five friday favourites

A few awesome things to share with you today: some new Etsy favourites (and beyond) and an M.I.A. video that my friends Jacqui and Blair introduced me to. It's a good Friday kinda song.

Translucent porcelain cups by stepanka on Etsy seem like the perfect tea cup to me. These blue quartz Astrid earrings from Katie Diamond Jewelry are blowing my mind (I love the studs, too). The new Yokoo-related Etsy store "Mother" is rad. The Travail Apron is perfect, as are many of the other creations. Check Mother out if you haven't already (discovered via For Me, For You). And finally, I've been working on a knitting project using Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn. It's my first lace piece and I'm down to just needing to graft and block...both of which I have little to no experience with and so I've been putting it off. I love checking out the Brooklyn Tweed blog for knitting inspiration. And their made in the USA yarn is beautiful in person.

a friday favourite

I have this amazing, spring-like Friday off today and am going to use it to drop some jewelry off in Gastown and work on some new organic cotton scarves. Lola and I already went on a nice long walk and found some snowdrops and got some much needed Vitamin D and exercise. Today is the perfect day to have off and the perfect day for this song. Enjoy and happy weekend!

a friday favourite

Today I just have one thing to share with you. The David Lynch Remix of Zola Jesus's In Your Nature. Enjoy and have a happy weekend, everyone.

P.S. Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the LAX to YVR giveaway. I'll be picking a winner tomorrow!

friday favourites

1. european country homes via design is mine

2. another unseen landscape by robsworld

3. the best american nonrequred reading 2011

4. fortress ring by dollybird

I had this themed favourites post all figured out, and then I saw #4...that amazing hand-forged sterling silver Fortress Ring by Dollybird. If you haven't already checked out this shop, you really should. I love the maker's description of this piece: that it was inspired by her memories of always wanting to be the warrior rather than the princess when she was a child. Perfect. The rest of these picks are things that are inspiring me these days. I want my house to somehow include ALL of the interiors in this post on design is mine. Weathered wood, colourful textiles, and all that natural light. I dig it. Good thing my mom is an expert quilter...we're on our way to achieving something like this, someday.

I'm also really intrigued by collaborative photo projects. As in, you shoot a roll of film, send it to a friend, and they shoot over your pictures. You see what happens. #2 is a collaborative photo from robsworld's photostream. Through the camera twice on opposite sides of the ocean.

And #3: I'm reading this right now. It's early going but I read this collection pretty much every year and it's consistently among my favourite books of the year. So far the profile of M.I.A. is one of the highlights of the 2011 edition. If you aren't familiar with this collection, it's a really good combination of the best fiction and non-fiction writing each year from American publications. There's something in it for everyone and you're bound to discover a new writer that you love. It was this series that introduced me to Nick Flynn, one of my favourite writers these days. Trust me.


I also really want to share this beautiful video with you that uses light painting to make WiFi networks visible. The idea of making immaterial parts of our life visible is beautiful in itself and the execution of this particular project is particularly stunning. Enjoy and happy weekend!

Immaterials by Timo

friday favourites

A new year, a new format for Friday Favourites. I'm going to renew this ongoing series by bringing you a few of my favourite objects and images each week, along with an amazing video, should I be lucky enough to find one. This week's picks are a bit all over the place, but here we go... 

Seeing as how my iPhone is my new favourite toy, this case caught my eye. There are lots of other great ones on Society6, too, including this crystal case which is kinda my other favourite (my real iPhone case cost $2 on dealextreme.com, by the way). 

I always like weirdly mundane photography, and the work of Corey Olsen fits the bill perfect. Cute photography is never bad either. I had trouble choosing my favourite from a collection of sled dog portraits in this month's National Geographic and look forward to following the adventures of Cal and her new puppy, Turbo, over at Boardwalk to Eden. Turn Off Your Computer and Go Outside? I hope we all consciously choose that this weekend. Finally, I offer you the most amazing video that I've seen in a while. A time lapse of the Earth from the International Space Station. I urge you to take a few minutes to watch the Northern Lights wash over the atmosphere. I hope it proves a magical start to a wonderful weekend for you. Thanks for reading!

sources:

1. sequin spill iPhone case by Grace Breyley at Society6 

2. photographer corey olsen via BOOOOOOOM! 

