New Year Ahead

We had a lovely time in Penticton with family. Hugh, Max, Sophie and I drove up on Christmas day and back yesterday. Snowy all the way. When we approached the coast the sun came out and the snow turned to rain. After the snowy mountains is was a relief to be back in the rain again. And oh yes, it was not me driving. Hugh had that honour. It took about one hour longer than usual.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Vancouver

Something for Vancouver to think about, the snow on the figs tree and bamboo. It is a good day to be going nowhere and that is exactly where I want to go. The last of the day's outside errors are done and we are suppose to be getting 2o cm more tomorrow. The last time I looked 20cm was 8 inches, or 2 hands if you are into measuring horses. So today is a day that 8 inch tall ponies should definitely be kept in the home paddock.

We are expected in Penticton for Christmas dinner so time will see how that goes. But now the days are getting longer and that is enough to make me dance around the Christmas tree.
Happy HO HO.

Back to the Blues

Tomorrow is the last market of the season, the Womens' Faire at HeritageHall.

There is no way that I will be able to do all the things I wanted to do this year so I have spent some of the time today on making blue things. When I started doing polymer clay I thought that the only colours I would ever use were indigo, white, and gold. Gradually other colours crept into my work but I still like to go back to the blues for a re set now and then.

I made the experimental hair sticks today and the earrings I finished off yesterday. I am looking forward to the new year to do more blue sculptures. One of my horse sculptures sold recently which added another incentive to get going again.

Well only to more market days this year. Even if it snows I will be at the market this week end. Drop by and say hi, it could be rather quiet on Sunday.

Making Faces in the Rain

I am putting off going to the locker to get my cart to roll my stuff into Heritage Hall of Main Street for this week end's Farmers' Holiday Fair. I will be there both Saturday and Sunday. It is a first for me to be there two days in a row and I am looking forward to not having to pack up my gear Saturday night. Good thing too, because I have an actual "office" party to go to. If a construction company party where most of the people don't work in an office can have an office party. I guess it is a company party. I go because Hugh works for the company. It is always good fun.

In the mean time I have taken a little while to make faces. Just little faces. I am not sure if they will ever become more but here they are posted especially for Deb who is very good at making faces.

Bigger Bolder or What?

Here are three of the necklaces that I finished. I was quit pleased with them. Sophie would rather that the center bead was circular and Hugh thinks that the center bead looks like a big blue tongue. With my family I will not be getting a swollen head.

Winter in Vancouver

It is December and it looks like there could be snow in the next week but now it is the Wet Coast as usual. I was in West Vancouver on Saturday and took a couple of pictures that are super typical of the weather this time of the year.

I was putting in my hours at the Craft House Gallery Great Stuff Christmas sale. It is a great opportunity to look at what others are doing. Looking at other work made me feel that I have been far to timid with my jewelry and I have decided to make myself a new big necklace. Here is a sketch that I did in the quite minutes at the Ferry Building.

My Seventh Culture Crawl - Over!

Well it's all over now! We had over 800 people through our living room over the passed week end. I have to thank my children, Max and Sophie for help and tolerance for such a busy week end. Hugh, my husband, helped throughout the week end. I don't think that I could have come through unscathed with out his help. Thanks Hugh.

Friday was very rainy so only 100 brave souls weathered the storm to slog from studio to studio. I was surprised there were that many. It was a good wet coast down pour. I am glad that we decided to put up my summer market tent over the door way to give people an area to shake off before they came in. And as Hugh frequently says ( or quotes ? ) "nothing says event like a tent".

Saturday and Sunday were both very busy with 340 calling on Saturday and over 440 on Sunday. There goes my theory that Saturdays are always busier then Sundays. One of the visitors took pictures of our crowded living room and I will post one if she sends it to me.

Now I must go down stairs and start packing things away for the Women's Craft Faire next week end and recover my studio/living room in the process.

