Lovely Day

I knew The Black Apple had a store update today at 2pm Eastern so I waited eagerly for it, watching the clock like a bird watching a worm. However, I never did see the store update. I refreshed and saw a new print up, but no new dolls, no new original paintings... I wondered if I had the wrong time, but I kept patiently waiting and refreshing. By 3pm Eastern, I knew I had missed it. Sure enough, when I checked her blog, I discovered 30 new comments. Upon reading them, I realized that everything had sold out in less than 2 minutes. Amazing! So I guess the new print I saw was part of the update afterall, but because everyone had snapped up the other new goodies instantaneously, I never saw them on the "for sale" page. It seems that her store updates sell out faster and faster these days. I think the last one was 20 minutes. Two minutes is definitely a new record.

Congrats to Emily Martin on another spectacular store update! I'm sure many an Etsy seller would love to be in her shoes.

I'm still tossing the idea of starting an Etsy store in my head. I know that I'll eventually do it, but I'm taking my sweet time about it and doing lots of research. In the meantime, I keep making new things and I keep watching the wonderful things that Etsy artists and other artists create. You are all my inspiration!

It's a lovely, sunny day out today. I'm in a particularly good mood. So many good things have happened. My brother graduated from his technical institute, two of my friends announced that they will be expecting their first child later this year, wedding invitations are arriving in the mail, my friend got an acceptance letter to a highly covetted program... everything is falling into place just perfectly. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Modern Baby Bib

This is such an adorable picture and bib from Boopalina and Bebe. The bib looks soft and comfy.

Card Men!

I came across this really neat idea of card men by Bethanys Toybox like those found in Alice in Wonderland. I have a HUGE stack of card packs at home and this would be a nifty idea to use some of those up. Hm....

Glass with eyes

I find that a lot of Jojoy's glass beads look like googly eyed monsters. It's quite neat.

Black Satin Paper Doll Dress

This is a really cute dress from Duchess Von Dudik. I love the paper doll cut-outs all around the skirt.

Betty In Progress

Hello! I hope you are having a good weekend.

I had some time to work on Betty tonight. I had planned to put a barrette in her hair, but decided on flowers instead after a few experiments. I am really delighted with how it turned out. Each flower has a pearl bead center. They remind me of hydrangea flowers, except bright yellow. I also gave her a wide, plain yellow belt. The detail is on the back instead of the front, with a bow-like gathering and a yellow leaf with white embroidering. All that is left now is her mouth and eyes. I am leaving them to the last because I need to decide on how her features will look.

Big Big Pig

I was feeling rather gloomy. I guess I'm still disappointed over the broken egg. I looked up bird on Etsy, and somewhy came upon this PIG. Hum... Well, I couldn't help but smile when I looked at him. Thought you might like to see him too.

Flummeries

I heart the Flummeries dolls. I just came across them today and I find them really adorable.

They have the sweetest stories too!

I hope you all have a Happy Friday!

Bye bye baby

It's over. The nest is scattered, the pigeons are gone, and one little egg lies shattered on the ledge below.

I am quite sad that the egg has come to such an end. I wonder what happened?

In a dark, dark place

I love these Burtonesque houses by Bellatrix Art. They are so moody and dark.

Pigeon Egg Spotted!

Yes, the sweet day has arrived - an egg has been laid! See Mama Pigeon sitting beside her eggling. I think most pigeons lay two eggs so it's possible that what you see is the dud and the good egg is under her. I'm not sure though. I can't really explain why she's sitting beside it instead of on top of it.

It may be that she's new at this motherly stage in life. As you can see, her nest is quite sparse. I was under the impression that the collection of scattered grasses was just a nest-in-progress, but that doesn't appear to be the case...

Papa Pigeon is lurking under the platform that I'm standing on. He's a bit camera shy. When I turned my camera upon him, he backed up quickly so that I all I could see was his reflection on the glass. Hehehe...

I'm sorry that I've been absent for a few days. Work has been really busy and I've had some logos for Tiggle Wiggle baby products to deliver. Here they are!
















I also snapped some pictures of dandelions with snow on top from the weekend. Our Spring weather is including some cold snaps, but it makes for some pretty pictures.










This is my silver nettle plant. I was bike riding when I was little and saw this plant growing up the side of a tree. It looked beautiful to me so picked a small vine and planted it under the tree outside my house. It grows beautifully, but I have discovered that it is literally impossible to get rid of. I once mowed it down, dug it up, did everything I could to get rid of it. But it always grew back. I finally gave in and just let it be. Now I rather enjoy it's wild, indestructible nature. It does look lovely, no?

I illustrated a book!

I was so excited to receive a package in the mail today!

A while back, I drew some simple line drawings for a book called Conversational Southern that Anne Calloway was planning to publish. She promised to send me a copy when they were ready. Today, a copy finally arrived! Yay!

