My favourite images are of birds and houses. I love to draw them and also to see how others interpret the concepts. The new wedding rug will have both birds and houses and as I look at things in my design collection, it is birds and houses that dominate. Here is my new laptop case from Built. Their slogan is Love Your Stuff. My slogan modifies that a little–reduce the stuff you have to just what you love. 

And speaking of what I love…I love working with my good friend and designer extraordinaire, Melanie. Below is the proposed label for the sewing work of the women in Matangwe. Melanie took one of the drawings done by the grade 6 children in Matangwe and turned it into this marvelous label. We are hoping to increase the scope of the work the women produce and develop a recognizable brand. This is a start.

And now on to birds. Here is a glimpse of one of the new prints we are working on. I will be using this for the lining of my leather bags and for new canvas and leather totes. All to come for the fall.

ps  Yesterday’s long bike ride in Prince Edward County went really well and the new Strava app worked like a charm. More cycling to come this weekend as the clock ticks down to next Wednesday when I leave for two week’s cycling in Italy.

I love bird designs as you know and this charming video on brainpickings yesterday really appealed to me. I have mentioned brainpickings before–it is full of wonderful wide-reaching ideas and inspiration. Since I have become a regular visitor to this site, my reading, thinking and design work have been affected. Yesterday’s post had lots of pictures of the magical children’s book Little Bird and this wonderful animation by Young-jun Kim. The colours and the gentle message  ask readers to value the world around us and act accordingly. And close to home, the same message–for the past week, we have been watching the cardinal parents faithfully attend to their three youngsters’ constant crying in the nest outside our window. Much to learn from these avian neighbours and much to respect.

On an entirely different note–I made a second discovery yesterday. My older son suggested I download Strava  on my iphone. This free app logs the distance you cycle, your speed, your route and much more. I am just learning about it, but it is brilliant, and more important, giving me encouragement  to keep at it, something I really need right now. Whatever works!

Right now I am riding my bike as much as I can. A week today I leave for Italy–a biking and barging holiday–which will require more distance than I am used to. I have a city bike with baskets on the front and back and I bike everywhere I can in the city–to the market, the grocery store, my exercise class–but no great distance, ever. Belleville, my small town, has a wonderful network of trails along the bay and the river and these are my favourite biking routes. However,  I will soon be graduating to an italian beauty and 50 kms a day. I plan to blog from the barge–so will report on my adventure!

In the meantime I have been making small things. And I am learning abut my process as I go. In my head are some new bags for the fall. I’m doing my casual research, asking the people of style in my life the three top things they need in a bag, and eyeing the new leather I bought in Montreal and Toronto. I love making pieces from recycled remnants as you see here, but I also love a brand new large piece of Italian pebbly leather — and I have some great colours. There is no substitute for  the substantial weight and durability of this leather–great for big bags made to carry lots. But in the meantime, I am fooling around with little pieces, combining colour and texture. These cases will make their way to the shop soon too.

Happy Monday! We had a lovely day yesterday with lunch at The O’Connor House in Deseronto. What a find this place is–a Victorian tea room with wonderful service, delicious food and attached to an antique/curiosity shop. I highly recommend a visit there if you are in Eastern Ontario. Btw, I took this photo with my new iphone, (that’s my finger smudge in the corner!) a big pot of delicious Earl Grey tea.

On to some news…

I have wanted a shop connected to the blog for some time. As a mother’s day present, Owen revamped the blog and added a shop button. Over the weekend I put some items in there–so if you get a chance, click top left and have a look. If you are interested in anything you see, just hit the contact button and send me an email.

I will be posting more of the small heart pouches and others today. The combining of assosrted coloured remnants is one of the most fun things I do. In the meantime, here area a couple of glimpses of the colourful, ordered chaos of the studio–one of my favourite places.

While waiting for the water in the dye pots to clear today, I had fun combining leather scraps to make some new kodachrome pouches.  Here are two I completed. More to come!

and the reverse sides…

Now for the dyeing. The first batch involved dividing a yard of texture into four quarters and dyeing each quarter a different colour. I used Aljo Dyes on this piece,  a mid-brown plaid. From the top : 1/8 tsp Military Green, 1/8 tsp Indian Yellow, 1/4 tsp Golden Brown and 1/8 tsp Golden Brown over 1/4 yd. I like the way the colours work together in these pieces.

I then began with two and a half yards of this bright striped wool and divided it into 10 quarter yard pieces. There are two 1/4 yard pieces of each colour. From the left for each quarter yard: 1/8 tsp Aljo Aubergine, 1/8 tsp Pro Chem Chocolate Brown plus 1/8 tsp Chestnut, 1/8 Pro Chem Turquoise, 1/4 tsp Pro Chem Boysenberry and 1/8 Majic Carpet Blue Violet.

I love vintage 100% woollen Pendleton skirts. I find them in thrift shops and in the big bin at the back of the Dorr Mill store. Here are three particularly nice ones I have on hand, washed and ready to go. I use them for the backs of pillows and chair pads and I also dye them for hooking. I was surprised to find an Etsy site that specializes in these great skirts–right now has 418 of them! Now I must say, I prefer the hunt through the thrift store bins and the thrift store prices too–but there must be far greater interest in these vintage beauties than I know. Are people wearing them again?

Here are some of the new pieces I have been working on. They are made from remnant pieces of beautiful grainy leather I have collected here and there. I like to make the linings have a story too–the purple started life as a Jaegar skirt–gorgeous cotton; the green and orange is Tanzanian cotton, a gift from the Principal of the school I taught at in Metangwe. The colours are the colours of the Kenyan sky and soil. Both pouches have removable wrist straps and small leather pockets inside. And both are destined for the shop.

Here are some smaller pieces, also made from remnants, (the small photo on the left shows the reverse sides). The red and black is a great pencil case, the fuchsia and lime a coin pouch.  All four of these pieces, and I hope some more, will be in the shop by the end of the week. That is definitely on my list! I have also been dyeing for the wedding rug–and will post results soon. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying these lovely spring days–here in Ontario, the lilacs are just out and the cardinal’s nest outside my kitchen window brings flashes of stunning colour.