3. Cal's new puppy, Turbo, via boardwalk to eden 4. Laura George print via design is mine

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.
via fecalface
Two posts that made my week:
How Lola spent her holidays (with Stina from Honeywild) and the fabulous Alex Silva featured wearing a Sadie necklace on The Cultist.

all I want for christmas...

It's been a long time since I put together a list of my favourite handmade objects and 'tis the season to talk about things we want and drop helpful, blatant hints, so here are mine (a little late, I know...). A limited edition gold leafed ceramic tray by upintheairsomewhere? Yes, please. A big, pretty much ideal Forestbound leather bag. Forestbound leads in perfectly to Foret, my favourite scent from OLO (inspired by all of the forests the maker has visited). A BFF necklace that I'd be psyched to have half of, made by In God We Trust. (I'm dying to see their "Heathers" series...I wonder which quotes they chose.) And finally, hand-painted silk and cotton scarf from Scarfshop's Holiday Shimmer collection. I'd definitely choose the gold one (to go with my platter...).

I have a bit of a tough time with the whole insanely commercial side of the holidays, but I think shopping handmade makes it all feel a little better. Rest assured, any purchase that you've made from a small business person has been greatly appreciated this holiday season. I have been very busy making, packaging, and shipping jewelry lately and I am thankful for each and every order. I love seeing all of the different addresses that my work is headed off to and appreciate it whenever a customer sends me a nice comment when they place their order or receive their package. It's amazing to be part of the process of getting the perfect gift to a special person. Thank you all so much for your support this year! 

What's on your handmade wishlist? Leave me a link if you have a post to share!

gold zag tray by upintheairsomewhere

ashcroft leather carryall by forestbound

OLO fragrance

best fuckin' friends necklace by IN GOD WE TRUST

holiday shimmer collection by Scarfshop

caiti's five friday favourites

Today's guest post comes courtesy of Caiti at Life is a Canvas. As part of my new series featuring bloggers and makers that I admire, Caiti has offered to share some of her favourite links for your enjoyment! Be sure to check out her blog, it's always full of inspiration. Thank you, Caiti!

First of all, thank you to Sarah for inviting me to guest post for her while she is recovering from her vacation in Montreal! My name is Caiti and I am a designer of paper goods and blogger at Life is a Canvas: Creative Musings from CaitididDesigns. On the Life is a Canvas blog, I explore all the ways that we can celebrate creativity in our daily lives — not only through artistic pursuits like art, graphic design, crafting and writing, but also by infusing creativity into everyday activities like cooking, interacting with friends, our jobs, where we choose to shop, and the way we present ourselves to the

world. I am committed to the notion that we are the artists for our lives, and I know that I want to create a life full of color, vibrancy, passion, exploration, and authenticity.

One of my most popular blog series is a "Monthly Faves" post in which I pick several of my favorite links from around the interwebs to help inspire your creativity. I've picked out my five current favorites to share with you today.

{READ}

-Although this post is written by a photographer, I think Alex Beadon's 

"13 things I have learned as an artist" can be applied to any creative person's life.

{WATCH}

- The series of "Live the Language" ads for EF International Language

Centers give me a serious case of wanderlust, including the desire to

visit Sarah's hometown of Vancouver.

{LISTEN}

- I'm in love with the subtle, moody sounds of Gem Club -

Breakers. Perfect for an autumn stroll.

{DO}

- Make these gorgeous DIY gradient napkins with not much more than Sharpies and rubbing alcohol.

{LOVE}

- Running a tea shop out of a

vintage trailer is basically the most perfect, dreamy job I could

imagine.

