Bokja

I am infatuated. Very much adoring my new find...

As a self-diagnosed fabricaholic, I absolutely am enamored with the trend of covering one piece of furniture with multiple fabrics, and if they are brightly coloured, textured, handwoven, natural and global textiles, all the better. The sad truth is that the making of fabric in our own culture has been mechanized and plasticized to the point of nearly being tupperware. But there is a cultural connection to textiles around the world that goes back nearly as far back as man. The gathering, dying and weaving of these fibers went hand in hand with the telling and documentation of tribal stories. The tapestri of life can literally be traced back through history.

"We are mixers and matchers who like to upcycle fabrics, frames, and techniques in a sustainable and fascinating way. We are story-tellers. Every piece of fabric, color, thread, frill that goes into our pieces is a little word from a different part of the world that is chosen in an intuitive process." the team explained to GreekArchitect online magazine.

BOKJA is a Turkish word that describes the elaborate and detailed fabric created to cover a bride's dowry. Embroidered by the bride's relatives, this fabulously worked textile is meant to be a reminder of her past to be treasured in her new life as a married woman. Marrying vintage furniture with fabrics that are worked traditionally is the brainchild of Lebanese design team Huda Baroudi and Maria Hibri. Artisans are often enlisted with a mind to help women, with female prisoners and widowers being given a chance to support their families in an otherwise desperate situation.

What the world needs is a more beautiful way of looking at what we have to work with. We don't need more stuff, we need a way to revitalize what is already on hand, both in terms of things, and resources. A good dose of colour doesn't hurt either! It doesn't get much better really :)

Upcycle THIS!

A few really fun upcycling projects from around the WWW. The imagination is a grand thing!

Trend: Shipping Pallet Furniture

Pallet shelving (Love!) via Remodelista

 The most utilitarian piece of junk has recently stormed the design front in every application from headboard to sofa to wall shelf. The industrial look combined with everybody's favourite price (free) is definitely going to appeal, but there are two things that people may not be aware of. One very, very good, and one potentially very, very bad. Uh-oh.

This is actually wine crates, but same principle... and cooler IMO... via itsdesigned.

Years ago I dated a guy briefly who was figuring out how to build his house. He wanted to put as much re-use into it as possible and the creative genius he showed was waaaay out of the box. One of the things that impressed me the most was his research into things that, at the time, were unheard of.

Pallet pieces cut and placed in a herringbone pattern. Photo from a welltraveledwoman.com

 He decided to create the flooring from lathed pallets as they are found in alleys all the time with signs begging people to take them away. It occurred to him that since these pallets were generally coming from overseas, they would be made from wood that would be considered exotic to us. He took some samples to the woodworking school, and his suspicions were confirmed. Mahogany was everywhere, and many more types were found as well. The process of lathing the pieces down to similar size/thickness was offset by that gorgeous price tag. He was sold. So was I. I have been filing that in the back of my brain for over a decade now, and that is the very, very GOOD thing... exotic hardwood flooring, for FREE. Combined with my desire to reclaim and re-use and generally leave as small a footprint as possible... this is all good, right?

Headboard via desire to inspire

I have used pallets as sofa frames, fencing, and garden plot framing. I am the pallet PR person. It always seems like a good thing to me when you get creative with your sources, and some of these back alley pallets are new wood! The thing that kept me from using too many inside the home was the birth of Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Having kids meant that I started asking questions I would maybe not have otherwise. One year when I was looking for wood for a project, I hauled some pallets to my parent's place to use my stepfather's saws. He asked me if I was aware of the amount of toxins that were sprayed on the pallets before they were shipped overseas to keep any bugs or spores or what-have-you from traveling with them. Enter very, very BAD scenario. The things I was making were intended for the kids room, so I did some research, and what I found was not very happy.

Painting them out seemed like a good option. I really liked the wood look and feel though. And I am still unclear as to how bad the toxins are if they are painted over. Does it seal them in? Or are we taking chemical reaction on instead? Ugh. I am not here to scare the bejeezus out of anyone, but as I am seeing these everywhere (and loving the look) I thought somebody might want to bring it up. So far I haven't seen the subject of toxins raised anyplace else on the design blog front.

Like any worthy question, this one raises more questions... we all know that many of the furniture and finishing products in our houses conventionally are filled with toxins already, so if we are the type to just go and buy a whatever sofa, then wouldn't it be fine to jump on this trend? Absolutely. Many of the chemical treatments are the same (formaldehyde etc.) as a sofa from Target or Crate & Barrel or wherever, and this is far better for the environment in the sense that it is keeping these pallets out of a landfill. Could you varnish or somehow seal the wood first? Sure, if the woman down at "Colour Your World" is correct, any treatment of that type will seal in the toxins and you don't have to worry.

