THE Best Chocolate Cake – EVER
THE Best Chocolate Cake-EverAt my house, chocolate cake is the cake ordered from my kitchen for birthday dinners for many of my family members. Two of my kids like my Oreo Cheesecake so Ill do that recipe another day but for today’s blog I want to share this chocolate cake.I got the recipe MANY years ago while away at a swim meet. A fellow parent and I were on duty chaperoning an away meet for our kids. This meant we...
Women in Business: Designers Collective is Interviewed
Women in Business: Designers Collective is Interviewed by Michelle Smid of Just An Ordinary Family. Read all about us HERE "Here at Just An Ordinary Family we love to highlight some extraordinary Women In Business. Today's ladies are no exception. Tina and Brooke are the founders of Designers Collective. With backgrounds in architecture and interior design they have all skills needed to help you with your designing needs.I had the pleasure of chatting with Tina and Brooke about what brought them to opening their own business and combining forces into one dynamic...
What’s Wrong With This Room?
We had such a good response to our last blog post on What’s Wrong With This Room, that we decided to try and post these on a regular basis. So….here we go. Can you tell what’s wrong here?There is a lot we like about this picture, but in our opinion, the carpet is too small. We’d like to see the carpet under at least the front legs of the chair to make the chair part of the conversation area. Right...
Design Tip: How to Add Spring to your Home
Today's Design Tip is how to add spring to your home! It’s April! How did that happen? Spring is here and it’s time to lighten things up in our home. So, how can you add Spring into your home?I like to change out the cushions on my bed. In winter I like darker colours but come spring and I just want to lighten it all up. I’ve got larger light blue silk cushions on my bed and smaller pink ones....
Friday’s Local Love: Quince Fine Florals
Friday Finds: Local Love to Quince Fine Florals on 4870 Mackenzie Street, in the Mackenzie Heights area of Vancouver. Today we honour the arrival of Easter and Spring!Our proprietor is Floral Designer, Jessica Blossom Clark, who started working in the flower industry after school as a young teenager under the tutelage of Thomas Hobbs at his iconic store in the Kerrisdale Village, Vancouver.Quince offers a refined collection of décor items and gifts, including French tea towels, French Soaps, Gourmet Teas,...
A Natural Approach: Decorating For Easter
It’s hard to believe, but Easter is just around the corner. What are your plans? Do you have an Easter Egg hunt with little ones? A big family dinner? Do you decorate your house? Or do you go low key and just enjoy a long weekend? However you choose to celebrate Easter, it is a time of year when newness is emerging. The bulbs are peeking through the earth and new leaves and buds are bursting forth. Let’s have a...
Easy Recipe: Blondies
Blondies are kind of like the vanilla counterpart to brownies. I found this recipe and tried it out. It’s yummy!! You could modify it by adding nuts or choc chips as well. I think a big glass of milk is the perfect accompaniment.Ingredients¾ cup butter semi-melted 1 c brown sugar ¾ c granulated sugar 3 eggs 2 t vanilla 2 ¼ c flour 1 ½ t baking powder 1 t saltDirectionsPreheat oven to 325 degrees Line a 9x13 pan with foil In bowl, combine butter and both sugars. Cream...
Flylady: Baby Steps to Getting Organized
Today I want to introduce you to a great website, Flylady.netI am a fairly organized person. I like things in their place and don’t do well with lots of clutter around. But I do see a few pockets in my house that could use advice from Flylady. My office continues to challenge me as well as my Tupperware cupboard and well, jewelry storage just is beyond me. Many years ago Tina told me about Flylady.net and so I decided to...
Friday Finds: 2015 Design Trends, What’s New In Tile?
Want to know about new 2015 Design Trends from the experts? We are thrilled to bring you all of the latest trends in tiles, stone and mosaic arts. Designers Collective received a special invitation to Goodge Place at 1523 W 8th Ave, Vancouver, for an insider look the new trends from Emily McLean of World Mosaic Tile, and Goodge Place. In this video, Emily McLean shares 'tile talk' with our own Brooke Hatfield.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5LqlKQQ70A[/embed]Look for more insider tips from the experts coming...
West Elm & Designers Collective: Design Styles Workshop Recap
On Monday, Designers Collective put on a Design Styles workshop at West Elm.We had a sold out class of fully engaged women who were anxious to hear about how to spot the different design styles in interior design.We gave each participant a little take away which included a notebook and pen which seemed ideal as there were lots of note takers in the class!Tina and I each took turns reviewing the different tell-tale markers of the four different design...