*

a jelly bean dish of things

Oh Friday!  Best day of the week... I guess last Friday just disappeared on me and I blame it on an amazing pizza lunch at Terroni with Beta !  Afterwards I just wandered about in a cheesy state of bliss and spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch.  I have a vague memory of watching Dr.OZ and seeing something about spleens...

 

But enough of that!  Look at this!  It is the season of craft sales and preparing for Christmas which (un?) fortunately means I end up buying presents for myself.  Naughty.  The CBC craft sale was yesterday and I am usually in it, but this year? Oh, not this year.  Not a scrap to sell, plus the new job, you know.  My friend Grace was in town from CA and we had a look.  This pretty necklace is made by the talented Leila Cools - I love it and decided I deserved a little treat.

Also selling,  was my ex-co-worker and her great new line of printed items at Honey Roasted.

 

Lookee!  cute cute-  Check out her Etsy shop for lots more yumminess.

 

Also in the "one for you, two for me" department, are these wondeful zipper pulls from- I think she was called Space Cat?  I didn't get a card!  I broke out the old winter coat today and the lion looks so great on the zipper.  Considering giving my mum the Decole apple...or maybe not.

Grace came over on halloween to play Bubble Bobble, carve the pumpkin and have a lovely dinner.  We had a great time, she brought me a signed copy of A Homemade Life!!  There was an author signing in San Francisco - woot!  I am savoring it and saving it for weekend afternoons on the couch, when the sun is pouring in the front room windows.  Thanks so much Grace, so nice to see you again!

One more thing...

 

A quilt!  This I am pretty sure is vintage IKEA fabric, and its something my mum started for me when I was a little girl.  I found it again recently and I am going to attempt to finish it over the winter!  It is so stinking cute, to quote Amy, and I just love the happy little town feel of it all.  It reminds me of one of my favorite books, Lotta's Bike.  Click to see it bigger.

Oh dear and now it is 4:50pm and dusk is just descending. UGH darn daylight savings time!  Bleakness!  Time for some tea and a few nice candles.

Have a lovely weekend peeps!

I like...

...finding a scrap of paper at work with a note on it, and drawing a picture to match.  Of course, that is ME as the junior world hockey champ.  Never mind that I was only ten years old in 1985.  There's girl cat helping me score the winning goal!  Never mind that she never goes outside.

Ahhh Friday!  My new schedule includes Friday's off!  Who could have dreamed of such perfection.  Its so easy to get used to a four day week, scarily easy.  I woke up really early because I was so exited to not have to do anything worky today.  I have a lunch date with Karina!  Yay!  She is in town to install her latest and greatest, Organisms and Orifices show!  Last Friday I had lunch with Krissy.  So lovely to catch up with my ladies.

Today, after my lovely lunch, despite the blustery, rainy mess that is the weather, I want to pick up some earring hooks to go with some beads I got last week, get some cat food- her higness suddenly hates her normal food- , grab a dvd or two for the weekend and perhaps later have a NAP! oh the decadence.

I think I am getting the hang of the new schedule finally, and perhaps friday posts might be my new plan.

I swear, a month or two out of the loop and so much has changed.  Typepad is all new, AGAIN, when once I felt cutting edge to have a new blog, now I am frightfully behind the times not having twittter or a blackberry or any of these newfangled things going... who has the energy?  I am just so happy to have some time to read a book, have some tea and go for brunch on weekends with my sweetie.

Bon weekend peeps!

Happy > Canadian < Thanksgiving!

A lovely pumpkin tart from a sweet new bakery near my house called OMG!

Hey ho it's been ages and ages. I have been very busy adjusting to a new job- thank heavens!

I have not had a second to look at my favorite blogs, or flickr or anything so I am totally out of touch with what you all are doing.   I am really enjoying my long weekend though. We had a lovely feast at the inlaws and lots of time to rest up, read the paper, hang about and generally enjoy.

I did an extreme close up of this lovely visitor in the rain last week.  He has never perched for such along period in one spot and it was lovely to watch him do his thing.

