Hey friends! Oh man, I know. I’ve been away for a bit and haven’t been posting as often. It’s not because I don’t want to (hellz no) – life just got a wee crazy in the last couple weeks and I decided I need to slow down and focus on other things before I have a meltdown. You know how it is.

Today I’m super excited to tell you that last week our Floral Art project inspired by Cardboardcities got featured in Poppytalk. Holla! As you may already know, Floral Art is a mini collaborative series created by Vancouver Wedding Planners: All & Sundry, Vancouver Wedding Photographer: Tomasz Wagner, and myself. We are so very pleased with the results! And right here, right now, we’re going to give you the “behind the scenes” of post number 1 and 2.

That’s Amy holding the mighty protea, used on our previous Floral Art post.

My place was FULL of flowers! It made the whole space feel so alive. Best thing about doing this kind of project: the leftovers are so beautiful!

And of course, there’s always time for a little impromptu photo shoot, Kinfolk style.

Amy and I getting down and flowery! All while Tomasz was busy snapping away, documenting the whole process (note: half of these images were taken with analog film! How awesome is that?).

Head over to Poppytalk to see more photos of Floral Art: Part 2.

CREDITS
Art Direction: The Artful Desperado and All & Sundry
Floral arrangements: Vancouver Wedding planners All & Sundry
Images: Vancouver Wedding Photographer Tomasz Wagner
Art: Cardboardcities

Today I found the art of Lindsay Bottos – a 20 year old Maryland-based artist that uses embroidery (along with other mediums) to narrate her life experiences.

Looking at her series titled I Don’t Really Miss You, made me think that the anatomy of certain events is always the same; breakups, broken friendships, even death – we all have to go through a healing process that sends our brain into a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. We feel sadness, joy, sorrow, anger – sometimes one at a time, sometimes all at once.

The trick is to find that light that will take us back to our happy place. It isn’t easy, and it doesn’t matter how much Oprah we read or how many Eat Pray Love trips we plan – at the end of the day WE have the power to steer our hearts in a new, more positive direction. Focus on making art, taking cooking classes, reconnecting with old friends, take tons of hot baths – whatever floats your boat. Just do it.

Every little step will take you closer to happiness. Just make sure you take each and every single step with confidence. Some days you may not be able to move, but you should try again the next day…and the next, and the next. If you keep trying, one day Without even knowing it, you’ll be back on your feet – running like you used to. Again, make sure every step – as tiny as it is – is full of confidence.

As the old chinese proverb says: “It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”

We are all together in this friends. We are not alone. We will heal. And we’ll move on. The pain we may experience will be nothing but a memory.

ART: Lidnsay Bottos

Friends. I don’t know if you are already experiencing some amazing Spring weather, but if you are, I am so very jealous of you. Over here we were left with Spring blue balls after a few beautiful days of sunshine (and double digit temperatures!) and now we are back to cold cold weather. I was actually debating wether or not I should take the Christmas ornaments out again – ok I’m totally being dramatic, but you get the point.

While Spring tries to find Canada using iOS6 maps (that’s gonna take a while) – why don’t we cook something warm, yet Spring-y for lunch? Yes? Ok. Follow me.

Warm Apple and Sage Salad

Ya’lls need:

1 Fuji or Pink Lady apple (get a juicy one from the farmers market!)
Lots of Arugula
1/2 cup of roasted walnuts (or any other nut you have around)
About 3 leaves of fresh Sage
Sea salt
Freshly cracked pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 a lemon

Chop the sage, cut the apple in wedges, toss both of them in a pan with the butter and squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Let is simmer for a bit on low heat until the apples are a bit soft (not mushy).

Wash your Arugula, pat it dry and put it in a bowl. Pour the hot apples and the butter and lemon mix all over it (that’s your vinaigrette! Yum). Top it up with walnuts, salt and pepper. Done. Now go get your face all over that shiz. You know you want to. Oh, and if you want to get all fancy pants, I’d definitely add some blue cheese. *drool*

Got any West Coast Spring recipes you want to share? (by that I mean “got any shit to keep us warm ’til Summer?”). If so, holla!

Photos by Mark Yammine

The art of repetition. There’s something mystical about it. Like combing through a Japanese sand garden – each piece pinned in Gravitational Radius by David Adey creates a zen-like pattern.

It kinda reminds me of those mandala drawings – except this one is made out of limbs in pastel tones. How freaking perfect?!

