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 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.

(via Put This On)

For some reason, I have been of recent far more attracted to discussions of men’s fashions than women’s.

There is far more tradition to the way a man dresses. Far more comfort,  quality and thought.

I think I’m finding that men’s fashion is more about functional and beautiful design, where women’s fashion is about fickle and artificial trends.

I am definitely the kind of person who is more drawn to design over trends. Classic style, over momentary cachet.

White cotton t-shirts. Navy pea-coats. Tweed jackets with leather elbow patches. Oxfords. That sort of thing.

So, I highly recommend the blog Put This On. It is an in-depth look at the intricacies of dressing like a grown up male. This is an example of a particularly good post.

The author espouses some pretty strict rules for dressing sometimes, and I don’t agree with him all the time, but like many things in the design world (typography certainly comes to mind) they are good rules to keep in mind when beginning on a journey to bettering yourself (sartorially). Once you understand the rules, you can go ahead and break them.

I just wish there were a female equivalent.

veggie bowls

(via Craft)

I was surprised by how pretty these clever little bowls are. I especially love their vibrant, yet natural, colours.

The public D3 bike

(via PUBLIC)

There’s a new bike company called Public. It’s run by the guy who started DWR. Admittedly, starting a bike company after starting a mid-century-design-reproduction company should be it’s very own derisive entry on Stuff White People Like…

But man are these new bikes ever pretty! Look at that powder blue finish! Gorgeous. There’s a ton of other good stuff on the site too, and some of it’s even:

Reasonably.

Priced.

Crazy right?

If I ever actually get around to purchasing and riding a bike, I may even order a thing or two from them.

Poem Cup

(via Huset)

I love the idea of this (and that dreamy, deep, jade colour), even if the reality of it is maybe not so practical, it’s so perfectly poetic.

Slice Precision Cutter

(via Slice)

I bought this handy little cutter recently while I was out and about, and it has already proved itself pretty useful.

Not only is it cute, it is sturdy, has a lid that actually stays on, and it feels comfy to hold and use.

But none of that beats the fact that it has a tiny ceramic blade. Ceramic blades are sharper than sharp, and stay that way. If you’ve ever tackled paper products with an x-acto knife you know how annoying – and even dangerous – a dull blade can be.

It pretty much rocks my paper cutting world (and my world involves a surprising amount of paper cutting). This thing is the definition of good design.

swissmiss | Zoo Lunchies

So. I am way too old for this, and I work from home (thus negating the need for a lunchbox)… But I want this.

Postcarden

A ridiculously adorable idea.

I’ve been meaning to post a review of my lovely Moop bag for, pretty much ever (I even took pictures – note the Christmas tree in the background).

After a (literally) lifetime long search for the perfect bag, I think I finally found it. It’s the “tote” from Moop.

Most bags these days are way too big, shoddily made, ridiculously bedazzled, horrifying coloured, and slide right off your shoulder. Darn females and their eschewing practicality for fashion!

Anyways, this bag is none of these things. It’s pretty much perfect. Well made, functional and design – as opposed to fashion – oriented. Because it’s practical instead of trendy, I think I’m going to be able to use it for years to come. But it’s stylish too, I think, in a industrial, utilitarian kinda way.

Best of all, it has all these wonderful little organizational pockets on the inside – one for your wallet, one for your cellphone, one for a pen, one for a book, one for a notebook, and a little ring to clip your keys on.

The attention to detail is really quite amazing – all the seams are reinforced, all the hardware is coordinated, the cell phone pocket even fits my iPhone like a glove!

The added practicality of having tote straps in a addition to an over the shoulder strap – well, it’s genius, really. It makes grabbing it on the go super simple, but taking it out for a hike or long day on public transportion just as do-able.

My only recommendation would be that if you get something in the corded canvas, it picks up a bit of cat hair. I got black, and I have kitties with white fur – I should have gotten gray, but I’m digging black these days. So I’ve resigned myself to a lifetime of lint rolling.

Other than that, it’s held up pretty darn well to regular use for the past few months. It still looks brand new (minus the cat hair).

Highly recommended!

Alexander Girard Electra Bicycle.

Want.

Please?

Typography + Midcentury Design + Food= One of my favourite things ever.

Also, gastrotypographicalassemblage is a pretty awesome word.

More info here.

