Love & Rummage 7 - Sunday February 8th

Hello lovelies!

I'll be selling at the Love&Rummage 7 trunkshow over at The Workroom this upcoming Sunday, February 8th!

I'm bringing everyone's favorite notebooks, including this rad T-Rex and one of a kind greeting cards.

I'm also bringing some cool new things, like color-coded and themed paperpacks as well as all sorts of Valentine's day awesomeness!

If you're in the neighborhood, please drop by and say hi!

Last minute holiday shopping at the Beaches

A quick reminder that the Beaches Artists' & Artisans' show is on today for the last day! So if you're looking for any last minute gifts or stocking stuffers, now's your chance! Or just come by to hang out and get into the holiday mood!

Hope to see you there!

First one done, two more to go!

Thank you everyone who came by at the Crafternoon Tea craft show last Saturday! It was so much fun and I'm so glad I got to meet so many awesome people!

The bast part of any show is to get to talk about what I make with my customers live and meet some rad fellow-makers! I was lucky to be placed between two kick-ass ladies, so a hello to Beak&Bill and The Studio Forest! Thank you also to Nathalie-Roze & Co for organizing such a fun and welcoming event!

Like said, though, I am not quite done yet! I'll still be at the Beaches Artists' and Artisans' show for the next two Saturdays, December 13th and 20th!

The show takes place at Beaches Presbyterian Church on 65 Glen Manor Drive. The doors will be open from 11am to 4pm. Hope to see you there!

Conveniently, I actually have a photo of said door!

Crafternoon Tea in Leslieville - Saturday, December 6th

Hi guys,

It's been two years since I attended a craft show as a vendor, so it's about time! This Saturday, December 6th 2014, will be my first show here in Toronto. I'm attending the Craftnernoon Tea show on Queen St. East, corner of Carlaw.

There will be over 25 vendors, and the majority of the items will be under $50! So, this is a great opportunity to find some Christmas presents, stocking stuffers or just find something fun for yourself! I will bring back the hugely popular $5 items, notebooks, greeting cards, stickers and ornaments!

Come by to say hi and check out the charity tea party!

P.S. This awesome 70s poolside hunks with a Christmas tree notebook will also be available! It's one of a kind, so first come, first serve!

Autumn

I might not be a particularly romantic person, but I can't get over how much I love fall.

Just look how gorgeous it is.



How is it looking where you are? Is it fall for you or is it looking a lot like winter?*

*) And for the few people visiting me from the southern hemisphere; Hi! And is it summer yet?

FanExpo 2014

I briefly mentioned on Facebook that I was going to FanExpo. I was very excited to go and it surpassed my expectations by far! I figured it would be great, but it was so much fun that I came back a bit overwhelmed yet incredibly, tremendously inspired!

This was the smaller part of the expo... The other side was much bigger.

FanExpo is basically a gathering place for fangirls and -boys. Whatever your fandom is, you'll find others there too!

There's an incredible artists alley, where you can meet international and local artists, both already established and those new to the industry. You can get sketches drawn just for you and chat about your favorites.

I had a total fangirl moment meeting Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu. I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland as well as Tim Burton, so you can imagine how excited I was to see the concept art from the people who designed characters for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland! I actually saw a book of their illustrations first, squeaked a little out of excitement and wanted to buy it immediately. Only then I realized I could actually get it signed. That the incredible artists were actually there! So, now I have the book with sketches from both of them!

Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu

The selection of comic books is overwhelming! You can get hard-to-find artbooks at a really great price. Honestly, the affordable price is just a bonus though, some of this stuff is hard to find! Let's be honest though, a lot of the stuff I had no idea existed. But I did want it once I saw it... I did stay within reason with my purchases, but I got some great stuff! I'll share those in another post.

The entire spectrum of accuracy in one photo: Stormtroopers vs. Assassins

I didn't dress up, but I did wear an event-appropriate t-shirt. There were so many amazing costumes! I was a tad shy to ask people to pose for me, but I got some photos of some pretty impressive costumes. The photos don't do them justice. I did dress up my son Max in this incredible onesie gifted by his awesome aunt.

I love everything about this photo: Batman, Smaug and Legos! Does it get any better?

 There were also a ton of celebrities making appearances. As it so happened Norman Reedus, a.k.a Darryl from the Walking Dead, was there just as we walked in. There was quite a bit of screaming. The list of celebrities was quite impressive: Nathan Fillion, Patrick Stewart, Stan Lee, Elijah Wood, William Shatner and Adam West. Just check the whole lot HERE

Talk about crazy costumes...

I was enjoying myself and realized that the whole thing was bigger than I anticipated. Next year I will go for two days. I also decided that one day I will be an exhibitor there. Not sure what I'd sell, but I have time to figure it out. One day...

All in all, it was amazing. I want to do it again!

Evening at the fair

I've been waiting for this for a long time! It's one of those events that everyone has told me about as soon as I moved to Toronto. All I knew about "the Ex"* was that it's a huge fair with a lot of deep fried food. Despite it's name, it was a lot of fun. I was not disappointed!