IMAGES: David Adey

Mixed media genius and personal favorite, Ashkan Honarvar has done it again; the perfect combination of collage and fashion in one stunning collaboration for Dash Magazine. My eyes drool as I type this post. Seriously. I mean, beautiful things are meant to happen when you mix the art of Ashkan Honarvar with the lens of photographer Alex Wessely. It’s like mixing champagne and orange juice on a Sunday morning. Pure bliss!

IMAGES VIA: Ashkan Honarvar on Behance

CREDITS
Collages:Ashkan Honarvar
Photographer: Alex Wessely
Styling : Patrik Guggenberger
Hair & Make up: Sarah Niklasson
Model: Frida / Nouveau Models

How amazing? And just in time for Spring! This portrait of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is made out of 2,000 dyed carnations by Hong Yi. I think carnations are seriously the underdog of flowers – no one really likes them (or wants them), but hey, when you use them in such artful way, they become the star of the show!

Have you tried dyeing carnations? I haven’t done it since I was in elementary school, but I think I might give it a go and make a little installation of my own at home!

IMAGES: Hong Yi, Via My Modern Met

Friends! I am so excited to be able to finally show you the first post of this beautiful series titled ‘Floral Art’ – created in conjunction with the amazing gals of All & Sundry and photographed by the mighty Tomasz Wagner. Seriously, couldn’t dream of better people for this project. They all are as beautiful as they are talented!

For this series, we selected a few pieces of art as inspiration to create a unique floral arrangement for you to enjoy. All arrangements can be recreated at home and we totally went for a budget-friendly selection of flowers, so we got you covered.

Today’s debut is inspired by the art of Ceren Kilic. Get ready to infuse your space with some serious natural beauty!

FLORAL ART FEATURING CEREN KILIC

I am a huge fan of Ceren Kilic’s work. Her fashion-influenced illustrations are right up my alley; full of colour, patterns, and mixed media. I’ll let the pros of All & Sundry tell you everything about the florals:

This arrangement is composed of light pink and white florals of various angular and contained shapes to parallel the crispness of the Ceren Kilic piece.

The pink protea in particular, though mostly obscured, acts as a figurehead to draw the viewer’s eye towards the top centre of the arrangement before the view gives way to the pink peony and ranunculus spilling on either side. The subtle white carnations, white tulip, Easter lilies, and dusty miller evoke Kilic’s clouds and mountains while providing an overall structure and context for the container (a long ceramic black vase) that ultimately sends the arrangement upwards.

Flowers used in this arrangement: Pink protea, pink ranunculus, pink tulip, pink peony, pink-tinged Easter lilies, white tulip, white carnations, and dusty miller.

We also used a dark wool cloth as a background to mimic the textile feeling of the dress in Kilic’s piece.

This arrangement would look great at a dinner party with subtle lighting – add a few candles and sleek black plates to serve your food and, shazam! You got yourself a pinterest-worthy ambience.

So, did we inspire you to visit the flower shop this weekend? Do it! It’ll make such a huge difference in your space. After shooting this post (which by the way, isn’t Tomasz’ photography amazing?) we all went home with a nice bunch of fresh flowers, and let me tell ya, it feels like sunshine in here.

Hope you loved our first post of this series as much as we do. Keep an eye out for our next Floral Art post!

CREDITS:
Art Direction: The Artful Desperado and All & Sundry
Floral arrangements: All & Sundry
Photography: Tomasz Wagner
Art: Ceren Kilic

We take a different approach to our Jungle Fever with this stunning photos of Beautiful Decay by Billy Kidd. I like to think of them as the dark side of the jungle – the inevitable natural process of life fading away. Even the most beautiful beings cannot escape from this fate. Billy Kidd takes this, sometimes macabre process, and turns it into a silently-gorgeous series of photographs that are far from being disturbing – rather, these lovely flowers seems to be still in time.

A beautiful way to document life, yes?

IMAGES: Billy Kidd

Continuing with the Jungle Fever theme for this week – we’ll explore the art of Joseph Sinness, a super talented Milwaukee-based artist that has created a series of still life drawings (yes, these are drawings, how amazing!?) inspired by nature and everyday objects. I love the minimal look in each one of them, a different approach compared to yesterday’s post.

Minimal or lavish, nature is – and will be – a recurring theme for many artists in all sorts of fields. It’s so interesting to see how this common thread has evolved from Baroque depictions of still life to a mix of flora and pop culture. Are you feeling the Jungle Fever already? ‘Cause I am!

IMAGES: Joseph Sinness

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