A Spring Weekend in 2012

Spring = spring to my feet and get the dust off everything!

I picked up this clothes storage bag last week at IKEA, (along with some curtains). Why I have not had these bags to store my vintage clothing for the past twenty years is a moot question. The orange sparkly number is my wedding dress.

All zipped up.

The ocean is cleaning up as well. My First Day of Spring Beachcombing Expedition, found this washed up on shore. Living on the Pacific Coast - and expecting debris from Japan soon - I find this piece eerie. It's a tsunami wave carrying books and a violin.

Flo giving me the stink eye.

Spring cleaning tunes. A gift for me from Vinyl Records on Hastings. Check out the inscription, it adds all the more. I'd bought a new sealed pressing of Leonard Cohen's debut album at Highlife on Commercial, but it was totally warped and the first song, Suzanne - was scratched and inaudible. Another reason why old stuff is better than new. 

I couldn't get my money back from Highlife. I didn't trust buying another new pressing from them and was uninterested in a CD (I don't even have a CD player). I exchanged it for the worst Tim Buckley album, which I turned around and traded for $2 towards a Bon Iver album at another record store. Highlife should've given me my $30 back.

Another Spring find - Veuve du Vernay minis! Make every excursion a celebration with these portable little fellas.

Design Lover Ris and Selldorf Sunball for Rosenthal

From within your plushly padded shell, you navigate the "sunball" to mirror the orbit of the sun. With the aid of Teflon bearings, you direct its roof to slide open, the ball to swivel on its base in near galactic silence. Accessorize with serving tray and stereo...and a light for night flights by the pool, patio or terrace. Mission done, you lock the sunball for total security. Designed by Gunter Ris and Herbert Selldorf for Rosenthal. From AD, 1977.

Sold September 27, 2007 at Sotheby's London for $49,505 USD

Style Inspiration Braque and Brown

Is that an I.M. Rosen 8800 credenza and Frank Ligtelijn Globe 2000 lamp I see? Good thing they're not Le Corbusier's or we could have some trouble on our hands.

images: Better Homes & Gardens 1975, Georges Braque 1952

Another West Vancouver Home Demo

I wanted to buy the pink marble around the fireplace but didn't have a crow bar on me to pull it off. The guy was asking $50 for it.

Want to see more of West Van before the nouveau riche moved in and started tearing things down? The West Van Public Library - which has the largest circulation in Canada - is releasing the District's digital photo collection to the public today, West Vancouver's 100th birthday.

Quote of the Week - Hattie McDaniel

You've been brave for so long Miss Scarlett, you gotta keep on bein' brave.

as Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939)

Design Lover - Marcello Mioni Bed

1979

Super Easy Food

stacy reynaud

stacy reynaud

Easy enough I even had time to make it for lunch just before I ran out the door. Not to mention, these goodies can hang out in your fridge all week for you to snack on.

What you need:
tortilla wraps
*red pepper/spicy hummus
**matchstick carrots
avocado (thanks Michael)
edamame beans
spinach

What you do:
1. spread the hummus over the entire wrap - all the way to the edge. It's the glue that holds the wrap together.
2. layer the rest of the ingredients over the entire face of the tortilla
3. roll it like you're rolling a hand rolled cigarette - roll a little, pull back, roll a little more, pull back. Rolling like this ensures the wrap is rolled into the mix (see the second pic).
4. slice the roll in half

*You could use any spread. How about Baba ganoush?
**I've also used a match stick beet and carrot mix. Cutting the veggies like this ensures a crunch.

adapted from Healthy Happy Life

Quote of the Week - Keith Richards

Source: bohogypsygirl.tumblr.com via Stacy on Pinterest

If you don't know the blues...
there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

Vintage DKNY Thigh Highs 1993

from my old ELLE magazine 1993

DKNY

Donna Karan New York

Grunge Era

From the Archives - Joshua Van Dyke The Skateboard as Rite of Passage

Originally published December 1, 2008

I met Josh at the Dynamo Arts Space on East Hastings in 2008. I was there to check out some oil paintings by another artist and Josh caught my eye. Since then, Josh has set up his studio on Bowen Island and has started making quite the name for himself. I hope you bought his stuff four years ago when I first introduced you to him. Head on over and follow him on Facebook.

The rite of passage. Vancouver based artist, Joshua Van Dyke, explores this universal theory in his latest work of sculpture. Each work, created out of vintage skate decks he has collected from around the world, translates separation, liminality and re-incorporation into a visual masterpiece reminisce of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Van Dyke's work is raw, symbolic, and brilliant.

images Stacy Reynaud 

He Asked About A Broken Heart

Someone recently asked me for advice on dealing with a broken heart. He defined his situation as one in which he'd 'lost his love'. I asked if he was referring to love as an animate or inanimate object. He answered animate but was inkling towards inanimate. To him, I answered something like this:

I believe in different kinds of love. In life, one may encounter many, a few, one, or maybe even none.

