Big changes and the NSDCC Christmas Market

Woo! It’s been a while, but I’ve been oh so busy… First off, I had a baby. Little Maple Lux came into our lives early in the morning on Saturday November 8th riding in on the tails of some beautifully cold air and bright sunshine. She’s without a doubt the coolest and most chill little creature I’ve ever met. Life is surprisingly the same but utterly different. Here we are writing this blog post with cheesy giddy smiles:

Maple came along at a pretty crazy time, the height of the holiday craft show season. I pretty much finished my stock before her due date, but towards the end of my pregnancy, those last few weeks, I (as well as my partner) could not concentrate on a damn thing… So hard to stay focused, all we could do was go on long long walks and watch netflix… So I didn’t get everything done in time, BUT some magical grandma elves swooped in and saved the day! Both my mum and my partners mum arrived in Halifax right after Maple was born and whipped up all of my last minute tasks; making mini books, ornaments, building my set up and feeding us delicious food 🙂 Needless to say, I could not have pulled off last weekends NSDCC Christmas Market without these ladies and my wonderful partner.

Here is my mother in law pouring us all a much needed glass of wine and my mom working away at mini books:

 

In the end, the show was fantastic! Maple was such a trooper, she pretty much rocked the entire 3 days all the while winning the hearts of everyone who saw her. So proud of this little one…

Here’s a slideshow of the event..

Building the new shelf for my fancy new set up

Suitcase full of mini books

New Xmas ornaments made with leather, fabric. and embossed star and a printed “Christmas Wishes” on the inside

Inside of ornaments

New set up!

Craft show fam jam!

Maple and I with the lovely Rebecca Taussig from Strong House

Terra Bijou

An isle at the show

New product gallery

Newfoundland Chocolate Company… i may have spent a little too much dough here and at Cocoa and Honey…

McClean Bros. Woodworking. I did a trade with these guys fro a sweet new banana tree!

Here’s that banana tree from McClean Bros. Woodworking

Hand painted silk by Mary Lund

Beautiful hand carved and painted birds by Jim Edsall

The lovely Jessie Tesolin, assistant and her fine handblown glass

Hutchinson Pottery

Hawkins Pottery from PEI… Got some beautiful gifts for the grandmas here!

Cocoa and HOney… I could eat your entire stock of sea salt caramels in one sitting…

Arundel Pottery

Anne Pryde Pottery

Aflame Creations. I had a table next to this gal a few years ago at the seaport market. We had a blast every Saturday and her half moon pendant necklace is one of my favourite pieces of jewellery

The 5×5 section where I was last year.

 

Actually made an effort to go around and snap some photos now that I had a crew working for me!

So getting all ready for this weekends Halifax Crafters Society’s Holiday Market! Three days this year in honour of its 10th anniversary. I do know they are on the lookout for some swell volunteers, so do get in touch if you want to be a part of the magic!

 

paring down

I’ve been trying to pare down the different variety of books I make in the last few months and in the process have come up with some a few new books (seems counterintuitive, I know….) and got rid of a few others…

For starters, I’ve started making some simple fabric covered perfect bound books. They are super useful and really low commitment. Nice enough that you like calling it your own, but not intimidating to use and mark up with notes. These books have Dur-O-Tone Brown Wrap Paper  from the French Paper Company for the text paper, a little darker than the standard  Dur-O-Tone Aged Newspaper that I use in most of my books. Both are wonderful 100% recycled papers that are lovely to write and draw on, but for these notebooks, I think the brown works perfect. (Also I love that paper and I’ve been wanting to use it on the regular!) So here’s those Perfect Notebooks I’ve been blabbing about…

The next newest style of Mule Mother Book takes a bit more commitment, is a bit more serious, but is still really simple. The Two-Subject Notebook is covered in leather and keeps you organized with two separate sections to compile your notes into. The pages open flatter than any other book so it’s really comfortable to use.

This next book I am really excited about, as I have been wanting to design one forever. Popping up this holiday season will be one of a kind 2014 Planners! I’ve been working away on the layout and I am just putting the final touches on. 2014 Planner will be available in fabric or cloth bound or leather bound. I’ve also been working on something very awesome incorporating the Two-Subject Notebook and the 2014 Planners… Stay tuned…

The last thing, I’ve kind of just made better, it’s nothing new to Mule Mother, but it’s a crowd fave and it deserved to be better! I’ve re designed the Miniature Books ever-so-slightly and I think they’ve finally reached where they need to be… I plan on making hundreds this holiday season, so they will surely be mastered by New Years…

So, these were just a few highlights of good things to come.  Mule Mother will be next out for the Halifax Pop Explosion Pop Expo record, zine and craft fair in late October. Here’s the poster:

one more thing…

I am moving at the end of this week to a block away into an absolutely beautiful (really, it’s amazing… ) new apartment with my partner and cat, which also means I’ll be packing up Mule Mother for about 2 weeks or so while I move studios and re-organize. Will still be answering emails and such when I can, but will for the most part be shut down.  Will post some photos as soon as I can of the new digs!