doily wallpaper

Ok, I don't care what anyone says, or if this site is in Swedish and I can't read it - this doily wallpaper is just plain pretty! {from Intrade}

Shoestring Home + a spring GIVEAWAY

Just because I'm not shopping doesn't mean I can't browse, right?

When I saw Shoestring Home, I was thrilled. Mandi, the owner, has a great eye, and her choices for the shop are so well edited. It's hard to browse the site without clicking on almost everything.

Here are just a few of my favorite things from Shoestring Home...

{all images from Shoestring Home}

1. Angelina Cake Stands - translucent, mouth blown milk glass stands in three sizes. You're not surprised these made it on my list, right? If I weren't still on my shopping hiatus, these would probably be sitting in my house right now.

2. Herb Potting Kit - everything you need for an adorable herb garden, including seeds, soil, and these perfect pots made from reclaimed cement bag overruns. I love re-purposing, especially when it looks this good (and trust me - $40 for a ready made herb garden is a serious steal) .

3. Lucia Soaps - not only is the packing beautiful, but they come in scents like watercress and chai tea. I love the sharp scent of watercress and the spices of chai, and I'm very, very tempted by this one. Of course, tea leaf and wild honey is probably equally delicious.

4. Porcelain Flower Candle Holders & Vase - a sweet little trio of delicately shaped flowers, ready for candles and a spring bud. These would work equally well for fancy table settings and everyday dinners.

And the best news ... Mandi is generously offering a giveaway, so one of you lucky readers is going to get these fabulous cube vases.

{image from Shoestring Home}

Aren't they genius? The simple glass cubes contain glass tubes just the right size for a single blossom. You get a set of three, perfect for displaying the first spring flowers.

To enter, just visit the Shoestring Home shop and then leave a comment on this post (make sure you include your email address, if it isn't already linked to your profile). You have until Thursday evening to enter, and I'll announce the winner on Friday.

You only have a couple days, so don't be shy, people! I love it when readers pop out of nowhere to leave a quick comment.

turn out the lights

Did you celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday? I went to this concert last year but this year I kept it quiet and read a book by candlelight. I always love hearing stories from my grandma about how before they had electicity {or Alec Tricity - she thought it was a man!} they could do nothing much after dark except read and talk by candlelight - there were no tv's or computers or video games to distract us and make us completely anti-social!

I also loved the first night of that huge black-out a few years back. I lived in uptown Toronto and Pete was working downtown. He walked all the way up {MANY city blocks} to my apartment as his car was stuck in a lot downtown, and then around 10pm that night we decided to walk back downtown to get his car. It was unreal! Everyone was out on the streets walking and talking, socializing. Restaurants were open by candlelight and handing out free drinks. It was such an incredible night that I'll never forget. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate electricity and heat and hot water! But we could stand to hold an Earth Hour a bit more often I think...at least more than once a year.

p.s. Toronto decreased its typical energy consumption by 15% of what is normal at that time...not too shabby!

we won!

I was so busy on Friday trying to decide which dress to wear to the Canadian Event Industry Awards that I don't think it occurred to me that we might win! Check out our Star Award for 'The Best Wedding Under $75,000' category for this wedding design. The Canadian Event Industry Awards is a national award program presented by Canadian Event Perspective Magazine. I haven't won an award since who knows when {high school I guess!} so this was a lovely surprise. We are honoured and would like to thank the Academy...!

Light posts = last week my baby was sick, now she passed it on to me. I'll be back when I'm feeling better.

growing old together

The Paper Nerd was MIA on Friday due to all of the award show hub-bub! But I just wanted to share this quirky wedding invitation - it's clever, romantic...and pretty hilarious. Wouldn't you laugh out loud if you received these in the mail from a loved one? Enjoy!

{invitations found here via A Cup of Jo}

Unica Home

Along with DWR at the Town Square, we stopped at Unica Home while in Las Vegas thanks to a recommendation from a reader. If you are into design type stuff this is a great place to poke around. Are you familiar with their website?

