powering through.

presented here is today's envelope glut. the first group is from patty in virginia (above) then from betsy in atlanta (below).



maybe i should mention that i have only been photographing the new patterns i find. all my contributors have been much more generous than i have been letting on. speaking of their generosity, i am starting to accumulate quite an overstock in a few more common patterns. does anyone in the toronto area have a use for them? if not, start thinking. this is when leah needs to be around to come up with some great project we could do with the church of craft.

here's a contribution from ana in scarborough:



it's hard to see in the photo, but this envelope has a very fine dotted pattern on it. and this last pair of envelopes is from karin in calgary:



i especially like the scalloped pattern. i have a couple patterns like it in the collection but they are all very different.

this makes nineteen new patterns today which bring the current grand total to a whopping 251. can you even believe it? it kept me busy, anyway, through snowmageddon part two.

buckling down.

here's the first picture of the unpeeled button board and my efforts to sort out the security envelope collections. soon enough i will have my office cleared enough to take over some wall space. hopefully. it still isn't remotely set up since our return. craft fairs, making things and holidays have totally destroyed (i mean, enriched) my life in the past month and taken my attentions from domestic concerns. speaking of wayward attentions, i spent a good part of today going through envelopes...



...from odette in quebec...



...from rachel in pennsylvania...



...and, finally, from nicole in indiana.

although, on the whole, these do not represent the wildest contributions i have received, everything up there is new. many of those patterns are variations on patterns i already have (the scrutinizing of which has become way easier with the button board). the teal ones are another example of corporate colour branding, but exciting nonetheless. also, now that i am sorting and resorting the master collection on the button board, i am truly coming to appreciate the impact of presenting subtle variations en masse. i need another board. all that said, the pattern with the cascading cubes/optical illusion from nicole's contribution is totally new and different to me.

after all these new additions, my collection has now reached 232 patterns. last night i had a dream that i reached 400 patterns (yes, i am dreaming about this now). i wonder if there are, indeed, another 168 patterns and variants out there. i know i have some good stuff waiting in queue. dare to dream.

you will also notice that one of the envelopes in nicole's contribution has a number on it. i have been saving all these identifying markings in case i manage to do a bit of deeper research into the creation/origins of these designs. there is a real dissection feel to the processes involved in documenting, cleaning and preparing the envelopes for use. i should probably do a little pictorial on that. it's a real every-part-of-the-buffalo routine.

i should also mention that one of the pictures i took yesterday ended up being the photo of the day on cbc radio 3. the blog post it is featured in also outlines a few other interesting image-based projects that cbc radio 3 has initiated through flickr. i recommend taking a look. it's pretty cool stuff. i originally found out about their flickr pool through serena whose amazing photo was featured by them on canada day. my little screw around pales deeply in comparison.

snowmageddon!

for those outside of toronto, i should explain that snowmageddon is the name our local news media has given to the large yet normal snow storm that hit toronto today. for those outside of canada, i should also explain that toronto is constantly (and rightfully) ridiculed by the rest of the country for such hyperbolic treatments of winter weather.



these are the days when self-employment tastes extra sweet. we just looked out the window, watching the expressway and feeling very superior. sure, all those commuters have retirement funds, but we get to stay in all day. i did go out for all of twelve minutes to do my daily mail drop and counted three cars stuck in drifts. the mail box is two blocks away. this town is falling apart!

i used the snow day to waddle around making buttons and trying desperately to catch up on my bazillion projects. i made a bit of headway on sorting through security envelopes (i quietly broke 200 patterns last night). i really need to dedicate a lot of this weekend to getting through the envelopes backlog. to all of you who have contributed: i am very appreciative of your gifts but also very swamped. the guilt is all-consuming.



speaking of waddling, i will leave you today with a sneak peek at the brand newest commissioned artist button set, duck duck goose by alec thibodeau. i will have a chance to write a bit more about alec and his button set when i release them next week, but feel free to start squawking over his brilliance before then...

security concerns.

