it's been busy in the studio and also at home - the kids have been busy playing and checking out all their new toys - it keeps them busy for hours. we are lucky that the kids are low maintenance (for the most part) and like to hangout with each other. which frees up time for me to work on my many projects and there are piles of activity everywhere. even though I feel like everything is moving a mile a minute - around me is pretty quiet. we finally got snow and the streets have a nice calmness at night. after the snowfall we were going to go check out the park, but decided to stay in - it was too cold outside. a few months ago my iron broke down and I decided to get this rowenta steam iron (and it is the BEST iron) - also a few months ago I got a shipment of new fabric - rolls of waxed canvas. I had wanted to play with it when I got it, but the craft show madness took over. next week I will have new bags to show you. here's a little peek. I can't believe that it's the end of the year - this has been a full year of working on the business full-time - no teaching jobs to balance our income, and it has proven to be a good decision. I can't wait to see what the new year brings our little family.

I hope you enjoy ringing in the new year - thanks again for all your support! xxa

I think that I'm the easiest person to buy a gift for, I love just about anything, and I'm also a practical girl, for instance one year my in-laws bought me a power washer (used for stripping my screens) for my birthday - I was over the moon. I got a lot of wonderful gifts this year, these are a few favourites. presents from the sister-in-laws, vintage thimbles used by the sewers in john's family (all so gorgeous, and what's not to love about thimbles) my other sister-in-law went to the craft show and decided that renaud's work would be our favourite - great guess! - not sure if you remember my post on his little ceramic bowl with the paw - this bowl is the same technique, and a box of vintage casted dark chocolates from margie - margie lives 15 minutes away from my in-laws and a visit was definitely a must.

on another note - yesterday was an exciting day for our little piper - she used the toilet for the first time. when we tried to potty train lliam it was such an ordeal - we had tried so hard and did every technique/trick in the book and he just wouldn't go for it, one day without us coaxing or trying he just walked to the bathroom. so with piper we didn't even begin with the tricks, just asked her all the time would you like to use the potty? she had a tell tale sign when she was about to go, she would wiggle and dance a bit. so last night she did her little wiggle and john said would you like to use the potty? and she said yes. so fingers crossed that we are on the right path.

there is so much joy for small kids during christmas - leading up to the big day and on the big day. they are little enough to still believe in the mysticism that is santa claus - and yes if you wrap a present and sign it santa they believe it is from santa and wishes do come true....sigh, I wish everything could be so straightforward and simple, I guess that's the joy of childhood. as you can see the first photo of lliam is blurry, he was so excited and couldn't stay still and taking a group photo of the kids isn't easy - the little one had to be bribed with chocolate. piper enjoyed all her presents, especially the sushi kit. in the photo she is making me a special maki roll. tonight we will have a rerun of the weekend with my family.

a quick hello - I hope you all had a nice break - I sure enjoyed the 10hrs of sleep - I feel like I was recharged. the image above is when I had ornaments, by friday the branch was pretty bare, I have a couple of big wholesale orders to do this week - yes - I know the busyness has already begun and there was no lull, I wanted to pop in to tell you the winner of the tumbler giveaway - congrats to ariadne! please email me your shipping address.

have a great day! xxa

hello friends,

you survived the week and the weekend will be here soon - a weekend filled with lots of love and happiness. we will be taking a mini break and the brick and mortar shop will be open by appointment only - and we will resume regular business hours starting jan. 4th. the online shop will remain open. we were hoping to take a few weeks off, but to be completely honest, there's too much to do - the realities of owning a small business - we will savour the time we do have off. I will announce the winner for the tumbler giveaway on monday - I am also doing a giveaway on fb. we want to wish all of you the warmest holiday greetings to you and your lovely family and friends.

john and I have so much to be thankful for and appreciate your continued support and friendship.

much love to you all, xxa

when I take photos for the e-mag and because I use a digital camera - it's hard not to take hundreds of photos - I'm getting better now that I try to not take as many photos - the reason is if you take so many photos you have to spend so much time trying to decide on the ones you want to use. I really like these photos even though they didn't get used. I like the photo of nick - you get a sense of how hot his studio is - if you've never been in a glass hot shop - the heat is pretty intense. when I was in my first year in art school, I would hangout in the glass studio and tried my hand at blowing glass, but it was short lived because I just couldn't handle the heat.

even when you're working you see some small element that inspires you - I think I'm going to get this digitally printed so it keeps with the collage feel. thanks for all your kind comments on the new issue of bah.

