Green Your Decor {Jennae} & Happy Weekend !!!

Jennae is the genius and passion behind this important blog promoting and discussing sustainable and eco-friendly products for your home. Green Your Decor is the number 1 source for eco-design on the web!

screenshot of Green Your Decor main front page

I hope you all enjoyed the week of my favorite blogs while I'm away, I'll be back starting Monday with some new and exciting posts for everyone to love, enjoy and share. Happy weekend !

EyeSpy {Suzie Q}

This blog authored by graphic designer Suzie Q is chalk FULL of fantastic idea’s and inspiration for your home or office.

Creature Comforts {Ez}

This is one of my favorite eye-candy blogs out there. Everything featured on Creature Comforts is carefully chosen by it’s author, Ez. You can read an excellent interview with here over on decor8 here .

image & inspiring post from Creature Comforts

dooce {Heather B. Armstrong}

Dooce is probably one of the most read blogs out there right now, in the top 100. It’s author Heather B. Armstrong started her blog before anyone really knew what a blog was. Her whit and humour make her almost daily entries absolutely hilarious as she discusses everything from parenting, dog poop, Chuck the wonder dog, and her favorite hair products.

images from dooce

Kelly Rae Roberts {mixed media artist & author}

I’ve already blogged about Kelly Rae’s most amazing book here a few weeks ago, but I bet you didn’t know that she had a blog as well! Kelly Rae just returned from an artist retreat in Italy, and you can read all about it on her blog here. She’s one of the most inspirational bloggers out there I think. Hugz to Kelly! Yay!

image from Kelly Rae Roberts

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Happy Friday everyone! I’ll be away from the computer for the next week as i’ll be visiting with some family down in the states, Colorado to be exact. It’s been a few years since i’ve ventured down to this rocky mountain state, but I can hardly wait! Fresh air, and clear skies await me! Unless of course we get snowed in, but that’s OK too. :-)

I’ve prepared some blog posts for everybody for next week since i’ll be away with very limited access to a computer. I thought I’d introduce and talk about some of the blogs that I read on a daily basis, some that I havn’t talked about too much recently, but are of course so worth the visit! I wish you all a fantasic week, and give a holla to my blog friends next week.

image from wild basin photography

Yummy Colour

It never seizes to amaze me the huge difference that a colour can make in a room; any room for that matter.

Marie Claire Maison magazine has illustrated this example on their site here, definitely worth a surf, you're surely to be inspired!

images from MarieClaire Maison

Get Christie Chase's Look {via Etsy}

Etsy's online news page often feature's a get the look feature. This time around they're talking about Christie Chase's home. She has an Etsy shop here as well.

image from etsy

I'm loving her greige walls (yay greige!) and the yellow accents, although i'm not sure if i'd choose yellow personally, however she's used just enough for punch factor.

You can see a full tour of here home via design*sponge as well.

image from design*sponge

Trend Tuesday: Carpet Love

The new condo that we're moving into this Januray has laminate flooring throughout, including the bedrooms. Although this is great news for our alergies, this also presents us with the uncomfortable feeling of waking up in the morning to stepping on a chilly floor. Hence, the search for bedside area rugs has begun. My darling hubby isn't a rug fan thanks to his ahsma, so he may have to settle for slippers.

My favorites are below, notice a trend? Anyone? Anyone? :)

sheepskin rug, Ikea, $69

brattby cowhide rug, Ikea, $299 (in stores only)

tricolour cowhide rug, from Pure Rugs, from usd$1296 and up

sheepskin rug, West Elm, from $149

Poppytalk Handmade {Holiday Market}

Poppytalk Handmade's Holiday Market opened today! Get all your shopping done all in once place! This month's market ends December 12th.





image from Poppytalk Handmade

Dreamy Comfy Bedroom Inspiration

I love sifting through online photo galleries of UK and European shelter magazines. Always eclectic, always different compared to their North American counterparts.

I'm browsing through bedrooms right now, looking for some inspiration for our new greige master bedroom, here are some of my favorites!

from Living Etc

from Living Etc

from Living Etc

from House to Home UK

from House to Home UK

from House to Home UK

from Point Click Home

Inspiration {Selina Lake} & Happy Weekend !

