would love for you to come along! There'll be books, records, arts and crafts supplies, cameras, vintage and new furniture/homewares, fabric, plants, tools and more. Plus, fortified apple cider to warm you up.

We live in Strathcona, just east of Chinatown and if you're interested in coming please email me at beckanathan (at) gmail (dot) com

Hope to see you there!

Darling Heart Sale!

2010-12-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

I've updated the vintage shop with some new goodies, priced to sell! And as it's time to ring in the New Year, you can enter 'NYE2010' to get a further 25% off everything in stock. Have at it!

Proper reflective and resolution-y New Years post to come, promise.

xo

In between.

2010-12-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've discovered that I really love this week in between Christmas and New Years, it's so perfect for recovering from the holidays, thinking about resolutions, getting excited for the change of a new year, pottering about the house and indulging in being a bit lazy. Up until today, things have been dark and gloomy around these parts (I love how early it gets dark), lots of rain and lots of reason to hole up indoors.

I just read this great post over at Jane's place and I can totally relate with her feelings of Christmas having to live up to the expectations of this perfect, sparkly day and the reality of how rarely that actually happens. Don't get me wrong, I actually really love Christmas, but the past couple of years I've found myself trying to make up for the fact that it's just the two of us by over compensating ever so slightly on the preparations. Christmas has always been a big celebration for my family, lots of traditions, lots of food, lots of decorations, and I love it. But with just the two of us, there's really no need for the amount of food I hauled home from the supermarket on Christmas Eve when I was freaking out that we had nothing special in the house. This year our tree was a branch we grabbed from the sidewalk outside our apartment with silver baubles strung on it and I didn't finish cooking our main meal until late at night (because of course I was also baking cookies, roasting a nut mix and making peppermint bark at the same time). When I sat (slumped) down to eat I honestly had to wonder why on earth I'd gone to all that trouble. In the end, I secretly love the fact that Christmas is just the two of us and that we can stay in our pajamas all day until we go out into the quiet streets and see a movie.

In the end, our holiday has been a great one. This past in between week where neither of us have had to work has been so nice and relaxing. I've been knitting and reading for the first time in ages, and am completely unworried that we have someone coming to view our house tomorrow despite my lack of tidying. The sun made a glorious appearance today, and it looks like it will be sticking around to ring in the New Year. I (quietly) can't wait!

How have your holidays been?

Merry and Bright.

2010-12-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, friends. I hope your weekends are filled with loved ones, laughter, treats and plenty of time to relax. Thank you so much for all your love and support this past year, see you back here soon! xo

Nocturnal Magic

2010-12-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

I was looking through the old encyclopedia we use to find our bookmark images awhile ago for a custom order, when I came across this beautiful aurora borealis image. I scanned it in because I have a feeling it would look great printed up nice and big, something I have in mind to try out in the new year. With tonight's nocturnal happenings, and ushering in the Winter Solstice it seemed like the perfect time to share it. I love how the etched lines look alive and sparkling, and even though it isn't a Christmas image it feels to sum up this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere so perfectly for me. Sitting here, sipping a winter ale in our finally clean house, when it has been dark since around 4pm, it's so hard to believe that next Christmas will be spent at the beach during daylight savings!

Like most of you I'm sure, I can't quite believe that it is Christmas this weekend. This weekend! These last few months have flown by, and now that all our markets are finished, orders are posted and the shop is closed up for a little while I've got that post school exam feeling of not being able to sit still or know what to do with myself. Really though, I'm sure the sitting still part will come quickly and as for what to do with myself I'm hoping to spend as much of these dark winter months with pals as possible. Aside from seeing this everyday, there are a few lovely people who are what I will miss most about this rainy city so I plan on squeezing as much QT in as I can. I'm also so looking forward to getting some reading (both blog and print, a comfy couch is calling my name) in, starting on the Christmas baking tonight, stringing some sort of twinkling lights and taste testing the various festive drinks on offer. I might even blog! Imagine it.

For now I'm off to light some candles, put on a record and embrace the hippy vibes. What are your plans for the holiday season?

a very little christmas

2010-12-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

I recently heard about a few friends of mine back home being involved in making a Christmas album, and as I have a not so secret love of Christmas music I was pretty excited for it to be released. While there is a very special place in my heart for cheesy holiday music (some might argue that this is the only way to do it), many carols are so pretty that when they're done right (see Sufjan Stevens 'O Holy Night'), it doesn't get much better. Anyway, 'a very little christmas' is up for download now and I'm really liking it! There's a few traditional tracks, and some fun ones, lots of lo-fi and acoustic-y goodness. It's free, and it helps get the name of some really excellent kiwi acts out there so I'd recommend taking a listen!

Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately, we've been swamped with the holiday rush and I've also just had one of those patches where there isn't really anything I can think of to write about. Have you ever had that? I don't want to post just for the sake of posting, but perhaps after this weekend my head will be a little clearer and I'll have thoughts outside the realm of shipping dates and finding more bubble wrap, ha!

If you're in Vancouver, we're going to be at the Gypsy Market happening this Sunday at the Biltmore and we'd love for you to stop by and say hello! Richard will be selling records, I'll have a few Bliss in a Teacup goodies and other vintage trinkets. Plus, there's bands, booze and Budgies Burritos. What more could you want?

Holiday Weekend Sale!

2010-11-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all your comments and notes about my previous post. It's funny, I had such a personal response to that passage and my time at the wedding that I didn't realise how much it would impact others, but I'm so glad it did! I need to print those verses out and display them somewhere in our apartment, all motivational saying like.

For those of you in the States, I hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend. I for one am having a hard time hearing all about the amazing food being consumed, I am definitely going to break down and bake a few pies this weekend! Partially to celebrate the holiday weekend and the beginning of the holiday season, but also to say a big thank you to everyone who reads this blog and supports our wee shop, we're having a sale! Etsy now has coupon codes (v. exciting!), so all you need to do is enter 'THANKS' at the checkout to get 15% off your order from now until Monday evening.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, too. We'll be living the craft fair/holiday season hermit life, but I hope to get out and about just a little bit!

Bits and pieces;

- Fieldguided and Sonja Ahlers collaborate on The Mini Meow. Such a perfect pairing of very talented people!
- Eastside Culture Crawl is on this weekend for local folks, I hope to make it out to some of the galleries in our neighbourhood and check out some art.
- Staying independent for the holiday season, I love this post over at Door Sixteen.

Seize life!

2010-11-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

These lovely ladies were the main reason for our trip back east. The one in the sparkles is Richard's sister Kathy, dancing back down the aisle with her new beautiful wife, Beth. Once they set a wedding date, we decided to make the most of our time away by fitting in Montreal and NY, and while Toronto wasn't a real holiday type vacation the chance to spend time with family all in one place before we move was perfect.

The reading for the wedding was from Ecclesiastes, an often despairing book, but completely summed up the magic and celebration of the day. I was also really struck by it, especially with the business of this time of year and being distracted by moving plans.

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes - God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one!

So perfect for the day, and I was so honoured to be there to witness the love, and also bravery in declaring that love, of these two amazing women.

Even though we didn't get to see too much of Toronto, we were lucky enough to have the use of Anabela and Geoff's beautiful apartment while we were there. It was definitely a bummer that they were away in Portland while we were there (although we did run into them at Buffalo airport for a quick hug and chat!), but it was so nice to have somewhere to hide out and relax for a few days while we were away. Plus we were left very exciting thank you presents (more on that later) and got to hang out with their sweet kitties. The time to walk around the neighbourhood, get coffee, lie and read on the couch without a timetable (ok, aside from the wedding itinerary ;)) was such a gift, so thanks for that guys!

Again, more photos here which are admittedly mostly of the cute cats. I couldn't resist!

I also wanted to give you a reminder about our newsletter, in case you want to subscribe. You can do it over there in the sidebar, or click through here for a sign up form. We send them out fairly infrequently, but I can say that one will be coming out later today or tomorrow morning with some Black Friday/Cyber Monday coupons to help with your Christmas shopping!

Housekeeping

2010-11-22T01:14:00.000-08:00

Sadly this is not a post about the keeping of my actual house, that's beyond a joke at this point, but I do have a couple of things I wanted to fill everyone in on in relation (mostly) to shop news so I thought I would just bundle it all up into one post. Here we go!

Christmas Mailing Dates
If you're wanting to pick up something from the shop for Christmas, please keep in mind the following dates, and also that it is just the two of us working although we try to go as fast as we can.

Canada - Purchase by December 4th
USA - Purchase by December 4th
International - Purchase by November 26th

We can offer express shipping if you need things to get there a little faster or you've missed the deadlines, just let us know and we'll get you a quote. There's also our Gift Certificates, that we email directly to you or the recipient, which are a really great idea for last minute gifts!

Bliss in a Teacup out and about
I know that I have mentioned the fantastic NZ based online design store Foxes before, and we're really excited to that they are now carrying select Bliss in a Teacup goods! While you're looking around the store, you can pick up a copy of Extra Curricular. Their latest Christmas issue is out, complete with a holiday activity book that includes a recipe from myself and other talented kiwis.

Jessica has asked a few people to contribute holiday sweets recipes that she's baked up and featured on her blog. There are so many delicious looking things! My contribution is here, it's a favourite that I've just realised I will now have to vegan-ise!

On a more local front, we're going to be at the Got Craft? Christmas market this Dec. 5th so please come along and say hello! It's our favourite market to do by far, and there are always lots of amazing wares.

Lastly, things might get a little quiet around here over the next while. The holiday rush is is in full force (thank you!) and there keeps seeming to be more and more things we need to do in preparation for our move home. I still have some travel photos and stories to share with you, and I'll be posting every now and then when I have something to share. I'm actually a little excited at the idea of scaling back and blogging the really good stuff as opposed to feeling like there always needs to be content for contents sake, you know?

Hope you're all well, it is freezing (literally, my balcony is like an ice skating rink!) here, an early winter is well on it's way!

Frost by Daybreak

2010-11-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

We caught the train from Montreal to Ottawa early in the morning so we could spend the day there on our way to Toronto. I love train travel, and to coast across Quebec and Ontario at day break on this perfectly frosty morning was magical. The colours and light were incredible.

I don't seem to have any actual Ottawa photos, but I think they might be on one of our films. It was a brief stop but I'm so glad we did it! The weather was beautiful and we got to stop in and visit Victoire Boutique, which was filled with just as many beautiful things as I was imaging. We then spent the rest of our day wandering a bit around parliament and visiting the National Gallery of Canada, which was amazing! A definite highlight of our trip, I'm so glad we did it. There was this great Moshe Safdie exhibition on, as well as these giant Carl Beam works that were breathtaking. Of course they also have an amazing Group of Seven/Tom Thomson collection, along with Emily Carr's and a number of international artists. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!

J'adore Montreal

2010-11-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

Montreal completely stole our hearts. I was expecting to love it, and for it to be different from other Canadian cities I've been to, but I don't think I expected quite how much so! We were lucky enough to stay with Caroline (who you might remember from these photos) and her partner Jeff, who were the most amazing hosts. We're not super touristy tourists, so just wandering through neighbourhoods, stopping at local spots to eat, pretty parks and getting the chance to really spend time with our hosts over beers and poutine was pretty much perfect! I would go back to Montreal in a heartbeat, even though I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how cold it truly gets there, and have been scheming ways to do so ever since we left!

Bagels from St. Viateur (to.die.for.) :: Le Cagibi, a really delicious vegetarian restaurant with great mix-matched furniture and huge helpings of chilli - so perfect for that rainy day :: chocolatin from Kouign Amann, which we discovered by chance after wondering around Mont Royal one day, the pastries were amazing and we managed to find our way back there a couple more times :: the light from Caroline's window dancing on the wall of her beautifully decorated apartment :: Carre St-Louis, a park that was once a reservoir and surrounded by incredible homes. The light was perfect that day. :: beers at Reservoir to escape the cold :: pretty beribboned buildings :: i can't remember the name of this building near the water in Old Montreal, but I loved the crest and the colours :: Old Montreal :: Drawn and Quartely, a book store I could have spent much money in :: pumpkins in Mile End :: tiles on Rue Saint-Denis :: pretty homes.

