home run.

running doesn't even begin to describe how i hit the ground upon returning to toronto. the city of craft jury session was the afternoon after our late-night return to toronto. the jury session is a joyful slog. but returning home to a crazy mess is not. yes, after six years of exceptional luck with summer subletters we finally terminated the 2011 endless bummer tour with a rude awakening. tupperware used as ashtrays, broken bowls in the cupboards, tea towels burned right through, filthy walls and floors, spills, grime, toe nails, boogers, broken and missing art, trashed furniture - it was pretty disheartening.

i was upon until morning before the jury session just scrubbing the bedroom into a state that felt clean and clear enough to sleep in.

don't get me wrong, i am still really happy to be home. broken possessions and a general sense of thoughtless invasion are pretty nominal concerns on a global level.

after cleaning the bedroom, i began to establish it as our oasis while we work on the rest of the place (between work obligations). it was really satisfying to assemble a collection of art and objects from this trip and before in the hopes of creating some calm in the storm. pictured in this bedroom vignette are works by shannah burton, bernadette greule, tara bursey, gold fools, rcboisjoli and erin dollar (click on the images to find out who made what).

spring training.

spring time means that this fern starts to grow again in leaps and bounds. it also means we can start training it up the kitchen curtain if we want to. i hope our summer subletters are equally charmed by this project.

sunrise kitchen.

jetlag has been waking up pre-dawn and aitor has been demanding that the kitchen table stay clear as a singular oasis in our chaotic pre-tour home. so this is what i look at in the morning as i try to collect my thoughts. i really want to force myself into minimalism. at least i have this nook.

ufo.

aitor and i just looked up from our happy reunion, subletter interviews and pre-tour panic to see this drifting past our home. we couldn't entirely tell what it said. "life ___ clear today"? does anyone know what is going on? have i just been duped into caring about some corporate stunt? or political message? i am really hoping that the answer is more magical than that.

office space.

working on tidying my office, i realize that the best i can hope for is organized chaos.

forcing it.

last night, i found a big hunk of wood with new branches and tiny buds sticking out of it outside my building. it reminded me that spring is coming and that it is time to force branches, if i so choose. the other one (in the vase by patrick fisher) is a twig i found in december. it has been slowly making green buds ever since. i don't know what either of these branches might do - i am guessing i am going to see leaves instead of flowers, if anything at all. but it is kind fo exciting to watch.

if any pals out there have branches that they know will make flowers, i'd be happy to collect a few. i haven't successfully forced flowering branches since i was little.

hanky panky.

working on a new idea to solve the problem of our curtainless bedroom window. it currently feels a little sophomoric, but i think i can figure this out...

heap of faith.

does it count as a step towards resolution to simply organize the pile of mending?

ship shape.

i spent part of today trying to get our home shipping centre in order. the little bits and pieces involved in this have been in the works for a while - a collection of nautical stuff, the new shipping boards i have been working on and a tiny vintage scale that just arrived in the mail.

i am not the best at sorting out messes so today felt like a major accomplishment. the entire chest of drawers (and part of the cabinet beside it) is filled with envelopes, tapes and shipping materials. this is just one of the many tricks my sweetie and i employ to make our home look almost like a home when it is really a secret warehouse.

bedroom community.

please pardon my glare. i don't know where my polarizing filter is and i was standing on aitor in bed to take these pictures. actually, pardon my cruddy colour correcting skills while you are at it, too.

but, i digress. i have been holding off posting pictures of this particular part of my home because it was a major mess. it is now a mid-sized mess but a few frames and nails really put it over a hump. i have an inexplicable interest in drawings of houses. it has actually grown into quite a tidy little collection - and it is growing. i managed to frame up these two new houses last night. one is a brand new gift from leah. i will have to write down the artist's name when leah finally digs herself out of a weirton snow drift and comes back home (here). the other is the heidelberg house drawing i got from shannon. i lucked out and found frame/matte combos at ikea that worked passably well for both of these. man, i hate ikea. but that's another story.

below is another difficult-to-photograph village on the wall of our silly built-in closet. it drives me nutty that i can't keep anything straight in this apartment. this place (like many old buildings in parkdale) entirely defies the concept of 'level'. actually, my lens plays some tricks, too.

why am i wallowing in apology today? anyway, this grouping holds some serious treasures - a drawing from my dad's place (i am working on finding out who made it), andrew zangerl, betsy walton, cecelia hayes...

there are a few more pieces still looking for a place to land (an embroidery and a drawing by caitlyn), but this is currently the bulk of it. and if i had the funds, this village would grow.

covert manoeuvres.

things we do under cover of night (this is a reenactment).

mission: accomplished. new neighbours: welcomed.

buzzer text credit goes to scott.

buzz thrill.

stealth late-night diy mirth-making. i will share the results tomorrow.

winter mantle.

