a year in rear view.

this is not going to be a very good year in review, i can tell you that right now. everything is a bit of a blur and 2009 was not the easiest periods of my life. the highs were high, don't get me wrong, and our summer travels across the continent will stay with me forever. but i leave 2009 feeling kind of melancholic and feeling hopeful about the fresh start to come (even though i think that 2010 sounds like a fake year).

that picture up there is actually from 2008. it is the amazing tin ceiling of one of my favourite places to eat in athens, georgia. i have been thinking of athens lately because of singer/songwriter vic chesnutt's death there on christmas day. he was someone i had said hello to once but whose music has stuck with me through over a decade of moving around. it is strange how the deaths of some strangers can affect me. it feel uncomfortable but real. if you are not familiar with his work, you should check it out. 'new town' was the soundtrack to all the small places in northern california to me.

speaking of northern california and the passing of time, i just read this account garth & claire's kitchen wallpaper and found it fascinating. there is something both sad as exhilarating about discovering something beautiful that is also pretty much gone. i will try my best to focus on the excitement for 2010.

why does this bottom point of the year always make me feel so down? whatever, it will all turn around friday.

sappy holidays.

hey everyone, happy holidays.

i know i am a weird jewish girl to like trimming trees and making stockings but i am not particularly afeared of assimilation. i also think that these decidedly pagan trappings and rituals make about as much sense as anything. plus, it's fun.

i try to add a new ornament to our collection every year. usually i end up buying something weird at a craft fair but i failed at actually shopping at city of craft so i had to make one the old fashioned way this time.

while trying to do some winter sorting and cleaning, i came upon the supplies for reva quam's felted ornament workshop for last year's city of craft and decided to figure one out for myself. i went a bit nuts with the beading so it ended up taking around five hours to make (maybe i bead slowly). it's nice to think i added something to our tree that i could not buy. we also got to watch movies on the couch while i worked on it. are these holidays setting in?

either way, i hope you are all well. happy winter!

stalking.

a few years ago, under my father's 'care', the christmas stocking that my mother made me as a child was partially eaten by mice. well, mama stepped up and offered to make some repairs this year. she even took it on her travels to europe and worked on it while travelling the countryside (with a little help from carol, i hear).

now it is back in my care just in time for the holidays, and newly tricked out. it has even more bling than before and fresh new hand stitched velvet trim to cover up the nibbled piping (note: mice seem to like eating piping, thread and felt the most).

thank you, mama!

now it can hang on the mantle with the stocking i made for aitor last year in hope that santa likes to award gifts to athiests.

the junk in my trunk.

okay, so the holiday craft fair season is not over yet. how could it be? the christmas shopping frenzy is just hitting a fever pitch.

i am happy to be rounding out my annual vending season by doing one last trunk show. tomorrow night i will be set up for four hours at the heartbeat960 winter trunk show, in the middle of queen west west.

i have to say, i am very excited about this show. all i have to do is show up with a trunk full of goodies, set it up and then kick back and indulge in free sips and snacks for a few hours (you can have free sips and snacks, too). i know miss leah b from the coldsnap bindery will be there and am expecting a few more familiar faces in the mix.

as for me, i will have a fresh batch of neck warmers out for perusal, including a bunch of test runs i did to try out new yarns. turns out, most of the fibres are too expensive to keep making retail crochet out of, so lucky you if you scoop one of these luxe models up!

see you there.

heartbeat960
winter trunk show
sunday, december 20
4:00pm - 8:00pm
960 queen street west
toronto

wordliness.

city of craft is over and it all seemed to just fly by. so much so, that i did not do the shopping and swapping that i was so looking forward to. well, i didn't get to do all of it. i did, however, end up with a wonderful new mushroom terrarium from holly procktor, some handspun yarn from pleasurecraft fibre studio and the entire wordly pamphlet series from the coldsnap bindery (pictured above). i also got to go home with one of leah's hand-embroidered spore buttons as payment for the use of my machine (and buttonary expertise). i have yet to muster the gall to take it off its lovely backing card but it will soon find a suitable sweater, i am sure.

i was particularly happy to curl up and convalesce from the rigours of the fair with these pamphlets. i found the tips on travelling while book buying to be luxuriously obsessive but most enjoyed the manifesto of warring matryoshkas. "the nest is not the mother; the mother is the nest." this stuff is serious.

i am not sure if/where these gems may be available online (i have been urging leah to open a shop with the blue house) but heartily hope that the pamphlets series grows into a huge catalogue of wordly wonder. you would do well to pick some up if you ever come across them.

what possible excuse could you have?

poster by the brilliant amy borkwood.

c'mon down!

witchy hands and outdated papers.

hey! things have been quiet around this blog. but that is only because life is screaming at me in the real world. i am happy to report that minnie, the newest member of my electronic family has been with me a week and a half now and is working out great. what better way, i ask you, to celebrate the entrance of a new computer into my life than to crawl right into the internet and wrap a gift in front of you?


yup, that is my i-just-drove-stright-from-detroit mug and signature knobbly craft hands turning my grampa's old accounting supplies into an impenetrable fortress of gift wrap.

big thanks to chantal braganza at the toronto star for pitching and making this piece (and thinking of me).

of course, it all flows towards city of craft, the megalopolis of toronto indie craft fairs that i have a hand in running, which is happening tomorrow and sunday at the theatre centre on queen west west. holy crow, there is still so much to do! did i mention my life is screaming at me? come down tomorrow to witness the results of all that.

spore of me to love.

leah never thinks her projects are going to work out but they all turn out brilliant. i am starting to think she is sharking me, but to what end?

these little emborideries were turned into little spore buttons. look out for them at the coldsnap bindery table at city of craft along with their accompanying pamphlet on the subject of spores, monks and hallucinations.

saving for a brighter tomorrow.

...this is my retirement fund.

the first cut is the deepest.