I’m all dressed up to go for dinner tonight to celebrate a very exciting occasion. Juli was out for a cup of coffee with her friend Jen at The Good Neighbour, so I took it upon myself to make this post.

This is my chance to have a little post featuring some great modernist pieces for men.

I picked up this blunt edge tie to celebrate this specific occasion. It’s from Breds Custom on Dundas st W. It was the first time I visited the store, and I had a different idea of what they actually did. I thought they just had custom t-shirts but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had a pretty impressive collection of nice menswear.

This is a vintage silver tie clip by Hans Hansen. I got Juli a Hans Hansen ring a couple of months ago so now we both own a piece of his work.

It seems like I’ve been talking about getting a watch for a year now. I tried on some Issey Miyake watches during our trip to Tokyo, including the watch by Naoto Fukasawa. I just wasn’t 100% convinced that any of the watches were right for me. The one I really had my eye on was the Henning Koppel watch I tried on at the Georg Jensen store in Copenhagen last year.

The watch was a big surprise, and it just suits me perfectly.

The great thing about the store is we get an opportunity to meet really interesting people. Recently we delivered some pieces to a customer, who invited us over for some dessert and drinks. Beyond having an amazing collection of modern chairs, he is also a collector of many things, including whiskey. Needless to say I had a chance to try some spectacular scotch which he poured from a gorgeous decanter designed by Tapio Wirkkala (the one with the bubble). It was definitely the inspiration for my latest purchase from Atomic.

Lawrence and I weren’t 100% it was by Tapio Wirkkala because neither of us had seen it before. We knew it was Scandinavian and it was signed TW on the bottom, but regardless of if it was a Wirkkala or not it was still a beautiful piece and I gladly took it home with me.

After some obsessive internet research I found a few images of the decanter with an Iittala sticker with the same “TW” markings, so it was the real thing after all!

One of my best purchases of all time was the accordion wallet from MA+. I purchased it from Sydney’s along with that MA+ doctors bag.

It’s simply stunning and is made by one piece of leather that has been folded like origami.

If you’re looking for the woman’s wear from MA+ you can find it at R.A.D on Dundas.

Another MA+ design is this raw leather and silver belt, another really simply and beautiful design. Plus who doesn’t love those cross staples at the end of the belt?

Are you looking for some mod men products at the mjolk shop? We have a great range of Georg Jensen including the money clip and key ring in the above photo. Plus that leather key cover from Fog Linen for only 4 bucks!

Did you want to take your extravagant Mod men purchases to the next level? Well if that was a yes you’ll need something to hold all of your new stuff! May I suggest this beautiful modern watch box from Machine Age modern. It’s just so lovely in person and If I had some extra cash lying around I would have loved to pick it up.

Did everyone get a chance to see Nikole Herriot’s home on Design Sponge this week?

Nikole and Celine (Bonjour Celine) got together to photograph the space and the result is just fantastic! Nikole definitely scored a perfect apartment in one of Toronto’s older buildings, my guess it’s a low-rise. It just goes to show it’s not about how much space you have, it’s how you choose to use (and accessorize) the space.

We love the simplicity of Nikole’s bedroom. The wonderful black painted wall, crisp white sheets, and Eames rocker with a reindeer hide draped over it.

We’re still waiting on a few things to come together before we reveal our own finished bedroom, but it’s really coming along.

A beautiful white kitchen with ceramic tiles and open shelves.

Does that glass brush looks familiar?

Make sure you check out the full post here (love the bathroom!).

One thing I just can’t stand about our apartment is the popcorn ceiling! I would much prefer the white slatted ceilings found in many Swedish summer homes.

One of our favorite chairs is the white Lamino lounge chair upholstered in white sheepskin, we have one here at the store!

What a beautiful carpet on the wide plank pine floors.

Old plastered walls, white ceiling and bright window.

This home has some exposed beams happening.

I wonder if it looks just as good with high ceilings?

These lucky people! Most of the homes in this post came with white slatted ceilings. I don’t even want to think about the cost to do it in our apartment even with thin pine slats… We do wonder what would happen if we took down the ceiling dry wall and exposed all the wood and sprayed it white, but that’s not a project that will happen anytime soon!

All photos via My Scandinavian Retreat.

Yesterday morning we received a mystery package…

We finally received our iPad! The most appropriate word to describe my excitement would be “giddy”. I’m not really a gadget guy, but I’m a really big fan of Johnathan Ive and I’m intrigued to see how I react to the iPad’s minimalist interface.

(Our iPad is dressed in ubiquitous gingham for summer)

So why did we really buy an iPad?

Well… We really wanted to have the iPad in the mjölk shop so we could show customers large beautiful images of our products along with inspirational photos of the pieces being used in a space. I’ve actually been using it on the floor to see peoples reactions to it. I know it’s a bit gimmicky but it’s been handy having a calculator with me so I can write up quotes on the spot with the customer.

There’s something to be said about being current and relevant.

Sunday night we were excited to head up north again. Now that Isha doesn’t have her brother to keep her company we decided to bring her with us! She was a very good girl the ride up and didn’t talk to much, I think she could tell by our body language that she wasn’t going to the vet. She quickly decided that the safari chair was hers to claim.

During our stay we stopped by a local antique market and picked up a vintage milk bottle with heart motifs. It reminds us of the enamel Kaj Franck bowls we have with the same heart motif.

I got around to installing the red Arne Jacobsen wall mounted bathroom fixtures. It’s hard to find toothbrushes that fit, since everything is so inflated these days – incidentally, these toothbrushes are made out of recycled yogurt cups and can be purchased at The Sweet Potato in the Junction. The soap holder on the right is a magnet and the soap has a bottle cap embedded into it. They’re very nautical and match the mirror perfectly.

We still need to find someone to install the Malm fireplace we got last year. those are all bags of cement sitting in it.

We also put up a broom and dustpan designed by Oji Masanori. We got to put it to use cleaning up some cat food, it worked great!

While we were hanging outside on the deck Isha would put her face to the screen and meow at us so we decided we would give her a chance (“this is your chance Isha, now don’t blow it”) and let her out onto the deck. The deck itself is gated and there weren’t that many possibilities for escape, but boy was she curious about the outside world. The best moment was when a moth flew by and she frolicked after it (not above, that is a leaf). Big paws strikes again!

And as always, our cat matches our style. Unfortunately for the white sofa.