Fall down the rabbit hole…

This is Wonderland…

Let your imagination soar…

Let me tell you a story.

I had been walking for days. Lost. Alone. Afraid…
My feet were screaming, begging for rest, but I could not stop.  I was fearful of the emptiness.  If I kept going, maybe nothing could get me.  Tears would no longer flow, tapped out.

I had stopped screaming for help two moons ago.  I knew no one could hear me.  I was in a world unknown to me.

I climbed up. up. up.  Finally, the top of the mountain.  The sun shone so bright.  So yellow.  How could that be?  It was the dead of night.  I got closer. closer. closer.  It wasn’t the sun.  It was a horse.  A great horse.  Yellow.  Wings.  I stopped for the first time in a long time.  That was it.  I was what I feared the most.  Crazy.

He was standing still.  Behind him was a wall of rocks.  Some of them as colorful and bright as he, others dull and lifeless as I felt.

I approached the horse.  He looked at me and smiled.  Sit, rest. He said.  I have riddle for you.

I sat.

In the dark I am found, without being fetched.  In the day I am lost, without being stolen.  What am I?

I thought.  I did not know the answer.  I gave up.

The stars. he said.

Stars. I hadn’t looked up at the stars since I was lost.  I did so now. Their bright twinkling bodies gave me comfort.  I hadn’t been alone this whole time.  Those little tricksters had been up there the whole time.  Laughing.  Joking. Watching out for me.  I found the brightest one I could off in the distance.  He was different.  He was warmth.  He wasn’t a star.  He was a town.  I started to run.  run.  run.

I awoke to the sun in my face.  The real sun.  I was lying on a street, people surrounding me.  They took me to a pub.  Someone bought me a drink and asked me for my tale.  I spoke of my days wandering.  I hesitated.  I told them of the magnificent horse.  I expected laughs.  The people looked at me knowingly.

There is a story, about a great horse, yellow as the sun,  with spectacular wings.  Behind him stands a wall.  For every lost soul he guides home, one rock on that wall…turns a wonderful color.

Tell me a story….

Weddings are the perfect place for fanciful dress-up, parading around in your finest and, best of all: a chance to see what everyone else is wearing.   This ogling of others attire is something I fondly refer to as “wardrobe scrutiny”.    Rather than going down the path of criticism I love to scan for the wardrobe statements I admire most.   It is like going on a visual treasure hunt and the reward is stunning fashion.

It was at the wedding of a cherished friend, that I saw a guest wearing a dress adorned with colorful and beautiful hand embroidered bugs.  I stopped the woman and asked if I could take a picture of her dress.  I could not pass up the opportunity to photograph them.  Thankfully she agreed.

It is truly sad to know that long gone are the days where it was very common to see embroidery on clothing.  It is always a pleasure to see someone who appreciates the craftsmanship and the love put into each stitch.

The wonderful thing about hand embroidered pieces is that no two are the exact same, each have their own personality.  These little critters are no exception…

This little dragonfly is the perfect example of the time and consideration put into embroidery.  The colors are bright and the details are exquisite.

This little bee was done perfectly, and with so much detail.  The shading of his body is an added bonus which adds realism to the piece. This little guy’s personality definitely shines.   The colors are more neutral, his colors may not be as bright as the dragonflies’, but that does not make him any less beautiful.  He is quite a regal being.

This little guy may be small, but he is just as perfect as the others.

Here is the front of the dress just below the bust. Individually, these little bugs are immaculate, but together, they form a rich tapestry of fall colors and life. It was an honor be be granted permission to photograph this dress.

The embroidery is perfect for fall.  The colors used definitely take into consideration the sights you might see while walking through the woods on a crisp fall day.  With the leaves a vibrant red, green, golden and rich browns, mother nature is definitely an inspiration for these little works of art.

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I found some more lovely embroidery being done today, courtesy of the internet.  One may think that birds and insects are better suited to spring than to the upcoming fall season, but done correctly; using neutrals, earth tones and sharp black lines, you cannot go wrong incorporating them into your wardrobe, accessories and home.  Fall is better known for being drab, but these embroideries breath some much needed life into fall.

A simplistic design, but beautiful.  The use of black lines makes for a wonderfully delicate piece.  The birds may be flying south for the winter, but this one will stay behind as a reminder of the beauty and life that can be.

The monarch design is more complex and elaborate.   So perfect and realistically done, it is almost ready to pop off the material and fly away.  A very true to life piece of work.

Happy Labour Day

I think this is absolutely hilarious.

