We are working hard to get the online shop up and ready to go by end of April. Then it’s design mode again for the summer line. Hope everyone is enjoying Spring so far. It’s been cold & wet here the past week but really hoping for some Spring weather soon. I’m still finding myself drinking warm beverage to keep warm. Spring, where are you?
I got a happy surprise in the mail today. I completely forgot I ordered these Japanese tape a few weeks ago and they arrived today. Isn’t it so nice to get special little things in the mail? I can see myself happily taping lots of things the next few days with these awesome tape. You can get them here.
We’ve been busy! The New Domestic Store will open in April. Our first line of products are large screen printed graphic totes made from 12oz. heavy-weight recycled cotton canvas. Each bag is printed with a bonus diagonal pattern on the back (so you get two looks with one bag). We are launching with four designs to start with. The one shown is called “Dreaming of Marrakesh”. More products are coming in the Summer.
I love making things for people but making fun things for little people is even more special. We were at our friends’ girls birthday party yesterday and I wanted to give them something creative and productive. So I came up with an idea of an artist kit. Awhile back, I found these great wooden boxes at a local crafts store and I loved them so much that I bought a few. I decided to use those boxes and stuff them with all sorts of art supplies like oil pastels, paint, glitter paint, brushes and a wooden number 3 as it was their 3rd birthday. I then personalized each box with the first letter of their name. ‘O’ for Orla and ‘L’ for Lucy. I know little kids appreciate anything that is made especially for them – and after all, turning 3 is quite special!
I used bakers twine to bundle a little canvas with each box and then sewed a wooden button around the middle of the twine to finish it off. Happy 3rd birthday Lucy & Orla. We can’t wait too see your masterpiece!
Christmas cards from Luna to all her lovely baby friends. This year, I wanted to make something crafty that she could be part of, like a mommy and daughter project together to give to her baby friends. The initial idea was that I would make all the cards (using materials we already have at home) then get her to participate by scribbling whatever she wanted on each and every card. Well, she managed to do one but that’s about it. I layed her on the floor with all the pencil crayons and she screamed with delight from excitement. It started off pretty good as I showed her what to do and she happily started scribbling. Then, she started chewing on the pencil crayons and wanted to rip the card and eat the paper. So it didn’t quite work out the way I had imagined (she’s not digging baby labour).
So, I did the rest of the scribbling on all the cards and made it look like Luna did it (shhhh…). But I assure you, there’s Luna love in every single card! Merry Christmas to all the little people out there!
This past year, I’ve been working on a special book documenting Luna’s first year of life. When we had Luna, everyone kept on telling us to take a lot of photos as the year will go by really fast. Well, we did and we took A LOT! In this digital age, I was a little concerned that the photos we were taking were just getting lost in our computer. I grew up (Which I’m sure all of you did too) where we had tons of albums at home documenting our life. I think that’s been non existant lately as our computer has become our photo album. But I don’t find the satisfaction looking through photos on my monitor screen – I feel less attached to the photos I am looking at. It’s just not the same. I want to be able to hold a book, go through the pages, feel the paper… it’s more intimate and feels more special.
So I came up with this idea and jumped right on it the first month Luna was born. It’s a 276 page book with different chapters for every month of her life. Here’s a little write up taken from the book:
To my daughter Luna,
I made this book, for you, to document your first year of life. Whenever you were having your afternoon naps or dreaming away in the evening in your cozy room I would be working on this book – creating something special for you to have. For such a little person, you sure have taught me so much about patience, love and to see the world with fresh eyes. When we first laid our eyes on each other when you were born, it was as if you knew who I was already and I felt the same. The love that I feel towards you is so powerful that I always have a hard time describing what it feel like. This book shows how much you have impacted our lives and how much love you have brought into our lives too. I hope that when you grow up and look at this book, it will be a nice reminder of all the special moments we have shared with you during your wonderful first year of life. All the milestones you had accomplished, your first frustrations, first solids, first rollovers, first vacation, first birthday… everything you learned and discovered, we were always there beside you, watching you discover your world and grow to become such a beautiful little girl. We are so proud of you, our dear daughter and thank you for coming to this world to be part of our lives.
Love, Mommy
I plan to do one for every year of her life (crossing my fingers), kind of like an encyclopedia with different volumes. It’s really not that much work. I just take a few hours per month working on a few pages. Looking through this book now after a year has past, I can’t help but get a bit emotional as it’s really been such a special year. We now look forward to what year 2 will bring!
I like to change our table centrepiece once in awhile to freshen up the space. I bought almost a dozen mason jars from a vintage store probably a year ago and use them for storing random stuff like rolls of thread, bookmarks, pebbles etc… They are great to have at home as they are so versatile and can be used for anything really. For Luna’s birthday party, I decided to use them as vases to put on the buffet table. I wrapped them individually with different coloured fabric to give them some life and texture. The plants come from the garden. I really like the simple and homey look to them so they now have a new home and are placed on top of my cake stand in the middle of our dining table.