Weekend + no shopping update - week 11

I'm in the home stretch here and things seem to be going smoothly. I did a little bit of almost shopping last week (you know, the kind where you online shop and put things in your cart and then close the browser without checking out), but I managed to hold strong. Next week I'll have a little wrap up of the shopping hiatus and explain where I plan to go from here.

I can definitely say that one of the benefits of not shopping is the extra time it gives you. We had a lot going on this weekend, but I'm not sure any of it will be ready to share with you this week. Hopefully soon.







Did anyone else have a productive weekend?

CEP Star Award...yay!

Yippee! As Melanie mentioned this morning, we are honoured to have won the Canadian Event Perspective Magazine's Star Award for 'Best Wedding Under $75,000'! Friday's gala dinner was a wonderful awards show and we met so many fantastic and supportive people in the event community. See the above pics from last night...including a photo of our name as our nomination was called...however just as I took a picture, I realized that the photo onscreen wasn't our event at all! Oops! Ah well. It just kind of made everything a bit more entertaining!

Stacey Wyatt from CEP Magazine mentioned in her speech last night that the event industry can sometimes seem frivolous, especially in tough economic times. But that it's important to remember that life is made up of moments - some that are meant to be celebrated and always remembered. Creating a spectacular and beautiful event that will forever be remembered as a special moment in someone's life really is quite an important role - and not so frivolous afterall. I loved this thought.

best wedding in canada!

Woah nelly! Last night at the Canadian Event Industry Awards, inBloom won the top prize for Best Wedding Under $75, 000 for our wedding at McMichael's Art Gallery. That means, as of right now, the Leamen/McLuckie Wedding is the BEST wedding under $75,000 in Canada. We're so excited and thankful to the judging panel for appreciating our work so much!! Here's some quick photos of our acceptance speech (for which Shayna Bloomer FINALLY had her chance to thank the academy)...stay tuned for some more photos of our awards night...

and speaking of award shows...

I may not be going to the Juno's but I am going to be attending the CEP Star Awards as a nominee! My other company, inBloom Event Design, has been nominated for an award for our design work on Julia and Iain's wedding! The event is pretty formal and I feel a bit like I'm getting ready for prom with hair, makeup, pedis and manis. I still haven't quite decided on my dress - shall I wear this cool Grecian piece from French Connection that I love {looks better in real life!}? Or this emerald green Banana Republic dress that I wore for...erm...a few weddings last summer? But I do love the colour of it...I'm leaning towards the emerald green. Thoughts?! Have a great weekend!

Journal Giveaway by guest: Melissa Esplin

I can't believe this week is nearly over! First, I'd like to thank Rachel for letting me blog at Black Eiffel for one glorious week. Second, I want to commemorate the occasion with a weekend giveaway.



The book was hand bound by yours truly using "up-cycled" materials (brand-new but discontinued designer paper saved from the trash can by FABMO). Get your hands on this one-of-a-kind journal by commenting below. Only one entry per person, and anonymous comments will be excluded. Enter by Tuesday, March 31st.

ALSO, click on over to IS•LY to enter to win a freaking sweet lithograph print.

my logo is going to the juno awards!

I won't be going to the Juno Awards this weekend {rats!} but a logo I created will be! One of my clients in British Columbia, The Uptown Giftbox Company - a company that makes high-end and beautiful gift baskets - will be supplying the 'swag bags' for the Canadian Music Award Show on Sunday. I worked with Gabrielle Durning a few years back to re-create her logo and her company's marketing material. Now, only a few years later, her beautiful giftboxes will be in the hands of celebs like Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, Nickelback and Elvis Costello.

For the swag bag, Gabrielle created a custom cedar box and worked with a First Nations artist to have an original design created and silkscreened onto the boxes. These beautiful boxes were then filled them with gourmet and luxury BC products. They look amazing! Congrats to the Uptown Giftbox. And I'm just a little bit excited that my logo creation will be going to the Juno Awards, even if I won't be!

Bits of loveliness

Sweet surprises this week...

