kitchens

I am kitchen hunting.  Hunting for layouts, hunting for styles, hunting for colours, hunting for materials.  The kitchen, in my mind is the most important room in a house because of its importance when it comes to food, socializing, entertaining.  Here is a collection of photos that I am totally digging right now. 

Commune Design Via Plastolux

via bolig magazine

via Bolig

via nirmada

via designeriskane

via boligmagasinet

in the neighbourhood

My boyfriend recently took up photography as a hobby and I have to say, I am getting as much enjoyment out of his new hobby as he is; maybe more!   When I say hobby, I don’t mean he went out and purchased a camera, he actually signed up for classes with a professional fashion photographer downtown who runs classes out of her studio.

To make the most out of each lesson, he is asked to put his new found knowledge into use and practice.  The past several weekends or so, we have been visiting different areas in Toronto and snapping shots, he on his digital SLR, me on my basic nothing special digital.  I have to say, not only is walking around your own city with a camera fun because you get to play tourist, but also you are more perceptive and notice things that maybe you would have not given a second thought to before. 

I particularly have a penchant for anything industrial looking, gritty looking, colourful with lots of textures.  I like photographic urban landscape rather than people.  We have tried this exercise three times so far and here is a sample of the Bathurst and Dupont area in Toronto.

butter cream

I just started a great new book called Butter Cream: A year in a Montreal pastry school by Denise Roig.  The book is about the author’s life and decision to quit a 30 year career as a professional writer and university teacher to attend pastry school in Montreal.  She chronicles her year of learning, baking, testing, sampling and also weaves in a memoir that includes her reflections on her mother’s and grandmother’s  kitchen.

What hooked me as a reader in the first couple pages was Denise’s reflection on her need for change in her life and the “ah ha” moment which led her to make a change.  I think we’ve all been there before but little have the courage or intuition to make a change.  I experienced making a professional change from something that I was good at and did because it came naturally/easy to me to something that I was passionate about and I couldn’t be happier about my decision. 

What excites me, and I think Denise Roig does a good job at making this clear, is how life can take different twists and turns leading you in a new direction if you allow it to and are in touch with that little voice in your head that tells you you’ve plateaued.  

So if you are looking for a good story about change, work, a career and doing what you are passionate about set to the tone of baking, this is for you!  Book is here on amazon.ca.  I am sure you can also find it elsewhere.  As always, I got my copy from the library.

via amazon.ca

entrepreneurial art

I have been noticing more and more talk on the integration of art, design and business;  the marriage of right and left brain, yin and yang, arts degrees and business degrees, together to produce more value out of the sum of the parts.  The increasing support, awareness and talk over integration of design and business makes me happy because I subscribe to this way of thinking whole heartedly.  I am the arts degree and the business degree in one.  I grew up performing on stage, playing musical instruments, taking art lessons and doing other crafty things but I also have an interest in business and work in real estate.  Are the two things so at odds with each other?  I don’t think so.  

To learn more about my own philosophy,  I started reading up on these two unlikely opposites and ended up studying a business case on the design firm, IDEO and their practice of ethnographic research in solving business problems.  I think IDEO is a great example of a company that “gets it.”  IDEO created an entire company (very successful- that was later purchased by office furniture company, Steelcase) on the marriage of design and business and countless products have been born out of this integration.  Fast forward to this year, the Dean of Rotman Business School in Toronto, Roger Martin published a book that I read called the Design of Business which discussed the value of attacking problems through an integration of design and business philosophies.  Finally, the other day while reading the blog, Out of the Way, I saw a piece of art that caught my attention. Artist/entrepreneur/blogger/cartoonist, Hugh MacLeod, produces great pieces of work that I find are representative of the marriage of design + business.  For an interview and to learn more about Hugh MacLeod click here.  Hugh also published a book called “Ignore Everybody”  on how to unlock your own creativity and brilliance and unleash it on the world. For the events/entertaining industry where the pressure to be innovative, new and relevant is ever more pressing, Hugh is a great source of wisdom and inspiration for us all.  His book is already on my library list and look forward to reading more about his opinions and experience.  But for now- you can appreciate his art! 

via gaping void

via gaping void

via gaping void

good quote

I like this quote that I found on blog- apartment 34:

via apartment 34

stunning dress

via dress design decor