Sunday, August 7, 2011

J'adore Montreal

Hi again everyone! Back from Montreal and back to blogging! The trip was a bit of a lucky one all in all, my husband had a work trip out there and it was the perfect opportunity for me to tag along and see a city I've always wanted to visit.

The area is such great blend of North America and Europe, it felt a lot like being back on my old continent.

We got to check out some great vintage shops filled with some wonderful clothes from the 20's through the 60's, and also neat nicknacks. One great little pocket was on Saint Laurent  street far off the metro that had Kitsch n Swell (40's-50's house stuffs and clothes) Rokokonut (60's-70's kitsch and clothes) and Fripperie (20's-80's clothing and accessories) all next to each other kind of like a vintage super shop!

Kitsch n Swell and Rokokonut are both run by a super vintage loving couple and were such fun shops I wish I lived close enough to visit every week! My haul from there was 2 pairs of 50's/60's cat eye glasses frames. My eyes are starting to be a little less sharp these days and after finding such cuties at such a good price I figured I'd pick em up ready for when I need to call upon them for ultra swanky visual correction!

Another great place we found was Retro-Ville, literally floor to ceiling fantastic finds! The lady that runs the place was so friendly We spent ages in there going through the shop and looking at her personal collections of fantastic vintage buttons and purses, extra bonus points for Treasure, the friendly fluffy in store cat too! Couldn't take the shop cat home but check out the neat cat cookie jar we found there! Now the new home to out everyday tea stash (no more standing on tip toes to pull down tea bags from my on the hour decaf brews)


More than just great old stuff was some great new stuff, my figure I owe in large part to a love of interesting food! We managed to get some reservations ahead of time for some of the cities best restaurants and got to enjoy all kinds of things I've never tried before (sweetcorn sundae for eg). The markets were also stellar. Got some nifty local ground cherries I'd never seen before and tea! the place was a surprisingly wonderful tea destination! Kusmi tea is probably one of my new favorite tea companies I found on the trip, it's every where and they have some really interesting blends once enjoyed by the Czars of Russia.

All in all we ate, walked alot, saw a ton of cool things and met a lot of cool people. I already have a list of things I want to do on our next trip out here, I just can't wait to go back!

( for now though, I have a head full on inspiration and a cat head full of tea, so I'm going to ride this wave and turn this great trip into a Montreal worthy collection of designs for the Fall/winter season ;p)

I got a few posts to write up so we should be back to regular blogging once again!

6 comments:

  1. What amazing finds! I wish I could wear awesome frames like that. Glad you had fun on your travels! :D

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  2. It is such a good feeling when travels really inspire you! I love your kitsch finds and those frames are rockin'. Enjoy your new tea, I can hardly wait to see what you come up with next!

    By the way Rokokonut is the coolest name for a boutique!

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  3. You know Edgevictim, I bet you could! I was worried it wouldn't be something I could pull off either but I think if you tried some you'd be surprised!

    Isn't Rokokonut the best name ever? Apparently it's for a mix of Rococo and Tiki styles, which is pretty much perfection!

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  4. Aaaah, I wish you had gone to Montreal about 1 month earlier, so that I could check out some of these finds myself! That rack of furs in that photo are really tempting me...

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  6. You know I've never been able to make it to Japan, but I certainly hope to get over there in the not too distant future.

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