portobello west all weekend long!

I'll be at Portobello West all weekend long, so be sure to stop by and say hi. There are coupons for free admission in The Georgia Straight this week. You can find me and my friend Sam at Table 19 down the centre row. We're going to have tons of new necklaces, earrings, and a few special, limited edition hand dyed scarves to share with you. Some items will be deactivated in the shop starting later tonight as they're coming with me tomorrow! Have a great weekend everyone! See you at the market!

Portobello West runs from 11AM - 5PM both Saturday and Sunday at the Creekside Community Recreation Centre in Southeast False Creek (Athlete's Village). Come get some holiday shopping done!

meet the holiday cave explorers

These new cave explorers will be joining me at Portobello West along with a couple of other new miniature figure pieces this weekend. You might also find them in the Sadie shop this week, though the little man in the beige coat has already found a new home. These guys are really fun to make, but it takes me a long time between batches to find the right stones and materials to use. I'll be sure to let you know when more hit the shop!

In slightly unrelated news, my friend Laura came over last night and helped me do some major prepping for my upcoming shows. I have to thank her here so that you guys can all know how awesome she is! She helped me get all caught up on online orders, ensuring everyone who's ordered up to this point will get things in lots of time before the holidays, and having her and Emily here to chat with helped make the night fly by and we made a ton of stuff. So, thanks to both of you ladies for coming over to our new place! And thanks to Jeff for always taking things to the post office for me! He's the one who really makes sure you get your orders quickly! Looking forward to seeing everyone at Portobello West this weekend! I'll be at table 19, down the middle aisle just in front of the entrance! Stop by and say hi!

sadie scarves

Our new apartment is pretty great, though not entirely unpacked or cleaned up yet. One of my favourite things about it is the new paint job. Alice recommended simply white by Benjamin Moore and our landlords were kind enough to paint everything in the colour we chose. I couldn't be happier with the bright, clean feeling this white lends to this place. It is so much easier to take photos in here than in any of our other Vancouver apartments.

Now on to the scarves! If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that Emily and I (and Camilla Tie Dye Ingr) have been hand dyeing everything from scarves to underwear since the summer. One of my favourite things to make are these large organic cotton scarves. They are big, nearly 2m long, and super lightweight. I use mine as a blanket to sit on in the park, a scarf, or as an adhoc sweater in the summer.

Wednesday morning I had a serious dye session in between drawing landscape plans for work and I got some awesome scarves made for Portobello West this weekend. As you can see, they still need to be ironed, but they're almost ready to go. I'm so glad I managed to pull of making these in time for the shows I'm going to be at. Any that I still have after PW and Got Craft? will be available online in the Sadie shop...except that last one...I might have to keep it for myself. 

it's dark

Dear friends, I've been busy! And more than that, it's been dark here. I leave my house in the dark every morning for work and I leave my office every evening in the dark. It's not that I'm a workaholic (far from it) but it's getting dark so early now. So, in lieu of beautiful, daylit photos of my new apartment, I hope you'll accept this video for now. It's my favourite song from the new-ish St. Vincent album.

A few more things: I'll be at Portobello West all weekend long with new necklaces and earrings for you to peruse if you live in the Vancouver area. Portobello West is now located at the Creekside Community Recreation Centre at the former Athlete's Village. Which is to say, formerly the 2010 Olympics Athlete's Village, not the village for former athletes.

And finally, last night Jeff and I and Lola (on the upswing, thanks for asking!) were sleeping soundly when we were awoken by what could only be described as the sound of a dump truck plowing through our apartment walls. Turning the lights on in a panic, we realized that it was nothing that bad, but that our closet bar and shelves had all pulled out of the wall and crashed down along with everything we'd just unpacked. Adventure mess! Lola believes she was nearly killed, though that's far from the truth. I think the whole thing might have a small relation to an accident that did happen on our street last night. Someone drove through a fence and knocked over a traffic light. Perhaps that impact was just enough to jolt our closet bar free of its tenuous moorings and send it crashing to what was likely its inevitable fate, overloaded as it was.

