WIP Wednesday: Lino Cut

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!

WIP Wednesday: Morning light

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm a morning person. Never have been, most likely never really will be. But I want to be! You know how in movies and on tv shows they always have all this magical time before school or work to sit down for breakfast, read the paper, chat, etc. Where does this time come from! I don't really understand how that all works, aside from the fact that of course a) it's not real and b) if it was real (and you know there are people out there who for this is totally normal) of course it is just because they actually get up earlier than just 20 minutes before they have to get out the door. I have to admit, the times I do get up early, once I'm up I really love it. I enjoy the quiet, not feeling like I have to rush and sitting in the morning light. So I'm going to try and make this a bit more of a habit. Which will mean not staying up past midnight, ahem. Also, this is starting tomorrow as today I couldn't bear to drag myself out of bed due to this incessant rain! So how about you? Morning person or night owl?

Here's some link love for your perusal today, especially if it's anything like here and you're planning on hibernating all day;

- I'm in love with these cross stitch pendants by the very clever Heather of Dahlhaus.

- I really enjoyed this piece on Native appropriation, heritage capitalism and Antiques Roadshow.

- I've decided that I must have this tent for summer camping, and if not then at least this adorable sleeping bag. Or this one! Swoon. (via frolic)!

- Totally floored by this diorama that Julianna made.

- Skateistan.

- Stunning shots of New York (one of the worlds most beautiful cities, in my opinion) by my friend Alex.

WIP Wednesday: Many, many picks.

Love the little bit of beard peeking in the corner of that bottom one. Time for a trim, perhaps?

What are you working on today?

WIP Wednesday: MWM

Looks like I'm just going to sneak this WIP Wednesday in before the day is done! I've been out and about all day, ending with being caught in some kind of crazy rain and windstorm and coming home totally saturated! This was remedied with warm slippers and a delicious cauliflower and sweet potato curry though, so all was not lost!

I caught a glimpse of these paintings earlier today via my lovely friend Anna (who will hopefully be joining us here on the blog soon, hooray!) and was totally drawn to the shape and movement of them. And the colour! You would not know it by looking at my wardrobe (I really do try to break free, but I just love black and stripes so), but I have found myself more and more drawn to vibrant colour and pattern lately and this Crystal and Lasers series by Matt W. Moore totally fit the bill. If you click through and read a little more about the series you'll some of the awesome inspiration he found while visiting Paris for the installation. I love that he went there with no previously made art or idea of what he was going to do and then came out with this beautiful and cohesive body of work. I also love/am in awe of the fact that it's all done with spray paint. People using spray paint never cease to amaze me, I just can't imagine how you have enough control to come out with anything looking even halfway decent, but the crispness and precision of these pieces is stunning.

WIP Wednesday: Monogram

We were recently asked to make some large custom chalkboards for a wedding, to be used for seating arrangements and as at the reception entrance. For one of the chalkboards we were asked to place the couples monogram on one of the boards, and after much debate as to how to do this (it's really quite intricate) I came home today to find Richard having cut out a stencil and painting it by hand. That boy has about a million times more patience (and a much steadier hand!) than I will ever have. It's looking pretty amazing, though. 

Well, I have to be up in 6 hours for work (cries) so I best tear myself away from Marie Antionette and head to bed. 

Au revoir!

WIP Wednesday: Tiny Cities

When he's not busy making bookmarks, guitar picks or scouring the neighbourhood for wood veneer off cuts, Richard builds guitar effects pedals. I pretty much have no clue as to where you'd even start with this kind of work so it always amazes me that after hours of picking through resistors and lots of soldering there is a fantastic sounding pedal at the other end. At the moment he's working on a series of pedals that have a psychedelic inspiration and will be etching beautiful Art Nouveau artwork onto the pedal cases, each taken from a different psychedelic plant. I'll show you when he's done, I'm sure they're doing to be gorgeous. 

For now though, here's some of the many circuit boards that line his work space. I love how they look like tiny cities. 

What are you working on today? Perhaps you'd like to show us?

