It’s Gocco-central around here as I get ready for the Hoopla show here in Toronto (more about that soon) so blogging will be light for the forseeable future … in the meantime here are somethings I’ve been enjoying lately:

• eraser with 28 corners, at Tokyo Mango
• lovely Japanese mail order catalog (corduroy flat club!), at Moving Hands 
• new lorena barrezueta jewelry, (you might know her line of ceramics based on classic take-out/disposable dishes) via sub studio design blog
• conversation with Paul Rand, on Swiss Legacy

One of the perks of participating in the Pika Package Project is that you get one of the packages yourself … and here’s what came in the mail for me this week:

So exciting! I was so impressed by the quality of the work by these artists. Clockwise from upper left:

print by number eight
hedgehog print by melanie wickham
worry print & thank you card by amy ng
print & sticker by bubbo tubbo
pika package zine
buttons by pretty little theives

p.s. In putting together this post I discovered that Amy is a very busy girl - in addition to putting together the august pika package, she has a shop called remakeables, stocked with some very, very appealing notions and fabrics (ack, just what I need ^_^!)

I wrote earlier about the art of the note Gocco swap at cloth.paper.string … here is what I ended up making:

My intention was to make something in which it was very evident that a human hand was involved … I’ve gotten in such a habit of ‘cleaning up’ my drawings in Illustrator, and I’m not sure it’s a good one. So this is rows and rows of loops, handwritten with my Gocco pen (first experiment with that - up to now I’ve been photocopying my drawings and then burning my screens from the copies). So there you have it! I am really happy with them and I hope my swap-mates are too. Their sets have been trickling in (and what great sets they’ve been) and I hope to post a ‘group photo’ when they’ve all arrived. (More photos on Flickr.)

I haven’t posted for a while because I’ve been so busy (I know, who isn’t?) but I did manage to snap a picture of an arrangement I did for a mini-dinner party I threw last night. (The vintage vase/planter is from Abbey Hendrickson’s great shop, How Now Design.)

A little something for all you Miffy fans: a profile of Dick Bruna in the Telegraph (via bookninja).

Just a quick note about these great bookplates I saw today on Etsy, by decoylab. There is something so special and warm about these illustrations … they remind me a little of vintage children’s  illustrations but of course they have a style & feel that is totally their own.   



photo : decoylab 

I’ve signed up for an exciting swap over at cloth.paper.string …  for art of the note, participants in groups of ten will exchange sets of original gocco’d note cards (52 people have signed up in total)! Paper/stationery fiend that I am, I can’t wait to see what my swap-mates produce, and I’ve already started some sketches for my contribution.  I’ve been doing a lot of ‘cute’, and I’m thinking something more subtle is in order … 



(A doorway in my neighbourhood.  I somehow didn’t even notice the horse when I took the picture, I was just looking at the numbers!)  

p.s. There’s a giveaway too, until end of the day Wednesday July 30.

I really love the work being done by Mingus Designs of Australia … I’ve had my eye on their pouches for a while (there are elephants, paper airplanes, and birds, all in this great origami-gridpaper design) but now I see that they have cards too! (in their etsy shop) 

Pile of Rabbits 2 ~ Originally uploaded by Mingus Designs

Trying to do something a little different for the photos in the shop. Finally we had a bit of sunshine but it still seems a little dark … some day I will get the hang of this!

First of all, a big thanks to decor8 for including Stockton & Co. in yesterday’s Etsy Take Five Tuesdays, and welcome to any of you finding your way here from there. Holly has a real knack for finds and her Etsy posts are no exception … I just love these letterpress frames by Sycamore Street Press, such a great idea!  Speaking of Etsy, look who I found in my front garden early this morning: 



What do Etsy & a snail have in common you ask?  I don’t really make new year’s resolutions but at the start of this year I tried to take a step back and look at my habits, my household, and see if I could slow down, do some things better, and more thoughtfully. I was never a rabid consumer but I am as guilty as the next person of making weird, dumb, unnecessary purchases. In addition to not wanting to be a slave to debt my entire life, I’d like to do as little harm as I can while I’m here.  I won’t bore you with the laundry list of changes we’ve made (and it’s definitely an ongoing process) … but one of the things I’m doing differently is always thinking ‘handmade’ first. I’ve purchased probably 80% of all gifts & things for myself from independent artists this year, (whether on Etsy or elsewhere).  Whenever I need something, I first ask myself - can I get it on Etsy? Or from a local craftsperson?

That’s the purchase-decision-change I’ve made, and it’s pretty simple … what’s harder for me to articulate is what this process has been like … the amazing people I’ve ‘met’, whose care for their work and their customers is evident in everything they do, and who make me feel like the activity of buying can mean something … the vintage sellers with shops full of perfect, loved items with a charm that’s sometimes hard to find in newer mass-produced goods … the artists whose work I’ve fallen in love with and whose shops I basically stalk, because I can’t wait to see what they do next.  So over the next few weeks I’m going to start sharing some of my purchases, showing the amazing things & I’ve found and a little bit about what they mean to me. 

I’m going to leave you with a couple of Kate Bingaman-Burt links, who’s Obssessive Consumption work says more (and more thoughtfully) on the subject than I can!