(via Ninainvorm on Etsy)

There is too much adoreableness going on up in here.

I love those old blueware plates you find from Northern Europe to begin with, but with the extra little splashes of colour? Oh, my, too cutie cute!

• Oh, I would NEVER eat spoonfuls of nutella and peanut butter straight out of the jar #yesIwould #&Itotallyjustdid #
• dinner tonight was bacon & sautéed cherry tomatoes & chick peas & fresh rosemary & pasta in a carbonara (egg) sauce & drooooooooooooool… #
• Oh! And arugula! From the garden! And pecorino! Soooooo gooooooooood… #
• But not as good as @kickpleat 's enchiladas, which we had last night. Damn, those were some fine enchiladas, girl! #
• I'm overdue for a haircut. I think. I want. A bob. But with bangs this time! Craziness? Or awesomeness? #
• Enchilada lunch! Yeah! #
• I'm pretty sure cleaning for 1 1/2 hours in this heat counts as a full workout #sweaty #
• I just had a dream I could not wake up from. Until I did, after a lot of prodding. Ugh. Unsettling. I feel like I've been drugged. #
• So, made the haircut appointment for tonight @parlourToronto never been there before. Hope they're alright. #
• new hairs: http://flic.kr/p/8m3D7T I think it's very early nineties Linda Evangelista/Natalie Portman in the Professionals. But awesomer. #
• Yesterday, while I was getting a trendy haircut, Liam went to the Beguiling, and then Dufferin Mall. Then Sneaky Dees for dinner. No really. #
• Scott Pilgrim ain't just a book, it's a lifestyle, y'all. #

(via Ship’s cat – Wikipedia)

You all know, I’m a sucker for the nautical look, and I’m a sucker for cats.

Well, look! A teensy-tiny-kitty hammock! With Sailors! The kitty even looks like my little flora!

I should really get her a little hammock like this, she’d love it (if only I could find a sail-maker who’d whip one up for me).

Seriously, the whole Ship’s Cat article on Wikipedia is a fine read.

We bought Nelson Tethers off of Steam when it came out, and I played through it the other afternoon.

Yes, played throught it, all of it, in an afternoon. It’s short. Which is ok for a game that only cost ten bucks, but I feel like it could have lasted a whole lot longer if the puzzles were harder. In addition to that, there were a few puzzles that took me a bit longer to figure out, but – I feel like that was only because they were a little broken.

It’s obvious that for further episodes, Telltale needs to shell out and hire a real puzzle master to create content for them.

But other than that, the game is charming and funny, and worth the ten dollars, even if it is for only a few hours entertainment.

(via marcinema on Flickr)

Sorry people, I’ve been lazy and busy. But here’s a lovely little snap of the annual Governor’s Island Jazz Age Picnic in NYC.

Doesn’t it look positively dreamy? Someday, I’ll go. In the meantime, I am planning my own little picnic in my own little backyard.

• http://tinyurl.com/2ane3vf A great explanation of why I love twitter (& why many just don't get it) by Mr. @ivortossell #
• I am sooooo in lurve with this bright red polka dot western style shirt! I need to shop the mens department at UO more often. #
• Why is it that this mens shirt fits my boobs better than most womens shirts do? *sigh* It's a big boobed mystery. #
• So, you know those Gerrard St. garage fires? Yep, few houses down from us. Don't know how we missed the sirens last night. #
• Been outside lately TO? It's like SoCal out there, everywhere! Everything is so lush and floral and green and hot! Lovely lovely weather. #
• I am wearing a sun dress to celebrate. And to think, there's months more of this to come! Months! #
• A certain Piggy, bein' cute this morn. http://twitpic.com/25smep #
• Are you kidding me, weekend weather? Ugh. You had so much promise only just yesterday! Unfair. #
• Remember when I posted that cute kitty picture? It was a distraction. The other ones were puking and peeing all over our clothes. GRRRRR… #
• You. Are so lucky. You're not dead. Cats. #
• Also, Air-Conditioner: You're on notice. You just attempted to ruin the dresses that slipped behind the bench on the floor. Tricksy. GARGHH! #
• I had places I had to be in those clothes!!! #
• This might be contentious, but I'm pretty sure the Chipmunk in Manilla is one of the best chip trucks around. Great poutine &… everything! #
• Chip trucks are so weirdly Canadian, @beatonna should do a comic about them. #
• Did I mention that I think I saw Peaches at the Grocery store last night? Yep. She is pretty in person. Weird hair though. #
• Drunk Catan is a bad idea. It just makes people angry… er… at me (I win A LOT). Drunk UNO is a better idea. #
• My brain feels like it's filled with cotton batting. Too much board games and carbs, not enough sleep. #
• Liam looks adorable today though. White v-neck, his wedding pork-pie hat and Ray-ban style tortoiseshell shades. Total hipster cutie. #
• Makes me feel like I'm married to some models' indie rocker boy-toy, or a member of the Ronson family. #
• So: I finally tracked down Cheeseburger Doritos and I am going to go ahead and preemptively blame all my subsequent weight loss on them. #
• So: I finally tracked down Cheeseburger Doritos and I am going to go ahead and preemptively blame all my subsequent weight gain on them. #

(via Ancient Industries)

If your looking to re-create that summery, cottagey feel in your home (and aren’t we all?) take a look at Ancient Industries. The little web shop is bursting with lovely, rustic, old fashioned, European wares, in lickable ice cream colours.

I particularly love this Wedgwood dish set.

As babies, me and my brother and sister all ate off of a set of the ubiquitous Royal Doulton Bunnykins dishes. I think we even had the matching silver spoon – not that my upbringing was in any other way very privileged. They were indulgent shower gifts, that proved to be incredibly practical – good china lasts forever, even through 3 children. And of course, now we know plastic leaches all kind of icky things into baby’s food anyways.

