My notecards at Type books

I took an inspirational trip to TYPE books on Queen West today and was happy to find my teNeues boxed notecards there. What a gorgeous home for them.
Felt inspired to post this photo - as I just love the colours plus the boy in the background immersed in his book is so cute. :-)

ps. If you live outside of Toronto you can also buy my cards online here. 

16 cards for only 10.95. USD. Dealio.

Photos from Spain Part 2: Barcelona

Our Hotel: The Hotel Praktik Rambla

Housed in a stunning 19 Century apartment building with modern furnishings.

Perfect combo of old and new.

Can't say enough about it. LOVED IT.

 The floors at Hotel Praktik. Love. #Tiles

The bathroom. Loved the green tiles.

 A fantastic bookstore in El Ravel.

Fantastic lunch at La Central with Luci Guiterrez' book.

 The ceiling at La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi.

 Visit with Luci Guiterrez. :-)

 Ricardo in his fantastic bookstore Abracadabra.

Gaudi's Park Guell.

Unfortunately over run with tourists and selfie sticks!

Inspiration: Edith Head

I saw this book in the window of a vintage clothing store this afternoon (69 Vintage on Queen) and for the rest of the day I've had Edith Head on my mind.

She had a Masters degree in romance languages from Standford but 0 design experience when she was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount. She's a great example of faking it till you make it.  
Her incredible people skills, PR savvy, + talent all contributed to her huge success.
Total Inspiration

#businesswoman #costumedesigner #EdithHead #AcademyAwards #kickasswoman #inspiration

A Month of Great Design in Toronto

The last 30 days has been absolutely chalk full of great design adventures in Toronto including:

 1. A super inspirational talk by Jonathan Adler at the DX

(Took 6 pages of notes!)

 2. A visit to Kevin Austin's stunning new shop Vintage Fine Objects in Corktown

(Could buy everything in the shop!)

 The Opening of Revealing The Early Renaissance at The AGO (curated by my friend Sasha Suda) (So proud of her!)

A fashion show of Comrags' Fall Winter 2013 Collection at Andrew Richard Designs. 

(Loved the clothes + check out this new swanky event space!)

All were very juicy experiences and deserving of their own post -- which will come next week when I'm caught up on my illustration work! Stay tuned.
Toronto - you are a great design city and sometimes terribly distracting. :-)

A Tale of two Shops

On Friday I went to visit Kevin Austin at Chair Table Lamp once last time. Kevin has sold the shop to a new owner who will take over the reigns June 13th. 

I purchased the small sunburst mirror which I'd been coveting for a while. I think it'll work well in either the hallway or bedroom and will also serve as a nice reminder of one of my favourite shop owners. (Corny but true!) 

Then on Saturday I went to the opening of a new shop VERSO in the back of INabstracto.
The owner Julie Jenkinson + her partner Kate Eisen had done an amazing job of transforming a dark little space into a beautiful oasis filled with art, furniture + lots of great vintage finds.
Inspiring.

Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the overall space... but I thought this oversized apothecaryish vase with pink peonies was just stunning.

Best of luck to Kevin +Julie on their new creative adventures. :-)

Salon Night

Salon Night with Colleen, Jen, Heather, Kim, Donna + Lynda.

 

Donna's great baked brie + almond appetizer 

 

Heather Shaw has such great layered style. Love her wrap around thingies, + mary jane shoes.

She's going on my aspirational  "How to dress" Pinterest board!

 Donna serves the delish shrimp pasta

Dinner is served.

Animated conversation above and ice cream from Ed's below.

A visit to comrags

Spring = A visit to comrags for a new spring frock.
**News: Did you know...comrags is moving to Dundas West?!
The design of this shop on Queen was described as "Country farmhouse meets urban industrial". Can't wait to see what they'll do in terms of interior design in the new space.
Stay tuned.

I settled on the Lucy dress in dijon.
Isn't it great?
Loved the pockets - big enough to collect eggs :-)


Happiness is a comrags package in one's bicycle basket!

I'm back!

Hi everybody
I did a major upgrade to my computer + couldn't get into the blogger dashboard for a week --- hence no posts! Glad to be back. Lots of fun hijinks in last week : Very fun West Elm / Style at home evening with Valerie including xmas cocktails, Mildred Pierce snacks + a new orange rug i got on super sale! whoo hoo.
Plus Q Live last Thurs with Jian Ghomeshi, The National + Justin Vernon! (Bon Iver)
Thank you Tori!

Catch up posts coming soon.

Sunburst mirror

Love this sunburst mirror from Chair Table Lamp. These mirrors always remind me of Tommy Smythe. That's a very good thing. Unfortunately by the time I spotted it - it was sold. Hopefully Kevin will find another!

