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In all seasons, but especially with the springing up of things, Solvitur Ambulando – it is solved by walking. Off we go. Pearl is ready.
Painting En Plein Air: The Wyeth is 1 year old!
Wyeth Plein Air Box
Our Creek.
Substack + YouTube
Coming Soon: Of a Kinds!
Our next collection is nearly finished and will be available soon:
April 25th at 10:00 am ish EST!
Add to your calendars now!
New Little Finch with Enchantment
Totes with Extra Pockets + Pasts
Everywhere, Astonishments
Ah, the land. So much magic and mayhem sprouting this year. Here is some of the magic.
Meadow Rue
Tiorella
Dutchman’s Breeches
Freckled Violet
Storefront
The Peg and Awl Storefront is open for visitors! Come see our treasures in person along with other maker’s treasures and vintage finds.
Spring is Calling!
In all seasons, but especially with the springing up of things, Solvitur...
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Making my journals — which is different every time — has bright moments at either end: gathering the old materials and pulling the finished book from the press. But the making itself? Daunting, every time.
Spring is here with rain and warmth and also the uninvited plants that take over the land. I’m reminded that this is just the nature of things.
The obstacle is the way. On repeat.
What’s in My Bag?
What’s in my new pouch! I cannot resist our quilt block pouches. More in the next batch!
Here is what I packed in my Finch for today:
- Journal – new and needs finished!
- Transcription by Ben Lerner
- Key
- Water Bottle – kid size!
- Tinted Lip balm from Hurrah
- Sendak Nutshell for spontaneous self-portrait!
- Wallet
We have a few Pipit Totes and Journals in our Shop!
Last Chance for Almond!
We have put the last Almonds on Sale to make room for new treasures in the works!
The Hunter Satchel
Substack + YouTube
Coming Soon: Of a Kinds!
Our next collection is nearly finished and will be available soon:
April 25th at 10:00 am ish EST!
Add to your calendars now!
Everywhere, Astonishments
Listening: Ryan Holiday on Diary of a CEO and on Modern Wisdom
This Panoramic: IFYKYK
Hiking and Reading
Cleavers Water — the cleanest hint in water! More than mint, even, for me. It is inexplicable.
A fav spring treat!
Cleavers supports lymph flow and drainage.
Violets! Invasives aren’t the only abundant plants around here. I love, love all of the lush and crammed violets this year.
Bluebells are Thriving.
Trillium and Hellebore
Pearl and my 3 fellows last weekend
Last later Spring’s Sauna for garden context
The Obstacle is the Way
Making my journals — which is different every time — has bright moments ...
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“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it... Life is long if you know how to use it.”
–SenecaWe celebrated Søren’s 18th birthday with a trip to Delaware for bike rides and oysters. I am so thrilled that Søren will begin to live a whole new life so soon, but I will miss our art days and dinners and talks. I will miss our bike rides and walks and adventures. We will have to learn to talk on the phone (which sounds strangely fun!) I always look forward to change, but this is a tough one.
It is easy to feel like you haven’t done enough but looking through the abundance of photographs and journal pages, our lives actually feel quite full and wonderful!
On Homeschooling
We always wanted to homeschool, but in 3rd or 4th grade Søren got in trouble for drawing in class. In response, he wrote: “I will draw in class!” on the Peg and Awl reclaimed old school chalkboard. We used it to share our new journals, pouches, and chalk tablets, and took him out of school shortly after, where he drew and drew, happily ever after.
Our Brightest Sendaks – ’Tis the season!
Last week, we launched a small batch of three new Sendak colors – Egg Yolk, Persimmon, and Cochineal. Thank you for your warm reception of these Easter Brights.
Art Days with Søren
Art Day Partner
My Heart
From our visit to SCAD where Søren is headed in September!
Søren came into this world 5.5 weeks early to Gogol Bordello. Last week saw them in Philadelphia!
Above: Icecland in 2008 when and where Walter and I were married.
On Keeping a Journal
I love looking back at the journals I kept for Søren and Silas when they were so little. I put things they said or did or misunderstood in them. They scribbled on the pages. Here are some favourite funny moments from Søren when he was two and three, that had me laughing til tears this morning.
On Music
“Don't sing mama! When we both sing, I can't hear my noise.”
...
“Do you know what this song is? It sounds like a skeleton singing!”
