tania howells

I need to take a blogging break. I am all blogged out.
See you next friday!

You can't really see him, but smack dab in the middle of this tree scene is a lovely red cardinal! Paul and I went for a long walk on Sunday, way out to the park near where I grew up. It was a beautiful day, still a bit chilly but sunny, and it felt so good to get away from the concrete jungle for a bit. Also obstructed by a viney thing, this cute small red squirrel eating a peanut. We mostly have big fierce black squirrels here, so this guy was a surprise. It wasn't really our day for stupendous photography. The only sign of spring, apart from the many people enjoying the day, were these sweet little snowdrops. Everything else is still un-bloomed. There were a few interesting pitcher plants poking through the swampy areas and we also saw a woodpecker, many grackles and red winged blackbirds cawing loudly over some irriatation. A perfectly lovely day for a walk in the woods. Every inch of that park is connected with some childhood memory of my dad and me. I love it there.

Have a good weekend!

Sweet fancy Moses, how have I not seen this site sooner? Have I been asleep? In a cave? Via Two Rabbits, who I now feel hugely grateful to for showing me! I have been thinking recently that I need a wee bit of pretty fabrics. I rarely indulge in them since I try to print my own for the crafts I make and sell, but even a gal with limited sewing ability needs a couple of these sweet fabrics.

leaves!!

puffy rabbits!

circles!

villages!

notions!

flowers!

more leaves!

dots!

nursery rhyme!

ohhhh, I think I better go lie down... I over did it.

Phew. I am so glad it is Thursday.

This week has felt really long. There have been quotes to come up with, decisions about how I feel about a potential job, deciding to accept said job, trying to learn illustrator and deciding I can't learn it as fast as the job needs to get done in.

In that vein though, a really nice part of my week was getting an illustrator tutorial from Amy! She was so kind to have heard my plea in a previous post and offered to teach me a few things in return for my showing her some photoshop! It was lovely to meet her sweet baby, her little dogs (so wiggly!!) and her hubby. It was also so nice to meet her! I knew her beautiful work from her website, but had no idea she lived so close to me. Thank you Amy, your kind gesture was so appreciated!!

I have been feeling just overwhelmed lately! Today has been, blessedly, urgency/email free so far and I am still in my pyjamas at 11:04 am. (shhh! don't tell!) My lunch date with my friend had to be re-scheduled so I have till 1:15 before I have to shove off and join the world.
I have been taking solace in the book "Start Where You Are"by Pema Chodron, which I surprisingly spotted at the library last week. I wasn't even looking and it was just what I needed.
Some of my favorite parts so far-

"Although we are very caught up in the solidness and seriousness of life, we could begin to stop making such a big deal and connect with the spacious and joyful aspects of our being."

"Every situation is a passing memory"

and " I'd like to encourage us all to lighten up, to practice with a lot of gentleness"

I love her books, they are never preachy, always readable and so sweet and true.
I went through a stage where I was making a huge effort to treat myself with the kindness and gentleness I would a small child, not get so stressed or harried. It was really good, but after a while I forgot to bother and now and then I think "Whatever happened to that thing I was trying to do?". So I will atttempt to go back to trying that again. To remembering that it will all work out, and to stopping, breathing and being here in the moment.

ask quote man

Oh ye great quote man, tell me what I should charge for this project! Write out a contract for me and take care of all the negotiations!!

I couldn't agree more with what Snowbear has written here. Lovely.
:)

I started this bear in the fall and finally did the face this weekend. He is for the Mother Bear Project and I have already made one. I have to send them off now. I feel bad that it has taken me so long, but I think it is because I am not wild about the pattern. Plus I can't ever seem to make a nice face! Have to work on that. (please excuse the crummy photo- light is too bright today causing an oddly dark photo and a glowing berry-wierd)

Friday night Paul rented Downfall and I could not even watch the first 2 mintues without wanting to cry so I went away and knit a strawberry instead. See him? Perched on the bear? He doesn't have a mouth because the ones I kept making seemed mean. So now he is merely perplexed and mouthless. I used the first and last halves of Jess's Odd fellow pattern.

We had a great weekend, mainly because our realtor was away all week for march break and we were without the stomach churning anxiety of house hunting. We went thrifting, for a greasy eggs breakfast, a long walk, a tea break and lots of relaxing and crafting. Ahhh.

