styleNorth

We don’t officially move until January 23 but Mike and I got a head-start yesterday and installed a couple of recent purchases at the new apartment. We’ve had the amazing chrome table base for a few years but just last week we scored the spectacular marble top on Craigslist for $200. The vivid flatweave rugs were originally joined along the long side to make more of a square (St. Lawrence Market, $100) but we’ve elected to break them up and use them as runners in the galley kitchen.

If we stick with the scheme we’ll likely make a blue and white roman blind to dress up the window, which looks across our insanely large balcony into the Rosedale ravine.

It’s weird to have the kitchen set up while the adjoining rooms are a riot of boxes — the kitchen will be our oasis of promise amid the chaos of the move, inspiring us to make the rest of the place just as exciting. Here’s hoping.

Welcome to 2010! And what better way to start a new year than to pack all our worldly possessions into boxes and cart them across the city to a brand new address; Mike and I are ushering in the lunar Year of the Tiger by moving house, which means there will be lots of decorating in our future.

We’re already hard at it actually, having made a couple of big-impact purchases that I’m dying to unveil.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Craigslist this week as we clear out the garage of purchases we never should have made in the first place. We sold a rug yesterday that we bought on CL for our entryway but never, ever used. Fortunately, there haven’t been too many such missteps along the way. I’ve also found a few things online that will be showing up on styleNorth in the weeks ahead.

So Happy New Year to one and all; may your spaces evolve with verve and panache! At least that’s what we’re shooting for.

Apparently, not everybody loves Fornasetti as much as I do. When I proposed this piece to Chris, he made a face and said, “Ew, I don’t care for Fornasetti at all.” Love him or not, Pierro Fornasetti (1913-1988) was the most prolific designer of the 20th century; he is to Italian design what Andy Warhol is to American art — a talented illustrator, a master of appropriation, tireless and relentlessly inventive. Like Warhol, Fornasetti was fascinated by production, fame, culture and appearances. He created a strong visual language (or brand identity) that expanded and mutated over several decades.

“Tema e Variazioni” is Fornasetti’s most iconic body of work. He appropriated an image of a 19th century courtesan/opera singer (left) and drew her face so that it appeared to be a mechanically reproduced print composed of tiny black dots (when in fact it was initially a genuine drawing!). Fornasetti used the image as a departure point for this series, situating the woman’s face in an array of poses, distortions, costumes and surrealist landscapes. There are over 300 images in the series that have appeared on an array of consumer goods including plates, wallpaper and fabric amongst others.

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One of my fondest Christmas memories is my family’s annual trip downtown to see the seasonal window displays at Toronto’s dueling department stores, Eaton’s and Simpsons. The window unveiling was a newsworthy event in 1960s Toronto and crowds gathered on the snowy streets to see the curtains pulled back to reveal merry, mechanized scenes of the North Pole come magically to life. I don’t know exactly when the custom fell out of favour but during the 1980s or ’90s, as the retail landscape changed, those expensive moving displays were put out to pasture in favour of cheaper, static vignettes pitching the season’s must-have toys and gifts.

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I realize this is something none of us is going to try at home but what an inspiration! I spotted this poinsettia Christmas tree in the lobby of my dentist’s office last week — isn’t it amazing? If red and green are the colours of Christmas then this tree has the season all sewn up.

Poinsettias are native to Mexico but they grow wild all over Central and South America. In Brazil, I saw poinsettia trees 40-feet tall!

Some folks are suspicious of the potted plants believing them to be poisonous, especially to pets, but my research suggests there’s actually nothing toxic about poinsettias.

For me, poinsettias are as integral to the season as a bona fide Christmas tree. For instructions on the proper care and feeding of your poinsettia I turned up this handy little link from the University of Illinois. Whatever you’re celebrating this season, I wish you a wonderful holiday with your family and friends and a healthy, prosperous New Year!