Gotta love a good food pun! 

 

I didn't go on any rides, just walked around, ate some tacos and tried some carnival games. I am proud to say I am now the owner of a rainbow colored slinky. So, yeah, that's pretty cool. I'm thinking if I go again, I might have to try a deep fried Mars bar...

What's your favorite activity at a carnival or amusement park? I'm partial to the carnival games, especially Skee Ball.

*) Also known as CNE or Canadian National Exhibition

Mail Love - Letter from the beach

I live just up the street from the beach (yes, Toronto has them) and finally managed to go enjoy it a few weeks ago. We've been walking on the boardwalk numerous times and I've even gone jogging along the beach, but we've never really just gone to spend a leisurely afternoon there. We had a picnic by the beach a few weeks ago on Canada day and it was awesome. Will definitely do that again soon!

In that one afternoon I managed, besides eating a picnic lunch and strolling on the beach a bit, write one letter. I don't usually show the insides of the letters much, but this was a fun little collection of beachy things, so I figured I'd share it.



Once I got home with my letter, I made an envelope out of appropriately patterned paper (see the tutorial HERE for how to make envelopes). I also wanted to add a little extra flair, so I made a teeny tiny string of flags to tie the letter with. It's very easy to make, but if you want a tutorial, let me know. I'll be happy to write one!

The beach here is mainly sand, but has some nice smooth rocks as well. I wanted to find a few nice pieces of sea glass to add to the letter, but it was practically nonexistent, I only found one tiny piece. I did find some tiny round rocks though.

I didn't want to send a few rocks (and that one scrawny sea glass) just by themselves, so I made a little souvenir out of them. I went through my stacks of maps and found a small one of Toronto. I cut it to size, marked where the beach is and sealed it all into a little plastic sleeve. Finally, I tied the whole lot together with the string of flags.

It turned out quite nice, so I'll certainly use this for inspiration for future mail.

Out of curiosity, what's the most random thing you've either sent or received in the mail?

Canada Day celebrations

As you might know, Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st. It's a national day off, yet this year was the first one I've really celebrated what looks like "the traditional way". I've always enjoyed the extra day off, sometimes spent it moving (it's Moving Day in Quebec), usually though, just taking full advantage of the Montreal summer (read: at a terasse having a drink most likely)

A week before in Quebec it's St-Jean-Baptiste day, which is the bigger celebration, so I was quite excited to see what happens on Canada Day in Toronto.

Since it seemed the right thing to do, we went out for a picnic by the beach. Just some sandwiches and salad, but it was nice to be outside and by the water. I'm definitely more the 'by-the-water' than 'in-the-water' kind of a gal.

In the evening we returned back to the beach since there were supposed to be fireworks. We had no idea that the entire beach would be packed. There were people everywhere and a ton of boats gathering in the same spot. The above photo is at the east end of the beach, which was much more quiet. As we walked west, more and more crowds were gathering.

My priorities haven't obviously changed... "Oh, look! Food!"

The fireworks were quite impressive.

All in all a nice Canada Day, it was fun to try the whole picnic and fireworks thing. Interestingly, practically everyone was dressed in red and white, with maple leaves everywhere (the pictures, don't think people being covered in actual maple leaves... Oh, you didn't?).

And, as Finnish person, I must say that I still enjoy fireworks in the summer. So pleasant! If you're not Finnish (or Nordic) please let me explain: it's really, really light at night in the summer. The sun doesn't set in the north and in the south it just gets dim, like dusk, not fully dark. So, we only get fireworks in the winter, namely New Years.

Tinkering away

My head is bursting with ideas for projects and tutorials! I think it's the long creative drought I went through in the last year that is now over and the crafty ideas are coming back in a tidal wave of paper and glue!

[See what I did there?!? What clever way to use these photos! Right? ... *crickets*]

I have a few already started, one with photos in the editing stage, so they're coming soon. I'm finding it hard to write an entire post in one sitting now, so I'm trying to learn how to work a little bit on several things at one time. It's a bit of a challenge, but I'm trying to get a hang of this new way of working.


I'm also getting used to not only carrying my camera with me more often, but also trying to take a whole lot more photos. The ones for this post are taken on the beach just a few days ago.


Hope you guys are well! And might I add, I'm still so happy to see so many people visiting my blog!

To see more up-to-date photos of what I'm working on, please check my instagram!

Setting up my studio

Having a place to work is high up on my wishlist when it comes to finding a home. When we came to Toronto to look for an apartment, it was the first thing on my 'I-really-really-really-want-one' list. However, that would be the first one to get cut over more important things like two bedrooms. I'm sure I would've figured out a little nook somewhere to work in, but I was delighted to find our current apartment which has a solarium.

I saw the potential there, but only now in the summer it's really coming together. The space is smaller than what I had before when it comes to storage space, but the layout is completely different. I like that I can close the door if I need to, but ultimately I want it to not only work, but look nice as well.


I can finally say I have a legit studio!


I've been working on it a lot last week and I can finally see it coming together. I so want to share some photos of it once it's finished, but a few snapshots will have to do for now. Strings of lights make everything better!

