Oh Canada!

In honour of Canada's 140th birthday this weekend, here is a collection of red and white decorating yummies found in one of my favorite Ottawa stores...

A cube tea-light holder for fireworks watching from pretty patios

Kitchen 'punk-u-pine' scrubber (cute!!!)

A heart hot water bottle to keep you cozy on cold Canadian nights

The retro bowling game cause who doesn't love bowling (with cheap Canadian beer of course!)

And Red wall decals that are patriotic and pretty

Happy red & white day everyone!

the hunt for votivo

A few years ago, my sister and I were visiting our brother at his home in a small surfing community on the coast of California. He's a photographer and great lover of design and lived in a charming beach bungalow that he and his girlfriend had decorated in simple, stark beach-appropriate decor - all in hues of white. It was beautiful. My sister and I fell in love with it.

A staple in their home and, according to my brother, in his suitcase for all his travel hotel stays, were Votivo candles. He swore they were the best scented candles ever and we quickly believed him and spent our limited shopping budget on a few at a local boutique. Hooked on Votivo and back in Canada, we quickly realized these pretty goodies were hard to find and we were always on the lookout for them.

I have yet to find them here in Ottawa and would love some for my apartment. They have dozens of scents and I want to try them all! I have, however, found their website (don't know why I never thought of looking there before ;), and if I can't find any soon, I'll order myself some.

I wish I could copy flash images onto this blog, but I can't, so you'll have to view all their petty pieces here. I had no idea they had so many collections!

And speaking of family, my decor-savvy sister is flying in from Vancouver tonight to visit me for the Canada Day long weekend - yay! She is the hottest interior decorating student in Vancouver and I can't wait to have her help me with my new apartment and scour Ottawa and Montreal's design shops with me :) Have a great weekend everyone!

the mymble's daughter

I came across Peggy's (aka 'adorapop') creations on etsy this morning and I absolutely love them! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I watched the dark fairytale Pan's Labyrinth last night (still trying to decide if I liked it or not) that explains why I am drawn to the alice in wonderlands and pirates and mystical botanics and other fairy tale-type creations on her website or maybe it's just because they're absolutely charming. With lines like, 'Creative ramblings from Wales the land of dragons...' who wouldn't?

alicia bock photography

I love Alicia Bock's textured photos. She produces them in a way that highlights the dust, scratches, and interesting bits that get caught up in a camera lens. It sure makes the final product charming!

luzifer lamps

Neato lamps by Luzifer here... Coolio but not cheap!

shoot factory

Thanks to Wind Lost for blogging about Shoot Factory, a 'full-service location agency, representing UK and international properties, studios and venues for TV, film, photo shoots, product launches and events.' I'm so glad I was pointed in the direction of their website. The shoot locations are beautiful and there are some really fantastic interiors displayed on their website. My favorites are the lofty, studio spaces (and white palettes!). I love space. One day I would love to turn a huge factory space into a cool living space. Now THAT would be an amazing reno project...

orla kiely

As I hopscotched my way through decorating blogs this morning, I found a link to Orla Kiely's design website and I just loved the shots of her flagship store in Covent Garden, London. I love the colours and the patterns - it's loud but it works. Her ceramic mugs also caught my eye. They remind me of retro '70's mugs I used to collect from thrift stores when I was in university. I'd post pics of them, but they're coming out all pixelated so you'll have to follow the link to see them. Very fun!

on the hunt for ceramics

I've been snooping around the internet looking for ceramic ideas. I have a long dresser in my bedroom which needs some adornment. I'm thinking some layered white vases. Although these mason vases (above) designed by Perch! and available at Rare Device aren't really what I'm looking for, I really like them. What a great spin on a kitchen classic. They would look so good with a fat bouquet of bright peonies in them.

