Christmas Delights

Mmmm, organic Green & Black's dark hot chocolate on Christmas Eve


Now that you're asleep, wake up, wake up!


There's no monkeyin' around on Christmas morning - crazy monkey bread for all!


Cosy in her mama-made dressing gown, admiring her set of Forest Creatures magnets by Track & Field.


And the new matriarch wearing babe and preparing tea.

Victoria Retailers

I have two new retailers in town, and I'm just so thrilled to be working with both. They are quite different stores, both offering thoughtful and inspiring items for children and families - and now many of my organic toys and teethers!

Timeless Toys in Oak Bay Village



Timeless Toys is a traditional toy store in the heart of Oak Bay Avenue, in Athlone Square (behind Fairway Market). They offer an amazing assortment of toys to satisfy any child, and more and more are bringing in eco-friendly and natural play items as well. If you're still looking for a perfect gift for a special child, be sure to include Timeless Toys as a shopping destination this week - owners Cindy and Neil, and manager Clare are welcoming, and will be delighted to help you.

Good Planet Baby on Broad Street
Good Planet Baby is next to Pagliacci's and specialized in organic and natural, eco-everything for baby and young child. I hope to get a picture of their store front tomorrow, and will tell you more about them then!

And, snap!

The job's a game.

I am on holiday, and so is Nathaniel. Our city has been blanketed in the best inspiration for slowing down and resting, and that is just what we're doing. This isn't to say that we're lazing about doing nothing, oh no. But what we are doing, we're doing with ease and a smile, and with Little R. along side.

This morning, when I got up after the BEST gift of having a lie-in, this is what it looked like outside our living room window:



And this is what it looked like outside Little R.'s bedroom window:



Nathaniel and Little R. gave the walkway a good going over with the wee spade. Victorians simply are not prepared for this kind of weather, and we must use what tools we have on hand, usually something of the gardening variety.

Later, while Little R. and Nathaniel napped for their snowy removal efforts, I took to cleaning up my studio and getting things organized.



I thought you might like a peek into my corner of the house, now that I have things neatly away. Sort of.

The work station my dad built into the closet of the room - a fantastic space saver, and he was able to use reclaimed wood scavenged from a home reno happening down the street at the time of our move in.



The view from my work table, the door in the corner leads to the rest of the house. I just took this picture now, so it has that cozy, evening-light look.



And, this? This is what's left to be dealt with:



This is the top of my work table. I did not stage this!! Look at how random this assortment of stuff is ... an Expo 86 tray, bottle of chili sauce (wah?!), and a roll of caution tape mixed in with my sewing kit, magnetic pin 'cushion', note books, mailing envelopes, and baskets of buttons and patterns.

Tomorrow I may think, leisurely, of putting it all away.

Handmade Holidays

Here are a few pictures of the handmade happenings in our house the last few days. Mostly my handmade, but Little R. got her fingers in there too.

First, our new family Christmas stockings.



Inspired by the custom order I did for the G. family, I decided to make stockings for my family too. Actually, I was going to make one for Little R. only, but when Nathaniel saw Little C's custom number he asked if I would make one for each of us. I actually made stockings a number of years ago for just Nathaniel and myself - this was long before Little R. graced our lives - and when I finished them he stated, decidedly, that they were too small, and he has complained about them every Christmas since. I have to agree with him, they were basically the size of a sock he would normally wear - and that definitely is not enough room for holiday booty.



Made from Vintage Wool Suiting, lined with Organic Cotton. Not reversible. I'm thinking about making these for sale next Christmas. Around $55. Feel free to place your order early. ;)

Second, ginger sugar cookies drizzled with dark chocolate.







I didn't get around to photographing the final product - the dark chocolate drizzles where so artistic and free and eat-me-up-inviting. You'll just have to take my word for it. Check out SillyCon's fantastic oilcloth aprons, we *love* ours.

Third, organic and paper-free wrapping.

I was really struggling with gift wrapping this year - paper wrap to me is just wrong (with no offence to those gifting me with paper-clad pressies!). I can't bring myself to buy new rolls and this year I didn't spend as much time in thrift shops looking for roll ends, so we're quite short on gift paper, Christmas or otherwise. I've also been thinking a lot about intention, call and environmental stewardship, and reflecting on the handmade pledge I took last Christmas.

