Hot for Flor {giveaway}

Okay peeps, here's a fun one. Today I'm sharing with you a few faves from Flor's Fall 2010 collection, and my-oh-my there are some lovelies! I'm a huge fan of Flor's modular carpet tiles (as well as their staunch enviromental efforts), and in fact they usually end up in just about every project I work on. Right now, in the living room, we've got their chic houndstooth patterned All Bark & No Bite, which is holding up beautifully with Spot the Whippet's occasionally muddy paws!

Up top there's Mag-Neat-O which has a lovely random zig-zaggy embroidered flame stitch feel. Next is Flor's brill suzani inspired More Rockin, which reminds me of the Iznik tiles I saw in Turkey, then there's Road to Damaskus with a rather kooky high-contrast take on a damask. Finally, and last but not least, is Sophistikat, available in 5 colourways it's a swanky take on Ikat fabric.

{giveaway} Here's the kicker - Would you like to win a 5' x 7' More Rockin carpet tile rug?

The deets: You're eligible if you live in the US or Canada, and all you have to do is sign up for my e-mail newsletter (see that little box under the Subscribe title on the left, that's the spot). Oh, and anyone who's already receiving for the newsletter is automatically entered. Get yourself signed up by 6pm EST on Tuesday Oct 5th, then I'll be randomly picking 1 lucky winner!

Spot vs. Rug, Spot wins

The living room rug is a gonner. We had a major attack of the chewing puppy, both yesterday and the day before. Is Spot trying to tell us something (other than the fact he thinks it's fun)? On the first day it looked a bit like a map of Cyprus, and then he finished up yesterday by re-working it into a Mickey Mouse hat (y'know, the one with the ears). Take a look at the blurry cell phone shot below, turn your head 90 degrees anti-clockwise and squint a little. Do you see what I mean?

So, we're going to have to get a replacement rug and I'm thinking that Flor carpet tiles are the perfect solution. Seriously, if he decides to go to town on a particular square we can just pop it out and replace it - And wait patiently for him to get through this chewing phase. He's a perfect chap otherwise, and from what we hear at the dog park we should be lucky he doesn't have a passion for cell phones, remote controls and underwear. That second snap is the Flor carpet that we're considering which, hilariously enough, is a houndstooth pattern called All Bark and No Bite...

Wall hate, Flor love

I hate our walls, there, I've said it. The painting continues in our household and the walls have, ahem, not been exactly co-operating. There's been bubbling, mainly because some of them are a delightful combo of old cheap latex paint over even older oil paint, mixed in with patches of new drywall and new plaster. So now we have one wall in our stairwell that, after priming, looks like a releif map of the moon. I think we'll be getting the professionals in to sort it out...

Elsewhere, luckily, things have been going better in painting world, and our palette of Ralph Lauren Paint's Poncho White, Moonlight and Palais Royal is looking fantabulous. To take my mind of all the painting we still have to do (there's lots) I thought it would be a nice treat to check out what's new from Flor. Love their carpet tiles, and love the new Alexander Girard design Flora rug, which is available in three colourways. And for more on Alexander Girard click here.

A couple of hours in Chicago

Ummm, yes, arriving at mid-day on a Saturday in Chicago and leaving Sunday morning does not really leave enough time to get to know a place (it was a stopover on my way down to Kohler). But what I did see I loved! I checked into The Felix, which is quite the chic new spot and only a hop and skip from shopping on the Magnificent Mile, then set about exploring with House & Home's Cameron MacNeil.

CB2 was first, up in Lincoln Park, and if you haven't heard of 'em, they're the edgier, younger version of Crate & Barrel. Oh, I could've splurged, but luckily they ship to Canada and word is that we'll hopefully see a store north of the border sooner rather than later. Then we stumbled across Flor's new store (below), which I was so happy to see. Their modular carpet tiles are brill and it was great to see them all in one spot and get to play with all the patterns and colours, let alone check out the pixel artwork created with carpet! I use Flor on quite a few of my projects (yep, they ship to Canada) and picked up a bunch of samples for the new house. Right next door to Flor is Jayson Home & Garden (below), which was jam-crammed with tons of gorgeousness. Nate Berkus shops there which is reason enough to lurk around, lol.

After Lincoln Park we headed back down to the Magnificent Mile and wandered through Room & Board (always calmly contemporary) and the Bloomingdale's Home Store (loved the beach towel riff on their classic Brown Bag). Of course there's tons more to see, and I'll definitely be going back to find all the small and cool independent design stores, take an a tour with the Chicago Architectural Foundation, hit the museums... Oh, the list goes on.