You can see a few more photos here, if you're not totally saturated in French Canadian goodness, and I also have a couple films to drop off that should make an appearance here soon!

Eastern Time

2010-11-15T06:35:00.000-08:00

We're back! Four cities in just over two weeks. Much amazing food was eaten, buildings stood in awe of, stores browsed, friends bonded with and determination to go back and visit more when we left each place. We found a photobooth on our last night in New York and I love how happy we both look! It perfectly sums up how great it was to escape real life for a couple weeks. Getting to spend time with Richard and not be constantly talking about moving or making, and getting back to that child like wonder of travelling and visiting new places might just be the highlight of my trip.

I have many, many photos and I'll try to use the rest of this week to spread them out over, maybe just the best ones. Each place was so great, I want to share it all! I initially tried not to look touristy, but by our last day in New York I had just embraced the camera/s as giant necklace look. You can't deny it.

It's now 6.30am and I'm already dressed and ready to go (this is not at all normal), I'm trying to trick my body that it is still on eastern time for as long as possible (dark winter nights are very helpful with this) so that I can be all productive like. We shall see how long it lasts!

Hope you're well friends.

Last Hurrah!

2010-10-29T01:26:00.000-07:00

via Pacolomo

We're heading off to Montreal today for a two week last hurrah before the holiday season and having to really get busy with our moving preparation. We'll also be going to Toronto (with a stop in Ottawa on the way) for my sister in laws wedding and then to NYC for pizza and walking the streets chilly streets in overcoats a la the Metropolitan set. I am so very excited, both for two weeks off on a real vacation and also to see places I've never seen before! Plus there are so many lovely people that we'll be getting to hang out with along the way, so fun to to do some real life hanging out with internet buddies.

We've closed up the store for while we're away, otherwise I know I wouldn't really let myself take a break from it, but I might do a bit of blogging here and there to show you what we're up to. If anyone has any tips for the above cities, I would love to hear them!

Hope you're all well, and see you soon!

Fall days

2010-10-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hello! Sorry for how quiet it was around here last week, no excuses really aside from perfect fall days calling for neighbourhood walks and the realisation that the holiday season is approaching with the shop getting busier and busier. Oh, and the fact that it is November in a week. Eeep!

These photos are from a little stroll we took last weekend to a market that was held in this big, rambling house in our neighbourhood. There was vintage all strung up in the yard, boozy cider and pie for sale, a room full of vintage linens and Ora Bags and Seed Knits were selling their wares there, too. I ended up walking away with a beautiful Dresden Plate quilt for a steal (pictures to come), despite my best intention to be lightening our load before we leave. Oh well, I'm pretty sure you can never have too many quilts!

A few other things;

- My lovely friend Jen has released her Fall/Winter collection for her label Hound and it is just beautiful. I'll take one of each, thanks! How great are those yellow tights with the skirt and cape?
- Speaking of lovely friends, Kenzie released her new woven scarf collection last week and I am dying to get my hands on one! I love that she wove the yarn instead of knit, the texture looks amazing.
- City Shorelines by David Burdeny. These are just incredible, they look like paintings. The colours! I would love to have a print or two of these on my wall to daydream into.

Jumble

2010-10-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

Canadian made 100% virgin wool blankets at Old Faithful

The temperature has definitely dropped over the last couple of days, which is almost enough to justify a trip to Old Faithful for one of these gorgeous blankets. There is pretty much no way I should be even thinking about buying anything housewares like with our trip home coming up, but I feel like these could pass as a souvenir of my life in Canada, yes? Please say yes.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and support of our update and necklaces! I'm really pleased that people seem to like them, and we sold our first one this morning so I'm already planning out a few new designs to try out as well as making some more prisms to stock. It feels really good to have that all taken care of, and now I can start getting ready for the Christmas rush plus finally taking care of some wholesale orders. Fun never stops around here!

As we've both been working lots the past few weeks, I'm so excited to have this weekend free to play. We're going to be at Canzine West* tomorrow from 1pm-7pm as part of a little mini Got Craft? market. I can't wait, it's definitely something I would have liked to visit anyway and I'm really excited to check out all the zines there. I'm also hoping to head out to the Apple Festival on Sunday to taste a Grimes Golden or two and watch some cider being made, and I might check out the Mary Janes Flea Market happening in our neighbourhood, too. So many fun times!

Well, this was a bit of a jumble of a post. That's what I get for locking myself in and working for so long, unreasonable excitement of being out in the real world that manifests itself as stream of consciousness blog posting. Ah well!

Have a great weekend, friends!

*I am going to close up the shop from midnight tonight until midnight Saturday night, so that there is no double up of purchasing. Naturally I haven't been organised enough to made things especially for this market!

Update phase two: Wood Necklaces

2010-10-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

Wood is really one of my favourite mediums to work in, and I am so proud of how our first range of necklaces have turned out. They're made from mahogany that was discarded boat building material and this stunning cocobolo piece that Richard had left over from studying cabinet making. They're all strung on a fine, platinum coated chain and I'm really loving the way the grain has shown itself off, especially in the cocobolo prism. You can find them all in the shop, here. Hope you like them!

I plan to take a bit of a break now that this shop update is done, although I secretly do have a few new things I've slowly started working on. Back to more regular blogging from now on though, promise. Oh, we also have a Facebook page now so you can pop over here and 'like' it (so weird to say that) if you like! I'll try keeping it updated as much as possible.

Update: Phase One

2010-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Phase one of our update, done! We now have these beautiful new pinboards in a range of sizes and vintage floral upholstery fabrics. I secretly want to keep that black one to hang my jewellery on! You can also find our range of limited edition teak bookmarks here, complete with hand drawn Scandinavian inspired illustrations. The king and queen are my favourites, especially the king with his tiny city for a crown. There's only a few of each illustration, and once they're gone they're gone!

We also now have a large 14" hoop chalkboard, a plain (or customized) writing slate and all our old chalkboard illustrations have been combined into one listing. Necklaces to come tomorrow!

Thankful

2010-10-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

I have been totally swept away by Caroline's photos of Iceland ever since she returned earlier in the year. The drama and colour of these are incredible, and have only confirmed my desire to visit the country! I'm hoping she'll set up a wee shop someday soon so that I can hang some of these prints permanently on my wall. I was chatting to Caroline yesterday to get permission to post these here, and I'm so glad I did (aside from the fact that she is great and I can't wait to hang out in Montreal with her in a few short weeks!) because these were the perfect images to look through today while stuck in bed after a short hospital stay last night. Nothing too serious, but while I'm feeling pretty rough and sorry for myself in bed today I can dream of escape from my bed while I listen to Ursula snoring away underneath it.
Happy weekend friends, it's Thanksgiving here and today I am thankful for lovely, caring friends who drive you to emergency in the middle of the night, a husband who brings me cereal and the laptop to watch Project Runway in bed and cooler days so that I can stay under quilts all day.
Have the best weekend, fingers crossed I will see you back here on Monday with a shop update!

Balance

2010-10-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited to announce that not only do we have a new DIY in the latest Blanket Magazine issue, but that we're going to be continuing on as regular contributors to the magazine! Bec puts together such a great magazine and we're really honoured to be joining the team. This month is the Landscape issue and it is just as beautiful as ever, I really recommend checking it out. Amazing cover art by Jo Cheung, photography from one of my favourites Erin Tyner and some other fun tutorials in diorama and tilt shift photography (miniature landscapes!). Our tutorial is teaching you how to make a simple landscape inspired mobile. The trick is all in finding the balance points, which is surprisingly easy so maybe you'd like to give this a go!

Balance, definitely something I'm still trying and learning to achieve in my life. I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I am a total last minute person. I need that pressure to get things done, and as much as I hate it when I'm actually pulling the all nighter (or, attempting to as I most definitely can't to it anymore. I'm too old and sleep is too good!) it's always seemed to work well for me. Only, the aftermath of said late nights is starting to get to me and it's this; the messy house, candy wrappers and mugs of tea all over the place, my sleep schedule all out of whack, that I'm thinking really needs to change.

Like I mentioned in my last post, the shop update I had planned for Tuesday had to be postponed. And then postponed again. Both reasons were totally unforeseen and there wasn't much I could do about them, but had I been a little more on top of things I might have been able to work around them. I wonder if I can trick myself into being more organised? Anyway, in an attempt at being realistic about how I work I've postponed the shop update until next Monday (13th Oct.) despite having done most of the work for it. I'm really hoping that my brain takes the cue that this means I should work on it a bit each day, thus leaving me the time to do other things rather than sit at my computer surrounded by post-its and scraps of veneer all day. As a sign that things might be on the up and up, I've already purchased a Christmas present for this year! I'm hoping to have everything ready to be able to ship to NZ/Australia at the cheaper than 5 days before Christmas rate. Let's just not talk about the fact that some of the gifts I'll be sending are ones that never made it out in time last year. Sigh.

A sneak peek at the mobiles we've been working on, that will hopefully make their way into the shop update. Think falling leaves, the milky way and tiny landscapes!

Update Update

2010-10-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

So, I locked myself out of my apartment yesterday just as I'd finished up taking photos for todays update. Thankfully after awhile I was able to track Richard down and pull him out of class to get his set of keys. Reason #238 for him to get.a.cellphone. Anyway, this meant I wasn't able to finish up the shop update like I was hoping to, but it's almost all ready to go so it will be up tomorrow. Promise!

:Edit:
I now have to head to the doctor for the afternoon so the update has been postponed until next Monday! Sorry, folks!

Change

2010-10-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk around our neighbourhood on the autumnal equinox the other week, it was my perfect kind of evening, mostly clear skies, a slight chill in the air but I was still able to get away with a t-shirt. We used to do these little walks all the time (especially to go get gelato) but life has gotten the best of us over the last while with evenings spent watching Greys Anatomy marathons and trimming veneer, so it was nice to go for a stroll for no other reason aside from watching the leaves turn, stretching your legs and doing some sneaky peekins to people's cozy homes.

This time right at the start of Autumn is my favourite, when the leaves are just starting to change and grey rainy days are still punctuated with crisp clear sunny days. There's change everywhere you look, and you can watch it all happen while eating something pumpkin spiced and wearing tights and a cardigan. I've mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with change, I both crave it and resist it. October means that we're that much closer to our move home which is getting increasingly exciting and scary. I'm at that stage that it is far away enough for me to be getting anxious and just wanting to fast forward, but then realising how much I will miss it here. I mean, Halloween in the spring time just might not cut it anymore.

Back to work for me, keep an eye out for our big shop update tomorrow!

Sale!

2010-10-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our shop update next week we're having a big sale! We're hoping to clear out some inventory so we can switch things up and make room for new stuff, so now is the time to buy up big people, it is not too early for Christmas shopping y'know. Speaking of early Christmas shopping, be sure to check out the new Poppytalk Handmade Market launched this week - its fantastic as usual and we're so happy to be a part of it!

Have a great weekend friends, it's meant to be hot and sunny here which is...crazy, considering that today is October (also crazy). See you Monday!

Update a comin'

2010-09-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

Oh new work. Exciting and nerve wracking! It's always a little scary putting yourself out there and getting an insight into how people outside your own head respond. With that said, we're going to be doing a big shop update next Monday along with a bit of a shop overhaul, too (yes, the one I said would be happening in early September). There will be our new range of necklaces, some embroidery hoop pin boards with beautiful vintage upholstery fabric and these limited edition teak bookmarks. We came across this teak veneer awhile back and wanted to do something special with it, so Richard drew some beautiful illustrations based on the work of Turi Gramstad Oliver and we made a small range of bookmarks.

