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down time

And unexpected bonus of my four days commuting into Toronto was... the commute!
Who knew how much I was going to enjoy getting on a train in the dark and riding for an hour or so. I'd be sitting there, all excited to be heading out into the early morning once again, and look around me to deduce that a) I was the only one who appeared to be excited, and b) I had a WHOLE HOUR to knit. Or read. Or write. Or just sit still and look out the window.  It is only when you have two small children under the age of four that you can finally realize how awesome that is. I also noted that c) I was the only one knitting. Which did kind of surprise me. And that just goes to show what sort of a fibre arts/crafting bubble I live in. It really, actually made me wonder that no one else had any other kind of handwork going on. No crochet, no needlepoint, nuthin'. Go figure.

Anyhow, with four morning rides and four evening rides, I was just about able to finish up a nice little project. And by 'just about', I mean this is what happened: 
I believe the technical knitting term for this is "a pisser". For those of you who don't know what you're looking at, this is an almost finished project, except with 18 stitches left to cast off I've run out of yarn. argh. Anyhow, I had to wait until I got home, and then dig around in my stash to find another close enough colour-wise bit of yarn so that I could finish it off. 

And here it is. Ah, my enthusiastic little knitwear model! Actually, contrary to what his face is saying, he genuinely likes his new hat. Its the same one I made for him when he was but a wee little boy, which he has outgrown and passed on to his little brother (though not without some reluctance:  "That's MY hat!") When it was half way done I tried it on his head for size and he said, "Is dat for ME?" and when I said, sure it could be for him if he wanted it, he quite sweetly declared, "I want a lovely purple hat like dat one! Will you make it for me?" But of course, my love, but of course. 

booth at the Gladstone

Sorry for my absence these last couple of days. Before the show, things were just too hectic to blog and after the show I was just too tired to blog. MAN I'm tired. Like, new baby tired. Sheesh. 

Anyhow, I wanted to let you know how it went. Here's what my booth setup looked like: taadaaa! I'm happy with how it looked. Fun and colourful and lots of inviting product. 

Though I'm a little on the fence about the teddy bear. He's a last minute addition, and maybe a bit too cutesy, but I needed a way to show how the drooler bibs looked when in use. They just look like weird little triangles on the table, and people generally speaking need to be shown how things are going to look if they are at all transformed by being on a three dimensional body. Anyhow, I think for next time I'll take a really nice picture of one on the baby wearing one, and blow it up to an 8 x 10 and put it in a frame. Because as much as I like bears, I think the teddy looks a little twee. What do you think? Picture? Teddy? I'd love some opinions. 

And here is my lifesaver, my fairy god mother, my beautiful assistant, Farihah. She and I have worked retail together before I had the Baby and have stayed in touch and when I put a desperate plea out over facebook for a helper/box schlepper she agreed to come along. And guys, I COULD NOT have done it without her. She cut the trips up and down the stairs at the Gladstone hotel in half, was an amazing salesperson (though I already knew that) and generally saved my bacon. I was so tired in the last hour of the sale (from 10 - 11pm) that I was unsure if I was making sense when I talked any more, and she kept assuring me that I was. Also, she totally kept me awake on the drive home. (Didn't get home and into bed until 1:00am) If I hadn't had someone to talk to, I'd have just had to pull over in a car pool somewhere off the highway and go to sleep.

Anyhow, it was a good night. The traffic was reasonable, and lots of lovely friends dropped by to say hello, which was really great. And there were a lot of other really cool vendors too. I was too busy with my own booth to walk around and take pictures, which I really should have done, but I'll try to do it next time I do a sale (that'll be the 17th, at Movies and Makers) so I can blog about some other people's cool stuff as well.

It was funny, I really busted my ass to make new and exciting stuff (bags, pillows, wallets, etc.) and despite all that, I mostly just sold bibs. People like the bibs, so I'm not complaining. Also, this time the big seller was Mr. T. I totally sold out of the Mr. T bibs and I don't have any A-Team fabric left. Here's hoping I can find some more before the next sale. 

