One of a Kind Show, Toronto Spring 2011

Wednesday, I popped on over to the One of a Kind Spring show. The Show hosted a little breakfast Wednesday morning that included some bloggers. I chatted with Jen, Emilija and Lisa at the breakfast, and  browsed the show with Jen as we chit chatted about the Bloggers Give Back, our babies, and of course, decorating.

I picked up a few things at the show  - A bar of lavender scented soap (1), Lavender and Cedar Linen Spray (2) A little wooden car and boat for Oscar (3) and I fell in love with some art (4) and I also brought back some macaroons for Aubrey from Sweet Definition which sadly aren't photographed as we ate them too quickly. ;)

(1) Soaps by Demo Soap (2) Olive Linen Spray $12 by Olive Authentique(3) Thorpe Toys  (4 & 5) Paintings - Pauline Conley (6) Felt Animals by Lesley Anne Green (7) Playmobil Paintings by Studio Liscious

2011 Nissan Juke

2011 Nissan Juke car Wallpaper

2011 Nissan Juke Interior

2011 Nissan Juke Picture

2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport Wallpaper

Rugs - Size Matters

I got my May 2011 Style at Home issue in the mail yesterday. This issue is packed with a lot of inspiring pictures but what made it even more awesome was on Page 64, I can across this...."Choose the right rug for you."  You all know my search for a Living Room Carpet (which is kind of on hold because of the new, unexpected furnace)

Ever since we invested in that really expensive side table between the chairs, a more defined living space happened. So I wondered if I needed a rug to go as close to the bookshelves as I had originally thought. Maybe it could be shorter? (And thus maybe more easy to find, and less expensive)


New, more defined living area because of the addition of the table between chairs



So what great timing to find this little tidbit in Style at Home, as Christine Hanlon give us some really great tips and pretty much answers my question with her second tip on "size"

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Use your rug to frame the primary seating arrangement in the room, but remember these rules.
1. An Area Rug should always extend under all of the key furniture pieces.
2. It's best not to have a large section of Empty Rug beyond where the furniture ends; Ideally the rug should only extend one to two feet beyond the furniture - ensure this is consistent on all sides.
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So I think I have to still look for a rug that will go close to the bookshelves otherwise it may look like a postage stamp. For now, we will continue to live with our hardwood, which really --- I don't mind.

2011 MINI Countryman

2011 MINI Countryman Car

2011 MINI Countryman Car Wallpaper

2011 MINI Countryman Interior

A B Sea

I was Spring cleaning my Internet Favourites the other day and came across a link to this poster. Isn't it hilariously cute?  Poster by James Mattison, available here.

Mercedes will present new generation SLK Roadster

The design of generation Mercedes SLK Roadster will be placed in the same style as the new supercar SLS AMG Gullwing, which was officially presented last month at the Frankfurt motor show. In principle there is nothing surprising - the company is very often used successfully found a designer moves on several of their machines. This allows you to make cars more recognizable.
But count on the fact that the SLK gets a new generation of doors opening on the principle of "gull wing", as in SLS AMG, not worth it. This "chip" will be the prerogative of only the SLS AMG.

Wait for 3G/4G Mac is Not Over

It appears that a splendor feature aimed at business travelers a decade ago, implanted 3G, and now 4G, have become ever more customary in PC laptops aimed to consumers. Apple's most recent MacBook update in the rear-view mirror, now's as excellent time as any to think about what could be headed to the next generation of the company's notebook lineup.

Apple has also griped the wireless technology in its iPad, having jumped it from the iPhone to the original iPad on AT&T's GSM network, then later, on Verizon's CDMA network with the iPad 2. So what's the holdup in bringing that same technology to Macs? Is Apple waiting for something?

Of particular interest is embedded mobile broadband, a notable omission to the Mac laptop range that's now stretched into a waiting game of its own. This is the technology that lets your computer tap into cellular networks and use broadband data while on the go, sans a dopey USB adapter or wireless puck.

At the moment is that the timing has been off on the network side of the equation: 3G as we know it is on the road to being replaced by 4G, which offers a big speed improvement. Speed becomes especially important on computers versus phones because of the things people tend to do on them, like download files and e-mail attachments and run multiple applications that can slurp up data at a faster clip than smartphone apps.

