Did I mention there were three fantastic ladies that joined me at the Cozy Winter Retreat?

Meet Meghan.

Meghan is a visual artist who spends her day inspiring young artists by teaching high school art class.

You can just imagine my excitement when I found out she was able to join us for the winter retreat. It's always nice when we can add some variety to our group of sewers; not only is there one less clunking machine, but the visual art is such a creation of the moment: there's no predetermined design or plan. It was going to be so exciting seeing what would inspire Meghan in our retreat space. I've always admired her paintings of colourful outdoor beauty.

Undecided about what to work on, Meghan came equipped with a whole car of supplies. Paints, chisels, exacto knives. Canvases, wood blocks, linoleum.  So much more exciting than fabric and thread. Well, except maybe when you see a collection of fabrics that make up a beautiful baby quilt. But we'll get to that in the next feature.

Her artist's toolbox was already so intriguing, what was she going to make with it all?!


Saturday morning we went for a walk together in the deep, deep snow, down the cottage property towards the Nottawasaga River. The morning was beautiful: bright and sunny, although unforgivingly windy. We witnessed a beautiful fugue between two Mockingjays. (Okay, I have since confirmed they were common Chicadees -- infinitely less exciting, but their back and forth banter was still beautiful.) With her exacto knife in hand, Meghan foraged the ground for inspiring pieces of nature.

Yes. There are Mockingjays at the #purpleworkbench #winterretreat. http://t.co/xcFrgAsNUF
— Kelly Dunwell (@KellyWorkbench) February 22, 2014

I always find it so ridiculous that someone could be in awe watching me stitch a straight line. I wonder if Meghan felt the same way when Danielle, Magda, and I were ogling her ability to glue foliage onto painted blocks of wood. It was just so darn beautiful! I was amazed at Meg's ability to edit and simplify to transform the clumps of dead grass she brought back from the outside tundra to look vibrant and alive.



Her other project was undeniably fascinating to watch. She created two linoleum prints. My zero education in this process would describe it as carving into the linoleum to create a giant rubber stamp. You sort of have to think backwards and carve out the negative space, and then think mirror image because everything is reversed when printed.


The "thistle" print was incredible. And she was nice enough to make three prints so each of us could bring one home.


Thanks so much, Meg, for your surge of visual art creativity at the retreat! And an extra big thank you for introducing me to the reality series "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist"; I cannot believe I had not heard about this show earlier!

My recent Cozy Winter Retreat was simply amazing. Relaxing, productive, serene, inspiring.

Thanks for all the nice words from those following our weekend via Twitter or Facebook. Why did it take me so long to get an iPhone?!

It was a small turnout, perhaps because I dropped off the radar due to classic first-trimester queasiness (baby due in August!) but I think it all worked out perfectly for me. I could not have asked for three more encouraging, talented, and fun attendees!

The four of us were spoiled by the massive space in a cottage on the Nottawasaga River, just outside Orangeville, ON. The fifteen-person capacity meant plenty of living space, bathroom space, and creative explosion space.

Lucky for us. Because our projects required space... Some more than others.

Meet Danielle.

Another Engineer by day, Crafter-Jeweller-Sewer by night. But Danielle has some super human powers that I hope rubbed off on me at the retreat. Alongside her ability to create with quality, so much of her work is designed by herself. A quick glimpse at her blog and your jaw will hit the floor.

She needs a custom mat for her front hallway. Check.

How about a hat, and another hat, and another hat (as part of a dinosaur halloween costume) for her adorable son, Adam? Done, done, and done.

And boy, that nursing chair could really use a facelift. She'll just do it herself!

It takes confidence and talent to try so much on your own, and we were so lucky to witness the process first-hand when Danielle created her most recent masterpiece: the cape.

Danielle was wowed and inspired to replicate this fabulous cape she saw on Chictopia.com.

She acquired some beautiful wool at a shop on St. Clair West, picked out some gorgeous lining fabric to pair with it, grabbed some accent teal piping (she's all about the details) and then set to work at the retreat making a big mess on the floor.



It's amazing how quickly she worked after her initial 20 minute blank stare, which was obviously her engineering brain calculating angles and performing mental isometric views of the design.

By the end of the retreat, she had completed most of the cape. My favourite part of the design is her oversized collar. No, my favourite part was witnessing this magnificent woman at work.

Congrats, Danielle, on such a beautiful garment!

For a full account of her cape crusade, including pictures of the finished masterpiece, check out the post on her blog!

Most Canadians are proud to be Canadian. There are a hundred reasons why, but I think integrity is a big one.

When I first did an online search for some farms or farmer's markets where I could shop for winter retreat food supplies, I learned about Reid's Potato Farm. The farm itself has been a family farm since 1845, but the truly exciting discovery was the self-serve "Farm Market" located right on their property.

I'm not using the term "self-serve" because you shop by yourself; I mean, the market is entirely unmanned. You pick your goods, write it down in the notebook, tally it up with the little purple calculator, and open up the till all by your honest self.

I love that they trust their customers, and I love that no one has ruined it for everyone else. I doubt this honour system would succeed in many other countries.

