I have just wrapped up an amazing week, taking in the shows at LG Fashion Week with good
friend and owner/buyer for Bicyclette Boutique, Paige Boersma. There’s a lot to look
forward to in Spring 2012. Some of my favourites are the sleek silhouettes, sheer fabrics,
polka dots and more stripes. There is so much colour with bright red, chartreuse, bold blue,
and orange. I can hardly wait to get back to my paints to start channeling all of this new
inspiration! Until then, I will leave you with some fashion week links and a few of my personal
shots from the week. Have a fantastic weekend!

- Great show and backstage videos at BlogTo .
- For trends on and off the runway visit Toronto Life’s Blog .
- Check out She Does The City for fantastic photos and show reviews.
- And don’t forget to visit the official LG Fashion Week Blog .

I am so happy to see colour in stores this fall, and not just red, but amazing citrus colours and
pinks that are usually reserved for Spring and Summer. These colours were the inspiration for
this new piece. This week I’m at LG Fashion Week in Toronto scoping out the Spring 2012 collections.
I’m so excited to see what’s coming next and can’t wait to share some of my favourites. Hope that
you enjoy the new illustration and have a great day!

Here’s a look at a watercolour and digital painting that I did for the 2011 Agenda. Because
you have sent such positive feedback on posts that include process work, I’m trying something
new this week! “This to That” is designed to show you my starting inspiration and finished
piece side-by-side. Some of you might recognize “This to That”, which is based off of one of my
favourite blog topics over at Oh Joy! Can’t wait to hear what you think!

Have you been having a good week? I hope so. This week has been a busy one for me.
Last weekend, I set up as part of the Hotshot Holiday Pop-Up Shop in Kensington Market.
The event is called “Handmade, Handpicked” and features a selection of work by Toronto
designers and artisans. They threw a fantastic opening party on Thursday night, which
gave me a chance to browse and shop through the other artist’s work. (I left with a really
amazing floral scarf and a knitted headband.) Hotshot also serves very delicious coffee,
so you have another great reason to visit!

Hotshot is located at 181 Augusta Ave., off Dundas St. in Kensington Market, (See Map)
and the Pop-Up Shop will be open until December 23rd.

Father’s Day is this Sunday and I’ve been working hard to add to my selection of cards for men! The illustrations
are a combination of hand-drawn artwork as well as some digitally rendered pieces. As always, all of the cards are
printed on FSC certified papers.

The cards are available for order through the Shop Page and I will be making local deliveries in Kingston
this Friday and Saturday. You can also pick up select cards in downtown Kingston at Dwell Boutique,
Card’s Bakery and at the In the Art of the City Gallery at 122 Princess St.

Have a very happy father’s day!

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are finally here! And as everyone prepares to take time
off from work, school or whatever they normally do, it only seemed right to dedicate this blog
post to a guy who is working hard this holiday season. So, this one is for you Santa.

There are so many different types of images of Santa and everyone seems to have
their own idea of what he looks like. Back in September, I used this idea when I started
working on my thesis about keepsakes, greeting cards and memory. I used vintage
holiday cards to make this Santa Memory Game as a bit of an experiment. It’s a take on
the classic Memory game, but here instead of matching Elmos, apples or the alphabet
you match vintage card illustrations of Santa!

The rules are simple: Everyone gets a chance to see the cards turned upright before
the game begins. The decides on a time between 10-30 seconds. (Choose the based
on age and ability.) Then flip the cards and play!

Besides being a fun game for the holidays, it was also fun to see how people’s
visual memories are different from each other. While none of us have seen the Santa
in person, we all have a pretty clear idea of what we think he looked like. I found that
people chose Santa images that looked closest to their own idea of Santa. One student
ended up with a bunch of Coca Cola Santas, while others matched all the pairs with
cartoon-like features.

This post is dedicated to anyone who is or ever has studied for an exam,
test or done anything worth procrastinating from.

Today, I’m writing a Research Methods exam. Enough said. Sometimes you just want to get away.
That’s the theme of this flash animation that I created for my web design course.
Click the image to watch the animation:

Let’s distract each other. What are you doing to procrastinate today?

One of my favorite blogs Decor8 sent a link to this great website called Odosketch.

Click this image to watch how this was made
On Odosketch you can create your own drawing, or just watch other people’s drawings being created.
It’s very cool. If you have the time, go check it out!

Now… back to studying.

Everyone loves the magic of the first snowfall. And its that magic that inspired
this illustration in my new series of holiday cards… Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

We haven’t had snow yet this year in Toronto, but I did notice a layer of frost
on the grass yesterday. Last year, when I was living right in the heart of downtown
Toronto, literally facing the Eaton’s Centre, we had the most amazing snowstorm.
The whole city was empty the next morning, which really strange. That snowfall
was probably one of the most memorable for me.

This year, I’m itching for snow. And it’s not just because of the cute new
winter boots sitting in my closet. I want it to snow so that it really feels like the
holidays are coming. All of the glittering shop windows seem so out of
place in this weather.

For now, I’ll have to settle for illustrating the snow.

Painting... my favorite part.

What are your favorite winter memories?