For the most part I have really stuck to my commitment (I even stopped buying ready-made stationary and note cards. For my dad's birthday this year Little R. and I found it a giant chestnut tree leaf and wrote on it in gold pen, one of the most beautiful cards I've made.). This Christmas it seems so in congruent to take the beautiful, hand crafted gifts we've discovered and made and wrap them up in something so not hand crafted in every way. I thought about it and thought about it and decided that cloth wrapping does not have to be the formless sack leaving your gift to float somewhere in the bottom. This is what I did instead:



Organic (because I have a LOT of it on hand) Cotton cut into flat 'sheets' with rounded corners, serged edging in red and blue and browns, folded up and both pinned and tied closed with jingly bells and cute badges with nods to The Regional Assembly of Text and Smitten.

And I can not wait to hear how my sister reacts when she opens that long, skinny one. Happy Christmas, Amie! xoxo

Something for Santa ...

... To fill!



These are a couple of pics of the customer order stocking that I did for the beautitful G. family.



It's made from all organic cotton, and is reversible too!



Warm thanks, R & J & C! xo T.

I am in Love

I found this Etsy shop a long while ago now, it was their moustaches that first caught my eye. This morning, drinking my tea and on the computer in the quiet (Nathaniel and Little R. bundled up and took the bus to work/day care respectively), I clicked on by to Etsy and this was smiling up at me from the front page Treasury.



My heart skipped and leapt.

I went to their shop and their blog, and, well, simply - you should go there too.

C - C - C - Cold!

I know it's not breaking news - it got very cold here a couple of days ago and it snowed. The temperatures have remained very low - with the magical windchill factor it was all the way down to -18 C yesterday. Brrrr.



On Sunday our little family bundled up to take the recent Fawn& Forest order to the post office by sled. Little R. loved it - her favourite part of wintery snow is her snow pants. I have never seen a child so enthusiastic for padded trousers with straps that go whishk, whishk, whishk as she walks.

Given that yesterday was too cold for outtings, Amie came over to spend Monday with Little R. They popped popcorn and strung garlands for the birds while I got to work finishing a number of custom orders. One was a very beautiful stocking for a local family, one of my best customers - it was a joy to work on. I'll take some pictures later today to show you all.

Today is another inside day - I've got organic butter and eggs now at room temperature and this morning Little R. and I will make gingerbread cookies. I don't think we'll get as adventurous as my friends up North, though I am inspired. :) Time to get to my little baker - happy snowy day to you!

Lead and Phalates, Lead and Phalates

I was just talking with my good friend Christina of Bamboletta Dolls about the new US legislation on product testing for goods intended for children under 12 years of age - and how that may affect us as crafty home-based business types who are creating goods for little ones here in Canada and selling to customers in the US.


Me and my Little R.

There are sooo many posts about this important issue on as many blogs, as well as an intense forum discussion happening on Etsy - most of which I find overwhelming and not entirely clear. This post, from Fashion Incubator, appears to be both informative and direct - an important combo. If you're a crafter yourself, you might find it useful as well.

For those of you who are our dear customers, supporters and cheerleaders, this succinct post on Cool Mom Picks may inspire your take up your activist pompoms and - especially if you're a US citizen, your pen - and let your leaders know your concern.

Vote For Me!

Or, in the spirit of free choice, for whoever most strikes your fancy, but truly, if you're fan enough to be poppin' by my blog I hope that my Organic Rabbit Rattle strikes a chord in your heart and you ... Vote For Me!



The Scoop - Esty is having a contest: Choose Your Favourite Toy 2008! Out of the thousands of handmade toys on Etsy, I am sooooooo stoked to be one of the 60 in the running. Click on this link to read the mini article, or click on this link to go straight to voting (if the voting link doesn't work, you can also get to it through the article link).

There are only 2 days left to vote, so hop quick like a bunny over to Etsy and do your thing.



ps. To vote you need to be a registered on Etsy. This is easy, fast, free and also enables you to shop handmade to your hearts content. It's a good thing, and they never spam you, they just makes you happy by being a portal to the handmade.

Belt it, Baby!

Tonight is the night that all the magical crafty elves collect their wares and their shelves and their baskets and signs and make their way to the Fairfield Community Place to begin setting up for the Moss Street Holiday Market. Today I'm gathering my own goods, figuring out the best way to pack the car, and getting excited about the 2 neighbourly, handmade days of shopping and apple cider and visiting ahead. Come join us!

Moss Street Holiday Market
10-4pm Sat & Sun Dec 6 & 7
Fairfield Community Place
1330 Fairfield Rd.



Little R. is *really* excited too!

More from the Floor

O-kee-dough-kee Friends, ready yourself for many pictures and just a bit of reading - all inspiring and entertaining, of course! I start with a few stories from behind the scenes at the One Of A Kind Show:


View from the back of my booth. The curtains were down during the show, this picture I took one morning or evening when I had the fabric pinned back for easier storage 'room' access. It was really cool, and reaaaaally handy to have storage space right behind our space - something new for the One Of A Kind.



