walking tour.

london wanderings: motorists do it yourself shop, tumbleweaves, flower market & crafty street art.

london called.

in london (the original one) for a few days to perform. please brace yourself for images and terse tales of indie art and street beauty. today, misty mornings, blooming spring flowers, and giant john waters.

 

convenience store.

newest in my collection, is this wonderful new painitng by toronto artist, amita sen gupta. i could not be happier with it, in no small measure because of the fact that it came from an image of a building in the heidelberg project. i love it!

 

no fun.

i just got word that one of the most fantastic stores in the world, uncle fun, is closing its doors at the end of january. aside from being totally fantastic, this chicago landmark was possibly the first store i ever sold my buttons to. i remember walking in there a decade ago while i was in town performing and meeting billy behind the counter and having just about the best experience ever. as both a seller and a shopper, i love uncle fun. i can't even count the number of things around our home that came from there. it has also been home to the world's largest spray string sculpture, it was the first (and only) place i learned to circuit bend...i could go on...

if you are in the chicago area, they are having a big sale until they close - including stuff from their amazing warehouse. oh, it would be a bittersweet sale to go to, but i would go if i was in town. in fact, part of me even felt like planning a roadtrip through this blizzard just to be able to be there one more time. i have ten days until i go on tour again. who knows? but until then, here are some pictures from our years passing by our favourite uncle. i even did an artist residency in their window!

 

the future is now.

happy new year!

the items pictured above were procured at city of craft - isometric risograph calndar by paper pusher and hibernate pennant by stay home club. they very much sum up my current state - forward moving yet slothful.

 

resurrection (or how to be middle aged and new all at once).

this is a time lapse i made overnight of the resurrection plant i got aitor for christmas.

tomorrow i turn thirty five years old. neither of my parents made it to seventy. middle age.

i am hoping that this next year is better than years past. lots of wonderful things have been going on for me creatively, they always do. i am incredibly grateful for all of that - for my friends, for my work, for my collaborations and for my partner in life. and yet, it's hard to shake this feeling that my head has been full of goo since my parents passed away. it's as though things got cloudier and sleepier. don't get me wrong, i have a lot going for me but i miss being a little more awake and bright-eyed. and i miss engaging with you, friends and strangers from all over the dang place.

so...some questions to start of my thirty-sixth year on planet earth:

are blogs dead? (this is a pragmatic question)

what gives you clarity and/or focus in your life?

what's the best way to get rid of unwanted goo?

you replies are most appreciated.

happy valentine's eve.

from city to city.

my friend serena has made an amazing book about her years in one of the most incredible places i have ever visited on this earth - bruno, saskatchewan. my encounter and subsequent relationship with bruno and her/tyler brett's then project there, all citizens, is definitely a highlight of all my years touring arts and crafts across this continent.

serena is launching the book in toronto on wednesday, december 12, 2012. i am really honoured to have been invited into the proceedings as a panel speaker.

wednesday, december 12, 2012
8:00pm
the gladstone hotel
1214 queen street west
toronto
$5 or free with book purchase

below are some of my favourite images from my visits to bruno, surrounding areas and all citizens. it was hard to choose.

textile message.

i had the great fortune to be invited out to the textile museum of canada today. thanks, tara! everyone else, go now. the current canadiana show (dreamland) is really amazing. just check out that buck wall hanging by grant heaps if you need proof. they are also currently offering 25% off everything in their gift shop - including vintage craft books. go go go! go now.

lesen learned.

i am totally chuffed to announce the inclusion of my earliest zines in berlin's one-and-only travelling zine library on wheels, the lesen lounge.

run by the amazing and wonderful leah, the little literary cycle pops up all over berlin all the time and can be found by checking the hand-drawn maps on the website.

and huge ups to nadja for writing the lounge up in the new york time magazine. that's huge!

sidewalk sale.