Thanks again, Sarah, for letting me share some of my favorite links with your readers!

five friday favourites: knitting

source

Though all of a sudden Vancouver is being inundated with humid, hot Hawaiian air (this is what they tell me), earlier this week it felt like the right time of year to bust out some wool and knitting needles. I scoured the internet for some tips on the type of thing that I wanted to make (more on what I made another day) and found some great stuff along the way.

Great stuff like this company that has "Brooklyn" in its name (pretty much a pre req. these days for company names): Brooklyn Tweed. But honestly I love their 100% American wool yarns, especially this awesome colour called "long johns". I think I would make it into mittens. Their patterns also look pretty great, and I love the fact that you just download .pdfs from their site for some instant gratification.

I was looking for a finer, textured cowl pattern, but I also came across this super chunky pattern from Martha Stewart. If you want to make something giant really quickly I'm pretty sure it would do the trick.

In my search for exciting (and, let's face it, low commitment) patterns I also found this knitting-centric tumblr: Knitting, Fuck Yeah! It's packed with pages of properly linked patterns and is a great visual collection of knitting inspiration.

I have never been successful with intarsia (using two or more colours in the same row to make magical gloves or mitts like these), but my mom has mastered the double knit New England/Maritimes mitten. I hope that she makes me a pair that I can pick up in Calgary at Christmas time! If I had a picture of her handy work I'd post it as my fourth favourite (though it's technically my first favourite). Instead, I'll just let you know that someday soon she hopes to get her knitwear company, Bow Valley Knits, up and running.

And finally, if you can't afford $100 Norwegian mittens, you could make your own. Mitts are a pretty easy project to take on to learn a few more basic skills, like working in the round and increasing/decreasing. These ones look super easy and would get you started.

There you go, people. The best of the things that I found this week before I just made up my own pattern for what I wanted to make and winged everything. Also, starting a new project may or may not have been an excuse just to use the manual winding machine at the yarn store. I love those things!

five friday favourites

This week is the first time that autumn weather has made an appearance in Vancouver. It makes me excited to get a new sweater or two, bake spiced cookies, and watch a lot (and I mean, a lot) of movies. As much as I don't want summer to ever go away and though I would never say that I was ready for summer to end, there is a certain excitement brewing about the fall slow down. And my first fall without school in, well, almost forever. For me fall is a time to still be outside a lot, enjoying bike rides and trips to farms and mountains whenever possible, but with a little less going on in general. It feels like there is breathing room, though maybe that just has something to do with the fact that I finished school this spring and that our wedding is now a couple of weeks behind us.

Anyway, on to the fall-related finds. First of all, I was excited to discover that you can buy mini doughnuts on Etsy. I think I might have to order some of those dudes to our American mailbox address just because I can. The rest of these picks are all about thick knitwear, cold weather, and smokey campfires. Click on the links below to see more.

1. The gorgeous Blanket poster by Debbie Carlos

2. Woodsmoke and Vanilla perfume oil by FlourishBathBody

3. Two dozen (!!!) pumpkin spice doughbabies by donutsandmore

4. Crochet genius Yokoo's Soopascarf

5. Raincity Boot Warmers by Vancouver's own Kove

So, these are the handmade things that I think would really help me survive the non-summer months this year. What autumn-y things have you found lately?

If you'd like to see more of my fall finds, I have three new treasuries on Etsy: Around the Campfire, Sweater Weather, and Awesome Autumn.

five friday favourites: wedding edition

satomi kawakita jewelry

just married banner by celebratewithfun

inter-species cake topper by melabowed 

invitations by shira leuchter

via design editor

Today's five Friday favourites are wedding themed. Now that the big day has come and gone I can reveal some of our secrets. I wanted especially to thank some of the great Etsy shop owners who helped us make our wedding day special in every way. Our just married banner was a custom piece by Celebrate With Fun (this isn't exactly ours, but one like ours). It arrived so quickly and the seller was great about customizing it. Our MelaboWed cake topper was also a custom request. We wanted it to add a bit of weirdness to our cake and keep everyone from thinking we were taking things to seriously. I can't recommend this shop enough. Great communication, everything was very well packaged and arrived quickly and the piece itself is even more awesome than the pictures imply. LOVE it. Wolf and squirrel forever.

