Friday Night.

You know you're in an upscale neighbourhood when the swears are this tame. 

Dress for a tiny girl.

In honour of the sweetest tiny girl I know, I tried my hand at making a little dress, using the pattern from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing (which is excellent so far, by the way). I chose a vibrant fabric from Mark Lipinski's Katmandu line, and here it is:

Oh man, I really hope it fits. I want to mail this out as a surprise, so I guessed on the sizing. Anyway, what I learned is that it's pretty fun to make tiny clothing. And since basically everyone I know is knocked up, I guess I'll be doing lots of this in the near future.

Some new things I made.

I've made a few new dresses - some more successful than others - but I'm really happy with the fit of this dress I made. It's simple simple simple and I love the poppy fabric, and I also love that I didn't screw anything up to the extent that I have to make sure I'm always covering some area that's garbled or mangled.

This is the perfect little jacket that my mum bought me for my birthday. I feel like its something that I'll have forever.

Lately I've been trying to make more food at home, because we rely waaaay too much on take-out. I made this apple flan with a ready-made organic puff pastry dough, and served it for our family brunch this morning and there were no leftovers, which is a good sign. It's been so rewarding to make things from scratch, with my very own hands. It feels like a measurable accomplishment, which is important as it often feels like the work I make ends up floating in the ether. And also, flans taste way better than theatre.

Recipe here.

Birthday things.

My birthday was this week, and for the first time ever I didn't feel like making it too much of an event. Instead, it was filled with love, pretty dresses, flowers and vulgar amounts of food. 

Chris bought me this beautiful dress from Meg. It's a blue and white print of birds flocking. This is me posing with the pot of African Violets I stole from work. I should also mention that the Prairies de Paris shoes I'm wearing here are the most comfortable little things I've ever worn. 

We went to Colborne Lane for my birthday dinner, and tried the 10-course tasting menu. For some reason I thought I'd easily make it from beginning to end, but by course seven I realized how underprepared I had been. How does a person prepare for that kind of eating, anyway? Still, it wasn't like I could pass up the lavender donut, right (course 9)? So, after 4 hours of straight eating, I emerged victorious. And bloated.

I should also mention that I visited Toronto's first Anthropologie location, and though I'm still disappointed that it's here (I loved that it was always a special place that I could go to on vacation), it was great to be able to go for a short drive to the shop. And for some reason, the prices in the store were cheaper than the CDN prices listed on their website. Oh, how I hope that's just not a mistake!

Off to brunch! Enjoy the beautiful day!

As though I needed more tea cups.

We've already got so many tea cups that our cupboards are bursting, but I couldn't resist these when I saw them. And they were .25 cents each. And sometimes I'm  a sucker for a deal.

Aren't they beauties? I can't wait to one day have a kitchen where I can display some of this stuff.

Me + Valentino, together at last.

It's been a beautiful day here, and we started the morning with a deliciously vulgar breakfast at Oddfellows. We sat outside and watched the baby parade and tried the "Breakfast for Two", which consists of spiced potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, asparagus, a pile of meat, all baked in a black clay vessel, with toast and homemade jam on the side . 

Yes, that is asparagus wrapped in a ribbon of bacon. And yes, it was really good.

I then convinced Chris to join me on a trip to Value Village, where I made what I believe to be a tremendous score: a navy wool Valentino dress for $9.99. Basically, nothing else that happens today really matters. This will always be The Day I Found The Valentino Dress.

Me, modelling said dress. 

Okay, off to a reading! Have a great Saturday night!

Things for tiny people.

I've been busy this Easter weekend buying and making gifts for friends who are expecting or who have little ones. My favourite 2-year old's birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, and I wanted to find her a few practical things as well as something little and wonderful. I found this tiny mouse, who makes her bed in a wooden matchbox. Eeee!

She comes with a little mattress, pillow and knitted blanket. Handmade in Denmark by Maileg, and purchased in Toronto at Kolkid. I would have loved this little thing as a child. I still love toys that have their own little accessories.

Maileg makes other wonderful (and expensive) toys, like their Brothers & Sisters collection of rabbits. My favourite are the swimming rabbits:

Water-wings.