Believe it or not, devoted Mac customer that I am, Apple hasn’t done much that has gotten me excited. Not in years. Not even the iPhone.

But I do like these new Nanos. Mostly because I’ve always been a sucker for a good chromatic rainbow. Also because, wow 16 gigs? That’s a lot. That’s a real lot when you consider my first 2nd gen ipod only held a measly ten gigs, and was the relative size and weight of a brick.

But mostly? They pretty.

The whole iTunes Genius thing sounds pretty cool too, I guess.

I was uploading pictures, when I realised I actually have a lot to share, even if I haven’t been sharing. It gets like that in summer I guess – too busy making up for our vitamin d deficiencies to spend much time on the internet.

Well, in between getting my hair-cut and a yearly physical (and having strange hands on pretty much every part of my body) I went into one of those discount housewares stores, downtown. They had a whole display of barbecue stuff, and mixed in with it was the cutest, teensiest little barbecue.

It’s a Sagaform bucket grill. It’s available from a bunch of different online retailers. Apartment Therapy recently gave it a pretty goood review. In fact, we had first seen it at an expensive gourmet shop around the corner from us here. It was 30 dollars there (not bad) and, being barbecueless we were considering getting it.

It was 10 dollars at the discount shop. There were also a bunch of pretty, matching, off-white, Scandinavian designed tools for it too. Also at a deep discount. Score. Altogether I spent 25 dollars, including tax on pretty much everything I needed. Awesome.

Last night was pretty hot. I did not feel like cooking indoors.

Instead we hunted down a bag of charcoal (not as easy as it sounds on the cusp of Canada Day weekend) and a terra-cotta tray to put the little guy on, to keep him from burning the wood on the top of my little cafe table (my genius idea BTW, and I highly recommend it – it holds the bbq in place and catches all the ash to boot – and it was cheap!).

Then we hunted down something to cook. There was not a lot left at the grocery store (again, Canada day weekend and all) but some nicely marbled striploin was on sale. Third score of the week!

The little bucket grill was pretty easy to light. There’s a bucket inside of the bucket proper that sits on top of a little second grill which is where you put the charcoal. This keeps the air circulating around the hot bits, lets the ash fall into the bottom of the bucket proper, and keeps that pretty off-white finish from burning (or from burning you – the exterior actually stayed suprisingly cool).

Altogether, it’s a deceptively simple, but clever design (them Scandinavians are good at that sort of thing it seems).

After doing a little research I learned that lighter fluid, beyond being scary, is also just generally no good. It makes food taste like chemicals. So instead we used these wax and sawdust things we usually have around when we need to start a campfire. I lit it and piled about a dozen bricks of charcoal on top of it, and that seemed to do the trick. After about 10 minutes I rearranged them to make sure they were all getting evenly singed, and then after another 10 minutes I mixed them all up, popped on the grill top, checked the heat with my hand (3 Mississippis and I had to pull it away – that means it’s hot enough) and started barbecuing.

A little while later, we had a delicious steak dinner, with some grilled asparagus and green-garlic couscous, and a salad of simply dressed tomatoes. It was pretty perfect.

Today I cleaned up the grill – everything washed right off him, good as new. I popped back the little legs on the bucket, and tucked it into a shelf. It’s like last night never even happened. He’s so compact, I’m thinking we can definitely take him camping with us later on in the summer.

If you’ve got a small deck like we do (and if you can hunt one down) this little barbecues’ going to be your new best friend. Even if you don’t have any outdoor space (in our last apartment we didn’t have any), this guys worth checking out to take camping, or to the beach.

He’s a bit more complicated than a gas grill would be, but the flavor and convenience (not to mention the price, and beautiful design) far outweighs all that in my mind. He’ll look cute sitting on your patio, but he can also be folded up and hidden away. Plus, he’s a whole lot of fun! I’m looking forward to using him all summer, but first we’re heading up to my family’s cottage for the weekend.

It will be nice to get away from the city heat – if it doesn’t rain on us all weekend.

And even then, I think it’ll still be nice.

1. Liam bought me something I have been looking for for a very long time.

   A precious, beautiful, coral-red, Olivetti valentine typewriter!

2. We had the fanciest Portuguese food in the city at Chiado.

   I couldn’t really repeat to you what I had because most of it was strange and portuguese and our waiter had a bit of an indescipherable accent, but it was really, really good. We had creme brule for desert, and any meal that ends like that I am all for.

