love in the mail

I love getting surprises in the mail! It's so nice not to get another bill or piece of random junk mail. Things have been so busy latley, I forgot I had won a recent giveaway on The Pink Needle's blog in late March... and it arrived in the mail a couple of days ago... yay! The hand embroidered pin is so cute I had to take a pic and share it with everyone. Check out Jessica's other lovely pin designs on her etsy shop here.

collage production

I have been a busy bee this past week working on a new batch of collages... my goal is to try and post a new one on etsy every one or two days, as well as post them on this blog as well. My table is scattered with bits of paper and wood here and there, and I am finding the oddest scraps seem to stick on random pieces of my clothing every now and again. Always have to do a mirror check to make sure there isn't any patterned paper stuck on the back of my jeans before I leave the house... that would be a tad embarrassing! Will start posting more new collages in the coming days!

collage: fun and games

When I walk to the bank from my house, I always pass the local daycare centre down the street. This one time, the bell rung and the door flung open to a barrage of 3 - 5 year olds screaming "Yay!" at the top of their lungs as they streamed out the door way. It was the cutest thing. I think it would be awesome if adults still did that when it came to the end of work day. Could you imagine a group of corporate executives doing that?... how funny would that be!

dick bruna

My long list of favorite illustrators include a lot of children's book artists. One of my fave illustrators is Dick Bruna. I have been a fan of his Miffy books, along with his other characters, since being only wee tall. If we are ever in the Netherlands again, we will definitely have to make it a point to venture to the Dick Bruna Huis, a museum of all his art work... it must be amazing! I usually am not a fan of museum gift shops, but I think I could go buck wild in this one.

bird sanctuary

On the weekend, we went for a walk at the local bird sanctuary (about an hour's drive outside of Vancouver). Armed with two small paper bags of bird seed, we mostly encountered mass flocks of ducks that would follow the rustling sound of our paper bags. One of the trails was heavily guarded by several pairs of hissing geese at several points. In order to bypass, we ended up throwing bird seed one way as a distraction, while quickly scooting past. The last thing I needed was to be goosed by a giant goose.

collage: little bird singing the blues

I fell in love with this blue flower pattern paper, so I had to use it somewhere in one of my collages. I think this is what it would look like if birds were to sing the blues... I mean they must have their good and bad days too, just like the rest of us?

collage: owl talk

Some owl-ey goodness today! I don't know why, but owls are one of my favorite birds. Perhaps it's there night time habits, or ability to rotate their heads all the way around, or association with autumn and Halloween.... not sure... they are just so darn peculiar and fascinating. Anyways, I couldn't resist making a collage when I spotted this wise fellow... hoot hoot!