There is also the option of the greener pallet. They do exist, and if you are using pallets that were used to ship domestically (within your own country) there is a much greater chance that toxins were not used. There are also companies that use a heating process to treat their pallets instead of toxins. If you take the time to ask a few questions, not only will you find (hopefully) some answers, but you will have the added benefit of raising awareness with the companies using toxic shipping meathods. The demand for less toxins and environmentally damaging processes in the world from a consumer perspective always starts with asking questions!

Coffee table from upcycled pallet via Tina's Apt.

All in all, this is a trend that I LOVE. I really want to see more of this inventiveness and out of the box thinking during the time of economic crisis and the need of the common folk have always been the catalyst of such. I can't wait to see what's next!

Some Stuff

Where have I been? I know... I could plead summer... and that is partly to blame. In reality though, I have not been in the mood to write anything. I keep finding nifty stuff to post about and I have a kazillion things in my "Draft" folder that I started to tell you all about, but since I lose interest these days a few lines in, I thought maybe I would just put some things out there over the next few days that have caught my interest. Totally random perhaps, but still worth note.


One of the things that is making me happy right now is that I found the sweetest blog called Dottie Angel. This woman lives the life I want to lead. And she photographs it and writes about her endeavors for me so that I can take a bit of time out of my day to look at her pretty life and wonder what mine would be like if...



It also inspired me to create the little bird mobile that she has hanging outside her dining room/patio door.


I saw it and thought I should have one, but I have so much stuff around here, I thought it better to make it for my friend's daughter's birthday. So when heading over to her beach party, stick in hand, my sons explained to the people on the little ferry that the stick was this little girl's birthday gift (I had the pretty birds in my bag). We got some wonderfully aghast looks when I followed up with "hey, it is a really nice stick."

I think it was Flickr that I found Tif's (Dottie's) fabulous photos on and followed her through to her blog. I ended up following posts back for eternity and looking lovingly through her house and studio. This woman is just inspiration incarnate. She lives in a photo shoot from Domino magazine, writes with a witty and uplifting and adorable style that is very refreshing, spends her hours revamping vintage whatnots and repurposing her lovely thrifted acquisitions. What's more, she has spent the last year challenging herself to purchase only handcrafted or secondhand goods for her home and wardrobe and successfully encouraging others to do the same. A rather lengthy list of fellow bloggers joined her in her quest which is rounding up in September. I think that in itself is quite an accomplishment, and one that supports all the things I find now daily in this apparent "movement" towards finding beauty and inspiration in a whole new box that is so much more rewarding that the new shiny one. She did a post awhile ago that made me smile when I came upon it... summing up entirely what I truly hope is the newest chapter of this book we call life while wallpapering the innards of an estate find cabinet:

"and then i pondered,

no, this sweetie was not going to end up in the thrift store later in life,

being mocked by passing strangers.

someone, somewhere will come across her,

gasp the gasp, i have gasped many times myself.

and then with a little bit of luck,

that someone will exclaim for all to know

"why this is the most fabulous example of the granny chic movement,

a movement that occurred in the early part of the 21st century.

it was not uncommon for discarded forsaken souls to be picked up

and adorned with paint, paper and fabric.

if i am not mistaken this looks to be a 'dottie angel' example...

yes, yes it is! look just inside the cupboard there,

the signature of the woman behind this granny chic redo.

one Tif Fussell aka dottie angel,

a lover of granny chic goodness...

oh this is indeed the most peachiest of finds"

I am happy to finally see somebody recognize and articulate what is happening now to be as important to design as perhaps the modern movement was, or any other "forward thinking" step we have taken in the evolution of both design and lifestyle choices in general. Going around and collecting old things or a particular style/designer is nothing new, but this new way of taking what is old and making it our own somehow, while ultimately changing our habit of seeing worth in terms of new or designer goods, is indeed a movement. Granny chic, vintage glam, upcycling... all are terms that even the shelter mags are throwing around right now to describe what devoted thrifters have known for awhile. One person's trash is indeed another's treasure.

*all images from Dottie Angel's blog except top photo which is from Spool

Platinum Dirt

photo credit DoctorWatson via flickr

There are birds singing. It is four eighteen in the friggen' morning! You can't tell me that these guys can FLY and forage on that many hours of sleep! I am just not getting that. Obviously, these are the ones that don't have kids to tend to... they are the college crowd chickadees.

