Freedom sneak peek

Just for our Australian and New Zealand readers. A sneak peek at the new Freedom Winter collection. My Freedom insider sent me a teaser of what is in store in the coming weeks. "A lot of the homewares are arriving in the next week or so – and furniture March 5 onwards." That black and white and colour pop rug is definitely coming home with me and I'm still hankering after the Drum coffee table and side table from last season. As for the chaise below ...  yum. Wonder if I can ditch my table and chairs and move it into my dark blue dining room? Change it into a library? Friends can surely eat on their laps when they come round for dinner. Styling for the catalogue is by Megan Morton so I can't wait to see how she puts the collection together.

Some purchases, a contest and a little fun with tape

I was contacted recently by Canadian furniture and home decor company Urban Barn to partake in a blogger contest involving chairs, a competition, an auction and charities. I don't think there's much in the works publicly yet, although check it out on Twitter via the hashtag #customchairitycompetition. Due to this competition I had to pay my local Urban Barn store a visit last week. Of course, I could not leave empty handed (this is why I try and avoid home decor stores - I can't stop myself). I picked up a few things, including one sale item I could NOT pass up...yet another freaking lamp (it was half price! 89!) . This one is so cool I had to have it, even though I have to box it up and store in my basement until the new house materializes.

The shade is MASSIVE (2' long and 2' wide at the bottom) and drapey which I adore, and the tripod base is cool. 

This crinkly STUFF basket came in 3 sizes. I snapped up the middle one for $14. I realize now I have a basket addiction. 

My frame/pegboard jewelry holder has reached it's capacity so I thought a new necklace/bracelet holder would be useful (by Umbra for $17).

Everytime I stop in at Urban Barn I always leave with some sort of vase-like object. They have really funky ones, and no I did not need another but they had 3 vases that looked like crushed cans or bottles so I picked up the little one that looked like a pop can for $6.

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Trading it in for paradise

A land of the alternative, a land of the wealthy, a land of the stylish, a land of community, a land of contradictions. An almost mythical land. The green rolling hills that climb above the white beaches of Australia's most easterly point. Byron Bay and its hinterland. Paradise. And where better to drink in the nectar of the slightly alternative style gods than bryon view farm home of strangetrader owners Robert Schwamberg and Andrea Duff. Paradise in a weatherboard cottage available to rent. Feel like trading it all in for paradise?

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My new chair

At the end of the summer I blogged about the sad news that one of my favourite Ottawa shops, Green Light District, was packing up and moving to Toronto. On our last trip to the shop before the move, I decided to make a rather significant purchase and ordered one of their lounge chairs. When these chairs first arrived at the shop, owners Deborah and David insisted on taking the chair out of the window so I could try it out. OMG it was like sitting on a cloud! Amazingly soft leather that you sink into. I dreamt about that chair for weeks afterwards and knew it would be a perfect addition to the living room in my new house (which btw has yet to get past the planning stage). I was able to choose the colour of leather (I went with black) and cord colour (black again). I waited several months for the chair to be made in South Africa and get sent here with some other pieces Deborah and David had ordered. A couple of weeks ago on a quick trip to Ottawa, they delivered my chair. It is now my favourite piece of furniture. I cannot wait to get my new house finally built to show it off in. I finally managed to get some photos taken this morning (with my new Fuji X10 that I am still trying to figure out). Thanks Deborah and David!!!

Of course, with 7 cats I am incredibly fearful they may harm my chair (they know momma will freak if they do so they are pretty good about just laying on it and nothing else) so this is what the chair looks like when my arse is not planted on it. 

P.S. Green Light District was featured in the latest issue of Toronto's Designlines! A fantastic magazine I may add, that had me dying to take a trip to TO to check out GLD's new shop and a ton of other shops listed in the mag. 

Faded Empire

I'm up to something with my good friend Kerrie. A little online venture. Something to tempt our readers. We are building an empire. A Faded Empire. Today I started photographing product. Oh my god I have nothing but praise and respect for photographers and stylists around the world. Hard work! And of course I went about it all the wrong way. Just a teaser for now. We are still a few weeks away from a soft launch. I'll come back soon with some more photos and a link.