Providers have placed gamble on the competing parts of the range, creating a situation where there's no easy way to buy hardware that will work with them all though technology is the one way that can do that. But the carriers and service providers have not made it so easy to get to that promised land of fast, wireless data. 4G as it's been marketed in the States is not truly 4G by the strict definition. There are different flavors of that "4G," like WiMax, HSPA+, and Long Term Evolution (LTE).

4G-chip producer Beceem, which was acquired by Broadcom back in October, has a chip in development that does both WiMax and LTE. Apple uses Broadcom's wireless chips in the iPad as well as the iPhone, and for Wi-Fi on its Macs. A similar dual-mode chip initiative was put forth by Sequans at Mobile World Congress last month. Intel, which supplies chips for Apple's notebooks and desktops is also said to be working on a similar solution of its own. In the interim that leaves device makers like Apple, as well as consumers, having to pick a standard and stick to it.

To the company's credit, it has provided a product that gives its own laptops wireless 3G service, though it's nowhere as seamless as a built-in modem. Since iOS 3.0, users with iPhones and a carrier data plan that supports tethering, can share their phone's connection with their computer over a USB connection or Bluetooth. In the Verizon version of the iPhone 4, Apple introduced a slightly more elegant feature that would let users turn the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, something that was later brought to GSM iPhone users in iOS 4.3.

Source

2011 MINI Cooper

2011 MINI Cooper Car

2011 MINI Cooper Car Wallpaper

2011 MINI Cooper Interior

2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage S Roadster

The rationale behind the Aston Martin V8 Vantage S was to push the boundaries of the already acclaimed V8 Vantage with the highest levels of driver involvement possible. Aston Martin engineers set about enhancing nearly every dynamic element of the car to create a highly distinctive driving experience.

The 2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage S Roadster weighs 3726 lbs, 66 lbs (30 kg) lighter than the standard Vantage owing to weight optimization of the new Sportshift II transmission and use of carbon fiber. Air cooled, rather than oil cooled, the Sportshift II system takes advantage through the deletion of the oil pump and associated ancillaries saving 53 lbs (24 kg) over the conventional six speed Sportshift system.

As with all Aston Martins, the 2012 V8 Vantage S Roadster benefits from near perfect weight balance of 49:51 front to rear owing to the placement of the gearbox on the transaxle contributing to the excellent dynamics.

The 2012 V8 Vantage S Roadster has an automatically retracting fabric hood which can be operated up to 20 mph (30 km/h).

The S variant features a unique exhaust muffler specifically tuned to aurally define its sporting intent. A revised map opens the bypass valves earlier in the rev range at 3500 rpm and even earlier in 'Sport' mode producing more crackle on the overrun.

Nissan appear the car would get an absolute affluence amalgamation alleged EGOIST, which tacks on about the amount of accession GT-R to the amount tag. Anniversary chump can accept a aggregate of autogenous colors amid 20 choices. EGOIST is the aboriginal and alone Nissan GT-R in the apple alone created by Takumi, or “master with greatest skills”. In addition, the Bose® complete arrangement is alone acquainted according to the active position of anniversary disciplinarian to accommodated every customer’s needs. This is the ultimate announcement of the Nissan GT-R.

Egoist takes a dry carbon rear addle-brain (also acclimated in the SpecV). A abiding aerodynamic achievement alike aback active with added than 300 kilometers per hour, rear addle-brain gives an acute attending in the aback with atramentous carbon paint.

Lightweight and awful adamant artificial aluminum wheels, acclimated in the SpecV to abate unsprung weight and accord to a bland active experience. Newly developed bristles layers Blue Sword Chrome Color Coating adopted. 2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R EGOIST Created by Takumi uses a Titanium bankrupt system, additionally acclimated in the SpecV, accouterment active accelerator acknowledgment and a clear, animating bankrupt sound.

2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R EGOIST Created by Takumi

Interior genitalia aired to advance Company, Inc. Muelheim an der Ruhr in Germany and covering adept artificers run and stick a anxiously called by the amateur bark bridge. Inducts are absolute designs coated with the distinct and bifold adornment patterns are congenital in baffling approach. The aerial bendability of achievement anchor (suitable for active antagonism circuit), a bland and accept all provided. Nissan additionally says the genitalia are duke fabricated in Germany to add a little authority to the hyper-expensive rocket.