And now, for no reason at all, without even a segue here's a picture of the boys.

Oh yeah, I do have a reason. Because they are adorable, that's why. I'm their mom, I don't need any other reason. 

Craft Show

I did the Movies and Makers Show on the weekend. It was in The Beaches in Toronto. What a great neighborhood that is. Both hubs and I had little 'Montreal' flashes as we were driving down Queen East. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, so the traffic at the show wasn't that high, but we still had a good time. 

It was in an old movie theatre (hence the 'movies' in the Movies and Makers title). We had little tables all down the aisles, and they played a slide show of images of all the different vendors work. It was nicely done. 

Everyone brought along their own little lamp to light their table, which created a really nice, intimate atmosphere.

It was a good test for me, in a way, to see if I could do all this with a baby in tow. The New Baby was 11 weeks old this Saturday and I was kind of worried about having him out and about with us all day. I'm a schedule mom. I mean, I'm progressive in my parenting in a lot of ways, but I do like to have them on an old-school schedule. Which means, at this point in his life that he feeds about every three hours. Then after he feeds he's awake for about an hour, or and hour and a quarter, and then I put him down for a nap and (God Willing) he sleeps for anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, and then I feed him again and it all starts over again. The schedule worked very well for us with the Little Dude and he's still a good sleeper/napper, so I'm definitely going to do it again with the New Baby. But doing a show like this weekend means that I can't work the schedule like I do at home. There is no place to put him down for a nap when we're out. But I brought along his sling/carrier thing, and was hoping that he'd go to sleep in it. Which he did, but only for about 10 minutes at a time. Hubs took him out the the car in the afternoon, hoping that maybe he'd get him to sleep in there (because it'd be quiet, but don't worry, hubs would be with him the whole time, and we'd have the window's rolled down a bit) but no dice. 

Finally, after a lot of no sleep, I was walking around the theater, looking at the other vendor's tables, with him in my arms tucked up against my neck. And he just drifted off. So I found a dark corner of the theater, and handed him off to hubs in hopes that he'd keep sleeping. And he did!   At first Hubs read a newspaper, but then eventually he dozed off too. 

Awwwwwww....

Oh, and I wanted to tell you about one of the other vendors there. Her stuff was called "Priya Means Love". She makes Organic Botanical Bodycare items. You know how I love lotions and creams and stuff. I bought some of her Dream Salve which smells SO GOOD (orange blossom, citrus and lavender) that I'm wearing it as perfume. I haven't worn perfume in awhile, as synthetic scents are freaking me out (toxic chemicals etc.) so this is such a great find for me. It smells amazing and I just rub a bit on my neck and wrist and I smell so good I can't get enough of myself! I also recommend the Ginger Mint Foot Soother. It smelled great as well. I did stop myself from taking off my socks and smearing some on my feet though. Its good to have boundaries.

You may be wondering where the Little Dude was all day. Well, that's another first for us. When we need him to be babysat, we almost always leave him with my mom and dad. He's as at home at their place as he is at ours, and they know each other so well that its a no-brainer. But on Saturday they were busy so we had to find another option. Luckily a couple of our good friends live in Toronto, so we brought him by their place to stay for the day. He knows them, as they come up to where we live and visit from time to time, but he doesn't know then as well as he knows my parents. We all wanted it to go well, so we went over early so we'd have a little bit of time to hang out and ease him into the situation. He was a little clingy, but they have cats and that was definitely enticing to him. Then they suggested a walk to the park and he was totally down for that. We left and they headed off to the park. We called a couple of hours later and he was having a grand old time. The park had a railroad track right next to it, which was a big hit. And then they all went back home to play with/harass the kitties some more. 

