resurrection fern

sneak peak at the latest fall fashions on the glideway

WARNING :  This post may be hazardous to your health and well being if you are allergic to seeing small, wonderful, adorable little creatures dressed up in the cutest little handmade outfits. 

Fern did a little fashion show for us yesterday. He has become so famous this past year I do hope he doesn't hop on a plane to Paris , London or even sunny Mexico and chooses to come live indoors here for the winter. He is a free garden snail so in the end it is his decision.

With brown being the new black this year the acorn ensemble was quite a hit with the celebrity audience. I have heard that the orders are pouring in since this magazine hit the news stands. 

pumpkin crowns

Want to make a crown or seasonal wreath in minutes without the use of glue, sewing or wire? In fact all you need are some embroidery hoops and some colorful fresh leaves. If you are fresh out of colorful leaves you can create your own out of paper or stiff fabric.  I made my first one out of the colorful leaves of the 

staghorn sumac.

 This bush is one of the first to turn red in Ontario and it does so in gradients. I removed the leaves from a few stems and sorted them by color.

 Open up the embroidery hoop and lay the inner layer down on a flat surface.

 Now place the leaves around the hoop overlapping the ring by about one inch.

 When you completed the circle and with the outer layer of the hoop opened to its widest setting place it carefully down over the inner layer and the leaves. Tighten the hoop and admire your colorful display.

I bet you won't want to stop at making just one. 

My little wild thing liked the paper leaf crown the most. He said it really complemented his grey coat. 

Edgar is always close by when I am working on the porch. 

I think he agrees the colors, textures and aromas of autumn are very special. 

I might just have to add professional pumpkin photographer and stylist to my resume.

By the way happy apple picking bench monday to you all!!

the forest in september and another blog giveaway

I was really tired after work today but I was compelled by the warmth and sunshine to take a short walk in the forest before dinner. The forest never disappoints me. 

I gathered up some color into my cloth bag and home I went to arrange it on my new porch dresser.

The contents overflowed from the oval quilting hoop.

I left to help prepare dinner and came back out on the porch just as the sun was sinking low in the sky and something magical happened to the display.

I am so smitten with that light.

It was even in my bedroom closet getting intimate with the deers.

To celebrate the forest at the beginning of september and my most favorite season and light the giveaway for today is an 8 by 10 print of fern and his friend getting ready for the new season sporting tiny little handmade sweaters and a crochet covered thimble necklace like the one in the latest mixtape zine. My tutorial on making one of these is featured in that issue.  

Leave a comment below by friday at midnight for a chance to win. Don't forget every post this week is attached to a giveaway so enter them all if you want. Tomorrow a very special musical giveaway. You won't want to miss it!!

PlushYou Interview

I am so excited to be taking part in the amazing international show for plush known as PlushYou 2009 taking place in Seattle, Washington in October. You can read a little interview with me over at the 

PlushYou blog. Kristen if you ever plan such a camping trip, please count me in. This gives me the perfect excuse to show some more pictures of my little friends that are already on there way to Schmancy or perhaps they have arrived. In some of these photographs you will see an old friend Mungo, the amazon river dolphin. He is one of those things mentioned in the interview that I am unable to part with. At least not yet. It almost happened with the giant pink snail as well but I decided I would just make myself another one. These plush will be available to purchase from Schmancy in October if any one is interested. I will be donating my portion of the sale to Greenpeace.

the giant pink sea snail

I have been very busy behind the scenes working on my PLUSH YOU 2009 contributions. I was really happy to hear that Kristen didn't really want to receive them too early. These soft art toys began with an idea, as most things do. I really wanted to design them around the silkscreened image of a crochet covered stone. You might remember it from my workshop with arounna at bookhou. I wanted them to look fresh, modern and yet incorporate some old world crafting with embroidery and as you will see later with the other ones a little bit of crochet.

I wanted them to be water inspired.

One of my favorite films as a child was the original Doctor Dolittle movie with Rex Harrison and my favorite character was the great pink sea snail of course. Strange that the only image I could find on the internet of it was this little one.

I read someone describe it as a throw back to the psychedelic 60's. 

Here is what I came up with.

I have decided to name her luna after luna lovegood my favorite character in the Harry Potter books.  

Similar to last year I will be donating my portion of the sale of my plush to a charity. This year it will be the the Greenpeace defending our oceans campaign.

