A discount in my shop

stacy reynaud

While I'm working on designing the Shop Bijou Living website I've added a few items to my little Bijou Living Etsy store. To show you my gratitude for hanging out with Bijou Living, I'm offering a 20% rebate for my chums. The rebate will be issued by me via Paypal after the purchase and is valid on the product, not the shipping. It cannot be applied to my current Facebook promotion.

Here's what you do:

1. Go to my shop
2. Add the item to your cart
3. Add the note - bijoulivingblog - in the note to seller box 
4. Select payment method
5. Submit order

Thanks again for your support!

Hemingway Tree House Residence | Piece of West Van Significant Architecture For Sale

Noted as a secondary building in the Survey of Significant West Vancouver Architecture, the Hemingway Tree House is now on the market SOLD for 1.6 million. Three storeys of 1977 architectural bliss! The home is a hop, skip and a jump away from the iconic 1966 Staples Residence. The home is hard to see from the road but take a drive by anyway - watch out for all the demolition going on though.

all images © Robert Crowe

Do you receive my newsletter? It's a collection of tips, rants/adventures I don't post on the blog.

Tip of the Week - How to Naturally Scent a Room

 

stacy reynaud

Harvest your lavender before it goes brown and woody. 

Hang it upside down to dry for about a week.

Remove dried bits by running your hand in the opposite direction of the growth (top to bottom).

Place the lavender a jar and save for sprinkling on your carpets before you vacuum.

Keep the opened jar in your laundry closet to keep it smelling good.

You can also burn lavender in your fire but put it in the middle of the sandwich of wood you're burning so it doesn't spark out of the fireplace.

stacy reynaud

Another West Vancouver Home Demolition

I'll be the first to admit I've been lagging on these architecture posts - two reasons:

1. I'm just so p*ssed I don't even want to snap photos.
2. There are so many in West Vancouver I can't keep up! Seriously. Go down Marine Drive past 25th and it's like a bloomin' construction zone.

I have been saving cuttings from the newspapers about the needless rezoning of property and demolition of our West Coast heritage - the North Shore News and the Outlook have been doing a fabulous job writing stories and publishing letters. A few folks have spoken out in council meetings but apparently demolition permits are more important and garner more value than heritage.

stacy reynaud

Douglas Coupland - remember our chat at the Harmony Arts Festival? Come on - take a stand - and I mean something more than an interview in a local documentary, (that wasn't really about Vancouver anyway).

A couple weeks ago I went to a yard sale in which the house had a for sale sign out front with a big sold slapped on it. You know what that means in West Vancouver, bye bye house. I befriended the owners - a lovely elderly couple who weren't even thinking of selling their home until a realtor knocked on their door saying she had sold the neighbour's house and the buyers wanted theirs too. That's right - they bought the two houses - and both houses are going to be torn down. Sick, eh. Now we have realtors intimidating elderly folks into selling their homes!

It was hard to snap photos of the front of the house as there were so many large trees - which will also be torn down.

Here are a few from the inside. It was built in the 50s, is two storeys and pretty much all original - as you'll see by the washroom. A very clean, sturdy and sound house. What a loss.

 stacy reynaud

I bought this wicker lounge from them. They brought it back from the Philippines, where they had lived for 19 years. The gentleman of the house was a senior manager for a heavy metal mining company there.

Top photo is of Gordon Smith's note card before his speech at the Harmony Arts Festival in 2011. Take a read of it.

My Favourite Fall Comfort Food

stacy reynaud

I was at my doctor the other day getting lectured on the importance of eating. You see, I'm one of those eat to live not live to eat types. Most of the time I actually forget to eat and then it's too late - I'm hangry. Relate? Anyway, the good Doc said, 'Stace, even if you eat the same thing all the time just eat.' When she said that, I heard that Gates of Heaven sound. Thank you Doctor. Now can I have a Doctor's note for that please?

Thanks to my public servant holidays, I have the summers off and thus, have the apartment and meal time regimes to myself. My summer noms consist of:

1. peanut butter and banana rice cakes or roll ups
2. avocados
3. soda water
4. Tropix smoothies from the Anchor Eatery
5. iced coffee 
6. almonds and dried cranberries
7. Yves veggie dogs (piggies in a blanket because I roll them in a wrap)
8. boozicles

stacy reynaud

Quite a high fat diet now that I look at it in black and white. Oh well, as they say, 'It's good fat.'

Once Fall kicks around I find comfort in chowing down strictly on:

1. coconut oil baked yam fries
2. hot almond milk with matcha
3. mashed ginger yams
4. hot almond milk with black strap molasses
5. Papier mâché - aka plain oatmeal
6. stove popped coconut oil, agave and cayenne popcorn
7. cold-pressed juice - I like my juice room temperature and don't do smoothies in the Fall/Winter because they're too cold.

Hey, are you on Instagram? I finally am and you can find me here.

Our Scent | Inclusive | Exclusive

I met this woman years ago and she was wearing a really nice scent so I asked her what it was; she replied that it was an essential oil blend. Further inquiry yielded it was her 'own blend', and it was 'private'. Pft, well then. She was weird anyway - and had a haunted basement.

Remember what happened to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - the protagonist of Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer? If you haven't read the book just go to the library and read the last chapter - (I call that technique, How to be Successful in Earning Your History Degree. For shame!).