She just turned 70 this year and look at how much fun we still have together.

I will cherish these photos forever.

I love sleeping.

Here are some of my favourite beds.

They are art.  They are inspiration.  The winds are blowing cooler and it is time to nest.

Above is the “Apple tree” bed by Atilla design

This is a bed I have imagined in my mind and wanted to build myself one day.  Looks like someone else had the same idea.

Above is the “Tree” bed by Shawn Lovell.  It is cast iron.

These hand painted lovelies are made by a company called Sticks Beds

I found the pictures of these built in cubbyhole beds and they have a really cozy feeling.  They remind me of traveling and of my childhood fairytale fantasies.

I would love to build something like this in a child’s room.

Sweet Dreams.

The diner en Blanc is an event the groups 2400 people together for  a picnic dinner at a secret location.

Buses picked them up at metro stations and parks.

They set up their own banquet tables and chairs.

Bustier Katrin Leblond ($160) with Russian shawl ($44)

I believe that I am empowered to make ethical decisions that are beneficial for my community by the money I spend as an entrepreneur .  I believe that as an artist, it is my duty to create beauty for my customers to enjoy.  I believe that women deserve to be treated like goddesses entering a temple when they come in to my boutique.  They are to be served, taken care of, draped in fabric and made to feel beautiful.   I believe this from the bottom of my heart.

I have always been politically active and I have always been crafty.  There were certain points in my life where I felt guilty and pained because “just making pretty things” was not saving the planet.  Now that I am running an ecological and local manufacturing business that serves and adores women, I feel better.  I have merged my environmental activist with my feminist and with my local economist in a way that allows me to keep being a creative human being.

And here is Linda Evangelista, our Montreal-born International Fashion Icon, merging her political views that something is wrong in the world and someone should be held accountable with her love of the Madonna.  She got to play a living Madonna in a Religious procession.  I have traveled to Antigua in Guatemala to see these processions.  They walk the streets playing sad brass band music all the while carrying statues and crying for the death of Jesus.  They walk for 12-13 hours.  My main reason for traveling there was to see the “carpets” that the locals make from coloured saw dust and flowers.  The carpets are made in the street prior to the passing of the procession.  When the procession passes, the carpet gets trampled.  It was incredibly beautiful.  (This is reminding me that I should do a post about those carpets.)

I am unusually attracted the the iconography of the Madonna even though I was not raised in any form of Christianity.  To me the Madonna is the “mother”, gaia, goddess … and those are all great things.  It represents female divinity, something each woman carries within herself.

I love religious art.  I love folk art.  I love making pretty things.

It can take quite a while in life’s journey to settle into being who you truly are and not who you wish you were.

Born in Luanda, Angola, were she lived for 10 years, Katia Leonardo is a Portuguese World Music Singer and composer.  Katia expresses her study of Jazz, Fado, African, Brazilian and Modern music.   She holds a post bachelor degree in Jazz program at University of  Music in Porto ( Escola Superiorde Musica e Artes dop Espectaculo)  where she studied with Maria Joao.

She encourages authenticity connection, vocal expansion, self awareness as well as introducing concepts in sound healing.

Katia bought a very special skirt with a black cat on it when she visited the store.  She also loved the black crinolines.

Meow, meow!

This beautiful vibrant woman brought so much to my life when she came to shop with me in the boutique during her visit to share with Montreal her singing talents, her projects and to teach.  She told me my body is an instrument and compared me to a cello.  It was such a new way to think about singing for me.  It will never leave me.  Always with you in my heart Katia.  Abundance!

See you at the boutique.

Erin.

]]> http://katrinleblondblog.com/uncategorized/we-love-katia-leonardo/feed/ 0 http://katrinleblondblog.com/boutique/french-fabric-colour-inspiration/ http://katrinleblondblog.com/boutique/french-fabric-colour-inspiration/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:07:06 +0000 Katrin Leblond http://katrinleblondblog.com/?p=2675

These prints are like whipped cream and strawberries.

Yummy!

They are vintage and oh so French.

The first one definitely has and Art Deco feel, but the rest are decidedly Victorian.

KL tote travel bag.  Each one of these is unique and you should see the lining!

Rich red will always be strong and I will make sure to have a good red in every collection.

I cannot have these prints and I cannot put them into my Fall collection, but the colour palettes and combinations are an excellent reflection of Fashion trends right now.  Soft natural nudes and creams and tans are making a raging comeback for Fall 2010.

