one of the things that I knew had to happen at the start of the new year was to get more help in the studio.  I like to think I can do it all, but with the business growing I had to extend my hand out. I was so happy when my mother purchased a condo a few blocks west of our shop and was willing to leave her life in france of 20 years to help me with sewing and our most recent addition is christina. last year she was my intern which had given me a sense of how we would work together in the studio and I couldn't be happier.  she is in the process of developing her own textile business and we are working together on some ideas that we will be launching after the spring craft show, more on that soon.  here are some pictures of her printing.

I will always keep this blog and will always write here, but I have to admit fb and instagram is so immediate that they are my new favourites ways to connect with you.  if your not already following either, please do so.  I try my best to keep the content different so that you not getting the same thing a few times over.

I am finding it harder to get decent photos with the light we've been getting.  I made this bag awhile back and didn't get decent photos till recently.  I only made a short run, I really like that the scale of the bag crops the print nicely.

you can find the small day bag in the stones print here.

on the weekend it was DoDesign - an annual event on our street to encourage folks to visit our hood and see what's happening and making in design.  some of the pieces were in the businesses or in the window or on the street.  all the telephone poles were covered with 3D posters, which piper enjoyed a lot.  these images are just a highlight of a few of my favourites.

hi friends,
I hope you had a great weekend

we were swamped with the do design event that was happening on our street - there were so many people in the neigbourhood and in our shop - I have to work on getting the brick and mortar replenished. since we were busy in the shop I didn't have time to tick anything off my to do list and the evenings were busy with birthday parties and family gatherings.  I did manage to do some speed cutting last night, I find if I put really loud music on, it keeps me focused at the task at hand, it also doesn't hurt to put the computer in another room.  tomorrow I will show you some pictures of some of the objects that were in the different storefronts on dundas west.

on friday christina and I ventured into the snow storm to the workroom to do the snap purse workshop. I really enjoyed learning something new, I do plan to make ones similar for the shop, I have to first work on the pattern and get some purse frames, also I am still debating, between gluing and crimping.  what's great about these pieces is how little of fabric you need.  as soon as I have it all figured out I will let you know when they are for sale.

have a great start to your week!

xxa

oh my goodness - I am so overwhelmed by the comments and support from all of you - thank you so much for taking the time to comment and to email me. I am so happy and lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people. all of you have reaffirmed to me - why I am doing this.

after a long day it was such a good idea to get out of the studio and check out the IDS show, it's a great show to visit - for years j and I did this show and all the talking was exhausting and we would never get to check out the show because we had to mind the booth, so it was nice to wander freely. we went on opening night which is filled with yummy food and all different kinds of drinks and treats and music everywhere, if you're in toronto I hope you plan to visit. one of my favourite areas at the show is studio north - it has smaller independent designers - I also really like this one booth that created an outdoor space with a table that had a trough in the center (I need to do that for our outdoor space when we renovate) - there was also a concept space of different working spaces all designed in shipping containers. some of the bigger booths do different things to get your attention like the a tile company that had jars of candy and they gave you paper bags and told you to help yourself - and at the entrance (first photo) there was these super huge balloon sculptures that I'm sure piper would just of loved to see.  don't forget there's also come up to my room and other design off site shows all weekend long.

have a great weekend friends - one day I hope I get to meet all of you in person and give you a big hug, but until then I will give you a virtual one.

 see you monday!!!

xxa

I had someone leave a feedback on the etsy shop that I felt was a bit weird so I thought I would use my blog as an opportunity to make a few things clear and hopefully it will help customers and other makers.

I hope that those out there who buy handmade - buy it for a reason, they buy it because they are helping a small business, they appreciate the time and energy that went into the items they buy, rather than buying mass produced work.

I have had comments about the fact that our prices for our work is either too low or too high (there are items we make that I havn't raised the prices for 10 years) 

for those who think it's too high, or more recently who just think a bag is solely a few dollars of material should understand that when you buy a piece from us you can't judge it by just how much materials cost - there's more than just the materials that is factored into the price. the fabric I use I screen print on, I don't buy it already with the image on it.  either my mom or I will sew it up and if it's a bag most of the leather for the day bags or the waxed totes get their edges dyed and waxed, each strip is cut from a larger hide, we don't buy the straps pre-cut.  once the straps are attached I print out your shipping labels and than the item gets packaged, there's also cost factored in to the price of the bag - the envelope, the paper that wraps up the work, the stickers the business cards etc. as well as the time factored into packaging the orders and getting it to the post office - before an item gets on the shelves, there's planning and designing, drawing of images and doing prototypes to get the right proportions and shapes and there's photographing of the bag and time spent on photoshop and getting it posted online.  the price of the bag is not just the material it's all the above.

if you think the price may seem a bit too low, we made a conscious decision to not do wholesale because we wanted our wonderful customers to benefit.  when I decided long a go to spend more time on production and less time on my art work I wanted to make interesting designed goods for people to afford and enjoy, I didn't want to make it precious and unattainable.

