Holly Wheatcroft our next featured artist.

hi everyone,

welcome back - I enjoyed puttering away in my studio all weekend - if you havn't noticed I'm a bit of a workaholic (I'm okay with that). I started something new to organize myself - on my wall I have a master list of all the things that need to be done - it's a bit daunting so I broke up my day and started listing things that needed to be done in bite size pieces - and I guess the point of a list is that feeling of accomplishment and the joy of scratching it off your list. It's been working and I think it's also helped my productivity. this saturday is the pop - up show at west elm so I will be a busy little bee trying to make work for the show. I know it seems like I am always working, making, sewing...well it's only me here doing all the textile goods - john is in charge of the wood products and he will occasionally help with letterpress printing and cutting of fabric, but he's pretty busy too. a lot of the time the work I make is for our online shops, wholesale and for the brick and mortar shop - so when there's an extra thing - it requires an extra little push. I remember walking down queen street and seeing all the boxes outside of shops during recycling day and thinking geez, must be nice to just call up a supplier and order goods for your shop. my goal this year is too keep the brick and mortar stocked and to not pilferage it during busy times.

the images above is some loot I got at the yard sale on friday. a sweet little loom still in the box made in holland and not used for $2 some interesting embroidered fabric (not pictured a big spool of cotton string for $1 and a large embroidery hoop also for $1) - I tried not to go too crazy like past times, if you've been to this sale it's hard to not leave with a gigantic bag filled to the rim. my lil' p loves dressing up and she's pretty creative for instance using her 6 mth sleeper as a jacket. she cracks me up.

enjoy your week friends! - hoping there will be lots of sunshine for the ontario peeps. xxa

the week has come to an end - and it's another wet day - we are on a busy street so there is a hum and swish with the cars going by in the rain. I miss the sound of the street car - we have construction on our road and it will be done in a few months. I am excited to be changing bedrooms. the quilt was a gift I made for john during our first year together - it was the first quilt I ever made, both pillows are marimekko and the screen print above the bed is by Carl Beam. I will be spending my morning elbowing my way at textile goods at the textile museum yard sale.

enjoy your weekend friends! xxa

everywhere you look it is so lush and green from all the rain we've been having. my little garden is a bit neglected - the next sunny day there will need to be some time spent organizing and planting. I love the spring print and decided to make a linen poster/wall art from the image - also I get a lot of feedback from customers that they hang up the tea towel as wall art - but I thought putting the print on linen makes it just a bit more special. I put grommets on either top corner to prevent holes from hanging. please have a look at it over at the etsy shop.

next week I am approaching 1000 posts - so a giveaway is in order. btw did anyone notice the changes in etsy for uploading a product - wow so much faster.

enjoy the rest of your week. xxa

my day yesterday involved these piles.

I snatched up a crochet covered bamboo stone during margie's last shop update - she also included another one as an early birthday present. I also love the little pouch they were packaged in. thanks margie!

yesterday I went out to eat with john, the kids and my siblings and on our way back from grabbing ice cream at the white squirrel we were caught in the down pour and we were all soaked to the bone - the lightening was so crackling and loud that lil' p was crying while licking her cone - I don't mind getting wet from the rain, but it was so cold. lil' p was the only dry one out of the bunch.

the images above is a w.i.p. for the winged migration show. I should be working in the order of deadlines, but I was eager to get it started. the idea is similar to a piece I did awhile ago, but I changed the screened images and colours. there is going to be two small panels and there will be more stitching around the circles - till most of the surface is covered. I will show you more photos as it develops. tomorrow I will be glued to my sewing chair to sew around 150 pouches for wholesale orders - at least I will be warm and dry.

p.s. only two spots left for geninne's workshop in july - thanks to everyone who already signed up. I am so excited for geninne's visit!

hi everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend - when your working from home and are a small business owner the days blur together and when you have a lot to do - there isn't a long weekend. john was in need of rest so he went north to visit with his parents. the weekend involved our kids being dote upon by their grandparents and john spent the weekend resting - and I spent it with uninterrupted work time. along with production work I am making time to work on pieces for some upcoming shows. for the living with washi show I was going to exhibit my attachment series, but I decided to switch gears and make the piece in the image above. I screen printed my lines print on the paper and once the patching is done I will be sewing backs on them to make them more object like. tomorrow I will show you details of the progress of the work I will be including in the winged migration show.

