Happy Weekend!

Have a fab weekend everyone! I'm going to paint the dreaded armoire black this weekend - I'm rather excited about that! Thanks for visiting the Cafe this week - see you on Monday!

These amazingly beautiful prints are from Zoe Ingram - via Freshly Blended via Craft Gawker! Hopefully we can get a bit more of Zoe's work here in the future - really lovely!

inspiration

These beautiful pillows are photographed by Michelle. I am not sure if she made them herself but they are really lovely and it makes me happy to have them here this morning!

Inspiration - Vintage Wallpaper

Beautiful and inspiring vintage wallpaper from Suzanne at Raccoon Studios. The dotted texture around the floral illustrations on the first example are really interesting.

Inspiration - Viarco

I am completely smitten by this Portuguese product. I have seen the most extraordinary packaging come from Portugal - starting with these fab pencil crayons. I simply LOVE the Viarco logo - don't you?

Inspiration - framed book covers

Did you see this great post by Esta Sketch at Apartment Therapy yesterday on framing your fave vintage books - really nice!

Window Shopping

Believe it, or not, these stylish numbers are available from Target. Good going Target, now hurry up and open a few stores across Canada!

Inspiration - Avida Portuguesa

The other day, when I featured the tiny treasures that I got in the mail from Fancy Linda, one of my readers, Raul, sent me a link to this store. There are so many fabulous things to be found at Avida Portuguesa I thought you might enjoy them!

Vintage cigarette cards

Kate from Coquette and Dove wrote to tell me about these cigarette cards that she had seen at Miss Moss - and she knew I would love them. They are from a series of 'how to' cards: How to draw a duck without lifting your pencil. How to suck a splinter out of your hand with a jam jar. All the way down to 'how to hold small animals'. All extremely useful things to know(check here for the other explanations). Even better I found 2 great new blogs - Coquette and Dove and Miss Moss.

Vintage inspiration

While I was checking out the cigarette cards at Miss Moss I noticed this stunning vintage commemorative cup. It's from an auction site - and long gone but I thought you would appreciate it's loveliness here this morning! You can't help but be inspired by the pattern and the colours - how about you?

Cartolina French Collection

A few months ago I redesigned some of our best selling cards for the French and French Canadian market. I worked with a translator and we produced a collection of almost 2 dozen french language cards. I'm pleased that they are selling well and that we have found an audience in Québec (and also France, Belgium and Switzerland.) For a list of stores selling our french cards email me and I'll put one together for you :-)

The Makeover - Episode II

So off we went to Kelowna on Friday to pick up the sofa and love seat that we found last weekend. I'm so glad I still loved it when I saw it for only the 2nd time. We loaded it onto Doug's truck and got home, after the 4hr drive, at 9pm on Saturday. It was a very hot evening but we hauled the old furniture out to the carport and hauled the new furniture in. I love it and I think it's a great start to the makeover. I picked up four, nice, feather filled pillows from Homesense in a graphic, black and white design - keeping in mind that the plan is to paint the armoire a soft matte black.

So below is a photograph I took yesterday morning and the last picture is after I have Photoshopped a black armoire and different wall art into the shot. I think that with some more editing of the 'country'accessories and new white walls it's going to come together quite quickly. I am realizing as i go through this process that though I crave a slick urban look it really doesn't suit our house or our location so I think I will call it 'eclectic modern' - or 'urban country' when I am finished!

Thanks so much to all of you who have sent me your great ideas and inspiring links - it has helped so much! I love getting them!

New releases at Blanket

You may, or may not, know that Cate Hubbard is one of my best friends. She and her husband Martin are the brains behind Blanket - the super stylish and crazy clever pet tag system that is enjoying lots of success these days due to it's innovative system that enables lost pets to be reunited with their owners quickly and safely without tattoos or chips etc. Cate has just released her latest collection of pretty little tags and I'm excited to show you them here this morning. Cate was telling me that so many pet owners wanted pink tags so the latest collection is inspired by colourful candy and polka dot bikinis. I love them and so, apparently, do pet store owners who snapped them up last week when she debuted them on her super fun blog - Under The Blanket. If you'd like to know more about the clever online system that ensures your pets are returned to you quick as a bunny - go to their website - Blanket! Good job Cate - I love the new designs!

Inspiration - shipping container offices

I thought you might find this interesting. The store that I bought my new furniture at - Treehouse in Kelowna BC - has recently moved into a huge new warehouse space and I absolutely love what they have done with their office space. They have taken steel shipping containers and piled them up inside the warehouse to make the coolest offices - they have painted them red inside with really cool industrial lighting. It's a great idea and they have pulled it off brilliantly . . . .