Springtime Marketplace Preparations

Tomorrow's the big day! I'm so excited to be a vendor at the Toronto Etsy Street Team's, Springtime Marketplace! Here are a few things I will have for sale at my table.

A couple of new items that I am thrilled to share with you are, Giant Bites and Giant Sprites! The Little Bites and Sprites are so popular that I thought it would be fun to make big ones. I'm so glad I did. They are super cuddly.

This morning when the kids saw me taking photos of these guys they asked me to be in some photos with them. It's great to have some toy testers here at the house. The Sprites and Bites get a big thumbs up from the kidlets.

Something else I'm really proud of are the new sets of Teetoo cards I've created. If you've been following my blog for a long time, you may remember that I created cards to sell when I first opened Teetoo back in 2010. The cards arrived back from the printers the day before I had intended to open the shop and they were a complete disaster. Since then, I have sold the Teetoo Holiday Card Pack and the Send Love Mini Card Pack and I am really happy with their quality but I hadn't developed any more cards because I was so frustrated with that card debacle years ago. Recently, I decided that it would be nice to have some plain, inexpensive blank note cards on hand. I took a peek in a great little store in Hamilton that sells a nice assortment of cards and artwork by indie artists but I just couldn't find what I was looking for. In coming back to some of the artwork I created last year, I realized that I had just what I was looking for right here. I'll have all four new card packs for sale at the show tomorrow and I'll have them listed in the shop next week. I just love the way they turned out. They are simple and sweet. The colours are vibrant and the images have a lovely semi-gloss finish to them. They really are just what I wanted them to be.

I also took a few photos this week as I worked, to give you some peeks into my methods and procedures. I guess I worked pretty methodically, first I cut all the fabric for everything I was going to make. Then, I did all the sewing all at once. Finally, I hand stitched the closures and all the little details in the end. I'm still working on a bit of that today.

Baby Bee Buddy Rattles in production.


This is the stage in the Giant Sasquatch's production when I'm figuring out where to attach his eyes and nose before I attach his head to his body.

I tend to work all over the house when I've got a lot to do and lately I've been working in the family room instead of the studio. That way I can be with the family and keep an eye on the kids while I'm working. Plus, I need the space to spread out and have little stations for each job I'm working on.


Some new Baby Stars. These new Baby Stars are extra cute.
And I'll have a bunch of Baby Bee Rattles for sale.

I hope you'll come out and see me tomorrow at the TEST Springtime Marketplace at the Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education918 Bathurst St. Toronto.

See you there!

♥ Andrea ♥

Cecropia Moth



A couple of nights ago, I looked out the window and saw a Luna Moth fly by. Although it was a fleeting glimpse in the dark, I was struck by how beautiful it was. It reminded me that last spring John and the kids watched a Cecropia Moth emerging from it's cocoon. I wasn't at home at the time so I didn't get to watch the amazing event but John took some photos with his phone of the moth just after it came out and then of it drying off it's wings on the deck and I've been meaning to share them with you.


I was shown the cocoon when I got home that day and decided to cut the little branch and bring it inside. This is what it looks like now...


It's so exciting to see all of the wildlife at this time of year. Last week while the kids and I were out, a deer and her fawn came to visit and ran through our garden!

I've been working away day and night preparing for the upcoming craft show. I'll be back this week to finally share some photos of all that I've been doing.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

♥ Andrea ♥

A Thoughtful Sasquatch


I just finished this Sasquatch yesterday. He was very fun to make and once he was all stitched up, I was very happy to get to know him a little bit. We spent some time together in the garden yesterday morning before he caught his train to Illinois  He is a quiet and thoughtful fellow and it was an absolute pleasure spending time with him. Forever curious and always up for an adventure, he really understands the value of taking the time to stop and smell the tulips, climb trees or just lay down in the grass, look up at the sky and daydream :)

♥ Andrea ♥

Long Weekend


We had such a great weekend. The weather was absolutely amazing for this year's Victoria Day long weekend. I got to do some of my favorite things and see some of my favorite people. I really couldn't have asked for more. I hope you had a fun weekend too. What did you do?

This week I'm back to work crafting like a maniac again preparing for the upcoming Springtime Marketplace on June 1st. Things are coming together but it always feels like a mad dash to get everything done on time. And the whole time I find I have to readjust my wild expectations (I'm just a bit of a dreamer). There is so much still to do and less than two weeks to go. Here's hoping a whole lot of fluffy things get sewn in the next few days!

♥ Andrea ♥

TEST Springtime Marketplace



The Toronto Etsy Street Team created a lookbook for the upcoming Springtime Marketplace on June 1st. They did a great job so I thought I'd share it with you and remind you that I'll be at the show with all my handmade lovables. This show is going to be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to being a vendor with all of these amazing artisans.

TEST Springtime Marketplace
June 1st, 2013
Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education
918 Bathurst St. Toronto
11am- 5:30pm

I really hope you can make it! I'll be back to share some photos of my preparations soon.

♥ Andrea ♥

In Radish We Trust

In Radish We Trust

Well, I'm very pleased that I was able to pay a little homage to Fraggle Rock and it's creator, one of my personal heroes, Jim Henson with my design, In Radish We Trust, for the Fraggle Rock Threadless Challenge. This drawing was inspired particularly by the episode, The Great Radish Famine in which Marjory the Trash Heap has a dream that inspires her to make all the radishes disappear in hopes that the Fraggles, Gorgs and Doozers will see their similarities and work together. My husband, John, helped me so much with this, from envisioning the theme to answering a million questions and finally submitting the design for me because I couldn't figure out how to do that properly on my own either. I'm so thankful for his assistance and guidance.