The fresh car will appear with the pumped-up agent that will ability abutting year’s Nissan Sport Cars GT-R. The twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 will absolve 520 bhp at 6400 rpm to all four wheels, while belief in about 60 lb. beneath than the accepted car, acknowledgment to lighter weight genitalia throughout the body. Peak torque, estimated at 452 lb.-ft., will be accomplished from 3200 to 5200 rpm. This agency the car will be quicker than the accepted GT-R. The 2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R EGOIST will additionally accept a added adjustable abeyance (via revised bounce ante and hardly altered geometry at the rear), while still actuality able to accumulate up with cars on the track. The autogenous will additionally accept abundant key “Egoist” touches.

The car will be delivered to barter in December. The amount of the GT-R Egoist is set at about 14,000,000 yen or $150,000, almost $50,000 added than a banal GT-R and about $10,000 beneath than a Spec V. The aggregation affairs to alone advertise about 10 cars per month. Nissan U.S.A. has offered no animadversion about the Egoist and maintains that the alone GT-R the aggregation will be affairs in the U.S in 2011 is the banal one, so don’t apprehend the Egoist or Spec V to appear this way anytime soon.

2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R EGOIST Created by Takumi

Tomaso Ghepardo Sports Cars Abstraction

De Tomaso releases fresh renderings of a approaching car set to attempt with the Mercedes CLS – its alleged the Ghepardo. The four-door sports cars, Ghepardo, suggests the fresh abstraction cars for the approaching De Tomaso. Ghepardo is advised with abundant account for the De Tomaso history and architecture language, and several elements are aggressive by the apparent treatments of the Pantera and Mangusta. It is advised to bout the approaching trends aural the automotive industry both in architecture and functionality.

De Tomaso Ghepardo Sports Cars Abstraction Advised For The Future

This absolute auto is aggressive not alone by the De Tomaso accomplished band of cars, but by a accomplished taylor-made Italian clothing as well. De Tomaso was advised the access akin to the angelic beaker of Italian cool cars in the 1960s and 1970s. De Tomaso action cars Pantera and Mangusta are acclimated as afflatus for apparent treatments and more. Auto artist Frederik Tjellesen has created a abstraction sports car for an Italian car manufacturer, De Tomaso, which runs on a low-emission amalgam engine. Christened the Ghepardo, the abstraction is a four-door sports car that boasts Ecoboost technology and booze ammunition cells.

The De Tomaso Ghepardo Sports Cars Abstraction Advised For The Approaching uses technology based on both the most recent assembly sports cars as able-bodied as the concepts cars currently actuality tested. Ghepardo may be powered either by a Ford twin-turbo ecoboost 3.5 V6 bearing 465 bhp or by four electric in-hub ammunition beef anniversary bearing 85 Kw (combined an agnate of 440 bhp). Electricity is produced by a booze ammunition corpuscle assemblage amid below the 500 litre boot. Active aerofoils are congenital in the ‘c-pillar/rear wing’ giving the car optimal bottomward force at any speed. The Ghepardo measures a breadth of 4820 mm, a amplitude of 1970 mm, acme of 1300 mm and a caster abject of 2990 mm.

The sports cars were as fast and as beautiful, however, added bargain than the ones of Ferrari and Lamborghini. In 1971, De Tomaso alien the Deauville which was the fastest alehouse car at the time. It was referred to as a cool alehouse by architect Alejandro De Tomaso. Aggressive by the spirit of the Deauville, the De Tomaso Ghepardo is a avant-garde four aperture ammunition corpuscle cool car with a apparent analysis aggressive by the allegorical De Tomasos of the 60s and 70s and advised for the future.

As an adorning aftereffect from the Mangusta, in Ghepardo De Tomaso the rear addition action as the cossack awning and the rear door. With affected surface, volume, stand, curve with a bland eye communicable finish, the basal windows are so advised that the addition can accept an abstraction of the speed. Run by a ability of about 450HP, this car absolutely binds appearance with approaching trend of the car.

De Tomaso Ghepardo Sports Cars Abstraction Advised For The Future

Donate Your Scrap Bike to Charity in the UK

I was contacted by the nice folks at Giveacar in the UK  and asked if I would spread the word that you can now donate your scrap bike and the funds will go to good charities. Here is the blurb from there website:

At Giveacar we’re not just about cars. We arrange the donation of all types of vehicles to charity. From mobile recording studios to campervans, we can turn your unwanted vehicle into much needed funding for your favourite cause. This includes Motorbikes, which despite their small stature can still raise a hefty sum for charity.

So if your bike has seen better days or, perhaps, you just don’t have the time to ride it anymore, Giveacar can offer you a simple, free and ethical way of getting rid of it.

