Hummingbird

I finished another paper on canvas piece the other day. I was inspired by all the hummingbirds out in our garden, feasting on the bee balm. Hummingbirds are one of my favorite creatures, I think they are so amazing. I hope that I have managed to capture at least a little bit of the sense of movement - and the extreme cuteness - that the hummingbird embodies.

I even gave my hummingbird a little friend, peeking around the corner. And now, back to work on all my other books and pieces for the show.

Also - an update on La Moustache. I thought that I was going to be viewing a lighthearted French comedy - but it was actually an existential-type thriller. The fact that no one noticed his moustache was gone - in fact, they insisted that he had never worn one - leads the character, and the audience to question the notion of existence and reality. It was very good - I'm still not sure what it all meant - but maybe that's why it was good?

Mini Milo

This is Mini Milo - a little fuzzy poodle doorstop that I bought this summer while visiting my friend in the country. He was at a little farmer's market - and I just had to have him. I took a lot of heat for this purchase - it's incredibly kitchsy - but I like it!

I have been absent from this space recently - just super busy filling orders, and getting ready for the Christmas markets - but I have lots of things to report. I will try to post when I can - but I might be more sporadic than normal in the lead up to Christmas.

Must go - a movie is starting called "La Moustache" - the description says it's about a man who shaves his moustache off, but no one notices. I find this type of film irresistable.

Leg Work

I've spent the last couple of days doing what I guess you'd call legwork - searching for supplies, suppliers, etc. It's been tough and exhausting work, and it's much more a part of having a business than I'd ever imagined. Products get discontinued, prices change, shipments are incorrect and it just throws everything off. Sometimes it's fun - getting new paper patterns, finding a great coloured bookcloth - and other times, it's just darn frustrating. I have to say though, I did find something that I've been searching for while I was on holiday - a printing press! Well, at least I think it's a printing press. Sadly, I don't think this is the one for me - although the green paint is pretty, something tells me it's not in working order. And, I couldn't bear to displace the family of spiders living in it. ( :

Taking the good with the bad...

This week, it’s been all about balancing the good with the bad. I think I’ll do the bad first – Milo was sick and I had to take him off to the vet where he stayed for a whole day. It was traumatic for both of us! He was up all night on Tuesday crying and doing this weird gulping thing – he was really in distress. The short of it is – he swallowed something that he shouldn’t have and it scratched his throat. Luckily – whatever it was didn’t create a blockage or puncture his insides and need to be removed surgically. Thank goodness for pet insurance!

The good – there are a couple of things. Really good things. I submitted my work to the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council to be juried, and they have accepted me as a member! This means that I can participate in their markets and events (hopefully more on this later), and it will give me a lot of great exposure. But, probably the best part of it is that I got some fantastic feedback from people who are intimately involved with the craft scene and see different work all the time - so this is a huge boost for me! I also want to say that all of the people working in the NSDCC office are both amazingly sweet and professional at the same time. I am very happy to be a (small) part of this organization.

One more good bit – my beloved Feist is coming to Halifax! I just found out today, and I literally squealed with delight when I heard the news. I saw her last show here about a year and a half ago and it was fantastic! She is becoming so famous that I was afraid she wouldn’t visit this little part of the world anymore – but she is coming! I guess she loves Nova Scotia as much as we love her though – her song “Mushaboom” is about a place that’s on the Eastern Shore of the province, about half an hour from where I live. I will be first in line when the tickets go on sale – wish me luck!

PS - this photo is one I took on our holidays at the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. Worth a visit if you're in the area and like plants. If you don't like plants, they have a german bakery there with lots of yummy pastries. They actually brush extra sugar glaze on top of whatever you order - yum!