hello there,

did you have a nice weekend? - I feel like my weekends fly by, we were so busy in the shop this weekend, I guess since the holidays are upon us and plenty of shopping on our street. I wanted you to start your week with the launch of b.a.h. mag issue 05 - I know what your thinking - she's nuts - yes - with all that's going on around me I managed to pull it off, it's definitely a labour of love. thank you so much to my wonderful contributors who took time aside from their busy lives to be a part of this issue. I hope you love this issue as much as I do. I wanted to tell you that I will be doing a giveaway - leave me a comment (you will have till friday at 10pm EST) and on the weekend there will be another giveaway on fb, wowzers I feel generous. so for this giveaway the prize is the lovely tumbler on the cover. bonne chance!

enjoy your day friends! thanks for visiting

xxa

hello there

I hope your week was productive and creative - I am working on a lot of different projects and after the update of these pouches and tissue covers, I will close the online shop for a week - today is my big push to get the majority of the orders out - yikes - it will be busy - our b&m is going to be open till friday the 23rd, it's been busy lately in the shop - thanks for coming by and saying hi and picking up some last minute gifts and definitely for supporting handmade. I will have these pouches along with the tissue covers available today in the etsy shop starting at 2pm EST.

if I don't chat with you or see you soon, have a lovely weekend! - these parts the temps are dropping - a good time to cosy up inside. xxa

a friend of john's saw my drop cloth pouches and he said they remind him of gerhard richter's paintings.

pouches and tissue holders on sale friday (tomorrow) at 2pm EST.

wow, thanks for all the wonderful comments about the drop cloth pouches - I keep picking one up and saying to myself - umm I want to keep this one, ahh and this one - oh it's going to be hard to part with them - I will have them for sale along with the tissue holders on friday in the afternoon. I will do a post to confirm - so check back soon. I was quite sick during this past craft show and I didn't get to buy much from the show. on one of the days that was open till 11pm I came to help out john regardless of how I felt - I didn't think it was fair that he would be there from 10-11 without a break - so on that day we bought two of renaud's bowls from atelier des cent ans - by far my favourite work at the show and he was so lovely and kind - if you visit the show, you need to visit him and his booth. make sure to check out his website with the beautiful product shots - the bowl pictured is small and fits in the palm of my hand - the paw image was done by carving into the clay and oxides rubbed in the carved areas before it's glazed. his pieces are beautifully thrown.

here's a peek at the drop cloth pouches - they are each one of a kind and truly unique - I will sell them in a few days - I will give you a heads up on when I will post them in the etsy shop - I hope you like them as much as I do - they are like little paintings.

here is some of my loot from city of craft - ceramic fox bud vase by janet macpherson I like her sense of humour in her work. the cat painting by greasy chicken face and screen printed card by petra c - I wish I had more time to look around, such an easy place to spend money.

hello there,

I hope you had a nice weekend, a BIG thank you to all of you who bought from the sale - I can't believe how fast it went - you're all the best! in our household we are all over colds and such and it was nice to have a nice sick-free weekend. I had a nice surprise visit from margie and she dropped off a paper whites plant before she left for her trip and did some shopping in the store- thanks margie! always great seeing you and I love the knitted hat you wore (made the night before)

believe it or not yesterday I took a day off - firstly I was doing volunteer work at the city of craft show (will show you what I bought tomorrow) and afterwards I went with the kids, cousins and aunts to the christmas market at the distillery (craziness there) I thought for a moment that every single person in toronto was at this market, the kids had fun stuffing their faces with treats and going on rides. afterwards we had pizza at my sister-in-law's condo that is in the distillery district.

when we got the brick and mortar shop lliam was around piper's age and at first he would ask us why people he didn't know was in our house. he eventually understood, but they still see the shop as a room in the house and I do apologize if you come in the shop and find toys or strange tableaux they have set-up in the shop, which are usually popular with other kids that visit - or if you come in the shop and find piper laying on the furniture.

enjoy your start to the week - it's getting chilly here and I think on friday

there was a bit of snow that lasted all of 15 mins.

xxa

yep - it's going to be a good sale, if you're in town come visit city of craft - a wonderful craft show of handmade goods, I will be there on sunday at the second venue minding the door, come by and say "hi".