Excuse the drama. I've been stressed. We are slowly making our way through the giant mess that is created when you move from one home to another. The move has been a good one for us. Pictures soon!

new sadie mini cards

Two weeks ago I ordered some new mini business cards from Moo and they have finally arrived! I now have six different cards to send out with holiday orders, each one featuring a different photo from our amazing Lighthouse Park photoshoot with photographer (and friend) Ryan Mathieson. I'm excited to start shipping them out and to show them off at Portobello West here in Vancouver on the weekend of November 26th and 27th at Creekside Community Recreation Centre at the athlete's village.

In other Sadie news, I am updating the shop regularly. There are many new pieces listed as of yesterday, including my new favourite (pictured in the second photo in this post) which mixes vintage brass chains and charms to make a delicate, minimalist necklace. I'm going to have to make something similar for myself, I think. I'm also planning on getting a few new cave explorer necklaces made to keep this guy company as soon as I can. Now back to packing for this fast-approaching move... Have a great weekend!

a few new things...

I wanted to share with you some of the new things that I've been working on as I'm getting ready for holiday craft fairs and online shop updates. All of these pieces are available in the Sadie shop (don't forget to use coupon code: GOLOLAGO for free international shipping). Some of my new favourites stones are featured in these pieces: pink jasper, aquamarine, and tiny raw peacock ore nuggets. I've also been making more pieces using vintage chains and have been hammering lots of brass, much to the dismay of my neighbours, I'm sure.

If you're in Vancouver and can make it to Portobello West at the end of November or Got Craft? on the Drive on the first Sunday in December, I'll see you there! My next big project is making swag for the Got Craft? show. I'll share my project as it progresses...first I have to get the supplies in the mail! Have a great weekend, everyone. Lola has her surgery tomorrow. We really appreciate all of your encouraging comments!

let me tell you about my weekend

This post might sound like I'm gushing...because I kind of am right now when I talk about all of the things I'm about to cover. Besides the fact that school is extremely stressful for me right now, I have just had the most amazing weekend that has really helped put things in perspective and has given me motivation to just get 'er done between now and when I hand in my final draft of my thesis paper.

the sadie set up, portobello west

First of all, I did Portobello West this weekend and had a really great time meeting a ton of Vancouverites, talking about the jewelry that I make, and seeing (and tasting!) what other people make. Amazing and so much hard work and fun! Thank you to everyone who cruised our table, stopped to chat, or bought something. Every purchase means a lot and I'm so happy that my work is off to loving homes! And thanks for eating our candy, too...there was no way I wanted to bring all of that home with me tonight!

antique photo from the edmonton antique mall

Last night after the fair ended we went out for dinner with some friends to a restaurant that I'd had recommended to me a long time ago, but I still hadn't made good on my promise to go. Woah! I've been missing out! Check out the size of that dosa. Jeff is pointing at it for scale. And the before and after photos? A little explicit maybe, but I'm pretty proud of how much food we packed away. Saravanaa Bhavan specializes in all vegetarian South Indian cuisine. It's really affordable, central, and delicious. You should really go!

After the craft fair today I swung past my friend Matt's because he finally made good on his end of a trade we made. I gave him a couple of records from my record collection and he made me cookies with pretzels in them. He used pretzel M&Ms, which I think it a brilliant way to make pretzel filled cookies, and I'm definitely enjoying them more than I would enjoy the records I traded! Everybody wins!

AND THEN...I came home and saw this extremely lovely post on Dinosaur Toes. I sent a holy mountain necklace to Danielle as a thank you for all of her support in the first few months of Sadie and certainly had no expectations that she'd share it with her readers! I really love her work, and you should all check out her blog and shop. Her support has meant a lot to me, and if you like what I make, I know you'll like what she makes, too!

One more thing and then, I swear, I'll get back to work (and eating dinner). My very amazing, incredibly awesome babe-of-a-friend Heather just gave birth to her second son! I am so excited to meet him at Christmas and give Heather and Doug and their entire beautiful family a big squeeze (well, not too much squeezing on the baby!). I feel like my family just got a little bigger and the cuteness factor in my life has definitely just been taken up a notch or ten! Congrats a million times over to Heather and Doug and the new big brother. I love you guys!!! I promise you apple doughnuts are in our future!