We celebrated Luna’s birthday this weekend at home with family, friends and a whole lot of balloons hanging from the ceiling. We filled our dining table with food and treats for everyone to enjoy. It was a sweet little homey celebration and seeing Luna so happy playing with all her baby friends and being surrounded by so many balloons makes for a perfect 1st birthday.
On the dessert buffet menu: Chocolate mousse in little cups, marshmallow swirls in sticks, cupcake, yoghurt raisins, old fashioned lollipops, brownies, m&m cookies, strawberry wafer sticks, vanilla birthday cake and an assortment of little round mousses. I was happy to see it almost wiped out by the end of the party.
For the goody bags, I used little brown lunch bags and filled them all with a package of yoghurt raisins and sweet berries. I always have a lot of great little fabrics lying around my studio so I cut up two different fabrics using pinking shears to cut the edges. Pinking shears create a saw-tooth pattern that’s graphic and fun. Then I printed thank you notes on thick watercolour paper using my epson printer and cut the edges with pinking shears as well. Mini red & blue clothes pins were used to hold the thank you note and fabric in place. To finish it off, I wrapped bakers twine around the bag and tied it up like you would a ribbon.
It was so fun making these goody bags and the best thing about it is that it’s cheap and really easy to put together. There’s also a folky but modern feel to them which I really love. The little packages of yoghurt raisins and sugar berries were individually wrapped with paper I already had at home. For the yoghurt berries, I used these newsprint zine magazines we bought awhile back from WeWorkForThem. The sugar berries are wrapped with picnic cloth patterned paper that I’ve been waiting to use for a special occasion.
Below is the balloon-themed e-card invite we sent out. We hung up balloons on the ceiling of each room which created a sculptural mobile ceilingscape. It’s so fun and festive were keeping them up until they all deflate or fall down on their own.
Using inkjet sticker paper, I also created customized water bottles and cups. Each water bottle was a solid block of color with a celebratory word on it like “HIP”, “HOORAY”, “JOY” & “LOVE”
If you haven’t noticed yet, I have an obsession with wrapping and packaging things. I will make all the effort to wrap a loaf of homemade bread, fresh cookies, herbs etc… to give to friends. I also love the feel of paper and fabric together. I guess it’s the smoothness of the paper and the raw texture of a fabric that always seems to work together nicely.
This little present was a wooden alphabet ‘A’ train for little Avenir. The fabric and paper gives a homey feel while bakers twine wraps the preciousness inside and seals it with love.
I’ve been wanting to make this simple bunting project for quite sometime now and finally had a chance to work on it yesterday. We changed our internet and cable tv provider so I was stuck at home yesterday waiting for the new carrier to hook us up and get it working again. Without internet, I couldn’t help feeling like I had nothing to do. But I shook that idea off my mind and decided to to take full advantage of my day at home and went back to the simplest pleasures of life – back to the sewing machine! So I sewed all day and finally made this simple bunting project that’s been lingering in my mind.
Ariana, from Crow Rooster Crow inspired me to make this gorgeous bunting. Hers are made from vintage cocktail napkins but I thought it might be easier for me to source fabric instead of searching for vintage napkins. So off I went to the fabric store over the weekend and went straight to the clearance bin where I found these scraps of fabric that seemed like they were just waiting for me to take home and bring them to life.
To make the bunting, I cut my fabric to about 7″w x 9″h. Repeat this until you have enough. The seams I just eyeballed which I think are about 1/4″. Once you’re done sewing the seams on all your fabric, evenly space them along the bias binding tape (I spaced them out about 2″ apart), folding the shortest edge over, and pin in place. Then sew the flags with a straight stitch and voila, you’ve got your own handmade bunting!
I love having them hung up in our dining/kitchen area. It brings a lot of colour to the space and I also love how the light from outside shines through the fabric. When I first hung it up, Luna kept on reaching up wanting to touch them all. She also couldn’t stop admiring all the different colours as she ate her dinner last night. So I couldn’t resist and made a smaller version for her room and hung it up by her window. I think it’ll be a nice sight for her to wake up to every morning with the sun shining through all the different coloured fabric.
This is a simple project that anyone can do. Happy sewing!
Even though I ignored them all season long, my cherry tomato plant pulled through and produced a crop of sweet fruit all on its own. Having too much for a single family to eat, we always share our harvest with friends. For one package, I created a gift box packed full of cherry tomato goodness. These little guys are sweet like candy. Fittingly, both metaphorically and physically, I found an old bright red candy tin to use as a container. The ribbons are book headbands and the card is a vintage miniature playing card scavenged from eBay. The embossed overalled girl licking her lips on the front of the box is too cute for words. Delicious sweetness, indeed.
For my birthday, Nerissa made me a Terrarium Kit with all the parts needed to make a terrarium: rocks, charcoal, soil, decorations and a glass vessel. It’s an awesome gift because I’ve been wanting to make one of these for a while now. You can find lots of instructions on Google and many how-to videos on YouTube. The only tip that I’d add is that an oversized pair of chopsticks works really well for placing objects neatly where hands can’t reach. I put the arrangement below together in half an hour, racing against time as the sun set. For a first attempt, I like it. It’s pretty rewarding to design your own miniature eco-system. I can see why it turns into an obsession for some people.