Said crowd until recently included my brother, who just completed his electrician's thingy. I don't know what that's technically called... license? Papers? Degree? Dunno. But he did it! Yay Bro, way to go! I had planned to take him for a beer, cause that is what you do when you graduate from college, no? We lead different lives my brother and I. His includes beer. Anyhow, I figured that I would scoop him up, attend my friend Kelly's farewell art showing (she leaves this weekend for an eight month Tour de Paint across the coolest parts of Europe... jealous? Who me?) and drink our faces off... me with my crantini and him with his Faceplant. But he ditched me! What??? I KNOW! I know, I thought of that... disowning him I mean. I thought all sorts of mean and nasty things and my feelings were uber hurt, and in the end... I decided NOT to get him his graduation gift. Not enough of a slap in the face you say? Ooooooh, but wait till you see :)

This, my friends, might be the coolest (and by cool I mean super FREAKING AWESOME) thing I have seen in a long while. Anyone who knows this blog at all knows I am a greenie. A budgie some say... an Eco Chick. Emphasis on Chic, right? Anyhow, as such, I advocate all things eco, but in truth, the greenwashing thing gets old really quickly, and although every little bit does count, I tire of hearing the token enviro-speak that is only selling more stuff and not doing much to alter how things are done, just how things are thought about. It's a start, it is! Realistically though, we ALL need to do more, and this includes those of us who make stuff trying to find ways of re-using old, already made stuff. Re-purposing. THIS is the way of the future. The only way, really. Anyhow, this right here is, in my humble but well researched opinion, the perfect example.

Behold, the VIN Jacket.



In true pioneer fashion, Dustin Page, the genius behind the VIN concept took his training in mechanical engineering and transferred his skills to pattern-making and sewing. He started with screenprinting Tshirts, but since everyone and their dog is doing that and he wasn't making any coin off of it, he looked for another way to apply his self taught sewing skills and decided that ripping junk yard cars apart at the seams was a better bet. Something he molded into Platinum Dirt.


The leather from the seats of vintage Cadillacs and other luxury cars has a well worn patina that you simply can't reproduce en masse and what's better, with careful placement of the unique symbols that are embossed into the leather, Platinum Dirt is imparting a sense of prestige in a green garment that goes beyond just re-use and into an entirely new and covetable realm of marrying eco with impeccable taste. He even goes to the extent of using the hood ornament as the zipper pull and the VIN number to accessorize. Once Dustin had established a product line of jackets and handbags, he was contacted by customer turned partner Aaron Parish who has helped to get a replica of the very first jacket he made onto the back of Jamie Foxx. Apparently, the celeb wanted to buy the one that Dustin was wearing, the first one he created, and the duo turned him down and offered to make him his own version. Other stars have snapped them up, Fergie is on a waiting list. So you know, my brother would have been in pretty flashy company. The two are working to promote their product to a high end retail market to change the way we see eco.


I would like to credit Lara from Three Owls for sending this story of gorgeousness to me. This is a woman who knows her stuff! Her clutch is in the mail.

Habit Forming Wedding Addiction...

Apparently I am now a wedding blog. It's not my fault, it is just because there are so many gorgeous things to fit under the wedding category now. Back in the day I had to go to my fair (well, unfair if you were to ask me) share of wedding shows. The big annoying kind with flourescent lighting and bad music where the only plus was that you got to sample a petit four or two. Oh, well there was that one time where during the fashion show the tux guys made a bet amongst themselves that at the end when they wore the kilts they would all go commando and surprise the audience with a "show" to remember. That was brilliant. Anyhow, as I was saying, these days we have a little something called c.r.e.a.t.i.v.i.t.y. to really spice things up with the bridal scene. Thank the gods!



I was just over trying to nominate a friend on the etsy voter page and got sent to the wrong set of photos. Which of course happened to be the wedding set. And such lovely things there were there... am I allowed to infringe on etsy territory like this? It's definitely a promo... you might consider any of these pretties even if you are not getting married, but having been made to take part on far too many of these things, I can vouch that using ANY of these as inspiration for a theme would completely up the bar for your event. Imagine your table lined with rows of these...


Just randomly placed amongst twisted branches and gorgeous greenery... with these at the place settings, gorgeous!


Then you could re-use them over and over in your home or give them as favours. Love dual purpose. And the boys should be looking all dapper in these...


and these...


If you are going to do the invitations up fancy, they don't get much much more fabulous than this lovely ladie's creations. I have ogled her work before, but this set made me salivate. I now need uber gorgeous invites to my birthday party. I know, they seem extravagant, but really, if you knew...


These are pretty brilliant...


...but to be totally honest, the entire reason I put this post together is because of this dress... or should I say "exquisite work of art"... SO pretty, SO unique, SO perfect. I am in adoration. (I refuse to say j'adore, you can't make me.) Somebody really amazing should be getting married in this gown. Or just maybe get a bit older in it. Just sayin'...