I've moved almost everything around and gone through a whole lot of materials last week. It's the last little push to get it done, I just feel like I'm running out of steam now.

One year

In the last year I wrote 9 blog posts.

I did a whole lot of other things in that time, but blogging certainly wasn't one of them.

I started a full time job which, despite being a tad skeptical at first, I ended up loving. I got promoted and got to work on an incredible project. After a few months of long days and weekends spent in the office, I was offered a more permanent position and I was on a path to another promotion. I've never loved a job more than that one.

Then, I had to quit that job.


We moved to Toronto.

Amidst all that I wasn't feeling well. In fact, I was sick for exactly 39 weeks. Then, I traded that (wildly inaccurately named "morning") sickness to a little bit less sleep, but a whole lot more awesomeness as my son was born March 27th. So yeah, I'm working on being all adult-y and stuff, being a parent and all.

In the last months this blog has been at the back of my mind. Not forgotten, just... brewing. I've been wanting to write, but at first, I wasn't feeling well or just didn't have the time. Then, I felt it had been so long that I didn't quite know how to start.


Now, in the last month and a bit, I've started to "do the blogging thing" again. I might not have written anything, but as I make more things, start and finish more projects and see new sights, I've started to think how to share them here, with you. After finishing a piece of mail, I take a photo with a nice background. While working on a new project, I take step by step photos. When I go exploring new neighborhoods, I take photos and mental notes about interesting things about that place I'd like to write about.

A little while ago I finally decided to take a peek at the inner workings of this site. I figured I'd quickly glance through if there's any activity or the unlikely chance that there might be a comment left somewhere... To my utter disbelief, not only was there activity, but there is, in fact, quite a bit of it. My DIY posts are still getting a lot of love online. There are new links back to my site.


Hell, a few times I have searched my own blog to find a particular recipe, so I guess it's safe to assume a few others might come by as well... I didn't expect quite so many of you though.

So, without any promises or internal pressures:

Hi guys! How have you been?

New apartment

My new place has old school radiators and wide windowsills. If they were a bit wider, I don't know if I'd even need chairs.

The floors are old, solid wood and not even close to being flat. You can tell they've been here for a long time.


I finally got the fireplace I've wanted for years. It's fake, but I don't really care.


And the light... I love the light in here.

I'll share more photos once the boxes are gone and things find their places.

Sleepless

How are you today?

I am, as the header states, having trouble sleeping. It's my own fault really. Combine a love for zombie TV shows (OK, the Walking Dead*) with an overactive imagination and you get a lot of very vivid zombie apocalypse -type scenarios going on at 5am. The good news is that they aren't really nightmares, but scenarios that I, immediately after waking, must put together a plan for. This, in turn, usually wakes me up fully.

Things are starting to fall into their places over here. We got all of out stuff on Thursday, so I spent a good portion of yesterday just unpacking. The kitchen is almost done and a few pieces of clothing have already found their places. Most of the furniture is already at their designated spots. I can't wait to get more of the boxes done, get my studio set up and, of course, put up the Christmas tree.

This is Gossamer headed over to the solarium. That's where my studio will be set up. Eventually.

I'm also missing the cable for my camera. So, even though I do have some new photos to share with you, I can't get them out of the camera yet. So, unfortunately, all I have for now are some less than stellar photos taken with my phone.

Got any helpful tips for problems with sleep?

*) Frankly, I am shocked half of the characters are still alive. I believe seeing, and usually loudly pointing out, the flaws in their survival strategies has equipped me with the necessary skills to survive a zombie apocalypse should one start at any point.

- Incoming Transmission -

*Static noise*


Can you read me?


I'm reporting to you from across the Ontario border. I have arrived a few days ago. The first few days were spent gathering supplies and scoping out the surroundings. I am now securely located in my new base and the communications seem to be working.

I have survived the trek without much physical damage. Besides a few minor mishaps I am unscathed. Emotional damage still undetermined.

The locals seem extremely friendly, yet wary. No zombie sightings as of yet.

If you haven't heard my previous transmissions, due to poor connections or potential zombie attacks, I have now relocated to Toronto, Ontario. Expect reports coming more frequently as long as the communications stay active.

I will report back soon! Please leave a note that you've received this incoming message in the comments section!

Talk to you soon!
Katri

P.S. I saw a comforting sign just a few blocks from my new base. I feel a little more safe now!

I've missed you!

I'm coming back soon! I Promise!

There are so many things going on right now and the last few months have been insane! I have a lot of stuff to tell you guys and I'm so happy to see at least some of you still come by here. 

I am currently packing up all of my earthly possessions into various sized cardboard boxes. 

I haven't had time to do crafts like I used to and I am way behind in all my snailmail correspondence. I will write to you all soon!

I wanted to just come by to share how much I've missed writing this blog. I've missed the comments and interactions with all of you! I get so inspired when I write!

I'll be back soon! A few more weeks I hope!

Photos are from my recent visit to Toronto. More about that trip soon as well.