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Happy New Year!

I hope everyone survived the holidays and are looking forward to the promises that a new year brings! The main goal for this year is to online the shop, which requires me finishing up the product pictures to five more products (hopefully) minimum. I’m hoping to have the shop open February 1st. The selection of items for sale will be limited to prints (for now) and then as I get more comfortable with things I’ll expand to other products. Maybe. I’m hoping this serves as motivation and inspiration to keep creating, even if I don’t sell anything.

In other news, I’m looking for some waterproof ink. The two that I own (pictured above, Waterman and Noodler’s Ink) are NOT waterproof. I’m not sure why everyone keeps telling me Noodler’s Ink is, this one most certainly is not, I wet a little bit of my writing and it smudged all over the place. I own 2 (soon to be 3) fountain pens, and I’d really like to be able to sketch with my pen, but I also want to be able to apply watercolour paint over top. The search continues.

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Air Dry Clay Ornaments

Each year I enjoy making a handful of decorations for the Christmas tree with the kids – and this year we decided to try air dry clay. We used whatever we had at hand, including some play-doh molds which is why you see a festive broccoli and corn in our collection above. I attached some metal hooks, and some merino yarn that I spun to add them to the tree. Everyone had a fantastic time making them, and I covered them with UV resin, so they should hopefully last a few years. The memories from these little crafts are what I treasure most, and each year we take out the decorations I remember how much fun we all had together making them. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, as long as you’re enjoying yourself.

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Happy Halloween – WIP

I’ve had this little cross stitch in progress for over a year now, but I have a feeling that 2025 will be the year I finally complete it. The entire thing is a silhouette done in DMC 310 (black) – with some orange accents. I plan on filling in the white bats with a glow in the dark thread, and I can’t wait to show off the effect. I did have it set up in a q-snap frame, but I had to get closer to the edges than I had room for, so in the meantime I’m stitching it while holding it in my hands.

In other news, I’m hoping the Canada Post strike ends any day now, and I’ve decided to postpone the opening of my shop to February 1st. That will give me some time to get the rest of the product pictures completed, and maybe do another drawing or two. Look for that grand opening in 2025!

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Peering Outside

I’m hoping to get a new lamp & magnifier combo this holiday season to help my eyes out when I’m working on detailed pieces, but in the meantime, I’ve managed to squint my way through this little cross stitch. Completed on 14ct aida, it came in a World of Cross Stitching magazine that I got a number of years ago. Remember how magazines used to come with little CD inserts or perfume samples? Well, the cross stitching version of those magazines still comes with those little packages.

The instructions said this was a 5 hour piece (approximate) but I’m pretty sure it took me almost 10 hours to complete it. I (of course) finished the side with the cat, first, then moved on to the other side. It has been a number of years since I did any cross stitch, but I remembered how much I enjoy it, especially when I have a good audio book to listen to. Here’s hoping I get a lot more stitching done in the future.

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Cozy Cottage Remodel

I’ve been working on a calico critter cottage remodel for a little while now and today managed to get a lot of progress done. The outside is finally completed (minus the accents, I want to add some moss and dirt to the outside still) and today I added wallpaper to the main level, and started using cherry stained popsicle sticks to cover the floor. The second floor needs to be wallpapered still, but I did get the flooring completed there, too.

Once that is done it will be time to decorate! I don’t have a lot of furniture for this house yet, but I’ve been browsing the internet and saving scenes for inspiration. I don’t think the house will take any specific ‘theme’ per say, but I hope to add a lot of green, plants, books, and other items that are comforting to me, like including my fiber arts. Little projects like this keep me entertained and it’s nice to unplug and just step away from electronics for a bit. Hopefully over the winter I can get another big chunk completed.

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Calico Critter Remodel – Progress!

My first miniature is coming along pretty well, I think. I spent some time painting this plastic desk to look a bit better, and then added a breakfast in progress, along with some tea, plants, and some scrolls tucked away. There’s a matching ‘wooden’ chair, and I think I want to crochet a little blanket to throw over the chair. Up next I’ll be working on putting wallpaper on the second floor, and starting work on the bed. Another hand crochet throw might be in the works, but it depends on what yarn / crochet thread I can find kicking around my stash.

Canada post is still on strike, and it’s looking like it might be a long one. Hopefully things are back up and running soon, so I can open my shop to people. In the meantime, I’ll keep adding stock and maybe branching into a few other items for sale.

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Canada Post – On Strike

Welp, I was working on opening the shop in late November, before the holiday season started – but Canada Post had other ideas. They’ve gone on strike, looking for the typical things that any striking company wants (better wages, pension, work safety, etc). I am all for the peoples right to strike, sometimes it’s the only way to get noticed and have things moving forward – but – this type of strike really does a painful number to small businesses and people who rely on the postal system. Especially close to the holidays. To put it bluntly, it sucks.

With that being said, I’ve decided to set a new tentative launch date for sometime in the new year, after the holidays. Maybe mid-January. Hopefully by then the postal strike will have cleared up and things will be moving through the mail again. I can always re-assess at a later date if I need to. My apologies for anyone who has been waiting for the shop to open, you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer.

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A little Creative

I’ve been slowly preparing this site and getting things ready. I’ve never sold any of my art before, so it’s a bit surreal and I’m not sure what to think of it all. I’m trying to take my time, and do things properly. In the meantime, I’ve shuffled around my art supplies to try to better accommodate my habits. I have two areas, one downstairs where my computer is, and one upstairs that holds most of my art supplies. I was trying to do art downstairs since that’s where everyone is at, but I was simply running out of room and it was frustrating me. I’ve since moved all traditional art supplies upstairs, and I’ll keep digital art supplies downstairs. Hopefully that means I actually USE the art supplies, but it may take some time. I did manage to create this cute little watercolour postcard. It was a lot of fun – but I also need a lot more practice. My hands have been giving me some issues lately, so I try to fit in some art where I can, and not put too much pressure on myself.