On Travel
“I love when we do trips.”On Directions
Søren, 5, was taking a sculpture class. “It’s there.” You pointed to the turn I missed. “If you ever think you know the way,” I said, “Tell me. You are usually right.” “Okay, but it's okay. It's just because you lost your memory.”
On Love
“Take your time loving me, mama.”
On Illness
“Coughing. “It’s the hurty kind, mama. The kind with corners in it.”
On Tasting Wine
“The hotness is still in my throat. I don't care for it.”
My Most Popular Instagram post ever was this portrait of Søren and the chess set he made when he was 10!
The Next Littles of Peg and Awl
Ashley makes the videos and helps me with newsletters every week. This is from last Saturday – always last minute chattering and pulling it together with her four kids in and out. We've started getting together at her new old farmhouse some Mondays bringing new energy to our work!
Ashley here. Many hours spent reading aloud to these littles, as did Margaux to the boys when they were the littles. Talking about our favourite picture books (see Margaux's book list below!) I was reminded – we adults must make way for imagination and the paths of childlike discovery, and leave our “well, actually’s” outside. Read The Little Prince! It’s not a hat, it’s an elephant inside of a boa constrictor.
Ex. Well actually, you can’t fly.
Substack + YouTube
Everywhere, Astonishments
I have a hard time looking back. When I do, it is the hurty kind, with corners. I managed to look through books we read when Søren and Silas were little and pull out some favourites to share.
Each one of these books (and oh so many more) prompt so many memories and adventures — the corners softened!
The Dark | Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen
The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy | Beatrice Alemagna
When the Sky is Like Lace | Barbara Cooney
The Maggie B. | Irene Haas
Frederick | Leo Lionni
The Little Prince | Antoine DeSaint—Exupery
Grandad’s Island | Benji Davies
Outside Over There | Maurice Sendak
Pinocchio Retelling | Roberto Innocenti
The Listz | Kyo Maclear and Julia Sarda
The day this stinker rolled around in somebunny who no longer is,
Søren Turns 18!
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of ...
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Our brightest colors yet! Like spring flowers pushing through dark earth – our new Poppy Sendak Colours bloom brightest against our earthy hues.
We sent a message out on Instagram asking for help with the naming. Thank you for all the great suggestions! We chose these three sweeties:
- Egg Yolk – a classic cartoony egg or grocery store yolk.
- Persimmon – a favourite fruit that grows abundantly here.
- Cochineal – the colour that comes from bugs used to make paint!
We can customize any Poppy Colour Sendak!
Egg Yolk (Cartoon Eggies)
Classic in Persimmon
After finding this old newsboys bag last autumn in bright orange and yellow, we couldn't resist the waxed canvas colours that have been beckoning for years. We added cochineal due to the endless requests for reds.
What is Waxed Canvas?
Waxed Canvas is a cotton canvas with wax embedded into the fibers. The wax darkens the colour of the textile, and makes it water resistant, giving it protection from the elements. It also shows marks of use, giving it the charming rugged look that we were drawn to sixreen years ago when we started Peg and Awl, and continue to love as we use it throughout the years. The wax reflects lighting differently so the range of tone in the photographs reflects the range of tone you may perceive in life. The colours may vary slightly from batch to batch because they are hand dyed. The wax will fade with use and the colour of the bag will lighten and evolve. We love all of this. Your bags will change through use, giving each one a one-of-a-kind patina with the stories and marks from your life!
We use two different canvas weights for our Sendaks and Bags. The Sendak canvas is thinner and lighter to acommodate so many pockets and treasures. The colours vary between the weights.
All About Our Canvas and Colours!
What are the marks on my bag?
Wax canvas looks cozy and worn in from the start, because of the crazing – the creases and marks – that show up with use. Some colours are craze-ier than others! The Coal is the least mark prone, and shows the most dust and pet hair in the beginning, but with use, as with all the colours, the wax works its way into the cotton fibers, protecting it from the elements, including pet hair.Can You Make a Sendak in _____?
We use two different canvas weights – one for the Sendak and another for our Bags. The Sendak canvas is thinner and lighter because of all of the layers and intricacies of the artist roll.
Some limited colours are only available in one weight. This is why we may introduce a colour in Bags that we don’t offer in Sendaks, and vice versa.
Why is this Canvas Softer that the Others?
Most of our canvas comes from Fairfield Textile, and the waxiness is fairly consistent, but we love finding new colours and new manufacturers, so there can be variation in the canvases.