Anyway, as you know, I'm a huge fan of Le Labo so the appropriate first stop for me on a recent trip to Los Angeles was 8385 West 3rd. I tell you, the last time I had been that excited was in 1978 at the Flintsones Amusement Park.  I was greeted by two gorgeous gals who thought my Vancouver accent was 'cute' (?). My mission was to get a bottle of Musc 25, the LA exclusive scent - which you can only buy online once a year. Well, for Ms. ADHD here, the store was just too much! Thankfully, I was reminded that I'd only traveled with carry on luggage and therefore couldn't bring any liquid over 3 ounces with us on the plane. I opted for the Musc 25 perfume oil and a handful of samples for loved ones. It took everything to hold me back from also buying the Oud 27, Patchouli 24 and Santal 33. Oh well, they have free shipping so there's always online.

Now that I'm back home, (and venturing out into society), people are asking me what scent I'm wearing. Usually, I wear amber resin, or essential oils of cedar and patchouli - which are pretty hard to carry off and folks don't have the wherewithal to scope them out. Where am I going with this post? Where do you think?

So, let's all smell the same - to save ourselves from the fate of Grenouille! It's City Exclusive time online at Le Labo again!

Cedar Plank Lobster Tails

Originally published August 31 2012

stacy reynaud

stacy reynaud

45 years is a long time. That's how long my parents have been married. This August, we took a drive up to Kelowna to make them a special anniversary dinner. I chose cedar plank lobster tails with roasted radishes because my Dad loves lobster and my Mom loves radishes.

Cedar Plank Lobster Tails

What you need:

• 1 jalapeno pepper
• ½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp unseasoned rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup good quality olive oil, plus more for grilling
• 6 uncooked lobster tails (7 to 8 oz each), halved lengthwise
• 2 untreated cedar planks (7" x 14" or similar), soaked in water for 2 hours*

What you do:

1. Preheat the grill to medium-high. Place the pepper on the hot grill and cook until charred on all sides, about 6 minutes. Let cool, then remove the charred skin from the jalapeno and cut the pepper in half, discarding the seeds. Finely dice the jalapeno.

2. Place the diced pepper in a jar with a tightly fitting lid. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, vinegar and sugar; cover and shake well to blend. Add the oil and replace the lid. Shake the mixture again until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. Brush the cut side of the lobster tails lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the cedar planks on the grill, close the lid and heat for 4 minutes. Arrange the lobster tails, cut side down, on top of the planks. Close the lid of the grill and cook until meat is opaque, not transparent, and firm to the touch, about 8 to 10 minutes.

4. Serve the lobster tails with a drizzle of the lemon jalapeno vinaigrette on top and more on the side for dipping.

* I picked up the cedar planks at Rona. A pack of two was $5.80. You can also get them at William Sonoma - for twice the price

Roasted Radishes

What you need:

• 1-¼ lbs medium-sized radishes, trimmed and quartered
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups fresh watercress, washed and drained, thick stems removed
• 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, cut into a chiffonade

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Toss the radishes with the olive oil in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper.

2. Transfer to an oven-safe skillet and roast until golden and tender when pierced with a knife, about 25 minutes.

3. Remove the pan from the oven, add the watercress and stir until the watercress is slightly wilted. Stir in the mint and serve immediately.

Tip: Roasting radishes sweetens and mellows their flavour. Choose golf ball-sized radishes and quarter them for best results.

recipe adapted from Style at Home

Recent Manic Thrift Store Finds

Apparently, folks with BD tend to head toward mania at the end of summer - supposedly due to the change in light. Well, part of mine is thrift shopping. I go on binges once a month three days before my period, (five days before that I'm an exercise freak). So, considering it's the end of summer and 28 days has just passed - I'm now having what I'm going to refer to as the End of Summer Manic Sale! 

stacy reynaud

Might as well sell now because I know in the winter when I'm sitting here all depressed in the rain the last thing I'm going to want to do is muster up enough gumption to sell stuff!

If I didn't go through these episodes I would have never had the immense success I've had in my life doing what I love. I'm very lucky to have a supportive husband who understands and can say, 'Hey, you're doing that shopping thing again'. However, when he told me the other day that if he could have any interiors style it would be Italian minimalist I felt a little bad.

stacy reynaud

My style - a mash up of Scandinavian, bohemian, 70s beach chic is pretty much the furthest away from Italian minimalism you can get! Having said that, I've introduced him to Swiffers so he can at least visualize a sleek Italian surface.

stacy reynaud

Don't get me wrong, I'm not desperate to sell stuff - everything I've bought I love and I buy with the intention to sell. I put a lot of effort into my sourcing. The pieces I've chosen are high end, quality pieces not a bunch of crap that I shoved in a basket because I was out of control. Everything is vintage and most is from the early to late 1970s.

 stacy reynaud

So, if you're interested, I'm uploading stuff to Etsy, Craigslist and eBay and of course you can also message me and let me know you read this post and we can work something out.

From top:

1. Nils Jonsson Trio credenza - not listed yet but soon
2. Denby Mayflower - Etsy
3. Gucci Horse-bit navy leather shoes - Etsy
4. Peacock chair, love seat and basket chair - Craigslist
5. Peacock chair - Craigslist
6. 1970s BC stoneware ceramics - not listed yet but soon

More stuff to come!

Thanks for hanging around.

Everything we See or Seem

stacy reynaud

I was looking up Scorpion pose and came across a book recommendation, of all things. My local library rocks so of course they had it - now I will recommend the beautiful piece of literature to you.

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. Translated by M.D. Herter  Norton, (1934). The translation/translator makes all the difference.

The close of the eighth letter:

"Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty and sadness ... Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words." 

Oh, and here's Scorpion pose

My Invisible Cube Van

It's invisible because it doesn't exist. If it did, I'd be fetching this stuff for you this weekend!