Dearest Kristin

A little pic for my cousin who just turned a whooping.... 2_ years old! (We don't look a day out of university!) xox Happy Birthday Kristin!

Professional photography by Kevin Long!

Relish the Rural

I've been itching for the country... farms, barns, cottages, you name it. Wide open spaces. Rooms that are weathered, worn, rustic, surrounded with wool, flannel, and denim. And when I stumbled over these images, I was quickly transported out of the noise and hustle of town into my peaceful country paradise. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this post often...

All images are from the lovely Desire to Inspire

Concentrate on Kindness

Via Doobybrain

I tend to get easily wrapped up in planning and organizing and making sure everything 'works out'. My brain is full of logistical maneuvers, checked boxes and timing alignments.... and sometimes in the wake of my planning torrent, people's emotions get bruised. I don't realize that I have hurt people until too late, leaving my heart strangled by remorse and with no actions left to change the damage I have done. When this happens (such as now) I am physically disabled by a tightness in my chest and pressure in my ears which stops me dead in my tracks. Try as I might to make excuses, it becomes painfully apparent that my haste to create action, or solicit decisions neglects the goal of all my planning and organizing: Creating times to enjoy and appreciate the people I love and cherish. Something that shouldn't really take too much planning and organization....

With the Olympics coming two days away, I, like many Vancouverites, need forget about the logistics of the games and embrace the spirit - that warm feeling right above my spleen that brings a tingle to my nose and extra fluid to my eyes. I need to remember that what you see and do during the games is just as important as who you see it with and your attitude towards the moment. I'm sure there are going to be many lineups, missed events and agitated people, but it will all will be better if we can remember to act with kindness and appreciation for who we are with what we are going to be a part of.

Via the Herald
(Go Canada Go.)

Not what it seems

I love the idea of masking appearances. When I say that I feel as if I am admitting to a horrible vice because masking appearances seems to hold such negative connotations. But deep down I don't think it is all that bad. Moreover, I believe that being honest about having layers of disguise is more honest than saying that one doesn't have any, because, let's be honest, we all have little secrets!

This week, on Design*Sponge, I saw two (here and here) wonderfully crafted masks, which I immediately feel in love with. Both are items that have been on the top of my brain as of recent and it seemed quite timely that I should stumble upon them now...

Via Design*Sponge and Hither and Thither

The first one is the BookBook sleeve from Twelve South. This computer sleeve looks like a vintage piece of literature, not an expensive laptop and is a lovely commentary on the evolution of visual communication. It's quite ironic that the definition of social status, source of all knowledge and highly regarded hard cover books of yesteryear, which were so carefully stored and revered are now being used as a disguise for today's truly sought after item, source of information, definition of social status, the MacBook. The suggestion that an 'old piece of literature' is a deterrent for thieves is probably making Shakespeare roll over in his grave and Steve Jobs break out in song. Needless to say, these merge old and new words quite perfectly in my mind and lend to a perfect masking of appearances, not to mention that they are beautifully crafted one of a kind items that I'm sure will spur many random discussions!

Via Design*Sponge and Hither and Thither

The second item is a DIY and expands on one of my most performed DIYs (this or something like it!). It's a hidden jewelry box which is perfect for me, with my adverse reaction to clutter, yet my desire to own more jewelry is a perfect merge. I think with this solution I can now have one of these in my room! Now to find the perfect frame and piece of art!

Via Design*Sponge

A quick follow up on my comment on loving masked appearances, what I really love the most about them is the slow unraveling of the truth, and the wonderful surprise once you find out what's below the mask! It's really that element of surprise that gets me every time! (I'm not a master of deception!)

Paper Bag It

Initially I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I am pretty happy with things and didn't think I needed to change anything drastically. Since then, I realize I was on drugs and there is always room for improvement!

I have made two resolutions. To read more, and to pack a lunch.

Lunches require a bit of planning. I know that if I don't make a delicious lunch, it will be hard to motivate me to not go buy a wonderful freshly made sandwich. I have been looking around the office and taking notes of any trends from people who regularly bring their lunch, and this is what I have come up with.

1. Left overs - this is by far the most popular lunch. Most of which are a one bowl type meals such as stirfrys, and pastas or rice.
2. Assembling lunch at work - Especially with salads and sandwiches, people bring the ingredients but assemble them at lunch. This is great for me since I love tomatoes in my sandwiches, but can't handle soggy bread!
3. Toasting the bread in your sandwich. I love this idea! BLT here I come!

I'll start the year off with a great recipe that I learned from James, and which is sure to make great lunch leftovers! (I just tried this last night and it was a smash hit! It wasn't as good as James' but it was a great start, and sitting in my lunch bag as we speak!)

