Bloesem

bookhou in dowtown Toronto

... today I wish I was living back in Toronto again where my dear friend Arounna and her husband John from Bookhou just opened their new brick and mortar shop on Dundas street in downtown Toronto ... it's a space with where Arounna has a studio directly in the back as well and were you can go and see where they make their gorgeous things as well ...  currently they are also running a printing workshops limited to four people per class and starting soon ... more information right here ... Congratulations!!

... for those of you who won't be able to visit the new shop ... don't worry ... Bookhou has a fantastic website and webshop where you can find all their fantastic product and they ship internationally ... can you believe that Arounna makes all the fabric pieces herself, she screenprints them and sews them together ... John is the designer and creator behind the fabulous furniture range ... unbelievable who these busy bees can manage everything ... Superjob!

Jan reporting from Vancouver

   I'm very happy that my dear blog friend Jan from the great blog PoppyTalk is giving us a report from her hometown, Vancouver ... when we were living in Canada (Toronto) often people told us to visit Vancouver, supposedly one of the most beautiful cities of Northern America .. but unfortunately due to student budgets, Vancouver was still way to far from us from Toronto ... so hopefully one day we will be able to visit and of course this design guide will come with us ... click here for the report ... thanks Jan and I wish everybody a wonderful weekend!

* * * Vancouver report by Jan from PoppyTalk

* * *Jan's blog PoppyTalk
* * *PoppyTalk Handmade Market

Singapore

   A little bit later than expected, but here are just a few images from a terrific shop I visted in Singapore last weekend ... my dear friend Jenny and I started at , which was recommened to me by Charlene in her report about Singapore .. and yes CasualPoet definetly is a little treasure in Singapore, I saw some prints from Ashley G hanging there, books from Lines&Shapes and other amazing little artpieces ... Jenny wanted to show me another great shop on Ann Siang Road called BooksActually ...
... and I'm glad she did ... this truly is a very nice shop and full with, of course books, but also little art gadgets, special stationery, great magazines and I fell in love with some of the vintage toys, which unfortunately are not for sale ...

... but the beautiful Caderno notebooks from Serrote of course are and these wall pieces by Astrid Gabriella Kræpelien caught my attention .. appearantly Astrid from Sweden has held an exhibition in Singapore recently and these were part of the exhibtion ... I could only find her flickr site on the web ...

Laural and Jen reporting from Toronto

A new world report this week from a city I had the pleasure of living in myself for almost two years ... Toronto ... unfortunately I never met Laural and Jen, when I was living there ... but they are showing us exactly the kind of neighborhood which makes Toronto so special, funky and interesting ... Laural told me it was a tough choice what to feature as there are so many great places in Toronto, but they chose to do a little tour of a fun kind of up and coming neighborhood ... just click here to see ...

* * * Toronto report

* * *Laural and Jen's beautiful shop GoodEgg Industries
* * *Laural's blog Thimble
* * *Jen's blog Toronto Craft Alert

Christine reporting from Buenos Aires

This is such a happy way to start this new week with .. a super nice report from one of the most colorful and if I may believe passionate cities in the world, Buenos Aires,  written by a fantastic women, Christine Martinez,  who owns the very nice online shop, Lama selling South American goodies from artisits from that region ...
Please enjoy this report with some amazing images, makes you dream of going there...

* * * Buenos Aires report

* * *Christine's beautiful shop Lama
* * *Christine's blog

Kim reporting from Cape Town

Yes ... another report from somewhere in the world ... this time it's from stylist Kim Gray, Kim lives in Cape Town, South Africa and she shows us some of her favorite spots to shop and as a very experienced stylist she know where to find the nice shops and places...here you can also see some of Kim's great styling work and click here for the full report...enjoy and I wish you a wonderful weekend!

