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.

Here's a switch!

OK, I am not used to posting about fashion, mostly because the one thing a Nelsonite is not required to hone is an astute fashion sense and it feels very silly for me to follow things that you city people already do so well. Unless it is a local artisan, and trust me, there is a very healthy dose of local talent here, I kinda leave the shoes and bags to other lovely and fabulous hunters. HOWEVER, I can't let these sweet little gems go unnoticed!

I am not into these types of sites. Years of being in the fashion industry in some form or another has created sort of a white noise effect in that regard, but I happened across a pair of these in a teeny ad this afternoon and went to check them out. No idea how long the site, Sense of Fashion has been around, but if you really search, there are some nifty indie designers listed.

And although I am certainly not suggesting pairing these shoes with this crafty little find, I think the colours and textures of some of Tchibi's crocheted necklaces are adorable! Handmade and from Brazil, with stupidly low prices, what a lovely way to bring some spring into your winter step!

New Year? Bring it!

OKee Schmokee... It's calendar time!

Yes folks, you know you need one and I just found out that my sweetheart of a pal Marnie has done up a few with her adorable bears plastered all over it. Truth be told, I fell in love with Marnie's first bear before her... this is technically how we met. I saw her bear on a Christmas card she had at a show and immediately wanted him. Fast forward a wee bit to visiting my friend Kelly at her studio and lo and behold, there the bear is again with his lovely mistress Marnie... who was such a doll that I simply fell for her too. My friend said "Ohhhh... you have to watch out for Marnie! One minute she is baking you cookies... and the next... she's baking you cookies!" Well, we haven't connected on the cookie front yet, but 'tis true that she is a veritable ray of sunshine and every time I see her she is inviting me to a new show or shindig and some of them I even get to go to! I happen to know that I am now the proud owner of one of these babies, it's in the mail from Santa apparently. I know exactly where it's going and I can't wait to put it there...



Get one (or three) and check out the brilliantly cool re-engineered duds here!

SIDEBAR...
Hey, did you all know that you can now get a tab for your Facebook account that showcases your etsy site? Sellers and favourites so even if you don't have a shop, you can still post for the benefit of others. I think this just may be the coolest thing Facebook has done. Almost makes up for them plastering our accounts all over the web a few weeks ago. Almost. Anyhoo, try clicking here to get that ap... I can't guarantee anything though, I have never tried to link to one of those pages before. Let me know if it works!

So speaking of Santa (yes we were,) something nice happened to me this Christmas. I finally had my computerless streak broken and am now the proud owner of a new laptop. I might even be able to figure it out before it gets thrown out the window! Wouldn't that be nice. Suffice it to say though, that I will be back to regular posting. I try to stay away, but I know I can't...

Razzle Dazzle Your Walls!

I am building shelving. Weeeellll... I am conceptualizing shelving. I have this huge storage closet in my apartment that is seriously underutilized and I want to organize it so I figure a simple shelving system is the ticket. So I jumped to the online shopping deities to help me find some contact paper (to cover the plywood that will be used) in nifty patterns. You know that stuff your mom used to line the cupboards with called Mac-Tac? Came in all sorts of hideous patterns and colours and stuck to everything? Well, this is my official plea to all contact paper manufacturers to get with the program and create a few graphic-ly progressive patterns? Please? We are breaking out into a DIY era of handmade and re-loved, and contact paper was created to be a part of this! Enough of the wood grain and bad florals already!

Every lemon leads to lemonade if you wait long enough, however. This is technically not contact paper but I am willing to redo my foyer if need be to get some of this into my space.

Behold...

The sparkle is from oodles of teeny glass beads that make a sort of glittery layer over the paper design. The pics above use the glass layer on only certain areas of the design. These below are just completely one whole layer of glass. I can only imagine how decadent it would be to do up a wall from one of these! So yummy!

Talk about living in a jewel box! They don't cost an arm and a leg, just a wee bit of your pinky finger. Hardly noticable for what you get!

