phrom photograph to palette

I love Big Huge Labs' Palette Generator.

It's a handy little application that helps you isolate the colours in a photograph to create a colour palette - even giving you the appropriate CSS colour codes. I love the idea, because I often see scenes or photographs with fantastic colour combinations - and want to capture them in something I create later on. You could use this tool to create a website, paint a room, or sew a dress - all inspired by a favourite photograph.

Try the Palette Generator for yourself.

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cooking with craft

Don't feel like cooking? (But still want a lil' something delish?)

Head on over to the Play Food! flickr group to satisfy all your crafty cravings.

They've got everything from a three-layered wedding cake by theloneknitta, to a needle-felted TV dinner by made by moxie, to a cake hand-puppet by Dyna Moe.

Two of my faves are the hotdog by Bnice2mice (those EYES!!!) and the peas in a pod by anapaulaoli, which is currently the primary reason why I want to learn to crochet. You can buy the crochet pattern for peas in a pod (and other amigurumi cuties) from Anapaulaoli's Etsy store.

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how to bead a beach

I first saw Kirsten Chursinoff's beautiful textile artwork at the Craft House Gallery about a year ago, and have been keeping tabs on her work though her Flickr photos ever since.

Based in Vancouver, Kirsten Chursinoff's work is primarily about nature. She takes little scraps of fabric, wool, thread and beads into turns them into miniscule scenes - perfect little glimpses of the natural world. My favourite pieces are her West Coast beach scenes - I love all the details hidden amongst the shells and driftwood:

• Moonlight on the Beach


• Urchins and Anemones


• Seaweed Cove


• Rocks on the Beach

Her new thread nests are also gorgeous. (Oh, and even the scraps are pretty.)

If you're in Vancouver, you can see Kirsten's work throughout August and July at the Secret Garden Tea Company (5559 W. Boulevard in Kerrisdale).

If not, no worries - Kirsten is everywhere this month: she has an article in August's issue of Quilting Arts Magazine - and she was interviewed on CBC radio this past weekend. You can listen to the interview here (mp3) - Kirsten takes us into her studio and explains some of her techniques, such as using the sewing machine freestyle, without feed dogs. (By the way, that has got to be one of the best craft terms EVER. Unleash the feed dogs!)

You can keep up with Kirsten Chursinoff's textile art on her website and on her Flickr, where she also shares some of her secrets, like using a water-soluble material called 'solvy' that dissolves to leave just a network of stitches.

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the random awesomes

I haven't been updating the blogtoo much recently, so, to catch up, here are a few random awesomes that've recently caught my eye...

Purple squid stamps on M Patrizio's Flickr.



A cute lil' TV set... inside an apple!. This also belongs to M Patrizio.



A found alphabet ... made out of the sky, as seen through the gaps between buildings (via information aesthetics).



Fun peacock wallpaper by Ferm Living (via Decor8).



GORGEOUS calligraphy by Besty Dunlap (via d*s).



Roadsworth's Tour de France installation on Wooster Collective.



Oh. Yes.

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obsessed with 1" buttons?

If you're like me, you have more buttons than lapels. 1" buttons are ultra-collectable, but do you ever wear them all?

If you'd rather gaze upon your little artworks rather than wear them, then check this out: Button Collective has come up with an awesome idea to show off your buttons. Their "storyboards" have little round magnetic pockets to pop your buttons into. Then you can display the buttons on your wall!



The storyboards come in lots of different sizes - storing 9, 25, 49 or 100 buttons - and are finished with a shiny, acrylic surface, so they're as smooth as the buttons themselves.

Button Collective's button storyboards are available from their Etsy store.

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Got Craft?

Just a reminder to Vancouver crafters and craft-lovers that the second Got Craft? craft show is on this Saturday, July 21 from 2pm to 8pm. The location has moved: it's now at The Kits House on Vine Street and West 7th Avenue, (not at the Western Front) in Vancouver.

I'm not sure if I'll make it out to this one. I'm pretty sure I'll still be curled up on my couch on Saturday afternoon, reading the new Harry Potter. :)

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fishy finds

I was catching up a some blogs, and came across quite a few fishy finds...

Love Forever is working on a plush red snapper. He's not red, but he's awful cute.

Dermond Peterson has a whole collection of sea-inspired linens. (via)



Jessica Polka crochets some gorgeous sea creatres. I love how she presents them in a scientific way, with labels. Here's a pattern to crochet a baby octopus, and you can buy other patterns on her etsy shop. (I have to learn how to crochet already!) (via)




And last but certainly not least... Coe and Waito are two Toronto-based ceramic artists who make the MOST exquisite ceramic jellyfish. Their work was on display at Magic Pony earlier this Spring. Stunning! (via)

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great advert, surprise ending

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smitten with smitten kitchen

I think most people are pretty particular when it comes to the cookbooks they like - I know I am. I like them to have pictures of each completed recipe, easy to follow instructions that really guide you through the process, a spine that encourages the book to stay open, and an index by ingredient at the back. Usually it's hard to get all of these things (especially the spine thing - I should just get one of those things that hold your book open) - still, there are many cookbooks I love and use often: the Joy of Cooking (lack of pictures be damned) and New Food Fast (I think we've made everything in this book now... so good) in particular.

