Martha Stewart's New Calendars

Arriving in the mail today was my Martha Stewart Gardens 2012 calendar. I was so pleased to receive it! It is one of a series of new 2012 calendars by MSLO, the first time they have produced calendars for retail. (They had previously only issued calendars as special promotional incentives for subscription services.) These ones are designed by the masters in calendar creation: teNeues, a German publishing firm. The Gardens calendar is a very generous size (nearly one square foot when closed) and it is printed on very beautiful, thick paper in rich colour. Other nice features include the listing of holidays that are celebrated in numerous countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia. All of the events, days of the week and holidays are spelled out in multi-lingual format. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch are all represented, making it quite a global calendar. Inside is a bonus removable spreadsheet with a month-by-month list of gardening tips. I've now ordered my Cookies and Cupcakes calendars (for the archives, you see) and the Martha Stewart Living Deluxe Diary. Also available is a Crafts calendar and a Collecting Engagement calendar. You can order them all at Amazon.com.

The Bold New BHLDN Boutique

I am sure that for most brides-to-be a visit to the new BHLDN boutique in Houston, Texas, would be an exercise in restraint: tempering the desire to buy absolutely everything in sight might prove to be more difficult than expected! Gorgeous gowns, beautiful decorations, glamorous accessories and sophisticated shoes are all displayed in a dramatic new setting. BHLDN is the new wedding brand by Anthropologie. It is a distinct new subdivision of the Urban Outfitters network of lifestyle brands and it is one that has certainly captured my imagination; even as an Anthropologie employee who is constantly surrounded by creativity and beautiful things, the BHLDN line dazzles me with its flare and vision. Recently on Facebook, the company shared photos of its new (and only) boutique in Houston, which opened just over a week ago in Highland Village. For anyone planning a creative wedding, it is likely set to become the destination store. Have a look.

Aynsley and the Automat

As mentioned here before, I like to occasionally feature women who have taken their passions and turned them into small businesses. I archive these stories in a section of the blog called Working. It was something I was inspired to do after Martha's 'Dreamers Into Doers' campaign launched several years ago. And sometimes I'm fortunate enough to know these women!

Aynsley Amy, shown above, surrounded by the fruits of an estate-sale yield, is one such person. Aynsley and I worked together at Anthropologie in Toronto for about a year before she decided to strike up her own business, turning her imaginative dream into a reality with a miniscule budget, a knowledge of vintage treasures, a passion for fashion and a love of old-school automats.

Scouring estate sales, tag sales and flea markets, Aynsley pools together a unique assortment of vintage apparel and housewares, selling them online through her website theautomat.ca and at trunk shows. The key to Aynsley's success is the clarity of her aesthetic: the goods she proffers must be unique, colourful and dynamic, demonstrating personality by provoking the imagination. Aynsley explains below.

"I like to characterize the Automat as a modern-day vending machine stocked with past-day treasures, all carefully handpicked with an eye for the awesome," she says. Aynsley's website, where she sells her finds, was designed to look like an automat, an image she could not let go of when coming up with her selling strategy.

"The look of the website was incredibly important - how the merchandise is presented is as important as the merchandise itself," she says. "The challenge was to create something clean and easy to navigate, but that also got across the feeling of a real automat, a wall of coin-operated boxes from decades past. One of the best compliments we got was a disbelieving, 'How did you manage to make a website look vintage?''

"There's just something about automats that I find really appealing. They were the original self-serve restaurant where you chose your meal, put in your coins and the little window opened up. It was about convenience but, unlike most of today's convenience-based experiences, they were also beautifully constructed."
The pieces Aynsley selects are all carefully considered to reflect a sense of femininity but also adventure. There is nothing subtle about the look she is promoting, as the Automat's manifesto clearly outlines: "We believe that life is too short to blend into the crowd. We believe that style should be about reinvention, celebration and inspiration."And what's next for the Automat? "I plan on gradually introducing more new (as in not previously loved) merchandise that has the look and feel of antique and vintage. This is a way of keeping the styles of the past alive once the originals have become too old and delicate to use. And with clothing, it's also a way to offer a wider size range."

