day 38. july 8. 2010. July 8, 2010

poplove! i love the name of this unique fashion house!

About:

Growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, a city of about 40,000, Andrea Hughes moved to Toronto to study the business end of fashion at George Brown College. After a stint at retail chains like Aldo and the FX Boutique, by age 23 Hughes was designing her own clothes.

Today, four years on Hughes has moved again, and now she and her husband Shai Wallach are running a unique family business – a line of “upcycled” fashion items for women and men – out of their PopLove studio in south Tel Aviv, Israel.

“Basically I decided I was done with working for other people and wanted to design for myself,” Hughes tells ISRAEL21c, explaining that “upcycled” refers to clothing which is recycled into garments that are a cut above the pieces from which they originate.

Wallach and Hughes took materials sourced from a local women’s charity that collects donations of clothes to create PopLove. It’s an online fashion retail brand that can be found in Tel Aviv’s trendiest boutiques, like those in the Gan Hashmal (Electric Garden) area. Items for sale online are popular with American, European and Australian clientele.

day 33. july 3. 2010. July 3, 2010

Crafty. I love crafts. I love projects. I  probably have about 20 projects started, researched, planned or ideated at any given point. I am absolutely lovin’ these tiki lights made from reused wine bottles! I am putting this in my “cottage ideas” pile…

The full instructions on how to make your own wine bottle tiki torch are here.

day 32. july 2. 2010. July 2, 2010

Eco-designer. One of the best ways to be earth friendly when you are thinking about decorating or furnishing your place is to go second hand. I am a second hand addict. When I was in university about 90% of my furniture I had found on the side of the road, stripped and sanded myself (I saved up money from working four jobs during the summers to buy a palm sander and a sewing machine) and refinished in my backyard. The only thing I bought new was a lumpy Ikea futon. Since moving out of my cave-like university basement apartment, I still peruse craigslist and kijiji, and the antique strip on Toronto’s Queen Street for one-of-a-kind beauties.

The dresser you saw in my yoga room/ dressing room was a steal of a find on Queen Street at James’ store. The lamp on the dresser is one of a pair, (you can see the other one next to the bed), the bases found a junk store on Vancouver island and the shades are handmade.

The trunk next to my bed was at the end of someone’s driveway. I went and knocked on the door to be sure they didn’t want it anymore because it was so beautiful. The elderly man explained the trunk belonged to an old Canadian Navy General, but for the life of me I can’t remember his name. I was incredulous that he was letting me have it for free! The three photo frames were hand-me-downs from an old architectural studio, and the images inside are from a calendar of Alphonse Mucha art nouveau plates.

My dining table and chair set came from Craigslist. A young couple were moving to Victoria and didn’t want to take the set with them. The chairs were $250 EACH brand new and I got the six solid wood chairs and solid wood table for $300. The table top needs some refinishing but I am fine with that! Behind the table you see the lower part of a wood hutch. This also came from James’ store on Queen West. Its a 1920 piece, solid wood and in need of some serious work. One of the drawers is broken and the other is sticky, and the entire thing needs to be sanded and refinished. The vintage rocking chair was a bartered deal from Mrs. Huizenga (a store I fondly describe as “my favourite second hand shop”) and the big industrial looking fan was purchased through craigslist.

Unfortunately all of these things will be in storage until the man and I get a bigger place, or we get our cottage.