we work tireless hours (my mom sometimes comes in on the weekends) all because we love what we do and we are dedicated to our customers, I am answering emails 7 days a week and sometimes till the wee hours of the night, those of you who email know that.  when you order an item I email you to tell you thank you and that I got it and when it goes out I send you an email too.  I answer your emails when your item is lost, I do everything I can to make you happy -  its disapointing  to have someone disregard all the effort.  all that I said above is why people buy handmade, because there's a real person behind the screen who truly cares about your business and appreciates your support.

yesterday was malcolm's last day interning, it was great having him help us out in the studio and to talk about designing, work and life.  we had fun taking photos of his current work, once he's done school I'm sure we will see more of him. you can check out his website here. thanks malcolm!

I have such a unique workspace - it's a space that I spend most of my time in, we have a storefront that has the studio in the back (j's is in the basement) and we live upstairs.  it's natural that you have the kids playing and working around us or with us and you will also see my other family members spending time in the space lending a hand.  it's a very co-operative space with us working together as well as being a multi-functioning space.  our business is growing and we are slowly outgrowing the space, especially with help from my mom and christina we are in need to expand the space, but until that happens one of the things that needs attention in my workspace is trying to find a home for all the different materials and items we use on a daily basis and to have designated stations to do things like packaging orders, printing fabric and cutting.  I think having an organized space makes it easy and more efficient on a daily basis.

in the next few days we are going to visit the interior design show which runs january 24-27 to get inspired work space design ideas. - if you have a chance you should check it out.

I wanted to make a grey version of the field bag - to go with my gray uniform.

you can find it here

I was saying to j when I was a teenager I wore mostly black and now I'm into shades of grey and twenty years from now - will I be into mostly whites and creams? 

hi everyone

thanks for all the comments on the giveaway - oh my there's a lot of chocolates I've never heard of that I need to try - I really enjoyed the comments that had nostalgic memories of chocolate.  

the random winner chosen is Morgan Wedderspoon - congratulations - you have till 6pm today to claim the giveaway or another person will be chosen.  

On the weekend I manage to finish the wall hanging and today it's off to be installed.  I found doing something other than production quite satisfying and feel that I have to make a concious effort to do so.

I wanted to leave you with the statement about this piece:

This wall hanging is made of natural dyed fabric -linen and cotton - that forms a landscape of irregular shapes, surfaces and convolutions. But unlike a conventionally mapped surface, this landscape suggests that which is contrary to the grid: formed not from subdividing a space but from the inside out, a bricolage expanding outwards, growing into and finding their shape (coloured component).  While necessarily contained within a frame, the landscape inside also suggests a greater field- a continuation beyond its limits, suggesting an unknowable that can only be imagined from its fragmented state.

I also wanted to let you know that the triangle tote bag is now in the shop along with the zipper option.

have a great start to your week

xxa

UPDATE >>the bag was not claimed - the new winner is ESchoo - please email me by tomorrow morning or another winner will be chosen<<

thank you so much to all the positive responses on the new field bag, I love this design and I think I might also try it with a print/waxed canvas combination.  

I mentioned that I was long overdue to do a  G I V E A W A Y and here's your chance to win a triangle tote bag.  this design was the first with this print and it's making it's return to the shop, you will see it there probably on monday.  the giveaway winner will be announced on monday, so please leave me a comment and tell me what is the best chocolate you ever had.

have a great weekend, winter is back with full force in toronto and I will be in the studio with j all weekend while the kids enjoy a weekend with their grandparents and on sunday we will all join together to celebrate my mom's 59th birthday - happy birthday mom!

xxa

>>GIVEAWAY CLOSED<<

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this new version of our popular field bags

I am so happy with the changes I made, I am always looking for ways to simplify my process and designs.  thanks to christina for being a lovely model.

check out the bag details here 

this lamp is a prototype made by j - the wood component is turned by j and the glass part was blown by nick chase - there are three in total and they are all different sizes, when it's completed I will photograph the group - I was too excited to show you that I had to give you a peek.  

p.s. later in the week I will have a giveaway

I found these older pieces while cleaning, I use to use a lot more colour linens in my work, I don't anymore because the colours were so hard to find, you can see on the small pouch it says arounna designs - it was before I teamed up with j, if you look closely at the inside of the pouch I use to hand sew my lining (I know - crazy), I didn't know how to do it at the time (this was a time before you could research tutorials on you tube) the day I figured out how I could sew the front portion and lining together a huge light bulb lit up.

I hope you had a lovely weekend,

we had unusually warm temperatures, all the fluffy snow is gone and parts of the weekend it rained mostly.  I had a whack of orders that I prepared to have ship out monday and it's so good to have all that completed, and I am spending my monday cutting fabric.  