There is one other product I'm hoping to have ready, but we've been having trouble getting it to work the way I want it to, but hopefully I'll have something to show you by the end of the week. Or maybe a post about what I've learned through the frustration of not being able to make what is in your head become reality, ha.

In preparation for our update we'll be having a big sale at the end of this week, which I'll be sure to remind you of. Or you might like to sign up to our newsletter in the sidebar there to get update on this one and future sales, updates and sneak peeks!

Communal Living: Working out my fantasies.

2010-09-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want you to know that I'm sitting here in sweats eating my second slightly strange tasting blueberry scone. I accidentally added too much vinegar to the almond milk, forgot to put the sugar on top and either added too much salt or there was some kind of salty residue on my baking tray. But you know, I can push through it for the warm berries and fluffy vanilla carbs. There will most likely be a third.
Tonight was a bit of a write off. Richard and I have been keeping crazy schedules the past week or so, where aside from 3 hours of sleep between 4-7am and a 30min window when he runs home to grab dinner, we're in and out of the house at pretty much exactly opposite times from each other. So, this evening after coming home from work and having to clean out glass from the bottom of our oven (a dish exploded in there last night, v. scary - both the exploding glass and the bottom of our oven) and watch Glee on my own I was feeling a little sorry for myself. This usually means some kind of baking and internet escapism. Tonight it came in the form of this video, that I originally saw over on Liz's blog awhile ago. In a sense communal living is something I've grown up doing. When I was really young, my aunt and uncle lived only a couple houses down the street from us and we spent a lot of time there or at my grandparents place as well as our own home. Then as I got older, I spent the years between 12 and 23ish years old living and/or working at a camp with a small staff and multiple dwellings. More often than not we all ate together, everyone was a short walk away when we needed something and the sense of community was something I really thrived on.
I now live in a co-op, which isn't exactly the same especially as this co-op is a fairly large one, but there's still aspects of it. We have awesome neighbours and there is a communal feel within the gates of this place. It's funny how the idea of a commune has always sounded a little crazy cult like to me, but the actual act of living communally is something I'm really invested in. The story in this video is so inspiring to me, and we both really hope to be able to make something like that happen once we move home. I'm sure some people would find the idea of living in such close quarters with other people to be a completely terrible idea, and I totally get that, but for the moment I can only see the possibilities and comfort it would bring.
And with that, and this totally inspiring film I found at Loobylu's place, I am going to resist a fourth scone and head to bed to dream of my future hippy life.

New

2010-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

New shoes :: New hair-do :: New project :: New schedule makes for a sleepy husband :: New Blanket tutorial in the works :: New Bliss in a Teacup necklace (to be released in October, detail here).

Happy Monday, folks.

Inspiration: Quilts of Gee's Bend

2010-09-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Ever since first hearing of them, I've been fascinated by the quilters of Gee's Bend. The quilts created by generations of this tight knit community of women, technique passed down through generations, the celebration of colour and pattern, are breathtaking. They're like nothing I've ever seen before, piecing works with Sears corduroy and old work clothes to create these beautiful, subtle hues where the fabric has worn or using sheets and scarves in a whirlwind of colour and pattern. I was so happy to come across this book at the library the other day and I've been reading a bit each night. Aside from the quilts there are the stories of the women who create them, all these strong women, confident in their own artistic expression. Not a bad thought to drift off to sleep with.

Normal Eating: Guilty Pleasures, Treats and Listening to My Body.

2010-09-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

reaching for nirvana, antonkawasaki

There is something so fantastic to me about seeing people walking around with an ice-cream cone. It has such a childlike attachment to it that when I saw a man in a suit, probably in his 50's walking alone up our street with one I was strangely fascinated by it. Like, here is this grey suited definition of seriousness doing something that seems so frivolous, something purely for pleasure. This is what I love about eating ice cream, it's one of those foods where really the main reason you're eating it is that it tastes freaking amazing. Sure, it's also good on a hot day and it kinda fills you up if you're hungry, but mostly it is all about the deliciousness.

"Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it -not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings."

I absolutely love this quote by Ellyn Satter (thanks to Christa for first linking to it!). It's something that I've struggled with pretty much my entire life - how should I eat, what is the right and/or best way to eat, I'm allowed to eat x because I've first done y, guilty pleasures, good food and bad food, etc. So to hear someone say that normal eating actually encompasses all of those things was really refreshing. I've spent some time at Weight Watchers and they have these meetings after the weigh in where you chat about one topic or another - strategies, tips and tricks and the like. I very rarely stayed for these as I just couldn't handle the earnestness of it all, but when I did the discussion would often lead to why we eat. Are we emotional eaters, do we eat because of stress or boredom. All of these things are apparently wrong, you see, and if we want to be happy and skinny then you need to figure out how to combat this.* The thing was, and still is.... that I do all of the above, I'd venture to guess that most people do, and that there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing actually wrong with eating cake because you feel shitty, or with not eating cake because you know it will make you feel even shittier.

Now, I'm not saying that it isn't possible to have an unhealthy attitude toward food. Of course it is. I'm also not saying that despite being body positive there aren't still times where I'm unhappy with my weight, body, etc (29yrs of the media/society telling you that you're not good enough is a tricky cycle to break). But I think that where a lot of people would argue that emotional eating is the unhealthy attitude I'm going to say that banishing emotions from eating and regulating it so strictly that it is no longer enjoyable, is far worse.

I like to eat. I like to eat a variety of foods. I like to eat because food tastes good, because it nourishes and sustains me and also because it can be satisfying on an emotional level. I like to cook, experiment and try new things. Food is social, I like to eat because it can mean sharing and spending time with my friends and family, something that becomes increasingly difficult when dieting and monitoring every calorie. While I don't monitor calories anymore, I do keep an eye on what I put into my body from a health perspective, meaning that I like to eat organic if possible, I don't eat meat, I try to limit processed foods (aside from candy, but that's a given I feel like), eat lots of leafy greens for iron and combine beans and grains for protein, drink lots of water, etc. Interestingly when I was dieting I didn't do any of these things. I looked for things that fit into my allotted points for the day regardless of nutrition, I ate processed low calorie sweets with who knows what in them, I felt increasingly stressed about eating with friends, I 'treated' myself with junk food after a weigh in, felt guilty if I strayed from the path and generally didn't enjoy eating. Now that I've shifted from a focus on weight (and losing it) to just listening to my body I'm actually eating much, much healthier than I ever have before. This is where I might say 'and if I lose weight in the process, great!' but actually, no. It's just not relevant.** This is the body that I have and that's not just ok, it's good. I might lose weight, I might gain weight! I might eat little more than chocolate, popcorn and toast for a week when I'm particularly stressed out and I might detox the next week because I'm feeling gross, or I may do nothing at all.

That normal eating is flexible doesn't sound that revolutionary, but it really, truly is. Where most messages we receive about eating talk of guilty pleasures, being 'naughty' (can't even tell you how much I loathe that word) and having a treat, the necessity of working out to counteract junk food, punishment and being at war with your body (no pain, no gain! battle of the bulge!) - for someone to say that there actually are no rules is incredibly freeing. Guilty pleasures and treats are things I'm no longer interested in as food and eating should be pleasurable, emotional, social and comforting. No need to feel guilty about that.

*This is not to say that I think Weight Watchers leaders don't have good intentions, it's just that the whole system we and they exist in is flawed, a system where food and our bodies are policed often under the guise of health.

**Again, this is not to say that I still don't have days, weeks where I just want to be skinny. Or that being thin isn't easier in terms of buying clothes, being generally accepted, etc. So while it is still something I think about at times, it's no longer the standard I will judge myself by.

Sigh of relief

2010-09-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hello! Sorry things have been a little sleepy around here, I had a bunch of posts lined up for last week that are still sitting in my drafts folder but got a little swamped with deadlines and such (story of my life). Hopefully that just means there will be lots of great stuff this week! Anyway, I had my interview and photo shoot for Hoopla on Saturday morning, which was initially terrifying (what to wear! where to sit! clean, clean, clean!) but so nice to have Leanne come by and chat with her about stitching, art and how we find ways of self expression. Of course it wasn't half as scary as I thought it would be, and I'm really excited to see the finished book. The other projects that Leanne told me about sound amazing!

After the interview I couldn't quite believe that I had nothing left to do that was pressing, such a great feeling. The weekend was grey and rainy, perfect for staying indoors and working on projects that are just for fun. It felt like such a luxury to sit in my for real, actual clean house, flip through art books, make potato leek soup (obsessed with this soup, the moment the skies show a hint of autumn its all about soup) and scones, drink tea and start a new embroidery project inspired by a Joanna Newsom concert. Autumn seems to actually be officially here, the quilt is back on the bed, Sufjan Stevens is on repeat and my slippers are always close at hand. So nice.

A few things;

- Beautiful Soviet-era environmental conservation posters at Broom People.

- Andy Goldsworthy 'Fall Leaves', this one especially.

- Fat Acceptance: when kindness is activism

Off to a good start

2010-09-06T14:13:00.001-07:00

We headed over to Mayne Island, one of B.C's Southern Gulf Islands for the long weekend to stay at a friends small cabin. It was the perfect way to bring summer to a close and start off September, which has quickly become my favourite month since living here.

We picked blackberries for breakfast, found deserted beaches, visited the Farmers Market, scrambled around rock pools and walked for so long around the island that I'm still feeling it. In that good, well earned rest kinda way. It's now a rainy Labour Day, and I am burning through my to-do list so that I can stop to eat chocolate zucchini loaf, drink tea and get started on a new book. Richard is off work this week due to an intensive week of school, so I get to have him around every night until next Tuesday which I'm pretty thrilled about! All in all, September is starting out rather well.

More weekend photos here if you'd like to take a peek.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

2010-09-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

The idea of making your own condiments used to seem pretty time consuming to me, I mean you can just grab a jar at the store and you're good, right? But now that we pretty much home make all of ours - pesto, pasta sauces, salsa, salad dressings, hummus, etc - I'm never going back. For one, the taste is so much better and I find that when making your own you end up using much less salt and sugars than store bought sauces. You also know what is going into it, and in turn going into your body, and you're able to experiment and play around with flavours. Plus, it really isn't hard or time consuming at all, promise.

Salsa is probably one of my favourite condiments, but only when it's fresh and with that perfect amount of acidity. Not the sweet, saucy stuff you get at the store. Luckily for me, Richard makes a mean salsa that always gets tons of compliments when we serve it at parties. I love having it in giant mason jars in the fridge, ready for quesadillas, beans and rice or oven baked tortilla chips!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

1 lb ripe plum tomatoes

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 or 2 fresh jalapeno's seeded and minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tsp salt

Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, and gently squeeze out as much of the pulp as you can, roughly dice them and place them in your kitchen mixer or blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix together and taste to adjust the seasoning to your liking. This is a pretty free form recipe, if you don't have fresh tomatoes just use canned diced ones and drain them if need be.

Makes about 3 cups, store in a jar in the fridge if you can make it last that long. Yum!

If the stitch works.

2010-09-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry things have been a little quiet around here, I've been busy stitching clocks and working on a project for Leanne Prain's new book, Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery. I'm super excited to be a part of this book, partly because Leanne's last book on Yarn Bombing was fantastic but also because I love the idea of using traditional methods or mediums in non traditional ways. I tried my hand at cross-stitch when I was younger, and it was always a bit of a nightmare. I just don't have the greatest patience for following patterns (which is unfortunate for me when it comes to sewing, I'm a bit more.....experimental) and the back would always end up a total mess. But after seeing this back stitch tutorial at Meet Me At Mikes and giving it a go, I discovered I really loved embroidery! I still don't follow patterns, I'm not totally sure that I'm using real stitches and the backs of my work is still usually a mess, but I love the meditative nature of stitching and as Richard said to me when I was worrying over writing up my pattern for the book - if the stitch works, it's a real stitch.