Holiday by the Sea

As promised, a bit more on the holiday. First, the cottage - cute as a button on the outside, and also gorgeous within. I love the book "Found Style" by Amy Butler - and the decor of this cottage reminded me of something from it's pages. I thought that it also had a definite Swedish influence, while still being very Nova Scotian - lots of nautical influences.
The table in the dining area was made from a sheet of glass balanced atop three large pieces of driftwood. The effect was amazing, and so ingenious. There were so many great ideas in the cottage using found materials. We actually had the pleasure of meeting the person who decorated the cottage. We were on a little antiquing/exploring trip along the coast, and visited the sweetest antique shop set amongst gorgeous gardens - my photo doesn't do it justice. The shop was called Lavender Cottage, and it's owned by Mary Bell. She was the previous owner of the cottage we were staying in, and did all the decorating and restoration. She was lovely, and spent ages talking to us about her gardens and her shop. When I told her I was inspired by her decorating and wanted to use some of her ideas in my home, she said "You just have to wait 'til a good tide comes in." Probably the most down to earth decorating advice I've ever heard! I am not the only one who's noticed how great Mary's style is - she was featured in Country Living a while back.
I couldn't stop snapping photos on this trip. The little village and surrounding coastline were so beautiful and we had such a relaxed trip. Best of all for me, there were also loads of antique/junk shops all over the place. I would probably say it's the best antiquing/junking region in Nova Scotia. We will definitely be going back. I could probably do a couple more posts about the trip, but I'm not sure if I want to bore you with my ramblings (although that's what I've been doing with this blog all along!). I will start putting a few more photos on my Flickr though.

On Haddock Alley

We got back from our holidays yesterday. We had such a nice time, that I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of things - but I guess that means I'm relaxed, which is a good thing! I'll write a bit more about the trip soon, but I just wanted to share this photo of the little cottage we stayed in. It was in the middle of a tiny fishing village on the Nova Scotia coast, and the street was called "Haddock Alley." Although Nova Scotia is small and I've spent a good part of my life here, I am always discovering new things and places. Wherever I travel in this province, I meet the most lovely people - it's just a lovely place, really. It's late and I'm too tired to put it all into words right now, but I'll be back tomorrow with more photos and writing and you'll see what I mean. Goodnight!

Feet Week - Catching Up

I know that feet week is officially over, but I kind of missed the tail end of it - so I'm posting one last foot photo. As you can see, I've come full circle and am wearing the same flats as in the first photo. I managed to get most of the flour off. I'm off work this week, and we are off on a little holiday! Revisiting some of our favorite places in Nova Scotia, and hopefully also discovering some new ones. But first, I have to deliver a big project I've been working on (more on that later, hopefully) and I'm starting off the holiday but catching up with a lovely friend for a lovely lunch.

Bye for now - back next week with lots of photos - and probably five pounds heavier from all the yummy seaside food!

Feet Week - Thursday

Fall is here. Red Shoes and tweed pants. Another pair of oldies but goodies - notice the scruffing on the toes.

And, although this link has made the rounds on the web, I just had to share it again - the papercuts of Mister Rob Ryan. I love his work, and it looks like he has a book coming out.

Feet Week - Tuesday and Wednesday

Work....

and casual. The shoes at the top are pretty old, and they might be tragically out of fashion, but I don't care. I still really like them. Ditto for the sneakers. I say you can't go wrong with black and white.

PS - I am glad that I'm the only one who can see my legs from this angle. Freakishly unflattering!

Feet Week - Monday

Since I love taking photos of my feet, I've decided to participate in Feet Week (I found out about it from Shona). I just happened to be wearing the most horrible outfit after working all day in my studio, and then making a pizza. Track pants, and basic black flats dusted with flour. I get flour everywhere when I'm making pizza. Milo usually ends up covered with it.

Speaking of Milo, here he is in the studio, getting curious about the camera.

This weekend really feels like the end of summer. It's a bit sad in a way, but I do love fall, especially the new fashions. ( :

Cheers - Part Two - It all ends in tears...

Well, not exactly tears, but my gocco print session didn't end as sucessfully as I'd hoped. The prints I was getting just weren't as even and crisp as I would have liked. I think the reason for this is the design that I chose is one that went over the edge of the card. I think that one of the limitations of gocco is that your design has to fit perfectly on the little pad provided. If it goes just one bit off the pad, it will print splotchily. I know that my problem wasn't the ink - because I inked the crap out of that screen!The prints don't look too bad in the photo, but they really weren't very good. Nothing I would be happy to sell. I might be able to cut them up and make some little tags or something out of them - so not a total loss. Anyhow, now that I know more about how the gocco works and what it can do, I'm going to produce another design that doesn't flow over the edge of the page. With Christmas coming up though, I think that I will have to focus on producing lots of books and canvases to meet upcoming orders, and leave the cards for next year.

