Welcome To Shprixieland! Please Leave Your Wand At The Door...

Sometimes an artisan comes to my attention that makes me weak in the knees before I have moved past even the first piece. The way of marketing means that we put our best foot forward, and generally if you are scouting through websites or even shops, then you only get to see the best few of many... but when you find an artisan who is fabulous on multiple fronts, that is when it gets REALLY exciting! I think I have discovered my new favourite artist, and living in the Koots, that is saying an awful lot. I am surrounded by talented people and spoiled by the offerings of my small town. So it was a great pleasure to stumble upon ShprixieLand this morning!

Green or yellow... green or yellow... hmmm...

I am going to be needing some of these!

I'm pretty sure that's Pixie right there with her flower wand...

Such gloriously varied and whimsical designs! I love all of it and will be fetching myself up the beginning of a collection as soon as is possible... They don't have an online shop yet, they are working on it though. If you are local they will be selling at DogPatch, Touchstones and The Gallery 378.

A Shprixie-Chicken

 The pair that make up Shprixieland Studios are nicknamed Shpriken and Pixie and it sounds like their lives as artists and rural homesteaders are intertwined in the same formula as their studio name. Days that begin with gathering eggs (from fabulous looking designer chickens... I'm serious, look at that plumage!) are interrupted by inspiration to hone their craft and the wares that are the result are most definitely inspired! A flurry of facebook messaging confirms for me that Pixie is indeed fabulous beyond most and as proof, she has a parrot! You know what they say about a girl with a parrot :)

Want

The minute they have a website you can purchase on, I will post. If you simply must contact them right away though (as I did) you can find them on their facebook page or here.More from this brilliant pair as soon as I can find my way to ShprixieLand proper! And so my quest ensues...

Sunday Thoughts... Ummmmm

It's Sunday.

I'm supposed to have thoughts on Sunday. Today is the day that I have the time to actually sit down and write something stimulating and thought provoking. Ummmmm... well, I s'pose I could write about how wonderful it has been to finally have both sunshine AND a yard to work in at the same time... but that pretty much sums that thought up. How about the free headboard that I got this week to play with (photos of before and after when my camera is working again)... oh, wait... can't really turn that into a post without photos, can I? Hmmmm...

I am having an "I Love My Life" week, can I share? This is me remembering that it is the little things that make life worthwhile :)

This is the view from the top onto my town.

I got an unexpected call this week from my sister (who does not have kids and hence lives a completely different lifestyle- read: waking and sleeping schedule- than I do and we don't hang together nearly as often as we once did...). She took the boys and I on a hike. WITH her! My sister is the kind of person who wears yoga pants when she doesn't do yoga and calls Mountain Equipment Co-op "MEC". We know we are related because everyone says we have the same nose, and you simply cannot duplicate this nose... but aside from that... well, different cloth indeed. So when she wakes me up from a lovely sleep to tell me what a glorious day it is to hike up the side of a mountain... yeah. Not so much. BUT my number one DS asked me really nicely if we could do that hike again soon (the last time may or may not have been two years ago...) just a couple of days before, and I had said yes. I said yes because the chances of getting that phone call were so slim... perhaps they are conspiring.

Kazillions of yellow mountain lilies.

Turns out said mountain was a lovely place to be. Sis picked us up and took us by her place to make sure we had a protein shake before our ascent, then we spent a few hours in the perfect cool morning weather putting one foot in front of the other... about the time I started to feel my legs buckling, I noticed my first budding wildflower, then a wild strawberry flower, then some stunning chartreuse lichen... and all the toil melted away. The top of the rock was utterly blanketed in sunshine yellow lilies, and pink something or others... and the boys were on cloud nine... above it by the time we reached the top I think. Definitely a worthwhile day and I remember now how much I like being outdoors... sometimes I need a gentle reminder... yes, even living here in the Koots.

Aesthetic Dominion: Cartolina's Latest

I have been a fan of Cartolina for years. I am a bit of a stalker on Fiona's site, I visit hers probably more than any other blog on the net and never EVER find it to be dull. Always inspiring, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness... ever to the point of distraction. I actually live in the same town as she does, which is the sweetest little arts town in North America, so I feel very lucky to have her as a neighbour! Such talent we have here in the Koots :)


Fiona has been a busy little bee the past year... well, truth be told, I don't think she ever rests. She and her husband were the ones who opened my favourite place to have chai and a muffin, The Dominion Cafe, and although they haven't owned it for a few years it is almost the same today as it was then, which shows you that she has a good eye, excellent taste, and knows what she is doing in business. These days she is putting all of that talent into evolving her "pretty things" business, Cartolina. And by "evolve" I pretty much mean world domination.