well, after some city of crafting and recovering, i am finally diving back into my flood of envelopes. actually, today's update is a cheat since i collected so many envelopes at this past saturday's festivities. they all came home with me in a big mishmash so i felt i needed to sort them right away before the apartment consumed them.

the one on the top up there is from anahi and comes from one of the basque political parties in spain. the ones on the bottom and left are from kim and the one on the right is a new variation on the 'british bricks' that serena brought me. of these, i think i got most excited by the bottom one. it reminds me of some kind of 1970's lost-wax sculpture.



i also got a big collection of envelopes from my mother, anne. she had been travelling in europe and picking up garbage for me (don't worry, picking up garbage is one of her favorite things to do). all three envelopes above are from france and all present subtle variations on themes i have seen before. but they are also all new. i found it particularly interesting and odd that the one on the far right had lines - as if address lines - inside it.

my mother deserves extra props for running my table most of the day on saturday and this only hours after getting off a plane from vancouver. props also go to emma for giving me an hour off at the end of the day to peruse the vendor's tables at a more leisurely pace. i still don't think i saw everything.

i do feel like mentioning, though, that when i set up my master collection at home again after having it installed at city of craft i was three buttons short. as if you thought i wouldn't notice. this is a good way to drive someone like me totally mad. and although i prefer to presume the best in people, if you decided to help yourself to three buttons out of my installation at the show, you know who you are. i wish a hex upon your heart and a pox upon your house. how's that for bad hoodoo? you may not feel guilt now, but you will soon and steadily be devoured by unstoppable evil forces. sorry about that. but you have none to blame but yourself and you own wicked ways.

trim job.

today i had some friends over to trim our holiday tree.

actually, it is more like a charming blob. we went up roncesvalles last week on a tree hunt but felt totally priced out - urban tree lots know they have you cornered. so by the time we got to the last tree seller, i just walked into the lot and said "what do you have that is shabby, small and affordable?"

"oh, you want charlie brown."

"yeah!"

"charlie brown, twenty dollars."

so we got our tree at the maximum my budget could allow. but we got a tree! it's pretty cute and gnarly. and last night we trimmed it up with some friends and covered it with our ornament collection (including the brand new shrimp lace ornament from tara bursey, pictured above). because it is the first question anyone asks, i am happy to report that my cat has yet to take any interest in eating the shrimp lace.

papering the city.

today i finally recovered from my post-craft coma and hauled myself out of bed to see some toronto with my wonderful house guests from detroit (mike and stephanie). aitor played host yesterday when i couldn't move and took them to some of our favorite toronto hot spots - the beguiling, honest ed's, and some record shops. all these places seemed to make quite an impact.

today, on the other hand, we stuck to queen street west to do a little more craft-babe specific tourism. we visited some of my personal favorites - the paper place, tealish, type and preloved. i hadn't realized that preloved moved onto that little block across from trinity bellwoods in the aftermath of the great bathurst fire. they have. this makes that one little block extra amazing.

special deal alerts: preloved is doing a holiday food drive, so a donation of non-perishable foodstuffs will get you 15% off anything in the shop. the paper place is also still having their amazing chiogami giveaway through the end of the month. that's a more online thing, but it's fully worth checking out.

after the michiganeers took off on their merry way, i had the trampoline hall office party and annual general meeting to go to. it mostly looked like this:



...and scored an a+ in saag paneer availability.

yeah, right.

...as if i was going to live blog from the show. city of craft was way too insanely busy for me to even think. it was amazing! we organizers know that there is room to grow and improve but really, overall, these things feel like tweaks. jen and i were actually beside ourselves at how smoothly things ran this year. and the crowds! i will leave you with some pictures from the big day.















if you'd like to see more, look here or here.



oh, and what did i come home with? a mushroom terrarium from newly transplanted winnipegger, holly procktor; a skein of handspun yarn from pleasurecraft fibre studio; and a mighty care package from tara bursey which included all her hits - onion skin pins, tea bag orgimai shoes, a shrimplace ornament and more! i just want to get a bunch of shadow boxes and frame all her stuff up like the perfect artifacts they are.

i am exhausted and contented and in sad it had to end.