gotta run - enjoy your day friends! xxa

hi friends,

I hope you had a good week thus far - I don't know if you noticed in my previous post that geninne from geninne's art blog will be doing a one day workshop here at bookhou. margie's been spear heading all of this and I think this will be an amazing visit.

as promised my new bags and both real favs - I will be posting these one of a kind bags in b.a.h. etsy shop this weekend - I am going to do more natural dyeing and try to get similar results - I have high doubts. the two new bags are called the mini and the day bag. both are beautiful and also bringing in some hand sewing for the straps (I stitched with really heavy thread and it is just as strong as machine sewing. I decided to make both bags be able to swing across your shoulder (so many requests for that) and the day bag has a nice metal zipper that I for the first time assembled myself - creating the size and putting in a new pull - I added the leather scrap on the pull giving it more of a grip - also the day bag has nice ample space for your things during your daily excursions. the mini is also made with the natural dye fabric and it has a nice thin strap - the mini is a nice size to hold your wallet and keys - I will be putting a snap closure for the inside of this bag.

happy long weekend to all my canadian friends. have a great weekend everyone! xxa

exciting times coming up in july - firstly this wonderful group show (more info to come) - and having some wonderful friends like sonia visiting from abroad - and the other - the talented geninne will be here at the bookhou studio/shop to teach a one day workshop. how incredible is that!

p.s. geninne designed the lovely invite.

some new natural dye scarves - available at the bookhou shop - I am also making more printed loop scarves - I am making the new ones less chunky - trying to have a lot of new work ready for the pop-up shop at west elm. I will take photos today and will show you some new bags I've been working on.

I was so happy to catch this moment

on the cover of bah mag issue 02 was this bentwood chair that john made - this particular chair will also have the option of coming with a removable felt cover. I am always in awe of john's craftsmanship - he spends so many long hours on his work. john never studied woodworking or furniture making - he is self-taught and employs his own methods and processes to make his work. since his background is in architecture he always refers to his furniture as small scale architectural structures.

coming soon....on june 4th from 1-6pm - bookhou at home will be in a pop-up event held at WEST ELM - a joint project with ETSY called we ♥ handmade art - follow this link to r.s.v.p.

this show is curated by the lovely anabela of fieldguided

hi everyone,

it seems like it's going to be a rainy week - I don't mind the rain or the grey skies - the only downfall is that the kids can't play outside on the slides and swing - we tried going out in the rain even with rain gear and they don't enjoy it as much.

yesterday I was mentioning to john that we've been at this business for almost ten years and he said that it didn't feel that long and that he felt like we were on a runway and now just taking off. I feel so proud of what we have accomplished together and how we only skimmed the surface and how much further we can go and it gives me such a warm feeling to know that you're out there and that you care and that you listen to my rambles and are so generous and supportive to us - so thank you.

for my sweet piper's birthday (5 months ago) I wanted to give her carved spoon. I had started it and I got busy and then forgot about it. john found the spoon blank in his studio amongst his things and left it on my cutting table - so last night I sat down and decided I am going to dedicate a few hours and finish this late birthday present. I oiled it with linseed oil and beeswax and it's made out of oak. when I gave it to her she had the biggest smile on her face - I hope it's because she sensed that it was specially made for her. If you look closely - it's not perfect - most of my wood carving skills have been only applied sculpturally and this was my first attempt at something functional. the carving is a bit like knitting - slow and mediative - there is more carving in my near future.

enjoy your day friends - thanks always for visiting! xxa.

here are some wonderful results I got from my last day at my natural dye class - I'm a bad note taker and this result - more than likely won't be reproducible, which I don't mind - that's why I like experimenting with natural dyeing. hope your weekend's been good so far - I've been quietly working in doors from all the rain - there's a nice calm when it's raining out.

see you tomorrow. xxa

as you may of noticed blogger's been down and I lost yesterday's post - I will try to repost it. it's funny how when one element gets interrupted - how it changes the flow of things.

above images - some new letterpress designs and a shot of the store.

last night was my last natural dye class at the workroom (thanks julie & karyn) and I got some pretty amazing results - will post that tomorrow. I have stained hands to show off.

