Unicorn Finding 2 | Nikole Herriott and Herriot Grace

Stumbling upon a blog that has all sorts of beautiful things can make you anti-social, spending more than half a day clicking away. One such blog was none other than Nikole Herriott's, whose story is just, well, inspiringly (for lack of a better word) CUTE. 

We'll let it speak for itself: 

HERRIOTT GRACE is a venture of father and daughter, and this is their story.

Lance and Nikole Herriott live 3400 kilometers apart: his workshop is in Victoria, British Columbia, and her studio is in Toronto, Ontario. When she first made her home more than halfway across the country, they started to send packages back and forth.

In some of those packages, Lance began to include his own hand carved spoons. He had been collecting wood since the early seventies, and used his best pieces for these gifts. Nikole loved them; their balance and shape, the pieces were made with unmistakable care. She knew they were something special.

One day it dawned on her that others might appreciate her father’s talent as she did, so Nikole asked if he would ever want to share his work. Lance took a few days to think about it. And, after some convincing, he agreed to her plan, but only with people that understood and cared about the time and effort spent on each piece.

She told him, “Leave it to me, I know just the sort.”

And with that, Herriott Grace was born.

In the three years since, their small shop has grown to selling an array of hand carved and hand turned wooden objects, including spoons, bowls, pedestals, candy dishes, serving boards, rolling pins, plates and mortar and pestle sets. All are one of a kind and made entirely of salvaged, chemical-free wood, ranging in type, age, and origin. None are exactly the same, and thus none are perfect. But the slight imperfections are an affect of the handmade quality. They’ve also introduced a select line of exclusive porcelain dishware. The ceramic pieces are cast in small runs, and boast the rustic, tactile beauty for which their brand is known.

They also make, by hand, kitchen linens, cake flags, birthday candles, beeswax salve and cookie cutters.

Lance still lives in Victoria, and still sends packages to Nikole in Toronto. Now, she styles and photographs those pieces he sends, and together they are Herriott Grace.

Let's say it together now: awwwwww... 

The blog is filled with awesome pictures of the sort of handmade items that makes Herriot Grace, and a recipe or two that'll just make you stock up on flour and eggs alike.

Here are just some of the enticingly attractive photos you'd find there: 

Oh, and for you socially active peeps out there, add her on FB, twitter and instagram.

You'll see what we mean.

Unicorn Findings 1 | Photisserie

We've decided, just to make this blog just that much more interesting, and this may put you pinterest addicts out there in a right rut, that, we would do what we'd like to call our "Unicorn Finding" for rivetingly awesome blogs and websites for food and food design lovers out there.

And what better way to kick off with a blog by a food photographer enthusiast from Germany, Kathreinerle Koschitzki. Now, Kathrin, as she would fondly be called, makes everyday food items look incredibly magical.

And her recipes, my God, her recipes! Let's just say, if you aren't married, you'd want to be, just so you could make these delectable palate orgasms for your loved one.

You can find her blog here and her Facebook page here.

Now we know the blog's mostly in German, but food and photography is a universal language, and she  puts many of the recipes up twice, once in German, and again, translated into English. Isn't that lovely of her?

And here are some of the photos you'd find there:

Now, go make some European scrumpties (that's scrumtious yummies- yea we just made that up, but we're feeling a tad proud at the moment, so let us just have it, won't you? ;-)