3. Liam took me to see the Drowsy Chaperone.

   Little known fact about me: I was once a theatre major.

   Really.

   My opinion on modern theatre is pretty much this: it’s dead. It is either far too pretentious to be enjoyed by pretty much anyone, or far too commercial to have anything interesting to say.

   The remedy to this appears to be: Canadians. Particularily Bob Martin (a comedian who Liam’s been a fan of way before he ever started winning Tonys, and who returned home to Toronto to play the Man in the Chair one last time) and Don McKeller. Yay us!

4. We got a new apartment in the east end (near Little India).

   The process of finding and applying for an apartment has been ongoing over the past month or so, but I didn’t want to say anything about it, lest I jinx myself.
   We finally found the perfect spot a couple weeks ago.

   It has:

   TWO bedrooms (one of which is in the cutest little gabled attic)
   BAY windows
   HARDWOOD floors throughout
   a sizable kitchen with COUNTER-SPACE
   a GAS stove
   lots of BIG closets – with more storage in the basement
   FREE laundry in the basement
   a beautiful DECK
   a big, blank canvas of a BACKYARD
   and…
   it is a CO-OP, which means we are goint to be paying less than we are now, the CO-OP will pay for us to paint whatever colour we want, and if we want to make upgrades we can apply to have them paid for (!!!)

5. We went to a fall fair.

   I saw baby animals; had a corndog, butterfly fries and a candy apple; and came home with fresh homemade cider and bumbleberry pie.

So I’ve been vaguely avoiding updating. I was going to point in the direction of jet lag, but really, it hasn’t been too much of an issue.

It’s more that we had no (or at least very little) internet access in England, so we couldn’t upload and post things gradually (not that we had the time to do so even if we had the net) and so now there are probably a good thousand or so photos to sort through and post. Which is daunting.

Well, on the whole, lets just say I enjoyed myself. For now. I checked pretty much everything off of my list.

Actually… “enjoyed myself” might be an understatement. I think I might like to live there someday. In a little cottage. In the English countryside. With the occasional trainride to London for shopping (amazing, amazing shopping).

I mean my parents said it when they were there last (and they have more right to, as they were both raised by very British parents) but it kinda felt like home, for some strange reason.

I guess it all adds up – since a very young age every other book I read (certainly all the favourites, at least) were set in the British countryside: Diana Wynne Jones, Arthur Ransome, Lewis Caroll and Roald Dahl.

Speaking of which, I just found that the people that make those amazing Penguin paperback mugs and things (which I searched all over England for, and could not find for some strange reason) make a Swallows and Amazons set of mugs, and I want one desperately and dearly.

Then, while looking around, I found that another company that designs elegant and thoughtful souvenirs for iconic British entities makes Pantone!!! Swatch!!! Mugs!!! and, well, my heart pretty much swooned and exploded.

So, in summation, I will shortly be installing a Pay Pal donation button, to which all funds will go directly towards buying myself a small cottage in Kent, Sussex, or other suitable English countryside.

Ok, no, maybe I’m just kidding.

Well… Actually… Then again… Never say never…

Just ’cause I’m not in school, doesn’t mean I want to stop learning. Never. I want to be self-taught. Here’s how I’m going to do it.

I’m gonna do my best to:

1. be serious and professional when learning, creating and pursuing
2. be open-minded and light-hearted when learning, creating and pursuing
3. go ahead and aquire (and read) as many good art, illustration and design books as I can, whenever I can
   (right now: rummaging thrift stores for vintage children’s books counts)
4. go ahead and buy tools that will make it easier and more fun for me to create whenever I can
   (right now: one of those little wooden bendy model guys and an adjustable stool for my drafting table)
5. take workshops somewhere in something technical but creative whenever I can
   (right now: print making, or jewellery smithing, or comic creation really interest me)
6. go to LOTS of life drawing
7. read more (everyday)
8. write/blog more (everyday)
9. draw more (everyday)
10. create, for no reason other than to create (everyday)

So long as I make some kind of change to myself or my environment, made something happen, learned/made/created/adapted/altered something in the world somehow (flapped my butterfly wings, hoping for a hurricane in Guatemala, so to speak) it’ll be a good day.

