Window Shopping

Okay so enough about my vacation, lets get back to beautiful design and fabulous designers. I was reading one of my favourite blogs yesterday(House Martin) and noticed this link to Day a Danish store with the most fabulous esthetic - lots of black and white which I adore in any interior. I just know you will love it too.

Road Trip

When we were on Vancouver Island this past weekend we went for a little road trip to Cowichan Bay(about a half hour from Victoria). We ended up at the True Grain Bakery, right down at the waterfront village of Cowichan Bay - very authentic, rustic fishing marina. I was so impressed by this bakery - from the wonderful earthy interior to the fact that they grow and mill their own grains - I could have moved right into this place! And the bread is to die for - of course!

The next 2 images are copies of 2 above but I put them through the Lomo filter on my iPhone - I just wanted to show you what a cool effect you can get from a $2 iPhone app!

Lanterns

Hey Doug, why don't you take some pictures while we're in Chinatown? Of what? How about some lanterns? Well, 40 pictures later, we have lanterns. Chinatown was full of lanterns at the weekend - still hanging after the Chinese New years celebrations. I love them! They are so festive and glamorous! You can buy them in all the Chinese markets - they are so inexpensive - every colour and shape but I love the big red round ones with the yellow tassels . . . . . .

Local Type

I have some type inspiration for you today. This piece of tile work was found by Doug under the dumpster at the back of one of our shops in Nelson - so I ask you, any of my local readers, have you seen this? It's from the original Hudson Bay Company at Stanley and Ward - it was originally in the doorway and at some point was moved to the back of the building in the alley - isn't it lovely? And a piece of Nelson history - watch out for it next time you are taking a short cut down the alley!

This is a detail from an ashtray - of all things - that I picked up at Colettis the other day. I was just really taken by the 3 dimensionality of the cast metal. I think that all you hand letterers will appreciate this.

Good morning!

I'm back from my mini vacation to Victoria. It was a lovely break. Victoria has such a beautiful climate - they don't really experience winter at all(we lived in Victoria for 3 years and I loved it!) So around about this time of year it's always great to fast forward ourselves into spring and take a look at how the warmer half lives! We were only away for 3 days but we managed to pack a lot of eating drinking and walking in. I took lots of photos with my iPhone so I thought I'd share those with you. today. Doug took some great ones on his camera too so I'll get those downloaded some time tomorrow and sort through them for a post here in the next couple of days(hint: he got quite obsessed with the red lanterns hanging all over Chinatown!)

The flight into Victoria is gorgeous - flying right over the Gulf Islands.

Below - Fan Tan Gallery

One of our first stops in Chinatown was a favourite of mine Fan Tan Gallery(who I featured right here a year or so ago - these 1st two pictures are from the previous post just to give you an idea of what a cool space it is.)

I was really impressed with the new steel furniture that they have. Great patina!

These sweet little vintage egg cups were in one of the wooden cupboards at Fan Tan - they have a few choice vintage pieces in the store.

Next stop was Chintz and Co(below) - which is a bit of an institution in Victoria - another fabulous interior space - probably originally a warehouse, on the waterfront - high ceilings and brick walls, lots of levels and tons of cool stuff.

How sweet are these little blue dressers?

Stopped and bought some tea at a great new tea house (Venus Sophia) across the street from Fan Tan Gallery on Fisgard St - owned by some former Nelson residents - it's a wonderful new bright spot in Chinatown - below - and the decor is WONDERFUL.

Happy Weekend!

I'm heading off for a few days to Vancouver Island to visit my good friends Martin and Cate from Blanket. I'll be back here on Tuesday morning. I hope you have a sunny weekend and feel inspired to create something beautiful - like this pretty butterfly bouquet from Martha Stewart.

Found

There's something quite wonderful about this watch. It's so utilitarian looking with the strange small face. I also love the cream coloured face and the red strap - what do you think? If you'd like it, it can be yours right here.

Interiors

I like this quirky Dutch interior - lots of white with shots of colour(and yes I am getting close to cracking open that can of white paint and slapping it all over our place soon - thanks for all the white suggestions, I think I will use BM Decorator's White) Photographs by John Dummer.

Inspiration

I thought you might like this collection of beautifully curated bookshelves from Julie at Remodelista. Look closely - they are so wonderfully organized. The first example is so haphazard, I love it and second one is steel coated to look like zinc - it's fabulous. More information here.

Here is the first of my collections images - I don't think I did a very good job, it's kind of small and looks like it's missing something in the bottom right corner - the next one will be much more interesting - but I want it to be impulsive too! So I will include a little description with all images - starting clockwise from top left - small wood hand from junk box in Dougs studio(looks like it fell of a santos), bunch of small luggage tags on wires from millinery stall at Paris flea market, round paper box from Paris flea market, 2 Chinese paper boxes that used to contain tiny imported glass animals, fat Lyra pencils from Waldorf School shop in Nelson that are too pretty to use, tiny paper greeting labels from stamp market in Rome, wine bottle marker with bendy copper arms to go around bottle neck from Paris flea, handful of beach glass from the wee beach right below the Mile Zero sign in Victoria, key that my mother insisted was antique but I don't believe her, original luggage label from package of mixed ephemera bought from Argentinian seller on EBay. Stay tuned for more fascinating collections. Bet you can't wait ;-)