In my daily search for all things beautiful for the home, I came across the website of Interior Stylist Selina Lake. Based in the U.K., Selina freelances for various shelter magazines such as House Beautiful, MarieClaire, and Ideal Home.

Absolutely beautiful work Selina. Here are a few photos of her work, truly inspirational with lots of ideas you can pull for your own room in your own home.


all images from Selina Lake

~

As for the weekend, my husband and I can hardly wait to check out the latest James Bond flick, Quantum of Solice tonight, and we have a friend's housewarming party to attend Saturday night. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect gift!

What are all of you doing this weekend?

macFAB Fabrics

Now that we have found our new home, I'm on the lookout everywhere it seems for new fabrics. My love of Amy Butler fabrics has lead me to macFab, a fabric store located here in Toronto, and they have an online shop here as well.

"MacDonald Faber has been servicing Canada and the United States since 1955. Dale Sonier, who saw a great Canadian company and wanted it to continue and expand well into the future, purchased MacDonald Faber over 10 years ago. The company was renamed macFAB and has been transformed from a supplier of tailor and dressmaker goods, notions, and theatrical supplies to a stylish and trendy retail store, which has expanded to include fabrics, sewing services and wholesaling home products which are sold worldwide. "

Not only do they carry Amy Butler, but lots of other well know lines as well, King West, Loft, macSuede, Robert Allen, Silk, Sunbrella, and Urban.

Here are a few of my personal favorites that I'm considering for our new place. Our bedroom wall colour is a shade of greige, I think these will go quite nicely, don't you? Maybe I'll get adventurous and sew my own duvet cover, as I'm not seeing anything I like!

Amy Butler's Nigella collection, Stone

Unique Gift Idea's: Three Potato Four & The Curiosity Shoppe

I hate to say it, but Christmas is quickly approaching! I've already got my eye out there looking for gifts, both online and in stores.

I thought I'd share with everyone out there my favorite sites for that gift for the person that has everything during these few weeks up until the holiday season hits us all smack in the face. It's tough to find that special something for the people we love, hopefully this will help you all out!

Happy Shopping!!!

~

Three Potato Four is a shop born out of the love of collecting. Have a friend who is an avid photographer? Why not start them on a collection of vintage film canisters? Three Potato Four's collections are original, and sure NOT to be found anywhere else. Here are a few of my favorites.....

clockwise from top left, Cozy/Dork alphabet blocks, Children's Chair, Kodak Film Canisters, Vintage Blossom Plates, Vintage Argentinian Seltzer Bottle

The Curiosity Shoppe I stumbled upon purely by accident via another design blog, I believe it was Poppytalk while searching for 2009 calenders. Yet another shop created out of the love of collecting and being around beautiful things, their wares are truly different. They have also just released a book entitles, Show Me How, which should be on every DIY's Christmas list this year.

clockwise from top left, Show Me How, Paint By Number postcards,
Mustache Key Holder, Melamine Plates

Couch Potato?

Are you a couch potato? They you MUST read this !!!!




image from apartment therapy

Trend Tuesday: Greige

Yay! We've found our new apartment. Well, it's a condo actually. Much larger than where we are currently, and BONUS, our new landlord is going to paint for us as well.

For the master-bedroom, we are going with my new favorite neutral, GREIGE!!! Love it!!! Yes, you've got it right, it's a combination of gray and beige, but it's got such an urban feel to it.

We've gone with Behr Paints, Gentle Rain. It's perfect! The Behr ColourSmart site doesn't do it justice compared to the actual sample. It's my new favorite!



image from another shade of grey



image from apartment therapy



image from apartment therapy



image from domino magazine

GOOP, from Gwyneth Paltrow

Huh? What do you mean, GOOP? Gwyneth Paltrow? Confused yet? Plan to be pleasantly surprised.



The uber-celebrity has just recently launched her own lifestyle website, titled GOOP. I signed up for the weekly newsletter the minute I heard about it, and I can honestly say I have not been disappointed.

In her own words,

"GOOP.com is a collection of experiences [of] what makes life good. My life is good because I am not passive about it. I want to nourish what is real, and I want to do it without wasting time. I love to travel, to cook, to eat, to take care of my body and mind, to work hard. I love being a mother who has to overcome my bad qualities to be a good mother. I love being in spaces that are clean and nice.”

