fabric for the garden

I am so excited about my first printed design. I think it will look great in canvas weight for outdoor furniture. Maybe at a smaller scale the print will work for a beach wrap or little boy board shorts. It's time to play. More pics here.

wall paper love

I'd love to have this frames wall paper in my study, or my boy's bedroom. (top image) Artists Taylor and Wood created it for Graham and Brown, who make all kinds of beautiful wall papers. It showed up in my email in box via, Design Public. This super graphic swirly black and white print, also from Graham and Brown, is pretty amazing too. For the life of me, I can't find a link to the work of artists Taylor and Wood. I sure would like to see more of what they do when they put on their thinking caps. I need to wallpaper a room pronto. This makes me want to pull out some of my favorite surface design books; Simply Pattern, Over and Over and Patterns by Drusilla Cole, just so I can pore over the great work that is being produced these days.

did I mention...

... that my husband is a wonderful photographer? Just last week he started pulling out wads of old film, dropping them in the film scanner and uploading them to a brand new flickr account. Almost instantaneously (same night in fact) his photography ended up as the lead photo on the flickr blog post of the day. Suddenly he was deluged with comments and viewers. And then Getty Images came calling. And now, one week later, he's a contributing stock photographer to Getty's flickr collection. The collection has this super cool search/community feature that is quite fun for you jaded stock photography searchers out there. How do you like them apples? What a week. These lovely pics are from our honeymoon in Japan. Keep an eye on my old man. He's got an entire closet full of film yet to scan.

at my desk

For a blogger I seem to have a serious aversion to breaking the seal and sharing more of my private life. I guess there's a part of me that worries that it will seem too navel-gazing-ish, or worse boring. But how can you possibly find this painting boring. There's been a heated custody dispute in my household over the painting. I snatched it right off the wall at preschool and took it into work to brighten up my meager cubby. Aparently my husband had the same idea and felt like I'd scooped him. The right thing to do would be to take it home and frame it for all posterity. Eventually I'll do the right thing.

J'adore Taru Design toys

That's it, I'm officially starting my christmas wish list today. I am so happy to have stumbled upon Taru Design's amazing flickr collection of handmade wooden toys, studio shots and assorted inspiring stuff. The care and craftmenship shines through in each piece. Alexandre of Taru Design generously shared the following artist statement for today's blog post:

TARU is a small Montreal workshop that designs, conceives and builds wooden art toys. Each toy is unique and hand-made from different wood essences. After fifteen years of work in the field of illustration and cartooning/graphic novels, I only recently started to create small sculptures/art toys. My love for wood – a living, tactile material - as well as the birth of my first child motivated me to go from drawing to the making of tri-dimensional wooden figurines. Toys have always inspired me; they are precious tools that help us build our imagination.

I am especially attentive to the materials and fabrication of my toys, in order to offer refined and quality objects. TARU toys are handmade from different kinds of wood. Because wood is a living medium with infinite shades, textures and patterns, every single toy is unique, even if they are made in batches. I carefully choose each piece of wood, and let myself be inspired by its grain and shade, which I then bring out. Once they are finished, they toys are polished with natural, non-toxic beeswax. The sensual aspect of my figurines is evoked by rounded angles and silky texture. Their aesthetic simplicity and kind faces charm children and adults alike.

Because of the presence of small pieces that can be swallowed, TARU toys are not recommended for children under the age of three.

Shop: tarudesign.etsy.com
Blog: tarudesign.wordpress.com

hello blog it's nice to see you again...

Life has been pushing and pulling in some pretty challenging ways. But thank goodness today I finally felt like singing in the car on the way to work and drawing a pattern. Things are lookin' up.