It's almost time!

It has been a loooong few weeks and I have one more before I head to T.O. for the One of a Kind. I'm pretty sure my lungs are full of wool and my muscles have begun to atrophy from sitting all day on my sewing machine, but its' all coming together! Every day I'm crossing more and more off my list and it feels really good :P

Here is a coupon to save a few dollars off you tickets, and make sure you come visit me at Booth X-33!

After the show I immediately have to come home and make all my christmas presents and start packing! I'm moving to a new place, a whole house! I'm going to have so much storage I can't wait. I love my place right now, but actually having a living room that is not storage will be so awesome, plus I'll have a yard! I will be able to BBQ!!

So something that keeps me going when I'm super busy are awesome videos like this :) Henry in his Super Henry cape, which he actually wears in just his underwear calling himself Captain Underpants. With his little shadow Jack who copies everything he does. I'll be making him a cape for this year :)

This summer

So I spent a lot of time this summer procrastinating :) Which means I had a great summer, but will be totally swamped for the next couple of months getting ready for the One of a Kind Show. Every time I finish a show I swear I'm going to be more organized, I don't know why I bother trying to fool myself :P

So I did a couple of shows this summer with my new booth set-up, which is basically a smaller version of my One of a Kind set-up. I think it looked pretty awesome, actually almost too awesome as a LOT of people stopping at my booth had more to say about my trees than my owls, but they do look pretty cool :) Make me really appreciate all the help I've had from my dad, I can't imagine what it would look like without him.. even my past setups were only possible because he made my super light-weight folding tables.

The other exciting new thing is squirrels! I've finally finished the squirrel pattern. As much as I actually hate real live squirrels (I have to have friends retrieve my walls for my shows due to a squirrel) I think the stuffed squirrel is pretty cute. I'll take better pictures soon and get them up on Etsy. They are double sided so each one has two different fabrics on the tail. They take a bit longer to make than the owls so although I have them priced at $60 for now I think they may go up a bit soon, I haven't totally decided yet. And no baby squirrels yet, but I think that'll be a January project.

Anyways, that's all for now.. I want to get to bed, but I'm probably going to go cut some more fabric :)

The Boys

I thought I would share a couple of projects I did for my nephews. Lately they have been in to dinosaurs so I decided this year for Christmas I would give them some dinosaur/dragon tails. They were a pretty big hit, they love chasing after us and hitting us with them :)

Then for their birthdays, which are only a month apart and right after Christmas, I followed this super easy pattern I found online for a tent. I don't normally follow specific patterns, I find them really boring, but this one was really easy and fast. The hardest part was finding the room to lay a sheet out to cut it.. my apartment is a tad crowded :)

I would have KILLED for a tent like this when I was a kid. I always made the most elaborate tents with poles and blankets and duct tape. They never lasted long as I usually built them really big and right in the way of the washer and dryer. I just always loved having a totally private spot to read and do puzzles (I was a bit nerdy... ok, I still am).

Anyways, I suppose what I hope is that when the boys are old, they'll remember all the cool handmade presents they got from their aunt Hilary :)

I know...

It's been waaaaay too long. I have no excuses. Other than being super busy in the Christmas lead up and super lazy after :P I was also in Barbados for a week, I know just one week but the build up and wind down was at least a month :P I so wish I could go back :)


One of a Kind went really really well. I did better than expected and I will be at the Spring so coming in March, yay! My booth turned out I think really well, I had a lot of help from my dad building my trees and walls. And tons of help from my sister who stayed the entire two weeks!


So a new year and I need some new product I think. The owls are still moving really well and the alphabets have been getting more and more popular. But I keep thinking I need to start working on all the ideas that have been rolling around in my head for the last year. Oddly enough the first thing I attempted just came to me two days ago, but I was kind of excited to try him out. He needs some work, but I think he's pretty darn cute. I used burlap for the stripes cause I love that texture and I think the quilting fabric would be just too busy.

Thoughts?

Army of Owls

So in preparation for the One of a Kind I've been making tons of the same things and so I thought why not take some pictures. Unfortunately it was super super windy today so I didn't get the shot I was imagining since the owls kept blowing over, but I think these turned out pretty good. I'll probably try again soon. It's fun playing around with my new camera, which is just a small point and shoot, but so much better than my old one!

Some of the craziness has ended!

So I've finished my two summer shows. It never really seems like it's going to be that much work, but after 10 hours of sitting in a tent smiling and chatting with strangers it can be quite exhausting. I love doing it, don't get me wrong, but I always seem to need a few days afterwards to re-coop. Especially after lugging all my stuff back up 3 flights... next apartment will definitely be ground floor!

The best part about doing shows, is trading. I have collected some really awesome works of art in the last two years, so much that I really have no wall space left. But I keep wanting more! This weekend I met Earl Beadle, he had the coolest booth I think I've ever seen, complete with dangling wooden squirrels and mannequin hands protruding from logs. It was completely inspiring and I absolutely loved everything in his booth. Lucky for me he liked my stuff too :) So here is my new piece, I love it and can't wait to hang it!


Now I get to settle in for a summer of sewing. I have two shows in September and the One of a Kind in November. Lots of stuff to make but if I keep my head down and work hard I think I'll make it. That is of course after this week, since I'll be in Ottawa for Bluesfest :)

Falling behind

So this was an exciting week. The Kingston Interiors magazine came out and I finally got to see my article :) I'm really happy with it and have already had people stopping by Dwell to buy owls, so yay! Here's an image of the article and links to the photographer Scott Adamson and the writer Jasmine Brooks 's blogs.



I'm also, as I figured, a bit behind on my schedule :P Mostly because I've been working on Etsy orders, but the afternoon naps I've been taking lately aren't helping either :P

I'm taking a bit of a break next week to go SKYDIVING! My brother is coming to town for a few days and we'll be jumping on the 17th. I can't wait! I'm sure I'll be terrified on the day, but right now I'm just excited!

Here is a picture of the flower artwork I finished for the Art After Dark the other week. I actually really love it and don't know if I'll take it to any of my shows.. I might just keep it :)