Who knows when I will be able to pop in next.  There is certainly no creativity going on around here either.

Good news though!  February is the release date for my new book which is called "Willow's Whispers".  Yippee! Something to look forward to, to brighten that cold dark month, but we mustn't think of February yet.  It is fall now, a lovely time of year!

evolution of a drawing

I don't think I have done this kind of post before.   I saw one like it somewhere and thought it was interesting!  This is the evolution of a drawing I recently did for Maisonneuve Magazine.

Because it was a straightforward map, of the Place Des Arts neighborhood in Montreal, it was a reasonably simple progression from sketch to final.  Many jobs require three or more rough drawings, if a concept is being hammered out, as well as some revisions and changes to the final piece too.  Above is the sketch the Art Director originally sent me, to show which businesses were important to include.

I used Google maps to figure out where everything went- what on earth did people do before that came along?  The rough in this case is nearly the same as the final.  I then traced it and made it a bit neater and nicer.

I scanned it in and colored it up in photoshop, using the colors the Art Director was using in the layout on the facing page.  Of course I added a bunch of birds in to make it a teensy bit cute.

I believe this job was passed on to me by my friend Marlena, who sends me map jobs if she is on vacation.  Thanks Mar!

what I wore

I just discovered the What I wore today pool on flickr!
I just love it- very cute- of course I had to do one straight away of myself.

Some favs-
Interludios drawings- adorable!
Hello Jenuine's drawings

Gemma Correll started this pool and her drawings are just so, so great.

Ok, don't try and eat the screen.  I have been bitten by the pizza bug!  Just looking at this picture, I am starving for it!
I make so many of the recipes on Everybody Likes Sandwiches.  They are always delicious, comforting and easy.
The easiest pizza dough recipe really was!  It was soo good I just can't stop thinking about it.  My first time buying little packets of yeast- not so scary after all!  I think I have made this 5 times since the post, always with a variety of yummy summery toppings.  Oh and to go crazytime, I also made my own tomatoe sauce from Jamies book which I found at the library in July.  So simple but so crazily yummy.  Oh I love to cook stuff and then eat stuff- yum!

bootie call!

I knit these guys over the summer for my good friend who had her baby in...my goodness- was it May or April? June?
My brain... it's going.
Anyway, as you can see, they are just a bit wonky!  One does seem fatter than the other. Not too bad for my first pair ever I suppose, but the other part of the story that you can't readily see from the picture, is that they are too big for a newborn.  They might be too big for a 2 or 3 year old.  I sent them anyway!  With a disclaimer and a mention that it was the thought that counts!
I just had to try the cute mary jane pattern.  It's from an old Knit simple magazine.



This-y here is a scarf from Marimekko!  It was the only thing I could afford at the shop in NYC.
I have it pinned on the wall in my bedroom- so cheerful!

Happy friday!

book back track

I got these back in May on our trip to NYC!  I thought I had taken a bigger pic of the covers- sorry!
We have , both from the "Heartwarming Life Series" ( l0ve that!),
on the left - Layered one Piece - ISBN978-4-529-04560-5
and on the right- its all in Japanese! ISBN978-4-529-04629-9
And as usual, can't seem to fix this "cutting off images at the right"  problem...

I took these pics last week on the porch, the same time as the Lotta book, as the light is all dappled and summery.  Think of it that way as opposed to it being not great light for photos-;)
I love these books!  I love all the layers and baggy dresses over pants and leggings- So cozy and cute.

• Saw the movie "Away we Go" on the weekend- it was so sweet!  I loved it!  Then on the walk home, Paul bought a hat and I bought a bunch of sunflowers.
• Watching season two of 30 Rock!  Boy all I want to do is watch funny shows and this one is wonderful , but I don't need to tell you that!  It's common knowledge.
• Speaking of hilarious, have you seen The IT Crowd yet??  Oh Ma Gah, LOVE IT.

