Coverings highlights day two

I got home late and I have a photo shoot in an hour. Here are some more photos I tweeted during the day yesterday. I'll explain plenty about all of this in the coming days. Coverings had some real gems, I'll say that.

Drop dead gorgeous new stuff from New Ravenna.

Grafitti tile. It was neat and it sure beats grafitti china.

A smooth Italian crosses the street at the end of Coverings.

Highlights form Coverings yesterday

So I did manage to get internet access this morning after all. Here are some of the images I popped up onto Twitter yesterday from the floor at Coverings. If you are a Twitterer, please follow me at @Paul_Anater and if you aren't a Twitterer you'd better start. Here are those highlights. These are iPhone shots, so excuse their lack of sharpness. I'll 'splain everything later.

This is a row of quartzite closet doors.

Thankfully, the convention center has lots of these.

I'm at Coverings

Bet you didn't know it but I was at a trade show yesterday. I'm at the same one today. The trade show is Coverings and it's an chance for the worldwide tile industry to show off its wares and celebrate their art. Sound boring? Believe me it's not. This show is a cross between an art installation and a runway show. If my posting's a little spotty today and tomorrow, that's why. I'm off taking photographs of beautiful things to write about later. I suppose I'll be practicing my Italian too. Avanti!

Elmira's Northstar series is now available in 10 colors

I've long been an admirer of Elmira Stoveworks' Northstar series of retro appliances. I've always thought they had a cool factor to them, but it's recently come to my attention that they are no mere novelty item.

Elmira's been at it since the early '70s in Elmira, Ontario. They know what they're doing and any company that can build a fully-functional, wood-burning cookstove in 2010 is OK in my book. I'll get into to their 1800s reproduction stoves in a later post. For now, I want to let you know that the Northstar series of mid-century-inspired appliances are now available in ten colors. Imagine, you can have a Candy Red, Buttercup Yellow, Robin’s Egg Blue, Flamingo Pink, Quicksilver, Mint Green, Bisque, Black or White suite. Sweet!

They're Energy Star-rated and they even have a custom color program.

So even though there's no such thing as timeless kitchen design, classics like these are always welcome. Check out Elmira Stoveworks' website for more info.

Thank you Making it Lovely and her lovely reader Lindsay

Yesterday, the design blog Making it Lovely ran a story about urban chickenkeeping. She took the opposite tack I did when I wrote the definitive blog post on the subject last month.

Anyhow, in the middle of the doe-eyed do-gooding going on in her comments section. Seriously, I don't think the word "cute" has had that kind of a workout since this nightmare debuted. Go ahead, click that link. I dare you.

Where was I? Oh yeah, in the middle of all that squealing and swooning, a reader named Lindsay linked to my definitive blogpost on urban chickenry. It did no good because the swoons and squeals continued unabated. However, what it did do was make my traffic go off the charts. I love it when that happens. I had no idea that Making it Lovely (a perfectly wonderful and worthwhile blog even if we don't see eye to eye on this chicken thing) pulled those kind of numbers. Brava! So thanks for letting me bask in your glow for a few hours and welcome everybody who's clicking through here. You'll find no cute or mindless pablum. What you will find however, are the coolest commenters on the internet. Stick around.

Oh and Lindsay is none other than Lindsay Christiansen, whose Likely Design holds one of the most attractive Wordpress themes I've ever seen. Lindsay's a designer/ blogger who does virtual design and she deserves a round of applause.