hi there,

I hope you had a lovely weekend

as you can imagine today is going to be insane - we have a bunch of orders to ship, we're still producing for both the online shop and the craft show and tomorrow is move in day to set-up our booth.  I have to admit this controlled chaos makes me excited and seeing snow this weekend definitely put me in the holiday spirit.

thursday is the first day of the one of a kind show - I will be at booth Q-07 and if you havn't gotten your tickets yet - go to this link and get $3 off.

also just a little reminder if you want to come by the brick and mortar we will be closed on the saturdays nov. 30 & dec. 7 - we will be here during the week, but to be honest it might be best to give us a call before trekking down.

photos from our weekend via instagram - making remnant badges for the show, the first snowfall, my kids are always around us when we work and they work on their own projects which is great to see - piper is always making art and lliam works on his many stories (this kid is either going to be an engineer or a novelist) and part of my weekend was spent putting straps on bags, this process is very time consuming when you're doing it on one sitting and attaching straps on hundreds of bags.

have a great start to your week !!

xxa

tuesday is set-up day for the big craft show - I can't believe it's going to be our 10th year at the show, we love this show because it's a chance for us to meet our customers face to face and every year when we run in to regular customers it's fun catching on what's happening and I've seen many kids lliam's age that are now off to university.  and also seeing all my show friends, there's a great sense of camaraderie.

so as you can imagine I'm up in my eyeballs in fabric, my three studio assistants and also j have been working so hard to get us ready. we have also been doing our best to keep up with all the holiday orders.  a quick reminder that the

 holiday shipping deadline is 

CANADA DEC. 11 - U.S.A DEC. 10 - REST OF THE WORLD DEC. 2

these deadlines are only suggestions, sometimes it can be a bit delayed so early is always best and just a note that if you select express shipping it doesn't give your order priority it only means that the travel time for your package is shorter, we still have to keep within our lead times and ship orders out based on when the orders are placed.

the images above are a sneak of a few new things, animal ornaments and printed linen loop scarves.  I will let you know when they become available online, these items will be at the craft show.

I hope you have a great weekend and hope to see you monday!

xxa

we were so delighted to be asked to contribute a diy project to covet garden's new book

plus it was great seeing ourselves in print too 

it's a beautiful book you must get your hands on it, filled with great homes and more projects

this will be my 10th year doing the ooak craft show and every year I change my booth, it's probably close to what I want it now, but there's still always slight modifications. I wanted wood hooks to hang bags on one wall and I asked j to make me nicer ones rather than just using a dowel and he turned me this one as a prototype.  I'm a lucky girl to have a great woodworker on hand.

also I wanted to show you more spoons in progress, after this batch is done I will finally have a shop update.  so follow me on social media to be notified of when they will be listed.

hi everyone

I hope you had a lovely weekend, as you can imagine with only one week to go plus holiday orders it's been non-stop here in the studio.  without much time to rest and my "to do" list never seems to get shorter.  this time of year is crazy but we wouldn't want it any other way.

here's a few pics from our weekend via instagram (visit us there, we update daily)

the top images is components for my attachment series, I hope to spend more time on them while I sit at my booth, christina's new indigo scarves are so pretty and lots of unravelling of linen after their swim in a vat of indigo

have a great start to your week!

xxa

I wanted to end the week with a few snapshots of the progress of our renovation.  the kids floor now has a functioning bathroom and their deck is currently being built.  it's a huge deck (it was suppose to be a balcony and we had the space and I asked them to build it to it's maximum) I really like the tiles on their bathroom floor and j built the shelf that the sink sits on, he will build a cabinet below for storage.  we made sure in lliam's room he had display shelves for all is lego. also there has been a lot of progress in the excavation, as you can see in the photo they are almost at ground level.  so excited !

thanks for all your comments and emails on fighting a cold - I feel much better now and ready to tackle the holiday season.  I hope you enjoy your weekend!

xxa

there was a time when I used a lot of coloured linen, it got harder and harder to source so the work eventually had to change.  I think if I wasn't so busy with everyday production I would work on quilts, there's something so satisfying transforming discarded bits of fabric into something.

I posted a few new bags online - TOTE in the bure print and SM DAY in the gold triangles
it's so nice to see the sun out today - I will be out of the studio most of the day for a meeting.

enjoy your day

hi everyone

I hope you had a nice weekend, the winter coats have been pulled out - it's getting colder each day. I've been without heat since well the summer.  it was schedule to happen last week but our plumber was sick. I long to work without a scarf, vest, hat and fingerless mitts.  there's certain things I find hard to do with cold hands, like putting rivets on bags - I'm so much slower. and printing is not easy either cause I have to take the mitts off and my hands are so cold.  hopefully there will be heat on the horizon.

above are some images of the weekend - there's a few peeks at some new bags I will be putting online this week, just have to photograph them with the dslr. ever since I started instagraming it gets harder to pull out the big camera.  and how sweet is piper making her own things with her toy machine.  she's got making in her heart.

have a great start to your week friends, stay warm :-)

xxa

I'm ending the week with possibly a cold - oh no I can't get sick there's too much to do.  I have been trying to take anything I can to ward off the inevitable.  the show starts in twenty days and each day is so precious and the building of the inventory is never ending.  I possibly might also be doing a show in montreal (waiting to hear if I get in on monday) so there has to be a lot of inventory for that show too.

above is another image of the carry bag in the bure print.  a new fav of mine, I also have the pocket pouches in this version.

if you need me this weekend you know where to find me, chained to my sewing machine.

have a wonderful weekend!

xxa

here's some pics from last night's event, so interesting to see everyone's interpretation of the textiles

it was so rainy out, but it was a great turn out

since we had babysitters j and I had a quick bite before heading back to work

sorry the photos are not that bright - I took them with my ipod

 

I'm excited to go to the Textile Museum's reDesign tonight - there will be lots of great designers. the party/auction will be held at the knoll showroom in liberty village.  the crownflora boys will be watching the kids while j and I attend.  I will bring my camera and take lots of photos and will give you a report tomorrow.  above is a few bags I will have at the auction, I have a third bag that is a zipper tote but didn't get a chance to photograph it before they came to pick it up.  I hope they will sell, all proceeds go to the textile museum.

these little pocket pouches are super handy in your bag

and wouldn't these make great little gifts

hi there

hope you had a  lovely weekend, it's getting colder lately and fall is definitely here 

it's always so hard to convince our kids to bundle up when they go outside.  we have a little over a few weeks and we are working hard at getting a good amount of inventory for ooak. it's funny how you come up with new ideas when you are working and I debate in my head if I should proceed or wait till after the holiday rush.  knowing me I probably can't wait that long.

above some images from our weekend via instagram, I hope you have a great start to your week!

xxa

even though it rained last night while we went trick or treating, it was still nice out - the temperature was a bit mild.  we normally will go to my sister-in-laws neighbourhood and walk with her kids, but since the weather was a bit wet we decided to stay local, which was kind of nice to get to chat a bit with our neighbours.  the kids were troopers and spent a few hours walking around and enjoying the experience, I didn't get a chance to take photos because it got dark too fast.

above is a new carry bag done in the bure pattern printed with black ink.  I really like how this one turned out.  it's available now in the shop.

I hope that you will have a great weekend!! see you back on monday

xxa