Tomorrow a stone and sea inspired little trio with Russian ancestry :)

the four elements

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

- Thomas Merton

The four element stones that were lovingly created by the hands of Pat have been united. I was thinking about a creative way to photograph them for you. If any of you know a little about this amazing woman you would know she is very well read, writes beautiful prose and poetry, loves all things vintage and has a great love and respect for the natural world. I had been wanting to show you some of my favorite vintage children's books so this seemed like the perfect backdrop for the stones. I think it was Dicken's who said sometimes the best thing about a book is it's front and back covers. The thing about most of these books I have collected is that the inside is just as wonderful as the exquisite covers. At least that is my opinion.

Friday evening , just before the sun set I took Pat ( in the form of her stones) out for a walk to one of my favorite spots, Happy Valley. Yes it is actually called that. It is a very small portion of a very large trail system that follows the Oak Ridges Moraine. With all the rain we have been having the mosquitos were out in full force and very happy to sight some fresh blood. I did manage a few pictures before getting eaten alive.

As I was placing the stones a little visitor had come to see it's homage. I swear this wasn't staged. On the way home I saw a grouse family, wild turkeys, the most adorable little brood of skunks out for a stroll and a young buck in the front yard of an estate home looking like he owned the place. 

Thank you so much Pat. Your art will find a very special place in my home and in my heart.

REMINDER:  ETSY SHOP UPDATE TOMORROW , MONDAY, JULY 13 th at 4 PM EST

one covered stone and one merfish per customer for the first hour of the sale and then anything goes!!!

I hope to have a preview up later today or at least by tomorrow morning with what will be available. There will be no poetry stones for sale. I only have two left and I will be having a silent auction for those with the money being donated to autism research. More about that later. 

aspiring mind

“Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

 Fire, air and earth stones created by my friend Pat and united as a trio awaiting the arrival of water to complete the series.  One of my favorite flickr activities this year has been seeing these stones evolve and Patricia working her magic, starting with wonderful smooth stones, hand felting them with colorful roving, cutting and sewing bits of vintage fabric with beautiful dramatic lines and then adding the details with needle pulling colorful threads to make exquisite patterns. These are "prose"  stones similar in many ways to the poetry stones I recently completed. They tell the stories of a very aspiring mind and share the talents of a very sensitive, kind friend.

Thank you so very much Pat. I will treasure these elemental story stones for ever and ever.....

peony dreams

  Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies, Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows. I envy you, drunk with flowers, Butterflies swirling in your dreams.   Ch’ien Ch’i

Early morning walk in the dew covered grass outlining the garden to gather the newly fallen buttery soft gently fragrant petals in my pockets.

silken soft petals , smooth or slightly scalloped edges, hard grey stone from a small island off the coast of New Brunswick, fresh cold water

layer upon layer of lush, scallops from crimson to ivory

a fine dress for a fairy dance on the approaching solstice.

flame

i laid my fern heart out on the stone

and then my gentle little muse arrived without a sound

and fell into a deep sleep , dreaming of butterflies of course .....

Have a great mid week!!

Don't forget to enter to win the giveaway from yesterday's post!!

Forever and Ever

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery Today is my eldest daughter's birthday and it is about time I thanked her for all her patience over the years in explaining and teaching me things what must seem to her to be forever and ever. I came into this very important role of motherhood, young and unexperienced and over the years my children have taught me so much.

I made this next poetry stone to give her for her birthday.  As the daisy so aptly predicted we LOVE YOU , forever and ever.

The daisies are always in bloom just before her birthday and she spent many days over the years picking beautiful handfuls in the meadows. We share a very deep love of flowers and I have even managed to win her over in the snail adoration department. Not hard to do when the little creatures try so very hard to be loved.

Here is her birthday wish snail making this quite evident.

So today we will wake up early, hop in the car, stop at starbucks for a little early morning nourishment and take a short birthday road trip. I have a few gifts ready for her to open in the  car on our way. We will be back home on sunday but don't fret I have left a few little posts to keep you amused until then.

oops please excuse my sweat pants and keds :)

liberty and lace makes for some lovely wrappings.

Please rest on my garden bench if you want to. I promise to be back shortly.

After the Rain

"Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight 
of the senses." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, From Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939

Sometimes I can see the entire world in a drop of water. It is something so precious and as long as I live I will never take  clean , healthy water for granted.

I hope you all have a refreshing start to your weekends.

I just found out the long awaited documentary Waterlife is playing in Toronto starting on Friday . Music by some of my favorites including Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ross and Brian Eno.