Manifest Your Good Juju!

We’re all about sharing our tips when it comes to interiors and antiques but we often receive comments from friends, family and clients that our spaces have a certain feel.. that they give off a contagious energy. So here it is Lemon Lovers.. We love the use of crystal and their magical healing properties. There are obviously tons of creative ways to take advantage of the healing power of crystals, however, one of our favourite ways to harness their positive energy is to display them within our home. Every crystals is unique and beautiful, so adding it to just about anywhere will elevate your space and immediately start dishing out the good juju.

“Crystals have a powerful effect on your personal energy, but they can also transform the energy of your home,” explains Energy Muse. “Placing crystals in the home raises the vibration and fills your space with positive energy.”

Every crystal brings its own energy and helps to align and manifest with its specific frequency, so understanding the energy of individual crystals can help you decided which energy you’d like to invite or fight off in your home.

Naturally, we wanted to help you make your space feel like the ultimate happy place - one that radiates the energy you wish to put out and receive every day. So to help us help you, we’ve decided to start carrying a curated collection of crystals for your home within Our Finds. To kick off this journey together - we’ve selected four crystals that carry meaningful and positive energy that we believe the entire world could use a bit of these days!

Now..here’s the skinny on how this crystal thing works; Find the crystal that resonates most with what you’re trying to manifest in your life, place it within your home and slowly begin to see the energy of your space align with positive vibrations.

If you’re like us.. you are probably sitting there thinking, just one crystal?! I may need them ALL! And the truth is, you can never have too many of them! If the healing properties of the crystal resonate with you - then it should absolutely go home with you!

Here’s a run down of the crystals we will be featuring on Our Finds:

Rose Quartz:

It’s known as the stone of love - it brings peace, quietness and joy, essential feelings to realization and inner peace. Rose quartz supports with expressing the true emotional state of individuals within its realm.

Citrine:

Vital energy that has an invigorating effect. Citrine creates the way for new cycles - promoting success in professional life and a fierce fighter against negative energy of any kind.

White Quartz:

Enhances intuition and supports self-confidence in decisions and actions. White Quartz is especially known for bringing luck in the search for new opportunities.

Green Quartz:

Strongly connected to health and nature - contributing to a balance between mind, heart and body. Green Quartz helps to ease anxiety and fear while bringing an energy of stillness and calm to those affected.

All gemstones are sourced from Brazil.

We hope you are as excited as we are to have access to the full scope of what it is that makes our homes beautiful and lived in spaces for all of us to share with our nearest and dearest.

Happy manifesting and happy shopping!

Xoxo,

Sanja & Nina

Tile House

This wall may very well be the best conversation starter in our home. These tiles or ‘Memory Blocks’ are the brilliant work of Sid Dickens. Sid is a well known Canadian artist that was originally trained as a sculptor. Studying within the prestiges walls of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Sid began experimenting with what would become recognized as his distinctive style. The ‘Memory Block’ was born in 1994 when a customer discovered his very first cast prototype - and the rest is a very beautiful history!

Did we mention that these tiles are riddled with a charming yearly tradition?! Each year Sid Dickens holds a Tile Party in his Vancouver studio - and you guessed it, it’s fabulous! What makes this party a ‘must-attend’ is the Limited Edition Memory Blocks that are available for purchase - usually tiles that never made it into an official release.

Like years prior, a set of 24 Limited Edition Memory Blocks have been designed by Sid and will be released in limited quantities online - you’ll just have to wait until October to get your hands on those! However, unlike years prior, Sid wants to expand the scope of the tile lovers he’s able to reach! In addition to those online exclusives, for the first time ever Sid has designed a series of four Limited Edition Memory Blocks that will only be available at in-store retailers as of TODAY!

Now if ALL of that wasn’t enough to make you fall in love with these one of a kind beauties - we want to share with you what makes those ‘wall starter’ conversations so good. The truth is, we started with one tile - a tile that meant something to use and represented a milestone for our family. We loved it, cherished it and walked by it daily - reminded of that ‘moment’ it marked for us. Life went on - our family continued to love hard, live with purpose and meaning.. and we continued to grow our tile collection. Another birthday, a wedding celebration, a ‘rebirth’ in purpose and focus.. and the more tiles we got. To us, these tiles are absolutely ‘Memory Blocks’

Our blocks will be different than your blocks - and that is perhaps where the beauty of these truly begins. Whether you’re able to snag an invite to Sid Dicken’s annual Tile Party is up to you.. but with a wall like this, you can have your own Tile Party every day when you walk by these good juju pieces!

Now..ready, set, go - happy shopping!!

Good things come in three!

It's about time we spent some time gushing about these three new art pieces we recently acquired! Not only because of how stunning they are but because they gave from such a lovely home. One of our recent clients underwent a major renovation of her home and happens to be is a big time art lover - which is one of the many reasons why we LOVE her! We probably spent days and days admiring her art collection and carefully selecting which piece of art should go where. A new space required a new set of displays for her most favourite pieces. 

During one of our 'art sorting' days we stumbled upon these three charming oil paintings. Our client expressed to us that she could never really find the perfect spot for them in her home and always felt that the painting's themselves belonged in someone else's home that had all the right pre-requisites. We tried and tried to convince her otherwise but following the completion of our project she surprised us with generously gifting all the three paintings to us! We were absolutely floored at the gesture. I mean, just stop and look at these beauties!! 

What we know about these paintings is that they are oil and done on canvas. All three are signed by the same artist but the signature itself is hard to make out. We've tried to come up with the first half and the last half.. and then searched away but absolutely little comes up to match the depiction of these pieces. The frames are wood and carved with the most meticulous details. Perhaps one of the first most eye-catching components of these paintings - and when we discovered these in a dark storage space, it was the frame itself that made us think.. let's take a closer look at these. Most often than not, when something is framed with care and intention - it is a indication that the piece inside of that frame has some sort of value. 

Now, it's no secret that we are art lovers and art collectors. However, it is clear that these still life paintings are unlike any of those 'collectable' pieces we own. We tend to prefer paintings of people, specifically portraits or scenic Dutch landscapes. Despite all of those points.. we couldn't love these pieces more! These three paintings have a wonderful richness of colours, incredible depth to the still life set up (every time we look at them, we discover some new detail!) and they also pull at our heartstrings with those beautifully painted floral touches. 

This wouldn't truly be one of our posts if we didn't share some interior design wisdom with you when it comes to these pieces of art. This is what we've been able to gather that you can apply to pieces in your home! These three pieces were painted with a darker colour palette - however, not that dark that you are unable to decipher what the painting depicts. Age and storage have added to that dark appearance and these pieces would probably benefit from a good restoration. However, if you're like us you'd rather first start with trying a quick and easy fix. Remember, that art needs lots of light - whether natural or artificial. We strategically positioned these three pieces across from a large window in our home - it provides plenty of natural light without necessarily obstructing it with 'direct' light. Remember to be mindful of how any type of 'light' interacts with paintings of various materials (oil, acrylic, pastel etc.) 

Finally, we know you are itching to ask if these three pieces have to be 'displayed' together since they are all by the same artist and in the same style! As you can image, our answer is absolutely not!! We actually played around with how to hang these in our home - one wall, a pair of paintings, another wall with a single one.. next to several other paintings or on a simple panelled white wall.. 

We chose to keep all three together at least for the very start of their 'wall career' since these beauties haven't really had a chance to shine in unison yet! Once we get the inspiration to switch it up - you may very well see these pieces broken up! Have fun digging up some old storage art..we'll be busy over here gushing over these new pieces and our wonderful clients!!

xox