made: yo-yo! jewellery!

I just discovered that making your own jewellery (aside: why are there two spellings of this word, both of which look incorrect?) is very economical. This has resulted in joy at knowing that I will be able to create my own custom designs and a little bit of shock at the mark-up on simple earrings.

My current interest in jewellery design nicely aligns with my limited ability to fiddle with metal bits. Instead of working with beads, I've decided to create pieces using textiles. My first couple are made using "yo-yos" but I have more ambitious plans to create a very miniature red and white quilt and turn it into a necklace. Yay!

made: kasha pie in a box

Can I start by saying I really like this? KASHA PIE in a box is one of my Christmas presents for my dad. Inside are three of the more exotic ingredients required to make the pie (and just for clarification, I am talking about a meal pie, not a dessert pie). It contains: umeboshi vinegar, kasha (toasted buckwheat), dark buckwheat flour and a hand-written copy of the recipe.

The character on the box is a happy kasha grain. It's similar to a drawing of a perogie I did for my dad's birthday present. I can't help it, it amuses me terribly.

the stockings were hung...

Voila the stockings.

After my boyfriend and I decided to exchange stockings this year for Christmas I went out and purchased two from Winners. They were cute. They were relatively inexpensive ($15 each). But I was still unemployed so my nagging conscience pushed me back onto the bus so I could return them to the store.

My replacement stockings are made from a thrifted wool sweater so now they are completely inexpensive ($3 each).

made: mini sock monkey ornaments

found: Kathie Winkle plates

Yesterday I had the good fortune of coming across some plates designed by Kathie Winkle in a local charity shop. Kathie Winkle created over 100 different pattern designs for the British company Broadhurst between the late 1950s to the late 1970s. She had no formal arts training and was initially employed to hand paint the colour onto stamped plate designs. Fortunately, Broadhurst recognized that she had greater talents.

The pattern pictured to the left is one of the most popular and widely recognized of Kathie Winkle's patterns. The one that I purchased is called Corinth. There were only three dinner plates there so I purchased two of those and four salad plates. Hopefully I will come across some more Kathie Winkle in the future which would enable mixing and matching.

found: bird napkin ring

I found this bird napkin ring at an antique market last weekend. I think it functions well as a little sculpture (imagine, however, if there were giant birds like this as a public art installation/place to sit). I enjoy the fact that the hollowed out center allows for a view through to the artwork behind. My bird is unmarked on the bottom but it looks Scandinavian to me.

triangle rain

Went home to Toronto this week for Thanksgiving and had the chance to visit Forever 21. I was smitten with the print of their triangle rain top but couldn't tell if it was too much on me (there are double buttons, chest pockets, side pockets, button tabs on the sleeves).