Food Valentines by Erin Jang

I adore the minimal and graphic work of Erin Jang for The Indigo Bunting and was happy to see her newly designed Food Valentines for this year. They are perfect, check them out here.

Modern Farmhouse

Move me in to this lovely beauty! Clean lined modern farmhouse style with those marble counters, le sigh. From the architecture, and great light to the simple modern furnishing most everything about this home is spot on. See the rest of the shots here. What a gorgeous space.

// photos by the talented Michael Graydon in Canadian House and Home Oct 2012. (found via Joslyn)

MT Casa : Washi Masking Tape

If you are a fan of Japanese Washi tape like me, you will be thrilled to hear that MT Tape has new sizes available perfect for larger surfaces, and polka dots too! Notemaker gave me the heads up and you can purchase a variety of new sizes in their shop. I love the idea of being able to use this light easily removable tape on a larger scale (up to 200mm -- aka 7.8 inches wide). It could be used in so many ways and people are having so much colorful fun with it!  Although not for everyone, if you have a discerning creative mind, you could go crazy on your walls to temporarily decorate a rental space. Store fronts are also getting in on the action with fun projects. Love this!

// images shared with me by Notemaker for MT Casa. More cool shots can be found here.

Inside Nature : Stripes

Feeling black and white stripes for an Inside Nature post today. Zebra's are such amazing creatures aren't they?!

1 Portrait by Sonia Szostak
2 Wall & Decor (via Kika Reichert)
3 Zebras by Sajjad Fazel


“I asked the Zebra, 
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.”

-Shel Silverstein

Vincent Van Duysen's Antwerp Home

World-renowned Architect Vincent Van Duysen's home in Antwerp caught my eye (again) this morning. The simple lines of this space, the huge windows full of impecable light and character, timeless. Timeless in the fact that you would this space and decor is from 2012, but nope. It was actually this year! See more photos here and you can also see the home shot by Manolo Yllera.



photos // from Vincent Van Duysen by Martyn Thompson

Solar Spectrum Art

I'm incredibly fascinated by the work of Peter Erskine! In the early 90s on he created solar spectrum art, by using prisms, mirrors, and the color spectrum to create these stunning colored light installations all over the world. He always considered the architectural elements of each location, so they are all site specific. It is pure genius. Some of them are permanent rainbow sundial calendars!

// all photos from Peter Erskine  (Top Photo is in Germany - Permanent sundial // Bottom two from Rome)

Bike Like a New Yorker

Mac and I talked a few days ago about how rad it would be, and how we wished more cities (including resort towns) banded together to have more bike share systems like Paris. Rather timely to our conversation I came across this hip New York City ad campaign designed by Mother New York about the BikeNYC.org initiative (see the rest of the designs -- they are really funny)! Do you have or use a bike system near you? What do you think about this concept? Maybe it works better in some places better than others?

// photo from Mother New York via Iain Claridge

*ps. I am still humbled by all that happened on 9/11, what a day to remember, to remember the heroes.

Choi Jeong-Hwa

Coming across the work of South Korean artist Choi Jeong-Hwa instantly made me happy and revived my creative spirit. I spent some time going through all his work on his website which is insanely cool, bright and upbeat. He is an amazing artist with so many great ideas and conceptual thinking to be intrigued by. From crazy balloons to floral installations and discarded objects like buckets and tupperware he knows how to pack a punch transforming everyday objects into new bold creations.

// all photos from Choi Jeong-Hwa

Inside Nature : Rows of Flowers

"Earth laughs in flowers..." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Hamatreya)

Constantly inspired by rows of neatly planted flowers, stripes is on my mind for Inside Nature today, time to get laughing....


1. J. Crew Neon-Stripe Skirt
2. Candy Stripe Teaspoon Set
3. Kate Spade Live Colorfully iPhone Case
4. Fiesta Stripe Pillow
5. Kate Nolan Botanical illustration

// Top photograph by the amazing photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Mer Mag

One of my favorite creative and modern craft sites (especially for children's crafts) is Mer Mag. Merrilee is a super artistic and talented mother of 2 boys (one girl on the way) and I always look forward to what she will create next and share on her site. Her ideas and projects are fresh, unique, fun, and most likely something you haven't seen before. She has this brilliant knack of using minimal supplies, not a lot of money, and still manages to make cardboard and tape or paint chips look like a million bucks! I got to meet her last week and on a quick trip and was equally impressed by how cool she is.

She let me know about some crafting workshops she is collaborating with GAP kids and thought some of you may want to take your kids on an outing to enjoy some end of the summer fun! You can learn about all the details here and see if her rad craft projects will pop up in your area.