But these days I'm getting the majority of my recipes online. While sites like Epicurious and Cooks.com are good, I prefer food/cooking blogs because they more closely approximate the criteria I look for in cookbooks as well as giving me a little extra. It's wonderful to read about the process of making something not just from an instructional point of view, but from an experiential one. Slight changes in the recipe, warnings about tough spots, recommendations about ingredients, tools, or methods - it's so much more helpful! Kind of like having a tiny chef that tells you what to do. (Heh.)

Anyway, all this to say that I have a new favourite food/cooking blog: Smitten Kitchen. I first discovered it through Not Martha's site when she linked to the homemade Oreos. I made as ice cream sandwiches for a potluck, and man did they go quickly. All of her recipes are accompanied by numerous excellent photos, she provides a conversion chart, there's a recipe archive, and her writing is funny, straightforward, and clear.

So far all I've made is the Oreos and the Ratatouille, but I'm looking forward to going through the archives and trying everything else.

What food/cooking blogs do you like?

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orla kiely I love you

I am in love with these chairs that are on display at Orla Kiely’s flagship store in London. And the things that are available at the online store! Gah. I'm on the verge of pining away to virtually nothing. [via]

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shoe dreams

Do you love shoes? Do you love them so much that you dream about them? Literally?

My lovely friend Claire does. So often, in fact, that she's started a blog.

On Les Rêves Chaussés, Claire writes about actual dreams that she has about shoes, sandals, pumps, boots and whatever other footwear she dreams up. She's also illustrating her shoe dreams, so we can see what's going on inside her head (and on her feet) at night.

Pretty sweet dreams, if you ask me.

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Simpsonization

Well, this is kind of a stretch as far as a craft-related thing goes, but hey look, you can make yourself into a Simpsons character. Kinda neat - I've always wondered how I'd be rendered.

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bat for lashes

I love this video for "What's a Girl to Do?" by Bat For Lashes. So simple, and then... whammo, in come the mascots. Ha!

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pretty

This is a lovely poster, available at I Am Still Alive.

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interior design for designers

These days I'm really into Design*Sponge's sneak peeks into the homes of artists and designers.

I love it because you get to see how these creative people choose to surround themselves. How do their environments match up with the work they create? Does the place you live in inspire what you create, or vice versa? Or both?

Plus, it's better than walking around the neighbourhood in the evening, staring into people's windows! (Ha! I'm kidding. Ok, I'm not. Ok, I am. Not. Um.)

One of my faves is Alyson Fox's home. (Here's her home and her artwork.)



It was hard to choose from all the homes, but among my faves were Lisa Congdon's place (here's her site) - I love the greens, oranges and white colour combo - and Sarajo Frieden's beautiful tree mural (and here's her site).



This is great inspiration for how to live. Down with bland homes!

Explore all the D*S sneak peeks here.

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bringing the rainbow inside, part two

I've seen others do it, I watched Siobhan do it and post about it, and now I've finally had the time to do it myself. And I adore it. Thank goodness I have so many vintage kids' books - otherwise some sections (yellow, for instance) would have been sparse.

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canadian design, eh?

Happy Canada Day!

The Canucks sure are a crafty bunch. And arty and designy, too. A recent show thay demonstrated that in spades was the Come Up To My Room event that took place this Spring at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.

Many of the pieces were a twist on classic Canadiana kitsch, such as Classic Canadian souvenirs by Cynthia Hathaway, like Inuit and polar bear figurines, which are melting into the ice due to global warming.

Moco Loco also interviewed Cynthia Hathaway about her work:

Our Canadian landscape is changing drastically, as it is globally, so the cultural challenge is to communicate responsibly our identity that makes one think through beauty of form and dialogue. It’s not the time to be romantic. It’s the time to have our symbols reflect reality. So yes, points of view can and must be changed, and evolve to meet the current situation that is hitting us between the eyes.

Also in the show were the Endangered Structures pillows by Amrita Takhar and Andrea Chin. These pillows depict Canadian buildings: the Bata Shoe Headquarters in Toronto, a lighthouse, a grain Elevator and an igloo. In the artist's words:

These iconic Canadian buildings are all under threat due to modernization, global warming, lack of heritage status and funding. These pillows suggest that we should embrace the past.

The Come As You Are souvenir shop that accompanied the show was full of other clever/cheeky Canadiana design, such as "Your Own Piece Of The Gardiner necklaces made from pieces of concrete from the crumbling highway, Timbit donut pins, and plush souvenir toys that were remixed so that the head of a plush beaver might end up with the body of a Canada goose and the arms of a mountie.

Many of the pieces featured seem to be tinged with self-deprecating, self-mocking irony. What's more Canadian than that, eh?

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