Over the years, I have become acquainted with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator but I am by no means savvy. In fact, savvy does not even come close to be being a good word to describe my abilities with these programs. Awkward is probably closer to the reality. I'm sure that I would have been happier with the results and the process if I had just done a painting. Instead I did a drawing, scanned it in and then went about stumbling through the process of turning it into a vector. I've done this only a few times before, with the Send Love Mini Card Pack designs and for some of my banners and buttons over the years. There are usually many months or even years between my attempts at creating vectors and the whole process is a series of questions to my husband and Google while trying to remember how to do this or that, how to fix this or that and usually includes some swearing.

When I began the drawing, I wasn't really thinking ahead to how I was going to finish it. In retrospect, I think if I had realized that I was just going to turn it into a vector, I would have been better off drawing it on a tablet on the computer. I think that would have saved a tremendous amount of time. Also, I think I got a wee bit carried away with adding a ton of details. I learned a whole lot with this project (mostly, what not to do).

If you like my design and you would like to vote for it to be printed, you can head over to the In Radish We Trust page on Threadless and vote for it to get printed. Thanks so much! I really appreciate it :)

I was telling you last week about all the stuff I've got going on. Doing this Fraggle Rock design may have taken a few days away from my production time for the Etsy Street Team Springtime Marketplace and other immediate projects I've got on the go, but I think what I have learned will actually save me some time getting my business cards and promotional materials ready for my new practice in Toronto. I'm going to try drawing them on a WACOM tablet and see what I can come up with. I'm going to share my inspiration board and process for this stuff in the coming days. 

I hope you are having a nice week! Have you been as crazy busy as I have been lately? What are you working on these days?

♥ Andrea ♥

Work Your Cares Away, Dancing's For Another Day



I've had a lot on the go these last few days. One of them is this drawing. For a long time I've been meaning to enter a Threadless design challenge. When I saw their Fraggle Rock challenge come up recently, I knew it was the one for me. I loved watching Fraggle Rock as a kid. We've been watching some episodes as I've been working on my drawing. It's been really fun for us to share Fraggle Rock with the children. I've got to finish my design today so once I've entered the contest, I'll share my completed design with you.

There are so many other things keeping me busy these days as well. I'm happy to tell you that Teetoo is going to have a table this year at the Toronto Etsy Street Team Springtime Marketplace on June 1st. I've been doing a lot of preparing for that. I hope you will be able to come and see me at the show. I'll post more about my prep for the market in the coming weeks. Another big thing I have yet to tell you about is that we are moving back to Toronto this summer. So, we've been looking for a place to live.

Anyway, have a fantastic weekend!

♥ Andrea ♥

A Snake Swallows a Frog


Last week during dinner my son suddenly shouted, "We have to save a frog in the pond! His butt is getting bitten by a snake!" We all jumped up from the table and I grabbed my camera as we ran out to see what was going on. I'm not sure why he waited until we were eating dinner to announce the big event. These are some of the photos I took of what we found.


We had a great discussion while this was going on. You couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor frog. My son wanted to poke the snake and try to rescue the frog. I explained to him that we are neither on the side of the frog nor the snake, just observers and stewards of their home. And that the snake needs to eat just as much as the frog needs to eat. He poked the snake a couple of times anyway. 

"We'll watch the frog die together," my daughter said in a dramatic tone, reaching for her brother's hand. But it takes a long time for a snake to swallow a frog, so we didn't end up hanging around to watch the whole thing. Pretty incredible, isn't it?

♥ Andrea ♥

Coconut, Macadamia Nut, Apricot Pie *raw vegan*


This week I was thinking about how much I love the combination of apricot, macadamia nut and coconut. So I tried my hand at making a raw dessert with these flavours and I was very pleased the results. 

Here I present, Cocomacricot Pie...

Crust
1 cup sprouted walnuts (soaked for 8 hours and rinsed thoroughly)
10 medjool dates
4 dried apricots
1/3 cup ground macadamia nuts
1/3 cup coconut powder (I use a coffee grinder to grind dried coconut to a powder)

Put the walnuts, dates and apricots in your food processor and process until it becomes thoroughly combined and the walnuts are in very small pieces in an apricot and date paste. Chunks are okay. Mix in the ground macadamia nuts and coconut powder. Press this into a greased pie plate (I used extra virgin olive oil).


Filling
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup dried apricots (soaked in the warm water)
1 cup young coconut meat (I used all the meat from 2 young coconuts)
1/2 cup macadamia nut butter (I used Nuts to You Raw Macadamia Nut Butter. You can make your own raw macadamia nut butter just by processing raw macadamias for many minutes in a high power food processor- my processor is not a very good one- or you can buy some like this one here.)
3 Tbsp maple syrup

Soak your apricots in the warm water until they are softened. Add everything to the blender and blend until it becomes smooth and frothy. Pour this over your crust and place in the freezer for one hour. Serve right away or place it in the fridge until you're ready.


This pie will keep a few days in the fridge as long as it's kept covered. We ate this up fast and I'm hoping to make another very soon. It makes a really tasty breakfast. If you make your own cocomacricot pie, I'd love to hear about it.

This week was a truly wonderful week. The weather has been so lovely. We've been enjoying time outside as much as possible. I'm looking forward to more time outdoors this weekend.

Have a fun weekend!

♥ Andrea ♥

Spring Macro Photos



It seems like we've been waiting for spring for so long. And then in a couple of days, it's here in full bloom. So I brought out my macro lens yesterday to try and document some of the little bits of spring beauty everywhere. Spending time in the forest and garden makes me incredibly happy. 

Happy first day of May!

♥ Andrea ♥