I am not one who would jump at the first chance to marry art with something high tech, because, well I am not high tech and really don't understand any of it. I don't have a cell phone... yeeesssss... that's right, I don't own one. I had one years ago, I have gone through two actually. I never used them. I either can't keep the bloody thing charged or I have forgotten to get more time for it (the first one I got a three year plan and used it maybe ten times) and it is generally taking up space in my bag for literally no reason. If I DID have a cell phone, I would be grabbing that app I mentioned on Valentine's day. I love the idea of sending something so gorgeous in such a simple way. I love that Cartolina has taken these images that are inspired so obviously by vintage artwork and created something so modern, not only in an aesthetic sense, but also in the way they are used.


I purchased my first Cartolina card eons ago in a Nelson boutique. I didn't realize they were a local company and felt that I needed to buy it in case I couldn't find them again. I bought it solely to frame. I am delighted that she has recently made framable prints for sale in a Cartolina etsy shop. Her first etsy store! They would make gorgeous housewarming or wedding gifts.


Most recently, she teamed up with Lief, Leuk & Eigen to create the most adorable Baby Collection of announcements. They are customizable with regards to names and dates etc., and most importantly, are not the typical cutesy thing that most baby products have going on.


I adore these! They are available online at Leif, Leuk & Eigen's site.

Of course around here it goes without saying that my favourite part of the Cartolina way of doing things is making something so beautiful without losing touch with the importance of our planet. Cartolina cards are printed on recycled paper that comes with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification. The FSC represents products produced from well-managed forests, controlled sources and recycled wood. The cards are printed with vegetable based inks and their printer was named Most Environmentally Progresive Printer in Canada for the last 5 years at the Environmental Printing Awards. Brilliant all around.

Small Town Frocks

I have a new project. You know, to fill all that free time that I have... stop rolling your eyes. OK, so this isn't totally new. My good friend and I have been tossing this one back and forth for quite some time now, we just needed a bit of a kick in the pants to get started. Mostly because neither one of us are computer gurus and we REALLY were hoping those elves that exist in our heads would materialize to do the WWW stuff for us. Not going to happen. In true Kootenay style, we jumped all over the fun parts (the parts we know and understand) and like the nutbars that we are we decided to do a photo shoot before we had an outlet for the photos... but it turned out so brilliantly that we knew we had to do more.

Me doing technical type stuff...

You see, this lovely lady Lara, (that I refer to regularly,) and I met working in the bridal industry designing gowns over a decade ago. We share a deep understanding and respect for the lifestyle that we live which we see as being the core premise of couture. A wealthy life has nothing to do with "the House of" or a price tag that you need to sell a kidney to achieve, hours clocked on the red carpet or fame beyond the Kardashians. Rather the understanding that style is intimate and personal, authentic quality does not compromise and comfort is not the opposite of luxury, but rather the ultimate example of the same. Coco would tell you the same thing. I do not lie. We also firmly believe that a lighter footprint is entrenched in this way of being and is definitive of the culture we inhabit.

Lara Blackman, designer for Jayne.

Cut to Lara's ridiculously brilliant skill as a dressmaker. Whilst mulling the supreme languidness of her summer on the beach and working out a plan for where to position her future floating home on the lake, she realized that while she found enjoyment in the handwork she was doing, where her heart truly resided was with couture gowns. Having been immersed in the wilderness for the better part of ten years, her take on fashion has evolved into something exquisitely organic and she knew that what she really wanted was to be exploring the idea of gowns created from reloved and natural textiles and constructing them entirely by hand (and foot) using her antique treadle sewing machine. Her goal: to create one fabulous gown every month (12 in all) using only locally available supplies, that are to challenge her both creatively and technically.

In the workroom making
ridiculously fabulous wool wigs.

She also decided to use this opportunity to search out and liberate the massive talent that resides in the Kootenays. Creative people tend to flock together and it was inevitable perhaps that such a stellar group would end up working together. While I have known Lara for nearly fifteen years, it has been a long time since we have collaborated. I am thoroughly enjoying the co-conspirator slash stylist slash PR position. We have enlisted the help of the immensely talented Avrell Fox for make-up, hair and general fabulousness, and amazingly we have found the sweetest raw talent in a budding photographer, Louis Bockner, who has surprised us all with his insane photographic abilities. Of course, Nelson is chock full of stunningly healthy and beautiful people to model and since we don't know anyone adept with Photoshop (not that we are the type to airbrush raw beauty to begin with) we will be showcasing how gorgeous actual beauty is.

