Had to share this video because I LOVE Sophie Blackall, she has become one of my all time favourite illustrators. Her work is just so filled with exquisite little details. Watching this video is worthwhile for a number of reasons, but in particular for what she says about drawing animals (I feel the same way).

I don’t yet own her Missed Connections book, but I plan to. However, I’ve been waiting for the serendipitous moment when I come across it while out and about. I think, given the subject matter, serendipity is far more appropriate than boring old ordering it online, don’t you think?

What am I up to these days, you ask? Not a whole lot. Still slogging away at my personal projects (I may have some things to show on that front quite soon). January tends to be slow here in Toronto, I think everyone just hibernates until about mid February. This has been an abnormally warm and brown January as well, and that has put me in a dreary state of mind – the one thing I can usually count on is some sparkly, fluffy white snow to pretty things up a little. No such luck this year.

I do turn thirty at the end of the week. Not entirely sure how I feel about that. I may even be looking forward to my thirties – I think it’s quite possible I’ll be able to accomplish a lot more in my life with my twenties out of the way.

The Rainbow House, London from Ab Rogers Design on Vimeo.

Want. To. Live. Here.

So, so, so pretty.

(via Pedlars UK)

Well, where have I been? Who do I think I am, exactly, abandoning my blog for weeks at at time?

Well, I think I’m falling in love with working in the Art Department on film sets. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, ever since I realized that all that pretty stuff in the background of movies and TV doesn’t just appear magically, but has to be carefully chosen (or made from scratch!) and placed there by designers.

And recently, I’ve gotten the opportunity to help out on some sets, and it has been awesome! Creative, and hectic, and so much on-the-spot problem solving. I love it!

But… the (truly) long hours don’t leave a lot of time for blogging.

And if I’m not on set I’m up at the cottage, and soon I’ll be leaving to go on vacation with Liam soooooo… Sorry, friends, family and fans, things aren’t going to be getting much better anytime soon.

In the meantime though…

I love everything Pedlars UK has to offer, and always have. I make it habit to check their online shop once in a while and drool over the merchandise, dreaming of it one day being mine, all mine Too bad shipping from England is so expensive.

But now I’m working, so maybe I’ll be able to afford some choice pieces for myself!

I always love all their housewares, but right now I am particularly digging their curated clothing selection.

The trend these days is actually an anti-trend – the focus is on eternally lasting, classic, traditional, domestically made pieces.

The stuff at Pedlars is spot on, from these shiny silver hunter boots I adore, or their Guernsey fisherman’s sweaters, their selection of Cambridge satchels (I’ve already talked about how much I love those) and their gorgeous, custom designed brown leather brogues with tweed (gasp!) lining. I want it all.

(via MarthaStewart.com)

I am not a scrapbooker, or keepsake kinda person. Mostly I just take all the ephemera and mementos of my travels and shove them into a pretty shopping bag from the trip, and shove that in closet. I wish I had it together enough to do something like this.

How wonderful would a whole shelf with a lifetime of these jars lined up on it be? Maybe once we start having kids, we could do this every year for our big family vacations.

(via Black*Eiffel)

Woah.

Oh Europe! Why are you so far away from me!

(via girlhula on Flickr)

A few years back, Girl Hula (aka Andrea) threw this mindblowinglyamazing china town themed party for her little girl – which I then more or less stole for our engagement party.

Recently, she thew a rainbow themed party for her little girl. It was also mindblowinglyamazing, and was complete with Rainbow Cake!

I myself am a rainbow enthusiast, and even had rainbow wallpaper on the walls of my nursery growing up. This is another idea that deserves to be enthusiastically stolen! Too bad my birthday is so very far away in February…

(via YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP)

This cloisonne necklace seems like it must have been made just for me! It is lovely, lovely, lovely!

(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!

(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.

(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.

(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!!!).

(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 love Studio Ghibli, as any self-respecting gal with an interest in illustration and animation would. The Japanese studio that brought us Totoro, Spirited Away and most recently (my favourite) Ponyo is branching out into video games!

To my mind, it is an incredibly natural progression. Their first outing (in collaboration with Level 5 – who makes the Professor Layton games, which I have heard nothing but good things about) is Ninokuni, a RPG for the DS and (thank goodness!) Playstation 3.

Fingers crossed for a timely North American release people!