I meant to take pictures of this back in November when I first saw them. These cute little ornaments are on display in the birch trees beside Ideal Coffee on Ossington.

When I had commented on them to the barista, she had said that they just appeared one day, and that while she had no idea where they came from, she really enjoyed them. They made her feel that there was a sense of community in the neighbourhood.

While Toronto is a big city, it is made up of many small neighbourhoods.
And it’s a treat to stumble upon these little treasures that remind us.

For Christmas I got these amazing marzipan potatoes – they even come in a fabric sac. They’re small, but their appearance is surprisingly convincing!

At first I thought this was some funny, obscure, Belgian thing. But apparently it’s already been on Oprah’s list, so there you go. NewTree has an interesting take on chocolate – or at least on branding. And the chocolates do taste very nice. I enjoyed the Cassis/Eternity yesterday with some hot chocolate. And if it stays cold, I might just have to Cocoon and stay in quilting this evening.

I love visiting home and going through my mother’s old art books. I remember the beautiful Helga Pictures by Andrew Wyeth, and a big old Picasso book with a curvy gold embossed paper over the spine.

Some of my favorite illustrations are by Fritz Büsse in the book Farbiges München. I really like his illustration style: loose and sketchy, but still fine and detailed. Even his use of colour is sparing – not quite unfinished, but not all super clean and highly rendered. Definitely an inspiration.

You can click on each image to view it larger

This is from over the holidays. We had french toast on Christmas morning with blueberries and maple syrup. My dad makes the best french toast!

Havana Coffee Bar

Maggie is really sweet, makes a good coffee, and sells saucy greeting cards.
Triple threat!

In November I made a custom dress shirt with the help of Tarah and The Workroom.

It was a great experience, being able to create something custom fit, as well as incorporate personal fabric and design choices. I opted for a peter pan collar, and used a contrasting fabric on the underside of the collar, as well as on the inside of the cuff.

The pale blue and brown ended up working really well together, and I like how the tiny floral print offsets the more traditional men’s shirting fabric.

I love this little brown leafy hortensia print and have it in almost every color!

More pictures of the work-in-progress are posted here

Happy New Year! I wasn’t planning on having a New Year’s post per se, but since it found its way into the illustration what can I do, right? So here’s my first outfit illustration of the year. I was listening to the new Jay-Z and the illustration was definitely inspired. At first I was going to do something colorful and confetti-like, but like I said, I got inspired!

The full illustration can be seen here, and other close-ups here