McGill's Farmers' Market!

September always whizzes by, a month of changes and the start of autumn crispness in the air. Love it!

This Wednesday September 22nd, I'll be at the McGill Farmers' Market, on the main campus of McGill University in downtown Montreal. I'll be there from 11am to 6pm at Three Bares Park (not a typo), along with Norma of CaraCarmina and the wonderful fresh produce of our local farmers of course! Looking forward to bringing home some fruits and veggies, as well as organic tofu, raw milk cheese and chocolate, mmmmm... Full list of this year's farmers is here.

I won't bring ALL my stuff since the tables are small, but I'll have a little of everything. Worked on some cards today... doo dee doo ♪ ♫ ♪

I'll be at Marché Duluth!

Marché Duluth is a farmer's market in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood, whose goal is to get locally grown produce to the local community. They run every Sunday and even have a chef on site cooking up a meal for sale from whatever's fresh and on-hand. Mmmm, I'm looking forward to that, and to buying local! There's also live music; this Sunday, Metro Trio and Lake of Stew. Here are some photos from their website.

I want this crepe!

The market takes place in the schoolyard of l’École Arc-en-Ciel, at 4265 avenue Laval, corner of Marie-Anne. Click here for a map. This week-end, as the market season comes to an end, they've planned a small craft fair alongside the usual food kiosques. It looks like the weather might be a little icky and chilly, so it seems we may be indoors, in the school gym, if it's raining. Hope it's nice enough to stay outdoors with the food, music and the action!

I'm working on making more cards since they already have several jewellery sellers and they asked me to focus on the paper goods. I'll still be bringing some jewellery though, just in case.

Featured in an online magazine...

Hey look, one of my pendants and one of my cards is in the May issue of VivaLaModa Handmade online magazine! Here I am on this page, and on this page too!

I've got them up in my Etsy shop too. Here's the Pensive Bunny...


And the Positivity or Happy Thoughts card...

Orizuru cards

Hard to even tell what these are, eh? Let me pull back a little more...

There we go - now you can see that they are folded cranes, or orizuru in Japanese (oru means to fold, zuru or tsuru means crane). This is a traditional Japanese origami (folded paper) design that has become easily recognizable to many around the world, is probably the most popular design that people learn to make. Although I was born here in Montreal, I learned to fold this when I was pretty young - don't even remember exactly when!

The crane represents a lot of good things in Japanese culture: peace, fidelity (cranes mate for life) and honour. In Japanese mythology it is thought that the crane lived for 1000 years; if you fold 1000 cranes you will be granted a wish, hence the custom of folding 1000 cranes prior to a wedding to ensure a happy marriage. For more info about origami, see here and here.

None of the cards I make have any text in them; having a bilingual customer base here in Montreal means I would have to make both English and French cards - with blank cards language doesn't matter, but this way I really feel that the image on the card (in the case of my stamped cards), or the folded design has to express some kind of heart-felt sentiment.

These orizuru cards work perfectly for wedding and get well wishes, as well as for birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's and Father's Day. They are lovely to send to a friend who is feeling down, or even to someone mourning a loss - I like to think of the crane as a messenger of hope of sorts.

The folded crane is also strung with silver or gold thread so that the recipient can hang it as a decoration and remember that someone is thinking of them.

The second part of the card is where the giver writes their message; this is made of two pieces of paper folded into a pocket in which the crane sits, to keep the message hidden until it's opened.

And finally, packaged cards, ready for a store here in Montreal, and for my upcoming craft show in Ottawa, Tarts 'n Crafts. You can also find them in my Etsy shop!

Gotta go and finish up the rest of this batch!

Some new and new-ish cards

Yesterday was a card making day; did a new version of my Holiday Crane - the colours are a little off here since it's very overcast here.

The cranes are paired up in packages with my new design below - can you tell it's a little gift (I thought it was such a good idea, but if you look at something and poke around with the design for too long, you kinda lose perpective)? I think I'll be doing these year-round in different colours, since I like the simplicity of them. Pretty happy with how they turned out.

I package cards by 6's, 3 each of 2 designs which seems to work well for customers. I'll have to also make more of my other set today, which you see below, since I sold almost all of them this past Saturday. At certain shows I sell tons of cards, at others, hardly any; the one this coming Sunday, is usually good for cards.

Then there's my other larger card (5"x7") series, but I'll write about that another time...

The post office will be opening soon, so I'll be heading out the door into the snow (just a smattering). Looking forward to the the first coffee of the day that I'll make when I get back!

"Your babies are in the mail"

I just mailed out these 60 little babies this morning! Here they are all bundled up, ready to be packaged and sent off to North Carolina.

I created this little bundled baby card, as a way to congratulate new parents on a new addition to the family, but a lovely customer of mine, Michelle, wanted to announce the arrival of her son at the end of March with these cards. What a great idea! And I'm so flattered that she chose my cards for such a momentous occasion ☺Inside the folded blanket will be a little print-out with all the info about the new baby boy. Thanks Michelle, I enjoyed making this order for you!

