FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!!!!

Here's the newsletter we sent out yesterday........click on it to get a better view!

I'm almost out of here.....to Chicago!

A day and a half to go......I have an event for 450 people to set up today and tomorrow morning, then tomorrow afternoon, Frenchy and I are off to Chicago to the Casual Furniture Show - dedicated solely to outdoor furniture and accessories. YIPPEE!!!! I have many orders to place for Spring '11. Tuesday is actually Frenchy's bday...so it is kind of a bummer that we will be travelling, but on Wednesday, he will be doing a 3 hour Segway Tour of the city. He did the same thing last year on his bday and loved it so much that he wanted to come again. He also did a Segway Tour with our friend Eric when Sue, Eric, Jose and I were in San Fran in March...Sue and I went to the San Fran Garden Show and the boys took a Segway Tour - hilarious! You should see the photos....

Anyhoo.......I am excited to the see the collections for Spring....I know for sure that I will be ordering from Fermob, Veneman, Kannoa, Torrans, and The Rug Market. Soooooo much good stuff. I can't wait to post the pictures of everything!

Alrighty then......off to set up...it's going to be a long day. Thank God for the help of the trusty Miss Arnica and Miss Catherine. Whew!

Have a great day!

A colorful client project.....

I love this project! I have been doing a basement remodel for a client and while we were working through it, they decided they needed to spruce up their back deck with some new outdoor furniture and fabric. YIPPEE!!!!!!! We are having cushions made for some existing vintage pieces and adding some new and colorful pieces with some seriously cool fabrics.

I love to take cushions and have them made 2-sided. One fabric on one side and one fabric on the other. Usually we then welt and box (if the cushion is a box cushion and not a knife edge) with a third fabric. It gives such great versatility to the piece...and if you can't decide between two killer fabrics.... I have done this at my own house and it worked so well, I am suggesting it for my clients!

OK then...The existing chairs are black mesh wrought-iron and we are adding this great Luxembourg Bench from Fermob in Carrot. The fabric for all of the pieces will be the will be out of Trina Turk's outdoor Orange Peacock and Pindler's outdoor ebony trellis - we will use Pindler's solid black outdoor for both the boxing and the welting to tie it together......

Luxembourg Bench by Fermob in carrot

Trina Turk by Schumacher - outdoor collection - Orange Peacock

Pindler and Pindler - outdoor - Ebony Trellis

I Can't wait to see this finished - it's gonna look like a million bucks!!!!

One more event....

Last week we had a two day notice to put together a luncheon event for 70 people in a French bistro style. We provided the furnishings, did the staging, did the flowers, etc. We used a great palette of bistro furniture by Fermob in chartreuse, navy, silver, turquoise and white, colorful outdoor rugs by The Rug Market and white bistro chairs by Eurostyle. Our flowers/plants were all in French Onion Soup bowls...beautiful roses, moss and myrtle topiaries. We did a chalkboard street sign for the menu and has fun litre carafes on each table. Our napkin rings were simple coordinated ribbon. It turned out lovely! Such great colors. The bummer is that I could not get great photos since I did my final fluffing of the even at 6 am before the lighting guys got there and the photos are on my iphone. Rumor has it though, that someone at the event took great photos so hopefully I can get my hands on those. What these photos do not show are the clusters of plants around the stage and the event "entrance" which featured a great Luxembourg bench by Fermob and a cool light-up pot by Rotoluxe. So stay tuned for better photos when I get them. That was quite a 2 days...but we pulled it off and the client was happy. We love a happy client! YIPPEE!!!

What I found in Chicago at the outdoor market...

I had a great time at the Outdoor Furniture Market at the Chicago Merchandise Mart this week. Attendance was up and it was bustling! I needed to place orders and find some new vendors for our spring collection of outdoor goods at the shop. I was soooo happy with what I found!

Sometimes it just takes one thing - an item, a color - to act as your muse or inspiration and get you going.....I found this rug at The Rug Market - it is truly an outdoor rug - and it inspired me for the color palette I chose for our Spring merchandise. We will be receiving all our outdoor stuff during the first week in March. I know it sounds far away - but it's not!

This is my color inspiration! I think it is lovely! Our palette for Spring will be chartreuse, turquoise, cobalt blue, white and gray. I saw navy and cobalt blues in Paris and thought I would bring them in through outdoor furniture.

My favorite outdoor line, Fermob, is showing this lovely Luxembourg lounge chair and ottoman in a beautiful shade of chartreuse - they call it verbena - and I have ordered a pair of these. Beautiful....picture it with the rug! YUMMY!

More from Fermob, also from the Luxembourg collection. We have also ordered the pictured colors, turquoise and cobalt. Note the chaise lounge in the back...I ordered a pair of them in a double weave turquoise and gray with a turquoise frame.

..a fun striped deck chair from La Fuma.....more of my color palette!

This is a beautiful offering from Jardin de Ville from Canada. I would love to have this piece in the shop - it looks like the commanders chair from Star Trek.


This lovely is from EMU - LOVE LOVE! I will be ordering it in a turquoise/peacock color.

Here is a gorgeous outdoor firepit - it uses pourable gel. It is glossy white powdercoated metal. So sleek, modern and not fussy! We have one coming into the shop in about two weeks. I would love to have one of these at home as well. hmmmmmmmmmm.............

What is not to love about 50's motel chairs....pick a color , any color. These beauties are really well made and so damn cheerful I can barely stand it. As you can imagine, I ordered a ton of these - I could not even wait until Spring - they will be here in two weeks!!!! YIPPEEE! Beautiful and affordable!

