Hello? Hello? Anybody still out there?
It’s been a nutty week at the magazine. We are knee-deep in production on the May issue and I’m afraid I’ve let my blogging duties slip by somewhat. I’m still here!
Did anyone catch the premiere of Sarah’s House this week? After all the discussion about it, would you believe that I missed it? But I swear I have good reason: I was out that night trying to recreate the series in my own life. That is to say we bought our own house! I’m very excited to be a homeowner, and to sink my teeth into a new design project. I’m lucky that I have the blog—it’s my job to be looking at beautiful spaces so I’ll never be short on inspiration. And I’ve found great inspiration from our readers too, who always amaze me with their clever design ideas.
Here’s one from the Stewarts, cottagers on St. Joseph Island:
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by Michelle on March 2, 2010 in News
Just a quick note before I dash out for the night.
I found the neatest little trick the other day while visiting Apartment Therapy. If you have a piece of wooden furniture that has a few scratches in it (who doesn’t at the cottage?), here’s a simple trick to help spruce it up in a jam. Try rubbing a piece of walnut on it. I know, seems very odd, but it’s apparently effective. I suspect it’s the oil in the nut that’s making the magic here, so I’d bet that other nuts would work well too. Try it, and let me know how it goes.
On the weekend, I took a few hours off of watching Olympics to noodle around in the vintage furniture and thrift shops on Queen Street East, here in Toronto. I’m looking for a 60s/70s-era telephone table for the front hall of my apartment, something that I can spend some time fixing up. (With spring looming, I’m feeling like I need a new project!) No luck on the table, but I did manage to find something else:
See it here
Yesterday I let you in on the fact that I’m a big fan of flip flops for the cottage (or for anywhere else, for that matter). Here’s a new product that doesn’t put them on your feet, but beneath them:
These handmade doormats are made of the scraps from a flip-flop factory in the Phillippines. I love how colourful they are; they remind me of the vibrant plastic tote bags you often see in Mexico. Plus, I suspect that they would be super easy to clean.
The large mat is $49.99, the small is $39.99. Both are available through Canadian company Zest Kitchen.
Our very first issue of 2010 just landed on my desk, hot off the press. You know what this means? Summer is coming! Every year at about this time we get a few letters from delightful readers who tell us that a new issue of Cottage Life in the mail is their first signal that it’s safe to start dreaming of spring. (And yet, a huge snowstorm just blew through town. But we persevere.)
The April issue is a doozy. Not only does it have the usual can’t-live-without-it info that you’ll be referring to for years to come (or so we think), it also features a cottage that I promise you’ll be drooling over. Iconic Canadian artist Charles Pachter invited us to his Lake Simcoe cottage/studio, a simple, two-storey building that began life as an ice house. The story contains some beautiful images, by award-winning photographer Derek Shapton, of the place as it looks today. But it wasn’t always so lovely—Pachter did a total, careful renovation, using his artist’s eye to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Check out a few before and afters:
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