market, giveaway winner, and a belated SALE!!

Well, it was a busy weekend at the Urban Artisans Craft Market. Thanks so much to everyone who made it out in the rain to visit and support the local craft scene! Not only was it fun to chat with shoppers (everyone was super friendly despite the rain and gloom outside), it was also a wonderful market for meeting other crafters and artists!

 Pouches and bags in sweet Japanese fabrics, hand drawn cards and super cute sock monkeys by Amrita

DIY felting kits by Woolly Owl Designs 

Super fun felt party games, toys and dress-up supplies by Sweet Earth Celebrations 

Skinny ties, felt necklaces, ornaments and mobiles by Happy Little



My fabulous crocheting friend and table buddy Jenn's Yarn Addiction



 And of course, my table and offerings :)

And there were so many others that I just didn't manage to get pictures of, like Noei and her Japanese fabric pouches, passport covers and adorable elephant coasters, and Comiditas with the amazing felt play food. Really, I originally thought that after this market I wouldn't want to touch my sewing machine for a month, but I came away from it feeling even more inspired to make things! How cool is that! :)

And now, moving right along...

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Japanese pattern book giveaway! According to the mighty Random Number Generator, the lucky winner is #11:

miamihoney said...

I like you on FB!

25 November, 2011 10:37 PM

Congratulations miamihoney! I hope you love this book as much as I do! I'll be doing another giveaway fairly soon as I'll be participating in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day on December 12th. Not sure what the prize will be yet, but I promise to make it good :)

And finally... a belated Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday... ok, let's just call it a Holiday SALE!! 25% off everything in the shop with code HOLIDAY11. I'll be adding a few more things (skirts, dresses, lounge pants, bunting flags..) hopefully by end of day tomorrow. Happy shopping and have a fabulous week!!

xo melissa

some silliness and a GIVEAWAY reminder

So it's just one more day before the Urban Artisans Craft Market, and things are starting to get just a wee bit silly around here. While I was busy doing some last minute sewing and tagging, lil C decided she wanted to do some modelling.

The picture's a bit blurry because she also thought it would be 'nice' to do a dance while modelling the Bloom Dress. And here she is checking out the price tag of the Kaleidoscope Skirt. (I think she's saying 'wow, what a bargain!')

And since it's still Movember, check out big C's 'green juice' mustache (he was especially proud of this one)..

Or how about his 'noodle mustache' from a couple weeks ago..



Yup, it's pretty silly over here. By the way, if you haven't entered the Japanese Pattern Book GIVEAWAY, make sure you head on over and do that now. Contest closes end of day Sunday and I'll be drawing a winner on Monday! And also a heads-up that I'll be closing the shop for the weekend while I'm at the market, but should have it up and running again by monday along with a nice little SALE :)

a japanese pattern book GIVEAWAY!

It's been a little damp and dreary over here on the West coast so I thought I would shake things up a bit with a 'chase-the-November-gloom-away', 'pre-holiday-celebration', 'thanks-for-reading-my-blog' GIVEAWAY!!

If you've been reading this blog for a little while, you may know that I have a bit of a thing for Japanese sewing pattern books. Aside from the lovely, creative photography and detailed, (relatively) easy to follow instructions, I find the actual clothing style to be the perfect balance between classic folksy and ultra modern. Oh, I love it so!

Back in June, I was super excited to find that Vancouver actually has a used Japanese book store that sells a small selection of these books (which I blogged about here). Although there are now quite a few places that sell these books online, it really is nice to be able to flip through the pages and kind of 'size-up' the patterns to see if they are actually doable. Some are definitely more detailed and easier to follow than others. So during my last trip there, I came across this awesome book (which is apparently now out of print).