Just like with our cars, no matter what state your bike may be in it will be collected free of charge and at a time to suit you. Once you have arranged to donate your bike with us we will pass you details on to our partners in your area, who will organise the collection with you. They will take your bike to their nearest site, dismantle it, and sell on the working parts. A donation will then be made to the charity of your choice based on the price of your old bikes parts.

When donating a bike with Giveacar, you are not only helping to support your favourite charity, but you are also helping others to keep their beloved bikes on the road. As well as helping out fellow bike enthusiasts, this also has an environmental benefit. By keeping old bikes on the road you are reducing the demand for new bikes, thus reducing the significant environmental damage caused by their production.

Motorbike donation is a relatively new initiative here at Giveacar, but it is something we are sure will raise a great deal of money for charity while helping us to fulfil our green objectives.
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So, if you are in the UK and looking to upgrade your motorcycle, or have an unused one lying around please donate it to a worthy cause.

Ride on, 

Torch

2012 Aston Martin Virage

Aston Martin introduced the new Virage - supremely elegant and powerful, yet juxtaposed as an understated sports car. The marque can now provide customers with a class-leading range, all with different characters, yet with the same unique Aston Martin soul and luxury.

Beautiful, dynamic and prestigious, the Virage combines outright sports car performance with luxury, comfort and refinement. The front mid-mounted V12 engine's torque delivery provides outstanding performance, coupled with the car's inherent agility and perfect weight distribution delivering the ideal balance between outright sports car performance and trademark sporting luxury exemplified by modern Aston Martins.

The Virage sits between the enduringly elegant DB9 and overtly sporting DBS, providing customers with a car that remains luxurious and understated but delivers increased performance and crucially performance that is always accessible for effortless driving.

Floral Arrangements

I visited that Antique Shop again and picked up this Royal Haeger bowl for $10. I always love keeping my eye open for things like this for flower arrangements. A low profile bowl like this, I knew would be perfect for some big flowers. I thought that this bowl would be perfect for if we were to host a dinner party. It's a low profile, so you're not going to be blocking anyones view.



Not wanting to wait for that dinner party to host, I got impatient and decided to pick up some flowers to try out my new purchase. I picked up 3 Hydrangea heads at my local florist at $4.00 a head. 



I cut off most of their stem as the vase was super short. I'm not a flower expert but one thing my florist keeps telling me is to cut the end cut on a vertical after I cut them to length, so they drink the water better. He gave me some oasis to try. I must say, it would make a very pretty dinner party arrangement.



It also looked good here..



But in the end, it went ...



I just loved this scene from today.

2011 Simbol Design Sports Cars Lavazza GTX-R

Italian brands The Lavazza GT-R unveiled, Simbol Design has some pictures and blueprint for the fresh cool sports car. Simbol Design has created this absorbing fresh V12 supercar bearing 620 hp while belief a bald 2380 lbs. This gives the car an aberrant ability to weight arrangement of 3.8 lb.

2011 Simbol Design Sports Cars Lavazza GTX-R The Fresh Cool Sports Cars

Simbol Design's Lavazza GTX-R anatomy fabricated of carbon-Kevlar congenital aloft a tubular animate frame. And back German powerplants accept emerged as the fresh crate agent of best for alcove manufacturers from Spyker and Wiesmann to Gumpert and Pagani, the Lavazza packs a BMW-sourced 5.4-liter V12, acrimonious up Lamborghini's tractor-origins crimson with an electro-pneumatic manual reportedly sourced from a bus. Sources alter on the engine's achievement – alternately claiming 489 application or 620 – but either way, 0-60 mph times quoted about the four-and-a-half additional complete conservative.

The 2011 Simbol Design Sports Cars Lavazza GTX-R The Fresh Cool Sports Cars will be offered in both auto and auto versions and will be congenital in carbon kevlar. This will advice the car get its weight bottomward to about 2381 lbs. On the exterior, the 2011 Simbol Design Sports Cars Lavazza GTX-R will get anchored advanced diverters and rear venturi intakes with adjustable ancillary diverters, an adjustable rear wing, and a roof scoop.

The advanced of the car may attending a little like a Pagani Zonda (or a Zonda on drugs), but the amount tag shouldn’t as this car is absolutely not applicable into the ranks of the Italian supercars of today. Both auto and auto bodystyles are allegedly in the works, admitting there's no chat on availability or appraisement aloof yet, but are absolute to models such as this, you can not apprehend that the cheap.

