license plate photos: a collection

I seem to gather little collections of things here and there without even realizing it. I have a collection of small shoes as you know {see sidebar!}, mini chairs, salt and pepper shakers...and after my sister's tea party shower, I decided I want to start a collection of vintage tea cups!

Anyhoo, on the weekend I was looking through some old photos, and I came across a collection featured on our photo wall - pictures of license plates from various cities and countries where I've travelled. It's kind of a fun, graphic way to keep track of the places I've been, instead of carting back a bulky, cheesy souvenir. You can almost see the personalities of each place in the license plates too - colourful Mexico {despite its recent troubles}, the rugged Australian Outback, sleek and stylish Roma!

I only decided to officially take photos of license plates a few years ago, so I am missing a few countries that I've visited. But I will hopefully add to this collection again soon!

some monday inspiration

from YogaGurl...I really like this.

beachy fleurs

Last week Brides.com asked inBloom Event Design to create and photograph a 'beachy' centrepiece to be featured in an upcoming article online. Here is a sneak peek of what we came up with on the weekend!

some cute kid photography...

...by Cynthia Perez. She really captures the true spirit of kids...sooo much better than an awkwardly-posed Sears portrait.

Happy May and happy weekend! {found via SimpleSong}

paper forest

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}

anna olson fresh

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!

google maps typography

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.

pinkies up...it's tea time

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!

mini designer chairs!

{Oops...I did it again! Meant to post this on Bloomerism, but Blogger tricked me and I was actually signed into this blog. I will keep the post here too, as these chairs are just too darn cute to delete! p.s. I went to Anthropologie yesterday and it was faaabulous!}
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It's no secret that I have a fascination with minis. In fact I have my own collection of mini chairs. But when I saw these collectible miniature designer chairs I just knew...I love...I want...I need them! Based on iconic, classic chair designs like the Eames chair and the Barcelona chair, these little detailed minis are 1/12 the size of the real deal...and a lot more affordable!

It's a bit iffy where they can be purchased, but it looks like all 6 volumes can be ordered here and I have a pilot friend based in Hong Kong on the lookout. Even if you don't like minis or you don't like chairs...these are still pretty fascinating, don't you think?

award-winning logos

These are a few of my favourite logos that were declared winners at the recent Worldwide Logo Design Annual. I love the simplicity - I'm not a huge fan of 1980's style logos with gradients and shadows and I can see that the judges agree!

From the top:
1. Flow - Designed by Danny Goldberg Design (Israel)
2. Toko - Designed by Teja Kleč, Darko Miladinović (Armada, Slovenia)
3. Be - Designed by Rob Gonzalez, Jonathan Quainton (Sawdust, United Kingdom)
4. SoulStice - Designed by Bronwen Rautenbach, Kyle Wilhelm (The Brand Union, Johannesburg, South Africa)

anthropologie in toronto

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.

According to Toronto Styles, the first window and store displays will be focused around honey bees. It will reflect in abstract ways upon their role in our world. Bee related iconography like hives and honeycombs will be recreated with unexpected materials and whimsy. I think artistic inspiration is a good enough reason for an excursion to check it out...don't you?

happy earth day

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...