The quilt that time forgot

click! Here it is- the quilt I have been working on for 5 years! I finished it on the weekend. My main theme for this guy was "ugly fabrics" that I thought were cool or pretty as well as being a recycled quilt. I gave up a few times when the machine quilting part lumped up and overlapped and I knew that wasn't how a quilt was supposed to look but then I said "what the heck" and carried on. So it is lumpy in parts and the fabric sewed over itself a lot but I like it! The sewing lines are also all over the place- I gave up pretty fast on trying to make them straight. It is currently folded neatly on the couch and came in really handy last saturday when I slept on the couch because some party was booming music till 5 am. ( Curses to them ) I put it on flickr too, so you can see where the fabrics came from. I also get to showcase this little thimble that I made myself in a silversmithing class at school nearly 10 years ago. I have never even used it until now! ( There's Hillary's cute pincushion!) The whole thimble project was cool because I had put an ad in the paper to ask ladies who had memories of learning to sew with a thimble. I got quite a few lovely letters from grannies telling me tales from their childhood sewing times. They were so cute. I am pretty sure I still have them somewhere so maybe I will post them sometime.

I just LOVE this sweater from Tracey Porter. Love. It. I may just have to attempt a similar thing with a birdy of my own on an otherwise dull plain sweater...oh the possibilities! Look at the great elephant one too! I found this while browsing through the delightful blog Shim and sons, which I just discovered because she left me a nice comment! Thankyou! Everything there is pretty, her boys are adorable and it is a pleasure to look at! Especially after my busy day today, it is so nice to have a moment to look around at nice things.

I am feeling a bit jittery because I have to do some new illustration jobs and they must be vector based. This brings up a shameful secret - I never learned to use Illustrator. Something I probably should have done 10 years ago so that ALL my work till now was done in it. I do it all in photoshop so sizing up and down is not very nice and pixely-ness become a problem. It is a bit embarrassing! And I call myself an illustrator! I have tried to learn a few times but become confounded by the fact that even though it SEEMS close to photoshop, it is not. Not at all. So this is really a good thing- I will be forced to heave open the dusty door of Illustrator and learn it once and for all. I have a quickstart guide manual and my trusty brother to email and ask questions. The images are super simple so it should work out after some trial and error. Wish me luck!

shhh- don't speak-

You might scare it away!

That is how I felt this morning when I very tentativley noticed I was feeling a bit crafty. When I realised I WAS in fact feeling crafty, I approached the feeling as if I were trying to photograph a small skittish animal - stay low to the ground, move slowly and VERY quietly! I have cleared away a few of my more pressing client jobs and I had a free morning to fudge about with fabric- something I feel I haven't done since before Christmas with all the making for selling stuff. Yay! I have been mucking about in a bit of a grey cloud lately I think, what with my dads anniversary, house hunting, fretting over feeling not quite rich enough to buy a house and the general hibernation that comes with cold long winters. Today it was like the clouds parted and I finally saw myself again and the little things that have not registered on my radar for ages began to inspire me again. Phew! Now it's time for lunch.
Perhaps a celebratory lunch down the street at the Portuguese bakery for some $3.00 soup in in order. Yum!

:D
I don't have t go out for soup! Just as I was leaving my kind granny neighbor brought me her own homemade soup. How sweet and kind. Bless her - It will be sad to move away from my nice neighbors.

M & M - thankyou!

Marta makes the most wonderfully pretty, whimsical things and so when she suggested a trade, I was very pleased! Look at the pretty things she sent- I love the cat and bird dollies, the necklace and pin are super groovy and she also sent some paper things- a card and small little prince cards! I just love it all, it is so unique and sweet! ♥ Thank-you Marta! When I get off my duff and send your swap package, I hope you like it as well! Michal is so busy finishing up film work at school and she still found the time to send these super cute hand printed recipe cards, hand made magnets and wee gift cards! I love how good she is at drawing animals- fat little animals with a proper shape! Not just a funny sausage shape like I draw- they are so cute. Thankyou so much Michal, now I have to get cooking and come up with a special recipe to write on one. ♥

I put up a few new links, not that many this time! There was a cool Japanese street fashion one I saw on one of your blogs and then I lost it- ring a bell for anyone? Thanks to all who found these!
I am in fact, sick. Well just a cold and I will go into work this afternoon, but yesterday I stayed on the couch all day. I have some wonderful mail treats waiting to be photographed for next week- wonderful ones!! Can't wait to show you. -sniffle-
For now, I bid you happy weekend! May relaxing and nice things be the rule.