The day ended with them hosting us for dinner, which was lovely. After such a fun day, we had a hard time getting the Little Dude to leave! He was finally pried away from his new best friends and the kitties, with promises that they would all come up to our place for a visit again soon. Then we piled our little family into the car, and headed for home. After a brief bit of crying on the Baby's part, everyone calmed down and were fast asleep by the time we hit the highway. It was the perfect end to the day, driving home in the dusk with nothing by the sound of the rain on the windshield, and both the boys sweetly sleeping. It was one of those "everything's right with the world moments". And when we got home I had the pleasure of carrying my sleeping toddler in from the car in my arms. He's so active these days, constantly in motion, constantly talking (or yelling) that its rare to have a quiet moment with him, and it was just the loveliest thing to pick up his sleepy self, and lay him on his bed and take his shoes and hoodie off, his sweet warm body so malleable and heavy. He woke up just enough to put his arms around my neck and hug me before he fell asleep again. It was definitely the best moment of the day.

working, working....

ok, I'm back into production mode here. I'll be doing another craft show and selling my bibs and blankets and stuff this weekend in Toronto. Its a show called Movies and Makers, held twice a year (once at Christmas and once in the Spring) at the Fox Theatre (2236 Queen Street East) in The Beaches area. Its a one-day event, this Saturday the 14th of May from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm.

I know, I know, its kind of crazy to be doing a craft show when the New Baby is just a little over 2 months old. But he's still pretty portable at the stage, and I already have a lot of bibs made and left over from the Christmas sales. So really, I'm just supplementing my inventory with some of the best sellers (Mr. T, Chewbacca, Rainbow Brite, you know, all the big hitters) and then we'll just go and have a good time being out in the world and meeting new people and maybe selling a couple of bibs. Good idea right? I hope so. I hope I'm not regretting it on Friday night as I race to get things done. But no! No. I'm going to be calm and rational about this. I will get done what I get done, and that's that. 

And it is nice to be making stuff. Not that I'm ever not making stuff, but you know what I mean. Making stuff to show and sell. In spite of the low-level anxiety, there is something invigorating about a deadline. 

I'm off for a little late-night sewing. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures. 

hypothetical quilt patterns

I've been in such a quilting head space lately, that everywhere I look I see potential quilts. I'll show you what I mean.

This is the garden next to the church that we could see from the apartment we stayed in over the weekend in Toronto. Look at all the good quilt potential there. Arial views are the best for this. 

Also, I can hardly pass a nice brick wall these days without taking a picture. Aren't there beautiful colours here? So subtle and nicely random. 

This wall is much more rigid and rectilinear in its layout, but it would make an awesome modernist quilt. I'm not sure how I'd work in the subtle graffiti markings, but it'd be a shame to leave them out. 

And just look at these beautiful stacks of paperbacks:
I love these colours, and I love the sort of higgledy-piggledy way they are arranged. Makes me think of a coin stack quilt, but wonkier. 

Here's some more. 

Maroons and yellows and creams and turquoise; I've got to design a quilt like that. If only I could get by without sleeping - think of all the quilting I could get done! That's how Martha Stewart does it apparently. I read somewhere that she only needs, like, three hours of sleep a night. No wonder she has time to organize her gift wrap and iron her super-high thread count sheets, plus also run a huge company. But sadly, I'm not a very pleasant person to be around if I don't get a good solid seven hours. Ah well, if these quilt ideas are important enough I'll find time for them someday. In the meantime, just having the ideas is fun.  

weekend away

Several months ago, when Hubs and I celebrated our twelfth (!) anniversary we decided that we needed to go away for the weekend, just us, sans enfant. We planned a trip to Buffalo. Not your usual romantic getaway destination, but its just across the border, has some nice galleries (Albright Knox) and we'd never been there before. However, during the week that we were preparing to leave, the Little Dude came down with Croup. So we cancelled. Maybe next month, we thought. Then out passports expired. Maybe at the end of the summer, we thought. Then the summer was very busy. And here is is fall, and I still have not applied for new passports and the cold weather will soon be upon us.... so we decided to go to Toronto for the weekend. 

