Studio Update: Locarno Pants

We have been getting tons of emails and requests, inquiring about when we will come out with this season's pants. Well everyone, the time is now. These pants are a take on last year's Prometheus Pants, same wide fitted waistband and wide leg, and same great washed stretch linen blend fabric in new and exciting colors. They still have a side zipper closure, but this time a softer coil zipper instead of exposed metal. They are already available in the stores at the amazing price of $84. There is talk of doing a shorter "half pant" length soon!

Nicole is also wearing a new color of the Mount Pleasant, teal with allover floral print.

Lily Home: Blossoms at the milkman's daughter

Just as the cherry blossoms started appearing in Victoria, the milkman's daughter received a shipment of porcelain blossoms. I wanted to display them in the front window, but I needed a light fixture that was as delicate and beautiful as them. After much research, I decided to create one from doilies, an exercise ball, and wallpaper paste; it worked! Happy Spring, everyone!

the milkman's daughter

A few customers mentioned the milkman's daughter was missing something--a large branch, perhaps? Beautiful ceramic flowers with a wire backing that can be attached to pretty much anything?? Now we have everything!

Doily Lampshade

Dogwood Blossom $8

Magnolia Blossom $8

Vancouver Update: Springiness

We have made some Springy display updates in the Vancouver shop and are working on more. Here are some photos of newness and Springiness in store for you.

We changed up the jewelry display to be much more colourific (yes I'm taking liberties with the English language today!). I found these weird spools at Urban Source, a great place to find odd items to use for all manner of crafting. Fortunately, they are located just 5 blocks north of us on Main Street. Frequent visits are fun!

The Erica Weiner pieces look really interesting on the spools. We have a few new pieces from her line including the super sweet Faux Turquoise stud earrings at the bottom left of the photo.

We also received some new pieces by Vancouver jewelry design Sophie Wyser. Her line is called Random Revival and is constructed from new and used pieces of interesting materials that she reworks and combines to make really beautiful earrings and necklaces (I should do a full blog post on her soon - she's awesome!).

These old tubes are the new lighting I installed over the cash desk. The 60's vibe and colours go well with the kooky bright spools.

Here's a sneak peek into the next window display...

And for Spring garments...the most recent Luv Affair incarnation! Gorgeous stretch cotton twill with lace print, delicately scattered with blue Beetles. How great would this be to wear to a Spring wedding?

New Homewares at the milkman's daughter

The milkman's daughter has received new homeware items from Imm Living. Imm Living is based out of Toronto and creates playful modern cultural artifacts by drawing from traditional and popular culture. Here are a few photos of my favourite items (the hidden animal teacups are SO cute!). Stop by the milkman's daughter to have a closer look and check out the rest of the collection.

Large Flash Light $38

Little Red Riding Hood & Wolf Containers $52

The Grand Derby Series: Earl the Kangaroo Jockey $52

Hidden Animal Teacup: Owl $22

Hope Love Japan

A facebook friend of mine, Yukari Peerless, was a few days away from visiting her family in Japan when the earthquake hit two weeks ago. She decided to stay home in Victoria, but not one to sit idley by, she flew into action and planned a fundraising event for this Sunday. Hope Love Japan is being held at the new Parkside Hotel lobby (it is so beautiful).

Smoking Lily designed and made a cute wallet for the event. We came up with three different logos, I couldn't decide on my favourite, so we printed all three. The wallets will be there on Sunday, but if you can't make it down we should have them in our shops by the end of next week. All proceeds are going to the Red Cross.

Lily Inspiration: Wools, plaids and TWEED

This winter I visited a piece of my husband's family past, Tonedale, in the Southwest of England. His great ^6 grandfather, Thomas Fox, began the first ever Twin Vertical Woolen Mill (twin meaning they produced both worsted and woollen fabric, and vertical because they did the whole process: took in the wool and sent out the finished cloth). In seven generations, twenty-nine members of the family worked in the factory. It is now sadly empty, but much of the history lives on through stories and artifacts.

Like these awesome sample books Ben's uncle showed me dating from 1909-1920. Knowing my love of everything fabric related, especially plaids and wools, he knew I would be ecstatic!

One of the pages containing tweeds and pinstripes!

The nearby family house is still owned by the family and is rented out for meetings and parties. Here is a picture of the Tone Dale House in the summertime.

