Monday we visited the Niagara region and stopped in at my parent’s home. I came across our old coffee maker in the basement pantry while hunting for homemade preservatives.

It’s a timeless design. Something that isn’t designed to look dated after a year, or come in a trendy colour that you get sick of and decide to toss out in replace of a new shiny one. This coffe maker has been working for at least 15+ years, sometimes a little investment goes a long way. Braun took a chance on the idea that people would pay a little more money for something that is well designed, an idea that isn’t as apparent in their recent designs.

Why did they discontinue it?!

We still haven’t decided whether to take it to the cottage or keep it here. We are pretty confident that when my parents opt for a modern prefab up North to retire in we will give them back their coffee maker.

An exciting eBay find was a set of old Vola wallmounted bathroom accessories by Arne Jacobsen. We actually sell all of the vola accessories but they aren’t available in this beautiful red finish!

From left:

1) Vola soap magent (you twist a bottle cap into a bar of soap and it sticks to the magnet)
2) Toothbrush holder
3) Towel hook
4) toothpaste tube holder

These are coming with us to the cottage.

Another exciting find is an original set of barbecue tools Harri Koskinen designed for Hackman WAY BACK in 2000. They are dead stock and unused.

Harri Koskinen is one of our favorite contemporary designers. We have many of his designs in our store and even have a set of chairs he designed for Artek around our dining table.

the only issue I have with them are they’re too beautiful to use! It’s kind of funny really, this is the first year we are going without a barbecue and I went and bought a set of barbecue tools… I guess they’re going up to the cottage.

Our day off yesterday was a bit of a mess but near its end, we took a walk in the neighborhood and happened to pop into World Headquarters where we picked up this Cathrineholm black enamel plate. I think it’s the first time we haven’t had to compromise on colour.

Then the boys started talking about guitars (boring!) so I took some iphone pics of the shop for you (sorry for the quality):

There isn’t a sign so look for pelle-melle interior and the random signage up top.

Hmm, upon actual consideration, that wooden boat is pretty rad.

Retro pop machine anyone?

Resident kitka.

We kind of dig this weird Norway painting but we’re not sure if we love or hate the viking sword and shield. Love the text and moody backdrop for sure.

So if you’re in the hood, check out World Headquarters and say hello to Mark. He has a high turnover of goods, often holds auctions and has reasonably thrifty prices.

2885 Dundas Street West
416-333-8078

He has no designated hours but tends to be open any time I walk by. Often he is just hanging out jamming away on the guitar…

So we have not thrifted in what seems like eons (literally since our Scandinavia trip, it seems). Monday is supposed to be our day off but it NEVER is. We are always working. So a couple of Mondays ago, we made a point of planning a day to ourselves. Starting with brunch at Mitzi’s on Sorauren (we love the Mitzi’s on College but stumbled across this location one day when we were out for a neighborhood drive), where we ran into Kate from INabstracto on Queen. This was perfect because we’d been meaning to catch up with her.

Then we went to see our friends down on Queen St East. First it was Martin at Rogue – where we couldn’t help but pick up some Hans Bolling Optimist and Pessimist figures.

Then it was off to see Jake at Machine Age Modern. He let John into his personal stash of Timo Sarpaneva glass and John left with his first piece.