i have mentioned the spaces that aitor and i set aside in our home for rotating display in the past. currently there are two - the kitchen shelf and the mantle. and i have hogged both! don't worry, the kitchen shelf is being turned over to aitor any day now and i have to find a new (hopefully permanent) home for my portrait gallery.

above is the winter display i made as a mantle show. in it, i spy work by shannah burton, sarah mcneil, holly procktor, margie oomen & summer hamel.

i finally decided to photograph it because i made that little crocheted heart bunting last night during an hour of late-night television half-watching.

the hearts and chain were made from this super-luxe wool and cashmere fingering weight yarn i have for another project. it was really enjoyable to work with and i think it all turned out quite nicely.

here are a few more detail shots of my altar to the bleak months:

making spaces.

progress.

so, it would take a lot of work to turn myself into a minimalist but i have managed to dig enough space out in my office to start making in there again. obviously, there is much work to be done but this is a step. in the process of sorting, i have accumulated a nice big heap of craft (mostly sewing) supplies for the love & rummage trunk show. and there is much more to come. as cluttered as it may be, i am really happy to be back at my desks. work begets work and being in the mess makes me clean the mess.

this week i have a lot of buttons to make, too. trampoline hall, laugh sabbath and a new artist set from matty "8080" cipov are all there on the table working towards being squished, packed and/or sent out into the world.

bits and pieces.

one more image of the pieces of a wall and one more, unrelated, note.

for those who noticed this resolution i made, i am very pleased to state that i am typing this from one of the desks in my office. it's the first time i have been settled into this spot since the spring!

there is still a lot of work to do, but i feel like i got over a hump.

and now, back to the grind...

sort stack.

just some images from today's sorting and sifting exploits.

crate expectations.

wooden crate + old pillow + old towel + tiny knit blanket = cat bed.

the fickle beast's adoption of its use = small miracle.

at least it is giving her a home base while i move furniture, sort, shred, wrestle a tree out of the apartment and generally shuffle around like a weirdo.

your faithful narrator = weird cat lady.

resolutions: clean the fuck up.

i can't believe i am sharing this secret shame with the internet. anyone who has been to my home will know that this trash pile is my horrifying "studio/office".

this is what happens after packing everything into my room during our four month tour, then coming home for three weeks, then touring europe for five weeks, then returning home with city of craft and a string of craft fairs to attend to.

i haven't been in there to work since before we left for tour on the first of may. it has basically maintained its status as a nonsense storage room for more than half a year. me and my crochet and by buttons and my zines have all been spreading out in the living room and kitchen table and it is all threatening to consume my home life. basically, this mess has become a spiralling nightmare due to neglect and too many on-the-road adventures.

i pledge not just to clean this room up and return it to its pre-tour glory; i also want to do a major purge and some painting and wallpapering to finally make the hub of all my craft activities better than it has ever been. 2011 will be your year, plucky work centre.

what does this mean for you? well, all my winter and spring trunk show appearances will include healthy heapings of great rummage that i simply don't have room for. my collection for the love and rummage trunk show already looks to be filling up with suitcases, train cases and state plates. i'll be previewing some of that loot here in greater detail over the next month - so stay tuned.

ugh. looking at that picture makes me want to barf up a hair ball.

trimming.

last night, i had a little collection of city of craft staff (and siblings and children and fiancées) over for tree trimming and some gentle social time. the deal was that i bribed everyone into bringing me a new ornament in exchange for aitor's scratch egg nog and hot toddies. now the tree looks amazing! having inherited all my father's ornaments (some of which come from family members even further back) and having shoved the tree into a corner with only one exposed side to decorate, it is looking delightfully crammed.

ready for a gallery of my talented friends' stuff? here goes...

crocheted pine cones from shannon!

glitter encrusted circle (i got this at city of craft from sandi).

this is a god's eye i made while we chatted. lots of crafts popped out of handbags at this point in the evening. and willy asked for a clipboard and paper to draw on.

little row of houses from jen!

from ian and angelune i got a christmas pickle! the christmas pickle is a thing. it seems to be a christmas tradition that may come from germany but also may come from michigan...or geogia...or spain. the tradition itself sounds a lot like the passover afikomen to me. just sayin'. regardless, i love my new pickle!

tara even gave me a piece of herself. i love it to bits! our apartment is turning into a weird museum of tara's work and body parts. i find it comforting.

aaand...as much as i usually avoid picking favourite, i think we could all agree that the decoration blue ribbon goes to willy for his customized becky and aitor replicas.

i even have a button maker! with moving parts!

oh, and being embarrassingly free of a tree topper, i threw a couple of hyperbolic corals up there. they are two of my latest contributions to the toronto hyperbolic coral reef. the reef hasn't got another showing booked until 2012 so i think we're cool.

flush hour.

merry christmas, apartment building of parkdale. this really does seem like a miracle in this part of town given how slummy the housing can be. lucky neighbours.