WIP Wednesday: Longer Days, Warmer Nights.

Can I tell you how much I love daylight savings? A lot. Just like the sun coming out, the longer days totally lift my mood. We're currently scouring craigslist for some patio furniture (mostly a table and umbrella actually, for some reason we have millions of chairs) so that we can start eating out there in the evenings, but for now I'm just happy sitting on the couch with the windows and sliding door open and sun streaming in. We get such a fantastic golden hour here and everything in our living room looks so pretty. I wanted to take some photos of it this evening, but sadly I'm pretty sure our camera is on the way out (case in point, a pretty case in point however). Luckily I'd just picked up a couple rolls of film this week and found this shot I'd taken to use up the roll. I love this little collection of bottles, most of which I picked up from the MCC for 25 cents and all have fantastic labels on them that I mostly can't make out but look like some kind of medical records.

Speaking of collections, you have seen this fantastic collection of collections by Lisa Congdon, yes? I have a lot of love for a lot of the same thing all gathered together in one place, and I also love that Lisa draws the collections she doesn't physically have. So good.

Also, speaking of Lisa's? Please go take a look at the Unexpected Guest over on sfgirlbybay today. It's the home of Lisa Solomon, which I'm pretty smitten with and her answer to the design challenge cracked me up and made me love her all the more.

What are you working on at the moment? If you're new to the blog, or aren't sure about this whole WIP Wednesday thing, take a look over at the Flickr group to see what it's all about and please join in!

WIP Wednesday: Errands

After reading this post over on Enhabiten, I decided that I would walk my errands today instead of taking the bus. I even put this crazy pedometer app on my iPhone so I could see how far I walked, how many calories burned, how long it takes, etc. Really I mostly care about the steps and distance as I am terrible at guessing measurements of any kind and as soon as I get into the thousands it sounds really exciting and impressive to me, haha. I'm lucky to live in a really pretty neighbourhood which makes going for walks all the more enticing, especially at this time of year with the rambling flowers all over the place.

I actually have some more errands to run, including picking up a package from the post office (yay! mail!) and going to meet with a lovely local woman to talk about craft as activism, which excites me to no end. But first, have you seen these bird houses over at My Love For You? So great! Meighan always has such fantastic stuff on her blog and I really love her Process series, as you know I'm all about the work in progress. See more here!

WIP Wednesday: Woodgrain stitching

Currently working on completing a pretty large wholesale order, which involves a whole lot of stitching. Thankfully I enjoy it, and can do it on the couch in the sun while I listen to podcasts. Speaking of podcasts, you must listen to The Moth podcast with Starlee Kine about Radical Honesty. Oh man, it was hilarious and disturbing in the best way. You can find it for free on iTunes!

Oh, if you're not sure what this WIP Wednesday business is you can take a peek at the Flickr group here and perhaps join in yourself. It's pretty loose, and definitely not limited to crafty endeavours, but more about enjoying and finding the beauty in the process and not just a finished piece.

Hope you're well!

WIP Wednesday: Ink Spots

Over the weekend I played around with some india ink and some stamping methods I'd been wanting to try. There is something really satisfying about how jet black that ink is on the white card. What have you been working on lately? Be it crafty, foody or something a little more abstract, perhaps you'd like to share it with us on your blog or over here.

WIP Wednesday: Tea Time, a break in a productive day.

Today is my day off from my day jobs and let me tell you, I've been getting stuff done! Crossing things off a to-do list is so satisfying, don't you think? Right now I'm taking a quick tea break, nibbling on these Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (with some vegan white chocolate we picked up at Karmavore, they're pretty sweet though so I think I'll halve the sugar next time) and listening to a CBC podcast on Jean-Michel Basquiat. I'm sitting at my writing desk in our bedroom and looking out over a grey and gloomy Vancouver, enjoying being inside with the lights on and feeling cozy. When I was little one of my most favourite things was being at school on a rainy day and having the lights on during the daytime, it seemed both cozy and exciting at the same time, like being out after dark. Soon we'll be heading off to meet some friends and go on a tour of our neighbourhood, Chinatown, one of Vancouver's oldest neighbourhoods. Laundromats and pawnshops, I'm excited!

