Hands On

For this weeks post I have a few things to share with you.  First, an email along with accompanying pictures I received yesterday from one of our customers/friends at Moving Designz Home & Cottage.  I get lots of lovely comments and personal emails from bloggers each week and this is one that I found particularly touching.  It made my day and I'm sure you'll agree this is too cute not to share. 

Thank you Kelly for sharing this moment with me and agreeing to let me post on it. 

 Meet Rebecca Moorehead.  A young designer(and fashionista) at work.

"The day Rebecca and I were in to Moving Designz, Rebecca wanted to buy something. She picked out the items she wanted. When we got home from the cottage she started putting together her items. Here are a few pictures of my little apprentice and the end result. Pretty cute! I especially the work wear - a bathing suit! Kelly"

Rebecca is carefully assembling her lovely beach inspired creation.  Like us,  Rebecca loves to create vignettes in glass vessels.  First ,she puts in a good base of beachy rock and then starts adding the twigs, next come the tiny starfish.

The finished creation.  I love it, beautifully done Rebecca.  Today is Rebecca's 7th birthday.  Happy Birthday to a great little designer!

Nice training, mom :).  Kelly Moorehead is also very creative and has her own blog called Designer Decor at http://kellymoorehead.blogspot.com/

Originally intended for Rebecca's bedroom her masterpiece found a home in the living space instead.

Speaking of hands on, I have another very neat thing to share with you...

When I was in Toronto last week we came across this shop aptly named Cube Works. 

And what do they do here?  They use their hands to create amazing pieces of artwork.

They create and recreate masterpieces of artwork using none other than the humble Rubik's Cube.

I am in awe and in love with this piece.  It was my favorite in the shop.  The thinking man totally falling to pieces.  We've all been here once or twice.   What really gets me about this piece is the cubes are twisted to reveal exactly the right colour combinations.

See more of this truly amazing work at  http://www.cubeworks.ca/

I know many of my readers have been waiting for the final pictures of the finished SGG inspired house I've been blogging on over this past year.  It's finished, done.  And I have really big big news!!!

Style at Home is going to be featuring this house in an upcoming edition of the magazine.  I hope to post on the styling and photography process over the next couple of weeks.  I am beyond excited...

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend!

Susan

Toronto Shopping Love

For todays post I am going to share a look at our time in downtown Toronto. 

Anita and I had such an awesome time, from shopping to window shopping, to patios and cocktails el fresco in the beautiful weather, to visiting Chinatown, Kensington Market, Queen St West, The Distillery District, St Lawrence Market, to meeting up with a fellow blogger, to visiting the design district and all the lovely inspiring shops... hello run on sentence.

This was the view outside our hotel window.  Love the giant Canadian Flag!  There is just something about waking up every morning and being reminded that you live in one of the best countries in the world. 

I snapped this pic on Queen West with Toronto's famous CN Tower in the background.  What happens on Queen West... major shopping!

I should have recognized that my Visa was in for a major shake up after seeing these signs.  Yes, indeed this was a SIGN.

My new shoes, one of several pairs I bought... several is the new ten :)

I received an email invite for lunch from Grace at http://gracie-senseandsimplicity.blogspot.com/ .  I was thrilled to meet another Canadian blogger.  This is her and Anita checking out pretty packaging in a chocolate shop at the Distillery District.  Shes amazing, love her.  It's so cool to meet up with someone whose blog you follow!  It's almost like you know them already.

For anyone who thinks Toronto is a concrete jungle... Wrong.  Downtown is full of beautiful parks and flowers.

There are huge flower baskets and parks and trees and secret little courtyards everywhere....

My cafe latte... how delicious does this look?  After a bit of lunch and a hit of caffiene it was off to hit some designer home shops.

Our first stop was Horsefeathers Home in the Distrillery District.  After introducing myself they let me take all the pictures I wanted.  I'll share a couple of my favs now...

Bamboo bar and stools... love! 

This is the most gi-normous basket I have ever seen.  I think I could hide in there.

This shop is very eclectic. Everything from pottery, to French Antiques, to modern furnishings, to seashells...

Rustic plus Bling.

Our next shop was Urban Amish.  Gorgeous shop with fab furniture custom made by the hands of Amish craftspeople.  http://www.urbanamish.ca/about_us.asp

Solid wood everywhere ... NICE.

Next up ... Lighting, Decor, Extrordinaire...