Teaching an old dog new tricks... My Microsoft photo editting and imaging software went all wonky on me yesterday and asking it to do something for me resulted in my computer shutting down - not good. This was the so-called updated version of the same program I've been using for the past 6 years, called PictureIt. It's always given me and my computer and my husband - bless his patience! - problems, but I was so comfortable with it that I've stuck it out. Well, now even the newer version has been discontinued, so I guess Microsoft realized it was a dud. So I'm now learning to get around Picasa, which I've heard so much about - excited to learn how it all works, although I mourn the loss of my friend, MS PictureIt (can you hear the leetle violins playing?).

Ok, gotta go. Time to make the donuts...

Call for submissions and coffee...

I took some time to take photos of some newer bookmarks I've been making and posted them in my Etsy shop. I'm never sure if a bookmark is something people will actually be interested in buying, but then I'm always surprised at craft shows - at one show they're a big hit and I run out, and at another they're left gathering dust in my display. Go figure.

I now cover them in these neat vinyl cases, so they are well protected and more sturdy than my previous design. And I've also done away with the little bead tassle for a cleaner look. These are a few of my "Fishies" bookmarks, and below that, a bookmark in action...

Rockport Quarry Books is publishing a book called 1000 Handmade Greeting Cards, and they put out a call for entries. I submitted several designs yesterday, so I will keep my fingers crossed! Here's my "Bundled Baby" card, along with one in my "Pudgy Waiting Cat" series, which I sent in, among others.



I don't think I told you, but some of my jewellery designs were accepted for another book in this series, 1000 Jewelry Inspirations, which is set to come out in June 2008.

I'm so excited! My sushi platter pendant and earrings were chosen, as well as my chiyogami pendant and brooch.

To nourish my creativity...!
I'm off to make another coffee before heading into my workshop for the day. My husband got me a Bodum French press last week since this drip coffee maker I got on sale before the holidays was small, cute and cheap, but didn't make very tasty coffee, especially when making only a cup at a time. The Bodum is great, since you let the coffee soak in hot water for a few minutes before pushing the coffee grounds to the bottom of the pot with a filtered plunger; the result is a full-flavoured, heart-palpitating drink that makes me do a little jig! If you love coffee that actually tastes like coffee (as opposed to what I call "brown crayon water"), this is the coffee maker for you. I don't think JF knew just how happy this little coffee pot would make me.

Looking forward to my second happy dance of the day...

New cards for the new year...

Been working on some new card designs, with Valentine's Day coming up and it being the year of the rat and all. My Valentine that I just posted in my Etsy shop is not just for Valentine's Day. I got this amazing paper when I was in Tokyo back in October at this beautiful little shop, called Bingataya, and of course I've been hoarding the sheets until now. My workshop is undergoing a bit of a spruce-up and I've had these many sheets of new paper hidden until I had a nice tidy surface to work on... Well, the way I work, that is just NOT going to happen! So I took it out anyway and have this to show for it.

Yesterday I was carving some rat stamps. The first stamp was a hefty rat, and a little too real looking. Not what I wanted for a card. This little guy looks a little shifty, but that's what I like about him ☺ He's just looking towards the new year ahead - so many things to accomplish...

Took lots of jewellery photos the other day, but haven't posted a lot of it yet. I'm kind of wanting to hang onto these earrings since I love 'em! I guess I should just make myself a pair.

Well, I'm still in a productive mood, so I'll go and do a bit more work before heading out to taiko practice in a couple hours.

The week-end is already here...

This week just flew by. Completed an order that I'll send out on Monday, made some new earrings that you'll see samples of below. Got some exciting news about a project scheduled for September... but I'll tell you about that another time :)

I haven't posted this particular card in my Etsy shop, but I really like the way it turned out; maybe that's why I didn't post it! It's my favourite pudgy cat stamp, inspired by my late great old friend, Jerzy the cat, who was 19 when he died last year.

I've been making chiyogami paper pendants and pins for awhile now, and decided to make some earrings too. I'll be making more next week, since I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Here's just a couple of samples:

The upcoming week-end will be really busy... tomorrow is our Spring Bazaar, a major fundraiser for our community center (where we practice our Japanese drumming and our second home!), so we will be there all day, and then our taiko group has a performance in the evening.

I volunteered to make six apple pies for the bazaar tomorrow, so I've got to go and get my apples now and start on that. My mom used to make a dozen pies for this annual event, so I've now taken over the pie-maker's role... can't make a dozen though. I think the last ones would turn out totally ugly since I'd be so sick of rolling out the dough.

Sunday, of course, is Mother's Day, my first without my mom. My sister and I will go to the cemetary in the morning and then she'll come over for brunch with my in-laws. I've had a bit of a tough week thinking about this, and remembering this time last year when Mom was in hospital. I have to also remember that she is now with my Dad and all her family, so I can imagine she will probably have a drink (so to speak) on Sunday, and we will drink an earthly toast to her :)

Have a good week-end everyone, and Happy Mother's Day !