I've always wished I could draw. I sketch out ideas, and can copy fairly well, but I've never been able to draw in a way that I could make what was in my head come out on to the paper. This always frustrated me, as while I've usually considered myself to be a creative person I never felt like I could do art or call myself an artist because you know, to be an artist you needed to be able to draw or paint and be good at it (whatever that means). I think that's why I gravitated to photography in high school, a medium that for a long time also wasn't considered fine art, because I could manipulate the camera and play around in the darkroom to get images I was happy with without having to rely on the seemingly intricate technique of drawing. Of course, you could argue that photography also uses intricate techniques and requires a high level of skills that are just a relevant to art making as drawing/painting/sculpting - and you'd be right. It just took me awhile to accept that truth.

Embroidery has been the same for me. With a needle and thread I've been able to express myself artistically in a way I never could with a pencil and paper. Creating texture, making up stitch patterns, choosing fabric, mixing threads are techniques that I understand, enjoy and can manipulate to create something visually pleasing to me. Really, this is no different from choosing brushes, learning to shade and cross hatch or working with water colour but it often surprises me how still quick I am to call what others do art but not look at my own process that way. The art vs. craft debate is an old one, and probably one where there will always be contention. I'm of the mind that it is up to the individual to decide what label, if any, to give themselves. However, I think this discussion is still worth having so that instead of creating and maintaining a hierarchy of artistic value people feel free to see themselves as valuable, creative, artistic people in any medium they work in. Be it making a collage, landscaping a garden or baking a cake.

Creature of Habit

2010-08-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

Knitted Speckle Cable Cardigan, Aubin & Wills Striped cotton tank, Khaki paperbag belted trousers, Leather & Canvas Brogue, Alexander Wang Rocco leather tote, Revolve Clothing - GORJANA Graham Brown Leather Wrap Bracelet/Gold..., Pyrite Necklace - 24" Chain, gold vivienne studs, Nars Nail Polish - Orgasm: Official Stockist HQhair.com,

I'm one of those people who will find a song or album that they like and listen to it over, and over, and over. I get the same way with food sometimes too, I mean why mess with a good thing? This doesn't necessarily mean I'm not adventurous, but when I like something I like something and tend to run with it. So after talking about those river rocks I'd found I had to smile (sigh?) when I looked back at this Polyvore set I'd made a few days ago, all in the same colours I'd been talking about. The funny thing is, and this is a lot of the reason I enjoy Polyvore, I mostly only wear black. Well, maybe that's not entirely true, but black is definitely my comfort colour. So while in my head I would wear this outfit, in reality I'd probably grab a black cardy (comfort clothing article, its a necessity) instead. Oh well, it's fun to dream! I'm really digging this casual kinda masculine, annie hall-ish vibe though (I almost included a hat, but it was getting a little too Diane Keaton) and I'm really hoping Dorothy Perkins brings those pants back in because they're basically my dream pants for Fall! I've been trying to thrift some, to no avail which is maybe partly due to me not having the patience to try on all the tapered slacks in the hope that one will look like this. Dorothy Perkins carries them in plus sizes too, which is a bonus, so fingers crossed!

We spent most of the weekend getting ready for a craft fair on Sunday, that unfortunately I was too sick to go to! So bummed, it's the first time I've actually been ready without pulling an almost all nighter beforehand, haha. We were hoping to do a preview of some of the new necklaces there, but I guess we'll just have to wait until we release them online. If you want a sneak peek you can see a little of what we're working on over here, where I'll be adding a few more photos soon.

A few things;
- A new mixtape, Working Weekend. We watched The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack over the weekend, and the track on there of his always makes me a little teary. Such a beautiful, melancholy voice.
- I absolutely love this chunky shawl fromYarnover Movement! Also, did you know she's having a sale? Best go take a look!
- An interesting discussion over on Sarah McNeil's blog about copyright and watermarks, worth a read both of the post and the comments. I need to go add my two cents!

Bagels, take one.

2010-08-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

I really love bagels. Really, really. I like mine either toasted with a bit of butter, fresh and plain or as a delicious, dense base for a sandwich. When I was growing up in New Zealand the bagel situation was pretty dire, there was one great bagel bakery in Auckland that we would visit whenever we were there and bring bags and bags back for the freezer to escape the supermarket white bread with a hole in the middle fate.

Bagels have always been something I've wanted to try making myself, but always seemed way too daunting. The whole boil then bake part sounded like it was going to be tricky and time consuming, but it was actually really easy! The dough is simple, the boiling isn't scary, and even though you have to wait for your dough to rise it's enough time to go and do something else. We're inundated with BC blueberries at the moment, so since we had a bunch in our fridge and freezer I thought rather than start with a plain bagel I'd go straight into the fruity and sweet! I looked around at a few different recipes and techniques for this, so I'll just write down what I did. I'm not sure if next time I'd use dried blueberries or not, as the kneading part was.....interesting. I'd not even thought about the fact that they'd be so juicy, but thankfully I hadn't added all my flour so I was able to save the dough and it all worked out in the end!

Blueberry Bagels

Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 pkg, I think?)
- 5ish cups flour
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups blueberries, fresh, frozen or dried.

Method
1. Combine warm water, yeast and sugar and leave for 5 minutes. Your yeast should start rising and bubbling a bit, if not then your yeast has expired.
2. Add salt and about 4 cups of flour, taking your time to mix a bit after every cup of flour.
3. Fold in the blueberries and kneed your dough to combine (this is where it gets messy if your blueberries aren't dried, don't worry though it'll sort itself out). Once it is fairly combined, continue adding the remainder of the flour. This should soak up any blueberry juice that's escaped to make your dough sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for around 10minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
6. Place your dough in a clean, oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place somewhere warm (I use my oven, make sure it is turned off and remove it before preheating!! I....did not.) and leave to rise for an hour.
7. Once your dough has risen, punch it down and break it into 10-15 pieces depending on the size you want your bagel. You then want to shape it into the bagel, either by rolling it into a ball and poking your thumbs through the middle or rolling them into snakes and joining the ends. The second option can be tricky because when they boil the puff up and can come undone.
8. Cover and leave the bagels to rise for 25min, and bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add a couple teaspoons of sugar to the water. Preheat your oven to 400 F
9. Oil or dust with flour/cornmeal your trays*. Once your bagels have risen again, start boiling them. Place as many as will comfortably fit in the pot and submerge. Cook for 1min and flip to cook for 1min on the other side. Remove and place on the prepared tray.
10. Bake your bagels for 10min on each side, remove and let cool. Enjoy!

*I used oil, as the fancy bagel said too, but I found it pretty tricky to remove them from the tray. So I'm not sure if I didn't use enough oil, or should have just floured the tray.

This recipe could be used as a base really easily, just take out the blueberries and have some seeds ready to dip your bagels in once they come out of the boiling water for a savoury bagel. Yum!

River rocks and woodsmoke

2010-08-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

I picked up those little river rocks when we went swimming at Lynn Canyon on the weekend and I'm totally captivated by the peachy tones, especially in that little one. I wish the photos did them a little more justice, they're just the colours that have been on my mind lately, warm neutrals, nudes, light apricot-y type colours with some dusty greys and flecks of charcoal thrown in. So pretty.

I'm hoping to include them into some new stuff we're working on for the store, a kind of Fall/Winter collection type deal that should be ready in early September. We've been lucky to have been gifted some really beautiful wood scraps that we had no idea what to do with for awhile but have now started fashioning into some simple necklaces and maybe even rings. I never thought I'd make jewellery, but I've been really enjoying thinking of what shapes to use and working with the wood. I really never get sick of working with wood, it's a medium that I always seem drawn to, and the wood burning smells from when I get to use the big sanding machine are so smoky and lovely! The two woods are mahogany and cocobolo, which is this beautiful, dense, oily wood that smells amazing and is so nice to work with. It becomes so smooth that it feels like a rock or glass once you've sanded it. Such a lucky find!

We've actually decided to retire a few of the older products in the store to make way for fresh stuff, which has been strangely really hard for me! There are just some things that I feel like I've moved on from, or am just no longer that excited about but there is a definite temptation to stick with what you know will bring in some money every now and then and also the fear that new stuff isn't going to work and that we should have stuck with the old. Worry, worry, worry. But putting the worry aside I'm really excited about the new products we're working on and the direction we're taking. Classic me, I'm always turn with the need to move forward and finding so much comfort in the already known. I promise to keep you up to date with what we're working on, I always value everyone's feedback!

So, how about you guys. Working on anything fun at the moment? Are you someone who loves change and trying out new things or do you prefer the comfort of routine and what you already know?

Projects 'n more.

2010-08-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Projects, projects, projects. I've got so many on the go at the moment and I'm also getting much better at finishing the things I start. Sometimes making myself so busy also makes me stressed and crazy, but I think there is an element of having a few different things on the go that I find challenging and inspiring. I'm now on holiday for the next 2 weeks and so I'm excited to have some lazy days and extra time to work on things here and there. Also, to try and get in some creative time just for the sake of being creative. I sometimes find myself getting stuck on feeling like I should be working on shop stuff or other deadline type projects when if I give myself the space to just doodle or whatever, that's when the inspiration comes. Theoretically, anyway.

As I hinted at on Wednesday we've been working on some lino cuts and fabric printing lately, it's been lots of fun! We have a tutorial up in the latest issue of Blanket Magazine showing you how to make a simple lino cut and print it onto fabric. Aside from checking us out, I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy (online, it's not a print publication) as this issue is pretty great - looking at all sorts of tradition and handmade crafts like letterpress, embroidery, etc - and is just beautifully put together by the very talented editor, Bec! It's a medium I've come to really enjoy working in, and hopefully I'll be printing up some very much needed new pillows for our couch over the next week or so!

Alrighty, I'm off in search of popsicles. It has been sweltering here over the past couple of days! Yesterday we found a fantastic swimming hole that I'm hoping to drag Richard back to this week. It was a bit of a hike as one of the bus services didn't run on Sundays or holidays (of course!) but so beautiful and worth the trip. Also, freezing. I seriously couldn't breathe the first time I hopped in!

Happy Monday!

WIP Wednesday: Lino Cut

2010-08-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

Haven't done one of these for awhile! Sneak peek on one of our current projects, more to come next week!

Some other things;

- Foxes, the new online New Zealand based design store. A lot of beautiful things to chose from, I particularly like this wee dress and this lovely Sarah McNeil brooch.

- Potentially my dream home, despite the terrifying interior and "Mediterranean style courtyard". Separate studio house people!

Smitten: Anna Allen

2010-08-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am completely smitten by the beautiful work of clothing designer, Anna Allen. The fabric, the simplicity, the photos - it's all perfect. I mean, a work smock! So dreamy. Also, I think I need to find a new wicker laundry hamper, and carry it around our balcony on my hip. Find even more beautiful photos in her lookbook.

Old vs. New

2010-08-10T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slow posting as of late, I've been busy working on a couple projects that I have in the works and which I hope to show you more of in the next few weeks! Both of them involve working with my hands (and sadly for this little apartment, making a fair amount of mess) and so there has been much lounging on the couch stitching or drawing. I'm also quite behind on responding to comments, but I promise to get to it this week! We finally got some much needed rain this weekend which made it much easier to want to do....anything really. Working on projects, walking to do errands wearing cardigans (!!) and heading over to North Vancouver for the final Under The Volcano festival. The entire city was cloaked in a fog over the weekend and watching it settling around the mountains from Cates Park was pretty magical. Sitting on the damp ground, everything smelled like forest and everywhere you looked was so lush and green. It was an inspiring place to be, not only physically beautiful, but to be surrounded by a gathering of people who were fighting so strongly for, and also celebrating the things they believe in. There was an amazing sense of community and passion that was really infectious. It felt good to be there, soaking it all in.