Via Goodlife.Eats

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

Roast at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes:
Zucchini
Red, green and yellow peppers
Tomatoes
Garlic
Onion
Mushrooms
Sun dried tomatoes in oil
Generous splash of oil from sun dried tomatoes

Cook pasta

With 10 minutes left add:
Spinach
Olives
Capers
Artichoke Hearts

When vegetables are done, mix pasta and vegetables.
Add fresh basil, and some white (or red or balsamic) vinegar.
Optional: add capers, Parmesan cheese and other fresh herbs (I used oregano)
Season with pepper (you probably won’t need salt because of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes.)

Via Fresh from the Oven

(I planned to take pictures of the miracle that is me cooking, but a- I was concentrating on the cooking too much and forgot and b- it really didn't look half as good as these ones I found here and here !)

2010 has begun?

Wow, where have the past few months gone? My monthly to-dos, ten loves, easy eco Mondays and any resemblance to a post have completely gone by the wayside... My apologies for anyone who checks here on a somewhat regular basis.


I can't even tell you what I have been up to for the past little while. I would like to say that work has consumed my life, but that is really not a valid response since everyone is super busy with work, and its not like I have been working 80 hour weeks! So what has taken up my time? Well, I have pretty much gone activity wild, going skiing, and hiking and cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing and and biking and swimming whenever I've had a free moment. The weather this winter has been so nice (warm) and sunny (!!) that I couldn't bare to say no!


It all caught up with me in January when I feel ill with a nasty little cold that wouldn't go away. I am just now recovering from it, feeling my energy levels rebound ever so slowly!

Anyway, enough with the excuses, onto better, more exciting topics! The first one of 2010? New Years Resolution. To read more. I came across this list of 100 great books from the BBC. Apparently most people have only read 6 of the 100 books. I don't think I am much above that, so if I were to try and tackle this list, are there any book suggestions? (I've place an x next to the books I have read)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling x (1/2)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible –
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell x
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger x
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis x
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini x
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres x
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden x
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown x
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery xxxx
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding x
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan x
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel x
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon x
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett x (I think I have...)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker x
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom x
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare x
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl x
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


I've only read 18 (or possibly 16 and 1/2). I do have 4-5 books on my shelf from this list. I think I will start with those!


New Year's Resolution # 2 will come tomorrow!

Felicity

What ever happened to Keri Russell? I know this is quite off topic, but I was browsing {this is glamorous} today and in the beautiful images was Keri Russell. I have always loved her effortless grace and the way she always looks comfortable and relaxed in what she is wearing. But really where has she gone? I miss not seeing those knitted sweaters, scarfs and turtlenecks which she sported so often on Felicity.

Well for those like me who are going through Russell with drawl, good news! She has a movie coming out on Christmas Day, "Leaves of Grass"(nice little Christmas gift pour moi!). The movie also features Edward Norton and Susan Sarandon, and sounds like a wonderful character movie...check out the trailer.

In the mean time here are some images of Keri Russell, in those cozy knits she wears so well!

Via InStyle Jan 09

Via {this is glamorous}

Via So that Happened

Not the cosy look, but stunning....
Via Fashion Week Daily

Out of Commission for a Bit

I'll be back in a few weeks, just having a little difficulty looking at a computer screen at the moment!

10 loves

Keeping in positive mantra mode, I am starting a new series.

I'm going to list ten things I love about certain spaces. And I am going to start with this one....

I can't find the source... anyone?

1. The shoes - of course! I like that they are all different sizes, but they are all the same style.
2. I love the storage use of the shoes - and that they are above sitting nose level!
3. The wooden pencils. Does anyone use these anymore? I have a few that I just love. The hexagonal shape, amazing.
4. The tin used as a vase for the tulips.
5. The matte black chair. I like that the chair angles are the same as the desk, but the black adds a contrast. I also love that it's matte. It really looks like it absorbs the light instead of being reflective and drawing too much attention.
6. The sliver box. A little bling, but with straight lines a classic touch.
7. The wallpaper, so out of Africa... Love the texture too.
8. The drawer handles, a throw back to school days when our teachers had desks like this... I always wanted to peek in those drawers but never dared!
9. The desk legs, at an angle, narrow and attached on the outside. Feels so deconstructed.
10. The greenery and flowers, bring some life to your workspace.

Wow, that was too much fun. I love lists!

Lost and Found

Via J.Loek

When someone possesses that creative genius, you can see the clogs of creativity constantly turning, no matter where they are. My friend Steph Hung is one such someone, creating beautiful and fun wears from material I would just discard. Seeming basic items become pieces of art, an unnoticed skirt becomes beautiful detail on a clutch, a retro bed sheet becomes a duffel bag, a golf shirt becomes a sophisticated scarf, a T-shirt becomes a necklace. Her ability to take vintage clothing and fabric an re-stitch it into fashionable clothing and accessories, as she does for her Lost/Found Collection, just amazes me.

