Sarah Walker The Curated House, Author at The Curated House

Make Something Mondays | Thanksgiving Table Décor | Part 1

I love the Harvest season and all it brings. The cool, crisp air seems to heighten my senses to the deepening colours and this season’s magical, temporal light. I am easily won over by the heartier flavours of all the root vegetables and roasted goodness coming from the oven, making up for the shorter days and signs of winter’s approach. For now, nature is showing off in all her splendour, inviting us to slow down and stand in awe of the beauty of this season’s transitional state.

One of our favourite things about this season is our annual Thanksgiving gathering. We love our more impromptu gatherings that happen so often with friends descending spontaneously to connect over a meal. We decide together what we should make with the ingredients we’ve got in the fridge and the making of the meal is as much of an event as the eating of it. But every once in awhile, it’s lovely to plan things out more thoughtfully, with careful attention to the details that make it feel like a celebration. It doesn’t have to be serious to be thoughtful. Just an intentional expression of gratitude through the mediums of food and friendship. Thanksgiving is a beautiful opportunity to do just that.

This year I felt like playing with mini pie pumpkins for a potentially cliché but hopefully charming addition to the table decor. Here were my weapons of choice:

Four mini pie pumpkins
A cordless drill with 3 different sizes of bits {all quite small}
A couple of spoons for scooping out the guts of my pumpkins {I saved the seeds and roasted them with sea salt, of course!}
A small paring knife to cut my openings

I chose to open the mini pie pumpkins from the bottom as I didn’t want the cut out to interfere with the patterns I was hoping to create.

Using the drill {and inspired by Moroccan tin lanterns}, I set about trying to create delicate yet simple patterns that would allow the light to come through and create interesting patterns of candlelight on the table. This was my attempt at a slightly fresh take on pumpkin carving!

PHOTO BY GABRIELLA HANSEN

What I learned was that my mini pumpkins were in fact too mini for the flame. Great idea, wrong scale! Within a few minutes, the less-than-festive odour of burning pumpkin began to fill the dining room. Yikes! In our scramble to keep them from totally combusting, I didn’t manage to get any pics to show you the charming and patterned glow they cast on the table. Plan B. Candles beside the minis instead of inside them. This is what experimentation is for, right? Now we know, 3″ to 4″ pumpkins are too small, but I stand behind the idea as one that would totally work on a slightly larger scale!

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN {CAPTURED JUST BEFORE THE BURNING STARTED!}

I’m dying to see a Moroccan-tin-lantern-inspired pumpkin all lit up {and not burning}. Maybe one of my lovely friends south of the border will make these for your upcoming American Thanksgiving celebration in a couple of weeks? If you do, please take pics! I’d love to see them.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 5th, 2012|0 Comments

Kravet + The Designer’s Art of Discovery

Today being Friday and sunny and nearly the weekend, it feels only fitting to share something a little extra special. I had the sincere privelege of working with the very talented Phil Lindsay on two delightful videos this summer, and I’m so happy to share the second one with you today. This video features a visit to the wonderful Kravet showroom in Toronto, sourcing fabrics, wall coverings, rugs and furnishings in search of inspiration.

Kravet + The Designer’s Art of Discovery from The Curated House on Vimeo.

Kravet truly is my favourite source for fine fabrics and wall coverings, and I’m sure this sneak peek offers you insights as to why!

I must express my most sincere gratitude to Phil Lindsay who went above and beyond for this little video, risking life and limb walking backwards for some of these shots {you can see me awkwardly trying to direct him so he doesn’t fall down stairs at one point!}. He finished this video in the midst of a move and a ton of traveling and is truly the loveliest. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Phil!

I’d also like to thank Balzac’s for welcoming us into their warm and visually inspired space, and Anthropologie for allowing us to feature their clothing. You can find the skirt in the latest colour way here and the blazer here.

Lastly, my sincerest thanks to Val and the lovely team at Kravet for your consistently warm and gracious hospitality. It is such a pleasure to work with people who appreciate that the process of making things beautiful can and should be beautiful in and of itself. Kravet works directly with the design trade only, so if you saw something you loved, please reach out to your favourite interior designer and have them look into it for you!

Happy Friday, friends! Wishing you a weekend filled with inspiration and adventure.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 2nd, 2012|0 Comments

Tata Harper | Morning Ritual Part 3 | Replenishing Nutrient Complex {aka The Icing On The Cake}

Good morning, lovely friends! It is Day 3 of Hurricane Sandy making her presence known along the east coast, and I have to say that those of us living in the Toronto area are blessed to be nothing more than a bit windblown and wet. One of my nearest and dearest lives in Brooklyn. Sandy’s effects have been far more significant there, causing many people an enormous amount of stress with her serious interruption of “life as usual.” My thoughts and prayers are with all of you who are still struggling to put the pieces together following Sandy’s visit. Now is truly the best time for real community to show up and show off. Praying that’s what you experience as you recover.

I’m pretty sure all of us would like a vacation at this point. Just a quick visit to an open field of flowers would do for me {the kind movie dream sequences are made of}. You know. Slow motion, walking through the fields, glowing and inhaling deeply as you drink in the scent of their glorious bouquet. Something like this.

{That is the actual Tata Harper walking through her actual field of organic flowers. So inspiring! I love that the dream sequence is in fact very real in her life. Sigh. Such admiration!}

I have to tell you that the final step in my morning routine really does feel like I’ve just walked through this very field of flowers while chatting with Tata about the more beautiful things in life. The natural fragrance of this beautiful blend of antioxidants and vitamins for the skin is intoxicating, and I always get compliments on my “perfume” in the morning after I’ve used it. No artificial fragrance here, ladies. Just the beauty of nature showing off. What is it I’m talking about? This simple little roll-on of Tata Harper’s Replenishing Nutrient Complex.

This deceptively small and simple product is truly the icing on the cake of my morning routine. It gives me a gorgeous, dewy finish that is not greasy. My skin gratefully drinks in the nutrients it provides and responds with a brightness, softness and glow that is the best “thank you” it could possibly offer me. For my combination skin, I find it best to apply it just to the apples of my cheeks, my neck and my décolleté {my drier areas}, but for those of you with dry skin who are dreading the thought of winter approaching, this will become your go-to remedy for dehydrated, tired looking skin. Apply it all over your face, neck and décolleté for a nourishing finish to your morning routine.

The light, easily-absorbed concentrate acts as your daily multivitamin for your skin, providing antioxidants, nutrients, fatty acids, vitamins, lipids, amino acids and omegas that are all essential for slowing the aging process, brightening, softening and rejuvenating the skin. Translation? Youthful glow in a purse-sized roll-on. And not the synthetic variety. Just good, old fashioned “you’ve got great skin!” glow. The best.

Check out the list of nourishing, active ingredients.

I am so happy to be headed into winter armed with this amazing product in my arsenal – thank you, Tata! No amount of crazy weather will worry me now. Not when it comes to my skin, at least. Now, if only there was a roll-on that we could use to remedy the chaos that many of our loved ones are still sorting through. There isn’t. That’s just about helping hands and loving hearts.

Wishing you a Thursday surrounded by real community, where friends and neighbours helping each other out is just the normal way of doing life. And to my dearest in Brooklyn, I wish I was there with you! My heart and prayers are with you for sure.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 1st, 2012|0 Comments