It's been a joy seeing Aynsley's work develop and grow. She was recently featured on MTV and last week held her end-of-summer trunk show. I heard so much about it from co-workers and mutual friends who were able to attend. Visit her site for even a brief trip to the past. Who knows, you may find yourself wanting to slide a few coins into one of those tempting automats.
Aynsley recently held an end-of-season trunk show at a friend's home: a gorgeous array of colours, shapes and textures.
All tagged with Aynsley's branded sale tickets.
Housewares are also a key component to the Automat's vision. Vintage tchotchkes (the woodland critters) and whimsical gadgets, such as salt-and-pepper shakers (the green roosters) and egg cups (the chickens) are all part of the package.
Vintage and antique glassware and teacups.
Old ceramic beer mugs do double-duty as planters.

A 'Good Things' Reunion

One of the best things about blogging is hearing from and occasionally meeting so many wonderful people from all over the world. One such wonderful person is Joyce Pardee, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska. I first met Joyce in 2006 at the Good Things event, an MSLO-sponsored event to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Martha Stewart Living magazine. She and her friend Christine more or less adopted me during that two-day Marthafest in New York City. We shared our stories and enjoyed each other's company at a taping of The Martha Stewart Show and then at the Good Things fair the following day, which was held at Pier 94 on Manhattan's waterfront.

While we had always hoped we would see each other again, we weren't sure when or if that would happen. Well, five years later, today was the day! Joyce is embarking on an epic bus tour of four of Canada's major cities: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. A few weeks ago she contacted me to let me know she would be in town and we worked out a time and meeting place to hold our reunion.

Joyce, who is terrified of heights, avoided going to the top of the CN Tower with her friends by going to lunch with me. It was my honour to not only treat Joyce to lunch at a cute little bistro by the waterfront (above) but to spend some quality time with her. She is one of the warmest, most endearing and generous souls anyone could ever meet. She brought a little gift bag for me filled with treats from Nebraska, including an assortment of gourmet popcorns, roasted almonds that are made in her hometown of Lincoln, Dorothy Lynch Homestyle Dressing (Nebraska's most famous salad dressing) and Misty's all-purpose seasoning for ribs. The bag itself was cute and had an adorable print on it (below), which I intend on keeping in my scrapbook.

Before saying goodbye to Joyce, who was on a fairly tight schedule, I got to see photos of her amazing cupcake creations and some of the beautiful handmade decorations she created for her wedding. Joyce is an award-winning cook and a Master Gardener who tends the gardens of the governor's mansion during her time off. After lunch we got caught in a savage thunder storm in the shadow of the CN Tower waiting for her tour group to return from its summit. We chatted about our lives and our goals and she told me all about her travels to India, England and Scotland. She is a spirited and curious friend, and I have little doubt that I will see Joyce again. Blogs are like very special windows, opening onto unexpected views filled with a landscape full of people - some as special and lovely as Joyce.

Kitchen Drawers at Bedford

There are fewer spaces in the house that are more overlooked, I feel, than the lowly kitchen drawer. Because they are sealed off from constant view, kitchen drawers can become disorganized and messy very easily, especially in busy households. Thankfully for us, Martha has opened her kitchen drawers for all the world to see, and her secrets for organizing them reveal some good ideas that we can all adapt to our own space. Below are photos of some of her kitchen drawers at her main kitchen at her home in Bedford, New York.

Martha reserves one of the kitchen drawers for utility supplies such as light bulbs, extension cords, glue, batteries, tapes and cutting tools. It's nice to have these items accessible and at the ready, separated and organized in open plastic containers to keep them together. I have a similar drawer in my tiny apartment kitchen. It contains all of the above materials as well as measuring tapes, pencils and notepads.

Napkin rings are organized in similar plastic containers, sorted by style and colour. Martha has several other drawers reserved for linen napkins, tea towels, place mats and table cloths.

