Body Shame? Not in Brazil!

This was shared by blogging buddy Jim who lives across the bay from Rio de Janeiro. It's a commercial currently running non-stop in their neck of the woods by and on TV network Globo, promoting the upcoming Carnaval. Here's a link to Jim's post.

Makes "Let's Go To The Ex" feel a little stodgy, no?!!

IDS 12- The Interior Design Show Trade Day Report- Part 1

Well, the unfortunate glitch of having our keys and our downloading cables locked in the office over the weekend has prevented us from getting this posted in a more timely manner, but since it is a re-cap of Trade Day, it's not like there is information here that would have been crucial to your enjoyment of Saturday and Sunday's general public days. So if you did venture to the show over the weekend, we hope you enjoyed it, and let us know what YOU though of it. Do you concur with our observations and standouts below? We thought Friday was a pretty successful day, and we must congratulate the organizers of the Interior Design Show for staging yet again a really top-notch event.

Over all impressions? The show continues to solidify itself as the premier residential design show in the city, and probably the country (although we haven't seen their IDS West in Vancouver). Where IIDEX/ NeoCon Canada's annual autumn show is more heavily oriented towards the commercial market (and, indeed, is partnering even more closely with the architectural community this coming year), IDS has over the years continued to focus more consistently on the residential market. And yet, the Azure speaker series at IDS regularly outpaces IIDEX's offerings, even in the arena of speakers with greater appeal to the commercial sector of the design industry. And it is because of those speakers that IDS is a "must attend" event for us.

We'll return to the speakers in our next post, but first some general observations about the exhibition portion of the show:

• Kitchens and baths probably comprised about 40% of the exhibitors. Some impressive stuff if you're in the market, but uniformly outside of our snack bracket.
• A good amount of condo furniture as well. It's very interesting to see that a lot of occasional seating is shrinking in scale to fit smaller apartments, while sofas, especially sectionals, continue to get bigger. The trend seems to be towards a living space whose boundaries are defined by an oversized sectional sofa acting as both seating and a space divider. Probably makes sense in open kitchen/ dining/ living environments, otherwise best suited to the Great Room in your Muskoka monster cottage.
• The rest was mostly a mix of outdoor furniture, rugs, fireplaces, home entertainment, lighting, and an assortment of this and that. Many of these exhibitors are well out of their league by being at this show, especially in a design sense.
• We noted that Natural Walnut seems to finally be on the wane although, to be sure, there was still plenty of it on view. Lighter and whiter woods are coming on stronger. Keep an eye out for unstained White Oak.

We didn't make it to the  How Do You Live "feature exhibit"- only so much you can squeeze into a day, especially when about 4 hours are devoted to the Trade Talks series. Did you see it? What did you think of the various vignettes presented?

image courtesy blogTO

Our standouts on the exhibition floor?

The Lissoni  Lounge, featuring outstanding products designed for various manufacturers by Italian master Piero Lissoni.

 Photo above courtesy ramblingrenovators.blogspot.com. More of their pictures of the Lissoni Lounge at the end of this post

Stonetile's Patricia Urquiola- designed collection of porcelain tiles for Mutina- these are a couple of years old, but they're stunning!

 Photo courtesy stonesource.com

Jardin de Ville- this new-to-Toronto Montreal- based furniture house has some great contemporary looks, designed for outdoor use, but so sexy they work equally well indoors. They also have a great line of bags made from their outdoor fabric.

The super-hot Biomega bicycles repped by Expedition Toys from Ottawa. We have a serious craving for this "Copenhagen" model.

Brent Comber's Shattered Spheres in the Offsite/Onsite space on the lower level. We've seen beautiful furniture from this BC-based artisan before, but these art pieces are gorgeous!

photo courtest brentcomber.com

 

Many of the low- slung, luxe pieces from Edmonton- based IZM. 

 ...and as always, a lot of the exhibitors in the ProtoType area featuring Canadian small crafters, including this great toy train set from Ayu Larasati

 

 Thom Fougere from Winnipeg with this table using Manitoba's native tyndall limestone

  Aloisi's lovely screen

And a nice pendant lamp from Dystil

The media this past weekend was full of coverage, so no doubt you already have a good idea of what the show was about even if you were unable to attend, but here's a bit of blogTO coverage from Friday evening.

In our next post we'll take a look at the three speakers' presentations we attended during Trade Day- stay tuned!

The Joy of Fashion...at any age

We have recently heard that our friends at "Advance Style" 

will soon be premiering their very own movie!

From the advance trailer, we can see that latest MAC contributor, 

as well as Cover girl and our "fav"

Iris Apfel

will figure prominently.

This got us thinking again of all the incredible "Advanced Fashionistas"out there

...and many more than one would think happen to be of the male persuasion!

As we mentioned in our earlier "Birthday Post" we are pleased that many of our past posts continue to have relevance today.

So please indulge us as we re-post our love of Fashion at any age.
"The Age of Fashion"

photo credits: MAC; Tommy Ton for GQ

friday frequencies...gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day!

Yuck! Our household has just emerged from 10 days of a shared head cold. What a relief to finally escape its clutches! One song came immediately to mind this week following our liberation. 