WIP Wednesday: Petit Artiste

One of the wee girls I nanny has shown an amazing interest in art recently, so when her birthday rolled around last week I knew just what to get her. Having her own 'real' paints & brushes, a palette, some canvasses and little tote that I sewed up to keep them all in was so exciting for her, and watching her explore it all was just as exciting for me. I'm a firm believer that we are all experts in different fields, no matter what our age, and that we should use the correct 'titles' if you will whether someone is a child or not, so when she told me that she loved being an artist my heart totally melted.

Oh, also? If you're following along with WIP Wednesday, but either blogging about it or taking photos of works in progress, be sure to add them to the Flickr group so we can all take a peek! After last weeks post talking about my craft group I was thinking how lovely it would be for us to be able to get together and share what we're working on virtually, via Flickr. So join up!

WIP Wednesday: Crafting community

Rhiannon's amazing hexagonal blanket, Jackie cutting paper for buttons, some bedsocks I'm working on.

I headed out to Rhizome this earlier this evening to meet up with some other crafty folk and drink beer, eat amazing food (oh my goodness miso rice bowl and chi cake to follow, yum), chat and make together. I love these evenings, seeing what everyone else is working on, swapping tips, helping each other figure out where they've gone wrong in a pattern or giving an opinion on what fabric to match with what, and generally getting a chance to spend time with other like minded people, it's such a treat. Going to events like these since moving to Vancouver has actually been where I met people who I now count as dear friends and this is by far my favourite part. There is something really special about getting together to create, and watching a community form is something I cherish.

Do any of you have a local craft meet up, or bunch of friends you get together and make with? Perhaps you could start one! There are craft mafias and Brown Owl groups all over, I'm sure there will be something to strike your fancy if you're interested. I highly recommend it!

WIP Wednesday: Wooden bunting (and where I've been)

Wooden bunting in the making, soon to be in the shop!

Why hello there! We've been a mix of busy and a little under the weather over here, hence my absence for the past wee while. After an initial quiet few days, people went completely nuts over our guitar picks (huge thanks to Jan for featuring them on Poppytalk, I have no doubt this lead to the many orders!) and we were rushing to keep up so everyone could give them to their Valentines on time. Hence almost all of the weekend sitting in the living room, blender penning, sanding, cutting, packaging and watching some great movies (almost all of which made me cry).

I've started a Flickr group for WIP Wednesdays, if you'd like to join. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to edit it soon so it can have it's own photo (and no spelling mistakes, argh). It's all pretty loose, mostly I'm just really interested in seeing how people make and create, their processes and what finding satisfaction and beauty in something that is unfinished. It doesn't necessarily have to be a craft project, it could be a meal, a drawing, an outfit...anything! If you do play along on your blog, let me know as I'd love to see!

I hope you're all having a lovely week!

WIP Wednesday: roti

I realise technically it is now Thursday (what am I talking about 'technically'? It is Thursday) but here is my WIP Wednesday. It was a long day today, finished on such a lovely note though with yummy dinner, wine and a good friend. I made red lentil and cauliflower curry with cornmeal roti and might I say it was rather delicious. At first I freaked out a little when I looked at the recipe as they seem a little labour intensive, but once you get the hang of them they're not that tricky at all. Greasy though, check out that olive oil glistening. Yum!

WIP Wednesday - Shop Update

Don't get tricked, there hasn't actually been a shop update, despite me promising one oh....about a week or two ago? I've found it so hard to get photos that I'm happy with lately due to all the grey weather, so here are a few outtakes from the past couple of times I tried to get some good shots for the shop. A shop update work in progress. I'm going to try and post something I'm working on, something in progress, every Wednesday here on the blog. Edit: I will tell you that guitar picks and these two Valentines bookmarks are now available in the shop though. More to come, including some new projects I'm excited to show you!

I'm always intrigued to see not just what but how others are making, I love the in between shots. Perhaps you'll join me? If you do, please let me know as I'd love to see!