I know, not exactly exotic (though neither was Buffalo, right) but it has the advantage of being close, cheap, and familiar yet interesting. We can visit old haunts, see new stuff, and not waste a day driving. Also, this would be the Little Dude's first sleep over away from home, staying at Gran-Gran and Grandpapa's house. So since we'd be only an hour away, we could come home if there were any problems (like him not sleeping or missing us unconsolably) Of course, neither of those things happened. Apparently, he had such a good time (ATV, pond, visiting Auntie, diggers etc) that he did not even notice we were gone. It was like he was on vacation too. Which worked out really well for everyone. 

Anyhow, about our weekend. It was so nice. My generous cousin let us stay at her apartment (she's not there right now) which has the most fabulous view. We looked down over Queens Park and the ROM - a lovely view any time of day.
(See all those white tents on the street there in front of the ROM. It was the "Word on the Street" book fair, which was a nice side bonus to visit. Steph, I totally thought of you. Books for miles, you'd have loved it.) 

I particularly like being able to look down on the top of buildings. So neat to see this little church from above - reminds me of everything I learned about church architecture in Art History 101. 

It was so lovely to go away and just be... unaccountable. No laundry, no urgent e-mails, no meals to make, no taking anyone to the potty. It was good, and very relaxing. We went out for fancy dinners and cheap lunches.  

And we saw some great stuff. Went to the Sharry Boyle exhibit at the AGO. Saw a movie (Never Let Me Go. Sad, and a little creepy, but definitely worth it. Stellar acting. Now I want to read the book). Browsed in stores, bought some books. Saw some friends, and just generally relaxed and had good times. Did a little shopping, but not much. I found most things outside of my budget. (curse you Anthropologie, with your exquisite presentation and insanely overpriced goods) 

I found this cute sweater there, but for the nearly three hundred bucks they wanted for it, I think I'll make it myself (and use better colours). But I like the concept. 

So I got home and downloaded my camera, and really, I take the oddest vacation pictures. I think its because I know Toronto so well, so I didn't take the type of touristy pictures of sights and scenery, instead, well they are pictures of things I find interesting and funny. Par example: 

 When we are out walking around, I like to take little detours down side streets and back alleys. So these are a couple of little back alley garages, and I just love the splotchy colour patches on them where somebody painted over graffiti. This is called 'buffing', and they usually use a 'neutral' paint colour that ends up standing out from the background rather than blending in. Looks so great I think, like accidental abstract art.

In the same vein, here's a very cute graffiti sun. 

And for all you Harry Potter fans, some rather cryptic street writing. Bonus: can you name Dumbledore's other hobby? I think I know what it is, but I'd love to hear your guesses.   

Visiting Toronto always makes me miss living in cities. Or at least reminds me of what I like about the city. Stores like these are awesome:

Can't you just smell the mildew-y old paper-y goodness? Although, it was here that we spotted what may be the most disturbingly titled pulp fiction ever:

 *Shudder*. Ew.

And this is one of the things I love most about cities. This is the window of the storage space adjacent to a laundromat/dry cleaners. Where someone has chosen to display their ceramic animal collection. This kind of thing always make me stop and smile. Like, it has nothing to do with the business, and they don't sell these things, its just display for the sake of display. Awesome.   

And coming up out of the subway I found this:
ooooh, look closer.

A grocery list! I love finding grocery lists. I like how neat and specific this one is, with all its numbers and brackets. Nice. A little souvenir to add to my grocery-list collection. 

 

henry and me

We took a little day trip to Toronto today, to take the Little Dude's visiting Oma to see the newly Frank Gerhry-ified Art Gallery of Toronto. It was a lovely day, and there was a lot of good and interesting art work to see, but the best thing was seeing the Little Dude interact with his new favourite piece of art.

  This is a large bronze sculpture by Henry Moore that sits outside of the AGO. (Its called "Two Large Forms". I love the obvious descriptive titles that so many abstract artists use. There is an almost humorous "well, duh" quality about them. Like, what else could you possibly call this?)