KL Cerise Dress $245 with Colette Van Haaren mobius shaal $36

The camel and gold tones will be nice to complement last years brown.  I know that Montreal is a black and grey clad city, but try to imagine these colours around the face with skinny black pants.  It is gentle will especially complement blond and sandy brown hair.

KL Upsidedown cardigan, Gloria Gaudette ivory cardigan, Maillagogo Ivory knit cardigan and handprinted 100% cotton scarves

KL Mystery Jacket $126 with nude Donna Beth cami $25

textiletrunk.com

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While on my first road trip across Canada, with the man I later married, I wanted to record our travels.  The problem was I get car sickness.

Despite, the fact that I couldn’t write in my journal,  I found embroidery to be something I could handle even with the rock and roll of the road.  Embroidery became my traveling form of journaling.

I stitched the landscapes and the names of all the animals we saw along the way.

The coloured threads depict the story of our road trip  together.

I would sit in the passenger seat of our non air-conditioned van and stitch away.

The finished belt wraps around my body twice.

The needle pulled the thread in and out of the fabric stitching the moments I wanted to capture.   The van hit the road.  My needle pulled the thread.  The wind swept us away at the start of our journey.   The stitches became pictures.  The pictures began the story of our journey.  I stitched the flower called Indian paint brush.  Wild to Canada, this flower called out to be remembered.  I stitched the orange and yellow of it’s petals.  The lakes in Ontario were numerous  swimming pleasures.  There were so many lakes.  I painted with the blue of my embroidery thread just one to remember them all.  As we approached the prairies fields of Canola, also called Rape seed, danced yellow blooms that waved in the wind.  Dots of yellow thread floated across the belt.

The car broke down and we had to spend three days waiting for a part in Edmonton.  I stitched the part we needed  called a U joint.  We drove on to the Rockies.  Nights under the crescent moon were beautiful.

We took the fairy to Salt Spring Island and went swimming with purple and blue  dragon flies.

We watched boat racing on a Native reserve on Vancouver Island.  We walked in the red wood forest under the full moon.

Then we left Canada.  We hit Seattle and we went to the fish and flower market.  Four hours from Seattle, we spent two days at mount Saint Helen the mountain that erupted years before.

LOVE…….LOVE LOVE WAS EVERYTHING.  Our van was love parked in dry lands that had sage bushes all around.  I stitched a heart floating over our van.  I stitched my love.  My heart.

We drove through the Craters of the Moon and finally got back to the rivers of Ontario.  Eager to get home we drove and drove and drove…day and night.  We took shifts.

The road took us home.

]]> http://katrinleblondblog.com/embroidery/travelling-embroidery/feed/ 3 http://katrinleblondblog.com/boutique/best-friends/ http://katrinleblondblog.com/boutique/best-friends/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:07:47 +0000 Erin http://katrinleblondblog.com/?p=2507 It is so good to have close friends who always have your back and want the best for you.  It is so good to be living surrounded by the real truth that we are never alone, that we are strong in connection with others.

It is good to just know deep down to our toes that what we have that really has value is our friends, our family, the world around us that we love.  Go ahead take away the car, the house, the long list of material possessions.   Go ahead!  What I want is to feel safe and loved and be able to share that with my daughter and the world.

Friends make us strong.  They offer us the best embrace to fall into when life gets tough.   There for you when things go wrong.   They empower us to take more risks and listen to our selves more.

Thanks to all my good friends that I have had over the years that made me feel stronger about myself.   It wasn’t always easy but I am who I am today in part because of you and you will always be with me in everything I do.  And even if  you’re  far away  you are still my heart.

There you are.   You know me.  I know you.  I am me and you are you.  You are part of me.  When I grow more into myself you are happy for me.   When you grow more into yourself  I am happy for you. I love how you change and how you stay the same.  I am lucky to know you.  Thank you for sharing everything you do.

Thanks for all the fun we have together!

See you at the boutique.

Erin.

Welcome home Collette.  It is great to have you back.

Come check out Collette’s knit vests and ponchos in custom colours as well as her unique knit necklaces (shown above).  These necklaces are made with one continuous knit piece.   They are a stylish addition to any wardrobe ( I know I have one in my own).  They are especially great for new or expecting moms as the one piece nature of the necklace makes for a safer neck adornment for concerned mothers who don’t want their child potentially chewing off some hazardous beads while nuzzling your neck.

See you at the boutique.

Erin

Sometimes things don’t all go as planned.

Sometimes a great idea turns out to need a lot of tweaking.

A sting.

A zing.

A bit of a sour thing.

Sometimes a bit of sour helps you appreciate the sweetness that comes along next.