I was looking for a specific image and I found this piece that I had done a while ago, it's paper that I spun and created this funnel like shape, what's most interesting to me is the shadow it casts.  I miss making these pieces and I hope that I will have more time and when we break ground in the spring and my studio gets expanded I hope to create an area to devote to this creative side of me.

thank you for all the birthday wishes to piper - have a great start to your week 

xxa

four years ago this week piper was born, I had an easy pregnancy and birth and she started nursing 20 minutes after she was born, she never needed to be rocked to sleep - you could lay her down to sleep in her crib, her eyes would get heavy and she would fall asleep.  as she got older we noticed how creative she was - she could spend such a long time making and creating and be content. she loves to dance especially to macy gray and amy winehouse, and definitely can point out a bob dylan song (hence her middle name dylan). I feel like piper is like me in many ways, we are both silly and like to make things, but she definitely has her father's sense of humour. I can't imagine our lives without her and that each day for me with my kids are truly a blessing.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend! xxa

a few things back in the shop - the lines day bag in oatmeal linen with dark grey lines and the leather pouches were so popular I made more.

thank you to all of you who came to the sale of the drop cloth pouches yesterday

all the blue/grey aprons are now sold out and a new colour way will be put into production

thank you so much for visiting and for your support.

 

I finally had a chance to photograph the drop cloth pouches - it gets harder in the winter, the light is a bit different and it changes constantly.  I will have them on sale at 2pm EST today, each pouch will come with two drop cloth pins.  you can preview them over here.

 

I believe you can have crushes on objects

completely crushing on j's new table top for a client - it's waiting for aluminum legs, the surface has danish oil 

and I am totally crushing on the new blue linen that will be made into aprons of all shapes and will be used for a new bag.  some sweet friends have been waiting for this linen to come in and I will be making them goods first.

the new prints on pouches, I don't know about you but my large bags is filled with pouches of all sizes - each with their special job of holding and organizing all my things.  this size is also great if you want to be purse free and need it to hold your essentials.

the wave and bow print is available here

p.s. base on a lot of interest, I am making more of the 2013 fabric calendar  and they will be available in the shop in a few days, this is a very limited run and when they sell out - I won't have more available.

our weekend ended with a lovely visit from friends and family celebrating piper's birthday

the lovely balloon tree made by margie

and thanks to the grandmothers for making food.

she's covering her face from the paparazzi experience from all of us taking her photo

thank you so much to those of you who had a chance to get a tea towel set, I will have another sale soon - I wish I had more, but my printing skills are getting better and I make less mistakes. 

I've been meaning to make more of these satchel bags, it was probably one of the first bag designs I ever made that didn't have a right angle,  I wanted to do the bottom portion with natural dye and I didn't get a chance to do it so I thought I would try to photoshop the image to see how it would look before venturing into it.  I really like how it looks and I probably would dye the top portion too, the only issue I have is that I would probably have to dye it before assembling it which is always tricky because you don't want to waste too much fabric. I am thinking of getting a portable burner so I can do the dying in the studio, I always feel weird having all the dye stuff in the kitchen.

I will have more to show you on monday so please come back and visit

I hope you enjoy your weekend! on sunday we are celebrating a special little girl's birthday

xxa

the wall hanging that is due in a few weeks is making some progress, I have done the sewing of the layers together plus the bias trim, I still need to do a few texture embroidered markings on some of the areas.  I hope I will get it done in time - I will photograph it again when it's completed.

p.s. the note cards set is now in the shop

thanks so much for keeping me busy lately!

I hope you had a good time ringing in the new year - I can't believe I have 6 months to enjoy my thirties and on to my fourties - the funny thing about age is that it's just a number.  j and I were talking about age and we feel that we just got started in our careers and finding our place, we have so much more to accomplish - such a wonderful feeling to know that you have so much planned and that the possibilities are endless.  

last year we had such a great start to the year with our business, we were a featured artist on etsy and we had the great coverage in covet garden (click the sidebar) and that resulted in lots of other blogs posting about it and we have been on a great trajectory.  I am still trying to keep the momentum going, that's how businesses like mine survive, you have to always move forward and I know that it can be hard, but one of the things I am happy to have is self-motivation and it helps me to move forward, and it doesn't hurt to have a guy in your life that is pretty darn great and is able to help you when decisions get tough.

I think the key to keeping everything going is to keep being who you are and to move forward with a lot of gusto and fire under your butt, and really believe in what you do.

I had someone ask me once why my life is so much about the business, and my response is that I feel everything with life and work and my artistic practice is so intertwined and that one feeds the other.  I honestly have to work and create to be happy and when I'm happy it's contagious to those around me and without my work I would be really empty.  it's wonderful to see the influence of our creative life in our kids and how they hold it with such reverence.

I manage during the break to make some pillows and I have a few new ones, window and bird perching and the return of an old favourite - anemone. I hope you like them :-)