Sweetshrub, Radish, and Rook are all a little softer and waxier than the others at first, but again, all wax works its way into the fibers with use.Our Leather
We use black and brown vegetable-tanned leather from Wickett and Craig for our bags and Sendaks. Fog and All Black are paired with black leather and all other colours are paired with brown leather.
We can do any leather and canvas combination that you wish!
Just email us or write your request in your order notes.
Our Collections Explained
If you’ve been following along with us for a while, you may have noticed that not all launches are the same – some products stay for years, some fly off the shelves, and others fall somewhere in between. Here are some explanations to distinguish between our various collection types.
Standard Collections: Everything in our standard collections will be ongoing until we decide to stop making them! They may include some vintage or antique materials, (ex. journal fabric lining) but these details will vary subtly to ensure their ongoingness.
Small Batch Collections: Limited batches incorporating vintage or antique materials where larger batches can be made, but are not infinite! The quantity ranges, but we aim for minimum of 100 in these collections.
Of a Kind Collections: Limited batches incorporating vintage or antique materials. Each object will be limited from 1–20 items depending upon our findings.
My Substack
Everywhere, Astonishments
Yedda – long story in the works.
New Poppy Colors
Our brightest colors yet! Like spring flowers pushing through dark earth...
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“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.”
–from The Preface of The Short Stories by Ernest HemingwayI am currently reading A Moveable Feast. I remember struggling through Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea in our shitty apartment that flooded regularly when I was a kid. And then struggling through the sun also rises. But I am loving this one.
I don’t often listen to a book without also having a hardcopy, so I spent some time going through boxes of my old books that don’t have a place yet in our home – though we’ve been here eight years. Walter built the library (above and below), in our old Philadelphia home. I miss it, the library. In moods like this I wonder why I keep so many books I’ll never reread. And then I found a slipcover-less hardbound copy of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore with two pages of scrawl written by an old boyfriend who still plays in a band I still love. This is why. The objects we keep are infused with meaning and stories and are often the time machine I dream of – spontaneously digging up long forgotten memories and bringing them back to life.
I ended up buying A Moveable Feast, though I did not make it through all of the boxes. I must see the words of books on paper for some reason – even though I pause, write, rewind, and write again, just as I did with lyrics from tapes when I was really young.
What’s in My Bag?
Exciting to read about Hemingway’s well-worn leather satchel filled with much of the same stuff I carry.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Here is what I packed in my Finch all week for my daily hikes:
- Journal – nearly finished. I’ve begun working on my next one.
- Anselm-style Journal – tutorial coming soon, promise!
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, though I am listening too – I love the reader James Baughton.
- Side Pocket Pens and Pencils for easy access
- Keys
- Water Bottle – kid size!
- Another book – often for changing moods :)
- Knife – a gift I didn’t know I needed!
- Lip balm/hand salve from Mellow Root Herbals
- Sendak Nutshell for spontaneous self-portrait!
- Peg and Awl prompt cards
- Writing Projects Printed
- Wallet
Same, same. Bag with worn leather straps, notebooks, pencil, sharpener..! Comfort in the familiarity. My animal feet, however, are on my living animal - so I have four of them for good luck! *see marked up book below
Not in my bag, but always by my side!
*Always scribble in your books!
Coming Soon!
We’ve been working on some fun new treasures. The new Bright Sendak colours! We are currently liking the names Egg Yolk (grocery store), Persimmon, and Cochineal, but these may change. They will be available Saturday, March 28 at 10:00 am EST!
Colours
Peek at Some Play
My Substack
The Rat Room Update
Whenever I share glimpses of Walter’s woodworking in Instagram stories, it brings in far more views than anything else. His skill comes from another time altogether. When the inspector came to the old Peg and Awl shop, he was surprised and impressed by the craftsmanship throughout the building – which Walter did not claim – because he didn’t have the proper permits or licenses, or all the other drivel the world requires.
Everywhere, Astonishments
Listening: Michael Pollan on Joe Rogan and Stephen Fry with Oxford Writing House
Book: Leslie Stroz has published a book on tiny painting and Peg and Awl treasures are strewn throughout its pages. If you are eager to jump into making tiny paintings, have a look!
Sendaks filled in so many ways – I love how she shows the contents on top of the pockets!
Crocuses!
The Used Thing: What Lives Inside What We Carry
“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seein...