The Little Dude enjoyed this thing so much it was ridiculous. We visited it no less than three separate times during the day. On the way in, on the way out, and over our lunch break. As we sat across the street over sandwiches, in a little cafe with a table facing the window, he kept popping up in his seat and in between spotting street cars and garbage trucks, he would point excitedly across the road at the big Henry Moore,  stating emphatically "Dat Sculpture!" 

What did he love about it?  

 He loved touching it, he loved banging his hands against it, he loved climbing over it and through it...

...and under it. 

And he was full of observations, chatting away as he worked his way around and through it. At one point, he looked up at one of the more bulbous protuberances and declared "Dat belly dere", which, y'know, its Henry Moore, so he could be right. It was also a good art lesson for me, as it rejuvenated my own experience of the work as I looked at it through his eyes. Its really an impressive piece, and it was so interesting to see him experience it with his whole body. It made me realize why artists make these huge pieces, because you really feel the work in a much different way; in relation to your whole body as it were, as opposed to being something separate on the wall that you can stand away and be detached from. It made me appreciate it in a whole new way. Nothing like getting an art lesson from your kid. There is an oft repeated parenting cliche lurking in here, that I won't even bother to write down, because you know it already. And its true. 

Toronto shopping

Ok, got sidetracked by that baby deer yesterday, but here, as promised, is a post about the shopping I did in T.O. on our childfree day in the city. We started out in Leslieville, which can be found on Queen Street East. I'm more of a Queen Street West kinda girl, at least, historically that's where I always go when I'm in Toronto. But I must say, I really enjoyed Queen East. Its a great mix still of fun swanky upscale shops and divey little joints that have been there forever. So its on its way to being gentrified, but is not quite there yet. Which I like. 

One of the standout shops for me was this place called Ethel. They also have a blog here. The owner was super nice, and had great stuff, and gave me a sweet deal on this fabulousness:

Because of course, even though we did not have the baby with us, he is never far from our minds. And with his love of little chairs, I could not pass this one up. It was marked $55 (!), and I commented to the owner "Its gorgeous, but I just could not justify spending that much money on something that my son will drag all over the house and eventually maybe even break! If it was 20 bucks I'd take it for sure." And I was just kind of being flip, not thinking at all that she'd sell it for $20. But then she said "Its yours!" and I was all like "ok!" And I know there are certain of you, dear readers, that are thinking that's too much to pay for a kids chair. But I LOVE it. Its adorable, and not like those crappy plastic kids chairs that you buy at the toy r us. As I walked down the street with is for the rest of the day, three separate people asked me where I bought it. Also, the Baby loves it. It was my second best purchase of the day.  

I also got this lovely vintage knitting pattern to add to my already way to large collection of vintage knitting patterns. I love that its the "fun" way to learn to knit. I guess their brochure entitled "The Arduous and Painful Way to Learn Knitting" didn't go over so well. 

This globe was in another store, whose name I don't recall. And I didn't buy it. But I had to take a picture (even though it is blurry). Isn't it awesome? Its very... James Bond somehow. Its how I imagine the solution to the problem of an evil super villain who planned to over heat the world with a giant laser would look. Does that make sense? You know what I mean.

Later in the day we went to Queen Street West, and did some more poking around in vintage shops. There were a couple of very little stores close to the corner of Queen and Dovercourt, and kind of attached to the Katherin Mulherin gallery. I did not get the name of the first one (bad blogger! but it was the end of a long day of walking) but the thing I loved about it was tha they had the funniest price tags. Here's an example:

bahaha. I love it. Also I nearly bought these cups below just because the tag (down at the bottom right of the photo) was so awesome:

It creates such a strong visual, you almost want to buy them just for the story of it. But cooler heads prevailed. I need more vintage dishware like a hole in the head.  