These leaves will be appearing on our Fall pencil skirt.  It is my new favorite skirt and I am super excited to introduce this cut as a recurring staple to the store.

The black and white feather appliqué is a perfect t-shirt for the graphically bold.  The feathers are delicately placed at the neckline of the v-neck.  (this photo is on it’s side)

The new Mystery jacket ($126) with tumbling red tulle leaves (pictured below).

Nature in red glory marching to the water.  I don’t really know what this photo is about I just like the walking red flowers.

Frost on the leaves is coming sooner than some of us would like to think.

The doorway to Fall.

The collection in store offers some fashionable ways to get ready before it  gets cold out!

Kat

They have recently become such a hit (since they were featured in M magazine of la Presse) that we have increased our production of the decorative pillows we make from these glorious prints.  They are washable, won’t fade, wont shrink…they are perfection.

I found these images on the internet and have been saving them for you, my dear readers, for quite some time now.

The corset is all assembled with thorns that are pinning together the leaves.  The embellishments are all roses and lilacs…just try to imagine the smell.

This lovely lady seems to be sporting a log-cabin skirt?  Not sure why, but the overall look is quite successful.

And here we have a costume that reminds me of myself.  My favourite holiday is Halloween and I am usually one of two things:  A witch or an Forest spirit.  I think this woman did a great job combining fabrics.  The best part is the juxtaposition of the gold corset and the raw rags skirt.

The fall collection is in the process of being released and designed all at once.  I have already put some pieces into the boutique, but there are many more to come.  You will see some peasant sleeves on soft knit tops,  a wool coat with full skirt, a very Chanel inspired little cardigan suit with pencil skirt.  I am growing up and so the collection will inevitably express some classicism while retaining it’s playful funk.

Have a great week-end!

Kat

Sarah Jane Scouten was just in the store trying on outfits for her  show tonight at Tavern Inspecter Epingle corner Duluth and Saint Hubert.  Just back from Mauwi, and already dreaming of following love to Montreal, Sarah is deep in the liberation of transition.  Her bleu grass style has a touch of country twang and some smart girl punch.  Check her out tonight at 9:30 pm.  The show is free.

Sometimes life gets too busy and we all start rushing towards  our deadlines.  Sometimes life, seems to be passing us by, on the side.

I have been needing to remind myself that life is not about work, or tasks, or getting things done, or making money, or paying your taxes, or showing up on time for every deadline…..  this life of mine can be as fun as I want to make it.

So I am reminding all of you and myself….

Stop.  Think for a moment.  What would you do if you could do anything you want?  Really.. Anything!

Now… realize that you can!  You can.  No.  Now, …. don’t say why you can’t, because it probably isn’t true!  Maybe you have to look at things differently to see that it is possible.  Take a look at life with more “Yes” in your eyes.

Are you excited to wake up in the morning?  Is tomorrow anther adventure worth getting out of bed for?  If not what changes do you need to make for it to be so?

The first step to a life filled with fun is visioning it.  It is easy to dream no?   If you have been spending time wishing or longing you are already part way there.    The next step is easy too if you tell yourself it is.  The next step is the realization that you are entitled to your dreams!  And your can make them happen.

Don’t wait for someone else to dream your dreams for you…. Your dreams are your own.  Yes, people will tell you it will be hard.  They will tell you it can’t happen.  They are all telling themselves that they should not dream their own dreams.  Don’t listen.  It isn’t true.  Go boldly forth and DREAM.  Dream your dreams into reality.

Grab life and imbibe it.

…and now for the really wacky futuristic wood art….

…and some land art…

I have owned this Treehouse book for many years.  It shows the step by step construction of a round treehouse, as well as featuring many different styles of tree houses that people occupy for living in, making art in and play.

Plant more trees.

]]> http://katrinleblondblog.com/inspiration/magic-tree-houses/feed/ 1 http://katrinleblondblog.com/cruise-collection/vintage-lovelies/ http://katrinleblondblog.com/cruise-collection/vintage-lovelies/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:31:15 +0000 Katrin Leblond http://katrinleblondblog.com/?p=2296

http://www.vintagelovelies.com/

Yeah!   the new shipment of umbrellas has finally arrived in the store.   Come checkout the daisies and roses and dahlias and palm leaves.   There are umbrellas with floating air balloons and purple ruffles…  Peacock feathers!   Sunflowers!  Water lilies!   Come pop up your very own personal halo of joy.   Available in folding or walking stick varieties.  Yes we do now have versions that can fit in your purse.