PUCES

I'm gonna be here, it's true. Working on finishing up some pieces today and tomorrow for the event.

Here's the deets:

What: Puces Pop Winter arts and crafts fair
When: December 18 & 19 (that's this Saturday and Sunday), 11am-6pm
Where: St-Enfant Jesus church, 5039 St Dominique (That's right at St Dominique and St Joseph)

Please stop by and support independent artists and designers. Numerous amazing holiday gifts (and the sorts of gifts one likes to give themselves) are to be found.

TABARD REVISITED

I just posted my last two navy blue wool Tabard Cardis on Etsy. The photos I took are just horrible quality (I'm too lazy to take them again) but the garments themselves are beautiful. After this I have absolutely no more of this gorgeous Japanese fabric . Get 'em while you can.

SHEARLING GLOVES

I've just added some shearling sheepskin fingerless gloves to my Etsy. They're 100% lamb shearling with thick black zippers up the side for easy access. Perfect now that *surprise* it's suddenly winter in Montreal. They're $40 a pair and, oh I dunno, would maybe make a nice little Christmas gift for someone. Please visit my shop for more details.

SMART DESIGN MART KINDA PARTY

Smart Design Mart, a fantastic curated sale of local designers, artists and vintage collectors has come and gone. I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend (my birthday weekend!) amongst a group of truly talented peers and I feel really pleased to have stepped out of my comfort zone and participated in this event. Here are my favorite things about Smart Mart:

1) Having an excuse to build furniture, including my log garment rack, branch chandelier, and a table made out of an old window I found on the street. Where will I find the time to begin my new industrial design career I wonder?

2) Having an excuse to wear something other than the leather leggings and black sweater that I wear EVERY DAY when I work from home. Oh, and also to put on makeup and perfume and wash my hair. Oh....except I'm basically wearing a black sweater and leather leggings in the next photo.....um, just imagine how good I smell.

3) To be grouped amongst such talented individuals and have a chance to expand my knowledge of what people in Montreal are making. I've reached this point in my life where most of my close friends are, or are approaching, being self-employed full time and I LOVE! the chance to talk with people who live off their skills and find a way to make it work. Building those relationships is integral to any sort of happiness or success and I really enjoyed meeting more people with whom I can communicate about business, creativity and the like.

4) To be surrounded by best friends and new friends I can't wait to get to know better. I was lucky to be placed between my main girl, Genevieve Savard, and the super talented Audrey Cantwell (the sweetest girl you'll ever meet). I also loved having a chance to visit with Katie and Regine from Victoire (and I even got to hold Eloise(!)) as well as a wealth of other just seriously awesome people.


Pretty Genevieve. Go check out her blog here for more photos of the weekend. And then go buy something from her online shop, she does fantastic work.

Delightful Audrey Cantwell. I'm so pleased to have met and befriended her after so long coveting her work from afar.

Lovely Regine, one half of Ottawa's very best shop, Victoire. I wish I had a photo of her business Partner Katie as well, but I'll just have to make a point of having a Katie photoshoot next time I see her. These are two of the greatest women you'll ever meet.

5) Seeing old friends and meeting new people. It's such a pleasure to have strangers come up to your booth and tell you they like what you're making. I met a lot of people that I really hope I'm able to share future conversations with. I loved being able to talk about my process with people who are interested in that sort of thing, and also to talk about my business with people who are interested in that sort of thing. And the stylists! I'm happy just to look at them.

6) Buying things!!!! And though I was very restrained this time around, I did pick up a little something for my littlest girl. Loyal Luxe was selling these cardboard cat teepees and chalets and, what can I say? I'm a sucker for baby gifts. My baby just happens to be particularly furry. As soon as we brought it home she jumped on the box (they must put catnip in this shit) and she's barely budged from her perch inside it since. Behold Cleo's ghostly visage in the photo below, have you ever seen something so cute?

Anyone who wants a cat teepee for Christmas let me know, I'll try and bring one home for you. I'm hoping Loyal Luxe will also be at Puces Pop in two weeks which, oh yeah, I will be too!

Thanks again so much to everyone who spent so much time organizing, participating in and visiting this event. These are the sorts of things that make for a truly special community.

WATER TOPS NOW ONLINE

I just added two of the hand-dyed silk 'Water Tops' I made to my Etsy store, one pink one and one blue. By all means head over to check them out!

Now I need to make one that I can keep for myself....next up? black dye!

DYE JOB

My first two years of university were spent in the textile/fibre arts program at ACAD and that's where I learned everything I know about dying (the fabric kind, not the no-living kind). It's probably also the last time I dyed any fabric until this week, which is weird cause I LOVE dying.

I'm so happy with how these pieces turned out, I hardly want to sell them. I used a shibori technique I learned in school on a habotai silk. The process is a lot of work and destroys my fingers but I totally think the results are worth it. The pattern is a super loose tank top I made myself last winter and which I love to wear thrown over black skinnies. The pink top is double dyed and it came out that perfect shade of pale peach that puts roses in your cheeks, which is good, I was worried it might turn out orange. The blue tank is my favorite though, I'm finding it hard to let it out of my sight.

Now I just want to dye everything.

Here's the before shot:

And during:

And the great reveal:

Though it pains me a little, I'll have four of each for sale at Smart Design Mart and will be putting them in my Etsy shop early next week. I know I'll be making more of these soon.

LOG DRIVER'S WALTZ

OK, so these are obviously not the photos I promised last week but I still haven't finished that project so hopefully I can show it off, completed, in the next two or three days. In the meantime, here's a glimpse of what I got up to this weekend.

I've had this project in mind for awhile and, what with Smart Mart and Puces Pop fast approaching, have found myself much in need of a garment display rack. I think RB and I were also in need of an adventure so Saturday afternoon we took a drive out to the country in search of fallen branches and natural building supplies. We stayed away from the sugar maple lots (no need to get shot) and ended up finding some really nice pieces of wood by the side of a country road just across the Quebec/Ontario border.

Amazing what a full weekend one can make out of a windstorm, a full tank of gas, a handsaw, measuring tape, 4" screws and some addictive treats from Andalos bakery.

Like I said, this is just a glimpse of the finished project, I still have a lot of work to do. Nevertheless, hooray for things coming together so effortlessly and hooray for organic solutions.

SNEAK PEEK

Hopefully I can post full photos of this project tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a tiny sneak peek of a new style I've been working on. This one reminds me of my friend Amelia and vintage underpinnings turned bad.

JOINING THE RANKS

Oodles of overthinking and two months of hemming and hawing later, I've finally made the leap to Etsy and officially have items in my shop. I hope to upload more photos this week as well as continue to make new styles available directly to you.

Etsy is such a great resource in that it allows independent designers and business people to link into a fantastic network of like individuals and to get their creations out to the public in one of the most direct ways possible. It's quick, it's painless, it allows me to continue to develop my line in the organic way I crave and it's a great sounding board for new ideas and designs. It's good for me and it's good for you!

I invite you to come visit my shop regularly, especially over the next month as I crank out more styles for Smart Mart and Puces Pop. Follow the link to the right to explore more and keep your eyes open for specials and promotions.

SIDESWEPT

I sampled this Sideswept top in a linen knit yesterday. I love this fabric, it's kindof sheer, kindof nubbly, has the slightest sheen and it's 100% linen, the cloth of Egyptian royalty. Anyway, just a pattern I've been playing with for awhile. I want to make some more simple pieces that I can retail for under $100. I'm going to wear this one around today and see how I feel about it. And modeling, ughhh, not my favorite let's just say.