It's Beginning to Smell A Lot Like Christmas...

I can't help it... as soon as the halloween willies jump back into the closet on November first, I start planning the Yule season. I adore Christmas and everything that comes with it. Even the family "together time" and the things like gifting that generally seem to stress everyone out. I am not a shopper, and loathe stores any other time of the year, but I find that I get so caught up in the entire feeling of magic that comes over me that it all seems good. I am the single mom of two high maintenance boys that definitely falls into the "on a budget" category, but I find that the smells and sights and sounds bring me right back to that sparkley feeling I used to have as a child and I spend much energy trying to help my kids find their own holiday twinkle.

It helps immensley that my entire family and I absolutely abhor malls and the like, are extremely casual and above all, have NO expectations. Each and every Christmas has been entirely different and that is the way we like it. I am the only one with a Martha streak and they pretty much let me have my way with decorating, provided they don't have to do anything other than "oooh" and "aaah". Truth be told, they all get into it a bit, even if they refuse to admit it. One year my sister took the ATV up into the woods and retrieved a seriously decrepid Charlie Brown tree that someone had cut down and tossed in favour of a new find. She hauled it down the hill and she and my stepdad drilled holes into it to insert random branches. One of the best Christmases in recorded history happened around that tree!

I am sure that most of this won't make it to my table this year, but one can dream. I have a thing for glass and although I am pretending to try to rid myself of my addiction, I will at some point add these to my collection. And I am definitely coveting the cutlery...

All of these are from Anthropologie (of course) and whilst looking up the (ridiculously low) price of the silverware online, I got to browse this year's adorable selection of ornaments for the holidays. I love what this store does and while I will most likely make most of these for fun, the prices are decent enough that you might want to think of adding a few to your collection. I have always given my boys the chance to pick a new treasured piece of their own every year, and when my cousins were young, my mother and I put together a picnic basket for each with a small selection of ornaments that we made with the intent that they could add one to it every year. I am all sentimental like that, what with the whole handmade thing, but you could definitely cheat with these. ;)

Just for fun, who has seen these? At $250 bucks a pop, they are not cheap, but they are so unique and well... artsy! How fun would it be to set up a table with a few of these! They are called "Captured Silverware"


Hilarious.

Like a Rough Diamond

I was looking for something to use as a punch bowl for my sister's surprise birthday party last weekend and thought I would check out one of our thrift stores. I am an AVID thrift store shopper, in fact, I very rarely shop anywhere else. I do think that it takes a good eye to find what you are looking for there, but while people think that means you must have a talent for and understanding of the principles of good design, I think it is actually more a matter of being able to sort the junk out in your head and see past it to the good stuff. The sheer amount of stuff is generally more of an issue than seeing good shape. I hear people say all the time things like they loooooove that sofa, but would rather have it in another colour. Well, this is sort of the same thing, no?



So I didn't find a punch bowl, but I did find a fabulous sofa that I hope goes to a really good home. I have a thing for shoes, dishes and chairs /sofas, the latter being a bit of a problem as I live in a teeny small space. I think with a few alterations though, this could be a very nifty piece. The colour is very off in the last photo, and the lighting was atrocious (they don't put much effort or funding into the store's decor,)

Just a thought.

Alert: Mostest Fabulous Tag Sale!

Oh, for my Jetsetting people (Pauline, Katrina, Eve... this means you! Do me proud...) this is a must see! I have seen a few of these posted as of late and I think the idea for having designers and/or artists collaborate like this is brilliant. What a way to get a peek into the lives of those who are sometimes untouchable and see the 'people' side of them. Who doesn't like to play voyeur... isn't this why we are blogging? :) The IMPOSSIBLY FABULOUS bonus here is that the items up for perusal are to be had for actual tag sale prices! Starting at five bucks and nothing over $200! I am willing to bet there will be more than a few good deals to be had... please send me photos. If I could figure out how to wiggle my nose to get myself there and back within 24 hours... oh well. August 8th for those who can!