We're constantly doing things here and there to get ready for our move back home (which is approaching at a terrifying speed), and I'm thus constantly finding myself swinging back from being really excited to leave and really sad to leave. As I was sitting in the yellow school bus that shuttled us out to UTV on the weekend I was thinking a lot about the old me vs. the new me. It's a bit of a silly idea, I mostly don't think there's an old or new me as of course when you're living it growing up and changing is a fairly organic experience. In saying that, the me that lived in New Zealand a few years back would have driven over to North Van on the weekend whereas I haven't driven a car in years. When I first moved in with Richard, I could not believe that I was going to have to function without a microwave and now I can't even really imagine using one, plus I have gotten very good at making popcorn on the stove. The projects I'm working on both involve the use and practice of traditional hand crafts (one with a specific focus on exactly that) and while I've always enjoyed working with my hands, working on these I was struck by how much in the past few years I've moved towards a more minimalist lifestyle somewhat unintentionally and how right it feels. Due to Richard not being able to use loud machinery because of some hearing problems, all of our woodworking and making is done almost entirely by hand and while this obviously takes much longer, the smell of wood being sanded and the meditative act of hand stitching is something I don't think I'd trade for getting it done faster.

I'm fully aware of the irony of me claiming almost Luddite status while typing on a laptop with lilac coloured fingernails and using a wireless internet connection. Not quite back to the land just yet. But still, as much as I'd love a KitchenAid, mixing by hand with a wooden spoon and kneading bread dough on the counter top is something I'm going to hold on to. I guess this is where some of my nervousness about moving home comes from, this old me vs. new me. While I can see the changes in myself over the last few years, I still see them in the framework of who I've always been and things that have always been important to me. That, and that I'm nearing the end of my twenties so the last decade is a pretty natural time of change and growth in ones life. My worry is that I'm going to return home and seem like some crazy leftist hippy (which maybe I am, there are parts of me that feel pretty strongly connected to a earthy hippy lifestyle. And other parts of me, the parts that don't love fire poi and hula hoop, that do not...) and if I'm truly honest, that I won't know where I fit anymore. I am so happy and content with myself and my life in so many ways at the moment, that it is hard not to attach those feelings to this place instead of taking credit myself for developing and growing as person, and becoming more and more comfortable with who that person is.

Hmm, got a little deeper there than I was intending! Here's a mixtape I made you, in honor of my Luddite leanings, some of my favourite acoustic tunes for your Tuesday listening pleasure.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

White on white

2010-08-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I am having a hard time not being so summery and lazy lately! The days are so nice and long, we've been spending them outside as much as possible. We spent most of the weekend walking around the city, exploring new places to eat, crossing bridges, and feeling pretty content enjoying our community. This evening Jeannette and I went for a stroll and got gelato, so perfect. July felt like is sped by so fast, I want to make sure I'm making the most of this final summer month. It was one of those weekends where you're so busy doing stuff and enjoying it that I didn't take any photos, and these ones above have pretty much nothing to do with what I'm talking about, haha. I took them at Stand Up Comedy, a store that was just down the street from our hotel in Portland that I was pretty smitten with. I love the way the white on white makes everything look like its floating. Aside from having amazing stuff (those rings, oh how I want one. Despite knowing that I would most likely crush it as soon as I picked it up, ha) the store was so light and airy with beautiful greenery dotted around and the woman working there was really nice to chat, too. Anyway, I wanted to share these here because when I was scanning in this film I was really struck by the memory of how lovely it was lazily browsing Portland stores on a sunny day back in May, nowhere to go and no reason to rush. Kind of the vibe that I hope sticks around this August, nice and chill. Anyone have any plans for the coming month? Mine are swimming, more gelato and an island camping trip!

Farewell July!

2010-07-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

It has been pretty sweltering in our apartment this week and the idea of working on my hot little laptop has been the last thing I've wanted to do. So, mostly I've been wearing my new swimsuit (I got it in black and I love it) around the house and making/eating popsicles. These ones are strawberry peach, which were ridiculously delicious. B.C. seriously has the best fruit! I just peeled the peaches and blended them together before pouring them into the molds. I think next time I will put a little extra liquid to make them a bit more thirst quenching, but either way they were still pretty amazing. Such a great flavour combo!

It's a long weekend here in B.C. and there is a ton of things on, so I'm looking forward to having Richard at home and welcoming in August with the Pride Parade & Festival, the Powell Street Festival (just around the corner from us, hooray!), beach trips and some swimming. Thanks to some inspiration here, I did up my nails all festive like for the weekend and am rather pleased with the easter egg like results. Well, for this hand anyway, my right hand isn't anywhere near as good. I also realised while attempting this how completely impatient I am. The fact that I couldn't get myself a cookie immediately after applying the final coat made me a little antsy. Not so good at the waiting! I think I just forget too, when my friends treated me to a mani pedi before I got married, the poor women had to fix it twice before I even left the store!

Ok friends, I'm going to put some motivating music on and do all the boring house chores so that I can enjoy the rest of this weekend!

Hope yours is a good one!

Oil Spill Response Market

2010-07-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Corella Illustration's Oil Spill Item

The opening of Poppytalk's current Oil Spill Response market fell right when I was taking my media break, and I feel terrible that I consequently completely forgot to post about this! If you haven't yet seen it, a bunch of artists have gotten together just like their regular markets but this time we've each set aside one item of while the full proceeds will go to Oxfam and their oil spill relief efforts. Poppytalk are also donating a portion of the table fees, and every bit helps so please consider some of these fantastic items if you're looking for a gift or just want to support Oxfam and the Gulf!

The market ends this Friday, and our donation item is still up for grabs. We're also going to donate 50% of all other items purchased through the market, just add 'oil spill response' in the message to seller so we know that's where you came from!

Film trials and tribulations.

2010-07-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Both Richard and I are pretty terrible about checking our phone messages, so over this weekend I found one reminding me to pick up a couple of films from May that I had completely forgotten about! One was from our Portland trip which I'll upload soon, and the other is full of shots from around our neighbourhood and walks I've taken. I'm still trying to figure this little camera out, next time I really need to take a notebook with me to note down what I'm doing on each shot because things are a little all over the place. The light meter only works sometimes (I think) and on both these films I got a number of prints that were entirely blue! I'm not sure if it is the camera or the film I used that caused this, but I actually like some of the 'bad' shots. Just have to keep trying, I guess!

I initially felt like this film was a bit of a dud, but I'm definitely starting to like some of the photos more and more. You can see the rest over here, if you like!

A couple of things;

- I made you a mixtape inspired by the lazy summer days we've been having.

- I love these little otchipotchi wall vases, found via Abby.

- This post over at All Buttoned Up has inspired me to make my own t-shirts. I have a hard time finding ones that fit me the way I like and are long enough (never long enough!) and I love the look of that last one!

Mail Bag #2 and some sentimentality to boot.

2010-07-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

I got so many treats in the mail this week, including this dried flowers print from Erin which is just so beautiful. I remember seeing it for the on her website when I first got to know her and often coming back to look at it. Those colours! I'm going to look for a frame for it this weekend, along with a few others for some other prints I've been meaning to hang. Like this lovely Lizzy Stewart print I snapped up during the ML4U Gulf Fundraiser that also arrived today. I'm completely smitten with it, and all of her work actually. Aside from some of the bigger pieces that went quickly/I couldn't afford, this was the one piece I really wanted to get from the sale but when I first put it in my cart it let me know that someone else was in the process of buying it! Argh, so I just waited it out in case they changed their mind and eventually after about an hour or so of waiting it was mine.

It is so stunning in person, although unfortunately my postie is apparently unfamiliar with the 'do not bend: art print inside' concept. Nothing too bad though, and it should definitely smooth out when I frame it. She also sent note with the print on the back of this card to which Richard and I both exclaimed 'There's us!' when we saw it.

I think I mentioned that one of the things I found the hardest about taking a media break was the feeling of 'I! Am! Missing! Out!', which I did not like one bit. Of course though, the very task of trying to not ever miss out is exactly why the internet can become so totally overwhelming in the first place. This week being back online has made me realise that what I really truly missed was my friends. So much more so than the new hilarious cat video (speaking of, I've watched this and died laughing way too many times this week), political scandal or new fashion must have is the joy of virtually squealing, sighing or laughing about it with friends. It's both amazing and somehow totally normal to me that I would plan to meet up for drinks with or stay at the house of someone I've cultivated a friendship with online, and I actually consider myself really lucky to have that. I absolutely did not see the point of Twitter when I first heard of it, but now it has become a way of surrounding myself with all the people I love and who inspire me. Working from home means it's like having all these fantastic hand-picked co-workers right at your fingertips. I love it. As great and as valuable as unplugging was, so much so that I will most definitely do it again, I am very grateful that plugging in has brought me amazing friends who send me lovely things (of course not the only reason Erin is a favourite, that she is an all around lovely gal and makes me laugh a lot is pretty high up there, too), the opportunity to take part in meaningful collaborative efforts, the chance to be exposed to amazing art and creativity and just generally opened up all sorts of wonderful connections.

Haha, I just realised how sentimental I am sounding, and also like I've just discovered the wonderful world wide web. But, I'm sure you all understand what I'm saying! As always, thank you for reading this little blog 'o mine, I am so grateful to be able to get to know each and every one of you!

Happy Weekend, friends!

Darling Heart Shop Update

2010-07-23T00:16:00.000-07:00

I added a few things to the vintage shop while I was away and earlier this week. A couple of beautiful guitars that it is killing me to part with, a radio or two and a few other things for around your home. Oh, plus that lovely Southwestern patterned tote which is nice and big. Perfect for the beach or picnic!

Childlike Wonder & Fantasy: Ebony Bizys of Hello Sandwhich

2010-07-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

If you're not already familiar with the lovely Ebony Bizys of Hello Sandwhich, I highly recommend you head on over there quick smart for your fill of colour, Japanese micro-pop, cuteness and glitter! I started reading Hello Sandwhich awhile ago and it is a constant breath of fresh air in my Google Reader. Not only does Ebony collect and document all things adorable and Japanese, but she is also an extremely talented artist and designer (see some of her Vogue Living spreads over here) as well as being a super lovely gal. I can't wait to go visit her in Tokyo next year!

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? The journey you took to be where you are and what you're doing at the moment?

When I finished school I studied Fine Arts at university majoring in painting and drawing. Actually I am still finishing off my Masters of Fine Arts. Once you enter that school you can never leave! It’s COFA’s (College of Fine Arts UNSW) dirty little secret! At the same time I was at university I began working part time at VOGUE magazine and eventually found myself working full time as Deputy Art Director for VOGUE Living magazine. I adored my job so resigning was a tough decision to make, but last month I made the move over to Tokyo where I now live. I absolutely ADORE it here! I am happier than ever!

Tokyo Guide Zine - photos by Justine of Upon a Fold
(I got mine in the mail this week and it is perfect!)

Why do you create? What is it about being creative (in whatever sense) that makes it something important for you to do?

Creating is a part of everyday life for me. Whether it’s drawing, painting, designing, blogging, crafting, making zines, making installations, making animations or even arranging colourful Japanese foods in a bento box, anything creative is just a very normal daily part of life. I feel happiest when I am doing something creative. It’s the main drive that keeps me going.

Where do you look for inspiration? Who or what inspires you?

Everywhere! I find inspiration in anything from a tiny pastel coloured scrap of paper to an entire Tokyo suburb! I am always searching books, magazines, websites, blogs, art galleries and design studios for inspiration. All creative people who are following their dreams make my heart beat a little faster!

Do you find that there are overarching themes that come through in your work, ideas, etc that you keep coming back to or want to express?

For many years my artmaking has been informed by Japanese culture and Japanese ‘micropop’ art. I aim to explore ‘micropop’ ideas such as childlike wonder, fantasy and dreamlike elements in most of my art works.

I'm sure on the outside, creativity often seems like it always flows easily but I imagine this isn't always the case! Are there ever times when being expected to be creative for work or on demand feels overwhelming? How do you work through those feelings?

I guess I am pretty lucky as there are only rare cases when it doesn’t flow as easily but it’s generally nothing a short screen break or a cup of green tea can’t fix!

