Marché Casse Noisette

It’s been quiet here. I’ve been a busy woman. Who hasn’t lately?

This is the third year in a row that Greg & I have been exhibiting at the 10-day Marché Casse Noisette (Nutcracker Market) in Montreal. My work life outside of designing fabric has consisted of designing labelling for our company that makes indoor gardening kits (think everything you need to grow a …). While Mano Verde was a wholesale venture for 8 years, we have pared things back in the past year to focus on other things, but still keep our hands in the dirt, so to speak, by participating in fun events directly with the final customer. The market is put on by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal and a percentage of all exhibitors’ proceeds help underprivileged children attend performances of the ballet.

Every year I sew up a stack of tea towels to sell at the market. Here are some of last year’s models.

This year they all went so quickly, I had extra space available and brought a slew of fat quarters to sell. While they definitely could have used ironing, they added a great colourful splash to the booth.

It was a fun venture that took a fair bit of prep time and all those days of chatting with cheery holiday shoppers that were tickled by the idea of offering a little gardening kit to a friend, or a small stack of locally designed fabric to the sewer in their lives. It has definitely put me in the holiday mood, though I can do without hearing another christmas carol for a good while.

And now I am back to having time to focus on this little venture. We celebrated Hanukah a week ago, the laundry is finally being tended to, festive cookies were made for the sweet little boy-in-my-life’s school christmas breakfast (cookies for breakfast … yes please) this morning, and hopefully we can get our act together to find a tree this weekend to make the house sparkle a bit.

Hope you are all finding time to embrace the warmth and cheer of the season.