paper + glue

a few weeks ago i attended the night of social crafting event and the art of craft exhibit at the vancouver museum with my friend kim. we dug in with diy gusto with the collage materials, and ever since i've been addicted to the paper + glue process. there's just something so perfectly imperfect about it. 'collage' may not be 100% accurate for what i've been doing - i have generally been just gluing favourite papers to favourite wooden things - but the air in here has certainly smelled a lot like mod podge lately.

one of the easiest and oddly satisfying things has been sprucing up a boring ikea desktop organizing drawer. i had a good plan for this thing apparently at some point, but once i got it home i never bothered with the whole lot of hammering required to transform it's flat-packed state into a set of drawers. after rediscovering it, unassembled and under the bed, i put it together with a craft hammer last year and it has sat on my desk in it's basic unfinished form since then. until last week, that is, when i went on a mission (one needs missions) to find the perfect piece of paper to make it more exciting.

or i should say, the perfect piece of pale pink paper to match the mental picture i have of my new and organized office space. we're moving in the spring, and our new home has a fab small/tiny/doorless OFFICE. capitals intended and well-deserved. it's the one area of the condo that i absolutely had to have the dimensions of, stat. it's new, so it will be freshly painted in neutrals. although i have some weird long-range plans that may or may not come to fruition, i know in the short-term i won't be doing anything to the neutral walls. but i'd like to use some knicknackery in pale pink and mustard tones, add some fun indie artwork, and a lot of space-enlarging white along with my white & blackish brown desk. this little gem will look perfect in my not-as-imaginary space:

it now sits proudly on my desk, complete with cleaned-out drawers containing logical desk and art-related items. i know it's just paper and glue, but it makes me happy.

and i should mention how much i love the little ari cat doll sitting on top of the shelf. it's by the talented mia hansen - i actually won it at the mov craft event. a miracle - i never win anything, let alone anything so cute. it has a permanent home there, along with my 50 cent owl mug (my only truly awesome value village find to date), a pinecone that cole picked up at the oxford botanical gardens last spring, a rotating number of oddly things that i love and library books that need returning.

baby-palooza: the yaletown baby + toddler fair

the yaletown baby + toddler fair today was a great experience. i didn't know what to expect - it was the first time for the event and it was unlike anything i'd been to before. aimed at moms and moms-to-be (i should say parents and parents-to-be, but honestly, mostly moms), it was a full-on baby-palooza! babies, babies, babies! so many cute wee folk in one room.

and it was strange (in the best sense!) to see the moms-to-be walking the room with their lovely round bellies. pregnant ladies always seem so much more glowy when you're looking at them, compared to being one! ;-) it seems like both a hundred years ago and yet just the other day that i was expecting cole and wondering why on earth i supposedly 'needed' so many little scraps of fabric that were all intended for apparently vastly different uses. oh, this was back when i contemplated ironing cole's freshly laundered onesies and pj's as i tucked them in his dresser. ha!

the event was a terrific opportunity to meet other crafty folk and lovers of all things handmade. i absolutely loved the dresses from dolly n' boo - so adorable! they were so beautifully displayed and definitely got me to contemplating how i could fit a dress on cole as some kind of unisex tunic. ;-) i think i'd better stick to gifting to the little girls that i know... also loved the plush blankets from superfly lullabies - their cozy minky-backed blankets are terrific. the bras from honeymilk designs were so fantastic that i didn't even realize at first they were nursing bras! now that is a feat of herculean proportions (and, le sigh, they came in my size!).

and of course there was my little table!

i still feel most in my element in craft events geared more towards an etsy-loving crowd, but this was a great experience. many thanks to carrie for the massive amount of work she put into this event.

next show: yaletown baby & toddler fair

i have officially become craft-show crazy! there's something about a deadline and the prospect of setting all of my stuff on a table in front of, you know, live people, that really helps me to focus on creating.

at the etsy spring fling a couple of weeks ago i was invited to participate in the yaletown baby + toddler fair, coming up this weekend. yup, only two weeks between invite and show, but in a fit of "i can do that!" i said yes. then i confirmed. then i backed out because i didn't think there was any way t get the fabric i needed to restock my lovely gnomes in time. then i got an unexpected package in the mailbox of the exact fabric i needed (and apparently forgot that i had ordered!) and said i could do it after all. since then i've been sewing like mad, rethinking my table display and trying to figure out how to get rid of this budding hand cramp. i blame hand-sewing!

anyway, i think the event will be a good fit. although i don't do strictly baby & kids stuff, i find a lot of inspiration for handmade items when creating things for cole and that does skew my creative sense towards the wee folks. come on by and check it out:

saturday, april 4
10 am - 4 pm
roundhouse community centre
davie @ pacific, vancouver
$6 entrance
loads of demos, a fashion show, a craft section, suppliers big & little...

of course, since the event is baby-centric, i'll be bringing ample stacks of bibs, bibbler drooling kerchiefs and light cotton patchwork toddler scarves for springtime too. my little creations for the wee folks who are messy, moist and perhaps a little chilly.

and i'll have loads of softies - gnomes and bunnies (more on these little dudes later as their litter is still multiplying as we speak), beanbags for play, various favourites like felt + vintage button barrettes, cork mousepads and pincushions.