as I'm writing this - it's a huge downpour - I remember as a kid going to overnight camp and laying in my bed hearing the rain pitter patter on the roof - the sound of rain is so soothing. well before I doze off.....I wanted to show you some lovely loot I got at the puces pop show last weekend (mittens by million dollar swim - notice the lovely screen printed hang tag by kid icarus, ceramic necklace by amy belanger and lace pouch print by ro) - this year puces pop also made a little catalogue (what a nice idea). if you are in the neighbourhood on saturday pop in to say hi to christine from 2-5pm - she will be working on one of her pieces and you can check out her show and ask her any questions.

p.s. thanks for all the nice words about piper's work - it's hard not to write about her - she is so much a part of my day.

have a wonderful weekend friends - I will be spending my weekend working and catching up with orders and hopefully squeeze some time at the park while this weather holds up. xxa

being a maker of things and a parent - you sometimes wonder if your kids will follow suit and be makers too. I think both our kids can't help but make things since they are surrounded by it everyday. lliam is a great drawer, painter and maker of things and piper is also intrigued with making objects and mark making. her current favourite medium is washi tape.

a little song

what I enjoy most about blogging is all the friends I've made - margie sent over this photo of my triangle pattern dyed and painted (how beautiful!) - this photo is definitely putting me in a "fall" mood.

we are very lucky because in a week or so we will have nicole's lovely hand knitted goods in our shop - nicole designed the patterns herself and lovingly knitted each item with high quality yarns. check out her blog for more photos - the photos above are just a few shots, I love all the pieces and this new line is called "gris" and she had these beautiful labels made with just a "g". all I can say is simple elegance and if you don't know this about me already, but grey is my favourite colour.

hello friends,

I hope you had a fantastic weekend - we had a great mini vacation with the kids in montreal. the weather was amazing, I felt like we were getting summer temperatures. we took the train and it is a better way to travel with little ones, they can move around and you can pay attention to them. we were trying to be so prepared, video devices, craft projects, toys, books etc. - but I'm happy to say that there was serious window gazing. I also suggest if you travel with little ones the morning times are better, we took an evening train back and ooh not good, lots of shouting and screaming between l and p. it's hard when you're trying not to disturb the other passengers who are trying to sleep, but all and all I think the kids were pretty good. I was mostly at the craft show during the day and john and the kids would meet up with me at 6pm and we would have dinner, they all had a good time exploring the city. I had a great show - thanks to everyone who came by and those who mentioned they read the blog, it's always such a thrill to meet someone who is on the other side of the screen.

this week I've got a lot of catching up to do - I am devoting time this week to get out a bunch of letterpress wholesale orders - I am also going to be working on new products for the fall season and doing a lot of shipping this week. I have also been working out the little details of a new collaboration I am doing with a good friend who calls mexico home - I hope to show you some pictures soon.

I thought this photo of piper really summed up the weekend

I hope this week you will have time to enjoy some creative time. xxa

all day yesterday - this song was ringing in my ears "my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." - yes - it's a miracle I am ahead of schedule and I'm not fretting at all - and to top off the week I have a new product to show you - those who read this blog might remember last year I painted these images to be used as a calendar and it didn't go ahead because I couldn't find the right printer - so I found the right printer and here they ARE! new calendars. if you like my drawings, you might want to get it just for that and the calendar part would be a bonus. the quality is so dead on to the original paintings and as a special treat I am going to give the first 20 people on this blog a coupon code CAL12 (to use at checkout) and you will receive free shipping (on this item only).

I'm signing off early and will be back late monday to tell you about my trip to montreal

have a lovely weekend friends! xxa

our next featured artist christine walker bird

so I decided last minute that I needed a little bag to carry a few things in while I was in montreal and decided on this mini bag - I love the scale and shape - so I made five more to sell at the show (and I think when I return I will make more and post it on our etsy shop) - piper adored it (it was scale appropriate for her) so I also made one for her. I made the strap a bit shorter, but still long enough to wear across her shoulder. I will have to take photos of piper wearing it and also a photo of what she has in her bag (right now is a few rolls of washi tape and a small baby doll).

photos courtesy of bird brain designs

christine has been hard at work preparing the materials for her hand hooked workshop coming up next month. there are still spots available - it's sure to be a lot of fun. christine will also have her work on display in the shop starting next week - which I'm sure will provide much inspiration for your own pieces.

welcome back!