Via Lost/Found

Steph is thankfully sharing her re purposing and salvaging talents with Vancouver at two local shows, Make it Vancouver this weekend and Urban Artisan Craft Fair November 28th and 29th, and select pieces from her line have recently been picked up by dream! Non-Vancouverites can check out her online shop.

Via J.Loek

To see more of her talent, including wonderful styling, check out these images taken by J.Loek of her line. I am counting the minutes until I can head down to the CCC to check out what new creations she has come up with lately.

Via J.Loek

Orange

I am trying to bring an accent colour into a bedroom I am decorating (for a guy) and I was stumped for a while. I always like to bring in bright accent colours but they were all looking too feminine. Orange to the rescue! Especially if paired with navy blue... What do you think?

I love orange and tan! Via Elements of Style and House and Home.

I think I am going to bring in the orange accent with pillows... Via House and Home photography by Michael Graydon.

I love these orange chairs! So fun!

I really like the giraffe in the back, a great contrast with the white walls (same as what I am working with!) Both via All things lovely.

I like the repetition of orange here, and the blue. I think I would add more blue though.... House Beautiful, ken fulk design, via On interiors.

November - To Do and Positive Mantra

Lately I have found myself to be quite negative. When someone asks me how my weekend was I am always "Good, BUT..." I am not sure why this is, possibly because I am feeling unsettled, and without purpose, or I feel slightly overwhelmed, not grounded and out of my element... Whatever the reason is, I am going to have to kick this mentality, because I'm no Debbie Downer!

I have been trying to figure out how I would kick this negativity and stick to it, and this weekend I finally had a light bulb moment! I don't know how to fully explain it, but I just have to remind myself that I am free to choose what to do. I don't have to do anything, I want to do it! For example, this weekend I was bummed because I had to go the mall to return some items. But really I want the money back, so I want to do this item. I also am really bummed about studying, but I want to do well in my courses, so I want to study.

I can see her positive mantra glowing! Cleo Sullivan

So let's see if I did everything I wanted to do for October...

1. Sew some of the Roman Blinds - purchase doweling, top piece of wood and lining material. Cut and measure out all material - The lining material is sitting right in front of me!
2. Move bedroom wall art
3. Clean out room - documents, clothes and (gasp!) shoes - this was so hard, 3 bags later, my room looks a lot less cramped!
4. Move winter clothes up, store summer clothes
5. Keep up with course homework - it was a squeeze, but I managed.
6. Post 1 time a week - not quite once a week but I did post more than 4 times this month!

Can you believe it? I finally got a whole list done, I am currently in shock. Now that I have some momentum, here is my want to-dos for Movember:

1. Post once a week. Post some personal projects.
2. Buy a winter bike. I officially can't ride my summer bike anymore.




I hope this will be my new winter bike! Kona



3. Finish decorating Kevin's room. (and post pictures)
4. Make a complete set of study notes. Book exam.
5. Be on the ball with work. Make deadlines. (this one is going to be hard!)
6. Yoga twice a week - a class or a video.
7. Book vacation. (Yes that's right I'm going on a fun vacation in 2010! More details later!)

I might be getting ahead of myself because this list looks long! Note - the roman blinds are not on here. I might have given up on them.

Even though I am not attempting to make my roman blinds this month, I still have quite a bit of sewing to do... I'm nervous, I have never done a project this large! Lucyina Moodie via Automatism

I love Freda Loves Porter

My cousin, Kelby, and a couple of her friends started making headbands this summer while in 'quarantine' due to H1N1. They most definitely found the silver lining to a bad situation... their headbands are a huge hit and are flying out of their hands! And I can see why, they are beautiful!

My cousin is the one on the right. Via FLP

Their company, Freda Loves Porter, has taken off, they even had an article in the Calgary Herald last weekend. I checked out the website to see what all of the buzz is about and now I understand! Check out their amazing creations!

All images via Freda Love Porter

I wish I lived in Calgary and could pop by one of their shows, because the website is all sold out! Maybe I'll call in a cousinly favour!!

Black on Black Leighway

I recently had my hair dyed dark. Really dark. Some people call it black although it is most definitely a couple 'numbers' off black. It is a huge change for me, and I have been finding it challenging pairing this new colour with my wardrobe. I just don't feel like my steadfast black outfits look very good with my black hair. I even went out looking for a creme coloured winter jacket (something that I would never be able to keep clean long enough to wear more than once!) But today I stumbled upon this beautifully stunning lady who pulls off the dark hair and black clothes so wonderfully. I think I should try wearing those black staples again....

The Sartorialist via dress,design & decor

Both Via Miss a la Playa

Year Round Sunshine

Love a little yellow in the bedroom to brighten up those rainy fall mornings.... (some of these images are old....)

Via Domino

Jason Martin

Via Domino

Via HGTV

Mel Yates via This is Glamorous

This bed is still my favorite frame to date! I love the painted detail!