Overnight trip to Vancouver, BC

I love Vancouver, and now that I live close to the border, I can go to Canada whenever I want! I decided to get a little inspiration and go to Holt Renfrew (a must, it's their flagship store!) then walk around Robson street to finish my little shopping tour in Gastown where I found this totally awesome little store called Orling & Wu (what a cool exotic name!) I will have to do a special post later to show you all the stuff I got there...

Vive les Saisons!

Now you see where I got my inspiration for my November banner. I have been trying to do a different banner for each month...not sure I will try to do that next year, I think I will just change it with the seasons so I only have 4 to do instead of 12. Anyway, this is the month of October in my new 2013 "Vive les Saisons" Calendar. I still have a month to finish it right? Only 11 more months to design...

Motifs à la Matisse

I am a big fan of Matisse so when I saw the call for entries on Spoonflower for this contest, I just had to enter something. The goal was to design a textile that would look at home in a Matisse painting like the ones currently on display at the Nasher Museum of Art exhibition on the Cone sisters of Baltimore. Everybody has to use the same color palette. The top ten fabrics will be featured at an Art for All event at the Nasher on Dec 6, 2012. You can vote here if you feel like it until tomorrow I think... My spoonflower name is "snowflower".

San Francisco Flashback!

We went to the Bay Area (where we used to live) a few weeks ago and I have been so busy since that I haven't had time to update my blog. First we spend a whole day with my son Alex who studies Game Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. We went shopping in Japan town and then we had sushi at Isobune where they have the little boats going around, we love those... We also went to see my friend Megan's talk for the River Otter Ecology Project at the Randall Museum. Because I donated to the cause at the bioluminescent level, I went home with this fabulous river otter puppet that I am totally crazy about. Then, Alex took us to this fabulous place in the Haight called the Ice Cream bar. I had "fromage blanc" ice cream, so delicious but super rich.

On Saturday we were invited to my friend's Jim 60th birthday party that had a 60's theme. Dave looked pretty good with his afro. The party was a total blast and Jim's band, the Earthtones, was on fire!!! And of course Mary and I are the official Earthtonettes dancers, so we did what we could to liven up the party, but we didn't have to do much as everybody got into the spirit of the 60's so it was pretty hilarious and fun. Happy birthday Jim!!

Escapade in Ashland

Papayas in Ashland

Bento boxes at Prize

Neon Colored pencils and Rifle Paper cards at Prize

Southern Charm by Shari French at Paddington Jewel Box

On Saturday I went to Ashland to go to my favorite 3 stores for inspiration: Papayas, Paddington Station and Prize. They also just opened a second Paddington store called "Paddington Jewel Box",  so I now have 4 favorite stores in Ashland. My friend Karen and I just love Paddington Station but it gets expensive because I just have to have so many things in that store. Now with another one across the street, we are really in trouble! But I do love the new "live, laugh, love" pendant I got from Southern Charm. I just had to get it because it's my motto in life!