Quote of the Week | Clothes and the Man - Edward Spencer

Good clothes look better when they are nearly worn out than very cheap clothes look when they are new.

stacyreynaud

From the Archives - The Duffel Bag Mystique

The Gold Rush 1898 duffel bag evolution - Chilkoot Pass Alaska

Even the word duffel bag conjures up images of three day old stubble and mud caked motorcycles all interwoven with vetiver, tobacco, musk and dirt.

Lost treasures from both Kurt Cobain and the Rolling Stones have been found in duffel bags. The duffel bag as Ark of the Rock and Roll Covenant?

Whatever it may be, the duffel bag only gets better with age.

Etsy Ciao Baby Vintage find

originally published February 16, 2011

Wink and Howie's Place - A West Vancouver Mid-Century Home Demolition

You remember this home. In February 2012, I posted about Wink and Howie's cute little place they'd lived in for 40 years. They sold in the summer of 2011 because of declining health (I bought their teak bedroom and dining suites). Well, last weekend, we decided to do a drive-by to see if the home had been restored - as we thought it would be back in 2012. Good God - no. It's been replaced by a concrete monstrosity with Parthenon-worthy Doric columns (the most massive Greek temple columns) and Baroque balconies. First image of the series.

How to Make Vegan Brownies - Vegan and Raw Recipe

Vegan Brownie Recipe image Stacy Reynaud 

Raw Vegan Brownies

Super fast, super easy, super good. 

Call these vegan brownies a breakfast energy square; no guilt is involved. 

What you need:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
• 1.75 cups pitted dates
• 1/2 cup raw cacao
• two pinches of sea salt
• parchment paper
• food processor
• medium size bowl
• small rectangular glass container with a cover (we used one of those glass airtight food storage containers )

What you do:

• Place walnuts in food processor and process till finely ground.
• Add cacao and a pinch of salt and blend.
• Add dates one at a time to the running processor (through the top feeder tube) - the ingredients should look like cake crumbs, yet stick together when squeezed (if they don't, add more dates.)
• Add the mixture to a medium-sized bowl and fold in the almonds.
• Transfer to a parchment paper-lined glass container.
• Press and mold the brownie mixture into the glass container.
• Sprinkle the other pinch of coarse sea salt on top.
• Place in freezer for about 45 minutes.
• Remove from freezer and slice into bite-size servings.
• Cover and store in the fridge.

Makes about eight to ten bite-size brownies - double the recipe for more

adapted from Karla's Closet and My New Roots

Quote of the Week - Erich Fromm

stacy reynaud

While in our private life nobody except a mad person would remain passive in view of a threat to our total existence, those who are in charge of public affairs do practically nothing, and those who have entrusted their fate to them let them continue to do so.

Erich Fromm, To Have or To Be

The Longest Year in History

was 1972.

Remember the power of three? It's happening again, this time with the year 1972.

First off - Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin - a song I thought, from the very first day I heard remembering hearing it, was a cheesy 70s rambling poem song about King Arthur, so I paid no attention to it. Anyway, it popped up at me on the weekend, and I took the time to listen to the lyrics - which are everything but knights in white satin. 

New old favourite!

Then, I was looking at old Honda motorbikes online and came across this vintage ad from 1972. The truck and camper (and mini bike) equate to the elimination of the living in a van down by the river scenario created by the Vancouver rental pool.

Finally, Tuesday night I was looking at residential architecture and up pops this beauty. West Vancouver's Helmut Eppich house designed in 1972 by Arthur Erickson Architects (and sold in 2010 for $4.8 million.)

Vintage Chanel

1991

Christy Turlington

Things that confuse me

Efficiency committees

Initiatives that take the initiative out of initiatives

Quote of the Week - Lao Tzu

The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
image © Stacy Reynaud

A Community Plan that Defeats its Purpose

mid-century home demolition West Vancouver BC image Stacy Reynaud

information on issues relating to McMansions and possible District actions to make new housing better fit existing neighbourhood character.

West Vancouver Home demolition image Stacy Reynaud

West Vancouver heritage demolition image Stacy Reynaud

West Vancouver West Coast Modern home demolition image Stacy Reynaud

West Vancouver mid-century home demolitions image Stacy Reynaud

In West Vancouver, there's this mentality that renters are an unruly, degenerate, dirty bunch who will settle for anything (as interpreted by the state of the rental portfolio and letters to the editor of the North Shore News). Those of that particular mindset aren't reading this blog, so telling them to get their heads out of their (gl)ass (house) won't matter. It also shouldn't give them the right to try and rent us a termite-infested crack house off the highway for $3000 a month (such as one on Palmerston & 14th we saw recently) or this black mould mid-century we looked at in 2012.

Just because we live in West Van doesn't mean we'll pay you more to rent your 'tear down' house you just bought until you can afford to put up your 'trophy house.' You know what we see when we're out there snooping around at architecture, kids (usually baby boomers) whose parents just died that are eager to sell off what they perceived as the tacky family home they grew up in. Don't just blame the buyers of these properties for the 'ugly' neighbourhoods transforming West Van; look at the sellers.

Generation X is just now hitting the peaks of our careers, and we are all looking for homes that we can rent and live in for many years. We can't afford down payments for overpriced homes - remember, we moved out of our parents' house when we graduated from high school, worked three jobs and put ourselves through university instead - because that's what you did. We'd love to rent your well-loved, well-kept, clean, tacky family home and make it our home, but we need to be more innovative to pay over $3000 a month for it - the bloody thing was probably paid off forty years ago. So West Van, if you want to keep, or try to attract, a younger demographic with extra money to spend in the community (not on renting a crappy house), get it together because we're getting fed up with this - and because we rent - we can just up and leave, whenever we want. You're losing your history and your future community all at the same time. 

Check out the Facebook group I Grew Up in West Vancouver.

Are you interested in moving to West Van to rent but need to figure out what's happening here?

The first of two info sessions on West Vancouver housing is Monday, February 24th, from 4 to 8 pm at the West Van Community Centre.

See you there.

PS coach houses shouldn't cost $1.0 million or $4500 monthly to rent.

Images Stacy Reynaud