Vancouver | The Cross

Well I am in Vancouver today - mixing a little B with P -  so I thought I would feature a favourite shop of mine in Yaletown - The Cross.  Wonderful new and vintage furniture and gifts, stationery and apothecary products. The store space is a huge brick warehouse with incredible beams and fabulous windows - which is typical of the Yaletown district in Vancouver. I think they do a wonderful job of merchandizing the store with a great mix of old and new. Their selection of striking and extravagant pillows is amazing. I love these tourquoise sheers.

The Cross Decor and Design is located at 1198 Homer St, Vancouver, BC. They have some great images on their site.

Now I am off to visit some of our Vancouver retailers, do a little shopping, take a few pictures and then have dinner at Joe Fortes tonight with the lovely Lisa { our distributor-extraordinaire! } I hope to have a post for you on Monday depending on how late we get home - have a great weekend everyone!

Illustration and Design | Jessica Hische

During the day Jessica Hische works at Louise Fili's studio - designing beautiful books like these. Jessica is also a freelance illustrator and designer who specializes in hand lettering. Please check out her web site and prepare to be humbled by her talents.

If you are interested in Illustration you may have noticed a trend towards naive, loose, unstructured illustration and hand lettering recently. Sometimes it looks cool and edgy but, more often than not, it just looks like a six year old drew it. Maybe it's my more conservative side that finds it reassuring to find someone like Jessica who obviously loves to apply elegance and real craftsmanship to her work - it's a beautiful thing! Jessica lives in Brooklyn and illustrates for clients such as Penguin, Scholastic and Chronicle. I know you will enjoy her work.

Inspiration | Santos

I love vintage santos - there, I said it! I think they are extraordinary. I first learned to love them when I saw Mary Emmerling's collection in Country Home magazine. Yesterday I found this web site which has the most curious collection of artifacts I think I have ever seen on line. And not just that, the pieces are all photographed so beautifully - and if that's not enough - every thing's for sale. I stopped in my tracks when I saw this beautiful face and I knew she had to be on my blog today. She has carved wooden hair - I love that!

I am going to feature more items from Obsolete Inc. in the next few weeks. Many of the items are so 'powerful' that you just can't pile them all on to my little blog at once - they are too special - and it would be too overwhelming - so we will take them in small doses. Hope you appreciate them as much as I do!

Window Shopping | Pedlars

Have you been to Pedlars? If not then you need to run, don't walk. I love their collection of interesting objects. Not your run of the mill wares at all. Something special with every click. Check it out. I'm getting in the mood for a bit of shopping in Vancouver this week { the only trouble when you live in the middle of nowhere - the anticipation of shopping at big city stores is killing me - I know, I can hear you saying, well you just got back from New York for goodness sake - but for me it's not about the actual aquiring, it's more about the inspiring - I am a window shopper extraordinaire}

Pedlar's web store is located here. Enjoy yourselves - you are not restricted to window shopping - go all the way - if you dare!

You could go to their real shop, at 128 Talbot Road, Nottinghill, London - but I have a feeling it might take you a while to get there and, once again, it would involve airline food.

Random Objects | Bell Jars

I have a fascination with bell jars or cloche. They can make the most simple item look like a work of art. I like them on cake stands and I like them on simple wooden bases. I seem to remember that a recent Martha Stewart magazine had a beautiful article on bell jars, I must look it up. Here are a few for you to enjoy.

The bell jars pictured here are available at Bodie and Fou. You can buy vintage vacuum bell jars at junk stores that usually come with a tight fitting wooden base - very similar to the ones above with the eggs. The vintage vacuum jars often have really thin, wobbly glass  which makes your treasures look even more interesting! {Actually I think I like the egg ones the best of all the shapes above.}

Random Objects | more poufs and baskets

I ran into a few more poufs this morning when I was trying to chose a colour and style for the studio. These ones are from Graham and Greene. (I love the styling on the Graham and Green web site.)

I also fancy these rice baskets by the Indian Garden Co. They are so pretty, unusual and useful. I don't think I have seen anything like them before. Do you think they are painted? It's hard to tell.

Holiday Weekend | BC Day

It's a holiday weekend here. Today is British Columbia's birthday - she is 150 years old today and there are lots of celebrations going on all over the province. Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend wherever you are in the province(I'd love to know how you'll be spending your day!)

This is a poster that was published in 1958 for BC's 100th birthday - I found it at one of my favourite stores in Nelson, Kootenay Exchange on Baker St. It's a beautiful day here - perfect for a birthday party. Happy Birthday BC!

Random Object | Poufs

Well I think I need a couple of these for the studio. They are so fun and functional and they would fit in nicely with the rest of our studio. We used to have one of these when we were kids - I remember it was red with gold stitching.

You can get poufs like these at Tazi Designs -  lots of other colours too!

The weekend | Treasures

Did you have a nice weekend? I did. It was very relaxing which is good because I have a busy week coming up at Cartolina and then we are off to Vancouver for a few days at the end of the week. On Saturday morning we headed into Nelson for our usual Saturday morning routine - coffee at Oso Negro and then down to the farmers market to buy fresh fruit and veg for the week. On the way we took a detour past a yard sale that turned out to be an ephemera lover's dream. Boxes and boxes of vintage magazines, wood type, type catalogues, maps, newspapers, postcards, posters - you name it. Doug and I felt a little overwhelmed at first but by the time we had got our breath back we were walking away with an armful of treasures.

So what did I buy? Well I bought a lot of vintage magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s. I love this 1937 New Yorker. I also bought a Shanghai poster for my friend Linda who has been searching for one for a while now. These posters are quite collectable these days. Originally printed before the war, as advertising, they have survived quite well and look fabulous framed. We also bought some vintage litho'd children's books(I'll show you those another day.)

You can find these Shanghai posters on line here there are lots to choose from - I think they are really pretty and unusual.

Books | Work Life

Every time I go to the Uppercase blog the cover of this book catches my eye - isn't it wonderful? So dynamic and full of life - I love it. The Uppercase Directory of Canadian Illustration and Photography is available here at the Uppercase Gallery shop.