The New Domestic

Arts

03/07/10

In My World

The soundtrack to this weekend was “My World” by Tim Kay. The song is probably best known as the theme song to Jamie Oliver’s “Jamie At Home” series and we’ve had it on loop for the last couple days. On Saturday, I caught Nerissa watching an episode of Jamie’s Australian Tour Diary where Tim Kay performs a live acoustic version of the song. Nerissa kept rewinding to hear the song again. I thought I’d save her the trouble and buy the track on iTunes. Some songs you just connect with and 99¢ for a song that captures the spirit of the moment is totally worth it. P.S. The photo above was taken in Provence. In my world, the backyard doesn’t quite look like that yet but one lovely day it may.


Arts / Domestic 2.0 — No comments — Posted by: Peter
03/02/10

Scooters & Macarons

I wanted to put together a special package for Valentine’s for Nerissa. While searching through our hard drive, I found a photograph of scooters and macarons Nerissa shot in Paris. It’s a beautiful image and it was a shame it only existed in our digital archives. I came up with the idea of printing and framing the photograph and packaging it with a set of macarons. Unfortunately, sourcing macaroons in Vancouver was more difficult than I anticipated. There was none to be found near home or near work. With a little one in the house it’s hard to sneak out on long secret missions and I wasn’t able to put all the pieces together for the 14th. Luckily, the next special occassion, Nerissa’s birthday, is soon after Valentine’s. Perfect timing since I figured I would need one or two more weeks to get everything together.

I sent a message out on Twitter asking where in Vancouver I could find macarons. I was told La Baguette et L’Echalote on Granville Island or Thomas Haas. I chose Thomas Haas. I then packaged the macarons in a Ladurée souvenir box we bought in Paris; fitting since Ladurée started Nerissa’s macaron obsession. The framed photo and box of macarons were stacked together, tied with a ribbon and, viola, there it is. Bon Anniversaire!


Arts / Food / Make — 1 comment — Posted by: Peter
02/06/10

Still Life Self Portrait

Last year at work, as part of the new website design, we created a team section where we individually created compositions that represent who we are. For my self portrait, I decided to gather some of my favourite things and put them together to create a still life. Here’s a list of what you see:

- The framed pattern was a gift wrapper found at the Vancouver Art Gallery
– Framed illustration purchased from Yumi Yumi via Etsy
– My handmade Bricolage journals
– Baby Eames chair reproduction from Nood (50% off sale! btw)
– White Eames Eiffel chair from Herman Miller
– Skirt from Anthropology
– Matryoshka doll was a souvenir from my trip to Alaska
– Twigs & rocks from the beach where I live
– Brown shoes brought back from Paris
– Smena 8M toy camera
– Catalogues: Habitat, Muji, Anthropolgy

Last note for the weekend: hello to Hooray Design. Thanks for including us in your awesome blog.


Arts / Interior — 4 comments — Posted by: Nerissa
02/03/10

Inspiration Board

We keep an inspiration board up in our studio. It’s a easy way to casually pin-up artwork, clippings and other tidbits that inspire us. Items currently include:

  • paint chips and fabric swatches for on-going projects;
  • few old photos that don’t have a home in our albums;
  • spare art prints that we haven’t framed yet;
  • reference material and souvenirs;

But most special are the hand-made cards & mini-crafts given to us by our friends. Those gifts always get a special spot on the board or in our library. Alice Cho holds the current record for most things pinned up.


Arts / Interior — 2 comments — Posted by: Peter
01/22/10

DIY Place Cards

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I had a housewarming dinner party with my friends from work last year and I decided to make it a little bit more special by making everyone their own place cards that they could take home with them. I chose my favourite origami patterns and created little envelopes by folding the origami paper in half and stitching the side for a more hand crafted look. And to make it even more fun, I put random goodies inside each envelope which everyone excitedly opened to see what they got. It was like Christmas all over again!

I always like dinner with friends to be more interactive and add an element of playfulness to it. These are super easy to make and your guests gets to take home something special that you personally made for them.