Cheers - Part One

About four months after receiving my print gocco, I am finally preparing to break it out tomorrow and print some cards with it. This is a mock up of the card I'm planning to print - I just need to photocopy the design, and I'm ready to go. I made the design using cut paper, and the greeting is hand stamped. I used the word "Cheers" because it can apply to a lot of different occasions - birthdays, congrats, holidays, thank you, etc. - and it's something that I say all the time.

Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow - the actual printing. I think I'm ready - wish me luck!

On perfection...

I am a perfectionist. I'm not saying that I'm perfect, or what I do is perfect, but I am always striving for perfection. This is a horrible affliction. It's stopped me from doing things my whole life for fear of not doing them perfectly. When I was in school, I loved art class but I rarely finished my projects - I'd agonize over them for ages and then discard them when I deemed them imperfect. The little canvas above, I worked on for days and days - moving things slightly, fiddling with the paint, making the papercuts. I have decided that I really have to loosen up and follow the Japanese concept of wabi sabi - beauty in imperfection. Because, perfection is absolutely impossible to acheive - I don't think it even exists. I'm getting better though - I've made huge steps in recent years by starting this blog, getting out there, and showing my work to everyone.

Having said all that, I'm planning to do a series of these little bird canvases - 8x8 square and 4 inches deep - so they'll look really cool on a bookshelf or mantle. We've had loads of hummingbirds in our backyard lately, feasting on bee balm - so I might do one of those next.

If it's a long weekend in your area - hope you have a happy one!

I love Ice Cream

Another unintended blog break. I think that this week, my mantra was - if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I just had a bit of a bad week - felt a bit blocked with making things, and had lots of electrical problems with our house. No hot water, oven, dishwasher for a couple of days and the prospect of a large bill to fix it all permanently. I know I shouldn't whinge because I am lucky to have these things in the first place, but it just all combined to put me in a foul mood. But, it seems that when I am in these states, something really nice happens to cheer me up. My friend Denise, who is here in NS for the summer, dropped by and gave me this amazing piece of fibre art. She runs a little business with a friend called Waterside Fibre Art, and they make these lovely pieces.
The detail is absolutely amazing. Literally zillons (okay, maybe not zillions, but you get the idea) of little pieces of fabric formed into an image with freehand stitching. I was really touched that she gave me a piece of her artwork. I love it so much, and I am so happy to have such a good friend who knows me so well - she knows that I really appreciate all sorts of ice cream. ( ; Thanks Denise!

Paper, Rock, Scissors

Actually, the title of this post is a bit misleading. There is no rock included in this post, just paper and scissors - and a blade. I just thought that paper, rock, scissors sounded a bit...catchier. Anyhow - I've been doing loads of papercutting lately, and relying pretty heavily on these three tools, so I thought I'd talk a bit about them. First off is the blade - I broke down and got the Martha Stewart Crafts blade, because it's rubberized and has a kind of ergonomic shape - a lot easier on the hands. Also, it has it's own pretty brown storage box. Next up are these little scissors that I use for really fine cutting. They are super sharp, and are shaped like a tweezer. I love these - they are so handy.

Finally, my scissors - another fine Martha Stewart product. These are really nice and sharp, and also came in a very pretty brown box. Now, back to the cutting at hand....

More Scenes from the Studio...

I've now got a couple of employees in my sweatshop...I mean studio. One helps with the cutting...
...and the other one is here just to boost morale. Ok guys, back to work!

Great Quotes

I love this quote by artist Sol LeWitt, from his NY Times obit -

"To the sculptor Eva Hesse, he once wrote a letter while she was living in Germany and at a point when her work was at an impasse. “Stop it and just DO,” he advised her. “Try and tickle something inside you, your ‘weird humor.’ You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool.” He added: “You are not responsible for the world — you are only responsible for your work, so do it. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be.”

Here is another great one from him -

"Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically"

Sol LeWitt passed away a few months ago, but I just discovered these quotes, and his work. A very sad loss - his work and his thoughts are so wise and inspiring. I'm going to pin these quotes up in my studio.

Blue

Mixing paint to work on some new paper on canvas pieces.

Still Life with Book Covers

Another productive evening here at double happiness inc....