I already own this book (picked it up the last time I was there), but loved it so much I thought it would be pretty cool to buy this one to offer as a giveaway. Now I admit, I haven't actually made anything from this particular book yet, but sereral patterns are on my to-sew list (which is getting pretty long..). The instructions (words are written in Japanese but there are a LOT of diagrams/pictures) look very clear and detailed and I think this would be a great book for an advanced beginner sewer who has had some experience sewing simple garments. The size range is from 90-130cm which would be approximately a size 3T to a 6 (if I'm wrong and someone knows the actual conversion, please let me know!), and there is a good mix of patterns for girls and boys (yay! more cool boy patterns!!) There are 26 patterns in total. And although this came from the used bookstore, it is in pretty perfect condition with the pattern sheet still intact and unopened (I'm thinking this was just purchased from somewhere as overstock..)



So, are you in? To enter, simply leave a comment below. Anything (nice) will do but make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win :) One entry per person (with the exception of the 'hoop-jumping' below..) I'm going to leave this contest open for a little while until end of day Sunday, November 27th (as I'll be a busy bee for the next week and a half doing last minute sewing for this market) and will have the good old Random Number Generator pick the winner on the following Monday. This is also open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course).

And now for the 'hoop-jumping'..

For up to 3 more entries you can:

-follow my blog

-follow me on twitter (I'd love it if you tweeted about this post but not necessary for the extra entry)

-follow me on facebook (same as above, I'd be super happy if you shared this post but it's not necessary for the extra entry)

For each additional entry, please leave an extra comment below so it gets counted.

And there you go.

(and for all you local folk, another little reminder about this market coming up very soon on Nov 26-26!! Hope to see some of you there!)

circle craft market loot

Yesterday I made it out to the Circle Craft Christmas Market. I was a little too busy browsing, shopping and oogling all the pretty handmade goodies to take any pictures while I was there, but here's one of all the loot I brought home with me -

-feather oblong pouch from bookhou

-calendar from bookhou

-letterpress cards from ilee papergoods

-organic polar bear onsie in pouch from bookhou

-upcycled leather skinny belt from cokluch

(and of course, no market visit would be complete without some yummy treats such as)

-gingerbread almond toffee from sweet truth

-pepper pickled green beans from "goodies"

A pretty good haul I think :) And if you haven't noticed, I'm a little in love (and slightly addicted to) all the gorgeous creations from bookhou. After shopping the Toronto based etsy shop for the past couple years, I especially wanted to make it out to this year's market to be able to shop bookhou in person and meet the artist/maker Arounna, who, aside from being wildly talented in so many crafty/artsy ways, is also super sweet, friendly and down to earth. I just love when that happens :)

market skirts and another use for selvedge

I've been eyeing this sweet patchwork linen/cotton fabric by Echino for a while. The colours and patterns are so vibrant I figured a simple skirt would showcase it all just perfectly! And of course, with fabric this lovely, I just can't bear to toss out any of it. So check out the selvedge 'clothes line' that's now up in little c's room.

Speaking of fabric scraps, check out this adorable little scrappy owl pattern by Nicole at Follow the White Bunny. I made these last year to attach to Christmas gifts and they are just so adorable and easy to make and use the tiniest of scraps. Do you have any other fun ideas for fabric scraps?

And of course, another little reminder of the upcoming Urban Artisans Craft Market on Nov 26-27 at the Roundhouse Centre in Yaletown :)

{this moment}

'A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.' -words and inspiration from Soulemama

market dresses and some distractions..

A couple new dresses for the Urban Artisans Craft Market coming up in just a few weeks at the Roundhouse Centre in Yaletown. I have to admit, it's been a little slow going with the 'market sewing' lately. Aside from just wanting to curl up with a cup of hot tea (and halloween chocolate) every night after the kids are in bed, I've been distracted by all the lovely things everyone else is making and showing off in blogland. Like this dress (I actually have and love this book but have yet to make anything from it), and this coat (I've seen so many gorgeous variations of this coat like this and just found out that the pattern is now out of print - gotta get my hands on it NOW), and this freak'n amazing quilt! (Ok, I'm not even going to attempt this one, but it's definitely making me want to dive into the *beginner* quilt I just started a few weeks ago.) Aaaand, back to my regularly scheduled sewing..