my 2 cents on design

How to live together with a teenager the 20/30/50 rule

One of the biggest myths is that teenagers are self-absorbed. The passion, loyalty to their group and friends, as well as assertiveness of their opinions, if appropriately interpreted, paint a completely different picture. Sociologically they have a strength that is seldom recognized: they are highly capable of meaningful contributions to help those around them. The…

Homes these days are less about norm and more about culture, part 2

Continuing our house tour on the main floor… (If you’ve missed part 1, read it HERE) MAIN FLOOR The living room and dining room are pulled together by a three-sided fireplace that articulates them without disrupting the flow of the space. The dining room sports a beautifully detailed bar with a backlit natural stone backdrop…

Homes these days are less about norm and more about culture, part 1

When myriads of cultures mix, borrow and evolve together within Toronto’s small geographic footprint, their aesthetic preferences intersect and build homes that exude a rich cosmopolitanism, proud of being different. This is such a home. A home where the owners love the contemporary design and wanted to keep most of their existing furniture and artifact…

What is good communication and why in design it mostly means perfectly organizing myriads of decisions

Good communication is about clarity of expression. That’s what we were all taught from the early days, and that’s the first mistake. Asserting that the control of communication is in the hands of the sender while ignoring that interpretation at the receiver’s end is as crucial, is the exact recipe for the Tower of Babel….

Focus – Personal growth one step at a time, Part 1, ATTENTION | HABITS | CHANGE

Continuing the path of those before me, I put myself first and through that, I make myself a better place. 🧞‍♀️xA. FOCUS, part 1 ATTENTION “The key to getting things done is doing what’s important, not doing it all.” Adriana Mot Ten minutes in the bathroom. Fifteen to get the coffee going. An hour to…

A cottage is a home, with your body in mind

Having a cottage comes with endless drives in and out of the city, the established efficiency of end of weekend cleanup and, naturally, the inexorable pleasure of alternate living in different yet equally familiar environments. Heidegger’s Dasein concept offers excellent insight into why that is. Simply put: being in the world does not mean you’re…

Welcome to the world of small business: small profits, little free time, big satisfaction and large freedom

There once was a dream that turned out to be the birth and death of me. Like many before me and so many more after, I wanted to be my own boss. And with that in mind, I started on a path of self-destruction where I erased many things that I knew in order to…

Beautiful Ukraine, Kiev, art, and the sheer pleasure of being

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace A humanist at heart, it is hard to imagine what he would’ve thought if he had lived today. Dismayed by the lack of records documenting Russian domestic life at the time, his majestic novel is filled with vivid…

Focus – An introduction to personal growth one step at a time

INTRODUCTION I’ve always wondered about speed. Speed of our mind to be exact; thoughts, memories, actions being formed, that cauldron where they are not yet done but are certainly germinating. Is the speed of mind ruled by the same rules as physics? Is it, maybe, that our brains function as a particle accelerator? What if…

Living in a Dochia home, a healthy house part two

Sure, you can live in just a house, but why stop there and not make the best of it. There is no shortage of wonderfulness in the world; get some for yourself, and here is how: LIVING IN A DOCHIA HOME Through Selftropy™ (the positive emotional bonding between a person and their surroundings), a Dochia-designed…

Alfresco Cheese, the perfect presentation and dining just south of the 45th parallel

On average, in Ontario, the frost-free season starts somewhere around the 23rd of March and ends on the 31st of October. In its window of 161 days, the flurry of life outside most Canadian homes is in sync with the season, ripping the benefits of a warmer sun, flower beauty and much-needed positive energy. Part…

Over the top hotels and Blue Zone lifestyle, two major trends for this Spring

Needless to say, they both have to do with leisure, health and wellbeing. At some point enough is enough and one has to admit that this is the world we live in. While risks have changed, life must go on and, with adjusted responsibility and awareness, we should continue to travel and explore this beautiful…