Cobi Ladner at Michael Penney's

Emma is once again loosing tons of hair again which is baffling us as we haven't changed a thing with  her diet to cause it and so my evenings after work once again start with vacuuming the entire house. So last night, inspite of an all day long headache after a gruellingly busy day at work, I was quite excited to hook up with my friend Joanne to go to Michael Penney's new store in Whitby to meet Cobi Ladner. 

Of course the one day I want to leave just a few minutes early so we could get there by 6pm my customer comes in 1 hour later than expected and puts me even later going out the door.

We arrived at 6:10 to find the store packed and I was so disappointed that this was my view of Cobi. We had to stand near the back door and every time the door opened with more people, the bells that were on the door rang and drowned out all that Cobi was saying which was too bad as I love her take on design.

Cobi answered a few questions people asked about design and herself and then everyone looked around Michael's new store which he has done a nice job of pulling together in such a short time.

He has a mix of found second hand pieces that have been repainted or refinished and new pieces along with great lamps, accessories, pillows, big chunky baskets,new upholstery and even my favourite, Dash and Albert rugs. There was little wiggle room and so I couldn't take many good pictures unfortunately.

I new I was going to be tempted to buy something but really wanted to save my spending for a trip to designer fabrics next week and so I waited in line for quite some time to purchase a set of $12.00 cotton napkins that were the perfect colour of turquoise and large enough to be used as tea towels. 

I had previously spied some stunning throws in shades of sand and sea that looked like cashmere but had no price tag on any of then and so when I got finally got to the cash I asked the price, the cashier who told me they were $49.00! They looked like they were worth a lot more.

I looked back at the long line behind me and told her I didn't want the towels after all and was going to go look at the throws again and had to loose my spot in line as a result.

At this point I knew Joanne just wanted to go as it was getting quite warm in the store and sadly since there was a no returns policy I didn't even get one of the throws but once I have chosen fabric for the pillows for our sofa I just might head back and get one of them. 

We finally nudged our way over to Cobi who was busy chatting with other people. I now wished I had stayed to try and talk with her or be able to hear what she was saying to others.

She really is one of my favourite design personalities and I wish her such great success with her new line.

I looked everywhere but didn't see any of Cobi's curtains or pillows which is what I really wanted to see and later on found tossed on the back of a chair away from where Cobi was standing, a ring of fabric swatches that a girl said were her curtain fabrics but that seemed to be all there was to see except for these gorgeous red lanterns from her accessories line.

All in all it was fun to get out on a week night to do something different but next time I'll be sure to arrive early!