Sadly, I am never once mentioned as the illustrator. Instead, a Meghan Gale got credit for the cover design. Tsk-tsk! This is after I had to insist on colouring the title image myself because I was so displeased with the colouring the layout artist did. Ah well!

Nevertheless, I am really, really happy that the book was finally published and that I got to play a part in its making. Below are some of the illustrations, and her thank you note :)

Art Dolls by Danita

I like these art dolls and paintings by Danita Art.

Ribbon Art

I'm fascinated by how ribbon is manipulated to make these hair clips by Posh Pretties.

Art Quilts

Can you believe that these paintings are quilts? Linduska paints white fabric with acrylic paint, dyes, and ink, and then machine embroiders the botanical elements. She then adds twisted, gathered yarn. Pretty amazing, huh?

Lampwork Beads

I find lampwork beads so beautiful. This one is from The Shard Gallery.

Harry Potter Ornaments

Someone with an obsession with Harry Potter characters made these detailed ornaments of Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood. I think they're great :)

New Doll in Progress

I started on a new doll on the weekend - this time with BLUE hair and a YELLOW dress! I can't wait to see how it will turn out. The beauty of not having any patterns to work from is that you never know how it will turn out exactly.



I also finally tried out the Sandbar at Granville Island. My friends rave about it a lot so I've always been curious. The crab and shrimp Benedict was decent, but my wild salmon burger was delicious. It's a nice environment to go to if you're willing to pay about 3 dollars more than the food court for a gourmet burger. I was under the impression that the Sandbar was a fine dining restaurant, but it's actually more casual. It's more like an upscale Earls with a seafood focus.

My favourite fine dining restaurant to go to is still the Fish House at Stanley Park. I went there for lunch once and was really impressed with the food quality, the presentation, the atmosphere, and the service.

I like going to a fine dining restaurant once in a while. You pay a lot more for less food, but the chefs go to great lengths to decorate and design your meal as art. You can take your time to enjoy the way everything looks and to really savour the smells and tastes.

Quote by Robert Henri

Those who have lived and grown at least to some degree in the spirit of freedom are our creative artists. They have a wonderful time. They keep the world going. They must leave their trace in some way, paint, stone, machinery, whatever. The importance of what they do is greater than anyone estimates at the time. In fact in a commercial world there are thousands of lives wasted doing things not worth doing. Human spirit is sacrificed. More and more things are produced without a will in the creation, and are consumed or ‘used’ without a will in the consumption or the using. These things are dead. They pass, masquerading as important while they are before us, but they pass utterly. There is nothing so important as art in the world, nothing so constructive, so life-sustaining. I would like you to go to your work with a consciousness that it is more important than any other thing that you might do. It may have no great commercial value, but it has an inestimable and lasting life value.

Robert Henri, 1865-1929

Sunny Spring Weather

It's absolutely spectacular outside today - full sun and 21 degrees Celsius. I took advantage of the great weather to do some gardening. I planted some green beans and butter squash with seeds left over from last year's crop, and some Kumquat orange seeds. I have no idea if the orange seeds will grow, but it would be really cool if they did! There was also some transplanting to do and a LOT of cleaning.

While I was digging around in the garden, I came across a squishy grub, probably a beetle larva of some sort. I took some pictures of him before he buried his way back into the soil.







I am also happy to see some tiny blue flowers reappearing in my lawn. One year, the entire lawn was light blue because of these little flowers.

Friday Bliss

I'm soooo glad it's Friday! It's been such a crazy, busy week with so much to get done. It's the busy season for the studio where I work and everyone is frazzled. Luckily, I managed to get everything finished on time and left today with plenty of sunshine to still enjoy. I took a stroll down the street to a bus stop farther away so that I could walk, breathe, and just look at everything.

I noticed an orange safety cone lodged in a tall tree, and there were lots of brave robins looking for worms. Most of the trees are still quite barren, but big buds are forming on their branches, resembling large polka dots against a background of sky and sticks. The weather is still cold, but it's not hats and scarves weather anymore. I quite like it.

Fruity Pincushions

I marvel at the wonderful pincushions by GinPins. They look plump and well-sewn!

Silhouette Mobiles

These are some lovely mobiles from Spin Designs. Check out the crazy shoe obsession one! There are also some nice necklaces.

The High Tech Industry

If you work in the high tech industry, or know of anyone who just happens to work in any project setting, perhaps you will find this video interesting... and just a little familiar.

Pigeon Nests

I keep an eye on the pigeons at the Skytrain station by my workplace. I have "rescued" a few baby pigeons from there before so I feel kindly towards them. The Skytrain folks have recently installed bird spikes all over the station to discourage the pigeons from sitting on the edges and, I guess, pooping on people's head as they pass by.

However, while the spikes look impressive, they don't seem to work. You can see some pictures of how the birds spikes don't work here.

