Friday, October 30, 2009

giant trees



 some of the many beautiful giant trees in my neighbourhood

and... I won Anabela's givaway! CRAZY!
I think we'll put the Tord Boontje light in our bedroom:)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

ceiling lights






Anabela's givaway got me thinking about new ceiling lights for our dining room and bedroom. The fixtures in our apartment are awful - especially the dining room - think shiny fake brass, frilly edged frosted glass shades with many too-obviously visible twisty compact fluorescent bulbs. Since I probably won't win the Tord Boontje light from Anabela, I have started looking around again at my options. I've looked around before and found NOTHING that I like and can afford. It turns out that Ikea has a few new lights that are very good! I'm leaning towards VĂ„VA (the second one) for the dining room and MASKROS (the first one) for the bedroom. I first saw the dandilion puff-ish one on UNGTBLOD and thought, 'Why don't we have that at Canadian Ikea? No fair!' Well, now we do. Maybe I should ask Santa Claus? or maybe Andrew and I should get one to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of living together (Nov.1st). That's a good excuse to buy something for the house, right?


If money was no object, I would choose the 'Stamen' light from NicheModern in the colour 'smoke'. I've been swooning over these lights for a long long time.

more old paintings


I just found that Art Interiors, a gallery in Toronto who has carried my work, has three of my older pieces still available and on their website.

globe love



I absolutely LOVE these 'globes' by Rasmus Emanuel Svensson.

I want to make outfits inspired by these compositions.
The colours and textures are so inspiring.

cutest chair ever


vintage aluminum and wool folding rocking chair from Hindsvik on Etsy

Monday, October 26, 2009

neighbourhood colours




light shapes







The sun coming through the stained glass and leaded glass in our windows makes lovely shapes and patterns in different places at different times of the day.

triangles








traffic lights for the ferry as it approaches the island?

Saturday, October 24, 2009

enough is enough



ok. I REALLY want THESE ONES. But... they are a too small 7N.
The shopping Gods are obviously trying to tell me something here.

random


macrame










It's almost like knitting - and I am obviously obsessed with knitting right now so I love these - especially seeing the different design variations using the simple natural cotton/wood theme. It's all about graphic texture.

All from etsy.

Friday, October 23, 2009

island day







Last weekend was my brother Adam's show on the island. It was a beautiful day and the island was amazing. The show was at Artscape's Gibraltar Point Centre for the Artsan artists' retreat in the historic former Toronto Island Public and Natural Science School, located on the south-western most tip of the Island. It was a magical and photogenic place, so I'll have lots of pictures to post. Here are a few to start. Adam's set was wonderful. He had only Rebecca with him, playing the cello and singing back-up, rather than a full band as he usually would. The two of them sounded so beautiful - perfect in the intimate setting of the school's old cafeteria. It felt like an old summer camp. I also had the pleasure of hearing them practice in my living room the morning of the show - that was such a treat. 


Thursday, October 22, 2009

layers


From ebay, I think.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

selbu mittens




I've fallen in love with traditional Norwegian knitting patterns - especially mittens. I'm about to start my first pair this weekend. I've never done any colour work knitting before, so it will surely be a challenge.

Image 1 - from here 
Image 2 - from the Selbu Folk Museum.
Image 3 - from the book Selbuvotter: History of a Knitting Tradition, which is on my wish list. 

Look at this Selbu troll monument in Norway!


Sunday, October 11, 2009

look up

I'm trying a new header image - and a wider format. I'll probably change the look of the page again once I figure out how to customize my template further. I want to post bigger pictures for one thing. But, for now this is a small improvement (I think).

adam & the amethysts



My little brother Adam (who is not so little) lives in Montreal and has a band called Adam and the Amethysts (he also plays in Miracle Fortress and Telefauna, but the Amethysts is his solo project and my personal favourite). He is playing a show here in Toronto next weekend on the island. I love his music! You should check out his album Amethyst Amulet. A few songs can be previewed on his myspace page. I concur with Now Magazine who wrote of his songs, "They meander quietly through ethereal psychedelic moments and a Neil Youngish understanding of the lyrical details that fill a songs with endearing personality. At 13 songs, Amulet could go on a while longer and still remain a beautiful piece of contemporary Canadiana.'


He also just started a great blog!

Friday, October 9, 2009

rainy day off



This is my last free day off for a week. It is a lazy rainy day, and I just bought a bunch of new yarn, so all I want to do is knit. I'm supposed to be finishing my tourmeline painting, but I really don't feel like it. I think I'll start knitting my new hat instead - irresponsible, but oh well. Maybe I'll get some painting done later tonight... (yeah right).  This Jo Sharp 'Alpaca Kid Lustre' is so pretty. It is 30% alpaca, 40% kid mohair & 30% merino, and so soft with a subtle sheen and soft subtle mohairy fuzziness. I love the prominent twist of it, and the colour ('Cork') is the perfect warm lavendery taupy light grey (the pictire doesn't do it justice). The pattern I downloaded has a bunch of techniques I've never done, so it will be a challenge. The first step is learning the 'german twisted cast on' method. Wish me luck....

woven leather




My recent mini-obsession with canvas and leather reminded me of my long-standing mini-obsession with woven leather, which led to me buying a bag on etsy. I was deciding between these three, and chose the top tote, for its classic shape and practicality. I think it will look nice with my new winter coat (black wool, double breasted, mid thigh length, perfectly tailored to my shape, chrome buttons). The coat is pretty slick and classic, and I think this bag will provide just the right touch of warmth and texture. And hopefully it will be big enough to carry a book and a water bottle and a lunch along with the usual purse stuff so I don't have to carry two bags to work.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

some old paintings











Back in 2004 I did a group of small oil paintings on canvas (mostly around 8x10") of objects from around my home - little things that I have collected through my life that are significant or appealing to me in some way. I was (and still am) really interested in the meaning of objects; the significance of things that have memories associated with them, or become meaningful to us for reasons beyond our immediate understanding. Other than a few random exercises, this was really the last body of work I did before I started the mineral specimens this summer. (*the images are kind of tiny - I'll have to look for better quality images to replace these at some point)

AS IF!


AMAZING canvas and leather flats. Also one size too small. I guess it's getting a bit cold for these now anyways. This mini-obsession I've just developed with canvas/leather shoes/boots is just not panning out;) Here's the link for this one if anyone is size 6.5.

leather and canvas boot


Another one - too small.