On a somewhat tweed-related note, Smoking Lily is a friendly supporter of the Tweed Ride Victoria on May 7, 2011. The ride is raising money for Bikes Without Borders, aiming to help send stretcher-bikes to the African nation of Malawi.

Sign up today at http://tweedridevictoria.com/

Happy Birthday David Suzuki!

As you are probably all aware from our previous posts, and the plethora of current media attention, today is David Suzuki's 75th birthday. Here is the window display we created in his honour at the Main Street shop in Vancouver.

We posted a banner (made with unbleached paper) with his image (in water-based ink) and one of the fundraising dresses (a bamboo blend jersey). The upcycled lamp is covered in second-hand sheet strips that are printed with our Periodic Table print.

Tiny Tiny Tees!

Over the weekend Liz and I did some serious brainstorming (mostly Liz) about what prints to put on some tiny little tees that I bought. I was thinking about all the little ones in my life and one in particular stands out. His name is Mason Mark Plows and he is so itty bitty little and hugely cute. He is a future Smoking Lily model and will be this weekend when I go to visit him and play dress up. Mason might not be big enough for the tee I got for him but I'm sure he will grow into it.

I peeked over to the printing area and I saw a big shipment of bright colored tees and onsies, so watch the stores for more.

Thank you to Courtney Munson-Boutin for her photo's of Mason.

Spotlight: Mary Chair

This is my favourite Smoking Lily piece right now. It is a chair waiting for the last little touch up in the back room at Milk. Mary, teeth, leaves, tulips, hot pink, coral and gold all in one. Yup, pretty fantastic if I say so myself.

Vancouver Update: Colours, prints, and David Suzuki!

Despite the fact it isn't supposed to last, we have been enjoying some seriously glorious sunshine here at the Vancouver shop--all the better to show off the fabulous David Suzuki fundraiser dress in the window! Today's box from the studio also brought us a roll of kraft paper covered with Mr. Suzuki, so I have a feeling we'll be posting some photos soon of more window display madness (happy birthday tomorrow, David!).

Along with conspicuous amounts of sunshine, we've also been enjoying an amazing amount of colour in the shop of late--yay, Spring! Here are some quick snaps of what's been brightening my day:

Beautiful tomato red and and an olive-y, army-ish green in the Luv Affair Dress. (You can't really tell in this photo, but the green is printed with coils of barbed wire; how lady-like!)

A cheerful range of teal, kelly green, and very bright periwinkle Garden State Dresses. These new Spring colours are all also a bamboo blend fiber, which makes them wondrously soft!

We now have the Cypress Skirt available in three lovely linens (magenta, teal, and pistachio), and are soon to have the über-comfy Wonton Love in a bright grape-y purple to go along with the "Moroccain" blue and "atomic" red pictured above (and my apologies for the rather crummy cell phone photo colour reproduction going on here. I highly recommend coming in to check them all out in person, of course;p).

Last, but not least, we received our first of the new printed Hester Skirt! Made from durable black cotton twill, these little (but not too little!) guys will go with just about everything. Glenda and I are famous for telling people that the Hester is the most useful skirt you'll ever own, and we're not kidding. I have two and Glenda has six--six!--and counting...

Little Girls Dresses!

A couple weeks ago I was introduced to Julie through a friend of mine. When we started chatting I immediately began thinking about the perfect photo shoot; Julie has two girls, ages two and five, and three chickens...Perfect! We made arrangements to meet on Saturday to take photos of the new girls' dresses, and as soon as I walked into their oh-so-cute home, I knew it was going to turn out even better than what I had originally envisioned. After a fantastic lunch, Miss Lucy gave me a tour of her bedroom, and then it was right to work.

Lucy and Georgia

Lucy in our new Linen Frock.

Both girls showing off the Stanley Dress and striped leggings.

...and, of course, a little silliness!

Lucy in the unnamed jumper. (*Update* Now named Lucy's Tunic!)

Lucy was convinced that the chickens liked her pink boots.

The backs of the Stanley and the new Linen Frock.

A detail shot of the lace doily pocket.

Georgia sporting the kids' cardigan with the bike print; so cute!

I think Lucy got the hang of modeling...
Thank you Julie, Lucy and Georgia!

All the dresses are available in sizes 2, 4, & 6. More information to follow.