have a great weekend friends, rest is very near for me - one more week. xxa

I am getting ready for my sale - I love sales - I will have sets, alphabet seconds, new pouch sets and also the regular stock will be marked down - it will happen for one day only. I hope you will join me - day and time will be announced via our email list - so get on the list to get in on the sale - I only send 1-2 newsletters a month, so don't feel like you will be sent tons of emails. I came across these photos from vintage items I use to sell. I started our etsy shop as a means to only sell sale items and vintage finds, and soon after I found etsy to be growing and I started to sell more of our handmade goods - another reason I don't have more vintage items is that I found shipping fragile and big items a bit of a challenge. I will open the online shop till the middle of next week and it will be closed till after the holidays - I will give you the dates when I have a better idea, also it will reopen restocked with new items. the little wooden house you see in the last picture is coming back, only for sale at our brick and mortar shop - I think it might be to heavy to ship. we were done with the production run, but we have had so many requests to bring them back - that we decided to do a short run.

out of the blue today lliam said to me - while I was fretting over some work I was doing - "hey mommy don't sweat the small stuff" a quote he often hears john say to me and not sure if he knows what it means, but it was in good context - so nice to be surrounded by level headed people.

enjoy your day - please send over any sunshine if you are experiencing too much. xxa

so the poor sun has been hiding and it was hard to take photos for the sale in a few days - I will have to do my photoshop magic, I am also in the thick of doing the bah mag this is a peek of one of the projects. I am hoping to also have some of these tissue holders during the sale - I love that each is one of a kind and all the patch work is so much fun to do. I love patching and quilting, I wish I had more time to do it, and a nice way to use up little bits of linen remnants. so I will try to photograph the tissue holders today - I'm sure they'll be a big hit. I think I saw snow falling last night - so pretty.

the canoe ornaments are in the shop - lisa's craftsmanship is astounding - we are in the process of moving things around in the shop and studio - I like where it's going. I am in the midst of having a double door put in where my window is now - I think it will really open up my cutting and printing area.

piper looks more and more like a little girl and the toddlerness is almost gone. she will be three soon and she is so pleased that she has enough hair to do pigtails.

hello there,

I hope you had a nice weekend - we ended the craft show yesterday and unfortunately I missed most of it because I was sick, but john held the fort nicely. we had a great show - thank you to all of you that helped us to make it successful - we appreciate your support.

I have a lot of errands to do and at the end of the day I was invited by fellow vendors to get a mani-pedi, I don't get them often, and it would be a nice treat. I don't normally wear nail polish so maybe just a buff. I am going to take a week off during the holidays - it will be a good time to stew ideas. I am already stewing and I wanted to show you some drawings. I may or may not use them, but I thought you would like to see the process. I am very excited to show you new work, in the coming weeks I will show you bits and pieces. I feel so behind on gifts this year - we try our best to give handmade, I find it's getting harder to give handmade gifts to the kids, there's toys they want that we can't make, like lego.

I hope you have a great start to your week!

much love friends, xxa

the craft show is ending this weekend - I must say it has been a whirlwind, our featured seller on etsy plus the craft show in vancouver did me in - in terms of inventory and plus all the wholesale. you would think after this many years I would get it right - I was spending my days at home sewing and getting it to the booth and they would quickly sell and I would make more again. It was helpful this year to have studio assistants, but it was too late in the season so no matter how hard we worked it was not enough.

so you know how I never get sick and if I do - it's every 15 years, well that terrible thing that piper was battling was passed on to me, I am so grateful I don't get sick often, because it down right sucks. I am on the mend with the help of antibiotics and an inhaler. I physically feel fine, but my hacking and coughing wasn't good for the booth, so john's been minding the booth. sorry if I missed any of you who visited. I have to do a talk at the craft show tomorrow to a group of high school students, talking about running a business and my craft journey, I did it last year and it was a lot of fun and I was happy they asked me back.

the image above is a pouch I made from remnant leather, I don't make a lot of leather goods, but there's something tactile about it that I really like, if I do make more I will have to get a walking foot machine, because my current industrial just rips into it, luckily those details are on the inside part. I am planning a really big sale in the shop mid week, I will send you a newsletter (if you're on the list) on the exact date and start time - it will only be for one day or till it's sold. there will be a lot of great things at great prices - for you or a last minute gift - I have to also mention - I can't guarantee holiday shipping, it's so hard to predict with the postal service, so if it gets to you great! if not I'm sorry.

enjoy your weekend friends, three more days of the show and I can rest.xxa