* * * Kim reporting from Cape Town
* * * Kim Gray

WonderMilk

Finally I'm going to show you some true and original artists from Kuala Lumpur ... a little while ago i visited a great cupcakes shop here in KL ...truly an amazing little treasure run by a group of 5 very talented graphic designers with a passion for cookies and cupcakes ...the name WonderMilk

At Wondermilk they don't only serve some amazing cupcakes (click here for some of their artisic cupcakes) but they also sell a whole range of handmade goods ... very original items for your wall, jewelry, t-shirts, handmade clothing,  journals and paper goodies ... it's just so much fun going there for a cup of coffee, eat one of their delicious cupcakes and go throuh all their goodies ...here you can find the contact details (not easy to find I must admit, a taxi would be a very wise idea)

... and i bought this great set of five journals, each illustrated by a member of the group  and this lovely fish necklace ... click here to see many more images I took while I was visiting WonderMilk in Kuala Lumpur.

Jessica reporting from Barcelona

This week Jessica is showing us her city and also my favorite city in Europe! Barcelona has a special place in my hart ... as long as I can remember we spent our holidays in Northern Spain, in a very small village called Llagostera, very near to the even so interesting city Girona, but my parents never really wanted to go to a big and warm city like Barcelona with small children ...they rather took us to the beautiful beaches and the quite places, but when I got older and I spend my vacation together with Rik in Llagostera, we always spent a couple of days together walking the gorgeous little streets of Barcelona. It's such a hip, trendy, nostalgic and beautiful city with s many amazing neighborhoods and the food is just delicious...ok i could go on and on, but please let me give the word to Jessica, a German Brasilian who lives in Barcelona for a long time already and runs a SUPER cool cafe together with her husband in Barcelona, VonBlum, so enjoy this report form an insider!

* * * click here to read the full report
* * * please meet Jessica
* * * VonBlum

Charlene reporting from Singapore

When seeing Charlene Teo's work one day (and of course showed it on Bloesem) I thought she could be the perfect person to write a little report for us about Singapore, her hometown, so I invited her and luckily for us she accepted...so here is a great write-up about Singapore and some secret places you must not miss when visiting this unique city .... I know I will be visiting again real soon, because I definitely missed the nice spots the first time I was there...thanks so much Charlene and I wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope to see you back next week when I will be posting the whole week about interior design and interior design only!

* * * click here to read the full report
* * * please meet Charlene Teo

Anisa reporting from Portland, Oregon

Anisa and I 'e-met' (i like this, to me, new word very much) via her wonderful shop Makhool Loves You...where you can always find one of kind, different pieces, when I aksed her to join us for the Bloesem World Tour she responded very enthousiastc, so I'm very happy to show your her great information about her her favorite spot in Portland: the Clinton neighborhood...enjoy!

My favorite neighborhood in Portland is the Clinton neighborhood in south east.  It's off the beaten path,  quaint, charming and tucked away on a bike path, in a beautiful residential neighborhood.  Most of the home owners in and around Clinton have restored their homes to the original character of  Craftsman or Victorian style.  The businesses that would bring you out of your way into this neighborhood are mostly amazing restaurants, dotted with a few vintage boutiques, and one great spa. **For breakfast you'll want to head to Broder, sorry no website, for Scandinavian fare. Portlanders and Scandinavians share similar food tastes, and you can get wild berries, wild mushrooms, wild salmon, and world famous Stumptown coffee all right here. It's very hygge. **A few blocks down from Broders you'll find Zenana Spa, they cater to new mothers, but I would like to point out that I had the best pedicure of my whole life here, so don't miss out. **Before you head to your appointment at Zenana stop into The Press Club, they carry a wide range of design magazines, pick up a few up to take to the spa.  If you are hungry, you're in luck because they are a crêperie, a wine bar, and a coffee shop. **After your spa appointment head over to Division Street and grab a table at the kitschy and adorable Pix Patisserie. Choose something decadent like "The Royale With Cheese", it's a chocolate mouse praline with a slice of creamy French Brillat Savarin.  Or you could try the Amélie, winner of the Patis France Chocolate Competition. **After you've had your dessert you might want some dinner, I would reccomend Pok Pok, Thai street food.  Or if your in the mood for something a bit fancier try Lauro Kitchen, for Mediterranean-inspired fare.  {Thank you Anisa}

* * * Makhool Loves You
* * * Anisa's blog