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Arts / Make — 4 comments — Posted by: Nerissa
12/23/09

Newsprint Wrapping Paper

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We often like to wrap presents in newsprint or butcher paper. It has a nice raw texture and neutral palette. All you need is some nice ribbon to finish it off but sometimes you just want a splash of pattern. A couple months back, YouWorkForThem was clearing out their book collection. They were practically giving away their newsprint zine, “Sentence 01“, for 95¢. A different artist designed each page of the 16 page zine full of abstract black and white imagery. At the risk of offending the artists and author, I bought three copies not to read but for the sole purpose of using each sheet of the zine as wrapping paper. And it works wonderfully. Rissa put the package above together for Doni, Gen & Aoi. Inside is a loaf of home baked cinnamon raisin bread (Rissa’s go to gift for 2009). Newsprint ink tends to run, so if you don’t want ink on your gift, you’ll want to wrap your gift in an additional layer. In this case, Rissa wrapped the raisin bread in cling wrap before wrapping it in the newsprint.

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Below is a gift given to Luna by my sister also nicely wrapped in newsprint with a simple pattern of chinese characters. So simple. So lovely.

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Arts / Make — 1 comment — Posted by: Peter
12/10/09

Countdown to Christmas!

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Fifteen more days until Christmas. Yay! I usually like to make something festive every year to give to friends. In the past, I’ve made cards, notebooks, baked goods etc… This year, I’ve decided to make Christmas cards to send out to our lovely friends. This is the most realistic task I can do as lately, Luna decided that she wanted to be in my arms ALL DAY! So the idea of baking Christmas goods have been scratched off my list including other crafts that needed cutting and gluing. There’s only so much I can do with one arm!

So I’ve been sitting in front of the computer designing these cards the past few days. As I am designing them, Luna is laying in my arms fast asleep & snoring away. But having a baby at home also means that things just take longer to get done which is something I am still getting used to. When she cries, I have to get up and cradle her to put her back to sleep. When she’s hungry, she cries for milk so I have to move to the couch to nurse her. But having her always so close to me is really so special. She will never, ever be this small again.

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When I started designing these cards, I wanted to stay away from the typical Christmas shapes, ornaments and colours used to design anything for Christmas. Though, I still wanted it to look fun and festive. The base pattern shapes are taken from Kids & Toys Petite Pattern Book which is full of fun patterns you can customize or use as is. The colours I used are inspired by what I see outside my window. The chilly winter air, smoke from chimneys, fallen branches, pine cones… Yes, this is winter!  These cards have been printed using my epson printer on card stock.

I hope to send out these cards within a day or two so it can soon find it’s new home. Happy Holidays everyone!

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Arts / Domestic 2.0 / Make — No comments — Posted by: Nerissa
11/18/09

Newest Project On-The-Go

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Rissa and I are currently working on Luna’s birth announcement. We sketched up some ideas together on the weekend. Rissa spent yesterday reformatting some of them into InDesign files to print out and mock-up on paper. Other than posing for cute photos, Luna wasn’t actually too helpful on this task. Her favorite activities continue to be eating, sleeping – I think she dreams about swimming in rivers and oceans of milk – and something new: stretching out and exercising her limbs. Maybe one day soon she’ll have fun putting stuff together with mom and dad. We’re hoping to finalize the design and production this week and send off the announcements asap.


Arts / Make — No comments — Posted by: Peter
11/03/09

Lullatone Plays Pajama Pop

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Two of our favourite friends, Jonathan and Anita, gave us a few CDs from Japan for Luna to listen to. Thanks guys! We play them to her most of the day but Peter and I enjoy listening to them so much that I wonder if we play it for Luna or for our own enjoyment! The CDs are from Lullatone, a husband and wife duo, who’ve invented their own whimsical musical genre that they call “pajama pop“. Listen to some their songs below.

We really appreciate seeing indie creativity in the kids scene, so we’re happy to know that there are artists reinventing and re-imagining the lullaby genre. You should totally check them out. You can read an interview with Lullatone here or check out their website.


Arts / Kids — 1 comment — Posted by: Nerissa and Peter