What is this surprise?

Where to begin?  Around 2.5 weeks ago, Laura-Jean of Fresh Baked Goods and the Fresh Collective saw my Etsy Shop.  First, she bought a print (yay!).  And then she asked me if I'd be interested to put my artwork in her store.  This was a very exciting moment, and I am pleased to say that as of Sunday, my prints are now available in the Fresh Collective.  There are a few really cool things about this:

1.  I already knew of the Fresh Collective because Queen West in Toronto is my absolutely favorite area of the city

2.  Fresh Collective is a very local scene store, supporting local artists; I really like this idea, a la Deep Economy

That's my surprise!  On the weekend, Kittie, Mackenzie and I traveled down to the store, and gave LJ a large selection of the prints, a display box and some framed photos for her store.  She set it up, and let me know how things were going today. :)

I love doing creative work.  It is very inspiring!

Absent but hopefully back again

I have had quite the past 10 days.  Hopefully things will go well, and I can have the big reveal.  I have been working a lot for stuff @ the shop.  It has been an intense period, and I am very excited by what is coming up.  I am actually quite good at keeping secrets, so the suspense will continue!

Things outside of the shop have also gotten extremely busy.  With summer feeling like it's right around the bend, it's pretty beautiful outside.  However, tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day.

Here is Mackenzie taking a big swag from her sippy cup! 

sketch: April 15, 2008

I feel in a bit of a daze.  Things are cloudy, mostly because I am tired.  It's that tired from lots of things running in your head, and a little bit of excitement all mixed up with insufficient sleep.  Yes, that will do it.  I  just want to crash.  Before that, I did make this drawing of a fish, with the chinese character for fish.  Go figure. :)

sunny weekend

I had a nice weekend.  It was sunny and we were outdoors; partially.  The tulips are sprouting out of our front garden and it's spring jacket weather!  Oh yeah!  I am enjoying how everything is blooming, robins are flying around and it is pre-bugs weather.  We have to make the most of this temperate non mosquito weather!

When summer hits, those bugs will be out.  Even so, it won't stop us from visiting the beautiful lakes of Ontario.  I can't wait to take little Mackenzie out to the natural waters of the world and swim!  Swimming is my absolute favorite.

I thought of dancing, because it goes hand-in-hand with singing; and well, though Swimming is my absolute favorite, Singing must be my ultimate favorite.

sketch: april 10, 2008

I have enjoyed today.  I had a very encouraging and exciting email exchange which I haven't been able to follow-up with properly.  I will remedy this tomorrow; I am, indeed very excited!  More to come in the next few weeks.

On a sidenote, I did not win the YouGrowGirl Haiku contest, but I have embedded the haiku within my sketch. :-)  Have a nice spring day, and tomorrow's Friday.  Friday means the start of the weekend, which also gives me time to hang out with this little nuclear family and do some art (between baby naps). :)  I am smitten with the nearness (is this a word??) of Friday!  Bring it! 

music: radiohead

Radiohead is coming to Toronto on August 15, 2008.  Tickets go on sale this Friday @ 10am. I missed them when they came in 2001.  I missed them before that for their OK computer tour.  They probably came sometime between then and now.  Yes.  But here they are with In Rainbows, and I absolutely cannot miss them.

I love musical groups.  Concerts are inspiring, seeing these artists perform in a way that touches an entire room, hall or stadium of people is amazing.  The performances and the atmosphere just spells itself into a mind-bending touch of joy.  And, well, Radiohead has been in my collection for a longgg time.  Ha ha, don't I feel old now?  I especially love OK Computer: Karma Police, Paranoid Android... it's too good.

Radiohead is very progressive.  They are hosting an animation contest for a music video here.  I am deciding whether I will devote countless hours, to submit to this contest.  It would definitely be fun, frustrating and creative all rolled up like a California Roll.  In any case, this concert is way too exciting!

community changes

Frankly, one little voice will bear little weight in the economic roadway of progress.  I feel a little bit defeated, but I am also glad that I took part in the democratic process.

I don't know what else to say.  So I decided to draw.  Unfortunately, my chest still feels tight in that butterfly-why-do-I-feel-so-crappy-and-tense kind of way. :)

Feist

Feist is insanely popular these days.  She won 5 Juno awards last night (equivalent of Grammy's, but for Canada!).  Congratulations Feist!  I saw her onstage during the summer of 2005 at Toronto Olympic Island.  She was part of Broken Social Scene.  BSS was hosting a concert, and had the likes of Metric and others present; at the time, I really didn't know who Feist was.  

My friends and I were there for Modest Mouse. (pre-baby days)  Gosh, I loved that concert so much.  It was amazing... It was a whole day affair on the island, being goofy and basking in the summer sun.

Back to Feist.  She is an amazing artist, that's for sure.  Well deserved.  We love the "Let it Die" album the best.  As a sidenote: I am a big fan of CBC Radio 3 (I will do a blog about them exclusively sometime in the future, probably over and over, since I am completely smitten with them).  Anyway, I mention them, because I lifted this picture of Feist off their website.  This was taken of her in 2004, playing on the sidewalk in Toronto for the NXNE festival.  How much change takes place in  4 years, incredible. :)

New Print for the Shop

I have been MIA this past few days.  Things have been fairly busy.  I won't get into the details, but have been away from the computer a bit.  I hope that you have been having a good spring (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere)!

The weather was extremely nice (for Canada) today.  We were up to 12 or 13C.  This means, light jacket and melting snow.  We ended up walking to our local grocer, and swung by the park for little Mackenzie to play around on the swings and slides.  It was nice seeing neighbors outdoors, getting their garden ready or doing general cleanup.  There were many "hi's" and "nice day ehs?" to go around!

I also spent the morning doing stuff for the shop.  I played a lot with Illustrator and came up with a new print!  Yeah, I like how it turned out.  I am doing some final adjustments, but it should be up in the shop sometime early this week!  I posted it here:

April 2, 2008

Inspired by many things lately:

1. There's a new zine out at design for mankind

2. Speak Easy Craft shows

3. Brisk Sunshine

4. My wife making funny doodles on her computer

5. New music: Stars - Midnight Coward

6. Did I say, Stars - Midnight Coward already? :-)

Sketch: April 1, 2008

I have been spending a lot of time exposing myself to a lot of different ideas, and trying out new styles and techniques.  I haven't been doing enough crafting of my own, or creating.  I am however very happy to be visiting new blogs and seeing just what people are doing.  This is pretty fantastic.

It's drizzly, foggy and warm up here in Toronto.  Things dipped colder again tonight, but we can see the robins playing around outside, and we know that spring is around the corner!  Bets are, there will be one more snowstorm! :)