flower arranging: Jeff Leatham

This morning I woke up and was motivated to make a cauliflower fennel soup before going to my afternoon Czech class. While chopping up my soup veggies,  I had the Discovery Channel’s Travel & Living playing in the background where a show titled, Chic City was on air.  Today’s show was profiling Paris and the city’s most creative and talented people.

While casually tuning in and out to what the announcer was saying, one person, in particular caught my attention:  Jeff Leatham, Artistic Director for the Four Season’s Hotel George V in Paris.  I think it was the statistics of how many flowers the hotel uses in a given month that first made me look up from cutting cauliflower.   Don’t quote me on the statistics exactly but I recall that Jeff changes over the hotel’s floral arrangements every four weeks and goes through something like 17,000 blooms  (from Amsterdam) and has a budget of $1m for the year.  Whatever the gargantuan number of flowers the hotel uses in its displays, Jeff is the luckiest guy I know.  He gets to work with a magnificent backdrop and dream up ways to inject more life, energy, drama and mood into the atmosphere via his flowers. He now has a show called Flowers Uncut on TLC if you are interested in seeing more about him and his work.

Jeff’s work is breathtaking, especially because of its volume and density.  Everywhere you look, the George V is bursting with colour, texture, glass all positioned at varying heights and angles.  Preston Bailey (whose work I also adore), you have competition across the Atlantic ocean!

via simply couture weddings

via lexington dorothy

via ariel yve

via blooms by the box

via entertaining chic

via style voyeur

R Studio

A little more from R Studio, one of the stationery designers from Minted.com, whose design I liked.  Renee Stevens is the owner of R Studio and is based in Syracuse, NY.  Her experience and background in mixed media is a strength and really makes her simple, yet bold stationery appealing and standout.  More from Renee here.

via The R Studio

via The R Studio

Wedding Planning: Save the Dates

I am happy to report that wedding planning is now in full effect. My fiancée and I decided a couple of weeks ago to plan our wedding in Europe,  Summer 2012.  First thing’s first when planning a destination wedding:  Give your guests as much notice as humanly possible that you are abdicating tradition and fleeing Toronto in pursuit of a romantic, coastal/beach/vineyard/mountainous/palatial destination somewhere Europe.  Sounds more appealing to me!

Back to the save-the-dates.  Selecting save-the-date cards was a simple process, contrary to what I thought would ensue.  I thought I would spend hours browsing all my favourite stationery sites, unable to choose from all the magnificent designs, but I was under a bit of a time crunch to find something, see a proof, have it shipped to Toronto and mailed out before September, so I started with Minted.com and ordered a set without looking anywhere else.  We narrowed it down to four choices from four very talented designers:  The R Studio, Marabou Design, Please Reply Designs, and Ana Gonzalez (i can’t find her site).  I”m not going to spill the beans and tell you which invitation I chose, but…. stay tuned.

#1

via Minted.com by R Studio

#2

via Minted.com by Marabou Design

#3

via Minted.com by Please Reply Designs

#4

via Minted.com by Ana Gonzalez

lox and savvy

Australia based stationery company, Lox and Savvy is turning out some creative and bright paper goods.  No one is doing flourescent right now except Lisa, who does it very well.  I love her choice to combine geometric shapes with bright neon colours.  Lisa, the creative energy behing Sydney, Australia based Lox and Savvy is inspired by 60s + 70s furniture and design objects and applies a dash of 80s when it comes to colour.  To hear more from Lisa’s inspirations, read her interview here.  Can’t wait to see what comes out next!

via paper crave

via write on and more

via on sugar

via leeloo

via the terrier and lobster

Etsy Pop-Up Shop @ West Elm (Liberty Village) tmrw

If you’re an Etsy regular and you live in Toronto, tomorrow is going to be an awesome day. 

West Elm is hosting a pop-up shop tomorrow (Saturday) from 1-6pm at it’s store in Liberty Village.  Story was first seen on Toronto Life’s blog, The Goods.

Invitation via Empirella

K + E the wedding

I recently had the honour of being a part of one of my best friend’s weddings.  I enjoyed the day immensely and was so happy to share in the couple’s special day.  The affair, both ceremony and reception, took place at Andrew Richard Designs (King and Parliament) in Toronto.  The bride and groom made the event feel natural, real and lighthearted- a true reflection of the couple.

The reception decor was stunning all done up in pinks (pale/fuscia) and greywhich popped against the backdrop of the white loft room. The food was French themed, catered by Daniel et Daniel and was delicious.  In the sit down reception, we were served a trio of tomatoes (gaspacho, a tomato and goat cheese tart and a caprese salad), steak frites and then for dessert creme caramel and a molten lava chocolate cake, which was then followed by passed desserts like mini ice cream cones, cheesecake lollipops and grilled cheese. The best part is the long room accomodated rectangular tables of 22 guests which in my books is fantastic.