I hope you had a great weekend - I like to celebrate the idea of a weekend - even though as a self-employed person I don't really have a weekend - all the days blur together. I am busy preparing for the montreal show and boy is it down to the wire - when am I not down to the wire? I have a few more wholesale orders to get out and unfortunately the rest will have to wait till I get back - while I was dyeing the scarves for the show - I threw in this nice organic cotton canvas and got the most dreamy effect. I manage to get three bags out of the fabric - they are a small tote size with skinny straps - there might only be two for sale since I have my eye on this one. I think I will make more - it's such a good size and hey who doesn't like a basic tote bag. a few weeks ago john got a commission to make a bird house - he has never really made one and of course he decided to take the long road by turning and hand carving the shape, the result - a very unique bird house.

thank you for your comments on the BAH issue 04 - I am already working on the next issue. I am hoping to include more diy projects, since it seems that what you like to see. the random winner of the weck jars is it's imported (congratulations rendell!) please send me an email.

thanks for visiting - enjoy your day! xxa

popping in quickly to post a photo of the new 2012 calendar - I love these images and couldn't resist posting it (thanks to everyone who bought one yesterday) - okay - bye for now!

well it's finally done b.a.h. issue 04 - it has a new look and more pages - a big thank you to all my contributors, especially to jen for doing most of the layout and design. we had a lot of fun playing email tag - it amazes me how you can get so much done without one on one face time. so tell me what you think and enter the giveaway - it is for two tulip weck jars the small one and the one litre design (I had taken photos, but I can't find it-found it!) anyways check out the weck site if you need more details (no. 744&745) - the giveaway will end on sunday september 18 at 10pm and a winner will be announced on monday.

I am signing off early and will take a much needed rest - see you monday.

enjoy your weekend and a big thank you for visiting - I always appreciate your feedback. xxa

the mom of lliam's friend brought over some flowers from her garden before she took lliam on a play date. I thought the bright colours are a way of me trying to hang on to summer. is it just me or the weather is cooler these days. I have been busy getting wholesale orders finished and building up a small inventory for the craft show next week. I'm really excited ro, denise and barbara are also doing the show. I was going to launch the BAH MAG on friday, but decided to do it tomorrow. I am super excited! - you will need to come back to see it, plus there will be a giveaway!

enjoy your day friends! xxa

one of the things that is hard in my business is when you've used a fabric that you love and the item sells well and the words discontinued come out of your suppliers mouth - the horror. well sometimes it's a good thing - change things up a bit. for instances the fabric I used for the first batch of natural dye scarves was not available, and I found this lovely fabric to substitute (second photo is before the dyeing process) - I think I like this one better, because of it's softness. I have a lot of new work that I'm bringing with me to the montreal show and I hope to have some to put online soon. I can't believe I got most of the online sales out yesterday.... ahem a lot of the bags had to be made....I know my turnaround is quick. I try to have parts of the bags done, like the cutting and printing, but not all the assembly.

thanks davis for coming in and folding and packaging a ton of tea towels - I know it wasn't exciting work, it's always nice to hangout and chat with my brother.

hello everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend - yesterday it was lovely out so we sat on a patio for brunch. I never feel self-conscious when we eat on a patio because the noise the kids make seems to fade into the street noise and they enjoy getting out of their seat. I have a little over a week before I head to montreal for a craft show - so this week is serious production business - not that every week isn't. yesterday my sister came over to visit the kids and after they left for the park I immediately went upstairs for a power nap while john cut some fabric for me. I have such a great support system, this is why I havn't gone insane - I normally don't take naps but I went to bed at 4:30 am the previous night (insane I know) and I just couldn't function by midday.

while I was working away I saw piper sitting in the shop quietly working on a project. she LOVES to cut paper - and she created this lovely little sculpture - she was pleased that I was photographing it. the kids always see me with a camera and when they see mom pick up the camera to photograph something - they know it's special.

