Sleepy cashmere rabbit

This is the little item I mentioned a while back that I was working on after City of Craft. She's a very small rabbit made from cashmere wool knit fabric and she has a little floral dress with lace trim, a crocheted lace cap and blue and white polka dot bag.

She's in my shop as of today, along with lots of wristlets and the last chickadee clutch. I've been meaning to list these things for some time. It seems my inspiration to take photos doesn't always go along with sunny days. But I've done my best!

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Illustration Friday - Quiet

I haven't done Illustration Friday in ages, but I still get the email notices and I liked the topic "Quiet" so much I had to do a quick little picture today. An alternate title would be "Hide-and-Seek". You can click on the picture to see it a bit larger. Thanks for visiting!

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More rabbits

Notice Miss Sleepy Head is the one dozing in the background

I guess it might have something to do with Easter... but these little guys are turning up everywhere. Here they are hiding out in Bradley's knitting basket.

So there's a yellow one:

She's perfect for spring, with a cheerful mix of yellow prints and a yellow floral ribbon around her neck.

And there's a blue one:

This one has a retro style zigzag fabric combined with a blue vintage floral carefully salvaged from a 30s apron. I saved every scrap of fabric from that apron! Luckily it was torn or I wouldn't have been able to cut into it in the first place. She has a little crocheted neck warmer.*
*No I didn't crochet it myself, it's really just a scrap of trim.

Here's the back view:

These two have already been doing some crafting together:

But all three are besties. Hmm. I've never written that word before, it looks weird.

None of them have names because they're all leaving me to go to friends...

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Miss Fancy Rabbit

Well I haven't done a cute post in a while. Read ahead if you think you can take it.

This little miss is a young rabbit that I'm trying not to get attached to as she is being taken out this weekend as a thank you gift for one of my local friends.

with the side view you can see her white felted wool tail

As you can see, she's a little bit fancy, with Liberty fabric for her front, and a lace necklace (very fashionable). But just to show she's not a snob, she has sweet gingham ears.

I'm not sure how it happened, but when I was embroidering her face, her eyes ended up closed, I think she's a big sleepy head. I say big, but in fact she's very very small, at 5 inches tall, and most of that is ears. Are you wondering where she is going? Well it's a surprise but I can tell you later on..

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Vintage nib pen

A young rabbit: actual size

The trouble with ebay is sometimes you find things you never knew existed that you realize you absolutely need. My new favourite thing that just arrived in the mail today is a small vintage travel nib pen. Sometimes I do my illustrations with nib pens because I like the variation in line that you get as opposed to a regular pen. (In case you don't know, a nib pen is the kind you dip into ink and the nibs are removable. Before ball point pens were invented everyone used them.)

I thought the artist nib pen I bought at a store was just fine until the travel one arrived. It does very fine lines and the ink seems to last longer or flow better or something. I drew almost this entire rabbit with one dip of the nib. Also, the picture above is the actual size, but in the enlargement below you can see how much detail I could do.

zoom in of young rabbit

And even better I can take it with me on trips and maybe even sketch outdoors. Except that usually I prefer to draw from my imagination. I've always felt slightly guilty about this, as if it's lazy not to draw from life more often, but then I read this and it made me feel better.

p.s. I am currently illustrating a book about a rabbit... I'll show you as soon as it's published!

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New York ribbons

I feel I've been neglecting my needle book posts..so I'm going to try to catch up a bit. We've had a busy time recently, mainly because we just bought our first house! We didn't think we could afford one in Toronto, and were planning to just buy a slightly bigger condo, but after not really seeing anything we liked, we extended our search a bit and found a little house just at the edge of our budget. I keep telling people that it's very small (it's a 1-bedroom bungalow), because I don't want people to see it and be disappointed. I have to admit that my first reaction on seeing the house was to laugh, because it looked so tiny. But while it also needs redecorating throughout, it definitely has potential to be a really lovely little home. We'll be moving in at the end of July and I'll be sure to share our decorating pictures then.

We also had a trip to New York city recently, and stayed with a friend in Hoboken. Lucky for me he had already found the "ribbon district" and had lots of great shopping tips. The ribbons at the top of this post are all from M&J Trimming (1008 Sixth Ave.), a store that will dazzle the ribbon lover, but also has buttons, lace, purse handles etc. All my favourite ribbons were from the front of the store, in a section devoted to embroidered ribbons, with many fancy ribbons imported from Europe as well.
To balance out this splurge, I also found these lovely ribbons (above) at the Textile Museum sale last week, the place where I like to stock up on crafts supplies for the coming year. The one on the bottom is my favourite - many thanks to my friend Sarah who found it first but let me have it!

Around the corner from M&J Trimming are more ribbon, button and bead stores, including the Martha Stewart recommend Tinsel Trading (Tinsel Trading 47 West 38th Street New York), and a similar store I discovered called Store Across the Street (Store Across the Street 64 West 38th Street New York). And if you're in that neighbourhood, I recommend the beautiful Bryant Park nearby as the perfect place to have a drink and sit down and look over your new ribbons. There are lots of little iron table and chair sets for anyone to use.We also went to a couple of flea markets. At the first outdoor parking lot (junky type) flea market I found a beautiful antique compact for $5 and a Noel Streatfeild book I hadn't heard of (New Shoes) for $1. It was across from an expensive looking indoor antique mall which we didn't visit (too much to do, too little time!) The second flea market was a few streets over in a parking garage. We could have spent hours in there but were getting a little tired and hungry.And speaking of ribbons, I picked up these bargains at Kate's Paperie on Broadway in Soho which was having a moving sale. This was also near to my other favourite stores, Pearl River Trading, Anthropologie and Kate Spade.And last but not least, my catch up wouldn't be complete without finally sharing the adorable little rabbit made for me by the lovely and talented Susan!

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