I just saw this via Loobylu's tweet - Creative Director Rhett Dashwood searched land formations on Google Maps for the past 6 months, discovering land formations or buildings that resembled letters, in order to spell out the alphabet. This is what he found within Victoria, Australia. Very cool! Click the image to see it larger.
I'm always intrigued with simple, clever ideas that can make a huge impact, so I loved the idea behind The Spruce Initiative. Vancouver's Felicity Fane {who holds a Ph.D. in Transformation and Consciousness, not to mention her additional degrees in Architecture and Chemical Engineering - whoa baby!} originated the project after she travelled to visit family in Switzerland and marvelled at how clean it was. When she returned home, she decided that she would pick up one piece of garbage {or rubbish as she calls it - it does sound so much better than garbage!} per day and she is hoping that this simple and easy idea will catch on. If everyone picked up just one piece of rubbish a day, think of what a huge difference that would make!
You can read more about the project here. And in case you need some incentive, if helping the environment isn't incentive enough - Felicity has found a bunch of cool things while sprucing up her city including a $50 bill, and a Starbucks coffee card {good for a free cup of coffee}! Happy Earth Day...
{I meant to post this on Bloomerism today, but I posted it here by mistake! I will leave it here too...happy weekend Bloomers!}..................
Growing up, my mom had a friend named Linda who was a calligrapher. We would get birthday cards with the most stunning handwritten addresses on the envelope. And every Christmas Linda would create these incredible, custom-designed, calligraphed and illustrated calendars for her extended family that included important birthdays and occasions. I thought these were the most beautiful things I had ever seen! I begged my mom for a calligraphy set and lessons. I think I was 5 years old at the time and my mom had to remind me that I need to learn to print first...oh yeah...
Well eventually the time came and I got a new calligraphy set and Linda gave me a few wonderful lessons. Finally it was my turn to create a custom calendar for my family! So, at age 10 that is what I set out to do...see above for the result. Haha...I love the whited out 'S' where I tried to write '9'. Not bad for 10 years old though, I guess!
I still love calligraphy, and with everything designed and printed by computer these days, it's so refreshing and beautiful to see elegant handwriting in its inky goodness...a true artform! Check out some of these beauties. I am thinking that I might actually give it a go again and take a calligraphy course. There's no doubt that my mouse-shaped claw of a hand could use some exercise!
Calligraphers from the top:
1. Joelle Bloomer, circa 1987
2. Jenna Hein {wow!}
3. Rebecca Trawick
4. Linea Carta
5. Crystal Kluge
6, 7, 8. Betsy Dunlap
Well it's no secret that I'm smitten with nature motifs and silhouettes...just take a look at my logo! So I fell in love with these delicate Wooden Pop-Up Boxes filled with small, hand-cut paper forests by paper artist Lizzie Thomas. So whimsical and pretty! {as seen in Lucky magazine; photos from Design*Sponge}
I really love this logo for the 'Fresh with Anna Olson' cooking series on the Food Network. And I love the kitchen Anna cooks in. I always thought it was a set, but in April's issue of Canadian Home & Country magazine, her home was featured and the kitchen is in fact hers! I wish I had enough guts to paint a room this bold robin's egg blue. The paint colour is Benjamin Moore's Baby Boy Blue {#2056-50}. You can see more of Anna's colourful home here!
I just saw this via Loobylu's tweet - Creative Director Rhett Dashwood searched land formations on Google Maps for the past 6 months, discovering land formations or buildings that resembled letters, in order to spell out the alphabet. This is what he found within Victoria, Australia. Very cool! Click the image to see it larger.
This weekend my sister Shayna had a tea party bridal shower! Hosted by her friend Lynn, and with everyone dressed all lady-like, it was a gorgeous affair complete with delicate and beautifully mismatched tea cups, finger sandwiches, and tasty treats. My other sister Melanie was the floral designer and her arrangements were stunning - one in an oversized tea cup and others in vintage tea tins. I'm not sure my photos do it all justice...everything was just so darn pretty!
What a fine day it is today...not only is it Earth Day, but my favourite store ever opened its doors in Toronto at the Shops at Don Mills. You have heard me gush about Anthropologie here, here, and here. I'm itching to check it out, but I also remember the lineups and craziness when Crate and Barrel opened last fall, so I might just wait a bit as a favour to my clautrophobic side. But I can barely stop myself...afterall there aren't too many stores that have blogs and Flickr collections dedicated to their inspiring visual displays, products, graphics and beautiful sense of design.
I'm always intrigued with simple, clever ideas that can make a huge impact, so I loved the idea behind The Spruce Initiative. Vancouver's Felicity Fane {who holds a Ph.D. in Transformation and Consciousness, not to mention her additional degrees in Architecture and Chemical Engineering - whoa baby!} originated the project after she travelled to visit family in Switzerland and marvelled at how clean it was. When she returned home, she decided that she would pick up one piece of garbage {or rubbish as she calls it - it does sound so much better than garbage!} per day and she is hoping that this simple and easy idea will catch on. If everyone picked up just one piece of rubbish a day, think of what a huge difference that would make!