I think the Etsy seller who maybe deserves the biggest thank you from us is Shira Leuchter. Her beautiful and affordable wedding invites fit our theme of vintage garden party perfectly and she was such a pleasure to work with. She quickly adjusted proofs and made very helpful suggestions when we were working on the design. She also went so far as to courier our invites to us during the Canada Post lockout and packaged everything absolutely beautifully. Seriously, if you're getting married or having a big event that you need some invitations for, work with Shira. She is wonderful and her work is, too.

The ring at the top of this post is not my current wedding band, but it is the one that I'd love to have to wear on days when a lower profile ring is more appropriate. I love the delicate band and the asymmetric layout of the tiny diamonds. The Satomi Kawakita engagement rings are also ridiculously awesome. Perhaps a few of you need to send the link to your boyfriends?

Finally, what wedding is complete without some Martha Stewart tissue paper pom poms? We made some for my friend Roberta's wedding reception a few years ago, and made many, many more for our wedding. We adjusted the way we made them a little to keep the back flat to make big wall pieces, inspired by Elsie's huge backdrop at her truly beautiful wedding. Check out the super easy DIY instructions over on the Martha site. She always knows what's up.

Which Etsy shops are your favourites for wedding-related awesomeness?

five friday favourites: wedding blogs

Charleston Wedding via Style Me Pretty

I've put together todays' five Friday favourites to share some of the amazing blog posts that inspired our wedding plans at the very beginning and that we kept returning to as the date approached. We found everything from bouquet inspiration to clothing advice to hairstyles thanks to the generosity of so many bloggers and photographers and couples who go to the trouble of sharing their ideas, inspiration and wedding day online. Here are a few that really resonated with us...perhaps you can imagine a little of what our wedding tomorrow will look like? Tomorrow!?! That's crazy...(and, I must admit, I'm writing this when the wedding is actually a week away, so tomorrow sounds really crazy). Click on the captions to see the full posts. 

NYC City Hall wedding via A Cup of Jo

Camp Wedding via Green Wedding Shoes

Jeremy and Elsie's A-MAZING wedding via A Beautiful Mess

Phoenix Wedding via Style Me Pretty

You can see more of our wedding inspiration on Pinterest. Seriously, how do these couples pull off these unbelievable weddings? Do you have any favourite wedding blogs or wedding blog posts?

five friday favourites

This weeks favourites, each described in five words or less:

blueberry season

lauren treece's photostream

morris kitchen ginger syrup cocktails

refreshing saje peppermint halo

my new bloch shoes

That's it, that's all. A varied pile of favourites that let you in on a lot of what I've been up to lately. Blueberry picking (and eating!), photo dreaming (especially looking for double exposure inspiration), shoe shopping (looking for the perfect pair for the wedding), cold drinks with friends, and the best pick-me-up...peppermint oil! Have a great weekend, everyone. We're going to be harassing our friends for wedding-related favours and buying the booze for our bar this weekend. Three more weeks!

five friday favourites: pie

source

pies pies pies by wayne thiebaud (1961) via the ny times

handpainted magnets by StudioFludd

by chocolate editions

source

After am awesome twitter conversation with Cal, Beca, and Danielle the other day I have not been able to get the thought of homemade pie out of my head. So I offer you my favourite dessert painter since I did my fine arts undergrad, Wayne Thiebaud, StudioFludd's awesome pie chart inspired pieces, a chocolate pie chart, a beautiful pie crust, and a recipe for cherry pie that I say I'm going to make but that I'm probably just going to try to convince Jeff to make. I love that there is so much fruit in season right now! And I love that it is Friday!

