Tea Towel in National Post

On Dec 24th my teatowel appeared on the cover of the Weekend Post. It was included in an article on designer tea towels and featured several from the collection of Arren Williams- Creative Director of Bay home fashions. Here is the link to the online version of the article:
http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/12/25/style-design-tea-towel-time/

Above is the blurb which accompanied the photo of my teatowel in the inside of the paper.
ps. My capsule collection for The Bay should appear in stores in early April.

Dreamy Holiday Get Away

Bonjour! I've just returned from a dreamy holiday away in Montréal.

(American Readers take note!: Montréal is a beautiful historic city in Quebec Canada with gorgeous architecture, great shopping + restaurants. ie. All the charm of Europe without the expense!
Added bonus: I think they have the best bagels in the world.)

Old Montreal looking so cozy + romantic at Christmas time.

One of the biggest reasons for the dreamiest of my trip (in addition to my travelling companion bien sur!) was our hotel! We stayed at the Hotel Gault in Old Montreal and I can't recommend it enough.

Hotel Gault Exterior - I loved this elegant corner door

The Gault is a boutique hotel housed in a former textile headquarters which was built in 1871.
The façade is considered "Second Empire-style" (ie influenced by the buildings of Haussman's Paris) and features vertical pilasters carved into blue-gray limestone.  It's a five storey building with only 30 loft suites making it truly "boutique". The first floor featured a restaurant, cafe and cozy library with a fireplace. The staff were very welcoming and always friendly + helpful.

 
 Hotel Gault Exterior. Tres snowy!
The exterior of the building is in complete contrast to the very contemporary + beautifully designed interiors.

Our Room Night 1

Check out that wall - I never met an 19th century exposed brick wall I didn't like. :-)

Our Room next couple nights

 - featuring: foyer, work area, to-die-for bathroom with mod tub + lux fixtures plus (not seen in photo) - tres comfy King bed,  lots of custom closets and **2 beautiful french windows which opened up to the most dreamy view. **

The rooms were so big- they felt like little loft apartments rather than hotel rooms. SIGH.

(Don't hate me. :-)

Beautiful view from one of the french windows. 

Breakfast at L'Express

Atwater Market

 Dinner at Joe Beef

Very cozy interior with great filled chalkboards.

View from the Bar

Me on Rue des Artistes in Old Montreal

Breakfast at Beautys

92 year old Founder Hymie Sckolnick holding a postcard of himself from 1942 (!)

Closeup of postcard. (Is that not the cutest?)

Place d'Armes + Notre Dame Basilica looking very special + Christmasy

 Close up of Maisonneuve Monument in front of Notre Dame

Noel bread

Other highlights included:
- visit with Louis and Charles 
- le Cartet on Mcgill St
- a visit to Pointe-à-Callière: Montreal's Museum of Archaeology + History (A-mazing)
- very special Christmas dinner with sweet Zab + family
and a visit to Fairmount bagels to stock up on sesame bagels for the drive home.
Num num.

*Au revoir Montreal! Je t'aime.*

Christmas pudding card

Here is a Christmas card I recently created for the lovely designer Marg Dyer of Austen Eliot Communications. Lucky for me she printed off a few extras for me to send out.
I think the wobbly pudding will be particularly appropriate for my foodie friends.
ps. Marg and I have plans for some more card collaborations in the new year. :-) Stay tuned.

Jesse Harris' Mural in my hood

I love Jesse Harris' mural which recently went up at the corner of Queen + Dovercourt.

It's a funny + very direct way of commenting on the rapid gentrification and changing face of my West Queen West neighbourhood.

This project was coordinated by Spectrum Art Projects + COOPER COLE Gallery, and partially funded by the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program.

Some images from the last couple weeks

 

 The wonderfully cozy home of Heather Shaw of pi'lo

  

 And her Splendid Holiday party inside :-)

Geoff McFetridge show at Cooper Cole

1161 Dundas Street West

Ian at Geoff McFetridge show  

 

Ian + I talking about patterns at Lakeview Lunch

(That's his sketch book)

Reading a book on Calder's jewelry (A-mazing) at Al's jewelry sale

Lovely Nora.

New Work: R-r-r-i-ng! Telephone pattern

New Work: Checkered Hen Pattern

Exciting News!
My agency i2i art will have a booth at Surtex: The surface design show in NYC next year. 
You will see this Hen Pattern plus many others in Booth 340 May 19-21st 2013!

New patterns

This is "Dancing Desserts" in two different colourways.

Available for Licensing through i2iart.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Two weeks ago Design blogger Time Maze visited me at my home for a studio tour and silk screen 101 lesson. Together we printed my edition of 70 small brogue prints.
His blog contains several photos of our afternoon together including several decor shots!

Above Tim + I in my studio. 

Tim is now hosting a GIVEAWAY for a chance to win either my Christmas teatowel or small brogue print.

GIVEAWAY 1: Christmas Teatowel!

 GIVEAWAY 2 : Small Brogue Silkscreen print!

  

To enter pop over to Tim's blog 

and leave a comment on how you'd incorporate one of these pieces into your home. 

Good luck! Contest closes December 17th.

New Print: Brogue in smaller size + Upcoming Giveaway

I have a new silk screen print.

It's a smaller version of my Big brogue print and measures 7" x 4.75"
It's an edition of 70 and is signed + numbered.
Price = 60.00 and is the perfect gift for the natty dresser in your life.

Speaking of natty.... a dapper decor blogger from Toronto will be hosting a GIVE AWAY for two of these print starting tomorrow. Pop back in the morning for details.

Illustration: Toggle Coat

It's always fun to draw clothes that I love ... and I've never met a duffel coat I didn't like!
I did this illustration a while ago and reworked it this morning with different colours to make it more christmasy.

Liz Kingstone's Jewelry sale

Last night I attended a jewelry sale at the home of my friend Liz Kingstone. 
I've written about Liz many times - as she is one of the most creative people I know and Suzanna Dimma has listed her home as one of the most creative she has ever visited. :-)

 Liz in her colourful kitchen wearing an apron fashioned out of my spring bay tea towel.
(matches perfectly with the kitchen!)

Liz's entrance way and livingroom.
You can view a House + Home video tour of her home here.

Liz's jewelry collection includes gorgeous chunky silver rings + bangles, great necklaces (one named for her cousin Pippa!) and fun stud earrings in gold + silver.

You can see her whole collection on her Pinterest board here.

Gravity Pope and Campers

Gravity Pope - a great shoe store from out west has just opened it's first Toronto location at the corner of Ossington and Queen. They have an amazing selection of shoes and very friendly staff.
Above my new pair of Camper boots. Love Campers. They'll last for years. :-)
Welcome to the hood Gravity Pope!

Franny has a good home

My Franny print in the home of my friends Sasha and Al.

New Penguin title: Down and Out in Paris + London

A George Orwell fan from St. John's NL requested a custom Penguin title last month: Down and Out in Paris and London. As I was working on it several folks commented that this title really resonated with them so I decided to do a complete edition.

 As with all my Penguin prints it measures 26" X 40" and is 795.00.
A few pics of the process below.

 Print with first orange layer.

Second layer with penguin and cartouche.

 Me with new screen.

 Test print.

 Getting inky.

Ta da!  The final pass is always so satisfying.

 Tea staining the print. (The jar of almonds is just holding down the paper) :-)

Complete and ready to ship to St. John's.