On Design & Living

my style

ixxi Love

February 15, 2013

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day, everyone! Did you have a good one? I definitely did, if you consider staying home, making a tasty dinner for one and watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona (one of my favourite films) to be good. I definitely do, though I wonder if I should be admitting that here? Hmm.

Anyway, the one thing that really made my V Day complete was receiving and putting together my new ixxi collage. What’s an ixxi, you ask? Well, according to the pioneering Netherlands-based company which invented the products, it’s “a decorative and flexible wall system.” Basically, this is super-cool, modular paper art, which you put together with little plastic x’s and can hang on a wall, or use as a room divider. The company has a vast bank of images that you can choose from, or you can upload your own.

I first read about ixxi way back in 2011 on Decor8, and it struck me then as a fantastic idea. Since then I’ve bought it as a gift for others, though this was my first purchase  for myself. Rather than going for one tiled image, I opted for a collage of my favourite Instagrams of 2012, rounding up all the important moments and people of my year into one image. Call it the posh version of sticking polaroids by your bed. Here’s the preview of what I ordered (though I moved the photos around a bit once I received it):

One of the reasons I love ixxi is the practicality. It’s so lightweight that you hang it only with a clear plastic strip and sticky power strips (all supplied), and for the relatively low price, it covers a huge wall area. Mine measures one metre square, which overwhelmed me at first but I’ve already fallen in love with. In fact, I kinda want to ixxi-fy everything in sight now, like this:

First image via my Instagram, all others ixxi

So what do you think of ixxi? Is it something you’d use in your home? Wishing you a bright & inspiring weekend!

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Utterly Charming: Dogeared

January 31, 2013

Instagram

For several years now, I’ve been loving big, bold statement necklaces. I have a pretty good collection and wear them with everything from dresses to jeans and sweatshirts. But lately, perhaps due to the ubiquity of large-and-in-charge accessories, I’ve been returning to a slightly softer look, jewelry-wise.

Enter charms. They’re (generally) affordable, can be worn with everything (I even wear mine to bed) and, depending on what you choose, can carry a lot of personal meaning. I’ve been rocking my Ontario charm from Maya Brenner since my sister gifted it to me, and I’ve recently added some other charms to my neck party (is that a thing? can we make it one?) as well.

When I was in Toronto post-Christmas, I did a bit of shopping with some girlfriends in their hometown of Oakville, and made a brilliant new discovery. At local jewelry shop Bluboho (which, if anyone reading is from Oakville or nearby, you simply must check out – a fantastic shop with lush things and lovely owners!) we each made a few purchases, including one charm necklace each by American company Dogeared. Each one comes on a card inscribed with a different meaning or sentiment, and we had a great time choosing three that felt applicable to our lives now.

 

From top: Karma, Infinity, Good Luck, Make a Wish, Light as a Feather, XO, You Give my Heart Wings

The arrowhead necklace I picked up in December has been discontinued, but there’s loads to look through on the Dogeared website. With so many to choose from and at such reasonable prices, I’ve already decided that these charms will be my new go-to gift.

PS. The third charm I’m wearing up top is an electroplated piece of kale, to celebrate my love of well, kale. Yes, I’m aware it’s awesome. I bought it on ebay.

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My Gallery Wall

July 25, 2012

Following on from yesterday’s post, I thought I’d share a gallery wall which I’ve created. I’m no stranger to designing and hanging arrangements (I even posted a tutorial on Apartment Therapy on how I usually go about it), but of every one I’ve done, this is probably my favourite:

That’s my childhood bedroom you see above, looking quite grown-up as of last year. It was December, I was home for Christmas and sick to death of the newly-painted blank wall above my desk (not to mention sick of all my art being in storage). With an afternoon to kill, I grabbed a measuring tape, a hammer and some picture hooks and got to work.

After deciding on the pieces to include (which may have involved uh, “rescuing” some from other rooms in the house), I made templates with old newspaper and worked out an arrangement. I opted for a pyramid/Christmas tree-style layout, but there were lots of ways I could have gone.  In general, I like to keep larger works near the bottom for weight, and avoid having pieces that are too similar in style or size right next to each other.

In case you’re wondering about any of my art, here’s a breakdown of the pieces I used:

1. Gouache on board painting by me, of Venice, Italy. Part of a first-year university art course.

2. Pencil drawing by me, aged 11, of a park in downtown Ottawa. My parents had this framed years ago and it’s been in many rooms in the house since. Kinda embarrassing, but I’ve grown to love its naive simplicity.

3. I’m a big fan of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and go to their BP Portrait Prize exhibit every year. In 2005 Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of model Erin O’Connor won a prize and featured on the event posters. Erin is my all-time favourite model, so of course I bought a copy and had it mounted.

4. This print of a George Stubbs painting was purchased at the National Gallery in London after seeing an exhibit there, and mounted in the same way as the above. A nod to my horse-obsessed childhood.

5. This watercolour pencil sketch gets pride of place in my arrangement, since it was done by my grandmother who was a gifted artist. You can’t really make it out, but it’s the view from her old dining room window, where we used to sit and paint together when I was little.

6. I first went to Italy at 16 years old on a school trip, and it was love at first sight. When I returned I did a series of three paintings based on my photos of Venice; this small, gloomy view of the Bridge of Sighs was the only one I kept for myself at the time.

7. This painting is part of the same series, and used to belong to my grandmother. When she died I reclaimed it to hang with its sister again. The third painting in the series was given to my favourite high school teacher as a wedding present.

8. This ink-on-paper sketch belonged to my grandmother as a young woman, and was done by a friend of hers. It depicts Jesus walking on water (not that you can tell in this photo, with the lamp reflection). I don’t really go for religious art so I must admit that it freaked me out at first, but I’ve since fallen hard for its modernist style.

Typing that out, I realise that 50% of the paintings in this arrangement were done by yours truly. Self-absorbed much?

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