five friday favourites: canada day

Calgary, Alberta, Canada by BirdAve

we hold a hundred summers tank by scout and catalogue

writer leather moleskin case  by erin templeton

maiden voyage dropped stud earrings by flightpathdesigns

flower buds poster by rosegolden

Happy Canada Day, everyone! This is just a quick post to bring you some of my most recent Canadian favourites. I'm a bit obsessed with the Erin Templeton Writer. It's made of the most beautiful leather and I just know it would age so well over years of being dragged around on trips and around the city in my bag everyday. The rest of these things make me pretty happy, too, like an amazing new collaboration between the talented ladies of Fieldguided (all time favourite Canadian blog) and Atlantic Treefox (another great blog). Each rosegolden poster has hand-applied gold leaf and the floral photographs are so dreamy. I hope that you all have an amazing long weekend and that you get to see some sun. I'll have some photo from a weekend adventure early next week!

Now for some vintage Neil Young. He's Canadian, you know...

five friday favourites: birthday cakes

I'm turning 31 on Saturday and if I could, I would eat all of these cakes. Instead, I'm spending the weekend in the supernatural wilds of British Columbia. Well, not too wild. I'll bring back pictures.

Sources:

1. Cookies & Cakes via MacKenzie 2. What You Give Away You Keep 

3. David Lebovitz 4. via Mel Hince 5. Tallu-Lah via Lauragrace

five friday favourites: interiors

the simplest bedroom ever

gypsy caravan (loved by me and my sister kate)

simple (and affordable looking) living room

bookshelf photograph by lavender.

sunny corner at my house

I realize that I've never posted about the kind of home interiors that I dream about. Every home that I envy has a lot of sunlight, first and foremost. And white walls. That's it, that's what I wish I had these days. The thing is, I totally switch back and forth between wanting to live in a gypsy caravan, or a crazy home like Pamela Love (still white walls, still lots of sunlight!) and wishing that my entire house was like the bedroom at the top of this post: empty except for essentials. The thing is, I guess, I just have too much going on for my home to be that empty. Fabric, jewelry supplies, many books, an old school tv that I refuse to replace until tvs are just stickers on the wall (which is going to happen), cameras, dog stuff, bike stuff, so much stuff! We've definitely been getting rid of things, but I think Jeff and I both still want to purge more. Living in such a small space has been pushing us in the direction of downsizing and we're both ready to live with a lot less around us. The thing is, where do you put a giant record collection in a minimalist home?

What kind of spaces do you dream of? Simple and serene; eclectic and colourful? Both, like me? I think the answer for me is to move to a bigger space and get nothing new. It's hard to jam a life into less than 800 square feet. But you do what you've gotta do in Vancouver. Finally, do you have any favourite interior images or blogs to share? Have a great weekend, everyone!

five friday favourites: book club edition

Beca and Carla and I have been working on this idea to get a summer book club going and we're ready to start! I'm introducing the first book here on my blog because it was my pick, and I hope it's a good one. I read Jane Eyre earlier this year, and this book was recommended as a good follow-up read (though not entirely necessary that you've read it before!). So my pick is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. For those of your familiar with the Jane Eyre story (book or movie) this is the story of the woman in the attic (trying to avoid spoilers here). So, if you're interested in joining our little book club, pick up a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea from your local library and watch for follow-up posts on the blogs of Beca and Carla and right here. We'll finish Wide Sargasso Sea by the end of June and move on to Beca's pick for July! Join me on Goodreads or Twitter and we can discuss while we read! I'll try to have some interim posts about the book (not spoilers, of course) and we can also discuss that way. Now to some bookish favourites!

oblique shelf by builtINstudio

book necklaces by moorea seal

large journal bandolier by cleverhands

handmade leather journal by lusciousleatherNYC

I will link up the book club blog button that Beca made very soon so you can add it to your own blog if you're joining us! The idea is that whoever picks the book we're reading hosts the book club on their blog for that month or so. This is all a big experiment, I hope you'll join us! Have a great weekend!