I also spent the better part of yesterday making a baby bag for one of my sweetest friends who is having a little girl this summer. I used striped & sturdy fabric from Ikea, made outside pockets on the front of the bag for little things (like this bear rattle with a hoodie) and tried my hand at embroidery for the first time. Not bad, hey?

There are tons of projects to finish. I'm going to try my hardest to finish a dress I started and then got stuck on and then put aside and looked at longingly for a few weeks. It's made of Nani Iro Fuccra fabric which I love love love.

Isn't it beautiful?
Cross your fingers for me!

Oh no, I've been away for so long.

It has been a while. It's strange, but there's a certain sense of blog-related guilt that I feel when I don't write. But there have been many new and wonderful happenings since January that have delayed my writing. So let's see, what's been going on?

1. I got engaged! This is really joyful news for me. We've been really busy sorting out details now rather than later, so that we can now relax, and do fun things like making paper flowers and invitations.

2. I've been sewing like mad. I have some pictures, so I'll post them soooon. Lately I've been making baby bags, as everyone I know seems to be expecting.

3. There have been lots and lots of little projects. A piece of mine was selected for a juried arts fest called Escarpment: On the Edge, which runs in St. Catharines from April 22 to July 24. I'll also be performing an excerpt in a new piece written by a most talented writer friend in the In The Soil Festival.

Okay, so at least there's a little bit of news there, right? And more to come, promise.

Sweet Junebug and the New Years Dress.

Well happy new year! What a nice little year I've had so far.

Last week I made my first official visit to Frank Gehry's newly redesigned AGO, and it's ding-danging amazing. Not the collection, so much, but the space itself is beautiful and some of the curating is really very effective. It makes me like the city just a little bit more.

AGO Walker Court, Photo by Sean Weaver

Mostly, though, I've been sewing constantly, thanks so my new machine ,Junebug, and her mesmerizing charms. Oh! And after doing a bit of research, I found a great shop in Parkdale that offers classes and the best little fabric selection in town. I was nearly apoplectic. It's called The Workroom, and it's definitely worth a visit.

So far I've made a skirt (which I'll post about when I have a decent picture) and this dress, made from what I consider to be some of the most beautiful fabric IN THE WORLD. EVER. It's quite heavy, and probably not really appropriate for a dress, but I couldn't resist and made this little structured thing with it.

The fabric is grey with hand-drawn blossoms in light grey and gold metallic. And love. By Hinemosu Notari.

And next: a dress made with seahorses and octopi. For real. I can barely contain myself.

I'm finally posting some of the awesome shit I got.

Let's start with new shoes & necklaces.

No, actually, let's start with Happy Holidays! And very best wishes to you. Today has been a blissful day, and there's a steak & guiness pie in the oven, and a new sewing machine (!) under the tree! For me! I already have ideas for more projects, now that I've got a sewing machine to fiddle with again.

Okay, back to new shoes. Here are three lovelies that I'm so excited about.

i. The Camper oxfords. Chris bought them for me - by the way, Camper is having a sale until the end of Feb, which hardly ever happens. They're simple, practical and gorgeous.


ii. Les Prairies de Paris grey oxfords. I've been looking for great grey shoes forever, and with the amazing craftsmanship on these girls, and the twist on classic oxfords with the elastic, I couldn't resist. I think the elastic makes them sort of ballerina-y, no?


iii. Dries Van Noten boot-shoe things. Kick ass and comfy. Very good for toughening up my girly dresses.

I had been looking for a magnifying glass forever, and UO is selling one, and even though it's mass-produced I love it. The sweet peas-in-the-pod necklace was a beautiful anniversary gift from Chris.

Tomorrow or Saturday I'll finally pull out all of the ding dang clothing I've got recently and document it. Finally!

By the way, the Les Prairies shoes were from Jonathan + Olivia, a Vancouver store that just opened here in Toronto a few months ago - on Ossington. They've got great designers (they're the only store that carries Les Prairies in Canada, I think) and they're really, really nice. Which is appreciated when I'm spending a bit of money.

Photo by Zoe Bridgman