This dress isn't actually in the Voter series, for some insane reason she listed another very pretty but less interesting dress. The best part of this gown is that it is created from eco sensitive fabrics. The hand appliqued landscape panel is handcrafted using hemp/silk and wild silk with over forty blossoms among the intertwined tree limbs. Stunning. People, if you are going to buy something fabulous, look for it on etsy first. I am telling you, there is no way you are going to find a gown in a store with this attention to detail for less than three grand. Especially in gorgeous fabrics like these. I can fully attest to the beautiful hand and drape of natural fabrics, remember that the entire reason they started making polyester was to emulate fabrics like these on the cheap. If the panel is a little much for you and you prefer something on the simpler side, go and take a gander at her shop, she has a number of lovely pieces in very soft and simple styles.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz In Style

Are we all very aware of Eileen Fisher's new collaborative effort for Garnet Hill? We should be. I know we don't have a bunch of money to throw around right now... yours truly is especially trying hard to focus on things other than the meagre coin in my bank account. However! IF you were going to splurge on something, I feel strongly that a decent, NAY, a blissful night's slumber is most worthy. And I have been coveting a really lovely set of linen sheets for quite some time. But then I stumbled upon bamboo and the entire mission got sort of derailed. I was watching the Anthro set for awhile, but these... well dear readers, THESE are just too beautiful. There is something about the double fringe, frayed edge that I just adore. Yummy.


They come in shades of this spring's pretty palette of melons and dew and I believe I saw some cucumber in there too. Sort of like a doable luncheon platter. Refreshing would be the term I believe.

Right, and while we are on the topic of redecorating schemes that I cannot afford currently (although there is certainly nothing wrong with mentally refurbishing the abode that resides in my head, is there?) I think it is only fair to add the recycled leather mats and the eco fill silk duvet. Just for kicks, no?



Oh, hey... did I mention... SALE? Yeah.

Steel Butterfly

I am SO excited about this. In my circle of "always ready with a hairbrained, newfangled, tree hugging idea" kind of friends, the discussion of alternative housing and building comes up often. Being in the Kootenays, the Land of the Intentional Community, there are actual examples of eco housing all over the place if you know where to look for them. What we don't understand, is why the concept is still labeled "alternative" and not looked to as the emerging norm.

Enter Maison Idekit Home out of Quebec. (For those of you not geographically adept, that is the large french part of Canada that sits right in the middle. Home to Montreal, which even Vogue recognizes as not being limited to igloos... unless of course you count the Ice Hotel, which is at least the most fabulous igloo going... for those who are into that sort of thing.) Maison Idekit's founders Bernard Morin and Joyce Labelle have finished construction on their dream home, which is also their business prototype, using seven reclaimed shipping containers. The massive steel boxes are the type used by freighters to carry shipments overseas and are generally reused to some extent. Eventually though, they end up in a sort of giant box graveyard that hopes to at least see the steel recycled, but with wood losing its reputation of being the worlds most renewable resource and the strength of steel being greater, using these containers for much needed affordable housing makes sense.

Brilliant idea, not to mention green, but the emphasis here is on affordable. The cost of the Idekit home using traditional building meathods, would reportedly be $400,000. Apparently, the actual cost using the second of the Three Rs was for $175,000. That is a HUGE difference and other countries (of course) have already put this idea into production. A company who calls itself, appropriately, Container City in London in the UK already is in full swing with a number of buildings that also boast clean wind turbine energy for their live/work studios.

For use as student housing in Holland the containers make quite a statement as the Keetwonen complex.

Hurricane victims in the US, as well as a few here and there one offs, may be the start of a movement on this side of the ocean, and companies such as DeMaria Design Associates are turning prefab into preFAB. (Ugh, I hate it when I do that. Sometimes it cannot be helped.)

The DeMaria website uses one of my favorite Bucky Fuller quotes,

"There is nothing in a caterpillar tells you it is going to be a butterfly."

So true.

A is for ADORABLE!

I don't know how it happened, because I was initially searching for a furniture designer, but I stumbled upon this adorable set just now and have to share! Made by Clare Bare who upcycles vintage fabric finds into rather dreamy lingerie.

You know how it goes, one thing always leads to another on the WWW but in this case I was happy to find myself on one of my favorite blogs, the OKO Box. This sweetie can find the most fabulous eco-chic goings on and never disappoints with the style factor! Always worth a visit. She has a nifty little shop on her blog where you can pick up this heavenly number if you work quickly, there are only two left. She features designers who keep earth friendly in mind when serving up a bitty piece of gorgeousness and her blog covers and A (to Z)-list of enviro-conscious ideas.

Photo credits: the OKO Box