Rooms on Film: Cloud Atlas (Luisa Rey)

There are a ton of film sets I want to talk about lately and that's all I really want to talk about. It doesn't make for a balanced blog, but so what? Some months ago, I had the tremendous pleasure of seeing Cloud Atlas for the first time. It came out in 2012, starring Oscar Winners Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, and the promos were downright confusing. Never having heard of the (magnificent) novel, I just didn't know what to make of it. My loss! This movie is visually stunning and best viewed in the theater. The story - tighter and more romantic than the novel - is entrancing, resonant and powerful. From the 1850s to the very distant future, the cinematography, CGI and set design produce a dazzling array of scenes in the 1850s, 1930s, 1970s, 2000s and distant future. If you haven't seen it, or read the novel, run don't walk...

Now let's discuss the 1970s studio apartment of Luisa Rey...

Retail Odyssey: A Peacock Hamper

one of those things you can't find just anywhere

I was in Toronto this summer and tried to take in as much of the city as possible. One of the first things I did was stroll a good length of Yonge Street. I mostly covered the retail-heavy part that is full of malls, restaurants and shops. One of my first stops was HomeSense whose ads I often see in Style at Home and House & Home magazines. Turns out it's just like our own Home Goods/Marshalls/TJ Maxx in the U. S.