Sunday

What do you call a blog when the posts only happen about once a week? Right now, I guess you'd call it "double happiness." I really admire bloggers that can post everyday. I get ideas for posts each day, but then don't get time to do them, and then it seems like it's all too late. I resolve, from this day forth, to endeavour to post everyday - even if nothing happens. Which, actually, is most days.

Anyhow, the subject of today's post is today - Sunday. It was beautiful and sunny. We went to the beach and Milo came along. It was his first time at the beach, and I am sad to say that he hated it. I'm not sure if it was all the people, the wind, or the sound of waves crashing on the shore - but he was very uncomfortable. Forget about even going in the water - he hated sitting on the sand. We didn't stay too long, but every once in a while he would make this strange noise that I interpreted as - "please get me out of here -please!" Maybe he will grow to love it?

The other thing we did today is go to a yard sale. They had all these great ceramics - I really loved the colours and couldn't resist. The one above is by Beauceware, a Canadian company based in Quebec. The piece below is just marked "USA". I love the colour and the shape.
I am not sure what I'll do with these pieces, or where I'll display them - but I do love them. Maybe I'll become one of those mad collectors, scouting every yard sale, salvation army store and e-bay?

Craft Inc.

This book looks really great. More info here. Short post, must get to work.

Rock in the Country

I had a fantastic weekend in Pictou with my dear friend Denise (she is the one who makes these amazing fabric artworks - I got to see some over the weekend, and they are even more amazing in person!). She invited me up for the Riverfront Jubilee, but we did all sorts of other lovely things like swimming in the ocean, eating fish & chips and pizza (both in the same day!), shopping and relaxing. Denise is here for the summer staying with her parents who live in a beautiful renovated farmhouse in the country. They were all so lovely and hospitable, I was waited on hand and foot and loved every minute of it! Above is a funky old shed that's on their property.
The days were relaxing, but the nights were devoted to the god of RAWK! As mentioned above, we saw Sloan (pictured above) and Joel Plaskett. Another act I loved was Inflight Safety - they were really great too. It wasn't like a typical rockfest though, in that we weren't standing knee deep in mud, we could see perfectly, and everyone was so polite! People asked if it was ok if they stood in front of us! I love the country. Denise has suggested that we make this a yearly thing and I'm all for that!

Eight Things

I've been tagged by Shona to share 8 facts/habits about myself. So, here goes...

1. I'm a daydreamer. I guess you could say that I have a two-track mind - part of my mind is in the present, and another part is always dreaming away. This is why I'm always getting myself into predicaments - driving down sidewalks, locking myself out of places, forgetting things. But, now that I think of it - I wouldn't have it any other way.

2. I love to read. I feel lost if I don't have anything to read.

3. I'm a bargain hunter. One of my favorite things to do is shop at yard sales and flea markets. I also love those really junky shops that are a bit scary when you first walk in.

4. I love bright colours, like red and pink, but the colours in my house are all pretty muted. I am thinking of painting my TV cabinet turquoise.

5. I love all flowers, but peonies are my favorite.

6. I don't wear make-up. Well, occasionally for special occasions I do, but it's not an everyday thing.

7. I don't own a mobile phone and I never want to.

8. I love to travel, but I hate flying. It's not just fear of the plane crashing, but all the other stuff - walking through the x-ray machine, being searched, the endless waiting, being treated like crap, etc.

I'm meant to tag some other people, but it seems as though this has already made the rounds. So, if you haven't done this and would like to - please go ahead. Thanks to Shona for tagging me - as you can tell, I've been struggling to write blog posts lately - guess it's just a summer thing.

This weekend, I am off to visit a friend in the country. I'm very excited about catching up with her, and we are doing some fun things like going to a music festival and seeing the likes of Joel Plaskett and Sloan, going to the beach, relaxing and eating lots of yummy things. TTFN!

Still here...

Making little books....

Watching the ships in the harbour...
...and lunching in the gardens.More news soon. Right now, I'm off to try and finish the last Harry Potter...

Xavier Rudd

Last night, we went to see Xavier Rudd. He's pretty amazing - we have one of his older albums, and I like the songs - but until we saw him live, I did not realize that he is basically a one man band. As you see above, he's got guitars, digeridoos and bongo drums, and he seems to play a lot of them at once. The music was much "trippier" live than I remember from the album - but that was cool. It was a bit like being at a hippie rave - I especially liked some of his instrumental tunes. As well as being a great musician, he is an environmental and human rights activist - check out his "Better People" campaign - an all around nice guy.

Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords - this band has their own HBO show, that you can watch by clicking the link. It's kooky!

Sat-day

That's the way Martin says Saturday - Sat-day. I guess it's an Australian thing, but it kind of makes sense - Mon-day, Tues-day, Wednes-day, Thurs-day, Fri-day, Sat-day...all the same number of syllables. Anyhow, I digress. On Sat-day, we drove to Wolfville, about an hour away and had a great morning. We started off at the Farmers Markets with coffee and pastries. Milo had a great time, there were so many other dogs there. As well as lots of amazing veggies, there are some great craft vendors. One that stood out was a little 9 year old girl who made stuffed horses - very "Science of Sleep"-like. Unfortunately - I didn't get any photos of the market because I was juggling my coffee, the dog and a bag of fresh rocket. Then, we went to see a client of mine and sell her some books for her shop. It was lovely to see her again - she always oohs and ahhs over my work and is so encouraging. She even gave me some really cool new paper to make books from! The photo above is from a drive out to the beach. We ate veggie calzones that we had bought at the market while looking out at the sea. You can see in this photo what a little squirt Milo is!


This area is really beautiful. Just a short drive from the sea is all this gorgeous farm land. Martin had to stop the car and take this photo, because the trees on the top of the hill look a bit like a bunny. I like to think that maybe the farmer planned it that way. A giant topiary.

She shoots, she scors-it!

Ahem, please excuse the bad pun in this title. Today, I'd like to discuss the "Scor-It." It's a gadget I recently picked up for scoring paper. "Why do I need a gadget for scoring paper?" you might ask - "I already have a bonefolder and a ruler!" you exclaim. Well, a bonefolder a ruler are great - but I score a lot of paper, and I wanted something that might make it easier. I had seen the Scor-It at the place where I buy my cello bags, and always wondered if it would work. I had previously been using a scoring blade on my Fiskars cutter - which would also probably be a fine option if you were scoring fewer items - but I was having all sorts of trouble. The scoring blade would cut into the paper, it was really hard to line up the measurements for my accordion books, and if I was using heavy weight paper, I would sometimes get that horrible cracking effect. If you work with paper, you know what I mean. Anyhow, I bit the bullet and ordered the Scor-It, and it works great. As you can see from the photo, it's pleasingly old-school. It's basically a metal strip, mounted on a rubber covered board with a wooden scoring tool. You line up your paper with the ruler and stopguide on the top, and then just run the tool down the metal strip to create the score line. The lines it creates are very strong, and there is absolutely no paper crackage. A great little tool if you like to score.

PS - when looking at their website, I noticed that the company that makes the Scor-it is Vandelay Industries! How great is that - I wonder which came first, the company, or the Seinfeld episode.

Scenes from a studio....

Milo curled up on the rug today and chewed on a bone as I worked away. I love it when he lies like this, with his little legs splayed out. This is probably a new low in my blog posts - resorting to photos of a dog's bum! It will be better tomorrow, I promise.

Time Management

I'm having a bit of trouble with time management at the moment. I've been really busy with double happiness lately - don't get me wrong - it's fantastic and I'm not whingeing, but I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. I just finished my commission, and in the past week all the shops I sell to have called to order some books. I also work full-time, so I only have the evenings and weekends to make books, as well as all my housework, socializing and family stuff. I don't want to (can't, in the case of work) give anything up at the moment - so I am looking at a way to make more "me" time - and also time to experiment with other artwork. Doing the collages was great, and I'd like to have more time to experiment and develop more product lines, but I am a bit of a slave to my little books.

An obvious thing would be to cut down on internet surfing/blogging - but I find it too inspiring to quit. I have tried to give up on housework, but things are getting pretty feral around here - we haven't been keeping up on the washing, and I nearly had to wear the bottom of my swimsuit as underwear last week. My husband helps out when he can, but he has been working long hours and has also been away on a few business trips. There are a few good hints over on apartment therapy ny today, and I'm really open to hints from anyone out there. I have to say, my hat's off to people with children - I don't know how they find time to do anything - I can't even manage with a puppy!