So we're walking by peeking in store windows and that massive white light fixture totally drew us in... I hope you can tell how huge that chandelier is... afterall still using iphone camera.

Amazing!

  We are now at

Klaus by nienkamper   http://klausn.com/

I had to zoom over to check out this spa tub... OMG

And that light fixture.... with the pretty notes.  I think Sarah might shop here :)

The displays and products were an incredible feast for the eyes and senses.  This mobile was ... speechless!

Like have you ever... seen a horse light fixture in your life?  Now you have...

Sexy sofas, stunning artwork 

and more oversized lighting in abundance.

 

This chair... so pretty, LOVE!

The next stop was UpCountry.  http://www.upcountry.com/

I loved it here.  The displays, the furniture, everything...

I saw alot of cross over to our lines of merchandise at Moving Designz Home & Cottage.  However, this showroom was 10 times the size of my little shop.  Each and every room vignette perfectly done.  I need a bigger store!  Been saying that for awhile now... :)

This distressed rustic table look is hot and everywhere.  We saw it at the show and in almost every shop we visited.  Tables with iron bases and rustic wood planks.  Very organic.

Each individual room space had it's own story to tell.  This one was telling me ... what is with that window?  Must go closer to investigate...

Close up.  This has to be one of the most beautiful intriguing things I have ever ... and I mean EVER seen.

This is a frosted window and behind it growing outside on the building are vines.  The sunlight shining through it makes it look totally surreal.  Please send me your comments on this... I am printing and definitely framing this image for my home. 

The sexy diningroom vignette... and another of those windows.

Livingroom vignette ... hey we carry those sofas.  It was the art again that caught me.

 

The salesman who showed us around, Bohdan Chrunciw, went on to tell me this original artwork is painted by a member of the Max Webster band, Terry Watkinson.  Now thats talent!

Another great livingroom vignette.  These spaces are totally liveable.  

 

Still seeing lots of white and chocolate.

And sometimes I have to take a picture ... just because... I like what I see. 

And I liked seeing the beautiful patchwork fields of PEI as we were making our decent into Charlottetown Airport.  Home.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend!

Susan

Colourful in Toronto

Yes it's true...  I flew the coop from PEI.  Today I am posting a quick blog update from my hotel room in Toronto.   

Anita and I are back in Toronto at the August buying show for Moving Designz Home & Cottage.  We flew up Saturday night to begin the show Sunday morning.  I took this picture as we were crusing at 35,000 ft above the earth and above the clouds.

We started the show on Sunday morning with a little help from our friends at Starbucks. 

For todays post I am sharing some pictures I took with my IPhone.  Lovely displays, products and colour inspiration.  Things and colours that caught my eye.

Black and Silver toss cushion.  Bling! Love!

Red and Black Christmas wall display.

Yellow and Grey.  Embroidery is hot!

Fresh Green and White.  We ordered these throws in this green, bright yellow, red, chocolate and blue.

White.  Gorgeous decorations, laquered furniture and very pretty accessories.  Lots of texture.  OMG this display was so beautiful... beyond.

Mmmmm ... Turquoise Blue and White paired with neutrals.  Lovely seaside.... next springs stuff!

Soft Pink flowers and mirrored surfaces. 

Clear glass, white, and silver with hits of green and pink.  Fresh.

Black leather, Zebra wood and chrome.  Loving these barstools... coming to the store soon, so comfy, so chic, so us.

Cream and Rusty Brown.  We ordered more of these oversized clocks for the shop. 

A beautiful Blue, Yellow, Green and White quilt.  So perfectly cottagey.

 

Our preliminary collection of clutches for our girly section of the store.  I think we covered every colour here.  This was this mornings shopping adventure.  We both found our happy places at this booth.  Did I mention Cash and Carry?  Some are mine, some are Anitas and some for the store.

We brought lots and lots of shiny jewellery, bracelets, necklaces and earrings.  This is a small sample our our stash.  Fun, pretty accessories :)

My last purchase of the day.  This icey delicious Orange and Raspberry Bellini topped with a red shoe toy.  We had a perfect day of shopping! 

We are moving on ... we've finished the show and are headed for a little weekend R&R in downtown Toronto.  As I have been writing this post Oprah is on TV.  Her topic today is dream jobs.  People living their dreams by following their passion in life.  I truly feel like I am lucky to be living mine.  I love every single moment of it. 

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Susan