Happy Canada Day!

It's a holiday in Canada today - it's Canada Day.

Most Canada Day weekends we go to George's birthday party. George Coletti is one of my all time favourite people. I met George the day we moved to Nelson in 1994 - we rented a very cool old apartment from him. Since then the Colettis have become like family to us and I'm really looking forward to this weekend because it's George's 90th birthday party. George and his family have owned the local junktique store in Nelson for a long time and I can genuinely say that most of the vintage furniture in my house is from their store. When we had the Dominion Café it was right next door to George's store and Lou, George's son, built the café interior for us. Lou is also the lucky owner of the best boat shed in the world - which I blogged about here. Here are a few pictures taken at George's store over the last few years . . .

A perfect showcase

This display is actually outside, in a cabinet, next to an antique store in Carmel. The store is in a tiny courtyard with lots of pretty flowers and old benches - so charming, as is most of Carmel. The yellow wallpaper on the back of the 2 cabinets is quite jaw dropping (I'm sure that some of you would know the design and maker) and with the blue and white porcelain, well it's positively perfect.

Cartolina at the Calgary Folk Festival

We're excited that, once again this year, Tracy and Cathy will be offering our Cartolina goods in Nelson's own, super cool Very Hush Hush travelling Airstream gallery at The Calgary Folk Fest July 22nd to 25th at Princes Island Park in Calgary. So if you're heading down to the festival be sure and stop by and say hi!

Inspiration - vintage souvenir scarves

These pillows are made from original vintage souvenir scarves from the 50s and 60s. Made by a Chicago artist they are available at Posh. What a great idea - I've often seen these kind of scarves at the thrift store.

Window Shopping

This first pillow makes me very happy - how can you not love those colours together? I'm fantasizing about bright colours because I finally bit the bullet and got a quote from a painter to paint our main floor all white - walls, trim and ceilings. I haven't committed yet but it's very tempting. Stay tuned - if I do go all white I will definitely take before and afters. Pillows and rugs from Company C.

Cartolina News!

Well, if you have been following along, you will know that we are off to New York again for the Stationery Show today. It's been a busy busy time here - I am constantly amazed at how fast we have grown in such a short time. I'm excited today to let my friends down-under know that, as of June, all our products are going to be available in beautiful stores across Australia including select David Jones stores. This is something that I have been working on for some time now and I am thrilled that it has finally come together.

The response to our new collection has been overwhelmingly positive and I am so grateful to those of you who wrote to tell me how much they liked the new designs - very heartwarming. So many of the readers here at the Cafe are fabulously talented and creative - it's always a bit daunting to debut a new collection here!!

So I have a little surprise for you today - Jennifer at Modern Paper Goods is offering a great promo to any of our readers who purchase Cartolina products for the next week - 50% off shipping! She has all the new product available including the notebooks and pocket mirrors. All you have to do is enter the promo code SHIP50 when you checkout - offer is available until the 21st. Thanks Jen!

I'll be back here in our neck of the woods on Friday the 21st - hope to do some blogging from New York in the next few days - so stay tuned - and have a great weekend.

Window Shopping | Wisteria

I was just checking out Wisteria to see what's new. I like their catalog - they feature furniture and accessories that are a lot less mainstream than some of the other mail order stores. If you furnished your home completely with Wisteria products it would look very eclectic and filled with personality like it had been a labour of love for decades.

Inspiration | Tord Boontje

I am so inspired by Dutch designer Tord Boontje's work. These images are from a collaboration with designer Alexander McQueen. pieces were created by Boontje for McQueens store in London. Over the last couple of years I have collected lots of images of his work, I'll show you some more soon if you like.

Books as photo props.

Here's a great idea. Those of us who have to take product shots for our web sites etc are always looking for props to make our pictures look better. I saw these wooden animals on Etsy and they are so sweet but it was the piles of books that they are standing on that caught my eye - this is such a good idea. It would be fun to search flea markets and rummage sales for old books to use in product shots.

Random Objects | Botanical Filofax

While I was researching botanical prints I came upon these fabby Filofax personal organizers. They are so gorgeous and check out the pretty little button. Do people still use Filofaxs?

Designer | Ellen, Bonspiel Creations

Hmmmmmm, looking at that bag from Assouline reminded me of one of my favourite leather crafters, Ellen Box from Bonspiel Creations in Victoria BC. We are lucky enough to have one of her retailers here in Nelson and I love to go in to see what's new from Bonspiel. This bag is a new look for Ellen - this time she has screen printed the large negative space around the line art so that the pale blue is pigment and the tan colour is the natural leather showing through - great idea and great new look. 

Fan Tan Tastic

I'd like to show you these boxes that I bought at Fan Tan Market at the weekend. They are vintage Chinese and they are so pretty. Fan Tan Market, not to be confused with Fan Tan Gallery, is a rabbit's warren of a store that you enter on Fisgard St and you exit into the dark and spooky narrowness of Fan Tan Alley(below)! They stock every Chinese import you can imagine from cheap little plastic whistles to vintage silk lanterns all piled high in an ancient cave-like space. Anyone who's been there(Hanna?) knows what I am talking about - it's brilliant fun!

Here are a couple of pictures of Fan Tan Alley - it's as creepy and cool as it looks.

The boxes remind me of the 1930s Shanghai posters that we found last summer at that local yard sale. The posters are about 20 years older than my new boxes, I think. I still love these posters - I see them on Ebay now and then but they get snapped up really fast.

Inspiration | Jennifer Price Studio

A couple of weeks ago Alicia from Hi-Octane Jewelry told me about Jennifer Price Studio during our week of industrial chic - so I had to check it out. Great stuff - recycled, vintage and found objects - Jennifer has a really good eye. Jennifer's studio is located at SOLO at Solana Beach, CA - looks like they have lots of beautiful things there.