I have so much going on next month - I was preparing photographs for the possibility of including our shop in a condenast magazine, plus this same magazine took our large triangle tote bag to photograph (I hope it goes well and when it does I will let you know when it's out) - in june I was invited to do a special one day show at a large american home retailer - will give you more info on that soon. also - in june I will be doing a joint show with emma nishimura for the living with washi show (not sure if you remember - emma and I did a show together at the print studio in hamilton) and finally in june I was invited to be part of an exhibition called 50 years of art - a retrospective show of past award winners in a show celebrating 50 years of the TOAE.

the drywall is being installed on our walls in our attic space right now and our contractor says that he might be done next week - yeah!

thanks to my bro davis who spent some hours this week helping me sew tea towels - even with the start of a new job he was kind to help out his sis and also thanks to my older sis who will be coming to watch the kids on the weekend so that j and I have uninterrupted work time.

:: lots to do - lots to make this weekend - enjoy your weekend friends! xxa ::

even with our busy days - we try to make time for the kids to play in the park - lil' p use to be scared of the swings - when she was younger - I remember pushing her and her little hands would shake, but she didn't cry or complain - but I would take her out anyways, because I felt bad for her - now she runs to them and says "mommy push" and is happy as a clam shouting "HIGHER".

john is pretty rough on his clothes, it's the kind of work he does - messy and tough. I normally put patches on his jeans and got too busy so his mom took an armful of jeans and did her own patch job, which I think makes his pants more interesting.

images courtesy of SAIPUA

on my next trip to new york - I will definitely visit SAIPUA - I really like her arrangements and some of her photos are baroque in style.

new storage buckets added here.

I tried the new patterns on the linen and made some products - I like how they turned out.

last night I was solo with the kids - john went to a special concert/awards ceremony held at the metropolitan united church - they were honouring two people who devoted their life to social justice - one of them being gordon lightfoot. those of you who don't know lightfoot - he's a folk music canadian legend.

hi everyone,

we had a lovely weekend in toronto - lots of sunshine and late afternoons in the park. john and I were saying to each other - in the past when we would meet at a bar or for coffee after work - now after work we meet at the park. there's so much joy the children have when they play. I slept in a bit yesterday morning, but awoke with lliam whispering in my ear "happy mother's day". life can't get any sweeter.

one of my favourite colours is grey - I like wearing the colour grey and looking at the colour grey - one of the reasons I liked b&w photography as a teenager was how many tones of grey that could be seen and achieved in a photograph. I was happy to achieve this warm grey with natural dye. I made scarves, and dyed the organic linen canvas and really like it in bag and pouch form.

I hope your having a great start to your week - talk to you soon. xxa

what a nice article today in toronto standard on letterpress in toronto and our letterpress workshop was mentioned - thanks ed.

happy mother's day - I hope you had a little break today from all your hard work. xxa

I love getting things in the mail - a gift from jill, how lovely - thanks jill - piper has claimed the egg cosie as a hat for one of her babies. I love the pattern on it. I remember as a kid having pen pals - I think I might need to do that again - my world has been override with emails, I love sending mail as much as getting.

hi everyone,

thanks again for participating in the giveaway - the winner is at swim-two-birds - congratulations! please send me your shipping address. I will have another giveaway soon.

the first photo is a quick photo of the attic space - there's still a lot of tools and debris - so more photos of the entire space soon. I couldn't get over how much light pours through the windows and I envision a space similar to the collection of images I found over at convoy tumblr (one of my favourite sites) - the only thing I don't like is that when you click on the images it doesn't link anywhere. a lot of eye candy. well let's see if I get there - will keep you posted on the progress.

I did a lot of printing the past few days, which means a lot of sewing is ahead of me.

wishing you a most beautiful weekend friends! xxa