Holiday Gift Ideas by Tina
Need some holiday gift ideas for the special people on your list? Here are my 2015 gift suggestions! I'm happy to say all these gift picks are gender neutral making it so easy for you to give them to anyone on your list. Here we go:1. A ScarfA personal favourite is any scarf by Paul Smith. Paul Smith is a British designer, whose business and reputation is founded upon his men's fashion with a special focus on tailoring. He is...
Day 3 of Designers Collective’s LA Design Crawl
Day 3 of our Designers Collective's LA Design Crawl was a big day! So we don't overload you, we have decided to break up day 3 over a few different blog posts.We started Day 3 of our LA Design Crawl with the limo picking us up and taking us to South Bay to start the Dwell Home Tour.Dwell is a design/architectural magazine that hosts home tours in various cities. It's very generous of the homeowners to open up their homes to...
Details of our LA Design Crawl Day 2
The fun continues as we share the details of our LA Design Crawl, Day 2.On day two we started the day with a choice between two California extremes; a leisurely coffee by the pool or a 7:00 am spin class at the famous SoulCycle. Echoing solid endorsements from Oprah, our own design crawler and spin cycle instructor Francine was keen to have all of us mount up. Great music combined with a darkened interior allowed us to focus inward for a...
Spring Garden Planter Design
Time to get ready for our Spring Garden Planter Design Workshop coming up next week. Yesterday I went to Southlands Nursery with our landscaping expert, Diane Bridges. We were looking at supplies and discussing our upcoming Spring Container Garden workshop. In the short while, we were exploring the nursery, I learned a few things. It’s interesting to me because a lot of how we decorate or design for the home can be carried out in the garden as well. We...
Lighting Design Basics Workshop: Recap
Last evening we had our first ever Lighting Design Basics workshop. Cairn Allen from Luminosa Lighting taught us about the different layers of light and how to use them. We then discussed different light styles and different light bulbs and where best to apply them. After an information-packed presentation, we went across the street to Luminosa Lighting where Cairn gave us a tour of the store and showed us different applications for various lights. The differences between the various recessed lighting...
Design Workshops with Designers Collective
We thought we would take this opportunity to talk to you about our upcoming Designers Collective Workshops.We came up with the idea to offer design workshops because we were finding we were often being asked for consults and advice. I would often have a client call me who wanted to do the project himself or herself but would get stuck and would need a little help staying focused on their project. I would go in for a consult and talk to...
Downsizing: My Personal Experience
Downsizing is certainly not what I expected to be doing quite yet. We had talked about it for when the kids all left home that perhaps we might want to downsize. We had been in our house for about 15 years and had many fond memories of raising the kids, family gatherings, Christmases, Easter egg hunts, good neighbours who became good friends, and many a home project undertaken. We moved in when our oldest was in grade two, our middle...