happy holiday dudes

quiet on the blog front... busy on the work front

i can't believe its been a month since i've posted. i even remember thinking i have things to post about too. i really need to put in some effort in this, how easily i forget things. especially to those of you who actually read this. so much for my moniker babyelephant.

anyways, i've been getting super busy on the craft fair front as i've started incorporating some new designs and items to sell... i will be posting pictures from got craft! tomorrow at the canadian legion:2205 commercial drive, (at east 6th avenue) its from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.

hope to see you there, swag bags for the first 30 people through the door so get there early!

thanks for reading...

jo

hope is a powerful thing

i don't know whether it was the skeptic in me or the fact that i had given up on american politics altogether, or the fact that i just didn't believe it could happen that made obama's win so riveting for me. anything is possible. this is something i believe, i even tell people this; i've read the books, memorized the quotes, but this was happening in reality. not just something inspirational said by some dead philosopher. i felt a huge relief for all the american's i know and love, or may not even know yet. i feel better knowing you can choose wisely with your hearts. you are safe now. today i felt and saw the impossible possible. 

i never thought i would thank the states for anything besides ben and jerry's creme brulee ice cream and thanksgiving day sales, but thank you america, thank you for the hope.

holiday craft fairs announcement!

after halloween rolls by, the holiday stuff is up. it is shockingly fast. i can't believe the clocks have been set back, november is here, the holidays are just around the corner! xlmammals will be participating in the gotcraft! holiday market december 7th at the cambrian hall on commercial drive, looking forward to our first ever  gotcraft event! stay tuned to see if we will be at the blim winter market on december 20th. must get busy! AHHHHH! 

for more information on gotcraft check out www.gotcraft.ca

anna maclellan

i had the pleasure of meeting this super talented local artist a few weeks ago and can't wait to show you her work. anna's mixed media art has a beautiful nostalgic quality, given that she has amazing hook ups with vintage paraphernalia throughout the city, and has this twisted appeal of the stepford wife meets cute furry animal. anna uses vintage paper dolls and mixed media to create her collage series. i especially love the fact that she's names all of her pieces in this series. her prints are great and i am looking forward to acquiring a few myself! she has some really beautiful one of a kind pieces built with found and saved treasures that resurrect these found pieces into solid art works.

where the colour is in toronto

ryan mcginness

while i was in toronto a couple weeks ago, i missed out on takashii iwasaki but i literally walked into this ryan mcginness show in the distillery district in toronto. i've been an admirer of his work since i began my career in design. i have always loved how intricate and smooth, simple and ornate his art is. i had only seen his work in books and to have been able to see them up close was such an awesome surprise. the show was called aesthetic comfort, lots of neon in his work and lots of large scale canvases. he also created these amazing scultpures, with his art applied somehow to each individual piece. 

swoon for takashii iwasaki

i am heading to toronto tomorrow for some quality time with my mama! so to make the most of our trip, i've been trying to scour the internet and friends to figure out what to do and where to explore! luckily, i came across a show at the LE Gallery in toronto featuring a solo show by takahii wasaki. he is a japanese artist who studied at the university of manitoba. i've seen his work before and was in awe at the whimsical nature of his art and even more impressed with a series of hand embroidered pieces each just as colourful and intricate as his paintings. i am so excited to be able to see these works up close. 

check out his website at http://takashiiwasaki.info

(images from http://takashiiwasaki.info)

the scandinavian eye

so one of my favourite blogs is emmas design blogg, an amazing photographer and eye based in sweden she's opened my eyes to some really amazing artist and interiors from her neck of the woods, here is the latest sampling of what i've learned and got out of visiting her blog.

check out jenny almen's fantastic line drawings adorning cushions. so inspiring, i love the simplicity and the boldness all at the same time.

camilla engman has been a household name for me that i've been aquainted with thanks to the internet, but a collaboration of her work and another artist named elisabeth dunker is new to me, and together they have created studio violet. i love these artists and their prints, to die for. 

so much coveting! is this bad?