The Arthur

On Saturday I visited The Arthur: a new vintage decor shop run by Liz Ikiriko. I'd been meaning to visit the shop ever since seeing the pics and reading about it on Emma's blog.

The Arthur is named after Liz's grandfather who was a collector of many wonderous things. The shop began as an online venture before finding it's bricks and mortar home at College + Euclid.


Loved this giant A.
Liz said they actually had to chop off a foot to get it in the door!

Wonderful display.

The shop is crammed with great items sourced from estate sales + auctions and is beautifully displayed on wonderful shelving made by her talented + handy partner Clay. Lucky Liz!!

This Junghans Bedside Clock is from their online shop and I think I need it now.
Love that red second hand.

I bought a great hat form with lots of patina which will be a perfect new holder for my bike helmet. Will be back for Christmas shopping...

The Arthur, 550A College St., 416-972-0725. Highly recommended.

A visit to Telegramme

Dropped off some more prints at Telegramme today.

Here is the very sweet Patrick.

There is lots of great new stuff in the shop including a bunch of fabulous posters from Cuba plus work by Aesthetic Apparatus, Doublenaut, + Shinzi Katoh. Definitely worth a visit.

Telegramme Prints
194 Ossington Ave Toronto (Just south of Dundas)

joe fresh

The epitome of joe fresh style:
Camel v neck, dark skinny jeans, and flat oxfords.

joe fresh opened a new location at Queen + Portland this week. Crowds lined up around the store for 14.99 long sleeved tees + thermal long johns. Madness! I thought this salesgirl epitomized the look. Would love to do a drawing of her...

Now that's neighbourly!

Owner of Blacksmith Cycle Mike with espresso + fresh banana bread
(I know.. he looks way too young to be the owner of anything!)

The gorgeous Gazelle "Tour populair" that Mike carries in the shop.
What a beauty.

Today I popped into Blacksmith cycle (which is now open!) to continue my bicycle search.
After giving me the low down on his beeyooteeful Gazelle bikes - owner Mike offered me not only an excellent americano from the shop's espresso bar but also a scrumptious piece of banana bread to go with it. Now that's neighbourly.
I wanted to say " Where am I? In an 19th century Amish town?"
:-)

ps. The bad news is: there are too beautiful bikes to choose from.
The good news is: I can't buy them all but I can draw them all. :-)

NYC Day 2

I forgot to bring my camera along today* so no photos.

Saturday = Essential Downtown shopping (or browsing!)

MUJI 455 Broadway
Housing Works Book store Cafe 126 Crosby
Housing Works Thrift Shop 128 Crosby
Paul Smith (love Paul Smith's Salon wall!!! - is quite to die for) 142 Greene St
J. Crew. Prince St.

Then a great dinner at
Bubby's in Tribeca 120 Hudson St.

* It was actually quite liberating to forget my camera for a day. I believe the art critic + social thinker John Ruskin would have approved! He despised cameras and felt they led to people not looking in the present but rather recording for the future. Agreed.

Japanese Tea pot print

My large Japanese tea pot print at Good Egg shop in Kensington Market
ps.
I also have smaller versions of this print.

New Spring shoes

Do we like these shoes?

Good. Cuz I bought them.
Found at one of my favourite shoe stores: Scarpino at 311 Queen St. West.

A Feast for The Eyes: Y + CO

The showroom. wow.

Luscious fabrics by Hable Construction
Soooo fresh looking.

On Left: Raoul Textiles: vibrant interpretations of historical patterns

On Right: John Robshaw: Hand blocked textiles.
(check out that pink and orange combo!)

Great Alphabet soup rug by Oliver Yaphe - a rug company run by Ali's sister Katherine Yaphe.
Love the sophisticated colour combo of limey green +periwinkle blue.


Two amazing fabrics by Christopher Farr
Just loved this balustrade pattern which is titled 36 24 36

Vanderhurd Hand embroidered textiles
Stunning.

Neither Ali or her assistant Kelly wanted to pose for a photo so I had to settle for the furry showroom mascot!

Today I headed to the heart of the Design District on Davenport Rd. and visited Y + Co. Carpet and Textile. I met up with the owner Ali Yaphe and when I entered her showroom I almost fell over at the sight of so many luscious patterns + saturated colours together in one space. For those not familiar...Y + Co. carries a huge assortment of carpets by some of the biggest names in the rug biz including David Hicks + Madeline Weinrib.

Recently the company has also expanded into textiles (!!) and carries fabric + wallpaper by a juicy collection of designers including Lulu DK, Raoul Textiles, and two of my absolute faves: Hable Construction and Galbraith + Paul.

I spent an hour and a half roaming through Y+ Co's extensive collection and left feeling inspired and full up with colour + pattern!

Y + Co.
247 Davenport Rd. Toronto.
Highly recommended.