First random piece of business today is the Urban Barn chairity competition I am a part of. Thursday night I got to see my chair in person and I am so happy with how it turned out (photo above). I love it. The chair is SO comfortable and the grey fabric I chose is heavenly (and perfect for pet owners!). Today is the last day to vote, and then from Monday until the 18th it will be up for auction. (The like buttons under each chair will turn to a bid button. People will then be redirected to eBay where they will place their bids.) Proceeds go to charity, and I chose a local cat rescue organization that helped me recently with a stray cat I rescued. They are overflowing with cats (200 last I heard) and are desperate for funding. So please vote today, and bid if you’d like to take my chair home and help a wonderful organization. I am tempted to bid but I have zero space for another piece of furniture in my house. 🙁 
At the in-store event Thursday night I took a few photos around the shop of items that caught my eye: 

And of course, I had to bring some goodies home with me:

Yesterday I met a new blog advertiser at his shop, Elevenfiftyfour. I am SO STOKED about this shop. James carries some awesome brands like Cherner (no repros here my friends…I think this was my first test drive on a real Cherner chair), Artifort, Artemide and one of my favourites, Normann Copenhagen. I fell in love with so many pieces…including everything in the following photos:

Afterwards I stopped in at an antique shop down the road and picked up this cool vintage Laurids Lønborg iron and orange enamel dish made in Denmark for $25.

Rachel Duister, founder of the shop Fashionology where she sells awesome jewelry she designed, was recently interviewed for I Love Fashion News in The Netherlands regarding her new workspace. She kindly refered to desire to inspire as her main source for inspiration. 🙂 She did a wonderful job – what a fantastic space to get to work in every day! Thanks Rachel!

Because I really can’t get enough of Phillip Erickson‘s photography, I give you some more of his eye candy. Enjoy. 🙂

P.S. Urban Barn‘s chairity event is going on this evening down in their Byward Market location featuring ME of all people. Details are HERE and you can still vote for my chair HERE. Hope to see some of you locals there! (FYI: They’ve got some great stuff in stock right now. I bought a few things when I was there designing my chair).

A couple of days ago I received a pets on furniture submission from a photographer based in Salt Lake City named Philllip K Erickson. The photos he sent are awesome, and you can check them out in one of Monday’s pet posts, but in the meantime I thought I’d share some of his absolutely fantastic interior photography. He claims “It’s simple. I hold a box up to my eye and decide what to leave in, what to leave out.” If only it were that simple. Well, here is one of the homes he has shot that I absolutely adore. It’s mid-century, modern, slightly kitschy…perfect combination if you ask me.

Paul Kariouk is a well-known architect here in Ottawa and I figured it was about time I blog his work (plus, a reader emailed regarding his work – check it out after the jump). His creativity is inspiring and the homes he has designed are stunning works of art. 

The kitchen below, located in the Glebe home of Carol Sutherland-Brown & Ted Willis, was submitted to us by their daughter Marisa. She says her parent’s met Paul at a party and after getting him on board to come up with designs for their awkwardly closed off kitchen, they now have the perfect open-plan kitchen that is ideal for entertaining and showing off Ted’s artwork.