Whole Lotta Love

I don't know why it has taken me so long to fall in love with Lotta Jansdotter.

Lotta is a Swedish-born fabric designer and author who currently lives in Brooklyn. I've become a bit obsessed with her designs and aesthetic since picking up her newest book, Handmade Living. It's full of beautiful photos of her home and includes lots of really practical ideas for cooking, organizing, and decorating.

 

Something about the bold, hand-drawn designs against white and beige is really speaking my language right now. Usually I'm drawn to bright, sassy colours and really lively pattern (a la Amy Butler), but something about Lotta's simple Scandinavian style just feels so soothing.

After falling in love with Handmade Living, I picked up her book of stencils and plan to go to town on some plain white curtains we bought for our new apartment. I'm also planning to stencil some fabric to use on the mis-matched dining room chairs I wrote about a few posts ago...and maybe a table runner...somebody stop me!

I'm still alive

It's been awhile, gentle readers. But, I have an excellent excuse: my fella and I are moving back to our hometown in a little over 2 weeks. Our new place is way cheaper, closer to my work, and closer to most of our family and friends. It's also about half the rent of our current home in Toronto. 

We've been pretty lucky with our beloved Toronto apartment -- it's amazingly clean, well-cared for, and functional. However, our new place is...well, let's just say it's going to need a bit of spit and polish before we move in. My brain has been swirling with plans with how to make it a home.

My first idea: mismatched dining room chairs. I plan to replace my current matching set with a bunch of charmingly different chairs, all painted in neutral white. Something like this:

Second, I've been obsessed with this simple balsa wood sculpture thingy since I saw it on Design Sponge last week.

I'd like to use the same materials to make a big Finnish star that we can hang in our new bedroom. They look very complicated but are actually very easy to make.

I'm also working on knitting a pouf for our new living room. (I wrote about my obsession with these way back in September). I'm probably about halfway finished the knitting, then I have to assemble and stuff it. When it's finished, I hope to have something like this:

So, as you can see, even though I haven't been blogging up a storm, my creative juices are stewing. Stay tuned for the finished products!

Wreath-tastic!

I have seen so many cute yarn wreaths popping up all over the interweb lately. Like these ones:

From Take Heart

And this one:

From my internet friend and fellow crafter Creative Kat

So I decided to make my own.

I followed this tutorial to the letter, including the idea to add the little felt flowers. I had the yarn in my stash already and the felt cost about $3 total, so all in all, it was very easy on my wallet. The most expensive thing was the $15 styrofoam wreath form (damn you and your exorbitant styrofoam prices, Michaels!)

This was honestly one of the easiest and most satisfying projects that I've done in a long time. It's basically impossible to screw up. Even the felt flowers, which are the "hardest" part of this project, are very simple and satisfying to make. Plus, the colour possibilities are endless. I made this one to match the red and aqua in my kitchen.

Simple, cute, easy, and inexpensive. What could be better?

One of a kind show

I love the One of a Kind Show. I've gone for the past several years and always find one or two things that NEED to come home with me. This year was no exception. My fella was kind enough to escort me, which made it a) more fun and b) easier to not buy absolutely everything that I wanted. There's nothing like a voice of reason to make you back away from your fourth impulse buy of the day.

The first thing we took home are these cute little mason jar tealight holders, which are made by a local tinsmith. (See his website here). They're currently sitting on our kitchen table.

We also bought a very cool tealight holder for our mantle. (Notice a theme emerging here?) It's actually made from a bit of a recycled barrel from a winery in the Okanagan valley in B.C. I saw these last year and have been thinking about them ever since. (Visit the vendor's website here).

What I love about this is the inside of the candleholder is stained a dark burgundy from the wine, and the outside is marked by the metal that held the barrel together.

Finally, I totally splurged on this lightbox from a young designer named Christie Greyerbiehl. She takes vintage fabric -- in this case, an old bedsheet -- adds a screenprint design, then turns it into a lightbox.

Pretty, eh?

On my wanty list

From Pickles

We've had a sudden shift from sticky summer weather to beautiful, cool, fall days - which means a return to cozy wools and knitting. I've decided I must (MUST) make myself one of these beautiful knitted stools in an oatmealy-coloured wool.

From India Annabelle

From India Annabelle

There are some great patterns available from Pickles, a Norwegian knitting blog. I think I may have to ignore my seventeen other unfinished knitting projects and start one of these bad boys.