What are the most rewarding and most difficult parts of your work as an artist and your creative life in general?

The most rewarding part is being able to do what you love all day with the added bonus of being paid! It’s a dream to stay inspired and nourished through my work. Being able to work creatively enriches my life immensely. I can’t really think of any difficult parts.

If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you like to be doing?

Professional Latin American Dancer, hosting a craft show on TV, being Hiroshi Sugito’s artists assistant or opening a Hello Sandwich Shop / Gallery / Creative Space!

Thank you, Ebony!

Mrs Robinson

2010-07-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

Trying to tame my bangs has given me reason to look a little more closely in the mirror each morning, in doing so I've noticed a few stray greys have appeared. Of course it isn't the first time I've found a grey hair or two, but they all seem to be growing on the left side in little clusters which is totally fascinating to me. I pointed it out to Richard and his response was something along the lines of noticing I'd had grey hairs aaages ago. Thanks, buddy. I've actually always said I'd like to just go grey gracefully, I haven't dyed my hair in the longest time (mostly due to laziness, I don't have any problem with doing it) and I'm secretly hoping this growth pattern will give me something like this. Time will tell, both in the Anne Bancroft hair wish department, and how much grace I really do have.

Some nice things;

- Summer Water, the new collaboration of Anabela and Caitlin is so perfect.

- No raw eggs makes me happy, I will definitely be making this ceasar salad with veggie bacon!

- Rejecting the notion of the flattering outfit has been something I've wanted to write on, and perhaps still will, but for now please read this excellent take on it!

What I did on my holidays.

2010-07-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hello! So good to be back after such a refreshing two weeks. I'll admit that pulling myself away from here was a little tricky at first, I had a hard time feeling like I was missing out on stuff! I read an article the other day about a recent tv appearance of Fidel Castro who mentioned something about the US attacking Iran (hypothetically) and I freaked out that we really had missed the beginning of the end of the world by turning off the internet. Dooms day worries aside, it was such a great time. I listened to records, went on picnics, lay in the sun, sketched, read (actual books, man it's been too long), ate outdoors a lot, attended a marathon labour, wore summer clothes, cleared our patio and ate pizza with herbs from our garden. Pretty perfect really. I started this post with the intent of filling you in on all that I got up to, but I think when it comes down to it what I really did was step back from the business that I'd let take over and take stock of how I'd really like to be living. To be inspired, take naps, eat breakfast and fruit, remember the vitamins, etc.

Thank you so much to all the lovely people who helped me out by guest posting here over the past couple of weeks. It was such a treat for me to not only have the break, but also to host all your wonderful stories and pictures here. And hello to those of you who found this blog during the break, I can't wait to get to know you.

Best Parts of Summer

2010-07-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hello Bliss in a Teacup readers!

I am Abby of Abby Try Again. I am so pleased to be here today, sharing a bit of my summer favorites with you. Thank you, Becka.

As some of you may know, I recently moved from the rainy and cool Pacific Northwest to the hot and humid land of Texas. So far it has definitely been an interesting adjustment, but I am trying to remind myself of the best parts of summer....so here they are; my summertime favorites in no particular order.

I love eating outdoors in the summer. Cooking outdoors is almost just as fun!

Summertime is the perfect season for long evening bike rides with friends.

Fruit trees are bursting with goodies right about this time of year.

Barefoot weather is quite nice.

Outdoors games are a must this time of year.

Summertime is the best time to explore the woods.

What's your favorite summer activity?

Sand Dunes & Lakes

2010-07-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

Next up, a post from my lovely friend Erin of Atlantic Treefox. Erin is ridiculously talented, I have both her needlwork and her beautiful film photos on my walls (you can pick up one of your own here) and can't wait to see what more she comes up with now that she's back in her homeland and getting ready to head off to art school. Thanks for sharing a bit of Ontario summer with us, Erin!

Since I've been back home in Southern Ontario I've been making a point to soak in as much as I can before I move off to Nova Scotia in September.

Nick & I went up to Lake Muskoka to stay at a cottage for a few days & it was so beautiful. Looking right out onto the lake, huge granite with lichen all over it & all the pine trees, it was such an amazing place. The sounds & smells really make it. We took a canoe out, saw a little inukshuk, sat out talking on a party boat & got amazing ice cream in town.

This past week we went out to The Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron. It is a little bit of paradise out there let me tell you! Some of the only sand dunes like it in Canada are there. The white sand & the aqua blue water, you'd think it was the Bahamas! We enjoyed a huge campsite with hugely tall trees all around, beautiful trails & wavy waters. The beach is so long & isn’t crowded at all. My favourite part is that the water has a couple good sand bars so you can really swim out far!

Wild Things

2010-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Tiny Happy was also one of the first blogs I started reading, and is still a daily read for me. It is one of the most beautiful and calming spaces on the craziness that is the internet, and Melissa never fails to inspire. I am so thrilled to have you posting here today, thanks Melissa!

Hello, lovely readers. My name is Melissa, and I'm honoured to be guest-posting here at Bliss in a Teacup.

One of my favourite things about summer are wildflowers. In 2008 and 2009, my partner, two kids and I lived in Norway and I think that's where I really fell in love with weeds and other plants growing along the motorways. Here in New Zealand, our seasons are less extreme, so quite a few plants are flowering during the winter months. I never quite appreciated the bold and rebellious nature of wildflowers until I'd driven through the Swedish countryside one summer, taking photos out of the window from my passenger seat. When I got home, I made embroideries and drawings of the plants I'd found.

Here are some of the wildflowers I gathered over my last three summers- in Norway, Sweden and New Zealand.

Looking through these has me longing for summertime- we are currently deep in winter here at the bottom of the world.

Hope you get to gather some wildflowers this summer.

Summer Projects and Tanned Skin

2010-07-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

tui and found leaf

Emma's blog, Small Town Stories was one of the very first I started reading and it continues to be one of my favourites. I love seeing what she's up to back in New Zealand, very near to where we hope to settle, watching her and her husband Tom carve a little life out for themselves in Featherston. She is also a very talented maker of pretty bags, brooches and beautiful prints (I hope to have one of my own one day!), to see more take a look over here! Thanks, Emma.

Summer in New Zealand falls at the end of the year, beginning in December and wrapping around the last month to begin the year in warm weather, tanned skin and swimming holes. As the working year ends, as a parting gift we’re all given a boost of serotonin, peppered with a touch of Christmas and some New Year resolutions.

Summer for me has always also meant projects. I don’t really lie on beaches. I’m pale for a start but I’m also always thinking – what can I built next, what print should I create, is there something I can sew that I haven’t thought of yet?

When I was younger, my brothers and I spent our school holiday summers building BMX tracks in the bush (forest) out the back of our house. We constructed jumps from ashes collected throughout the year, cut and hacked through branches and raked and dug and cleared pathways before spending afternoons with friends who we dared to go faster and jump higher than we knew how.

These summers I like to plant flowers and vegetables in the garden, when growing seems easiest. I like to nap in the afternoons to avoid the heat. And I like to set myself summer projects so that when I return to work I can look down at my tanned arms and know I have achieved something greater and more tactile than a few shades of darker skin.

A couple of years ago, my husband Tom and I spent two weeks clearing neck-high weeds, raking over earth and sewing grass for our back section. The summer before last I built a gate in the middle of a fence that blocked me from a great blackberry patch and painted the kitchen floor. And although this summer is still five months away for me, I know that I’ll make an edition of prints and paint the little bedroom that we hope will one day be our baby’s.

A New Zealand Summer

2010-07-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to introduce to you my dear friend Tilly, for the first of this weeks guest posts. I am so happy that Tilly has started blogging, as she is one of the most inspiring people I know! She's right though, the perils of having friends from back home post is a pretty strong pang of homesickness. I miss all those faces, sights and New Zealand beaches! Thanks for stopping by, Tilly!

First of all, may I just say that it is such a treat to be guest posting on this lovely blog. I just love the space Becka has created here. Bliss in a Teacup was one of the first blogs I ever read and has been the inspiration for starting my own.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Tilly. I live in Auckland, New Zealand and have just recently started my own little blog called A Marvellous Victory.

As Evie mentioned in a previous post, it is a bit painful to be writing about summer from all the way down here, at the bottom of the world, where winter is just settling in. Today it is cold, wet and grey and I have the fire roaring.

Living on an island means that the beach figures most prominently in all of my summer memories. Here is my list of what makes a New Zealand summer particularly special (be prepared to miss home, Becka!): New Zealand summer means long days at the beach, surfing, bicycle rides for ice cream, sandy feet, road trips, salty hair, sun burnt toes, sand castles, rope swings, picnics, bare feet, bonfires, bush walks, Christmas, camping, canned tomatoe sauce, jandels, exaggerated freckles, beer in the sun, strawberries, frujus, coconut smelling sunblock, pre-cooked sausages, river swims, snorkeling, outdoor movies, floppy hats, boats, BBQ's and sun.

Here are a few holga images that remind me of summer. A few (marked with an +) were taken by my beautiful and talented friend Coralee on our most recent summer holiday. Enjoy xx

Diana on Diana

2010-07-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Diana, curator of our.city.lights, and very grateful to give Rebekah any help needed, even if it's a blog post to let her relax- she's one of the hardest working women I know.

Unlike most women I know, one of my favorite things to buy are shiny new toys and this guest post is a perfect example of it. My love for toy cameras has expanded beyond analog- I have the chance to customize it with digital, the two different worlds coming together is elating for me, and very excited to test out my Diana lenses.

There's an overexposed charm to them, very much like the original Diana camera. Since it's digital, there is no grain to it, but a very whimsical light leak.

With the original Diana camera, work must be done, and unfortunately, sometimes money is wasted on the film not developing properly. With a digital Diana lens (used on a Canon), I played with manual settings, and each shot was like Christmas- I had no idea how it would come out, despite my meter.

The fashion district in LA was the perfect setting- bright colors, natural lighting, and what has become one of my favorite photos

Thank you Rebekah, for allowing me to babysit your blog. xo

Road Trip

2010-07-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have recently had the pleasure of getting to know Kenzie of Secret Pocket, and living vicariously through her road trips, summer drinks and candy making adventures. Her blog is full of such colour and inspiration, and her wee magnets are such a favourite of mine. Thanks for stopping in, Kenzie!

This summer I've been enjoying the classic American road trip. We already live in a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania, so our trips mean driving through mountains, farms and tiny towns. We love to stop old diners and ice cream parlors to take a break. The custard at The Meadows, in Duncansville was my favorite, I got a mix of chocolate and coconut. We got vanilla soft serve mixed with "reesie cup" at Mini Freeze in Orbisonia, and potato donuts at Spudnuts in Charlottesville. We add hours to our trips stopping at yard sales, thrift stores, and scenic pull-offs.

I think I was so used to driving as fast as you can on freeways to get to a destination, that this way of traveling is so much more enjoyable. I find that I enjoy road trips infinitely more, it's an adventure! Have you had any expeditions this summer?

Summer Goals

2010-07-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Please join me in welcoming Alison of TeenAngster for our next guest post. You might know her from Etsy's 'News From the Craft + Style Blogosphere' where she curates the most amazing finds from around the web. I never cease to be inspired by what she digs up, and now that she's started her own personal blog I'm constantly over there to get my fix of witchy women, talking dogs, leather and lace. Thanks, Alison!

Summer is here and it's sweltering. While I'm usually an "inside kid" (pale as the day is long), the oh-so-excellent blog Summer Goals has inspired me to cultivate my own list of summer aspirations, many of them not do-able in my apartment. Here's to not sitting like a stone in front of the air conditioning.

1. Make a campfire and sleep in an ancient tent, like I did when I was younger. In fact, I so loved my orange pup tent that I attached it to my waterbed and slept in it for about six months, long past summer's end.