Doesn't that just cheer you up???

ooooooohhhhhhh....I found this new company Kannoa from Florida and I love everything in their collection - we are getting the above piece in a driftwood white - with an umbrella hole and we will put the Sywawa shade lace parasol with it - LOOK OUT!

These are also from Kannoa - and we have ordered them in a chartreuse green - these totally remind me of the Frank Gehry cardboard chair...don't you think???

....more Kannoa - we got these in white with striped cushions...simple and lovely!

.....with little side tables / cubes to go with the collection....

These last pieces are from the Veneman Collection, which I have been coveting for the last two years, and I finally decided to order. I ordered 2 biedermeier side chairs in orange powdercoated metal - really the most beautiful shade of orange/red-ish - I will be putting loose down cushions in peacock on them...and I ordered two pieces from the Roger Thomas collection..the Bellechase lounge chair and the 2 person settee - also in the orange - but with apple green Kravet outdoor chenille for the cushions. This line is to die for. I am so happy I ordered it! FYI - Roger Thomas is the designer of the Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas (plus a whole lot more!)
The Bellechase lounge chair - I ordered it in orange with green cushions.

The Beidermeier chair. I ordered mine as sidechairs, not armchairs,

Allright then, I am done for! I have not had a decent nights sleep in days - my mind won't stop imagining all the great stuff we are getting for Spring '10. I had a blast in Chicago - quick trip as it was - thank you to all the vendors who took their time with me!

Have a great weekend!

Day 1 at Maison et Objet - the outdoor stuff....

Whew! That was an exhausting first day at the show. But before I go on I must apologize, again, for my lack of photo documentation. Lame, I know, but we are a little technologically challenged with getting the photos posted thing at the moment. The connection we have here takes forever and then freezes up while trying to download and blah, blah, blah. So I give up!

Anyhoo.....we started off in the outdoor section where I needed to visit with a bunch of my vendors, www.EMU.it, www.fermobusa.com, www.lafumausa.com and to meet with some new ones, Sywawa, Freek, Blofield. EMU had a stunning booth, as usual - lots of white wire and powdercoat - very Italian design. Some of the new dining tables are really fantastic. At Fermob they have tons of new stuff including a small bistro slatted deck chair - like a steamer chaise really, as well as a few new seat belt pieces - chaise, lounge and dining chairs by Andree Putman - quite a coup for them - ANDREE PUTMAN! She is soooooo cool and the new collection is called Inside Out. Near and dear to my own heart.....

La Fuma is putting together a striped beach chair collection that is so colorful and fun that it really reminds me of Toile du Soliel's fabric line Perfect for next summer.
On to the new...... Last year I saw three new lines that I had to think about a bit and now I am ready to move. www.freek.nl produces a line of astro turf-is, but way cooler, shag-ish rugs for outdoors in unbelievable colors and stripes. Perfect to put under a blow up, outdoor chesterfield sofa by www.blofield.com in orange. Seriously, a blow up sofa, made out of outdoor safe, UV safe material in fun colors! It even comes with its own pump. I think I will put one in my own garden! Then I visited with Pierre of www.sywawa.be.com and placed an order for the coolest garden parasols I have ever seen. The Shady Lace is a white umbrella that is laser cut to resemble leaves and lace in a slightly cut out way. It is incredibly beautiful and the shadowing effect you get with it is an extra bonus. It come is kelly green as well and I am so excited to be getting this in for spring! Their coolest product, by far, though is the Frou Frou Parasol. It is hard to explain, but it looks like a Mexican palapa collided in a big way with a hula dancer. Google it. Dear God! I think I will order just one to start and maybe put it in my backyard and show it to clients. OK, I know what you are thinking. "Your back yard must be full". Yes, yes it is. But it is super cool and one of the great advantages to being a designer is getting to be design fickle and try out new stuff and get rid of old stuff. It is so much fun!

While continuing to wander the aisles of the outdoor section, we stumbled across another new line that I HAVE TO HAVE. It is TOTALLY different from everything else being show and it truly is one of the most beautiful lines I have ever seen. Even though most of the outdoor stuff being shown at market has been leaning toward the contemporary or modern, www.massant.com has the most beautiful, classic and well thought out line I have seen. When you look at this line, it would never even occur to you that these pieces are intended of the outdoors. Beautiful Louis XV carved teak chairs with outdoor fabrics. They will even do COM. YIPPEE! Regency armchairs, a Louis XVI settee, a Victorian bamboo caned canape, a parquet topped dining table. So completely unexpected and so beautiful!! Their booth was also so simple, yet beautiful with a living wall of white hebes to see off the beautiful furniture.

I can't wait to pour through the catalog and decide what to order for spring!! So many choices! I am so happy we get to come to these markets and just stare at things. It is so inspiring. I'm a lucky girl.
That being said, I gotta go, I am also a late girl and have to head out for day # 2. Get me some coffee.....and a croissant! Au bientot!

Fermob bench in Elle Decor!

I know I have had this picture from my shop on my blog before, but imagine my surprise when it showed up on page 76 of the May 2009 Elle Decor as one of the "10 Most Gorgeous Garden Benches". YIPPEE!!!!! It really is lovely and we have it priced at $600 - but if you have one of the "Alberta Street Stimulus Package" Coupons, you could have it for 20% off...... You gotta love a good promotion! Spend 25$ at one of the participating shops and get a coupon for 20% off your total purchase at another participating shops on your next visit! Through June 1st!

LOVE IT! Speaking of promotions.....check this out....and yes indeedee you CAN combine all our promotions!

This is more of a close up of the bag with purchase (by Ann Millie) - recycled, recyclable and super cool!