255basket of monkeys
That's right... 'Tis the Season of the craft shows.

3 months of sewing, tagging, printing, painting, sewing, sewing, sewing and the week has finally arrived. 2 Craft shows back-to-back – the Speakeasy Holiday... more

251In the summer my friend Michelle came to me with an idea. She called it KraftKaravan. Her idea was to take the craft show into peoples homes – something along the lines of a pampered Chef party. I was sold. We worked out the preliminary details and began to ask around if people would be interested in... more

247Japanese Paper I collect things. One of my biggest collections is of paper. I collect all sorts of paper scraps such as old used stamps, Wrapping paper, packaging, vintage patterns, fortune cookie fotunes, old letters.... I am also a bit obsessive about... more

236Rose Avenue Junior School
If you ever happen to be walking through St James Town take a walk past Rose Avenue Junior Public School.

St. James Town is a diverse neighbourhood but also a poor neighbourhood. When I did some research I... more

228

Shaman IV By John Gould

2 weeks ago I wrote about curiosity which led me to sift through my old sketch books. In one of these books I found a tattered old announcement from the Roberts Gallery for a show of John Gould's work. This announcement has led me to this weeks blog...... more

It's 10:11 pm and I just got home from a 2 hour workshop called The Art of Selling – A Workshop for Crafters. It was held by Mary Breen, the owner of Wise Daughters Craft Market located in the Junction.

Firstly walking from Dundas West station through the Junction was wonderful. I haven't been there for years and it has changed dramatically. It was a very good thing that it was 6:30 pm and the shops were all closed.

The Art of Selling workshop is geared towards how to sell crafts. Mary started us off by going

around the room of 8 participants,... more

I was recently told that my curiosity, most definitely, is waning. I attended the RGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario) Creative Business Summit 2010 and the first speaker gave a talk on curiosity. It was Bob Hambly from the Design firm Hambly & Woolley whom I have met on several occassions many years ago. He began by telling us that curiosity "is the fuel that drives designers creativity." In childhood we have the most amount oif curiosity because, of course, everything is new. As we proceed through our lives our curiosity shrinks. This "shrinkage" is due to several factors,... more

I just heard from the 918 Bathurst Holiday Art Market.

A jury of "quality artists, art dealers and promoters" selected me along with 8 others from 32 early submissions!

This sale will be taking place on the weekend of December 4th and 5th

I'd better get to sewing...

I have to keep this week's entry brief because I have a splitting headache, monkeys to sew and classes to prepare.

I stopped by Periwinkle on Sunday to check on our shelves. I had a few more owls from Michelle and a few more monkeys to restock. My heart jumped when I walked through the doors. Our products had been rummaged through and moved around. There were holes... The biggest hole was where my giant sock monkey had been (made with thigh-highs). It had been sold!  I was giddy and couldn't think straight. My hands were shaking and I could hardly arrange the new products. When I... more

178IMG_3776.JPGCrafting has always been a huge part of my life and I have always had at least 3 projects on the go at any given time and about 40 in the back of my head waiting for a spare moment. I have always been open to selling what I make but have never... more

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