There is the love that hurts and makes one weep.
The love that poisons and makes one sick.
The teenage love one looks back on and smiles.
The love that one cannot remember
and the love that is comfortable and easy.

Those are the different kinds of love I know. There's s no use in trying to forget love. Love never dies. It's like a ghost summoned by one of our senses to appear at a certain sight, sound, taste, touch or smell. 

After a devastating breakup, someone once told me I should mourn its end. Treat it as if it had physically died, eulogize it, cry, bury it, and grieve. I did this. 

I wrote a eulogy for it and went and sat in the forest to mourn. I think I may have even worn black for a while. After all, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it right.

What have I learned?

Never compare the different kinds of love.
A broken heart will heal, yet a scar will remain.
Sometimes a scar hurts if it's bumped.
Don't bother trying to forget.
Accept that there are different kinds of love of different intensities.
The best way to love is to allow someone to love you.

It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone and a day to love someone... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. Khalil Gibran

Fashion Influencers Fashion Bloggers and Brandwashing

Robin and Gino - one from my found vintage photo collection

A few weeks ago, Syed, at Dapper Kid, wrote a great post about fashion bloggers and transparency. 

I commented on how I doubted the transparency of Jak & Jil at times. 

My viewpoint formed after seeing too many black quilted vintage (?) Chanel shoulder bags and a specific type of phone in a series of posts on Jak & Jil. 

These high-gloss street style bloggers have always left me with doubts - it's time to move on, marketers. 

Today, in my reader, four new posts from Jak and Jil came in - each titled Tommy Ton for Club Monaco. 

Thank you, Mr. Ton, for your transparency. I, for one, greatly appreciate it.

For more on brandwashing, look at Martin Lindstrom's book, Brandwashed.

Quote of the Week - Jack Kerouac

One day I will find the right words and they will be simple.

Last Weekend

It rained so hard even the crows were soaked.

We picked up some Springtime and headed over to Rachel and Eddie's place

for some champagne cocktails





and an attempt at making this extreme Chocolate Wasted Cake. According to Rachel, remember I'm the bartender, it didn't work properly because there weren't any eggs.

We poured Kahlua over it and ate it anyway.

I husked tulips.

stacy reynaud

Morello hung out

and Gabriella hid.

Their building turned 101 last year - the tenants had a street party (welcome to the West End).

An apartment like theirs is perfect for introverted me and my ADD.

There is so much to look at my eyes don't stop - which means I don't really need to talk.

I can disappear into one of the five rooms (I despise open concept) and try on her Grandma's jewelry

or admire pillows bought on Etsy and Polaroid collages of loved ones.

Even the trees keep me entertained.

Her flower garden is continuously growing. On my next visit I'll bring her some of mine.

Currently Listening To

Last night I was looking for a video of Dinah Washington singing, Baby Did You Hear Me? All I could find were cheesy remixes. As a last resort I tried rcrdlbl. Do you ever go there just to read the awesome band names? While looking for Dinah, I came to the conclusion that David Dead Deer should compose a new album, Ghost Wolf of the Panda Woodland.
Okay, Verve, I will now go and purchase Dinah's single.

1966 House and Garden Building Guide

House and Garden Building Guide was published twice a year by Condé Nast. You could send away for blueprints for homes like this. Just for fun, I was going to send my $20 for the 'Complete package for one house' to the address provided.
image above: Glass and steel house designed in 1949 by Philip Johnson, New Canaan Connecticut, Fall Winter 1966-67 House & Garden

252K Bathroom

When I was 14 I went to visit my best friend in Santa Barbara. She had her own en suite with a window in her shower that opened onto a back yard filled with lemon trees. Since that moment, I have dreamt of having a shower with an opening window in it. Today, I received an email update from the Palm Springs Real Estate guide I subscribe to featuring a 2084 sq ft mid century home, consisting of four bedrooms, original galley kitchen, swimming pool and this shower/bathtub with a sliding door to the back yard in it. How sweet is that? Very sweet. In my eyes, I could make that washroom alone worth the 252K they're asking for the whole house.

images and details via trulia

Quote of the Week - John Malkovich

The ghosts you chase you never catch.

Design Lover - Sergio Rodrigues Poltrona Mole

Meditate on this for awhile

Source: this-is-glamorous.tumblr.com via Stacy on Pinterest