these days have been long and tiring, what gets me through the day is a stoopwafel on my tea cup and this little ham who's antics keep us laughing - and she's growing up way too fast. 

p.s. she dresses herself and this kid loves cats and now with nicer weather she insists on wearing a toque (made by margie) - go figure

a work in progress - j is now concentrating on smaller items since his studio will be dug up and he won't have access to certain equipment.  if you walk by our shop you will wonder what those glass things are, they are for lamps. this one in particular will be a pendant light, the top handle part  he turned on the lathe and will have a rope wrap around it to hang it.  I really like the details j used with the vegetable tanned leather washers and brass hardware.  I can't wait to show you what it looks like when it's finished.  I will try to show you more of what he's up to.   I am excited that his sm bell jar lamp is being picked up this week for a photo shoot, I hope it gets included in the magazine feature.

the pocket bag is a growing favourite and it was only natural to add another print - I thought combining it with the waxed canvas would give it a nice look.  really love this one.

 

hello friends,

did you have a lovely weekend? ours was filled with visiting family and friends, the best kind of weekends I must say - unfortunately I don't do it often enough.  I know that some work things would be neglected, but you have to hit the pause button every now and then.  

one of our visits was to see margie - she is an awesome friend who made me a beautiful vat of indigo - I can't wait to use it. I have to get some more indigo powder and the other ingredients so that I can replenish it after it gets used, because it will get used a lot!

I refer to margie's home as the land of resurrection fern, I am serious it is a magical place, her home is on the corner of the street and one of it's key features is a large wrap around porch. when we pulled up she was tending her lush garden - she immediately greeted us with hugs and quickly put cold drinks in our hands - hanging out on her porch is so calming and peaceful - she had beautiful music playing and friendly cats to greet you. when we went to the backyard to look at the indigo vat she had beautiful textiles hanging on the line, some had been recently dyed.  also displayed in the backyard were the treasures that she found earlier in the day at yard sales.  if I could I would spend many hours on the porch chatting, laughing and dreaming with m.  thanks again friend for all your support and kindness.

enjoy the start to your week everyone! we have added wholesale orders to the mix and we will have our heads down today working very hard.

xxa

visiting the Knoll showroom/offices was definitely a great way to end the week.

I was asked (along with 15 designers both fashion and interiors) to design an exclusive line of goods made from Knoll fabric to be sold and monies going to the Textile Museum of Canada. so in my case I was asked to design bags. last night was a meet and greet and also a chance for us to look at samples and choose which fabrics we would be working with. I am hoping to also combine bookhou printed fabrics too.  so much to work out and I look forward to getting the fabric and seeing how it all works out.  I will give you more updates on this project as it develops.

the Knoll showroom/offices is located in beautiful loft space with windows all around and displayed were some pretty amazing furniture.  I have a few highlights in the photos above, as we were leaving I noticed a shelf with tiny reproduction chairs and I had to take a photo, the details in them were amazing, the one on the right was made of solid aluminum.  all the tables had beautiful bouquets of pink peonies in alvar aalto vases. j thought I was a bit silly to take a photo of the cocktail napkins but c'mon that's the best logo, and behind the reception's desk a huge photo of florence knoll with I think standing with her is hans knoll.  I loved the woven triangle patterned one for obvious reasons but it wasn't usuable for bags, since it was part of the gauzy part (I think it was meant for drapery)

when the fabric arrives in a few weeks, I will show you what I chose

have a great weekend friends! I hope you have a great sunday celebrating father's day!!

xxa

my house is such a mess these days with workers walking through and unattended housework, I find that I will spend hours cleaning up and minutes later a mess begins again, so discouraging.  as I'm writing this I am also staring at my pile of laundry that I should fold before working in the studio.  I sorta look forward to renovation chaos because it's also sparked some major purging and it will also allow me to reorganize things and make the space even more usable.

I added a few new pouches - the caramel leather pouch and a large pouch in the grey triangles with tan waxed bottom.

I don't know if I told you but earlier in the year we applied for a facade improvement grant through the city of toronto, basically the grant is to improve your storefront - half of the amount of your budget is covered by the city.  when we first moved to our storefront as you can imagine money was tight and we were anxious to open shop and some things that were not major at the time was put on the back burner.  I remember one of the major expenses for us was the storefront window and I wish the grant was set in place many years ago so that we could of had some help.  I remember we had just written a huge cheque for the windows and it was just weeks before the holiday craft show and during the show an editor from the globe and mail newspaper came by our booth and he really loved our canadian animal softies (especially the beaver, the one he bought) and he may of mentioned in passing that he was going to put in a gift guide in the globe. I sorta didn't think much of it at the time and the following week he indeed put it in the guide as his number one pick and the photo was huge, the article came out on  saturday morning and my email inbox was flooded with questions of where they could buy this item and at the time I had an online shop through the website, so I quickly took a photo and uploaded the listing and we were immediately swamped with orders, no exaggeration! we had people come into the shop reserving animals and it was insane. so for about a week straight I was washing fabric, cutting it and ironing each piece, printing the animals and stuffing them.  I still remember being 8 mths pregnant standing in line with 3 year old lliam with an insane amount of orders and people giving me the stink eye, but at the end of it all it saved us when we were running on a fine line from paying so much for those windows, and my story always is  that the beaver softie paid for the storefront windows.

I thought you might find that story interesting.  so before the reno craziness in the back of the building starts we went ahead and started on the facade, so far we added a new window to the second floor and the light is amazing, the larger panes makes the room look bigger, and the tiles at our stoop was still the same tiles from when we purchased the building and we did both the stoop and the front entry, what still needs to be done to the facade is masonry work, painting and other small details that will just finish off the shop nicely.

it's about time I made the DAY bag with an adjustable strap.  I recently made them with an interior pocket and I love that the bag can be easily adjusted, I hope to have these available really soon, I am still working out the buckle and deciding which one I want.  I hope you like it as much as I do

also I did some more small day bags in different patterns, I find these bags so popular this time of year.  for now I have the crosses print ready, and I have a few of the scallops left that are at the brick and mortar shop.

thanks to this guy for reminding me that when things get tough it will always get better and that there is a lot of amazing people out there.

finally the linen tea towels are complete

I love the look and feel of them and so happy with the change in fabric

this week has been a catch up week with online orders and slowly building up inventory again

I have made a decision to wholesale a few of the home goods line and the pouches

so if your a shop that is interested please email me

I don't know if I told you that we are also doing work on the facade of our building, but a new window was put in this week and I feel like I live in a bigger space, I can't wait to take photos and show you.

this month is my birthday month and and the countdown is beginning for the big 40!! and I am kind of excited and also a bit nervous, I can't believe how time flies and how much I still want to accomplish.

I hope you have been following me on instagram and facebook - I try to have different content on them both and it would nice if you could visit me there too.

have a great weekend friends!!! xxa

I finally decided on the linen I wanted for the new tea towels, it's a pale oatmeal colour and is a great fabric weight - it's a bit slower with the cutting, but so worth it.  this picture is me overprinting something I didn't think worked, but the layers are lovely together.

one of my favourite prints is the rain pattern which is a print of a sculpture pattern of stitches, I like how my other work influences the other.

the TOTE - rain available here