I feel like this set is a much more modern and design-forward interpretation of that old tradition (but retains some very similar traditional origins). It would make a perfect shower gift for an expecting Graphic Designer friend.

It’s pretty neat to see a great design project completed right in your own neighborhood. Our new Sugar Beach sure is adorable.

The beach chairs look mint green (!) against the off-white sand and pink (!!) umbrellas. And they’ve brought in big hunks of Canadian shield and given them candy stripes (!!!).

It helps of course, that Christopher Hume and the dutch designer of this space star in this video in their minimalist designer uniforms of black and white suits. It’s a nice complimentary contrast to the vintage pastel hues of the beach itself.

Hmmmm… I’m picturing a lovely mid-century photo shoot down there… Pastel poufs of dresses (mirroring the swooping circles of the umbrellas), all in sugary candy colours, escorted by  mono-chromatically clad Mad Men…

(via KITKA)

Speaking of Cottaging, the couple who run the Kitka design blog  (and Mjolk design shop) here in Toronto have a breathtakingly gorgeous one!

They have jam-packed it full of gorgeous, minimalist, rustic design pieces – (many from Scandinavia) mixed in with plenty of vintage Canadiana to anchor the place firmly in cottage country. Please do click through the link and check it out! Every photo is an inspiration.

I am sooooo very jealous. I would love to own something like this someday.

We were at my family’s cottage this sunny, warm weekend, and every once in a while the lovely Meaghan Smith’s buttery vocals would come on the play list.

This adorable video is a pretty good recreation of our weekend (just add more cocktails and swimming).

• I have a nice tan :) and seven zillion mosquito bites :( #
• I literally have the much rumored mosquito bites on my mosquito bites. The afterbite, it does nothing. #
• Oooooh! Ooh! Ooh! BTW I might get to do more set dressing! Excitement! Bliss! #
• Ok guys, for serious: free this wknd? Want to come up to my COTTAGE? It's rustic but lovely, near Haliburton. We can drive first 2 comers. #
• I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to Toronto. Or just sensitive to smog. Our tiny, sad, free air conditioner js making it better though. #
• Arghhhh. Smash. Smash! SMASH! Bleaaaaaarghe… #
• Meh. I'm going to read about some Dickensian, lesbian pickpockets in front of the air conditioner. #
• LIAM BROUGHT ME FELAFEL!!! #

(via 20 x 200)

For some reason, I am drawn in by beachside photography like this. I especially love the colours, I think, the pastels of sun bleached places, the little nautical elements here and there, and that turquoise ombre of the ocean fading out into the sky.  Maybe too it’s the simple geomtery of it – rectangular towels, circular umbrellas – juxtaposed against nature.

Lovely, lovely work here by Christian Chaize.

By the way, if you were wondering what Portugals beaches looked like: well, this is it (I know!!!).

The perfect song for a hot-hot-hot summer day like today…

Even if it was the OC theme song. I like to forget all about that, and focus on the Jason Schwartzman. That gets me through a lot of things.

Plus we just watched Fantastic Mr. Fox and Funny People (both of which I love, and we own). So Jason’s running around my inside my head a little bit right now.

Not that he isn’t normally…

(via Design*Sponge)

I think one of my favourite things to see in interior design, is when a space is throughly imbued with the style and personality of their inhabitants.

It’s why I have very little patience for celebrity homes – no matter how beautiful – they pretty much never have anything to do with the person who lives in them. They often feel cold, and inauthentic.

This home of a designer from Fossil (which has long been a favourite company of mine, design-wise) is a great example of that.

In particular, I love to see artists whose art lives as a part of the decor itself, not just hung on the walls. These saturated-pastel, illustrated, studio doors make me swoon a little.

(via seesaw)

I saw these images in my RSS feed today, and I knew I had to share them, as their combination of a bright stark white base, with unexpected pops of colour peeking out  reminds me so much of the Vodaphone building from yesterday.

If I lived across the street from that amazing building, I’d definitely want my interiors to look exactly like this. Though, I’m not sure with my eccentric, eclectic, colourful decorating style I could ever be disciplined enough to go through with it properly.

(via The Cool Hunter)

Love, love, love this gorgeous building. It’s the Vodafone head office in Portugal.

Portugal is a place that has some amazing design happening in it (similar to Spain, but heck, also pretty much all of Europe these days). I would love to go there.  It has a Perfect storm of culture, history, design, food and gorgeous beaches to laze around on.

I’ve been feeling those crystalline, asymmetrical angles that have been trendy in the design world for a while now, but I especially love them here, all stark and glowing and pristinely white – contrasted to the little slices of vibrancy and colour peeking out here and there. It’s always all about contrast, context and juxtaposition with me.

I’d like to live across the street from it, and just stare at it when I got bored.

• I'm angry. Our city was violated so that the rest of Canada could say she deserved it. #
• I love hearing birds, children, and the occasional streetcar passing by. Toronto's back to normal (but it'll never be the same again). #
• No more choppers and sirens. #
• Well, I will be at Bar Volo tonight, indulging in some of the cities finest 5 dollar microbrew pints. Yes indeed. #
• Need groceries. Our Loblaws is across the street from the temporary detention centre. Even grocery shopping is different now… #
• Found lying in the parking lot of my neighborhood grocery store: http://twitpic.com/21cahg #
• Home made cinnamon buns, campfire meat, lake hair, deep woods golf, cold freshwater, sunshine, smores… I like my cottage. #
• I don't know why, but I deeply associate the flavor of dill pickle chips with hot summer days. #