Some interesting reading on being self-taught:
autodidacticism
amateurs are the devil

I haven’t slept in days.
So now that my classes are almost (so close) over, right now I’m looking up my professor’s websites.
(The internet is a wonderful thing.)
Check out some of my Design Process prof’s stuff here. As someone who grew up visiting a ridiculously quaint and pretty much iconic little 100 year old log cabin cluttered with mid-century-design cast-offs, ancient (museum-quality) comestibles, lost cross-country-skis and rock collections – I gotta say I really love the idea of riffing on cabin culture as an aspect of Canadian identity. So I think this is a great idea for a collaborative/concept design show.
And my very own, Prof. Erdmann’s designs are pretty much the best ones.
And his head-shot makes him look ridiculously adorable (which I don’t remember from his class).
Now I understand why he gave me such good marks. I think we have a very similar approach to designing things. He’s all about repurposing and whimsy, and being self referential, while at the same time juxtaposing contrasts. Mee Too (for example: I just did a project in my Graffiti class, where I stuck Marie Antoinette on a skateboard – figuratively and literally. It was a skateboard design, so I put her on a board, and gave her a little I *heart* sk8rs* t-shirt and pink converses, and drew her in the style of Mary Blair).
Sometimes, Liam works with my Graffiti prof’s design studio, and doesn’t even realise it, which is weird. They both do treatments for the same production company. What’s also weird is how corporate a lot of their design work is – nice clean graphic work for big companies – but he’s teaching me Graffiti. Although, I think he keeps trying to push old school methods (like not using a computer for anything and actually breaking out a pen and paper) on us ’cause in the real world he’s forced to go digital so often. Vector work is technically convenient and is pretty hot right now, but it lacks soul – and again this is where he and I get along very well.
I’ve spent the last 2 months thinking of nothing but how I can get myself out of Art School, but occasionally I am reminded of it’s advantages… Even if it is that I have more in common with my Professors than my fellow students…

Back when I actually had the time to be bored this summer, I went on a hunt for new blogs to read.
I love my new finds so much, I sharing them, because they are becoming a major source of inspiration for me (when I can find the time to actually be on my computer doing something other than schoolwork).

These blogs are pure escapism. I could never hope to live the halcyon life these girls manage to create around them. I am astounded by the depth of thought that goes into the aesthetic beauty of every little domestic moment captured in images. These blogs have become my muses, inspiring me to create art from the life I live, by seeing EVERYTHING I create (from the way I make a bed – or don’t – to how I make dinner) as creative in nature.

little birds
Domestic bliss in Portland (my dream town) in saturated colours, glimpses of nature and carefully chosen vintage prints.

a bird in the hand
The literal sister site to little birds (no really, it’s her sister). Just as much about vintage finds, but more about pastel colours and collaged art pieces, and life in San Francisco (a very nice city indeed).

oh joy
How this blogger finds all these beautiful things everyday, I’ll never know. But there’s a wealth of links here to all things design and feminine (especially cute jewellery, fashion, home decor, stationary, party planning and weddings). And it’s all sooooo delightfully girly.

everybody likes sandwiches
I love cooking, and I love food, but I’ve had a hard time finding a food blog that actually offers me something new, and captures my attention.
This one does.
The food is simple, but beautifully captured, and imaginative – and the blog is well written to boot. It’s like an elegant cookbook in blog form! I especially like the focus on fresh in season ingrediants, and things that are relatively healthy.

Yesterday was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Or spreadable cheese.
Not only did I get to see yummy, yummy Ok Go (have I mentioned yet that Damien Kulash grows sexier by the hour? I found him cute before. Now he is a full fledged sexy rock star), but I happened upon a great bookstore owned by a fascinating lady (the veritable design institution: Another Man’s Poison – I could disappear into it’s stacks never to be seen again) , and cemented my plans to apply to OCAD (as it’s admissions staff just so conveniently happened to be at the college fair, at the convention centre, a block away from the offices of the walrus).
OCAD even told me with my experience, I might even get an advanced placement (if my portfolio is up to snuff of course).
And so, I must retreat to the drawing table. If only I had one.
I’ve got to get on this portfolio thing. I’ve been contemplating it for quite some time now, but deadlines are drawing ever closer. November for some workshops, and February for the final interviews.
On top of it all, I am starting to feel like moving to Toronto is a bright and shining reality. I don’t feel like a suburbanite tourist in the downtown anymore. I feel like I’m moments away from making it my home.