This is a textile artist from New Orleans, part of the Red Truck collective: Chris Roberts-Antieau. She wasn't at the OOAK but her fellow arts-collective fellas were ... they had a tape player with their own music, played poker for most of the show and didn't really talk to anyone. They were so cool. And their work sold. I wanted to take a picture of one titled "10 Things to be Grateful For" but it was gone by the second day. Too many others were my second favourite - this one is called "Awkward Social Encounters", and the detail is "Table Manners". Shit hot, if you don't mind me saying.



Nathaniel won a gold medal for Super Papa and World's Best Husband during the course of One Of A Kind Show (not really a stretch for him, but this event really got him going the distance). This picture is of the amazing curry dinner he brought for me and Wade.



And this picture is of Wade eating it.



Here are my lovely little compositions of organic stuffie delight standing tall and squatting proud- my Organic Rabbit Rattle and Organic Cloth Ball were chosen for the Feature section of the OOAK! The organizers set up a fetching display area to great customers as they arrived - showing off some of the beautiful talent at the show and directing them to our booths. How honouring to be included!



Another Victoria artist - fashion designer Marcy aka Morena - had one of her pieces included in the Featured section as well, this smittening (is that a word?) hoodie vest from recycled wool sweaters, cargo pants and fur jackets shown below. I fell in love with this very hoodie at Igloo, drooled over it at the OOAK show and then traded Marcy for it at the Knitted Owl. Oh My GOODNESS! I can't tell you how totally excited I am to cosy up in this hoodie! I love it love it love it! Thank you, Marcy. xo



Speaking of the Knitted Owl ...

This past weekend was the Knitted Owl at Little Fernwood Hall. The organizers, Emmy & Aaron, started the Knitted Owl a few years ago - in their apartment! The next year it moved to a tiny one-room venue, last year took up half of the Little Fernwood Hall and this year was packed - hardly any room for customers (especially those with strollers, yipes!) to make their way to each vendor, but the faithful perservered and were well rewarded! The show was a great success - here's a picture from a quieter moment on Sunday when Little R. came to see what it was all about, and get some Auntie M. time too.



And this pic is one of Jackie Dewey's wooden creations, vintage children's pictures delicately adhered to sold wooden blocks and charming little boxes. I love them! You can find them at The Papery.



Enough for now? Thanks for reading! :)

Holiday Shopping

Hope to see you at the Knitted Owl & Moss Street Holiday Market!

The First Day

It started on the 9am ferry, Nathaniel and Little R. running all over the boat while I sat and stitched block after block (and yes, while drinking St*rbucks coffee out of a disposable cup). I packed enough finished stock to make it through the first day of the One Of A Kind Show. The rest came as 'shells' accompanied by a giant box of wool and my sewing tin - I knew that the evenings wouldn't be over when the Show closed for the night ...


BC Place Stadium is giant, giant enough that transport trucks full of carpet rolls were dwarfed and seemed Tonka toy like. Driving into the stadium through the airlock was a trip in itself - driving right into the middle of this scene was other worldly and very cool. We parked the van, grabbed a dolly and I started unloading, and was soon joined by Jen and Iesza. The loading and set up went so smoothly, I can't even tell you.


Children under 15 weren't allowed in the set up area - Little R. wasn't the only little person camped out in her car seat, patiently waiting. Fortunately Nathaniel and Little R. had only wait until the van was unloaded before cruising off to a play date with friends.


Muscles Jen, they call her, having just hauled my carpet (I think) to my booth. See the big round mirror just to the left of Jen? That's Industrial Artifacts - they were my neighbour, and had super awesome work. There were 8 of us who made up the Green District.


Iesza and Jen hard at work assembling lighting and signage. Those of you friends with Jen on f*cebook will appreciate this composition.


This picture is mostly for my dad, though it's pretty fun, eh - bright lights and towering exibhitors sign. Dad wondered what I ended up with for a lighting solution ... it turned out great!


B-22, all set up and ready for action.

Tomorrow I hope to post images from the next days at the One Of A Kind Show - stay tuned! And in the meantime, check out this gem of internet community making. Stumbling across it while searching 'hemp knitted draw string bag' totally made my day.

10:47pm

How did it get to be so late already? Time for one quick post about my next crafty appearance ... Come see me at The Knitted Owl Craft Show in Fernwood (Victoria BC):



That's Saturday and Sunday of this upcoming weekend, Nov 29 & 30th, from 10am - 5pm at 1923 Fernwood Ave in Little Fernwood Hall.