 

hello, people, i just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who came out to the bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair yesterday - there were so many of you! with perfect weather and perfect vibes i could barely have been happier with how the event came off. note: this was not only the first outdoor show i have ever organized but also the largest show (in terms of vendor numbers) that city of craft has ever run.

i am very tired now, but wanted to make everyone know how grateful i am for the great, great day on bloor street.

you win!

love, your friends (or love your friends).

last night, i was pleased to attend a very special gathering of special ladies to present our friend, angelune, with a new quilt in celebration of the new human she and her partner, ian, just brought into the world. i also got to meet wee sebastien for the first time.

karyn documented the whole thing beautifully, so if you want to check it out in all its glory, do it!

otherwise, huge love to angelune, ian and sebastien. wrap yourselves in the warmth of this quilt and know that it comes with all the love of your friends.

bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair.

heyho!

i will be out in the world, in the elements, in toronto - this very weekend. please come by and say hello at the bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair. the sweetie pie booth will feature buttons, zines and a whole bunch of sundry projects culled from my studio clean-up efforts. i will also have some cool vintage finds and weird stuff! plus, once you have checked out my stuff, there are over 100 other booths and things to check out (like wrestling, a bouncy castle, screenprinting wars, a bookmobile...)

it all goes down this saturday from 11am-7pm on bloor street from dufferin to christie. wow!

ps - poster design by sandi.

small (press) steps.

today i went to zine dream, one of my favourite events of the year.

i am now very excited to lay into my new stack of small publications in little doses before bed.

some links of note from that stack above: jesjit gill, colour code, paper pusher, jp king, lee meszaros, amy egerdeen, tara bursey, jeannie phan, mark connery.

also, working on popping my head back into the land of the living. let's see how this goes.

you win.

i got all the pieces remaining from my first run of awards for nothing back from printshop forever. if you are still reading this after the months of stillness, i think you deserve one. or rather, i will give one of you one of them.

i have had a fairly rugged and blue half year, so i will selfishly ask for comments that may make me feel happier. i don't want to fish for compliments; i want to shoot them in a barrel.

here's to the endless summer that will be 2012, change, growth, rebuilding and all manner of awards for nothing.

i will pick a winner from your comments on valentine's day.

hands. shop. vanishings.

a) i would like to thank handmodel.ca for supplying me with some kick-ass photos.
b) store news! i have a new slick shop via big cartel. check it out.
c) as you have probably noticed, i have been quite absent lately. there is lots of work and family stuff to deal with at the moment. i hope to be back in the new year (and hopefully a bit more relaxed).

crunch time.

if a messy work space indicates a troubled mind then what does the above picture say about me? that heap indicated the dishevelled state of all of my home, mind and schedule these days in preparation for the impending city of craft weekend. at least i have been getting lots done, though!

there will be both new and old stuff on my table for the show, too. i just got some long out-of-print button sets returned from consignment in rural saskatchewan, so there will even be some rare old chestnuts on offer.

speaking of which, i should get back to everything!

see you on the weekend.

city on the horizon.

city of craft 2011 poster by sandi falconer

this week i am all city of craft all the time - organizing, plotting, planning, emailing, blogging and, of course, making stuff to stock my own table. if you don't come out next weekend you are missing some serious magic!

my imperfections are your deals.

who likes deals? you. who makes a lot of mistakes? me.

i whipped up this batch of super deals especially for tomorrow's handmade holiday show. if you don't mind the odd ink smudge, fluff bit or prototype, then this is the deal for you. get 'em while they last . these packs are a perfect way to secretly cheap out on your stocking stuffers or office gifts (just remove packaging).

socks appeal.

these socks are troopers. also ground zero for my experiments in various darning techniques. i thought i would share these evolutionary images of their continued frankensteinification.

happy friday!

a handmade holiday.

this weekend will be my first fair of the winter season - a handmade holiday. it will also be my second-to-last, as i scaled back considerably this year to make time to work on running city of craft.

run by the amazing mike, bianca and jordy at kid icarus there isn't enough time or space to express how great this show will be (or how great they are as artists and humans). just check out the vendor list if you like to be wowed.

just to keep things interesting, i have set aside a few products to be fair exclusives at each show. for a handmade holiday there will be deep discount multi-packs of buttons and some of my mystery loot bags (while supplies last).

plus, i will have my all my button sets (including the newest ones) available at both shows!

handmade holiday arts & crafts show
saturday, december 3rd 2011
11:00am – 6:00pm
st. stephen-in-the-fields
103 bellevue ave
(college and bellevue)
$2.00
$5.00 with a mystery bag
12 and under free