One of the most interesting shops that day was a little place called 'The Melissa'. (Funny, all these vintage places with women's names. I'm sensing a theme) It was a tiny little store, but had a lot of great stuff. This picture doesn't really do it justice. All vintage stores are full of old things, and many from a similar era, but despite that, each store really has a different personality, for lack of a better word. I guess that explains the person's-name-as-store-name-thing. Anyhow, this store felt like the store I would have, if I had a vintage store. I wish. I totally recommend having a look if you are in the city. Anyhow, it contained my Best Purchase of the Day. Behold, my new favourite dress:

Sigh. I just LOVE it. I knew it was coming home with me the moment I laid eyes on it. Its not in perfect condition, by any means, and has some staining, and it is a leetle tight in the bust, but, come on, isn't that pattern to die for?     

And I love the colours. LOVE THEM. Or should I say 'colour'. That crisp black and white with the avocado green  - fantastic. 

Now that I work in retail, I don't buy much clothing (except from where I work. Its the double edged sword of the awesome discount) so this little dress feels even more exceptional. It'll need some careful stain removal, and maybe a little alteration in the bodice, but honestly, just looking at these pictures again makes me happy. What can I say, I'm easily pleased. 

toronto sights

I have so much to show you from our little day trip to T.O. that I can't possibly do it all in one post. So today I'll show you the sights, and tomorrow I'll have a post more focused on the shopping that I did. Oh the vintage-y goodness, you would not believe!

Anyhow, today here are some of the interesting things we saw. We spent almost all of our time on Queen Street. How I love Queen Street. We started out on Queen East, in Leslieville. There were lots of great design/interiors shops. So many great things to see. I miss city life. I forget how smacked up against all the rest of humanity you are in the city. This house is a great case in point. 

You can try to create your private space all you want, but you can kind of never forget that your neighbors are just a few feet away from you. And whether you like it or not, their choices affect you. You can tell that the owner on the left is quite house proud, and did some lovely reno/maintenance, with the gingerbread trim and bright clean brick. Not so much the people on the right. I can just imagine what they think of each other. 

And I love some good graffiti. You just do NOT see good graffiti where I live now. Oh sure, there is paint sprayed on walls, but there is no pride. The tags don't have any style at all, and the closest you get to imagery is crudely drawn phalluses. 

We had a quick look into a pawn shop, at Hubs' request. I'm not a big pawn shop fan. I find them depressing (all those desperately sold off dreams) and sadly lacking in good junk or fun kitsch. Look at this whole row of tools; BOoooriiiiing. But then I noticed something else. See that clock.

Yep. That's Winnie the Pooh enjoying a ciggy. Nice. 

Had late lunch at a sweet little diner. By the time we were done we had the place to ourselves. 

This is the 'sign' on a storefront on Queen Street West. I lived in T.O. aaaaages ago, when we first got married, and this storefront was there then too. And oddly enough, I have no idea what kind of store this is. The windows are blacked out, and it was locked when I tried to get in this time. Maybe its a bar? I dunno. If there are any Torontonians reading this who DO know what this place is, I'd love to know.

And just to show that there is some nature is the city, look at these lovely little seed pod plants we found. We have the same ones at home, but I don't know what they are called. Its funny, I go on a lot about missing the city, but then when we were there I was totally looking for signs of the country, seeking out the green.

And BAM! There it is. Green aplenty. It just grows vertically instead of horizontally.         

signs

Hubs and I had a little mini vacation/get away today. Due to the generous babysitting of my mom, we got to spend the day in Toronto. It was lovely. I love living in the country, but there is so much to see in the city. I especially love all the text and signs. Here's just a little sneak peak of what we saw. 

The owner told me this sign had been there since he'd started at the store 30 years ago. 

Ah, I was just looking for some neat things.

I love the colours of this building and sign. 

Interesting how all these fabrics have nationalities.

I have a feeling a lot of people have bonked their head here. 

I'll post more about our day, and our amazing shopping finds tomorrow.