Happy Friday! 

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't forget to enter the giveaway - open until tomorrow (Saturday) evening. Winners posted here on Monday morning. Also I have just posted a job opening at Cartolina in our sales team - see below and forward to anyone you know who may be qualified and interested - Thanks. See you back here on Monday - Ciao!

*Job Opening*

We are looking to fill a couple of sales positions: We are looking for a professional sales rep, or reps, in the Ontario region to join our network of wonderful sales reps around the country. Experience in the stationery and, or, gift industry is required. Please contact me to discuss this further.

Cartolina is a successful, Canadian publishing company producing high-end, environmentally friendly, paper products,  available at beautiful boutiques in Canada, the US and around the world.

Get stuff done!

Aren't these fun? From Mary Kate McDevitt. What a fun idea. The designs are painted right onto the chalk board so they will be a permanent reminder to "get stuff done" Some people have such good ideas  :-)

First spotted right here at Dandy Bread and Candy.

New at Knack

I though you might like to see what's currently on the sales floor at Knack Studios! You can check out what's new on their site or on the Flickr Stream. These photos are great aren't they? They evoke such a great sense of style and really seduce you into wanting to spend all your savings on something fabulous in their shop - hey, let's go!

Hmmmmmmm - these are very cool - I can think of a lot of uses for these  :-)

French Grain Sack Pillows

Now before you say - "Oh I've seen those before!" - just take a closer look at these. These are made by La Petit Coterie. They are so pretty and they range in price from $32 to $38! { I have seen similar pillows in stores for hundreds of dollars!}  I am pretty sure that they are lovingly reproduced by hand - probably silk screened - they are gorgeous and you can't beat the price. Very nice!

Favourites

I was flipping through one of my favourite books yesterday, Flea Market Style, and I thought I would share one of the super thrifty ideas with you. So here's a great weekend project for all you DIYers   - shouldn't take too long, a few scraps of wallpaper and some glue. Go on, try it  ;-)

DIY projects from oncewed.com

I stumbled on these beautiful DIY projects on ffffound.com. They are all DIY projects from oncewed.com. There are so many to look at right here. All of them so pretty and creative and beautifully photographed. And you don't need to be a bride-to-be to find enjoy these projects - you could adapt them for lots of different gifts or occasions.

Enid

There's a little shop in Fredericksburg TX called Enid with lots of fun stuff right here.  I'd love to visit this shop. Looks like they carry all the things I love {and I love the name!}

India Rose

Do they have new product over at India Rose or do they just have better pictures? I'm sure I've seen these before but they look WAY better now - Or maybe it's just because it's summer now and I feel more like carrying my stuff around in a ra-ra bag! So cute!

Inspiration | paper boats

Super little paper boats from paper artist Jurianne Matter - as seen yesterday on decor8. They come flat and you fold them up. Very sweet!

Secret neighbourhood

When we were in Vancouver last week we stumbled upon an area known as Mole Hill - behind St Paul's Hospital, if you know Vancouver. At first glance it looks like a very well established downtown area of beautiful heritage homes, and abundant gardens - probably belonging to well off professional Vancouverites(Vancouver has some of the most expensive real estate in N. America) The gardens and grounds are beautifully kept and each house has been lovingly restored. I took note of the banners identifying the area as Mole Hill and Googled it when I got back to our hotel room. Turns out that Mole Hill is actually an affordable housing community of enviro-conscious homes and sustainable community gardens. They have a great website with lots of before and after pictures of the houses(you can see details of every house) - also, check out the gardens. I am so impressed with this - this should be a model for other communities to follow. If you are in Vancouver you must go and see it for yourself.

Some before and afters from the website.

Inspiration | O & L samples.

My interior designer friend in England sent me some wonderful samples and images from Osborne and Little. Thought I would share these with my pattern junkie friends this morning. Hope you are all as inspired by these wonderful deigns as I am.

Fabric source

I've seen a few items recently made from this linen. I really love the midcentury, Japanese design. I think I featured a bag a few months ago. So I happened to come across the source and I thought I would share this with you - it's from J.Carolina Creative - $9.50/yard. If you happen to make something from this fabric send me a picture, I'll post it here!

Cartolina Giveaway!

Right, it's time for a giveaway - YAY! We haven't had a giveaway for a few months and, considering today marks our 600th post, I think it's about time. So, up for grabs is big selection of Cartolina *best sellers*. Cards, notecards, minicards and notebooks(and if you're really lucky I'll throw in a couple of our brand new glittered Christmas cards!) Retail value of about $100. So what do you have to do to win this pretty little prize? - Well, since we just got back from the coast, I'd really like to know where your favourite beach is. You can write as little, or as much, as you like down below in the comment section and I'm looking forward to reading them all. We'll keep this open until Saturday evening and I'll have a winner's name right here for you on Monday morning. So where's YOUR favourite beach(I'll tell you mine -  Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island - now it's your turn!)

Back from Vancouver

So we just got back from a few days in Vancouver. We had clear blue skies for the entire time which is quite unusual for Vancouver. We go to Vancouver every 3 months or so. It's our closest city. Our distributor, Lisa, is in Vancouver and we love to go visit with her and also visit with some of our retail buyers. Getting away for a few days really does give a person perspective. We have been very busy at work for the last few months and I really enjoyed the change of scenery for a few days. We visited with good friends, went to the gallery, ate lots of sushi, went to the aquarium and strolled through Stanley Park. I also liked wandering around the shops since the shopping is rather limited in Nelson! 

Vancouver is a great city to visit - this picture was taken at Kits Beach at 8 o'clock on Friday evening. The sunset was gorgeous and the snow on the mountains was really pretty. Vancouverites are real outdoorsy types - running, walking their dogs and biking. There are beaches all around the downtown area.

Pretty Vancouver necklace at the top from Kohana Jewellery

The float houses at Granville Island.

The landscape around Vancouver is quite complicated to figure out. Because it's at the ocean there are numerous inlets, islands, beaches and bridges. One of the best ways to get around is on the Aquabus(the little water taxis). We took the Aquabus across False Creek to Granville Island Market. We've done this lots of times before but this time I noticed some float houses that I hadn't seen before right behind the Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island(best location for an art school ever!) So we took some pictures from the water and then tracked them down behind the art school. Aren't they fun?  They are all very beautiful homes with lovely 'gardens'. A great little community right on the water. They were gently rocking in the swell of the water when we walked past. Everyone has their own sail boat or kayak pulled up by their home - what a life!