I styled the November photo shoot using some of my antique pieces. Some of the silver is c1800s.

And so Small Town Frocks has been born. The idea is to not only create the garment, but to also showcase the evolution, from inspiration to technical information to behind the scenes of photo shoots and window displays. Other talent in and around the area will be spotlighted and we may even find and/or inspire a few new gems along the way, who knows? This project is all about discovery and process (and the attainment of said floating home) and the sheer passion that is what couture is truly about. And so we begin...

Linked to http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

I've been keeping a secret. I know this goes against the rules of blogging, but I have been waiting patiently for things to come together, and although there may be still some pieces missing from the puzzle (as in future website) I am simply inspired to post these little pieces of fluffy loveliness right now. Take a gander at these...

My dear friend Lara, of Three Owls, recently moved back to Nelson after nearly a decade of life in the middle of nowhere. Literally, she used to sew up these puppies (and sheep and turtles...) on a treadle sewing machine in the middle of the woods on a mountain top!

My favourite are the buildings. I have a pretty little pink number in my pillow assortment on my sofa, complete with the sweetest little awnings and a sparkley chandelier seen through the window. I will post a photo. Her handwork has always astounded me! The rest of her managerie is made up of whichever creature strikes her fancy while at her worktable. She uses re-loved fabrics and organic wool fill to be nice to the fancy marble we live on, and works very diligently at the sense of enchantment that she believes should weave its way through our lives.

This girl has always been one of my biggest inspirations and you can learn more about her at her own newly created blog. She is just learning the ropes, both in the blogosphere and in the high tech world of electrical acoutrements (that decade also put her computer access to pretty much nil,) but her personality comes through in her writing and she always has something intelligent to say, so worth the visit.

...and the Livin' Is Easy

I have been twisting my brain into a pretzel trying to figure out what to blog about for the last little while because I have barely been around a computer and can't seem to find a thread of commonality amongst what I have running about my noggin. It just now occurs to me (my lovely friend just pointed out on the phone) that perhaps it would just be best to put a few things out there and 'empty the folder' so to speak. If this is a lifestyle blog, then perhaps a peek into how life is lived around these parts would be appropriate.

This is my summer so far.

So to begin with, my parents bought a beautiful piece of property way back in spring that backs right onto the river and although that means a healthy dose of mosquitos, it also means spending many many weekends coming out to sit about barefoot eating watermelon. Life could definitely be worse.

This is the boys' new playhouse...

The backyard

Early in June my sister and I made the nine plus hour treck to Vancouver, which is where we both grew up. She bought a new car and phoned one day to say that she wanted to drive it so she was taking my boys and I down to play tourist. If there were a way for me to describe how much of a stretch it is to imagine my sister stuck in a vehicle with a two and a six year old for over nine hours... well, let's just say I am impressed that we ALL made it home together. Eventually.

... looking for creatures

We took Rowan to the Vancouver Aquarium as we happened to be there on his sixth birthday (and it just so happened that that day is now the birthday of a certain beluga whale who was birthed while we were in attendance). We did the Stanley Park thing and snapped this pic from across the water of Vancouver's new LEED convention center with it's green living roof. In fact, we noticed that Vancouver is showing a much greener side these days, even moreso than when we lived there a decade ago. Even the info booth at the park is sporting a wildflower roof. Perhaps a bit of a facelift for the coming Olympics?

This year we made it to the Strawberry Festival at the Ashram. This amazing property is only open to the public for this one day of the year and I have always wanted to go. The building itself is built entirely for acoustics and it really is the most amazing experience to be inside. Every single whisper or footstep becomes a statement and being that it is meant to be a place of silence most of the time, it is very profound to be inside. Profound is not the word I would use to describe entering the Ashram with a two and a six year old... "enlightening" may be in there someplace however. We spent the day walking the grounds and heard people saying "even the rocks on the beach are beautiful!... do you think they were imported?" So funny.






The Factory had the Grand Opening of their new store and celebrated their second annual Day to Night Fashion Show and I did take my camera to take photos of the behind the scenes hooplah, but was too busy to actually shoot anything. These photos are random shots from others who attended...




... and in true Nelson fashion (no pun intended) there were many painted bodies in attendence...

My lovely friend Kelly's artshow...

A few more bits and pieces here and there...

and then some more relaxation in the great outdoors. It's been rough folks...

The End.