It appears like I’m already a little late with this post even though I just found out about these beautifully designed tea towels yesterday! The Bay (Canada’s biggest department store) commissioned three very talented Canadian designers to make limited edition linen tea towels for them. The three artists, Alanna Cavanagh, Bev Hisey and Virginia Johnson have each come up with their own unique and whimsical designs.
Alanna Cavanagh’s tea towel
Virginia Johnson’s tea towel
Bev Hisey’s tea towel
I say, I’m a bit late because Alanna’s tea towel has already sold out! If you’d like one of the other ones you had better move fast. They’re only $14.95 each. By the way, the tea towels are made by Ulster Weavers who have the Royal Warrant to Queen Elizabeth II for kitchen textiles. I hope someone in the Canadian Embassy sends her a few!
**UPDATE – Arren Williams, creative director, at The Bay let me know that Alanna’s tea towels are still in stock in lots of Bay stores and will be available back online early next week. You can sign up for email alerts on The Bay website if you want to make sure you get one!**
Posted by Emma on April 25, 2012 – 9:14 AM
On Friday night after a long week of work we headed down to High Park to have a picnic and see the cherry blossoms. It was a perfect spring evening.
Henry insisted on bringing his new scooter and riding it over the park terrain. The other day, one of his teachers at pre-school, asked me if I thought he was ready for his new baby sister. It’s a question I ask myself a lot. While I know he is excited I don’t think any of us can really comprehend how adding another baby to this house is going to effect us.
What I do know is that I cherish moments like these. I’m looking forward to warmer summer evenings in the park, ice cream, and lazy days spent doing nothing more than hanging out with family and friends.
Posted by Emma on April 16, 2012 – 8:36 AM
One of the best things about having this blog is all the information you (my readers) pass along to me. I sometimes feel like I have hundreds of people helping me with every project! You generously inform me of blogs I should visit or ideas you think might work, or products I should buy. Today I thought I would share a little bit of that wealth with all of you!
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that someone had told me about a kid’s room where they installed a vintage map as a window blind. Turns out it was none other than Abbey from Aesthetic Outburst. Such a smart idea!
One of my readers, Nicole Fanelli, sent me a link to these great Boat Cleat Coat Hooks as a suggestion for Henry’s room. I think they are absolutely perfect although I’m having a hard time tracking some down.
I’m not sure who is behind the twitter account of House & Home but they kindly sent me a link to this photo last week in reference to Henry’s room. At the time, I was wondering whether or not I should paint the walls dark or leave them light. (You’ll soon find out what I decided!) One thing I absolutely love about this room is the crate shelving idea. I might give it a go this weekend.
Another one of my readers, Jennifer Rose, sent me a link to Sian Zeng’s whimsical work. Sian creates the most amazing bespoke and magnetic wallpapers along with other beautiful things that look like they escaped from the pages of a children’s book.
Finally, I came across this image the other day on one of my favourite blogs, Madame Herve. I think the mixture of textures and materials in this kitchen is absolutely brilliant — don’t you?
Image credits:
Abbey Hendrickson
DeLong Ceramics
Kim Jeffrey
Sian Zeng
Petra Bindel
Posted by Emma on April 13, 2012 – 9:04 AM
Last week, I mentioned that I wrote a couple of stories for the special City Homes issue of Toronto Life magazine. Today I thought I would show you how the second story I worked on turned out.
My challenge was to come up with five different table settings that ranged from formal to rustic to everything in between. Let me tell you, putting table settings together in your head is no easy task! Since I was pulling from a variety of stores and wasn’t going to be in the studio on the day of the shoot I had to rely on photos and my intuition to bring it all together. If you’ve ever been on set with a prop stylist than you know they come armed with tables and tables and tables full of options that they can switch in and out until they achieve the desired look. I, on the other hand, had one shot to make it all work and in most cases never even got to see all the elements together. Luckily for me, prop stylist, Suzanne Campos was brought in to style the shoot and the talented photographic duo of Raina & Wilson were there to capture the shots.
Posted by Emma on April 6, 2012 – 4:34 PM