2. Visit Dead Horse Bay and search for hidden treasure.

3. Take a class at Flower School. I want to make my own arrangement!

4. Watch the sunset from my rooftop.

5. Learn to make vintage cocktails from The Savoy Cocktail Book. (Slings and smashes and fizzes and flips!)

Here's to summer, friends!

images: gordon_iowa, gears, cosmic dust, curious expeditions, saipua, teenangster, susan/the well seasoned cook.

Summer in Chicago

2010-07-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Please join me in welcoming our next guest blogger, the very talented Jen from Grainline and Hound Design. I met Jen on Flickr earlier this year, where we were both attempting (and sadly failing, ha) a 365 project. She is definitely one of those people who you just instantly click with, and I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be able to hang out and chat over a plate of poutine, and go antiquing when she comes out this way later in the year! Thanks for the joining us Jen, and for the beautiful photos!

Summer in Chicago is a pretty great time. I don't know if you've been here, but for about two thirds of the year Chicago punishes you with cold weather, biting winds, one warm day in spring followed by 2 weeks of snowstorms...you get the idea, so when summer actually rolls around for good we know we have to take full advantage. A few of our favorite summer activities: walking on the lakefront, checking out one of the many parks and exhibits with free guided tours (in this case it was the Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pond in Lincoln Park), lounging on our rooftop in the evenings, Chicago style dogs + fries and the beaches. Chicago has so many beaches and they're so easy to get to, we take the water taxi down the Chicago river and get off at Michigan, there you're just steps from the beach, which is where I'm off to right now...happy summer all!

Summer with Evie

2010-07-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Please join me in welcoming my very first guest poster, Evie of Handmade Romance. Be sure to check out her blog as she always manages to find the cutest things to share, along with her own adorable work in her store over here. Thanks, Evie!

Hello Bliss in a Teacup readers! Its so nice to be guest blogging over here today. I was pretty chuffed when Becka asked if I'd like to help out and with such a fun subject like Summer, how could I resist?!

For those new to me, my name is Evie and my blog is Handmade Romance, I currently live in Melbourne, Australia. Thinking about Summer at this time of the year, in these parts is a little cruel but thinking of all the good things about Summer has been lots of fun.  

For this post I've decided to combine my favourite things/memories about Summer along with another fave of mine - Etsy. So here is a little Summer Etsy Lovin' from me to you. Enjoy!  

Sundresses I UV Protection

(in the form of a cute floppy hat!)

Mojitos I Melting Icecream

(I love this fun alternative to the real thing!)

Eating Outdoors I Really Cold Beer

S U M M E R!

taking a break

2010-07-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

My poor little garden has been so neglected this year. Despite all my best intentions I just haven't seemed to be able to make time to get to it, but I was out on the balcony the other day and noticed that the lavender had bounced back and started to bloom. I was so excited to see these bright bursts of colour amidst all the piled up planters, bags of soil and concrete.

Standing out there and itching to get to work on making it into a space we'd actually enjoy using, I realised that I needed to rearrange my priorities a little and take stock of everything. I feel like Ive been a bit of a broken record lately, constantly talking about how busy I am but it has just felt like all I have been doing lately is running around, going to meetings, staying up late and generally feeling overwhelmed. Then on Tuesday I read the latest post in the Biz Ladies series on Design Sponge, all about maintaining confidence and keeping calm in a competitive market I couldn't believe how timely it was. I'll admit that I usually bristle at most business advice type writing but this one was so relevant to how I have been feeling lately I can't wait to implement some of the suggestions made in the post. One of the key things that spoke to me was when she mentioned that it's often when she is feeling overwhelmed that she starts second guessing and comparing herself to others. Oh boy do I hear that. That feeling of no longer being in control, the things that you're working on are no longer fun and that you're trapped in this cycle of always working on something or another with no end in sight, surrounded by people who are doing it better and making it look easier than you are? Yep, totally there.

So with that said, I'm going on a little bit of a break. With the beginning of July and (hopefully) more summer weather, I'm giving myself a summer vacation. One of the suggestions mentioned is a media diet (which, had me freaking out a bit at first. Ok, it still kind of does) for seven days. For those seven days I will completely avoid all non-fiction media, and limit my intake of fiction media like movies, tv, etc. No reading blogs, no twitter, no idle surfing. You can still write posts and the like, but I've actually decided to also take a two week break from the blog to truly be able to step back and recharge. A few really great people have very kindly said they'll step in and guest post here with lots of summery photos, ideas, words and the like. I'm so excited to see what they've got up their sleeves, and I'm so very thankful that they're allowing me to take this break! When I realised I was going to be able to have two whole weeks without feeling like I should be blogging, I was so happy. Not because I don't like blogging, I actually really love it, but I don't like not having the time to fully deal with it and maybe at the end of these two weeks I'll actually have a studio I can walk into and a patio with pretty flowers to sit in.

Have a wonderful two weeks, enjoy all the visitors and I'll see you back here on the 19th!
xo

Sweet & Salty

2010-07-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get on food kicks? I don't feel like I'm an obsessive person, but when I like things, I really like things. Perhaps I might have made a playlist with the same three songs on it five times each once or twice...

Anyway, recently I've become obsessed with these peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets. Is there anything better than peanut butter and pretzels? No, there is not. Well, not much anyway. Obviously I could just take regular pretzels and dip them in peanut butter but I am a marketers dream and could not resist these when I first saw them at the store.

You know what else? Dark chocolate covered pomegranate pieces. Seriously, amazing. I have eaten bowls and bowls of these this past week and I see no sign of stopping!

What's your snack of choice at the moment?

Workin'

2010-07-01T01:18:00.000-07:00

Bunting, bunting, bunting. And packaging. That's where I've been in the past wee while, more to come soon I promise!

Oh! Thank you all so much for your kind words about the bangs, and all your great advice! I've had them cut a little heavier and am really happy with it, especially now that I have all your tips on how to tame the frizz. Tell me though, Vancouver friends, where do you get Bumble & Bumble products from?

Happy July!
xo

Haircut reveal

2010-06-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

Bangs take one. Please excuse the mirror face, I simply can't help it!

I've had pretty much the same haircut for quite awhile now. It's been longer and shorter but always ends up the same shape (like a triangle, I have so.much.hair. that it gets really weighed down on the ends), so I decided to be brave this week and get some bangs (or a fringe as I would normally call it) rather than just asking for my usual 'oh, I was thinking of this time...you know....maybe.....just a trim'. It was a bit of a shock at first, and I'm thinking I need to go back and get them made a little heavier, but overall I think I like it! Today was the moment of truth as I was finally forced to wash it and see what it was going to do when left to it's own devices. Let me tell you, I hate blow drying my hair so I never do it. Nor do I use any product in my hair because I really don't like the feel of it, but I think I may have to embrace a little bit of both of these to make this haircut (or at least the bangs!) work. We shall see. Anyone have any tips on some good, frizz taming product that doesn't feel gunky and is maybe organic-ish?

Bangs take two. So much bigger!

Anyway, that first photo was taken earlier today when I was about to rush out the door after only having time to do a quick dry of the bangs and this second one was taken about an hour or so later. Haha, the growth!

Alrighty, I'm off to get popsicles! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend friends!
xo

I create to live: Sandra Juto

2010-06-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was really excited when Sandra Juto agreed to do an interview as she is hands down one of my most favourite artists and bloggers. I visit her blog daily as her eye for detail and photography is both impeccable and inspiring, and she is also super clever and witty. If you're not already following her I'd recommend you get to it! Thank you Sandra for sharing your thoughts with us here today!

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? The journey you took to be where you are and what you're doing at the moment?

As a child I wanted to become a fashion designer, I was crazy about watching fashion shows on TV. I made skirts out of old sheets for my sister and cousin. My mother taught me how to crochet and my grandmother taught me how to knit. I didn't like to be outdoors playing, I preferred to be at home making things. And it has always been like that. For a few years I stopped being creative because I didn't know I could actually work with it, to earn my living that way, so I studied many languages and thought of becoming a translator. Then one day I discovered Photoshop and started making websites - a couple of months later I started working as a web designer, this was in the late 1990's and it was easy to get jobs. The web made me bored and I wanted to learn more about graphic design so I studied that for several years and at the same time I started drawing again and discovered how fun illustration was, so I thought I should try freelancing as an illustrator and that's what I've been doing for a few years now. It's fun and at the moment I'm doing some freelance illustration and I crochet a lot, I cannot get enough.

Why do you create? What is it about being creative (in whatever sense) that makes it something important for you to do?

Why do I breathe? To live. I create to live and because I don't know what else I would do if I didn't do it. It's what keeps me going.

Where do you look for inspiration? Who or what inspires you?

In the city, in the forest, by the sea. I more and more search for inspiration in my surroundings rather than looking at other people's work.

I'm sure on the outside, creativity often seems like it always flows easily but I imagine this isn't always the case! Are there ever times when being expected to be creative for work or on demand feels overwhelming? How do you work through those feelings?

There is always a certain moment when I panic, when I think I'm not going to make it. For every job I do, this moment gets shorter. It helps to zoom out of myself look at myself and my situation from the distance where everything looks so smaller and easier.

What are the most rewarding and most difficult parts of your work as an artist and your creative life in general?

Most rewarding: When I'm feeling satisfied with the result and have had fun on my way there. Even better if my client is satisfied too. Most difficult: To believe in myself all the way, there is always a time of doubt.

If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you like to be doing?

I would like to run a café with my husband, but he says he wouldn't let me because if I'm pissed everyone sees it. So I'd better hide in my studio and just visit cafés instead ;)

Hold On To More

2010-06-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

I really love this video of artist Josephine Chime talking about her 'Hold On To More' series and show, especially when she talks about celebrating imperfection and coming to terms with her own self image.

Hat tip to Anabela who recently posted a fantastic quote from Josephine recently that caused me to look her up!

Three (plus) Positve Messages

2010-06-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

Plus size model Tara Lynn in D la Repubblica (via The Full Nilson and Hey, Fat Chick)

One of the things that I really noticed in the response to my post about battling insecurities, was that all of you who commented either on the blog, facebook, etc represented a real range of body types (those of you I know, anyway) and yet unsurprisingly we all struggle with the same body issues.

Like I mentioned in that post, I've been familiarising myself with the fat acceptance movement* over the past year or so. As a feminist I was pretty well aware of things like The Beauty Myth and general body positivity, but the idea of fat acceptance seemed so contrary to every message and everything we're taught about fashion, health and who is (or isn't) beautiful. I'll be honest and say that it was a real paradigm shift for me at first, (and in terms of my own self image something I still struggle with, there are days I just want to be skinny and to be able to shop at 'regular' stores) as while I guess I could academically say 'This is who I am, it is ok to look this way', the idea that I shouldn't still want to diet and lose weight was totally foreign to me. The reality is though, I have never really been happy with my weight or how I look. Not when I was 60kg, 80kg or whatever. Which is crazy, because I'll look at photos of myself as a 15yr old and get nostalgic for being that slim, when the reality is I wasn't happy with my body then anyway. I still thought I was fat.

I think the reason that I've been drawn to the fat acceptance movement is because that is how I and most other people would view my body. Not everyone would though, and I realise that I am still privileged enough to be able to by some clothing from straight sized stores and the way my body seems to hold its weight is in such a way that I might not look as big as the scales would say. Like most people, my weight, body size and shape also fluctuate and so where some might consider me fat, others would see me as curvy** or in between, or whatever. So while I think the fat acceptance movement is vitally important on a personal level, and on a broader level because the way fat folks are viewed and treated by society, the realisation that my own body size and shape represents different things to different people (including myself) and seeing the range of people (representing a range of bodies) on my last post, reinforced the idea that it is not our bodies that are the problem but the messages that we're given.