(images from http://emmas.blogg.se/ & http://www.studioviolet.se/)

kitschy kootenays

my trip to the kootenays was fantastic, the area is surrounded by mountains and the changing colours of the trees was an amazing sight to see flying in. lots of activities including a traditional dhoukabour dinner with fresh perogies and russian bortsch, so delicious, wandering up and down the main street in nelson and in and out of alleys and small antique shops. 

one of the coolest things was finding all this random "alley art" there are definitely some artistic  people living in nelson for sure. one of the perks of working with an organization that has some contacts with bc transit, we had our own special city bus shuttling us back and forth from castelgar to nelson! this bus had a purple, seafoam and yellow colour scheme which was pretty odd, but added to the little quirky touches this area has to offer.

i am a little disappointed that i didn't just go for purchasing this vintage polaroid camera, it was $80 bucks and my frugal side was like "what's the point" but then when i got home, my boyfriend reminded me that polaroid is pretty much obsolete, and this would have been a jewel. bummer. oh well. 

nelson + castlegar

here is a little homage to the "alley art", the oddities and quirkiness that is nelson that make for some really interesting photographs. how random is the power ranger?

brand yourself!

one of the blogs i love to check out daily is swissmiss. such a keen sense of what's going on in the design/art/multimedia spheres, so inspiring. so today, during my usual peruse, i saw a link to this guy: christopher doyle who created a branding/identity guide on himself. so amazing and nerdy at the same time. love it. it's the ultimate combination in a dude: amazing+nerdy=love!

check out the entire post at johnsonbanks

read ! swissmiss

salmon punch-buggy no returns

heading to the kootenays tomorrow morning, been super busy with work, we moved offices (boo) from main and broadway and now are in burnaby, if you're out there, let me know. i have no friends in burnaby yet!

check out this amazing salmon coloured vw beetle i snapped in richmond last weekend. so sweet!

i am hoping for some sweet pictures of castlegar and nelson... and maybe some shopping finds as the scene in nelson for crafters/arts i'm told is 

a-MAZING! if anyone has any suggestions, comment me!

have a great weekend!

fall days

in the past few weeks, i've realized just how beautiful and serene of a place the sun yat sen gardens are. it's been ages since i've been there and i think its such a gift to us vancouverites. a few weeks ago, accompanied by a tip from erin templeton, about an owl in the gardens, my roomate and i went to try and get a glimpse of this owl. sure enough there he was. such a magical creature, seems like he found one of the few garden oasis the city offers to take a rest.
sun yat sen gardens

wanted wanted my cards!

i was hoping for this forever...

to have a shop i love, carry the cards i love to create, and with some incredible support some energy worked in my favour. i created the succulent cards because i was so inspired after visiting susan's shop for the very first time. i've never approached a store before, but something about this place felt really "right" (i know, a little cheesy) but i went, put my fears of failure aside and went in and sure enough, she loved them and took them immediately! it was such an amazing feeling, i just dropped off 12 new succulent cards at wanted! so excited!

wanted

columbia at east pender

604-663-0178

2DTD's

fall blim market 2008

the blim fall market was such a great afternoon, the sun was out, the turn out was good and so many lovely people and lovely pieces people were selling! we introduced another new xlmammals collaboration, the 2DTD's 2d teddy bears magnets/pins! (new post to follow) we met so many wonderful and talented people! thanks nicole for being such a fun table neighbour and taking the only picture we have of the day with the two of us! check out nicole's work and blog at http://itsyourlifeshop.com/

the lovely ladies in the bottom picture, tiff, julie and allison, cute little bobbies that i forgot to actually buy at the end of the day, hopefully there are some left and allison with her lovely line of jewellery called district thirty. check out allison's work at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5622894.

sew much fun!

this is what we were doing instead of posting to this blog on friday! cutting, sewing and preparing for the fall blim sale which was so much fun! photos are coming up next. thanks to everyone who came out to check us out, you making time for us is much appreciated!

look what i found!

check out these amazing little crocheted succulents and cacti by brazilian artist, thais veda. these are so cute, I can't get over it. pining away for them right now. find her work on flickr, under crochet jardim! can someone get me one of these? pretty please?