enjoy your day friends - great things are happening over here at bookhou and I hope you have great new projects you're working on! xxa

yes - that's right we're hiring - we are looking for a part-time studio assistant and a studio intern. check out the posting here.

there are times I feel strange that I use the bookhou name for this blog and it's mostly me chatting away with you and you don't hear much from john (the "boo") part. to be honest he prefers it that way - I often offer him a platform to chat with you all, but he prefers to keep his thoughts and ideas to himself - he's a private person. I had a customer come in today visiting from abroad who reads the blog and said "hi" to john and he came to the back where I was working and he said - "you should go say hi - I think they want to chat with you..." - but I assured him that bookhou at home readers are just as happy to speak to him too. I wanted to show you this beautiful table john recently sent to a client living in NYC - I am still amazed at customers that buy his furniture without seeing it first hand - needless to say he loved it.

I wrote this post so late last night and didn't realize it's friday - happy weekend friends! xxa

I am so lucky to have a talented friend like geninne. this painted stone is even more beautiful in person. thanks geninne - I love it!

yesterday was back to school - so nice to have a routine again - lliam was so pleased to be going back to school - he had so much to tell us - afterwards we went to get an after school snack at ella's uncle - I love the chai lattes and chocolate banana loafs they make. summer still felt like it was lingering in the air - we all sat with the sun on our faces enjoying a little chat. not sure if you noticed but the four of us are pretty close - I know we are family and it's a given, but really we enjoy each other's company and it's sweet to see lil' p give lliam a big hug when we pick him up - she affectionately calls him "lee" - it's a good nickname. I over heard him explaining to her how babies are made.

"well daddy went to the store and bought girl seeds and mommy ate the seeds and you grew in her tummy - I saw the tummy it was huge, kinda of like she ate a watermelon whole....um I'm not sure how you came out - I didn't see that part, but I saw you in the hospital and you were tiny."

as promised - images of older bags and book covers - I use to do a lot of free motion stitching of my linen remnants on wool/felt. I hope to find more time to make book covers - maybe for little pocket size books. I really like how lotta helleberg makes them - just beautiful.

when I went to the textile museum in may for their annual yard sale - I picked up this piece of heavy weight linen with all this embroidery. my intention was to embroider on top of it, but I decided to cut it up and make three small oblong pouches. I really like the quality of the stitches and how it is fragmented. they are for sale here.

I also wanted to mention we were asked by the textile museum to be part of their re design event taking place this fall - they asked designers and architects to redesign and re-imagine Louis XVI-style armchairs. we already got our chair and john is in the process of stripping it to it's bare minimum, the chairs are quite big so we will have our hands busy. I will show you pictures closer to the event.

I just wanted to pop in quickly to say "hi" - I hope you had a lovely weekend. I've been glued to my sewing machine all weekend (thank you so much to all of you for placing an order and keeping me busy - I love it!) - this juki hand me down is a great little work horse - I use it for all the heavy sewing - I was contemplating getting a new one with all the bells and whistles, but as I get to know this machine, I'm getting rather attached - so for now we'll remain together. lil' p has found a nice place to hang-out, under my work table.

see you tomorrow! xxa

this long weekend is the last one before fall begins. this summer our studio and home was more bearable with air conditioning. I was fussing about the cost, but in the end it was the best money we ever spent. I am looking forward to the next few months - I love the busy hum of the studio. I still can't believe all the products that come of our studio mainly made by the two of us. I struggle so much with the notion of going bigger - getting a lot of the work made by others - I think that I have to start thinking that way - I don't think I can sustain it this way for much longer. part of the reason I didn't go back to teaching was because the studio needed more of my time.

we have a new calendar and it's sure to not disappoint - I wanted to show you the new design here, but it's going to be in the next BAH issue.

I do want to show you my new pattern "rain" or as john refers to it as my stitches. this drawing was adapted from a drawing I showed you from my sketchbook. it's fun to reinvent your ideas. I hope you like these new pieces as much as I do.

enjoy your weekend friends! and see you next week. xxa