Awhile back I came across the results of this experiment on Plus Eyes that was really eye opening (and depressing) for me. I mean, I guess I always knew it to some extent but I honestly didn't expect things to be that bad. Of a total 1061 messages in the media about her body each week, she found that only 3 were positive. While she was looking specifically at plus size or 'overweight' bodies, I'm pretty sure we could apply the same or a similar message to all of us. Especially in light of the idea that what constitutes fat seems to be so subjective. 1058 negative messages. And that was just in the mainstream everyday media, not dieting sites or get fit for summer type magazine articles. Is it any wonder we're not happy with our bodies? How do you compete with that?

Well, like Plus Eyes mentions in her post, one way is counter attack. Providing more and more positive messages and images of varied bodies. One of the things I've noticed most when reading fat fashion and body acceptance blogs, is how empowering it is to see women who have bodies that look like mine in positive, fashionable and sexy lights. I enjoy fashion, but have often felt a little strange about blogging about it when there is very little room for anyone over a size 6. Im hoping that this can become a space where the images and messages I post about represent a range of bodies, challenge what is usually accepted as beautiful and empowers us all to see ourselves in a whole new light.

*Definatalie just posted a really great Fat Acceptance 101 if you're looking for more info or clarification on this, with some great links too.

**I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this word as I find it is often used as a euphemism for fat, a more sanitised and sexy version if you will. I also really dislike the oft quoted 'real women have curves' that comes with it because, what is a real woman anyway? I understand wanting to build up and deem fat, curvy, plus size women sexy, but to say that women without curves are somehow not just defeats the overall purpose.

Good stuff for Monday

2010-06-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hello! Thank you all for your book recommendations on that last post, it looks like things may be slowing down a bit soon so I can wait to check them all out. After a lovely sleep in and lazy start to the morning I decided to jot down a bit of a to-do list and realised that it's about exactly the same length as it was a the beginning of last week, haha. Oh well, a lot of it is fun stuff and I really do count myself pretty lucky to be doing so much stuff that I love and find fulfilling.

We had lots of fun at the Blim Market yesterday, and I even remembered to take some photos! I'm terrible at remembering to do so whenever we sell at markets, but when I found myself taking photos of some little bugs that came to visit I figured I should probably actually take some of the table, too! Car Free day is always great, even with the abundance of utilikilts and witch hats, I love the community feel and that pedestrians get to take over 15 or so blocks with market stalls, food carts and roller derby demonstrations.

Alrighty, back to my list I go. But first, here's some links to get your week started off right!

- There are many reasons I take issue with American Apparel, and this post on My Unnacceptable Body about their refusal to carry plus sizes because it is 'not their demographic' provides an excellent take down of this maddening company.

- Thanks to Rhiannon for pointing out that Modcloth also has some super cute swim suits in a variety of sizes!

- Kenzie has had me drooling over her blog lately with her mango popsicles and rhubarb soda. Rhubarb soda?? Basically my dream come true.

- Jezebel has a poll going on what is going to be the next 'it' sweet. V. important (also v. funny).

- A new mix! At last, I have a monday mixtape for you that is all about the cover. After listening to one of my all time favourite covers of the Neil Young song 'Birds' by Paul Weller (my secret boyfriend, despite the crazy hair and in my head he still looks like he did from when he was in The Jam. Seriously, that voice. Don't judge), I was inspired. Enjoy!

Keeping busy.

2010-06-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

Hello! Just a quick message to say thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post, I really enjoyed hearing from you and it has motivated me both in my quest to be more body positive in my own life but also to bring lots of it here to the blog. I actually want to respond to each of you individually and hope to get to that really son, which brings me to my next point of why things have been a little thin here this week. We have a number of wholesale orders that need our attention, and a market coming up on Sunday, plus I've recently started a new job with Vancouvermom.ca working as an editorial assistant and researcher this week so I've been wrapping my head around all that comes with that. I promise to be back next week when I can come up for air a bit with much more regular posts, that is the goal!

Do you ever find yourself so busy that all you want to do is escape it? I must admit that I'm feeling a little like that at the moment. The idea of curling up with a book is so appealing when there is html to be figured out or bookmarks to be sanded!

Hope you're well friends! Reading anything good?

Summer & battling insecurities.

2010-06-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

It felt like summer was officially here this weekend, hooray! Perhaps all our moaning and groaning about the rain (which really, is pretty much to be expected in Vancouver. The rain, that is) has done the trick and we're now going to be able to enjoy some sunshine. Man, it feels so good. On the way over to the beach (I was visiting a client post-partum who is lucky enough to live just steps away from this) and heading up a packed 4th Ave I couldn't even feel annoyed at how slow everything was going as everyone just seemed so happy! There were sandals, smells of sunscreen, straw hats and beach bags and everyone had giant grins on their faces. Ha, obviously we've been waiting for this! We grabbed some food from the concession stand and headed down to stare out at the ocean before walking our way back along the water front to find a bus. The vitamin d was good to us and I can't wait to get back out there today once I make some kind of dent in my to-do list!

I'm usually more of a spring and autumn girl, but I've definitely been at that stage where spring is ending and I'm craving the sun over the past wee while. Summer fashion starts coming out and I get excited about breezy dresses and sandals. That is, until summer actually hits and I remember how uncomfortable I often feel in those clothes. In my head I think I'm going to wear all these cute shorts and swimsuits, until my inner fat girl monologue gets the better of me and I either end up trying to cover up or just not putting myself in situations where seasonally appropriate dress would be expected (the beach, a barbecue, trip to the pools and the like) for fear of being swallowed by self consciousness. There was once a summer (or two, wince) as a way more insecure teen where I wore jeans no matter what the weather because I had such a loathing of my legs. I don't know if it's me getting older, or having become more familiar and involved in the fat and body acceptance movement or saving money so having a limited amount of clothing choices available to me, but this year I've said screw it. I am no longer going to swelter and actually be more uncomfortable because I'm not the right shape. Bring on the short skirts, rompers and hopefully one of these swimsuits. What I can't find, I'm going to try and make and I plan to enjoy all of summer this year!

ha, so yes you can't actually see my seasonally appropriate wear in this photo but I didn't realise it was just a shot of my top half until we got home!

Five Senses Friday

2010-06-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Happy weekend, friends! It's meant to be a sunny one here so I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be able to head down to the beach and hang out on a patio or two!

:Hearing:

First Aid Kit's 'Heavy Storm' on repeat (there often seems to be something on repeat with me).

:Seeing:

A new babe born.

:Feeling:

Relaxed and enriched after hanging out with lovely people and visiting lovely shops.

:Tasting:

Salty chocolate

:Smelling:

New books and cedar incense.

Mail Bag #1

2010-06-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

I really love getting mail. Who doesn't? Even when I'm not expecting something I'm still always a little hopeful when I go to check the letterbox. Just in case! I recently did a swap with Sarah of Watersounds (although I am slack and took much longer to send my half of the swap, sorry Sarah!) and was so thrilled with all the sweet stuff I found in my package from her. So lucky! I'd been eyeing up her little leaf pins ever since I first saw them in her shop and I have the motivation note card tacked up in my room so that I see it and get inspired every day. Thanks so much, Sarah!

Got any good mail lately?

Staying Nourished and Alive: Lisa Congdon

2010-06-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Next up in the artist interview series is the lovely Lisa Congdon. I've been following Lisa's work for awhile now and have fallen in love with pretty much every new piece that I see by her! She's also a twitter pal, and I've come to not only love her artwork but also really respect her as a genuine and compassionate person. I absolutely love her use of bold shape and colour, but my favourite might just be her beautifully emotive animal portraits. I hope you enjoy the interview!

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? The journey you took to be where you are and what you're doing at the moment?

I started out waaaay back in the 1990's as a school teacher. I taught elementary school for about seven years, and I loved it, but I was really dismayed with the state of public education in the inner city where I worked. Inevitably I went to work for a non-profit educational change organization in the San Francisco Bay Area where I stayed for a decade. I worked with teacher leaders and principals to improve what they did for kids. I also wrote and did some research and program development. Simultaneously, about 10 years ago, to feed the more creative part of myself, I started taking painting classes and began making art in my free time. Five years ago I began showing and selling my work in shops and galleries. Almost three years ago, I left my job to live a more full time creative life. I opened the store Rare Device in San Francisco with my friend Rena and more recently I signed with the illustration agency, Lilla Rogers Studio. My time right now is split between my studio where I paint and draw (both for my illustration work and for fine art shows), my home where I do some digital illustration work on the computer, and Rare Device where I keep shop.

2. Why do you create? What is it about being creative (in whatever sense) that makes it something important for you to do?

I've only been painting and making collage for about 10 years, but I've always been a maker--since I was a little kid. Now being creative is such an integral part of my life, that even thinking about how or why it is important feels weird. It's like eating or sleeping. It's part of what I do to stay nourished and alive. That said, other parts of my life feel equally as important as being creative--my relationships are important, and physical activity is important (I am very athletic and swam competitively most of my life until four years ago and am currently training for a triathlon). It's important to me to have a balance of all those things and being creative (making stuff, thinking of new stuff to make, day dreaming, scheming, collaborating with others, etc), is part of that balance for me.

3. Where do you look for inspiration? Who or what inspires you?

I live in San Francisco and this city is a constant source of inspiration. There are amazing cultures here, color everywhere, interesting people, delicious food, writers, fashion, art and music everywhere. I am never bored. It's impossible. So I just take it all in. And then right outside the city is the gorgeous natural landscape of Northern California--trees, hills, mountains, ocean, lakes, birds, animals. My work is very inspired by nature, and the California landscape.

4. I'm sure on the outside, creativity often seems like it always flows easily but I imagine this isn't always the case! Are there ever times when being expected to be creative for work or on demand feels overwhelming? How do you work through those feelings?

I don't necessarily have a problem with being creative. I have no shortage of ideas. My problem comes in executing them in the way that they exist in my imagination. Sometimes I get some ideas and I try to draw, paint or make them and I have to scrap them, either because I don't have the technical skill (I never went to art school so sometimes I feel like my lack of technical art skills hold me back) or the money or time or space to execute them. That is the frustrating part for me. Sometimes things are just prettier or grander in your imagination than they are when you try to make them real.

When I do experience frustration, I work through it by trying to see what I can learn, even when things get messy or don't turn out the way I planned. I think part of the reason I have been able to make art with very little training is that I use my experience as my guide, and that includes taking stock of what didn't go well or what I wasn't able to execute. I either decide to figure out how to learn what I don't know or to give up and move on to something else. I don't allow myself to stay in a place of frustration for long.

5. What are the most rewarding and most difficult parts of your work as an artist and your creative life in general?

The most difficult part for me is the constant need to "pimp" my work so I can make a living. It gets exhausting. Self promotion is a necessary part of self employment and I do what I can so that I can make a living, but for me it feels hard and most of the time I'd rather just crawl into my hobbit hole and have some tea by the fire.

The most rewarding part of what I do is when people let me know that they love my work or that they are inspired by what I make. I get emails a lot from people letting me know this, or people come into my store and tell me. That makes all the work and effort worthwhile.

6. If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you like to be doing?

I cannot imagine anything else, except maybe to be a world traveler. I'd like to do what I do now AND travel the world.

Thanks so much, Lisa! Be sure to check out Lisa's awesome Collections Project and also her store if you'd like to snap up one of her prints for yourself!

Bits and pieces.

2010-06-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

Oh, hi! I can't believe it's already Wednesday, this week is just flying by! I had a bunch of things I wanted to write about but was laid up sick at the beginning of the week and then attended a birth until the early hours of this morning so I'm playing catch up a bit now. Anyway, here's some photos of what we got up to this weekend. The weather was beautiful so we got tons of walking in, went to the fantastic Spool of Thread grand opening (more on that soon), ate a gigantic plate of nachos, picked out houses that we'd like to live in, bought new jeans that are about two miles too long for me (story of my short-legged life) and then crashed on the couch for a drink at Rhizome at the end of a long day. It was so good to forget about housework and the like to spend the weekend hanging out with friends and enjoying the sunshine!

Everything should be back to normal on the blog tomorrow, including the next artist interview with the lovely Lisa Congdon! Hope you're all having a fantastic week!