BBBlog

Libeco linen and that lucky old sun

 'That lucky old sun, got nothin' to do, but roll around heaven all day....' , a song I first heard covered by a very young Frank Sinatra.  Why this comes to mind when I think of linen?  Hmm....  ...

CHARLOTTE & CASTEL Sea Salt Soap

This could be looking out to sea off the coast of Bermuda.... but no, it's the view from my home on the north shore of Great Lake Erie on a sunny day in January this year.  Beautiful shades of blue...

Why the Paint Bag?

I recently spoke to a fashion boutique owner about our new Paint Bag; she said she had 3 'splatter ' collections  in her shop -  they are so IN right now! I thought to myself that sounds awful, I ...

NEW YEAR BLIND HOPE aka resolution

Okay I am a little late out of the starting gate for the New Year resolution stuff, but so be it.  Out with Downton Abbey and in with stardust!  That's my new year's resolution.( I was a fan of th...

"RUMER" HAS IT

Brave Brown Bag sighting by UK DAILY NEWS shows the actress Rumer Willis has it - our BBB in Marche size Olive. 

Ginko Clock /Fall back

Someone very wise said in life there are things that happen so slowly one fails to notice, or conversely, so quickly one fails to see the change.  'Conversely', indeed, a great word with its Latin...

Post Labour Day garlic

I was on my way back to bagland Tuesday morning and stopped to close up the barn which I had forgot to do the night before, which is why I may have a resident bat!  I saw sister Bonny's stash of ...

A TISKET A TASKET....

OK, it's just a concept based on the iconic fruit basket, but it may have potential.  Potential or not, the fabric, a needlepoint canvas coated with beeswax has stuck with me for many years.  I k...

Yellow Billed Cuckoo Song

      I had the pleasure of encountering my first Yellow Billed Cuckoo this summer.  I actually did not see the bird just heard its rather haunting mating call.  Sort of dove-like but with a d...

The art of dirt

I I remember I saved a clump of clay from the Dundas,, Ontario gorge near the escarpment and put it in a plastic bag for no good reason other than I liked the reddish brown colour.  Artist Herman ...

"The Sweetness of a Simple Life "

  I gave this book to my sister Bonny who is an avid gardener and keep borrowing it back for myself!  So I better get another copy. I discovered writer, medicianal botanist, scientist, Diana Ber...

Stairway to barn heaven!

The plan:  My Dad casually mentioned that the carpenter had an opening and would be coming the next day to put stairs up to the barn loft on the South side.  We call it Q loft as the North side o...

A -TO by Donatella Ligas

A-TO is a beautiful boutique owned by Donatella Ligas located in Caligari ,Italy; to be exact the capital of the island of Sardinia.  She recently received her first order of Brave Brown Bags.  W...

Happy Mom Day: enjoy our art & bag pairing

Anti-it Bag

  It's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal fashion section called Revenge of the Anti-It Bag http://on.wsj.com/199P76W   or bag designs that don't scream ostentatious consumption w...

Textile wit of designer Bev Hisey

Toronto-based textile designer Bev Hisey has a great sense of humour a bit off the warp and woof, and this very much carries through in her textile designs. http://www.bevhisey.com/home.html  ...

Hail the Fashion Museum comes to Hespeler

I was so excited to see this book at our local book & vinyl shop in Hespeler, and even more amazed when owner, Wendy, said that  author Johnathon Walford was indeed opening a Museum dedicated...

Our reach should exceed our cell phone?

In Feb 28/15 issue of Economist, Planet of the Phones, the first paragraph reads: " the Ood are an odd bunch.  Among the more enigmatic of the aliens regularly encountered in"Doctor Who", a televis...

Bettoja, Gazzoni and Wieland ...

Inspiring ladies!.  Georgia Bettoja, (shown on left) I have never met but when I saw the write up on her in World of Interiors April 15 issue , I thought it was a photo of Idarica Gazzoni, ( show...

Pill Photo: "so many bags. too few arms".

Barbara Pill is our BBB photo winner with " too many BBB, to few arms."  She is a special BBB customer who, as one can see owns a few!  Special because she has a great sense of art and personal s...

Who is Arthur Quentin?

I have not figured this out who Arthur Quentin actually is but I do know that the very sophisticated table top shop on rue Saint Denise in Montreal is one of our oldest customers  http://www....

March Makeover: Nancy Braun's Brave Brown Bag

Nancy Braun is the consumate hair colouring artist.   Her bi-coastal salon is a favourite of a swish clientel in Hollywood and NYC.  The Balayage technique which she developed can result in the m...

Huntington Beach blender weather

I was just about to continue complaining about the Ontario weather and the unending cold spell when I received this photo from my cousin in Los Angeles on March 2.  I thought he had photoshopped ...

The Greater Perfection

Still have landscape and garden views on my brain,  maybe because we are on the homestretch to Spring or I have watched too many  segments of Monty Don's  Gardens of the World.  He's British, so ...

Beauty and the machine

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful , we must carry it with us or we find it not"  Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This is food for aesthetic thought.  The following Op Ed piece in Princ...

The problem with Ava...

Ava is my avocado plant.   Ava started from a football size avocado.  I wish I had taken a photo of that indescribable green/yellow fruit on the inside.  It is my favourite colour.  When my siste...

A Clic and a Celle

I remember the first time I met Christiane Celle.  She was attending the NY Gift Show as the impresario buyer of Calypso, a chic fashion boutique that had grown from her French St Barth's  roots,...

A super bowl or mushroom lamp

I'm a big fan of Designboom blog, especially the sunday edition of the week's best.  You never know what to expect, to wit, this mushroom lamp by Danish designer  Jonas Edvard.  Certainly adds ne...

A Perfect Red

A Perfect Red by author Amy Butler Greenfield  is the perfect book for understanding the allure of the colour red, esp. with Valentine's approaching.  In today's world, in fashion or out of fashi...

the art of tree...

The cover for our Spring 15 collection is the magic of Toronto based designer Robin Uchida.  The plus 130 ft Poplar trees, inside the bag, so to speak, are compliments of my grandparents who plan...