Nesting the Journal

summer farmers market

Hi All. Ok, so it has been a month and a half since I last posted. Wowa. My apologies. May/June has been a hectic month of crazy business at aloe and a 6 month old who likes to have short lil cat naps! Needless to say my photos need organizing and my blog work has been put to the wayside! But I am back and hope to be posting again at least once a week.

Here is some eye candy for the farmers market lovers out there. Some of these were taken at the bellingham farmers market (which by the way rocks!). Vendors that are worth the drive: Breadfarm, Backyard Bees, Rabbit Field Farms, Red Barn Lavender, Samish Bay Cheese and Skagit Angus Beef to name a few.

Happy first day of real SUMMER!

ids west 2010

A little late of a review... but still relevant in the intimate design world of vancouver. Our top faves from this years show: 

Young Designers West

Showcasing future masters- up and coming designers to watch out for. From industrial design, to ubc architecture grad students, to urban planners; this installation demonstrated boldness and pride in design's capacity to better our world. Lyrical and humanitarian in nature we were delighted to see what's around the corner from these young creative thinkers.

Contexture Design

The duo that make up this ever evolving design team is always ingenious. Their installation focused on getting creative with cork. Red vs White is a hand sculpted chess set inside cased wine. Custom wine crates are joined to form the chessboard battlefield.

Solus

We are always partial to our good friends at solus, maybe because without them our landscape designs wouldn't have that extra refined goodness that smooth concrete brings to a soace. We are super excited about their new launch of euro made planters that they will be stocking in an array of colors and styles. In addition these sleek loungers in lime green felt no less.

Brent Comber

Pretty much if my husband could be anyone else in this city it would be Brent. To say he idiolizes the guy is an understatement. Brent's objects are ever evolving organic spheres of westcoast cedar goodness. We had the good pleasure of working with him on a commissioned piece for a client this past summer, and are keen to get more clients on board with these custom features for their outdoor spaces.

Inform Interiors

A prominent center stage installation of iconoclastic timeless pieces. The Bendsten's, aside from making gastown the ever so cool design hub that it is, never fail to represent the idea of modern as eterna. This year I have been super inspired by the idea of incorporating neon into our grey backdrops. Inform highlighted and connected its pieces with simple tape and color. Ingenious.

Kermodi

The installation of a floating glass garden against a simple white wall makes Kermodi's living art pop. The mixed use of small rocks, organic soil and succulents makes it look so simple and easy to maintain house plants. Even us green thumbs find this a challenge! Maybe simplicity at home can be found in living things.

Mth Woodworks

The use of gloss white and walnut couldn't get me more stolked. If I had to pick one piece from the show that I would love to have won, it would have been this side table by Mth. A super interesting process of blending corrianne and wood to a refined smooth top surface. Watch out for these guys, they may just be the next big thing in our city.

 

go slow

Slow Food is an international organization with local chapters worldwide, each of which has developed its own flavor. This movement has been growing organically and is reflected everywhere from restaurants, to schools to farms. It is all about taking your time to select, cook, serve, taste and enjoy the best ingredients that our land has to offer. Now, who doesn’t need to be reminded to slow down and enjoy a bit more often.

This year we took part in the Slow Food Summer Cycle Tour in Agassi, put on by Slow Food Vancouver. It was a 25km self guided tour via bike, in the heart of the Fraser Valley which showcased local farms and why sustainable farming is so important. We got to meet the farms, listen to local musicians and sample products all along the way. Aka- biked super slowly (a snails pace which suited a 7 month pregnant gal just fine) and ate at every stop (which also suited a 7 month pregnant belly just fine)! The day was filled with great friends, minimal cars, beautiful farmland and a good ol’ fashion slow time fun.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Our fave stops:

 

Blackberry Lane B&B- A sweet homestead where we got yummy bumbleberry pies to take home.

 

Limbert Mountain Farms- A specialty food shop, organic garden, chicken coops, herb & garlic sales where we ate fresh corn on the cob with garlic scape butter and sipped ice cold lavender lemonade.

 

Farm House Natural Cheeses- A dairy farm specializing in cheese production where we nibbled on a cheese plate sampler.

 

Canadian Hazelnut- A hazelnut orchard where we sat in the shade and ate homemade ice cream.

 

Last stop- a local pub for a cold one- where we put our feet up and enjoyed the last little bit of sun and fresh country air.

 

i heart farmers markets

One of my favourite bits of summer are the abundant farmers markets available to us. Each market has its own style that nurtures a sense of community for its vendors and customers. We always try to hit these up, in any town we are in. The below images are a selection from various markets: florence, santa monica, freemont, saltspring, pocket market, ubc farms and trout lake. Who knew grocery shopping could be so fun!

Here are my top 5 reasons why you too should love farmers markets:

1. FRESHNESS- the foods here are picked at the peak of ripeness which means a peach taste like a peach; and your sure to find vibrant juicy selections.
2. HEALTH- because the majority of the food is grown organic or with conventional farming methods it means the food you ingest is pesticide free.
3. MIX N MATCH- the variety of choice is endless. Striped green tomatoes, purple peacock beans, black raspberries and mixed mustard greens. Heirloom becomes a common word.
4. SUSTAINABLE- often markets are in residential nieghbourhoods which means walking or biking is the mainstay which reduces excess carbon emissions. Also vendors encourage you to bring your own bags, which helps reduce waste in landfills.
5. COMMUNITY- when you shop local you dollars stay in the community and help go direct to the farmers, who need it most. 

street party

Thanks to some happinen peops at city hall, the community that makes up Vancouver gets to celebrate an annual party on the streets once again. Better known as Car Free Day this event takes place all over town- Kits, Main St, The West End, The Drive along with a new hood of North Van.

