Recently I discovered HOPEA, an online shop that sells vintage modern Scandinavian and Canadian jewelry. Coveting was immediate. Although I’m generally a no fuss kind of person who rarely remembers to put jewelry on, I’ve been trying to dress it up a bit more. Modernist jewelry is my happy medium. Simple, clean with interesting form.

Honestly, it was hard to pick just two pieces. Cosima has an amazingly curated selection of necklaces, bracelets and rings, everything from clean minimalist to brutalist.

Erik Granit “Spheres” Bracelet, silver, 1974.
Maker mark, “E. Granit & Co.”, “925″, “V7″, ”Made in Finland”

Designed by Jorma Laine and produced by Kultateollisuus Ky in Finland, c. 1970.

We got to chatting, and in no time we realized that it would be nice for people to come and see some pieces in person. So we’ve curated a small selection at Mjölk.

So, if you’re in Toronto, you should come by the shop to see these pieces in person! If you’re out of town, definitely have a browse on HOPEA‘s fantastic website.

For my birthday John surprised me with this artist piece by UK designer Kathleen Hills. Milkii is a double-spouted jug made of gorgeous bone china that can be used for milk, or when it’s off duty, as a vase.

The red tops are for when you want to reseal the jug when it’s in use. The foil tops are for changing up the display.

Continuing with our milk theme…some adorable Japanese milk bottles that we picked up during our layover in Narita. We quickly realized that spending 8 hours in the airport was a bad idea, so we headed over to Narita town, about 2 trains stops before the airport. It’s definitely worth a visit if you have a long layover! We fell for these  bottles–the green is milk, the black was for a really thick yogurt.

Moo.

What’s this! At Kitanosumai Sekkeisha, located out in the countryside of Hokkaido, we found this bag. The shop was clearly Scandinavian inspired and I quickly grabbed this bag as soon as I saw it. Our shop name is actually inspired by the Arla Swedish milk packaging, which has won design awards, so whenever we see it, we think of our shop. Funny that another shop has used it for inspiration too!

This post needs some kitkas to go with the milk. Our friends over at Upside Dive gave us a lovely wedding gift – an awesome vintage cat tea towel and beautiful Dansk flamestone  pot, perfect for heating up hot chocolate. Thanks guys!

This post is a bit late. Like we’re into a whole new year late. But we felt the need to share our Christmas stocking bounty since we managed to actually find some great items! We weren’t going to do presents this year but a few days before Christmas, we decided to do stockings and for the most part, we shopped local (yay Junction!).

John’s stocking for Juli (above): MOR candle from Russet & Empire, Happy Socks, Aunt Lolo’s DIY Cookies and airplane comfort kit (in grey bag) from Drake General Store and the Kay Bojesen monkey was a lucky find from World Headquarters.

Juli’s stocking for John: washi tape from The Paper Place, socks and letterpress cards from Drake General Store, Kay Bojesen soldier from World Headquarters and Panasonic Toot-a-Loop bracelet radio from Mrs. Huizenga (Junction location).

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

We finally got our vintage fireplace sprayed white and lugged up to the apartment (I’m very proud of Juli). The burnt orange was pretty cool, but I’m happy that we got it sprayed a simple white.

Tim from Beresford Inc. did an amazing job keeping all the details intact, including this retro “Log” logo.

We picked up an extension flue at Home Depot and the little tin cap which finishes off the top, but also has an open vent for the fan.

The faux logs are pretty quirky, but they do set the mood. I’m still toying with painting the brass handles black, just for simplicity sake.

Our friend Summer recently traveled to Scandinavia and thoughtfully brought us back a really special piece of pottery to add to our collection.

It’s numbered on the bottom, and in handwriting it says:

Müller
Luzern
Swiss made
BS

We love the use of geometry, texture and colour.

It has found a good home. Thank you Summer!!!

Before there was Mjolk, there was a groundbreaking modernist store on Bloor Street West Front Street East called Karelia. It was a store that introduced modern Finnish design to Toronto. You could find high-end pieces by Yrjö Kukkapuro and Eero Aarnio, designers that still haven’t returned back to the Toronto modern retail scene.

The store existed before our time, but we have a lot of customers and former employees of Karelia that come in our store and reminisce about its time as a store.

Let me back track a little — Every Monday on our day off we visit a neighbourhood in the city. Today we trekked over to Leslieville, on Queen St. East. We visited Jake at one of the best stores in the city, Machine Age Modern. After talking obsessively about Tapio Wirkkala he took out an old poster he had from Karelia. He mentioned he had visited Janis Kravis, the owner of Karelia who is still working as an architect in Toronto.

He told me the owner has a whole wall of modernist glass, one of which was signed “Thanks for having me over for dinner – Alvar Aalto” A one of a kind piece created by Aalto to mark the occasion.

Imagine getting Finel coffee percolators for $15.95?

Jake gave us an early wedding gift, which are little mementos from the old Karelia store.

Two stainless steel hearts.

Which come together to form a sculpture. I’m not sure who the designer is but Jake thinks it’s from Sweden, I still need to do some research…