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Video by Natasha Newton on the Sendak Nutshell
Video by Kevin Ratcliffe on the Classic Tote
Video by Peter McKinnon on the Sendak Artist Roll
Video by InsainHusain on the Sendak Artist Roll
Video by Leslie Stroz on the Sendak Nutshell
Video by me, Margaux, on waxing my Finch Satchel
Watch Video of Peg and Awl Treasures in Other's Hands (by Leslie Stroz, Peter Mckinnon, Natasha Newton, and More!)
Video by Natasha Newton on the Sendak Nutshell Video by Kevin Ratcliff...
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Is it This Cold Finally Coming to an End?
It has been a harsh, cold winter. I imagine that it will be the most magical spring – contrast does wonders for the soul!
Next week we will be sharing a new Of a Kind collection featuring Sendaks, Tins, Pouches, Journals and more! Have a peek below and treasures to come...
The luminous winter nights were quite spectacular.
Of a Kinds – Coming March 1, 2026!
We’ve been delighted and horrified by this winter, but the colours that have emerged have been lovely and inspiring. Though the dominating colour this season – which we aren’t so used to here – was snow, warmth via light and other dollops have been a delight.
Lots of Alternative Sketchbook Shapes
Rhombus orphan squares to star-patterned quilt
Lichen, red maple, twigs and slush
Studio and sauna glowing at night
Studio and sauna glowing at night
Of a Kind Nutshells – much requested!
Our house through the frozen Primrose and Goldenrod
Pearly in our Winter Wonderland
Vintage 1960s/70s Raw Painting Canvas meant to be stretched and painted upon.
The SAME day the snow melted, snowdrops were revealed in bloom!
New Pipits!
Big Orphan Square Pouches
Our 100 Day Projects
We’ve begun. I am bumbling through. Søren has found a ritual, Walter wandered off with an abundance of work beckoning...
Sketchbook specifically made for project. Video coming soon!
Me in My Studio
We are Going a Little Stir Crazy Here...
Something wild is coming into Sendakland...
So we added brighty bright colours
Substack and YouTube
Everywhere, Astonishments! Letters and Books
- Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Listened on Audible and didn’t love the reader, but really enjoyed this short book about writing and movement and their symbiotic relationship.
- Book: Finally reading Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott and enjoying the familiar wisdom of it.
- Podcast: Also, Rick Rubin had George Saunders on Tetragrammaton. So much process has been a wonderful pairing with the 100 Day Project, which is all about little by little makes a lot!
Oysters, alas! With my oyster partner.
Is it This Cold Finally Coming to an End?
Is it This Cold Finally Coming to an End? It has been a harsh, cold win...
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Leaving the Cold to Find More Cold
I am in New Mexico visiting Deborah J. Stein in her cozy old rambling New Mexico house filled with books and colour and art and art supplies, and so many words between us that the windows and doors were bulging, which was fine because it let in the cool desert air which I so desperately needed for my lungs.
I brought a Nutshell for Deb and she instantly made it look a thousand years old!
My paints in the sunnyshine!
Now Deb has one of each and a Maker’s Pouch and so, so many delectable art supplies that she shared all week long.
New Mexico Light
Every day’s light was better than the previous day’s light. In sun and hail and snow and rain, scrumptious light. Can I stay? I am aching to stay.
Daily Walks, Loving the Very Rural Ramshackle
We found an Owl Nest and beneath it found treasure of the miniest kind!
Lots of Chillies and Osha Root in our pockets!
New home, hello?
Really, the colours
And the colours...
Drawing night in the snuggliest room.
Meanwhile, Back at the Five Acre Wood...
I fled the cold and damp and haha, jokes on me, arrived to another cold and damp that promises warmth beginning tomorrow. My crew stayed home and finally got to work on a long overdo project, read made art, and delicious dinners. I smelled it through the phone.
Walter’s kitchen desk full of books and words and sketches
More of this — please stop! (Though you sure are purty!)
Our Classic Sendak
Substack and YouTube
Everywhere, Astonishments! Letters and Books
Shops and Treasure in Santa Fe and visiting Eli Levin’s Studio in Dixon, NM. More on that at Substack this week, (fingers crossed. I never really know what I'll write but, oh my goodness, so much magic!)
Handful of Osha, sipped this morning and last night in tea hot + cold
Are You the Teacher of the Heart?
Leaving the Cold to Find More Cold I am in New Mexico visiting Deborah...
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