tea for just me!

I spent the weekend with my great friend in Montreal. She has been an environmentally aware, nature loving, animal adopting, vegetarian since before it was trendy! And being the ridiculously talented, creative artist that she is, pretty much everything in her adorable little apartment is hand-made, salvaged, re-purposed, and meaningful. Funnily enough however, the defining moment for me in that weekend was her drawer of cloth napkins. It was like a trip to design heaven in one little drawer. Every colour and pattern you could think of was there! It made me think a lot about the way I've been living. I do love the environment and always try and be conscious of my footprint but somehow it never occured to me that I was worthy of a cloth napkin. It just seemed so luxurious and I'm really not sure why! So in the name of the environment (and a smidgen of guilty pleasure) I gleefully made it my mission to use beautiful cloth napkins for my every day enjoyment. Why shouldn't I drink my tea in delicious indulgence while at the same time helping the environment? And so that is just what I did...and it felt great!

My lovely new chartreuse green linen napkin from Teatro Verde just happened to perfectly match my tea pot!

fun with Feist!

Last night at the very last minute, Melanie and I were lucky enough to get free tickets to the Feist concert {thanks Pete}! They were great seats - 6th row at the side - and it was a mesmerizing performance. Feist's songs are haunting and beautiful and mellow and delicious....her latest CD, The Reminder, is constantly on my playlist!

Just as a quirky touch to the concert {as if Feist isn't quirky enough already} she had 'shadow artists' projecting shadows with shape and light and images on a large screen, using a glorified overhead projector! The images were moved by hand and it was such an organic and whimsical touch that perfectly complemented the music. See some of the pics below, or click here for more fan photos....what an interesting visual and so human, in contrast to a concert's usual automated laser show!

dexter for decor?!

In a desparate attempt to find a last minute Halloween costume, I stumbled across this blog that had a clever idea to host your own Dexter halloween dinner party! The inspiration for the party decor was inspired by the 'Dexter Dining Room' Amy Lau created for the Metropolitain Home's Showtime House. Apparently Showtime Networks and Metropolitan Home spent $20 million renovating a 19th century Gramercy Park townhouse by using six Showtime original series as inspiration for the decor. They enlisted top designers to transform each room into a modernist masterpiece. Such a crazy but cool concept!! Being a HUGE Dexter fan (and having a not-so-secret crush on the sexy serial killer!) I so wish I could have been involved in that design project!

Check out these pics of Amy Lau's 'Dexter Dining Room'. Its so absolutely, fabulously done I kinda want one of my own! Just not sure how I would explain it to the guests....

who would have thought...

Martha Stewart is famous for her innovative wedding colour combinations - like marigold and pewter {one of our brides chose this stunning combination this year}, fushia and taupe, emerald and aqua. But I was surprised to see this combination - lavendar and red! In addition to being a paper nerd, I am also a bit of a colour nerd, and could stare at colour swatches all day long. But I would never in a million years have paired lavendar and red ...yet they really do look so lovely together. Check out these beautiful photos from Martha's website!

part time cat - part 2!

Thanks to my new email buddy Dustin Rabin of Dustin Rabin Photography I've got these sweet shots to add to my treasure chest of prize possessions! He was the event photographer at Virgin Unite Canada's Mad Hatter's Ball and most generously emailed me some of my cheshire cat moments. He caught the crawling in action and somehow made me look like a rock star! Thanks Dustin...I feel special!


Take a moment and check out his website to see more of his awesome work!



Me and Sir Richard Branson (okay fine...so they are his feet!)

Thanks again to Segal Communications for letting me be a rock star cat!

sweet inspiration

A good friend of mine bought me a subscription to Real Simple magazine for my birthday (thank you Rebecca!), and this month's issue has been sitting pretty on my coffee table, staring at me, every hour of every day, with the prettiest picture on the front. I can't stop looking at it. I love the mixture of the colours - soft green, bright yellow, white, and an accent of blue and red. So fresh and new! Just think of all the pretty things you could do with these colours at a wedding. In fact, I am trying to convince Shayna (fellow Bloomer) to use these colours for her "practice wedding" next July. And because it's a rainy day in the city, I thought I'd go buy some flowers at Ave & Dav, and see if I could play around with a centerpiece that mimics the freshness of the pic above. What do you think? If only I had a blue pot!

part time cat

So I had an odd job on Tuesday night. Thanks to a friend of mine working at Segal Communications (funny coincidence on the same last name!!!) I was asked to perform at a charity event they produced for Virgin Unite Canada called The Mad Hatter's Ball. One of the halls in The Metro Toronto Convention Centre was transformed into a fantasy world that took guests through a rabbit's hole tunnel into an affair fit for the Mad Hatter himself. With tables boasting a $15,000 price tag and performances including Natalie Imbruglia, Feist and Cathy Griffin, as well as an appearance by Sir Richard Branson himself, I found myself "rubbing legs" with the best of them! What was my role exactly you ask? Why I was the Cheshire Cat, roaming through the crowd, weaving between people's legs while crawling under and over tables. I've had many a strange job in my odd little life but I have to say this was strange even for me. Do you know that people actually pet me?!

So for those of you who weren't fortunate enough to crawl through this major event, here is a sneak peek of what I saw that night. Actually...if we are being honest...I only really saw legs and table skirts. But I managed to capture these shots of the decor in between crawls. I am after all an event designer at heart....doubling for cats is just a side occupation!

