{ Archive for November, 2009 }

crabtree & evelyn holiday essentials

ce51 crabtree & evelyn holiday essentials

No need to wrap these great giftables! Glammed-up in gorgeous etched green glass, Windsor Forest is the latest addition to Crabtree & Evelyn’s Festive Home Fragrance Collection. Inspired by the evergreens at Royal Windsor Great Park, bordering Windsor Castle, this set of three fragranced candles blends the fresh scent of Fraser fir, balsam and spruce – with a touch of English holly. At only $40, and with a burn time of 25 hours each, this is the perfect prezzie for the Anglophile in your life!

And speaking of British flavour… I’m loving C&E’s holiday hamper! A too-cute wicker basket that’s dying to be repurposed for picnics in the park, loaded with scrummy quintessentially English nibbles.

ce31 crabtree & evelyn holiday essentials

The artistes at Teatro Verde provided the floral arrangements for Crabtree & Evelyn’s holiday preview, where I took these snaps. They do such a fantastic job of putting fresh new spins on old holiday favourites. The arrangement on the cocktail table below is absolutely stunning…

ce22 crabtree & evelyn holiday essentials

ce11 crabtree & evelyn holiday essentials

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deboer’s wicked wallcovering idea

I was in the DeBoer’s North York showroom recently, and had to take some snaps of their merchandiser’s amazing display in the Trump Home section. (Yes, that’s The Donald’s own home collection.)

trumphome2 deboers wicked wallcovering idea

The bedroom vignette is certainly stunning enough – but take a closer look at the “wallpaper” behind the headboard…

trumphome1 deboers wicked wallcovering idea

Those are actually sheets of 8.5-by-11 copy paper, individually tacked to the wall! The merchandiser simply drafted up a motif on paper, which includes the Donald’s signature crest, and photocopied it to create the repeat. What a fantastic and innovative approach to wallcoverings!

This display actually netted the DeBoer’s team a Trump Home award for merchandising. Congrats gang!

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beautiful burlap

Burlap has never looked so good! Check out today’s beautiful finds:

burlap beautiful burlap
Made by AlicesLookingGlass, these beautiful burlap pieces bring a romantic, vintage charm to the home. For more information, visit AlicesLookingGlass on etsy.com.

style at home… for the holidays!

seasonsshow11 style at home... for the holidays!A huge thank you (and happy holidays!) to everyone who stopped by to see Karl Lohnes, Jane Franscisco and me at the Seasons Christmas Show at the International Centre in Toronto yesterday. We had a total blast throughout the day, and really loved the chance to chat with everyone one-on-one after our seminars.

The gorgeous Toronto Star Stage (above), which we took over for our seminars, was decked out in the latest and greatest from Woodbridge, Ontario’s Zilli Home Interiors, and styled by none other than Jane Lockhart. I’m so upset I don’t have any tighter shots, as Jane did a fantastic job pulling together a lovely dining vignette — a lovely backdrop for our holiday decorating and entertaining projects.

seasonsshow2 style at home... for the holidays!Jane and Karl didn’t send me the memo about dressing appropriately, though… I’ll be sure to bring my Santa cap next year! icon wink style at home... for the holidays!

style at home day at the seasons christmas show

seasonsshow1 style at home day at the seasons christmas show

You officially have Style At Home’s blessing to begin decorating for the holidays… The Seasons Christmas Show is here!

Tomorrow – Sunday, November 22 – is Style At Home Day at the Seasons Christmas Show at the International Centre in Toronto: your one-stop shop for holiday decorating and entertaining. Catch me live on the Toronto Star stage at noon, with my colleagues Karl Lohnes following at 2PM, and editor-in-chief Jane Francisco at 4PM.  Check out the full roster of stylish seminars here. I’ll be demonstrating some luxe-for-less DIY dressings for the dining table, and how to get top-notch festive decor out of your next trip to the grocery store!

Hope to see you there!

colourful computer mice

image005 colourful computer miceimage0091 colourful computer miceimage012 colourful computer miceThree colourful mice, three colourful mice, see how they click, see how they click…
I can’t help but hum a little tune when I see these uber-stylish mice from Pat Says Now. Available in Cherry Blossom, Polka Dot, Louis XIV and a bunch of other styles (these are definitely my fave), they’re an easy way to jazz up your workspace without spending a lot of cash.


$35 each, available at SoHo Corner Store.

art for typography junkies

If you’re someone who knows what I mean when I say “Comic Sans Serif” was the un-funniest thing to happen to typography – EVER – you’re probably a typography junkie. The design of written characters is an art unto itself, and has a passionate, cult-like following within the larger pool of design aficionados.

Even IKEA’s jumped on the typography bandwagon with the rather splendid new Olunda framed artwork. I love how the vowels are printed in red, including the deliciously Swedish additions at the end. Did you actually know that the Swedish alphabet recognizes these variations of “A” and “O” as three distinct letters, thus bringing their alphabet to 29 characters? Fascinating! (Yes, I’m a junkie.)

ikeabet art for typography junkies

Olunda picture, $60, IKEA

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potted pines at pottery barn

Pint-sized (they run up to 48″ – perfect for apartments and other small spaces!) and oh-so-so pretty, Pottery Barn has revived its popular faux firs for another holiday season.

trees potted pines at pottery barn

Amidst all the glimmer and glamour of the holidays, these petite pines exude a simple charm. They hit just the right rustic note in their burlap-wrapped pots, and look just as great on their own as they do decorated. I’m actually partial to the minimal dusting of pinecones throughout the trio above, which is how the trees come – totally in-keeping with the back-to-basics appeal of the trees themselves.

Here’s my snap of one of the pines in situ at the Bloor Street Pottery Barn in Toronto, sprinkled liberally with Pottery Barn’s ornament collection.

trees2 potted pines at pottery barn

nice buns

bunopener nice buns

Unexpectedly, my blog post on my hate-on for furnishings with bun feet ignited a firestorm of controversy here at the STYLE AT HOME offices… It turns out, there are a number of bun feet supporters – my colleagues included – who were eager to point out that there are, in fact, tons of nice buns (sorry, couldn’t resist) on the market. Our Senior Design Editor, Margot Austin, shared these beautiful bun contenders with me in an attempt to sway my opinion…

I confess, this first one I love – it’s an example of how a bun foot works well when used in conjunction with an open, airy-based piece of furniture.

bun7 nice buns

This one’s quite pretty, too…

bun2 nice bunsbun1 nice bunsbun3 nice bunsbun5 nice bunsbun6 nice bunsAight, so maybe I’ll have to temper my earlier opinion, and concede that there are, as Margot pointed out, good bun feet and bad bun feet. icon wink nice buns

Where do you stand on the great bun debate?

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tap water bottles

tap water tap water bottles
Sometimes I shake my head in disbelief that any of us actually got suckered into buying bottled water. Expensive, bad for the environment and bad for your health. Hmmm …

I switched to filtered tap water ages ago and bought glass jugs for home. But the one thing bottled water did for us was get us used to the convenience of having water on the go. Lots of environmentally-friendly, health-conscious options are popping up to make your H2O portable. I love the sleek design of these bottles by Tap Water Bottle, a Toronto-based company that launched just last month.

The tap water bottle is available at the following Toronto locations: Simple Café (1303 Queen St. East), The Inspired Cook (1378 Queen St. East), Laide Lounge (138 Adelaide St. East), The Yoga Lounge (103 Church Street) and can be shipped across Canada by ordering online at tapwater-bottle.com.

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