Fou D’Ici – 360 De Maisonneuve Ouest in Montreal 

Tower Bridge

View from the Thames

London Eye

The Thames

Spitalfields Market

Mr. B. – Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

These are my tourist shots while on walks during Blog Tour 2011. This type of experience only happens once in a lifetime and I wanted to thank Veronika Miller and Tim Brogan of Modenus for such a design-centric adventure I will never forget. They also recently brought some incredible UK bloggers to New York for a second round of touring here. Such a fab bunch!

I start you off with a stop at 100% Design at Earls Court.

The variety of design under one roof was astounding! Unfortunately, several exhibitor’s weren’t too keen on the idea of photography, but some did allow us to take a few shots.

Lu-Murano from Italy

Right up my alley for the graphic designer and lover of interiors in me, typographic lounge furniture from Tabisso.

Urban London by Adrienne Chinn

Fun display at the Doopo Doopo booth

Tubing it with fellow Blog Tour bloggers Jonathan Legate, Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo from ABCD Design, Bob Borson from Life of an Architect, and Elise Jones from Here in this House.

We spent some time at the London Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour and had some fantastic presentations and meet and greets with Samuel Heath and Victoria + Albert Baths and even had a seminar hosted by none other than Holly Becker herself from Decor8.

A gorgeous fixture at the Design Centre.

We were lucky enough to attend Decorex International. Having no expectations, this show was definitely a chic and sophisticated affair where people watching was just as entertaining and inspiring as the actual booths were.

We started off our tour with a champagne toast as you do.

We also met up with Nicky Haslam, an infamous British interior designer and socialite who has designed for the likes of Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and Ringo Starr.

A favorite booth was definitely the Andrew Martin display.

Andrew Martin at Decorex

Blendworth at Decorex

I’ve also compiled a small gallery of shots I took while roaming the streets of London and will be sharing those tomorrow!

I have been to several craft shows across Canada and the US and it was interesting to see the differences in trends from walking the aisles of this show. Animals and nature were visibly present and seemed to have inspired several of the exhibitors within their pieces.

Sophie Woodrow

Rebecca J Coles

Abigail Brown

Debbie Smythe

Sarah Morpeth

Rachel Eardley

Lisa Swerling’s Glass Cathedrals

Lost and Found Design

Lost and Found Design

We ended the day with dinner at the Conran headquarters in Sir Terrence Conran’s Penthouse. It was a fabulous evening and being in the space that he used to live in felt like a window into his world and I couldn’t have felt any more inspired by it.

After our meet-up, we all gathered at Tent London and it didn’t take me long to realise that in all the recent design shows that I have visited, this was by far my favourite. It had the perfect combination of experimental and commercial design without any corporate influence and I was inspired by virtually every single booth.

I was blown away by Tent London and should you ever find yourself in London during the London Design Festival, you must stop in.

Unfortunately, with such a busy BlogTour2011 schedule, I am unable to post each individual artist’s link so please visit the Tent London directory here.

Regardless of the jet lag that began to set in, my eyes were wide open to such inspiring people and design.

If you wish to follow more coverage of Blogtour 2011, click here. I will be posting about our second soon at Tent London, the Origin Craft Fair and dinner at Sir Terence Conran’s penthouse so please keep watch.

I’m not sure why I don’t often talk about or really let you in on what I do during the day. I think it might be mainly because of a fear or really putting myself out there. Well, I guess working on a national ad campaign and have it appear in nine different Canadian magazines, I’ve had to bite the bullet and just let go.

Thanks to a team of truly incredible professionals, we all came together and made a dream of mine happen.

And I promise over the next few weeks, I will show you more of what I have done and what I do because you’ve been there for me. I talk about design and how important it is to me yet never really share that part of my life with you. You can see the entire campaign by flipping through either your October issue of House & Home or Style at Home among others, but for now, here’s to new beginnings.

Veronika Miller of Modenus, which is a small firm built entirely on Social Media, in essence took the belief she had in the power of design bloggers and decided to create Blog Tour 2011 which would bridge the North American and UK gap and bring us all together during this incredible string of design events.

With her partners MyDeco and AD Home Design Show and alongside several distinguished sponsors such as Blanco, Samuel Heath, Victoria + Albert, Du Verre Hardware, Spirit of Sports and Wallunica, myself and 14 other design and lifestyle bloggers will head to London and attend events such as 100% Design, Tent London and Origin Contemporary Craft Fair.

I’ve stomped the grounds of several design conferences but the London Design Festival seems different in that it knows no boundaries and literally takes design to its city streets. I am extremely excited and honoured to be part of this all and with such a fabulously charged agenda, I will be sure to have so much to show and share with you.

Images from: vorwerk, nanagyei, mostaque, ktylerconk, marie-louise’s fashion pulse, confessions of a design geek, bird in the house

Go to Blogtour2011.com as well as on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #blogtour2011 for more news and coverage.

For every issue I get involved with, I learn so much about who I am, how I work and what makes me happy. Pure Green is definitely a labour of love shared between such incredible people and with every page we add together, it just keeps getting better and better.

Researching and discovering so many inspiring manufacturers and artists for my eco style picks is definitely a highlight for me. And seeing some of my favorite spots in Montreal in the magazine puts a smile on my face.

Thank you Celine, Erin, Jonathan, Anile, Bess and so many others for working with me so wonderfully and for making this magazine what it is today: BEAUTIFUL.

I’ve added more information about myself and will also be adding a true portfolio section soon as well which I am really happy about. I would love to share with you all my design work and let you in on what it is I really do. Let me know what you think!