Going through the rabbit hole to get into the Mad Hatter's ballroom. Event planners, Eden Planning, made great use of huge wall projections of whimsical, fantasy forest scapes to create a feeling that you were in a magical world away from reality. The columns were covered in burlap to represent an enormous tree trunk making you feel like you were in a dream where space and size were out of sorts!

The tables were a mixture of bright fabrics and mis-matched chiavari chairs in gold, silver and brown. The centre pieces were a whimsical collaboration of tea cups, tea pots, plates and gerbera daisies in various bright colours.

Sneaky Juicy Tidbit: The production crew wore these rabbit costumes so they could go about their business while keeping the theme consistent throughout. It was brought to my attention as I hob-nobbed with the cool backstage people that one of Feist's sound guys "borrowed" one of these outfits and spent the evening roaming around the event. No one knew who he was and he would just skip through the crowd and show up in the oddest of places. He said he loved the total anonymity. What a funny, wonderful bunch of people Feist had on her crew. They seemed to just be having the best of time together. And they let me stand up on the side stage with them while she performed. I felt like such a groupie...it was wonderful! And finally....a self portrait of the cheshire cat herself! I'm waiting for pics of me in action. I'll post those as soon as I get my hands on them!

it's easy being green

I recently came across these pretty eco-friendly wedding dresses created by Canadian designer Margaret MacLeod. These little numbers are made from organic, sustainable and recycled fabrics like hemp and silk. And just as importantly, they don't scrimp on style - the gowns are both feminine and flowy and lovely.

Sorry Kermie...but with these lovely gown options, it's easy being green!

living artfully & artful events

So, remember just this past summer when all of The Bay's commericals would come on the telly, with their new main slogan "Live Artfully"? This certainly caught my attention, all those glorious drips of paint, and I've been thinking about it ever since. First of all, I think this is a darn good slogan, if you ask me, and I sure do wish I had thought of it first! In particular, one quote on their site struck my fancy: "To live artfully is to recognize that art doesn't have to be found in galleries and museums." I wondered to myself, as you are probably wondering, what does "artful" really mean? It seems rather vague, no? The dictionary says that artful means something that is "done with or characterized by art or skill." And I realize, this is exactly what inBloom does. We fill our events with as much art and detail as possible. In every corner, on every table. Your weddings, bat mitzvahs and other events - they will all be part of your own personal art galleries, and for this reason, the utmost attention should be paid to making it full, plentiful, detailed, and beautiful. No so-so jobs! It is always going to stay in your memories or documented in photos for your children, their children, and their children's children. And so now it makes complete sense! This is exactly why you should hire the professionals like inBloom - to help make your wedding and events "artful." Live artfully & have artful events - executed with skill and style, to forever be documented in your own personal galleries. Thanks to The Bay for pointing out how important it is!

marigold + pewter: an autumn wedding

As Melanie mentioned last week, on Saturday inBloom Events + Design, planned, designed, coordinated, and set up a wedding at the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg. The colours for the wedding were 'marigold and pewter' {courtesy of Martha Stewart} and after months of planning, choosing a venue, printing invitations, menus, signs, tags, seating cards, wine labels, choosing florals and linens, and populating the candy bar, pie station, and pop shop, it was amazing to see all of the colours come alive together. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but the wedding was truly spectacular!

The weather was phenomenal too, and it was sunny and uncharacteristically warm for October. The equally gorgeous bride {Julia} and groom {Iain, in his kilt} got married atop 'Wedding Hill' overlooking a forest of colourful autumn leaves. The venue, which is both rustic and elegant, was decorated with marigolds and oranges and pewter grays - everywhere was a little personal detail, and everything was perfect. Here are some photos taken as we were setting up...we will have some professional photos of the entire affair to share very soon, but in the meantime you can salivate over these!

remembering dody

I want to take a moment and share with you the woman who taught us to appreciate all things lovely, to stop and smell the flowers, to notice the funny little details that are always lurking around the corner, to love the intricacy of nature, to put the nice napkins out for yourself and your family, that every surface is a blank canvas for a whimsical design, that a beautiful smile goes a long way, that there is not one right way to do something in this world, that you don't have to drink milk to be healthy, that there are alternative forms of healing out there, that your gut will tell you a lot if you listen to it, that we never really die and we will always be there in some way for the people we love - in a dream, in the flicker of a light, in a smell and in a tiny touch we can just almost feel.

Everyday I think of you sweet mommy and I will be remembering all the beautiful gifts you have given us and all the breathtaking surprises still to come. I forgot to light a candle for you yesterday but please know that you are never more than a second from my thoughts and heart.

Four years ago on Monday you became our angel. Looking at pictures of you today made me realize that you truly were an earth angel. I am grateful for the short time we had together that has provided me a lifetime of love and teaching. I Love You.

personal touches

So this weekend, inBloom Events + Design is designing a wedding in Kleinburg. The wedding is going to be an awesome pairing of the colours marigold and pewter (more pewter, less marigold), with orange mokara orchids, mixed with silver table runners, river stones and mini tin pails. Not to mention, inBloom is going to have the gorgeous stone columns in the venue uplit in soft yellow for ambience. The groom hand-painted a portrait of himself and his lovely bride-to-be, which inBloom Studio had custom-made into their invitation. What a great way to put a personal touch into the wedding design, and also a great way introduce to all their guests just what type of elaborate affair they can expect to attend! Us 'bloomers are pretty darn excited...we'll show you all the glorius details after the weekend!