Oh! Look at this - the logo I did for Hip knits, on a cake!! That's a first and I love it.
:) Congrats Kerrie, on the lovely new shop!

aha!
Celine knew what the japanese fashion link was! I have added it to the sidebar. merci beaucoup!

Another wacom doodle. She reminds me of a loobylu kitten doll! Must be the eyelashes- I never draw eyelashes. The first eyelash was a mistake line and instead of pressing undo, I added more. That's why.
Don't come near me today, I grated an entire clove of raw garlic into my burrito at lunch to try and fight off a cold!
Always exiting news over here on my blog!

I ♥ Yamroll.

click click!

Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts about my dad's anniversary. I am touched by all your kindness! It is a bitter sweet thing. I really can't believe it has been 5 years since he died and yet I know it is not as raw as it was when it was a recent thing. Then it seems like only yesterday and then it is obviously 5 years ago. Time is a very curious thing.

This is an image I recently finished. I quite liked how it turned out. It is about a fundraiser for hospitals where people try and reach all around to give the hospital a big hug. Really cute thought and fun to do. So I am sitting here having a cup of tea and munching on my FAVORITE thing, Cadbury mini eggs, while I wait to go have a look at another house. We saw 3 this morning. It is getting much less stressful and I am starting to enjoy the hunt a bit more. I am sure if we see one where our money might be invloved, the stress will go way up again! We saw a really cute one, but it only had 2 bedrooms. It could have been ok, if I worked in the basement but then where would we store stuff? I think we may just outgrow such a place. I am lying a bit because my stomach is all nervous so I must be a bit stressed somehwere in me! C'est la vie! Onward!

For dad...

For a day two weeks ago, I was consumed with making these paper wishing stars. Then as mysteriously as it began, it ended.

I saw this pretty fluff on a tree yesterday. It was nice to see since there is not even a whiff of spring around jest yet. Lots of things are caught in trees in this specific area- a plastic bag last week and a blue IKEA bag the week before.

Our sunday brunch- dim sum. A normal Sunday in every way but one.
5 years on March 5...I miss you.

I knit this little guy a while ago and was only moved to finish it this week. The winter has been dragging down my creativity more than I realise I think. I used this pattern at Knitty (bottom right) and only did four petals. I felted it in the bathroon sink and added a wee ball. I love how it turned out! I don't care if the paper said flower pins were "not hot" because I will trade them for peasant blouses and be even.

Cotton Strudel mentioned the idea of a spring cleaning project, and it ties into my recent feeling that I want to pass on many of my read novels to new readers. I joined Book crossing a while ago when Rosa mentioned it on her blog. So I will start it out by offering A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler and Prodigal Summer By Barbara Kingsolver. First person to email me at taniahowells at yahoo dot ca for those gets them! The catch is when you get them you have to go to bookcrossing and enter in that you "caught" a book and its ID number. WoW! taken , so fast! More books to come!
:)

I wasn't planning on posting today because I don't really have that much to say lately. I did decide to have a little freeform wacom doodle time after lunch before I get back to work. I am enjoying the wacom- it is easy to do my favorite type of doodle- layers and layers of repeating shapes. I love photoshop for its layers options, it makes changes so easy. I have leaves on the brain more so than usual because I am working on a cute job for a local urban forest advocacy group. How neat! I ♥ trees.

In house news, yesterday we were in the process of putting an actual offer (our very first one so scary!) on one when it sold right out from underneath us! We weren't even outbid, it was just that the agent never answered our agents pages and then he called to say it was sold. This led our agent to suspect the actual selling agent bought it! sigh. It would have been just right for us. And so near the essential shops, schools and parks. CRUMBS! OH WELL! Stiff upper lip and all that! Such is the market here.

I am overdue with some new links- I dare say I have a list around here somewhere. Stay tuned!