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To market we’ve gone…
Happy Holidays!
Thank you to the Cambridge Farmer’s Market for hosting us for the last two Saturdays. We had a great experience at the market and met many wonderful people.
The Cambridge Farmer’s Market is an institution of the city of Cambridge, Ontario. The market has been a Saturday event since the 1830’s with the current building’s location in use since 1887. If you would love to learn more about this jewel in the city of Cambridge, here’s the link to the their webpage:
History – Cambridge Farmers’ Market (cambridgefarmersmarket.ca)
Our visit ended on an even higher note as we have been invited to come back during the summer market season!
Heal’s Hollow Studios has had a very exciting and promising year and look forward to all that 2024 may bring. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2024.
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Paris Sip and Shop
We had a fun and busy day in Paris Ontario at the fairgrounds, this is our first holiday craft show, we were nervous not knowing what to expect, but once everyone started to come by and visit us at our booth the day just flew by.
Below is a picture of our booth at the show today, looking forward to tomorrow.
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Happy Holidays from the First Aid Station.
A vintage Christmas is right up our alley and so without further ado we are embarking on a journey of “Homemade for the Holidays”.
A second-hand purchase of a vintage Singer sewing machine kicked off a flurry of learning how to sew projects including our favourite: cutlery holders. What a simple and inexpensive way to fancy up the holiday table. Jeff has really taken this project and ran with it – turns out he loves to play with all the machines – from transport trucks to hot rods to antique lathes to – you guessed it sewing machines. His only complaint is that the sewing tables don’t seem to be designed with his 6’5 frame in mind. Oh and of course, he’s gotten more booboos from jabbing himself with pins and sewing needles than he ever did as a diesel mechanic.
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Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween to every Ghost, Goblin, Princess and everything else that goes bump in the night!
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The Birds and The Bees – no wait…
Nature can be nasty, and it can be beautiful. And sometimes it’s just plain remarkable.
Today is put-on-the-snow-tires day at our house. It is an annual event that occurs every fall when the weather begins to whisper of flurries in the Northern part of our province and the sky takes on that magnificent vibrant blue – a telltale sign of cold air beginning to sweep in to replace the warmth of summer and the golden hues of autumn.
The chore is not difficult just time consuming. It takes place in our driveway next to the spreading branches of a maple tree. And that is where nature and perhaps the universe conspired to help my husband.
This fall has been a strange one – the warmest on record and it’s meant that our tree’s leaves haven’t even started changing yet, never mind dropping off the tree. But the temperatures are falling now, even if the leaves aren’t.
Jeff, my husband, had bent down to see inside the truck to grab a pair of gloves, but when he stood up and turned around, he was startled to see a blue jay at his eye level on the branch next to him. The bird squawked once and then flew up two branches.
My husband laughed at how the bird’s call had made him jump but then turned back to his task, putting the incident out of his mind.
But before he could begin to work again, the jay began knocking on something in the tree, but it didn’t sound like a branch. My husband looked up to see what the jay was doing and that’s when he saw it – the biggest wasp nest he had seen in years directly above his head, hidden by the leaves of the tree.
The bird squawked once more then flew away, apparently satisfied that my husband had gotten the message.
Remarkable indeed. Happy Friday the thirteenth!
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Woolly Bear Theory
The woolly bears are on the march at this time of year. Where are they going? No one knows – it is a well-kept secret among their kind. But they do signal something else when they show themselves. At least according to folklore. And as a Canadian, I pay attention.
For those not in the know – here is a photo I took of the latest harbinger to enter the garden.
Woolly Bear Caterpillar Its beautiful furry coat of two colours shows velvety black and golden-brown in bands around its body. And that is where the folklore comes into play. The size of the bands are said to be indicators of the intensity of the coming winter. The larger the golden-brown section – the milder the winter.
As you can see the section is one third the length of the woolly bear – a portent of a nasty winter to come. I have checked in with others in the region and found that mine had the most golden-brown. Others are reporting, very small bands of the milder weather colour and one reported a solid black woolly bear.
I have sketched my woolly bear photo and subconsciously must want better news as my version seems to have larger mild weather banding than the photo that was my inspiration.
Perhaps I can manifest a milder winter with my interpretation as opposed to the harsh winter my visitor is foretelling.
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Colourful Leaves and Inspiration
Today was a day for designing and making stickers. The end of summer means the beginning of the festivities in my world. Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s are all quickly approaching. And with that comes the possibilities of creating fun and whimsical items in our studio.
The fall weather seems crazily warm, but the golden sunlight and colourful leaves are just the motivation I need to get this season’s artistic adventures into high gear.
And with that in mind I began experimenting in the wonderful open source program called Inkscape.
I am an old dog but with the many tutorials available online I am slowly learning how to take my pencil sketches to the computer screen using this amazing program.
Creating these simple designs and then transferring the files to my cutting machine took a few hours but the end result was very satisfying. The art is simple – quick sketching, not much in the way of refinement and then adding layers of colour. Traditional imagery of leaves, pumpkins, skulls, spiders and bats seemed appropriate for the start of October. Even if the temperature is trying to tell me summer isn’t done with us yet.
Heal's Hollow Studios 