I posted here and here about my friend Jenny’s cat Binky who was adopted by one of our readers, Laurel. Jenny just sent me an email Laurel sent her that included the first photos Jenny has received of Binky. Laurel’s email made my tear up because I am so relieved at the outcome and that I was able to help save a kitty. I thought I would include some of it because some readers were wondering how Binky was doing. It’s a very happy ending and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now I’ve just got to get Laurel to send me photos of Binky strategically placed around her loft so I can use it for a “cat on furniture” post. 🙂

“Just wanted to send you some photos that Brendan took of Binky in his new home. He’s very comfortable here now. He sleeps with us every night. Just before we head to bed, we turn on the electric blanket to warm up the bed, and he knows that means it’s almost bedtime, so he jumps on the bed and helps warm it up. He loves sleeping on the electric blanket, it keeps us all so warm. When we first get in bed, he crawls up by our shoulders and we both pet him. Then when it’s lights out and time to sleep, he crawls to the foot of the bed and sleeps there all night. Then at about 6:45, he starts to crawl around our shoulders, and walk across our pillows. Sometimes he flops on the pillow on top of my hair! He makes quite a noise until we get up to feed him. He’s the most vocal cat I’ve ever known. He chirps and chirps all day long. He spends most of the day lying on the rug in our office in between our desks. He goes back and forth between us, getting all the petting and attention he can! Such a big baby. He’s just a super kitty and we’re so lucky to have him!”

I’ve got to make this a quick post because I am scrambling to get my house in order now that the kitchen reno is winding down. It’s SO good to have furniture in place again, and for things to be CLEAN. I thought I’d start with some ideas for Christmas gifts for the guys in our lives. Because we all know how tough they are to shop for. Here are some ideas from 2Modern (click on photos for details).

I posted about Colleen Duffley’s work last year, and her friend Molly emailed today with a heads-up on Colleen’s latest project: “Colleen is actually starting a new studio (Studio b!) in early 2009 that will be more of a cultural/lifestyle venue; bringing in top photographers, designers, chefs, authors, musicians, and artists for classes and seminars, events, as well as gallery exhibitions. Studio b will be doing cooking classes, photography classes, for adults and kids… and really establish a venue for creativity. The first event that Studio b. is hosting is an online photo exhibiton of people’s first shot of the new year, which must be taken from a cell phone camera! We have been working hard to get the word out, so it will be fun to see how many we get and from what corner of the world!! The website is new, so we will be updating constantly.” Details are below – what a great idea!!

Neece Clark is an artist based out of Seattle who creates unique fine-art wall designs and original paintings for clients. Check out samples of her paintings here, murals here and great gift ideas in her shop. Below are some of my favourites (so pretty!!).

I’ve got kitchens on the brain these days, so I thought I’d share some lovely kitchens from Country Home.

Metropolitan Home’s Showtime house is an extraordinary display of many designers’ talents, and it was photographed by an equally talented photographer Adam Chinitz. Each space is totally dreamy and the photographs are stunning.

Beach Studios is one of my favourite locations websites. The homes are simple, organic, lived in and filled with lots of white. I gathered some photos that (I hope) we haven’t posted before that I love. Inspiration runs amok.