A Zest of Lemon

Something about this yellow and amber kitchen shot from House Beautiful (yes, this magazine is getting better and better) made me want to see if I could capture the sunny vibe in a little gift package. That gorgeous marble counter top reminded me of the marble-look wallpaper I found a few weeks back when I was cleaning that bountiful storage room of mine. Yellow is a uplifting colour, but too much and it can get too cute (maybe why it works so well with black) so I thought the taupe marble background toned down it's sunny disposition just a notch. I will do a full-powered all yellow one coming up in a future post.......just because I do like to prove myself wrong now and again (before someone else does it for me).

Look what else I found.....fake lemons and lemon leaves.

This is the one I started with but something was too-cute, maybe something to do with carnations. So off came the little flowers and one strip of the yellow grosgrain ribbon and in went the lemons. I like the green foliage with the top one much better. I've left this try-out shot in as it shows the marble-look wallpaper a bit better than the top photo. You will see lots of this cotton striped ribbon on the website, in lots of colours. I love the visual impact, the affordable price and the way it holds a bow, nice and crisp just like a cotton shirt.

If I had an all-white kitchen I would running out right now to add some exuberant doses of this sunny hue. So vibrant, so summer. I feel like making lemonade. Actually, my kitchen wallpaper is the colour of those tulips, it's a golden yellowand black toile pattern and I never get tired of it. No wonder this kitchen caught my eye.

Top and Bottom photo from House Beautiful/2nd and 3rd photo by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau

Cheating on Glam Monday

This is so not me.

Instead of working on a Glam Monday post, I am walking a golf course in King City outside of Toronto where my husband is representing our local golf course in a tournament. Both my husband and son are exceptional golfers and athletes, our son played professional golf for a few years until he decided it was a exceptionally lonely life and he is an exceptionally social person. I often tell my husband he should have married an athletic woman, I am hopelessly uncoordinated and is has come to pass that people even apologize when talking about sports around me. Sad to say, but it is that physically obvious that I cannot partake of any sports activity or conversation (except cycling, but that was very late in life). But it could be that for a sport-lovin guy I would be the perfect wife. I am really, really good at keeping myself busy with all sorts of creative pursuits. This means I never even notice that he has watched golf/hockey/football/ for hours on end. Clever guy .......I think he knew this from the get-go.

While I am walking the course on what is supposed to be Glam Monday, I thought I should at least leave you some pretty things to look at for the beginning of the week. Hey, one thing I do know is that you can't wear kitten heels on the course, give me some credit! If you go over to House Beautiful, there is a little series {photos and video}about using everyday containers for this year's bounty of fresh-cut flowers by HB floral designer Robert Rufino. I actually have a container just like the trumpet shaped tole vase above but not these gorgeous Sweet Peas which I will surely plant this week. It's just a seasonal reminder to look around and use what is available. Point well taken. No Sweet Peas, but I do have pink and white Peonies blooming all over the place right now. Every year I forget to buy peony cages so they are abundantly leaning to the ground once again. Rufino recommends putting these extravagant bloom in a smaller mug. All those colours and pattern do enhance the vivid pink much better than a clear vase. I don't have a Coronation Mug (even though we do have a Queen) as I always thought they were tourist-tacky. Guess I was wrong again.

Rufino uses only four Hydrangeas in this footed bowl. He recommends you place three stems standing straight (in different stem lengths), then the fourth stem on an angle for height and dimension. I think he is making it sound easier then it is, but I am willing to try his method and see if mine will look like this.

Here is a simpler Coronation mug with softly-tinted Bridal Blush roses.

Gorgeous sitting on a desk.

I have a friend who is mad for Magnolias and their sweet fragrance. She does exactly this, floats the delicate beauties in a clear bath. Nothing more is needed.

Top photo from Vogue Archives/remaining photos from House Beautiful.