Crunch to the Crawl

This is the day on the Eastside Culture Crawl. At 5:00 PM people start coming through the door until 10 PM tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM it will be more on the same. Am I ready? Of course not. The rest of the day will be race to pull the living room/studio into a show place. I would like to leave the studio/living room as it is but there is a choice to be made. I can show my work or my work space but not the whole of the two at once.

If you are in the neighbourhood drop in and see me. There is a map on the website. Even if you can't make it to the Culture Crawl drop into the websit and get a tiny sample of what it is all about.

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Buttons in West Vancouver

On Friday I went to see Ingrid at Knit & Stitch Shoppe in West Vancouver. When you enter this shop from the main street for the first time it is like entering a magic world. Down the stairs you enter a cozy area with couches and women chatting and knitting. When you turn a world of wonderful wool wraps and dazzles your at every turn.

Of course you can park at the back of the shop and go through the back door. No stairs to add to the adventure but still you will be dazzled as you step through the door.

Ingrid and Sharon are warn helpful people who greet you with a smile. This is a shop worth taking a look at.

Oh yes, they have the good taste to sell my buttons too.

Getting Stuff Out

This is the maddest time of year. On Monday I will be taking work to The Ferry Building in West Vancouver and the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove. Both places have Christmas Markets and I am one of the elves delivering goodies that we elves have spent the year making in our collective work shops.
The market in West Vancouver's Ferry Building is called Great Stuff. It runs from November 22nd to December 20th. There is a sneak preview Friday the 21st from 4 to 8 PM but I have never made to this event because I will up to my eyeballs in the East Vancouver Culture Crawl on the same day every year.
Seymour Art Gallery will also have a Market in the gallery for the first time this year. I will be helping to set this one up on Monday so I will know more about I after that.
I am looking to the serenity of the new year. More making and less getting out.

Let There Be Buttons

Today I delivered more buttons to Three Bags Full, a wonderful knitting shop on Main Street. It is an amazingly busy little shop with a truly wonderful selection on wools. It manages to be both charged with energy and relaxing at the same time.

On the way to a Button

Well I was going to have completed buttons at the end of yesterday but I am not quite there yet. One of the other things that I did was to go to Circle Craft Winter Market to help out my friend Carmen, Melonhead Knitwear, who was brave enough to have a booth at the mother of all craft markets for Vancouver. My photos were not to great but I will try again to capture the retail insanity of it all. I am not sure if I am brave enough to try this market. Open from 10 AM to 9 PM seems little the kind of hours that one thinks about in the industrial revolution but the lovely patrons come and everyone is happy so life goes on.

Many Little Angels

Another market done and today I will work on many things. But not angels. I made these little guys in October when I was visiting Penticton. Today they may become pins. Most of all I want to work on some buttons and I will post the results tomorrow if I am successful.

Where to find me this Weekend

CARNEY SCHOOL'S 10TH ANNUAL
CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR

Sat. November 8 9:00am-4:00pm
Sun. November 9 10:00am-3:00pm

1335 Dominion Ave., Port Coquitlam (Near Costco, across from Art Knapps)

Many wonderful surprises are waiting for you. Angels, Candles, Chocolates, Soaps, Stained Glass, Toys, Hand Knitting, Snowmen, Santa, Baking, Ornaments, Jewellery, Wood Crafts, Home Décor, and….Much, Much More…

Over 110 juried tables!

The Okanagan Fall

When I drove home through the Okanagan Valley last Monday, I paused to take a picture of Keremeos in her fall coat. There was snow in the high country that wasn't there a week ago. When next I see this view it will be blowing with snow. This has been a beautiful fall. It is the coast now and rain for the next four months or so. Good thing that I have webbed feet.

Pendants and Whistles

Not a Reindeer in Sight

Well Santa Presents is all over now. We had a big rain storm but then the sun came out and it looked glorious, not at all what you would expect on November the second. The market was successful considering one of the major roads north has been closed because of fear of a landslide and the economy is not so hot.

I am looking forward to the five hour drive home tomorrow partially because I am part way through Amy Tam's The Hundred Secret Senses on tape. I love talking books and I listen to a lot of them while I work.