On the other hand, this chubby bird vase by Joanna Mendicino is adorable and, other than looking great on my dresser, might be chubby enough to withstand tipping over from curious nose taps by my kitten Fergus.

christopher griffin

Christopher Griffin is an Ottawa-based artist. He has his studio and display windows in a community neighborhood rather than along a store-lined street. I often walk past his windows and always enjoy seeing what new paintings he has on display. I finally visited his website to learn a little bit more about them. Inspired by ancient cave drawings, his artist statement says that his scribbles, gestural markings and accidentals mirror our hectic, image laden society. His primary motifs often consist of birds, fish and animals and represent a pure, innocent and spiritual presence in our polluted world. Nice. I like 'em.

traceyj - photo wonder

My friend Tracey Falk is my favorite photographer hands down. Her images are sublimely beautiful (and I'm not the only one who thinks so...). The colours, the depth of field, the softness... She can photograph anything and make it look absolutely dreamy. One of these days she'll put together a book of them (at least that's what I keep begging her to do) and it will be the star of my library... In the meantime, I'm going to see what I can do about getting some large prints on my walls.

3-D wall art

Taking wall panels to a new level, these wall kits at decoradar look pretty darn fun. The oranges are a bit much for me, but they would be fun in the right room...

slow loris

A few years ago, I spent a summer living and working at the Department of Safety, a very cool abandonned fire station-turned art gallery, live music venue and hostel in the creative community of Anacortes, Washington. Anacortes is filled with fun artists, one of whom is Jessica Lynch, a rad silk-screening t-shirt and print designer. She's totally awesome. Check out her shirts here. Her site also has some shots of her cool studio space which I find inspiring in and of itself...

my photograph makes it onto domino online!

What a cool surprise! I was looking at domino online's gallery and came across my name and one of my own photographs! I'd seen this photo before in pug freak's flickr stream - someone I don't know who lives in Switzerland and who chose one of my photos to blow up and hang on the wall of their very stylish home. I felt honoured to have my photo up on someone's wall on the other side of the world and now I feel even more honoured that it's made it's way onto domino online. My photo is the brick apartment building against the blue sky - the last place I lived in in Vancouver. The original photo can be seen here.

Gorgeous!

This gorgeous chandelier got a loud 'Gah!!!!!' from me (that's a good sound ;) when I saw it on shak in style's blog today. I just had to post it here too. I would love a chandelier like this in my place. It's so dramatic and wonderful. It would look great in a predominatly white and black room. Featured on domino online.

same digs, new space

This is the beautiful apartment building that I live in. I love it - it's full of character, centrally-located and run by a jolly, cat and beer-loving landlord. This weekend I moved apartments within the building. My previous suite had the tiniest kitchen ever (see photo below) so when a suite came up with a better kitchen, I jumped at it. I LOVE moving because I love the new space and fresh opportunities it presents. This was a great way to do it because it was free (no moving costs) and easy - in the elevator and out the elevator on a different floor. I love my new space and colour palette (I've already painted the bedroom). Photos of the new space coming soon. Photos of the old space are here.

MoCo Loco

I'm having fun exploring MoCo Loco's site of modern furnishings. I really like wall coverings. They're a fun alternative to wallpaper and a great way to add texture, especially if you want a white on white look in your apartment and need textured backdrops to give depth to your layered belongings. Wall coverings also rescue you from lack-of-wall-hangings-large-blank-space problems. With textured walls, you can get away without hanging pictures or paintings up and focus instead on your furniture and lamps that you coordinate in front of the textured walls. Fun!

I also LOVE this chandelier, however, if I had a spare $7,020.00 kicking around, I'd probably use it on something else...

colour!

So, despite the fact that I am working on a predominantly white and pale hued interior in my own apartment, I've always loved colour, especially when it's pulled together this well! These beautiful interior images are the creation of Wary Meyers. Their website has some really fun design ideas. This Portland, Maine interior jumped out at me from among the others. More images below...
I love how they've incorporated the white kitty-cat climbing tree in this last photo (below). It looks like it belongs there and doesn't take away from the design of the room at all. I need to figure out how to do that with my kitten's toys...