Break Time!

I'm running vastly behind in posts, as well as in life. The Halifax Crafters was a huge success - so huge i was not mentally prepared for it! I'll try and post about it soon - BUT I've been meaning to post about a much needed break that I took just before the craft fair when the Khyber held its night Flea Market and my room mate and i 'got our nails did'

look how cute those bears are! Susan opted to these cute little guys and a strawberry on her middle finger....cuz she's bad - a$$. While I settled for this sweetly naughty cupcake combination. 

The night was capped off by a much deserved super packed dance party where i finally had a good reason to wear my Goodnight Day halter like it was no big thing. 

*I'm having trouble formatting pictures today!

To Do:

I found this pattern for free on Collette while searching for simple vintage underwear patterns to try out. I Find under wear and bras in general to be overpriced, poorly made and poorly fitted, and it stuck with me when a dear friend had had enough and began a search for the perfect bra pattern for her own shape. While that is a more complex sewing project than I'm willing to try when I've only just got my sewing machine out of "storage" at my folk's house I'm totally dying to attempt these bloomers.

Simple and perfect.

Shes so Crafty......

While I may be in halifax right now I'm anticipating my return to hamilton already. This is for one very exiting reason.....last night , while showing my mother a few local blogs to give her a sense of Hamliton's crafty side, I went to an easy favorite - the lovely white elephant blog Love it a Lot - to find that a yarn shop might *fingers crossed* be opening up on James street. My heart leaped instantly at the sheer joy of being able to walk down the street to pick up high quality yarn. I've been saying to every little old lady who would listen to me for past year since I moved to Hamilton that I want a yarn shop to open up. In the mean time I've been bussing in to the Knit Cafe on Queen st. Toronto to get my fix and ask all the questions that need answers.  I do really love them there ( the little bins they keep stuffed with knitted items as examples under each shelf of yarn are really awesome ) and I did do my research preferring their limited tasteful selection over the chaos of Romni.....but I'd be very glad to go local.
I get the impression that this may be off in the future but time does fly and I'll be glad when this particular future arrives.


I'm wishing all the best to Birch and Sycamore in the Moss Stitch endeavor. great name....
perhaps this means a stitch and bitch may form? the possibility is exiting enough and I'm hoping that it will spur some crafting in me since being home in Halifax gives me the chance to return with my sewing machine and some notes from dye classes taken at NSCAD......


... I wish I was as organized then as I try to be now. Unlike the meticulous Jennie Green who always new the exact measurements and weights! She's taking part in the Lunenburg Fire Hall residency and is shown here spinning flax.

Photo Credits for these pictures goes to Kat Frick Miller who makes these handy milk crate paper weights as well as little sewn "broken" hearts that decorate the coats and bags of almost every halifax art fan wandering around town. One of my favorite of her screen-printed motifs is a raccoon drinking gin. She also paints pictures of the Queen and fancy tea cups.

Home again, home again......

Here I am again in Halifax in one of the guest rooms of the house I grew up in. Which  just happens to be close to the Ardmore Tea room where you can get the best and biggest milk shake ever. Yum. 

Thinking, over the past week, about visiting home got me very exited to write about the amazing community events and crafters of Halifax who seem to be able to do anything at all despite city guidelines and little funding. The D.I.Y movement culminates in cities like this where you have no need to "network" to find people to help you with an idea - chances are you'll meet who ever you need to get in touch with over coffee because they go to the same place that you do anyway. While not in existence now the Burrito Bike ($4 delicious burritos delivered to you by friendly cyclists until 2 a.m. on saturday nights) was hard to tear myself away from when I decided to move to Hamilton.

Things I am so exited to be doing while here are:

Have a sandwich at the Good Food Emporium

Visit Turnstile pottery Co-op to find the perfect tiny mug By Bethany Buttersworth.

get blown away by the ocean breeze

Share a "hobo" jug worth of Propeller beer

and - if I have time - have a pint of oatmeal stout, the best stout in the world, at the Henry House....which is worth the extra trek now that the Granite and Ginger's are no longer.

Also to buy a new camera so that I can document all the amazing things and people while I'm here!

for now I'll leave you with this image of the Zine Library collection......a great idea that started in a living room to give the eager public access to an amazing array of alternative literature.....This then blossomed over the years into The Robert Street Social Center - taking over an entire house now devoted solely to the community. It is home to the Anchor Zine Archive, Ink Storm screen printing co-op, a successful residency program and an affordable and wonderfully equipped venue that welcomes all manor of events.

One can hardly express enough love for ventures such as this one.