A great rendition of a great Johnny Nash song. It's been a while since we've heard from the Holly Cole Trio. We miss Holly's great voice, but equally so the impeccable pianist Aaron Davis and bassist David Piltch. Wonder what they're up to? Talent too good to waste!

Have yourselves a bright, bright sunshiny weekend!

Happy Birthday to Bobo Feed!!

This past Tuesday was our second birthday- woo-hoo!!!

And as with most mid-week birthdays, it was a low key affair. An excuse, though, to look back a little bit, to reflect on the past year of posts, and to make some plans for the future.

During this past year we started our "friday frequencies" feature. While it was by no means an original idea- in fact many of you regularly post music clips yourselves- it is mostly drawn from our own collection which probably makes it a bit unique. We hope you're enjoying our eclectic selections!

We were also pleased to come across a couple of articles leading up to birthday #2 dealing with topics we'd already covered. 

Toronto Standard featured a piece last month by none other than John Szabo entitled "Bring Your Own Wine Glasses? How the Glass Can Alter Your Enjoyment of Wine". The concept of the glass influencing one's perception of the wine is a dear one to our hearts after having conducted a simplistic test ourselves using new Riedel glasses. We reported on that experience in our post "Cheap Trick: Add $5 to the value of your pizza wine". Are we going to bring our glasses to dinner with us like Madonna did? No. But here at home, we'll always try to choose the right shape for the right wine.

We were also really pleased to read in blogTO in January of the amazing shop Tosho Knife Arts. We've yet to visit this Mirvish Village newcomer, but it is a "must see" for us after having had a fantastic experience with one of the shop's owners, Ivan Fonseca.

 photos courtesy blogTO

Ivan sharpened our knives for us, which we reported on in "The Knife: FYI Part 2" and it was a fantastic experience. In fact we're well overdue to take them in again, and at $5 for a hand sharpening, we really shouldn't be strangers to this place. The only problem might be resisting the urge to pick up another new blade every time we visit!

As for new features, we're planning on introducing Tuesday Travels in the near future, which as the name suggests will focus on places other than here. We certainly have gone down a few roads in our time, and we plan to share some details of those with you. But we also know that many of you have had your own excellent adventures and we hope (indeed we will be prodding and cajoling you) that you'll choose to share some of them with the rest of us. Stay tuned for details on how to participate.

You may have noticed that Google launched its Google+ service last year, and although it is by no means yet an active part of our social networking lives, we felt the need to be present. We sense that over time more and more of us will migrate there, especially those who feel that their personal privacy is compromised on Facebook (although Google's recently announced privacy policy effective this coming March may give some pause). So if any of you have signed up for Google+, we hope you'll add our page to your circles. You can find us here.

Lastly, it wouldn't be a Bobo Feed Public Service Announcement without our requisite call for new followers, would it?! If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to like our page on Facebook- just go to the "Find us on Facebook" box to the right, click on "bobofeed", then like us at the top of the landing page. One bonus of Facebook liking is that we often share links there that don't make it onto the main blog, like this recent one.

OR, if you have a Google account (gmail, etc) you can have Bobo Feed come straight to your inbox by clicking the "Join This Site" button to the right.

As always, we'd like to end by thanking each and every one of you who take the time to read our posts for your loyalty. It's hard to explain the need we feel to share the things we do, but it's really rewarding to know that we find an audience. We would love to hear from you if you have any ideas for subject matter that you think we should cover, and PLEASE comment on the posts- it really makes our day!

Enough about us!! There's a design show to be covered....stay tuned!!

friday frequencies....bonjour, madame

Who couldn't use a little taste of la Côte d'azur right about now? Especially if it comes with a case of Grand Marnier, whose commercials have popularized this cut, borrowed here from Youtube.

The piece is from Ursula 1000 and after Shazamming it we ended up buying the album! Here's the wiki page and here's the myspace page. If you like, it's easy to purchase on itunes.

We wish you all a toasty-warm cognac and orange-infused weekend!!

Breakfast with Bittie

We were only vaguely familiar with Mark Bittman before buying this book, but we picked it up on a friend's recommendation. Not a traditional cookbook, this is really a manifesto on how to save both the planet and your own health at the same time, and eat well while doing it. The premise can really be summed up in one catchy tagline- "vegan till 6:00PM". 

 A brief digression: After having owned the book for a while, we became better acquainted with Bittie via the strange and wonderful TV series "Spain- On the Road Again". If you haven't seen it, Google it and watch a few episodes. The series is a food- based road trip to every corner of one of our favourite countries, featuring the somewhat odd foursome of Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow, Spanish Actress Claudia Bassols, and of course, Mark Bittman. The group was split into twosomes for the travel clips, with Mario and Gwyneth, and Bittie and Claudia making small talk as they cruise around in huge Mercedes convertables with Willy Nelson playing in the background. Weird.

 Top: from claudiabassols.com

Below: from spainontheroadagain.com

And we have to say that we'd much rather have breakfast with Ms. Bassols than Mr. Bittman, who based on his generally crusty temperament is probably not at his best first thing in the morning. But alas it's his book, so what can you do?