Birk's Box Re-Gift

You know how my wrapping inspiration goes by now........I love this room by designer Alison Caccoma who's gorgeous work I found one day browsing the House Beautiful website. I wanted to capture the sumptuous feel of that velvet pillow and colour scheme. For Canadians, the blue store box shown below is our version of a Tiffany box, or was, we do have Tiffany here in Canada now too. It's not the exact blue, a tad less lively but the same message......something lovely inside. A friend gave me a gorgeous sterling double photo frame for photos of my two "boys" and I thought I should try a re-gift on our Canadian blue box.


The silver Birks box logo is quite small so a 2" wide double face satin taped to the lid underside covers it nicely. I layered it with a turquoise grosgrain ribbon just to give this monochromatic colour scheme a bit of dimension. If a store box has a extended lid as seen here, it can be awkward wrapping in gift wrap paper. You just aren't going to get nice crisp corners, best to bypass the paper and just work with the box colour. If the box is a good colour, you don't always need gift wrap too. PS. I don't know why lately I am getting this peach tint on my photo background, but working on upgrading my skills. It's on the list.

There is actually two layers of thin velvet ribbon at the bow. Because velvet ribbon is one-sided, it sometimes needs a bit more to better show it's colour and texture. There is one bottom bow, then a length knotted over the bow to give it some extra presence. This re-gift shows a very simple gift wrap technique that even the ribbon-impaired (not that there is anything wrong with that!) can do. It's also a nice way to use any lengths of satin that might not be long enough to wrap a whole box.

I order ribbon spools in 50 or 100 yards rolls as I go through it quite quickly. Right now I am working on selecting and coordinating my gift wrap papers and coordinating ribbon to be available in the new Wrap room section of my website along with a collection of my embellishments. Though I use 100 yards rolls, I am going to offer the ribbon spools in smaller spools (10 yards) so you can build up a nice gift wrap signature look of your own. I am also going to be running custom gift wrap papers with a distinct designer look. I think some of them will surprise you!

One more try............just wanted to see what happened if I added a pattern in the way of a small

turquoise taffeta check beside the velvet.

Top photo from House Beautiful/Middle and Bottom photo by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau

Kitchen Lust

design by European designers Baden and Baden

No wrapping today, lots of grocery shopping, cooking and baking for the weekend ahead. Our son is packing up and heading home for a few months to study for a big exam so our kitchen will be busier than usual again. I love my kitchen and all that it represents, I hope you love yours as well, but if not, here's some design ideas to file away.......
This neutral-based kitchen reminds me of Flamant, a upscale lifestyle store located in the Saint-Germain area of Paris. Talking about spending hours in a store....I wanted to live there! More about the Belgian-based home retailer located in Paris and other European cities coming in an upcoming post. I hate picking favorites, but if forced to.......and in another life, this high-ceiling working kitchen would be the one.

design by Elaine Griffin via House Beautiful

This distressed celery green finish is so European, especially since they used it on both the cabinetry and panelled walls. . .....a brilliant stroke of design. This colour looks fabulous with the copper hood and warm wood floor tone. I bet this room is delicious when the sunlight filters in during the day.

image from Canadian House & Home (no designer source given)

According to last weekend's Globe & Mail style section, red is back in kitchen design. Count me in, I could slice and saute quite happily in this kitchen with tomato red cabinets. Red in a kitchen stimulates the appetite, so chose accordingly. This room would sizzle at night.

design by Gwyn Duggan via Canadian House & Home

Along with this crisp and soothing palette, I love the cozy seating arrangement around a generously-sized wood table. A Scandinavian colour palette and comfy white cotton wing chairs.......so serene.

design by Michele Allman via House Beautiful

More distressed furniture-style cabinetry in a lovely washed turquoise. The burgundy toile fabric and lantern give the room a complementry boost and fits the ambiance so well. Cleverly-disguised, the refrigerator poses as an armoire seen on the left. I always prefer two windows instead of one big one, seems cozier and gives the stone hood it rightful prominence.

Top photo from Baden and Baden/2nd and bottom photo from House Beautiful/3rd and 4th photo from Canadian House & Home