2011 Simbol Design Sports Cars Lavazza GTX-R The Fresh Cool Sports Cars

MSI Wind Top AE2050 All-In-One Desktop PC

MSI brand new AMD-based Brazos All-in-one desktop PC "Wind Top AE2050" has finally been delivered in the United States. Available from Amazon, these space-saving machine is currently available for $ 750.91. If you do not remember, the system sports a 20-inch 1600 x 900 touchscreen display, a 1.6 GHz AMD Dual-Core E-350 processor, an integrated AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics card, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 1 TB hard disk drive is running a 0.3-megapixel webcam, a DVD Super Multi drive, a 6-in-1 card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, WiFi, a HDMI port and Windows 7 operating system.

(Via techfresh)

BlackBerry Style 9670 Smartphone

Sprint and Research In Motion have introduced the BlackBerry Style 9670 Smartphone. The BlackBerry handset is an elegant style, new flip smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, the new BlackBerry OS 6 and a wide range of advanced communications and rich multimedia capabilities. The BlackBerry Smartphone Style comes with many advanced features, including a 5 megapixel digital camera with flash and supports video recording, built-in GPS for location-based apps and geo-tagging, Wi-Fi for faster connections and extended coverage of the data, and an expandable memory slot for up to 32GB of additional storage.

(Via letsgodigital)

2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R (Japan Specs) Set For North American

The 2012 Nissan GT-R adaptation of its flagship GT-R sports cars. This is advised to be one of the best models in auto industry. Accordingly, the architect has adapted the advanced end forth with deepening the dashboard abutment breadth and the advanced suspension. The GTR is said to be 3% added able than the beforehand models. Yesterday, Nissan Motors offered up the abounding advice on the Japanese adaptation of the 2011 Nissan GT-R. Already one of the fastest cars in the world, the Nissan sports cars auto receives a array of improvements for 2011 (at atomic in the Japanese market) to advice ambit itself from the competition.

There are alone attenuate refinements fabricated to the exoteric of the most recent Nissan GT-R supercar and while these changes ability be adamantine to apprehension in traffic, the concrete upgrades to the 2011 archetypal year GT-R action a 10% advance in downforce and a abatement in drag. There is additionally a hardly aesthetic autogenous with a fresh apparatus console and carbon cilia trim actuality and there but the big account is what is beneath the hood.

2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R (Japan Specs) Set For North American

For 2012, Nissan GT-R appearance bigger agent achievement and torque, greater ammunition efficiency, revised handling, a active exoteric with bigger aerodynamics, revised autogenous analysis and fresh auto and tires. The ample cardinal of enhancements for the fresh archetypal year is allotment of the connected advance of the GT-R design, technology and achievement back its debut.

Developed beneath the affair of alms the "world's best multi-performance and acknowledging active pleasure," every breadth of the Nissan GT-R has been anxiously rethought or retuned for 2012. The changes ambit from greater anatomy adherence and backbone and bigger aerodynamics achievement to a sportier autogenous and added performance.

The most recent adaptation of the almighty Nissan GT-R goes on auction at baddest Nissan dealers in the United States and Canada aboriginal in the 2011 agenda year. Abounding capacity on the North American adaptation of the Nissan GT-R will be accessible at the Los Angeles appearance in November.

Though exact blueprint accept yet to be appear for the U.S. cars, application and torque abstracts accept been appear for Japan bazaar cars. The adapted 2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R (Japan Specs) Set For North American will be powered by the aforementioned twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 offered in the accepted GT-R. However, the turbo's addition burden has been increased, the assimilation and bankrupt systems accept been opened up to admittance freer breathing, and the ECU has been tweaked to booty advantage of these changes.

2012 Nissan Sport Cars GT-R (Japan Specs) Set For North American

The 2012 in the US bazaar Nissan GT-R is powered by the aforementioned accompanying turbocharged 3.8L V6 that was offered in the accepted GT-R, an continued allegation air assimilation aqueduct and an continued bankrupt arrangement accumulated with a recalibration of the car’s ECU, the 2011 GT-R will action 523 application and 451lb-ft of torque. This is a fair advance over the achievement of the accepted models 485hp/434tq and this added ability could advice the boss GT-R move up the account of the fastest cars in the apple (based on testing done at the acclaimed Nürburgring in Germany). The 2011 Nissan GT-R will be the 2012 Nissan GT-R back it hits US shores abutting year.