Q: Guess what's fun?

 A: Letterpress!

The only major problem here is that I loved it immediately, and now I'm hooked. And letterpresses are the opposite of cheap.

Tanya is a great teacher and totally demystified the process for me. I anticipated being overwhelmed by the equipment. I mean, there are times when a coffee machine is too complicated for me. But it all seemed straightforward. And incredibly rewarding.

I made three greeting card designs, and when I got home I played around with some fun envelope liners. I'm pretty happy with the ostriches below. Now I can tell pretty much everyone I know how good they are at kissing. Just in time for Valentine's Day!

Also: You can totally get me a letterpress for my birthday. In four months.

And here it is!

It was quick, but it was still really fun to see my work on Canada AM this morning with Seamus O'Regan and Weddingbells editor Alison McGill.

What a great Monday morning!

(I made the bell jar arrangements, the painted potted plant with the fabric banner and the stack of books.)

My work on Canada AM tomorrow. For real!

Happy Sunday!

Chris is busy serving me a plate of Chinese food. Mostly for the health benefits of lemon sauce and breaded chicken. Mmmm.

I've been busy for the past three days working on some samples that Wedding Bells asked me to make - they'll be featured on Canada AM tomorrow morning. Yahoo! It's such a great opportunity. Also, Jann Arden will be singing on tomorrow's show. So there's that.

What else? Oh! A couple of weeks ago, while aimlessly flicking through television channels, I happened to discover an unassuming cooking show on the Latin Network. And now I'm in love with it. The host, Lidia, is from northern Italy. She owns like ten restaurants in the States. And I've tried quite a few of the recipes that she's shown - really simple Italian cooking - and it has all been amazing. Here's one of my favourites. Try it. Holy shizz, it's good.

Looking forward to the upcoming week! xo

Featured on weddingbells.ca!

Happy New Year! I just wanted to share this little invitation of mine that was featured on the Weddingbells site. What a great way to start 2011!

So. I am hoping to be braver this year. I have to force myself to share my work even if it's scary. The sharing part is scary I mean, not the work.

I've been giving myself arm cramps pulling 10-hour embroidery sessions. I'll have some new pieces that I'm looking forward to sharing soon.  

And I've also been working at this. Our week at Harbourfront is approaching so quickly...

Hope the beginning of your year has been delightful.

[Happy Anniversary to my Folks!]

Hi friends! Happy Holidays. Hope you've been able to relax and make shapes in the snow.

I have to say, I was very lucky this holiday. Among the incredibly generous gifts that my husband gave me is a letterpress course that I'll be taking at Snap and Tumble this month. I can't wait! What should I make?

 

I took a little break from making things for a few days, but that break will need to end soon. Here are some little kitchen linens I made as a gift for friends, hand embroidered with xx's and oo's.

I may make a few of these and sell them in my shop soon.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I've got a few items featured in the latest issue of Wedding Bells. Our wedding is featured in the issue as well. A special thanks to Roseanne Dela Rosa for her creativity and support!

Happy almost new years, everyone!

It's nice to be part of something.

I'm pretty chuffed to have my little holiday cards included in Fieldguided's Shop Local Gift Guide. Thank you to Erica, who took the beautiful photo and made the suggestion.

If you like them, you can pick some up at the wonderful Coriander Girl in Parkdale.

Holiday shopping today. And then I'm going to make these. Mmmmm.

Poor Diana.

I've been spending a bit of time with the photos I took during our honeymoon. I didn't realize it, but I guess my trusty Diana suffered some sort of a severe bumping and so all of my photos basically stank. It's no fun getting a bunch of stinky photos back from your honeymoon, trust me. Anyway, these are the best of the bunch.

We've been gearing up for the holidays here. We had some lovely guests stay with us last weekend, which always makes for a great opportunity to eat well. We visited Torito and finally had the courage to try their Tongue & Cheek dish. While I didn't love the tongue, the braised cheek was delicious. Have you been there? You should totally go.

Many exciting things happening lately, I'll post about them soon...

I am too romantic, and other things that happened today.

Every now and then I visit Toast's website, and then I spend quite a bit of time idealizing English country life, and then I think about how I should really prioritize that trip to visit my husband's English family. And do some shopping. Some very expensive shopping. And then I sort of snap out of it.

Anyway: the clothes, they are so pretty! And the housewares, too.

Pretty Paper. By Me!

So you may know, or you may not even know, that I've got a little line of stationary that I've been developing. And I've finally started to sell it through my etsy shop. So if you know anyone who needs invitations for an event, send them my way! I'll be adding more to it in the next month or so.

And I've just started selling these little notecard sets, made with some of my watercolour illustrations.

We spent this past weekend in Oakville at a lovely wedding on the lake. The groom was one of Chris' oldest friends - they met in the fourth grade!

We packaged some treats up for them with their wedding gift. I really want to try that mustard. I feel like a spicy zing with every meal lately.

A few nice things for a lovely November day.

* A little glimpse of some work I'm doing for a client.

* A baby quilt I made for a special (pregnant) friend. Ready to send off!

* Forelle pears. Yum. 

* Just about the prettiest tea packaging I've seen. From Clipper UK. Tastes wonderful too!

* New Books! And they're fantastic. Rebecca Solnit's Storming the Gates of Paradise, Maira Kalman's And the Pursuit of Happiness and Bruce Mau & friends The Third Teacher.

We started reading And the Pursuit of Happiness last night. It's so delightful and moving. And we saw Bruce Mau speak last week and were compelled to buy this book afterwards.

* Dinner last night. The un-healthiest salad ever, with a side of zucchini. My specialty.