Ok- I know it's summer. I AM doing more than watching TV and movies, I promise.  Not MUCH more, but I am.  There has been copious amounts of reading on the porch and eating garlic-y olive oil-y tomatoe-y  pasta dishes too.

Book's I have devoured lately:

• Belong to Me - What a great book!  I won't tell you anything about it other than it was a clever, winding tale with an ending I did not expect!  It is a continuation of the lives of the people in her her first book, Love Walked In , which I also just loved.
  
• Circle of Quilters - I just happened upon this book in the library and grabbed it based on the cover and the word "quilt" in the title. Not dissapointed!  It was a really easy and comfortable read. My kind of book, ll about women's lives and bonus, she seems ot have a ton more for me to read.
• Tea time for the Traditionally Built and the Miracle at Speedy Motors - How is this guy so prolific?? I can barely keep up, but I still love to read his books.  I have even caught a few episodes of the new show  and it's just as lovely as the books.
• This Charming Man Do not judge this book by its wretched cover here. ( My copy had this nice cover here ) I could not put it down.  I am a big Marian Keyes fan already and this book had her trademark serious subject matter mixed with hilarious Irish-isms.  Read it!  Quite a chilling depiction of alcohalism and domestic abuse.

yippee!

The previous mystery has been solved!  My best friend sent me the fabric! How could I not have put 2 and 2 together and guessed that! She is also very clever, its obvious.  Thank you L!!
Look here, this is what I mentioned Grace having sent me! 
Here it is: Lotta's Lifestyle.

The mailman came one afternoon last week when I was reading on the porch enjoying the summer. I heard the mail truck and just assumed it was for someone else, but when I heard our front gate open, I leapt up and said "Oh its for me!!"
and asked "WHAT IS IT??"  Of course the nice mailman said "uh- I don't know..."
I thanked him and off he went.
The exitement!

It was very pleasant to sit and look at every single page while the breeze moved around me and the birdies sang.  I am sure I had a glass of iced tea nearby also.  It is a lovely little book-inspiring!
It also included a little house by the unstoppable Heidi, kind of like this one, and some fun bits and pieces!
Luckiness!  Thank you Grace!

summer mystery theatre

Hello there!

I received this amazing fabric in the mail recently and I have no idea how!  I was convinced my clever friend Grace had sent it as a surprise, but she says no!  Instead she sent a different special treat which I will show you later.  It is from a shop called Karaku Tokyo and they also have an Etsy shop too.
Yummy!!  It is  such a mystery and I just don't get it.  Does anyone out there know?
I love it regardless and I am thinking of what I can make with it.



It is gorgeous summer here this week and I am on my holidays.  This is my tree- hello tree!
I am still at my redundant job awaiting word from the union - shrug- we'll see what happens.  For now I am alternatively working on a few small illustration projects and reading on the porch with a nice cup of tea.
*
Summer tidbit:  A few weeks ago was my mums 65th birthday and we had a lovely party at her friends house.  There were FIREFLIES all  over the back yard!  Fireflies!  It was magical.

big , medium , small

The hollyhocks are just amazing!  These are still from the seeds I stole from some rogue hollyhocks nearby, a few years ago.  I have two bright pink and one pale pink in the front and a handful of these maroon-y ones in the back.  They make me think I am in the English country side.  Next I need some foxgloves..  but there  isn't anywhere really to put them!  I need a meadow...



MM quiche!  I made these on Saturday night for brunch on Sunday, to avoid heating up the kitchen.  We had some friends round from Victoria!  Very nice.  I could have baked them that morning though because the weather has been so lovely and cool lately, it would not have mattered, and they are nicer fresh out of the oven.  The one on the right was my favorite- sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese and chives from the garden!  YUM! the other was broccoli and cheddar but to me it tasted of nothing.


Some peas I have growing in a pot by the back door.  These only produce enough for a pea pod on my way out the door every now and again, but they are so cute!  There is a cosmos mixed in, no surprise.  Those seeds get in everywhere!