The pigeons took a few weeks to check out the new spikes, but they were able to carefully maneuver between them and to stand around on the platforms, surrounded by a fortress of bird spikes. Admittedly, they do have to avoid the edges of the platforms now, so you can say that they do work if they were simply intended to keep birds away from the edge. I suspect that that wasn't the original purpose because there are now double the amount of spikes as initially installed. The density of the bird spikes should discourage landing on top of them, but all un-spiked areas are fair game.

Yesterday, I noticed the beginning of a pigeon nest in the middle of the bird spike fortress. It's only a small handful of grasses in a circular pattern, but Momma pigeon is already squatting in the middle and occasionally tucking the sparse grasses closer to her. Papa pigeon is patrolling from above to chase away visitors. No one is allowed to use that platform except for his honey wife now.

The platform is quite open and I'll be able to see the nest clearly all of the time. I wonder if I'll get to see some real eggs and real newborn pigeons this year! That would be a real treat.

Another Super Needlefelter!

Another super needlefelter! I've found another one. First Fing, and now Motley Mutton. Amazing talent, and oh-so-cute.

Crochet Dim Sum

Mmm... shu mai...

Check out these cute little pork shu mai in the toki cafe.

If you've never gone for dim sum, you should! There is a big selection of items and something to please everyone. I like to go EVERY WEEK!

Hyacinth the camping owl

Look at this cute little owl from Fluffy Flowers. I think Hyacinth is just darling!

Once, when I went camping, some real owls decided to hoot back and forth to each other. I found the sound quite amusing (for a while, I thought someone in the campsite was just being silly). Now, if I ever hear the sound again, I'll think of a fuzzy little owl like this one.

Really Tiny Awesomeness

I dunno about you, but these super tiny crocheted snails and Bee Bears are really, really cute. I can't even imagine crocheting something so tiny. It's like they used a shrinking machine on the dolls or something!!

Lil Sprinkles Dolls

A warm welcome to the sister duo of Lil Sprinkles, a new store on Etsy! I was pleased to see some really good looking dolls there today and thought you might like to see them too.

Pillow Monsters

These are some rockin' dolls from Pillow Monsters. They're awesome.

Wool Shorts and Thoughts on Art

I think this is a pretty adorable pair of two-toned wool shorts for a baby. Wouldn't you say so?

I've been spending the day editing papers, watching movies, and thinking. At one point, I looked around my room and was stunned by how much stuff I've created over the past while. My bulletin board has no more room to add more felt brooches, my shelves are lined with crocheted dolls, my monitor is lined with bottlecap pincushions, and Sylvie is studying my every reaction from my side table. When I glance around behind me, I have box after box of art supplies. I've literally surrounded myself with my art without even thinking about it.

Every day I go to work and I leave this little art sanctuary to go to an office, and when I return, I begin to make things. It's automatic. Happy? Make things. Sad? Make things. Bored? Make things. The number of creations is steadily increasing and I'm running out of room to store it all.

I really admire all the Etsy sellers that make things and then send them away. As I look around my room, I think of how nice it would be - how freeing even- it would be to package the many dolls and other made things and to send them away to someone who would appreciate them and value them. And then I'd have room to make more things!

It's hard though, you know. I get quite attached to all my creations. I agree with others before me that have claimed that a little bit of themselves gets packaged up and sent away whenever they send a purchased item away. Perhaps it sounds odd, but I have been resisting starting an Etsy store all this time because I've been reluctant to let all my creations go.

Today, though, I think I'm starting to change my mind. I know I can't keep making things and locking them up in my room. It's like writing a book that's never read, or painting a picture that will never be seen. I think art is something that is meant to be shared, and it seems selfish and pointless for me to hide mine. Perhaps life will have all the more meaning to me if I just take what skills I have and put them to use. If someone out there likes my creations and wears my brooch, or plays with one of my dolls, it would be really special. I think much more special than having them sit on my shelf. What do you think?

Two Left Hands

Here are some lovely flower pillows from Two Left Hands.

WAWAYA

I'm not sure what all these words mean, but I am strangely drawn to the unusual dolls in WAWAYA's store.

bear bums logo

Here's my latest in graphic art projects - a bear bums logo for a Tiggle Wiggle baby product! I am quite pleased with how it turned out :)

More Fing

Okay, okay, okay, I know I rave about Fing a lot but you have to admit that her stuff is awesome. I've been super busy at work so I haven't had a lot of time to post. Here is a showcase for some of her latest creations. My fav is Jeffrey the wise owl. He made me smile.

Meet Sylvie!

I am happy to introduce Sylvie, a sassy sweet girl with a penchant for fashion and dressing up. When she's not shopping and chatting up a storm with strangers, she likes to sit in quaint cafes sipping tea with a close friend. Sylvie appreciates the simple things in life like good friends and good tea.








Her passion is to become a fashion designer.










Sylvie is about 17 inches tall. She is completely handsewn from felt and stuffed with polyfil and rice (for weight). Her lips and dress details are embroidered.