So tomorrow I am on the road and I don't want any of these pesky deer on the road, reindeer of otherwise.

Flashback Fall back

We have just changed the clocks so I'm spending my extra hour playing on the computer. Here is a watercolour I did for a seed company, Manhattan Farms. There are lots more where that came from and if my like works you will be able to see them if you want too.

Halloween is Over

So this was the first day of the 2008 Christmas craft fair season. Seems to me that just yesterday was Halloween. Oh wait, it was wasn't it. Not a pumpkin in sight at Santa Presents at the Lakeshore Inn, and tomorrow there will be more of the same. I took pictures but forgot my cable so there will be not pictures on this blog until I return to Vancouver on monday. So to bed early and banish all visions of reindeer and sugar plums. And to all a good night.

Okanagan Lake near Penticton

The Start of the Winter Season

I am starting the winter season in Penticton this year. This is the first time that I have done any winter market here. So tomorrow at 7:30 I will be lined up at the Lake Shore Inn wondering where the day will take me.

Confessions of a Blog Newbie

Yesterday my friend Carmen of Melonhead Knitwear came over to help
increase my very shaky blogging skills. Since my daughter, Sophie,
set-up this blog I have kept it quiet and posted infrequently. Now
thanks to Carmen I think I am capable of much more. This is so exciting.
I still will be more of a picture person than a word person but with
friends and spell checker to help I feel a new sense of empowerment.

So for practice in posting pictures I will go back to last time this year when I particpated in the Seymour Art Festival at the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove.

Eastward Ho!

My daughter, Sophie, and I are off to the east coast until the 11th of July. New Brunswick to be exact. I first for both of us. I have no idea what to expect but since we will be safe with family the trip should not exceed my capacity for adventure.

Crow vase

This is a mark one. I do lots of "mark ones". This vase was formed on a glass that I removed after the first "firing" There a changes that I will make in the future but I an pleased enough that there will be mark twos and threes.

The Market Season Begins

This is the first market day this year for me. Van East Market at Trout Lake is always a lot of fun and the weather today was marvelous. Here is what it is like inside and outside the tent. I will be there again next week if anyone is in the neighbourhood and wants to drop by. The Market is at 15th Avenue & Victoria Drive in the Parking Lot of Trout Lake Community Centre 9am - 2pm each week. Great to see you there. The next day, Sunday, June 1st, I am at Kitsilano market for the first time. I am looking forward to trying it out. Kitsilano Market is located at 10th Avenue and Larch Street in the parking lot of Kitsilano Community Centre it is from 10am - 2pm each Sunday.This is the first market day this year for me. Van East Market at Trout Lake is always a lot of fun and the weather today was marvelous. Here is what it is like inside and outside the tent. I will be there again next week if anyone is in the neighbourhood and wants to drop by. The Market is at 15th Avenue & Victoria Drive in the Parking Lot of Trout Lake Community Centre 9am - 2pm each week. Great to see you there. The next day, Sunday, June 1st, I am at Kitsilano market for the first time. I am looking forward to trying it out. Kitsilano Market is located at 10th Avenue and Larch Street in the parking lot of Kitsilano Community Centre it is from 10am - 2pm each Sunday.

Harriet's Earrings

Here some clip on button earrings, sort of retro. They have clip on backs with screws to adjust the pressure on the ears. Harriet the cat gives you a better idea of the size.

Dogs and Quilts

Here are a couple of items that I have been working on. The quilts are new. My neighbour Mayu suggested displaying them this way. Cute! thanks Mayu.
The dogs are an ongoing project. They drives me a little mad. So many dogs, breeds, colours, crosses, but we all love dogs so I am still making some.

Quilts and dogs

Atlantic puffins

These are my first attempt and Atlantic Puffins. I should now go on to the Pacific Puffins since I am on the West Coast of North America, but these are the puffins of my dreams. Perhaps I should just go on to toucans because they are just so darn colourful.

and yet more buttons.

buttons