If you're on F*cebook, check out the Knitted Owl page.

I Love My Bed!

I'm back from the One Of A Kind Show and it was INSANELY awesome and affirming and wicked-tiring fun, and I can't wait to tell you all about it and show you pictures too. Well, actually, I can wait - my bed, my v e r y o w n bed, beckons and I am sooo tired that all the news will have to be saved until Little R's nap time, tomorrow or the next day ... Suffice to say that I sold out of my 100 Organic Teething Bonbons in the first 2 days, came home with only 9 of my 70 Organic Rabbit Rattles, know that 26 Little Ones are soon to be the very cozy receipients of my luxious Organic Double Cream Blanket and more Organic Soft Blocks and Cloth Balls than I can remember this late at night are making their way to toy shelves and boxes around the world (yes, the world!). Like I said, it was awesome. And I now I sleep.

P.S.

I won't have a chance to reply to emails or phone messages while I'm away, so if you're here reading this and wondering what the heck is up - now you know! I'll catch up with y'all when I return.

Off ... I ... Go !

We've got a rental minivan packed to the roof with everything I could possibly need (and more, I'm sure) for 4 days at the One Of A Kind Show in Vancouver. I've got my camera at the ready, and will return with many photos to share with you!

Wish me luck, and join me in sending out oodles of thank you vibes to the amazing people who helped me in the past weeks to be ready for the Show - Amie, Emma, Mercedes, Jenny, Lynda, Bryan, Andrea, Nancy, Dave & Lorraine, and the loves of my life - Nathaniel and Little R.

And, hey! While we're at it, how 'bout some pre-shout outs to Kerry, Wade, Jen, Iesza, Christina and Brenda for agreeing to keep me company and handle the hordes while at the Show! Come join us all at Booth 22 in the Green District.

If I had a suitable image to post here, I would - but as I don't, I offer you the photo that I've printed off to hang up at my booth, taken this past Halloween.



Now, if that ain't inspiration to have a rockin' weekend, I don't know what is!

Mother, may I?

I've got another piece of press to share with you - well, more accurately, to expand on for you: Mothering Magazine Best Natural Toys, 2008! Here's the spread, find the little bunny!:



Here're the links to the other fantastic crafters and companies from our very own Vancouver Island featured in the list, making waves in the natural toy world. Congrats, Everyone!

Bamboletta, Poot & Boogie, Little Red Caboose, Natural Pod

Also, I wanted to make an extra plug for Nancy of KaiKids.com waaaaay over in central Canada, in the big city of T.O. - just this morning she placed another order for my Organic Teething Bonbons! A few months ago I wrote about how cool it was to meet Nancy in Naramata, and I'm excited to hear that she's organizing some in-person shopping events in the Toronto area.



Many of my fine fans are in and near T.O. - be sure to mark Dec 6th as one of KaiKids event days, and stay up to date on KaiKids events and news on their blog, then go give Nancy a huge hello for me!

My First March

In 1990 I was in Grade 10, had moved to a new school and was gangbusters for David Suzuki and The Environment. I had a t-shirt from The Body Shop that read "Protect the Ozone" on the front and "The Body Shop and Friends of the Earth, Defending the Earth for Tomorrow" on the back. I wore it until it fell apart (I still have the scraps of it, tucked away in a box). I thought that I, and all other young, moderate, banner painting activists were simply friends of the earth ...



That year I joined the Environmental Club at school and one of our first actions was to make a lunch-hour march down the highway with plates and forks in hand, all the way to McDonald's and demand that our nuggets and burgers be served out of their styrofoam cartons and onto our dishes. It was totally radical. Seriously. We made it into the local newspaper, a fuzzy picture of our posse, dressed largely in black ..., plates in hand, and posing under the golden arches that, in those days, read "99 million served".



Now, the activist in me tamed slightly (hey, I was at the WTO in Seattle), scissors in hand and toddler in tow, I strive to live an environmentally responsible life and am still wild for Suzuki. Passion for a more collective relationship with nature and appreciation for the simple things in life is the inspiration for my business and the organic products that I love to create - and give.



That's why I can't even begin to tell you how completely honoured I am that my Organic Teething Bonbons are included in the Organic Holiday Gift Guide in the Fall/Winter Issue of Checkerspot - the Canadian Wildlife Federation's bi-annual print publication. Nancy at KaiKids.com made this happen and I am just so thrilled - my copy came in the mail this week. You can bet that I'm going to tuck it away with my old t-shirt, newspaper clipping and protest photos, ready to show Little R. when she asks me what I did for the environment, and just who was it, squandering the electricity?