Speaking of the book, while we have every intention of one day reading the first 100 pages we naturally skipped straight to the recipes. And amongst those we regularly prepare is this very straight forward granola which we have atop our blueberries, banana and yogurt every morning. As he says, anything goes. Follow the basic ratios, but improvise to your heart's content. (as long as you're not sneaking in overly processed foods, 'cause that would be pretty cheeky given his thesis!)

 Here are the basics. We add in whole flax seeds as well:

Mix it all together with the maple syrup and spread it out on a parchment- lined baking sheet.

We give it three 8 minute sessions, completely turning the whole lot between each go.

Let cool then store. Yummm!!

 Thanks, Bittie!! Have yourself a swell day!!

(photo above from thekitchn.com)

Snow Day! Adventures on Two Wheels...

As anyone here in Southern Ontario knows, last Friday brought our first real winter storm. It wasn't a bad one, as winter storms go, but it put a little wrench in Bee's bicycle wheels. We have a Bixi subscription (earlier Bixi post here) so we can use their sturdier bikes on days when it's a little messy underfoot, but Friday was just a little more than we bargained for. 

There is a "shared motivation" group out there on Facebook that we've joined called The Winter B-icicle Challenge (Facebook page). It provides our incentive to keep cycling on lousy days, so there was no way we were about to let a little wind and snow deter us. And so, off we went...

One of the "tools of the trade" is a sturdy brush to get rid of the frozen rain droplets that have coated the seat.

It was tough going. The snow was thick and wet, so staying in control was a challenge. And just when you had things in hand, the gale force winds pushed you back into the deep stuff. Splatter from passing cars was also an issue. The City had salted the streets but there had been no actual snow clearing. The bike lanes were mostly obstructed except for an 18 inch wide strip where the action of the traffic had melted the snow, so riding was done perilously close to the cars. We tried a couple of quiet side streets, but they were much worse.

We made it most of the way, but called it off at a Bixi docking station about 4 blocks before our intended destination. Oh, well...props for trying, we told ourself. Luckily, things were much better by the end of the day, and we managed to cycle back home without any trouble.

One thing we'll say about riding in the snow- the effort involved is gonna keep you nice and warm! It may have been  -10C outside, but underneath all our layers we were working up a sweat. We arrived at the office with red cheeks and a feeling of exhilaration- not a bad way to start a work day!

friday frequencies...a moody Mexicana

This week we're posting a couple of clips from a Mexican singer named Sara Valenzuela. We don't know a lot about her other than we like her sound. We probably first heard her on KCRW.com, a great on-line radio station from LA (see the Ear Candy listings to the right for the link), or perhaps a podcast series we have called Ritmo Latino, a great eclectic music program that has now ceased publishing (although it's probably still available on iTunes). Her sound is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega in that indie/ folkie kind of way.

First up is Lado Este ("East Side", we think):

Next is Esta Vez ("This Time" ?):

Here's a bio on her from Yahoo. And here's a link to her MySpace page. we hope you like.

Have yourselves a great weekend!

Sorry, We're Closed...

No, wait!! We're actually open!

Looking Up...

...at the offices of Barr, Robinovitch and Tchobanian.

This pretty red brickpile on Queen St. W. was used as the location for the offices of the legal firm featured in the old CBC drama Street Legal.

Balzac was Crazy!!

The café, that is! 

We recently paid a visit to The Distillery District on a Saturday afternoon. The weather was fine and tout le monde was out on the streets. And all of us visiting the Distillery, it seems, had the need for caffeine at about the same time.Yikes!!

Of course, though, it's always worth enduring a crowd at Balzac- the space is very cool and the coffee is fantastic!

*******

Balzac's Coffee Roastery

55 Mill St

Toronto, Ontario

(416) 207-1709

Seen...Kensington Commentary

 Art and graffiti on Baldwin Avenue

Remodelista Repost- The English Inn Re-imagined

Remodelista is a great source for scoping out the current craze of Nordic Rustic interior decor, and we really love this little inn that was recently featured. 

It's called The Crown, and it's located in Amersham near London, England. It provides the best of intimate, cozy old-English charm, but ditches the asthma- inducing mustiness of many such places, and instead infuses the interiors with some of that Scandinavian-inspired simplicity (and, in fact, there is also a great British tradition for simple modernism, and according to the article most of the pieces used are British). 

The modern pieces, so thoughtfully used, remain quite true to the inherent warmth and character of the structure, yet are clean and fresh feeling. The end result seems a more "opened-up" place, and what might be expected to be a stark contrast between old and new is in fact quite a seamless blend.

As if any of us needed another excuse for a London shopping expedition!

All photos courtesy Remodelista.com

Original post with additional photos is found here

A little Canadian "Geek" chic perhaps??

It would seem that our friends at G.Q have a thing for us "Canadians".

 Not only do they have Toronto native and Jak&Jil Blogger, Tommy Ton 

on their roster of incredible street photographers,

 seems they have a new "thing" for Port Perry, Ontario native and new reality T.V. hopeful,

 Brad Goreski

We do wish him good luck...though, in these

faster than you can say Kardashian who?? times, 

...maybe he should stick with his gig at G.Q