Small jadeite containers from Martha's extensive collection are put to good use in Martha's first-aid drawer. Each one holds a small amount of first-aid supplies, such as bandages, cotton swabs, various pain killers, salves and balms.
Martha's tea drawer has all of the accoutrements a tea lover requires: strainers, honey spoons, empty packets for loose-leaf teas and wooden Asian teaspoons. Loose-leaf teas are kept in stainless steel containers with see-through lids and labels on the sides for easy identification. Everything is separated by stainless-steel baskets that fit perfectly into the drawer.
A label drawer is a handy addition to a kitchen, given how multipurpose the busiest room in the house can be; many people do projects in the kitchen that are unrelated to cooking: wrapping gifts, responding to correspondence, etc. Martha keeps luggage tags in various sizes next to her label maker. The label maker itself is labeled: "this stays right here," it says. Pencils and coloured markers, staples, rulers, waxed linen twine, a glue stick and a small box of Martha Stewart stationery are all kept in this drawer.
Martha has numerous drawers reserved just for baking supplies. The one above shows all of the tools needed for icing cakes, cupcakes and pastries.

Sometimes it makes more sense to keep tools that are frequently used out of the drawers all together. Martha keeps large metal and wooden spoons, spatulas, whisks and brushes in ceramic containers on a stainless steel cart on castors that can be wheeled around the kitchen. The ceramic ramekins in the foreground hold spices, ready for use.

Martha's Chemistry Drinkware at Grandin Road

Yes, folks, it's true. Summer is winding down and most of us have our sights set on the happenings of autumn, including the arrival of Halloween, which is Martha's favourite holiday. Always eager to get a jump-start on the season, Martha recently debuted her new line of Halloween goods at Grandin Road. My favourites are these sets of blown-glass chemistry flasks, beakers and glassware, mainly because of their collectibility and versatility. (Unique in design and printed with Martha's name, they are likely to not lose their market value over time and could become quite sought-after by collectors.) I love that they are made for Halloween parties to serve all manner of mysteriously tainted beverages to guests but that they could also be used year-round for other purposes: vases and decanters among them. The beakers and measuring cylinders come in sets of four for $19.99. The Erlenmeyer flask (bottom) sells for $29.00.

The Art of Dessert

Let's face it: we all want to have our cake and eat it too! Artists have always been fascinated by food and capturing its essence in the form of paintings extends our enjoyment of food well beyond the final gulp. Nearly every culture on earth has produced elaborate artistic compositions using food as primary subject matter, some of the paintings dating back centuries. Preserving food in the form of art is a kind of cultural index. These paintings create a visual archive, a painterly historical record, of the foods we have loved and celebrated, decade by decade.

With the rise of the food stylist in current lifestyle media, we have become even more accustomed to viewing food in artistic ways. Beautiful photo spreads in magazines featuring tables laden with desserts and confections of all sorts can inspire the artistic imagination as well as the taste buds.

The artists featured in this post have all been lured by the idea of preserving delicious-looking desserts on canvas through their paintings. Whimsical, modern and colourful, 'dessert art' is a growing trend in home décor and some of it is actually quite collectible. American artist Wayne Thiebaud, for example, was a prolific painter of cakes, ice-cream cones, pies and other desserts. Considered to be among the most recognized American artists in the 1960s Pop movement, Thiebaud's work is featured in many U.S. galleries alongside Pop contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. An original Thiebaud could fetch tens of thousands of dollars on the market today.

Current food artists, such as British graphic designer Joel Penkman and Toronto painter Shirley Radebach, sell their dessert paintings for several hundred dollars each. I urge you to visit their galleries on Etsy for a further look at their creations. You can find the links below. Food art can spruce up any room in the house, especially the kitchen where their bold colours and lighthearted exuberance can brighten and enhance the space. So, when it comes to wall space, remember to save room for dessert!

The paintings above are by artist Joel Penkman. You can view his gallery here.

Vintage Jello dessert ads, such as these two above, were common in domestic manuals from the early 1900s, gorgeously illustrated to convey the final product of a recipe before the advent of the photograph. Inspiring in their own right, these ads would make wonderful, large-scale prints.

The three paintings above are by renowned American Pop artist Wayne Thiebaud.

Toronto painter Shirley Radebach sells her prints for very reasonable prices. Click here to see her small gallery.