Finding a lovely package in my mailbox from the oh so sweet Anne of The City Sage. These adorable liners will be used to bake something delicious. There were also some yummy Japanese treats, but I have to admit most of them didn't last long enough to have their photo taken.



These were almost like Pocky, but the sticks have random little phrases on them and the chocolate was in a separate container for dipping. D loves squirrels, so we both cracked up when we found this. Equally awesome ones - "star + fish = starfish" and " frog - amphibian."



Coming home to a beautiful bunch of yellow tulips and a clean apartment (D is on spring break this week, so I get spoiled).



Thanks for all your hair advice yesterday! I think I'm going to schedule a cut for next week, and I'll make sure to share.

Have a wonderful weekend, my dears!

It's Amazing

Happy Friday! It has been a long week with a few tricky days rolled in there, and I am excited that it is the weekend, so I thought I would start it off with an uplifting song from Jem. (Not sure if I entirely love the song... but this post is more for video technique). At first, I had mixed feelings about the way this video was filmed (a little jumpy) until the end when it said how they did it (I won't spoil it). Thoughts?

simple nature-inspired chuppahs

I've had my eye on some simple, birch pole chuppahs for a while - here are some of my favs! I have to say simple chuppah structures are not an easy find. But the best news of all is that inBloom can provide birch chuppahs for our Jewish clientele's wedding decor. And even if it's not for a Jewish ceremony, I think they'd certainly just make a beautiful wedding canopy for anyone! {pic above is from Brooklyn Bride}

{from Style Me Pretty}

These aren't birch, but they are also made from trees poles - nice and simple

Another chuppah made from tree posts {sadly, I lost the link for this pic - if anyone knows, please let me know}

How cute is this hand-held chuppah on sticks!! {from Belathee Photography via A Practical Wedding}

Hung between trees, I couldn't resist posting this lace/doily chuppah. Imagine if the whole top was made of little doilies strung together? That's it, we're doing it! {pic above from A Practical Wedding}

Easter Cookies

Cookie alert! Is it just me, or do beautifully designed cookies seem to be the following the cupcake trend? I want one.

1: Elenis
2: Williams - Sonoma
3: A Couple of Squares

Tie Your Shoes by guest: Melissa Esplin

The husband introduced me to Ian's Shoelace Site a while ago, and I'm sure the cool train left a while ago with crazy lacing, but this site makes me want to wear lace ups every day just so I can try a new method. Sadly, the only lace ups in my wardrobe are running shoes that don't go with much besides running shorts.



I thought I'd try out some new lace methods on Chris's high-tops (we know high-tops are all the rage) mostly because I wanted to see the cool lacing in action and the laces on his hyperdunks stand out against the black shoe. It took me about 15 minutes to unlace and re-lace each shoe, which wasn't so bad, and I thought my lacing job was pretty awesome until Chris told otherwise. He wanted his shoes tied his way specifically for a tight fit for ball; not nearly as exciting as the lacing pictured above, whatever.

I'm still distraught that I don't have any stylish lace-ups. Oh, how great would be my joy if I could own some crazy lace-ups. Daydreaming. . .

For sportier days I would wear some awesome Nike Air shoes that showcase nearly every blog-worthy color of the rainbow. Maybe I would lace them up lattice style.

For fashion-forward days, I would wear gladiator-style Jeffrey Campbell booties laced up double back style.

Parisian Shops

I am jumping continents here, but a friend of mine is going to France next week, (lucky her!) and she reminded me that I have yet to post all of my Paris/Europe posts, so I will be putting more up shortly.

We barely touched the surface when it came to Parisian shopping, in fact we only popped into a few shops. Here are a few of my favorites that I would frequent again in a heartbeat all in really close proximity to each other in the Marais, on rue St. Paul.

Niou: (shown above) Very cool modern kid's toy shop.



Au Petit Bonheur la Chance : full of all sorts of vintage doo-dads and paper ephemera.



Cornershop: Design shop with lots of beautiful items