Thanks to everyone who was part of making my weekend so awesome! I hope that you all had a great weekend, too! Now, back to those CAD drawings for me!

portobello west preview

crystal diorama by Jeff

Hi all, I hope you've had a great week. I am happy to have had my last class yesterday and now I have time (not enough?) to focus on writing my thesis paper (and another paper) and get ready for the holidays...oh, and move. So this is going to be a quick post with a few pictures of some of the things I'm going to have at Portobello West and available in the Sadie shop soon. Above is another one of Jeff's great crystal dioramas. This one is on beautiful, mossy green wolfinite and just so you know, that's a lumberjack, not a hunter! Below are some amazing faceted raw garnet chunks that I found this week. I can't wait to have a chance to turn them into something wearable, and I'm hoping to have the chance to do that later tonight, just in time for Portobello West. Garnet is supposed to keep you emotionally balanced and safe from bad dreams...just what every student needs at this point in the semester! I'm a bit of a skeptic about the powers of crystals, but not about the beauty of all these crazy rocks. These garnet chunks are a really deep red, which translates as a very warm, rich black from a distance. I love them.

faceted raw garnet

Finally, I'd just like to say hello to all who are finding me here through Lune Vintage. I'm super excited to have a sponsorship spot on Lune this month and am looking forward to reading all of the features on great designers and bloggers that will be on Lune in December. Thanks again to Jill for this great opportunity. I hope you'll all keep checking back! Welcome!

animal collection

I really love animals. When I lived in Calgary I worked at a migratory bird sanctuary as a naturalist, and I spent all day birdwatching, catching bugs, and talking about animals with kids. It was so much fun to explore city parks with them and to see things like baby porcupines, wood ducks, coyotes, and great horned owls and really help open their minds to the fabulousness of the natural world. I definitely miss that life now that I live in Vancouver. I mean, the scenery here is amazing, but my job no longer involves me getting outside every day to just experience the natural world and help other people understand it. Surely you can see how I could miss such a thing.

Anyway, I've gotten a little off topic here, because my real intention is to show some really awesome animal-related gifts that I would personally be more than happy to give or receive this holiday season. First thing's first, we all know that it's a bad idea to give people kittens for Christmas, as many gifted animals are destined to end up in animal shelters when the novelty wears off, but how about these kittens?

meow mitts by TinyOwlsMagicAttic on Etsy

The best part is, this is just a pattern, so you make the kitten mittens (had to go there) yourself. This Etsy shop also has owl mittens, bear sweaters and more, and since it's just a pattern that you buy, no need to wait to get started on your project!

Do undomesticated animals appeal more to you? I've had my eye on the mini deer plaque's by Nice since I first found this shop. How great would the key rack look by anyone's front door? I also really appreciate that the artist cuts the wooden pieces herself, I like that attention to detail and craft. I'm partial to the white plaque, but now I see she's also making a chalkboard version...could be very useful!

mini deer plaque by Nice on Etsy

Now, I think I've saved the weirdest for last, and I don't mean "weird" in a bad way, but "weird" in the best possible way! I really had a hard time picking which item I wanted to show from Wannabes. I chose this one because I think it really captures a lot of the trends that are happening these days: ironic home decorating, taxidermy, floral prints, vintage upcycling, and is that some plaid I see? This piece has it all and, yes, I love it and its craziness. You have to check out this shop!

forever young commemorative plate by Wannabes on Etsy

Of course, these things all add a little more animal awesomeness to your life, but you could also help some real, live animals this holiday season with a donation to an animal rescue organization or conservation group. I recommend adopting a manatee or foregoing those felt antlers for your dog and instead donating to your local SPCA...not that felt antlers aren't pretty cute, it's just, really, how long is the dog gonna keep those on her head?

Here's one of my favourite Panda Bear videos for you:

A bit summery, but I think that's the right way to go in the darkest part of the year! Hope to see you all at Portobello West this weekend! Have a great first day of December!