WHAT: Car-Free Vancouver Day
WHEN: Sunday June 20- noon to whenever
WHERE: Kitsilano, Commercial Drive, West End, Main Street and North Van
WHY: To reclaim our streets for people

For further info go to the website and check out about all the happenings this weekend, including maps of each festival footprint and some goods on the entertainment and other activities that will be at each location. So hop on your two wheeler and get on out to the streets.

We will be sure to hit up the festivities in our hood on Main St. Here are some shots of last years good times! Now if only the weather would cooperate...

 

 

 

 

 

 

bike the blossoms

The 2nd annual Bike The Blossoms festival was held this year on a very sunny spring saturday with more bikers about town then I have seen in quite some time. My dad and I love biking together and it is always so fun to cruise around town and see what is popping up in our own city. The event saw over 1000 bikers following the trails designated along bike routes and cherry blossom lined streets. We started at Kitsilano Community Center where an urban farm demonstration was set up- cows, roosters and all! We then followed the signs, stopping along the way for some: photo ops, a little historical city history (thanks to my dad!), peaking at community gardens, listening to some musical vendors over a cup of joe and ending up over on the east side for some r&r. It was so nice to see everyone out enjoying the wonders of our city and those fresh signs of spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

harvest party 2008

 

   

   

   

 

   

 

A huge THANKS to all who came out and attended the first annual Harvest Party put on by us- Aloe Designs in support of the Terra Nova Schoolyard Society. What was a scheduled rain and wind storm turned out to be a glorious evening where the sun blessed us with one last alfresco meal under clear warm skies. We couldn't have had a better time. Selling 75 out of 100 tickets we raised enough proceeds to purchase some new tools and fund the ever going operational costs that go into this great organization. A magical night of six degrees of separation down the table, which is nothing more then your average night out in our city. For this you have to love Vancouver! Here's to more nights like this for years to come. Farewell Summer and hello cozy Fall!

A shout out to:

Friends, Family, Collegues and Clients without your loving support...
Blasted Church and Freehouse Wines for donating some yummy beve's.
All the farmers and growers who blessed us with some amazing bursts and bites of dinner, specifically Owen's dad, Bill Black, for his generous donation of supreme juicy skeena sockey.
The volunteer cooks who helped prep the meal and set up.
And last but not least, Ian Lai, founder and dude of Terra Nova. In two words: You Rock!

epic EPIC

Last weekend Aloe Designs participated in the EPIC sustainable living show. And what a show it was. We met so many great people with great stories doing seriously great things. With Earth day past and Spring just around the bend, we are feeling very eco-friendly inspired to share with you the news from the show!

First off we would like to send out a ginormous thanks to all our friends, family and clients who came to support the cause! Without your smiling faces and words of encouragement we could not have made it through the 4 long days, or rather, 4 long weeks leading up to the event. We also want to say wurd to Tanya at Mango Design Co for helping share the booth and ideas in creating such an innovative showpiece. Future collaborative projects to come! Late nights designing sustainable concepts, mid week days of cruisin around town meeting suppliers and 2 very long weekends to build and construct- it all came together!

Some of the highlights and oos and ahhs of our booth were:

1.0 The 'Harvest Table'. Our first furniture piece designed and manufactured by us! Made of recyclable aluminum framing and reclaimed cedar planks, this table works for both indoors and out. The center piece trough can be used for herbs and edibles, candles and rocks, or simply as a holding chiller for that nice bottle of wine. Furniture design and further production for this limited edition piece are in the works!

2.0 Edible Planters. The smooth, modern concrete containers were provided by a local company Souls and were filled with lots of yummy edible herbs that sparked a lot of gardening conversations.

3.0 Accessories. The Bird Feeder provided by Room 6, designed by J Schatz attracts those beneficial birdies to come and hang out among the landscape. Many juicy colors available. The dining table's settings from Provide (the coolest new store in town) worked flawlessly. We especially fell in love with the dish set from Heath Ceramics and may be taking a private visit this June, to their factory in Sausalito, CA. Lucky Us!

4.0 River rock and Slate Entrance. With all the rain we get in Vancouver we wanted to showcase a way in which a small space can look contemporary, and also be good for the environment too. By using river rock throughout a slate walkway you can minimize the water run off that would normally not get absorbed by flat hardscaping.

5.0 Concept Rain Chain System. Our sleek and innovative rain chain plays a larger role in distributing rain water. The chain feeds into a waterbarrel, which then gets pumped into an underground low flow irrigation system, to in turn feed container plants the required water needed.

Due to a dated digital and some bad indoor lighting the images can only shine so well. One of those- should have been there in person experiences, but nevertheless, for those of you who couldn't make it out, some visuals for you to see.  O and I both agreed, EPIC was an amazing experience to be a part of, but no more show installations in the near future. What lies ahead- some seriously cool design projects on the horizon...

turn it off!

Just a reminder to turn off your lights tomorrow night from 8-9 for  Earth Hour. Come and join millions around the earth in a fight against climate change and by showing that you care about our planet. Landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Sears Tower and the Sydney Opera House will also be taking part- very cool!

This will promote awareness to the world about the amount of energy we consume. Plus being stuck in the dark for an hour can be fun- think candles, a blanket, and old fashion transistor radio! If you feel further inspired, change those old light bulbs to energy efficient ones. The big Canadian Tire store on Cambie street has the biggest selection. You will save so much time and energy in the long run.

Fact: if 10,000 households turn off lights tomorrow night for just one hour, we’ll avert the CO2 created by an average apartment in a whole year.- Ideal Bite.