Sounds good to me.

In this weeks newsletter Gwyneth discusses and suggests current art exhibitions all over the world that are going on right now, from NYC, to London, to Madrid. Also included are some of her favorite websites. Some I've heard of, some I have not. Now that I've heard of them, from Gwyneth, I can say, hey, you'll never guess where I heard about this site from. I like that.



The full site hasn't been launched as of yet, no word as to when that will be unfortunately, however, maybe one of their weekly newsletters will soon let that cat out of the bag. I can't wait!

Apartment Therapy has a brief write up on it here as well.

all photos from GOOP

Coastal Living's 2008 Idea House

Every year, Coastal Living magazine feature's an "Idea House". Simply put, they build and create a house from scratch. Well, maybe that's not as simple as it sounds, however the end result is breathtaking.



This year's house is on the shores of Galveston, Texas. Showcasing a nautical cottage style, in neutrals with accents of blue, this house would be the perfect inspiration for any waterside home or cottage in Canada.

Here's just a few samples of the interior, you can see the full house tour and more here.




all images from Coastal Living

Trans-Canada Etsy Team

I'm sure it's completely obvious at this point that I am a HUGE Etsy fan. Like HUGE. Larger than life, HUGE. Massive. Ok, I'm sure you get the point.

You can only imagine my jumps of glee when I was contacted by the publicist for the Trans-Canada Etsy Team. The Trans-Canada Etsy Team represents a group of independent Canadian artists and crafters that sell online through the Etsy.com venue. They’ve made it easy to find beautiful, unique, gifts of all types made by Canadians. Yay!!!! Yay!!!!

You can also visit the Trans-Canada Etsy Team Blog to find out more about our team and to locate team members in your area or province.

"Adding unique and distinctive items to your décor helps to set your home apart from the house next door. The problem is that distinctive and unique usually isn’t represented on the shelves in big box stores or at the mall. Instead, try choosing handmade items that come straight from an artisan to add originality and warmth to the feel of your home."
- TransCanada Etsy Team

I couldn't agree with you more! Yes, sure we all love the big box stores, but after awhile, everyone and everything starts to look the same, don't you think? Buying home accessories on Etsy, makes perfect sense. You are supporting the local economy as well.

They have put together a few pieces that she enjoys, (see below), and I've chosen some of my personal favorites as well.

clockwise from top left,
Rockstar Red Tartan Throw Pillow by I Heart that Dance
Booklovers Journal by La Paperie
Re-usable Food bags by Kootsac
Back to Nature Envelopes by Prairie Peasant

clockwise from top left,
Iva Art, "My little clothes line" - Original Mixed Media Illustration Tangerine Owl, Pinwheel Blossoms flat note card set of 6
rikrak, christmas stockings
Willow Cat Studio, Original Art, "CiTyScApE 5" watercolor

If you are an Etsy seller in Canada and would like to join the TransCanada Etsy Team, visit their blog here, for details.

decor8 Discount week !!!

One of my favorite blogs, decor8, is hosting a special discount week in collaboration with her various sponsors and blog-friend's. You can check out the full details here, and see discounts so far here.

Thanks Holly!!!!

Trend Tuesday: Tick Tock {clocks}

I'm noticing clock motif's on fabric and jewellery, and I don't mean on a traditional watch. Necklaces, tapestry's, sheet's, and of course in the traditional manner, a functioning clock. Here are some of my favorites.

Cotton print fabric, from Robert Kaufman

Clock Tapestry, Urban Outfitters

open face clock necklace, Urban Outfitters

Cuckoo Earrings, from CuteAbility

Dekad Alarm Clock, Ikea

Talin Wall Clock, Crate & Barrel
.....unique contemporary design, you may be watching this clock longer than any other

Numbers Wall Clock, Crate & Barrel
cutout tumbling numbers form the face of this contemporary clock.
A great conversation piece!

metal rim clock, from West Elm

Gomitolo Knit Clock, The Conran Shop
...has a soft ecru knit cotton cover..comfy! bonus feature,
the cover may be removed for washing.

Around The Clock, White, The Conran Shop
...works by the numbers rotating clockwise behind a static right arm...neat!