Palais Designs

HPIM2200

HPIM2198

HPIM2195

HPIM2197

Here are four examples of my fall line, which is available at Fresh Baked Goods in Kensington Market (Toronto). Each piece is unique: the fabric leaves that I've appliqued on each shirt are different, as are the buttons.

These short sleeved shirts come in two great fall colours--chocolate brown and deep raspberry. They look great with a scarf or chunky neclace and sit quite nicely under a cardigan or blazer. Come check them (and my other summer sale items) out!

Topaz's Shirt

Zoic's Shirt

I used a combination of silk screening and embroidery for these t-shirts that I made as retirement gifts for my past camp directors, Topaz and Zoic. The phrase I used on the shirts is one that I used in a video that was made of staff and alumni finishing off the sentence, " Because of camp..."

Topaz and Zoic have been a huge factor in my life and in making me the person that I am today. The amazing thing about them is that even though I no longer work with them, they continue to inspire me all the time. I wish them all the best in the next phase of their lives! 

Olivia's Quilt

One of my dear camp friends had a baby at the end of August. I started this little quilt for her baby while she was still pregnant and managed to finish it 3 weeks after the baby was born. Not too bad, for me!

I've never made a quilt before, so this was a pretty big undertaking. I used a pattern from the book, Doodle Stitching. I think the hardest part was figuring out where to stop my little hand embroidered details; I could have kept stitching birds and lines and dots and hearts until the whole thing was covered. It was a really fun project and makes me even more excited to keep working on my camp quilt! 

Bird Stamp Gift Tags

While on mini-vacation this past June, my sweet guy purchased a stamp set for me that I fell head over heels for in a little shop in Montreal. The set has a number of birds laced with some appropriate plants/leaves/shrubbery. Last month I put the stamps to good use by making this set of gift tags.

I recently inherited a large, old margarine container of good quality card from my mom. These little business card-sized pieces of card were pre-cut and just waiting to be used. I love when my mom decides to give me margarine containers full of amazing treasures from her craft room. Anyway, I simply stamped these cards and then carefully coloured them in using pencil crayons. The effect isn'y very good in this photo, but they turned out to be really sweet and I've already used a number of them. They're so great to have on hand! 

Before

After

My roomies and I are growing up. It's true, we are. We're doing home improvements (and by that I mean, cosmetic changes. We don't use any tools more than those that help us hang things on walls).

It started with re-doing the downstairs bathroom: a new (and not mouldy) shower curtain; pretty candleholders; new towels; a toilet paper holder. Then we moved on to the tiny little front porch: spray paint on the chairs so they match and hide the rust; the purchase of lovely chair covers (we even store them inside when they're not in use so they don't get ruined); hanging baskets full of pretty magenta flowers; a planter with yellow and purple flowers.

Yes, my friends, we are growing up. Taking responsibility for both the curb appeal and indoor decor of our little downtown rental. And now, due to a number of unrelated events, we are working on making our living room far more inviting and less student-housing-in-university like. The Ikea shelving unit? Gone. The couch we found on Albert Street in Kingston in 3rd year and named Vinny due to it's curved nature, low-to-the-ground seating and genreal sleaziness? Gone. The other full-sized, pink-hued leather couch that Rob's parents bought 26 years ago and we crammed into our tiny living room space along with Vinny? Gone.

Rob bought a new and very adult-like leather couch. Vikki's sister moved in with her boyfriend and Vikki claimed all the antique furniture that had been in her sister's place. That's right, we have furniture that wasn't found on the side of the road. We have a cedar chest. We have a tall wood dresser. We have a beautiful mirror. We have an area rug. We have a leather couch. We brought the side table and record player down from Rob's room and added it to our decor. Oh, it's so lovely! Well, except for the pieces of furniture I own. That's right, out of all these new pieces and 1940s antiques, NONE of it is mine. What do I own? An old ottoman from my grandparents' place and a crate with ducks painted on it. Now, since I own absolutley no furniture I felt it was necessary to keep these two items just to feel that I own SOMETHING. Unfortunately, the vinyl-covered ottoman and hand-painted duck crate don't go with the new decor.

So, I took it into my own hands to find a way to make my roomies accept my humble little furniture offerings, starting with the ottoman. I picked colours to match our new rich, earth-toned living room, searched out some fabrics from the collection in my room and went to town measuring and designing an ottoman slip cover. I bet even Ikea doesn't make ottoman slip covers. I'm pretty pleased with the results. And so are my roomies. Hooray! The ottoman is a keeper! Now onto the duck crate...