( // All photos from Mer Mag )

Inspired by : Anouk Kruithof

Anouk Kruithof from the Netherlands (currently residing in New York City) creates some absolutely brilliant stuff. Her conceptual work is interdisciplinary in nature where photography is the starting point. I am mesmerized and incredibly inspired by her work. Here are a few of my favorites she has created.

1. Wall of Fading Memory

2. Enclosed Content Chatting Away in the Colour Invisibility

To get an idea of Anouk's cool personality and conceptual mind, watch this video clip.

I especially liked how she talked about her process of ideas...

"I really start with an idea, and once I go into the process, I get rid of the idea because when you start to work and let go, then interesting things happen." 

// all photos from Anouk Kruithof

Inside Nature : Pink

Did you know about the pink lake called Lake Retba in Senegal? It is pink due to its super high salt content that supports the growth of a red pigmented microorganism that turns the water pink. The color changes to different shades of pink throughout the year. Surprised and amazed to come across it, I decided that I am going to start up the Inside Nature series again. Nature is so fascinating! This time I'm also going to also throw in a little fashion. What do ya think?

1.Yolanda Sanchez Modern Romance Painting

2. Red Monroe Shift
3. Lake Retba or Lac Rose (image originated from Barcroft Media)

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." - Audrey Hepburn.

Olive Us

Each Olive Us clip is such a blast to watch, I can't get over how cool the Blair family is! If you haven't seen them, hop over here to see them all. I particularly love their newest episode of 'How to Visit a French Bakery' so well done and perfectly French, bravo.

Tour de France

We don't have cable or watch much television in our home and don't miss it, hello and thanks Hulu and Netflix. Although, one event we do miss watching live is the Tour De France which starts this Saturday, June 30th! Who else is a fan of watching this crazy endurance bike fest?

I came across these rad posters designed by Neil Stevens last year for the 2011 race and really love them. Also check out the new batch he is cooking up.

It is great to see people get the biking itch around this time of year, eh? We see bikers on the roads pretty much everyday where we live, on the walking trail over the weekend we saw pretty much every bike you could think of, and the other day at the gym it was comically cool to see all the spin bikes placed outside by the pool. I believe we live in serious biker territory! Are you a biker - indoors or out?

// posters designed by Neil Stevens.

Smart Design : Slice of Tea

This 'Slice of Tea' designed by Anne Ouellette for a student project is such a clever idea.

// source & photo > Professor Sylvain Allard of UQAM

Graduation Cards

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela.


Here are a few different fun graduation cards I've seen out there. I wish I personally knew someone graduating this year so I could give them one.

They have some great ideas for parties here from Martha where the photo above is from.

1. Owl Congrats - Rifle Card Co.
2. Adventure Awaits - Sycamore Street Press
3. Change the World - Greer - I love what this one says inside. (quoted above)

Bubblegum Installation

This floating bubble installation called Bubblegum by Merijn Hos & Renée Reijnders in the Netherlands is absolutely stunning... gasp.

// photos from Merijn Hos & Renée Reijnders

 (via Plenty of Colour - a rad blog devoted to colour)

Rainbow Panorama

The Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson on the rooftop of the Aros museum in Aarhus, Denmark looks absolutely mind blowing. I want to be there during a sunrise or sunset to walk around and see how the light and colors come alive (yes, I will probably be adding this to my bucket list to visit after I finish typing this). The collection of work that Olafur Eliasson and his team has done is extraordinary. I spent some time going through the projects and wow, brilliant stuff my friends. Brilliant.

Photos // 1- Aros 2-4 from Olafur Eliasson

Floating Movie Theater

Taking a little boat up to a platform in the middle of the ocean to watch a movie would be outrageously cool. Although I'm still thinking about whether if you are sea sick prone it would be a problem, but wow... what an experience it would be! This particular movie going experience took place in Yao Noi, Thailand and was put on by Film on the Rocks Yao Noi and designed by architect Ole Scheeren who built the large raft out of recycled materials. Yes please, sign me up for the next one. Amazing.

(via Fast Co. // photos by Piyatat Hemmatat)

Bonjour Spring!

Yesterday was the first day of Spring! Here are a few things currently inspiring me. Yahoo, for my favorite season of the year.

1 The Art of Instruction
2 Katie Ermilio via From Me to You
3 Pierre Terrarium 
4 Market Bag
5 Roasted Asparagus and Egg

*Bonus points : if you know where the quote is from... I will reveal it in the comments tomorrow.