Although it was the dead of the winter, the market offered a decent variety of produce from neighbouring farms. I picked up a bag of carrots (I admit I was enticed by the handwritten note that read "our carrots are dirty but they taste delicious!"), a bag of Fuji apples, apple cider, a dozen eggs, a jar of elderberry and peach jam, and a frozen strawberry rhubarb pie. All were fantastic. Especially the dirty carrots.

It is also worth noting that I was equally impressed by their website. They really took the time to create a simple, informative, and professional website that is so well written. All too often I find business websites that are too flashy, littered with grammar issues, or non-existent. They have taken the time to not only advertise their farm, but to voice their commitment to environmentally conscious farming.

It's little gems like this farm market that really make rural Ontario so loveable. If you happen to be in the area, stop by anytime. No, seriously: anytime. With a self-serve system, their hours are 24-7!





Photos courtesy of bluetuque.blogspot.ca

The retreat is a mere 4 days away! It's not too late to take my last spot!

It's crunch time for the menu planning and keeping in theme with the winter comfort food, I decided that a puff pastry something-er-other would be perfect.

I've got a couple vegetarians this weekend and one of my favourite vegetarian comfort foods is a flaky, hearty, pot pie. It's easily adaptable for the meat eaters, and equally comforting when filled to the brim with winter vegetables.

Ever since the puff pastry episode of The Great British Bake Off, I've wanted to try Paul Hollywood's recipe to try and make puff pastry from scratch. If you have never heard of the show, or who this Paul character is that I speak of, you are missing out!

The method for making the puff pastry seems straight forward. Make the dough, flatten some butter in the middle, fold and flatten, fold and flatten, fold and flatten. Paul does a great video demo of how to do this, and he stresses how important it is to make sure you rechill the dough and butter between each fold and flatten.

With all the "chill for an hour" or "chill overnight" the whole process does take a little while. I took a few shortcuts (of course) and was really so impressed with the outcome. My trial pot pies were mostly delicious with such a superbly flaky and crispy crust. I did learn that you need to roll a piece of pastry significantly larger than the size of the dish to allow for lots of shrinking, but I'm feeling good about our Friday night dinner to start the retreat off on the right foot!

For the pot pie filling, I mostly followed Ina Garten's recipe for Vegetable Pot Pie: a delicious mix of your usual suspects (carrots, potatoes, onions) plus butternut squash and fennel.

Happy Family Day to all my Canadian readers!

I think I'm beyond using pretty words like "brisk" and "crisp" to describe the kind of winter we're having. As an Ottawa girl at heart, I've always told my Torontonian friends that the secret to surviving the deep chill of winter is to make sure you are well equipped.

Big winter parka.

Long underwear.

And a good pair of wool slippers.

I was at the thrift shop the other day, poppin' some tags, gettin' me some sweata's and decided to turn the $6 wool sweater into a warm pair of slippers.


As with most DIY projects these days, there is an endless supply of tutorials online.

So far, I've tried a modified version of this tutorial from We Can Re-Do It.


I need to try at least one more time. Or maybe attempt another pattern.

Interested in joining me? This will be one of the optional workshops offered at the Winter Warmth Retreat! Just bring a wool sweater and I'll supply everything else!

Cheers to a wonderful 2013!

Purple Workbench has been alive and afloat for over 6 months now and it feels good to have shared some creative experiences with you!

Maybe you baked yourself a pound cake?

Maybe you made yourself an ornament for the tree?



Maybe you were one of the 7 ladies who joined me at a farmhouse retreat to relax, feast, and craft together!



The new year brings new opportunities to be crafty and creative, and I'm excited to announce the next Purple Workbench event!

Purple Workbench presents:


Join the Purple Workbench for a weekend to escape the snowy citylife and make time to relax and create. The 5 bedroom luxury cottage is nestled in peaceful forestry adjacent to the Nottawasaga river, just outside of Orangeville.

Like the previous farmhouse retreat, this is your chance to bring any creative project to work on and have all your culinary needs provided for. I'll have optional sewing workshops available if you are looking to brush up on your sewing skills, but any crafty endeavour is welcome! (I'm thinking of bringing my laptop to finish up some digital photobooks...)

On the menu will be heartwarming meals aimed to comfort and soothe away any winter blues, and there will always be plenty of delicious treats and beverages to fill the weekend.

For more information on the event, including registration, please send an email to contact@purpleworkbench.com. Cost is $300 for a private room plus all meals and snacks.

Wishing you all a fantastic end to your year and creative plans for the future ahead!

Living in a big city can be financially difficult. Things just cost more. But you don't want to sacrifice life too much just to save a couple bucks. There's a fine balance between saving for your future and enjoying life before it's gone.

The lovely writers at Urban Departures are giving a great account of their journey to Financial Freedom without missing out on life's treasures.

They support travelling, good food, buying what you love, athletic luxuries, and a fave at the Purple Workbench: crafty hobbies. All while keeping their financial goals in check.

Where do they splurge? How do they try to save? It's great fun reading about regular (and chic) modern urbanites as they learn about the financial basics and more.

Their latest post is a Purple Workbench post for a DIY Christmas ornament that doubles as an inexpensive gift. Go check out my step by step tutorial on the Zipper Christmas Tree Ornament!