Beautiful things (/I love librarians)

I am a little bit in love with Hillary Webb's art. Hillary is one of the many (many) creative, lovely librarians-to-be I've met during my studies, and I've been wanting to share her work since the first time I saw it. I've always liked embroidery (my past is littered with unfinished cross-stitch kits), but Hillary's work takes it to a different level. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but she hand dyes her materials with dyes made of nature (nature! things like marigold, dahlia, black walnut, cochineal and umbilicaria, according to her website). The idea of her collecting little bits of world fills me with this fleeting storybook feeling that I can't exactly pin down, but it's rich and deep and a bit spangly. She then fashions her materials into these lovely studies of shape and colour. Love, Me Boutique in Halifax has recently started carrying Hillary's work, and I'm sure there are other avenues by which it could be purchased, if that's your deal. 

I love librarians. And art. And colour. And nature.

お誕生日おめでとう to me

The grammar of that is probably completely off, but it apparently means Happy Birthday in Japanese. This year seems to have become the Japanese birthday, and it was delightful. A few of my friends and I went for sushi after work, which was delicious, and then we came home and watched Cherry Blossoms while eating Chai creme brulee (okay, maybe the multicultural birthday: I also had spicy thai noodles for lunch).

 Cherry Blossoms is a really beautiful movie. I loved it. It's about love and grief, and about how hard it is sometimes to connect, even with the people we love the most, but also how important it is to connect, to really try. It's about aging and family and romance and living and dying. Made by Buddhist director Doris Dorrie, who also made Enlightenment Guaranteed (which I loved), this film is... sometimes slow, sometimes sad, moving, funny, pure, natural, ephemeral... so many things. Recommended.

8/10.


And while I know it's not my birthday anymore, I decided to keep celebrating myself today, given that I had to spend most of yesterday in work, and didn't get a chance to buy myself the ever-important birthday gift to self. I kept on in the Japanese theme, and finally wandered into a little store that opened in Halifax recently, the Ikebana Shop. All kinds of adorable Japanese things were laid out beautifully, and the store was so peaceful and colourful. I was at a table looking at the various teas, when the man at the counter asked me if I was familiar with Japanese teas. I told him I knew a little bit, but not a lot, and he told me he was preparing some tea if I'd like to join him. Ferdy explained to me about pouring the hot water into a separate bowl to cool it (apparently 80 degrees is ideal for tea), and steeping the tea for about a minute so it doesn't get too bitter. He then poured it, switching back and forth between two cups, pouring a little bit into each at a time, and handed me a cup. It was delicious, subtle and slightly sweet. I had a really great time chatting with Ferdy, and found out that his wife teaches Ikebana classes in their upstairs studio. I really want to go try a class (or two or twelve), so I think that might be one of my birthday gifts to myself. I also picked up some Genmaicha Matcha-iri (Green Tea with Roasted Brown Rice and Matcha), a gorgeous cherry blossom notepad, and a couple of cute little buttons.

Yay for cherry blossoms. Yay for Japan. Yay for Japanese themed birthdays. 

Amazing cupcakes. And I don't even really like cupcakes. (Usually.)

photos by Lyndsay Sung (all of them. there are more. after the writing. a lot more.)

Cupcakes: usually meh. Not that I don't love sugar and butter, but I prefer it in a different ratio (and with more accoutrements) than you find in most of these little sugar highs. And yes, they're cute - but I am something of a minimalist. Why I think my wardrobe should be echoed by my diet, I'm not sure, but somehow a lack of frills on my dresses has also presented itself as a lack of frills on my desserts.

But then I saw pictures of coco cake cupcakes. And I read the flavours (lemon cake with lemon creamcheese frosting; dark chocolate cake with peppermint buttercream; raspberry jam filled coconut cake with vanilla creamcheese frosting and more coconut on top; delighted sigh from me). I might have been converted. I guess I should probably taste them, but even if they don't taste as good as they sound and look (and I'm pretty sure they do - I can just feel it), they are little pieces of art; I will adore them just the same.

Someone in Vancouver please have some kind of event that involves cupcakes, please order these ones, and please invite me.

(yes. these have matcha icing.)

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod

I have to have the ampersand necklace featured here. How am I going to get it? Oh no. Want. Want.

(found via oh joy!)

Too cool.

These images (featured on design*sponge) are just too awesome for words. I need to make more things. I mean, I want to.

The Aquarium

Adorable asian haircuts

For all the short haired people (or people who want to be short haired) I absolutely love this hair website.

The long haired pictures are (sigh) all fairly boring, lots of curly ends and bangs, but then that's because long hair is boring. The short hair section, however, is packed full of the most adorable little haircuts ever.

Welcome to May

On my list of ever evolving life goals I have this point: Have a magnolia tree in my yard. I walked outside the other day to see bits of pink emerging from what until then had been hard greenish buds. I looked closer. A magnolia tree. Right outside my window.


The top rectangular window there is mine.

Check.

I would like to continue having Magnolia trees in all of my yards from this point on, please and thank you.

Tone on tone

I've been noticing little things, lately. Subtleties.



Braids are what all the cool kids are doing these days. I love being surrounded by 18-year-olds.

Except when they use words I've never head before. Like biddy. Of course I've heard the word biddy before, but when I hear it I think of old ladies who are a little bit cranky.

It's slang, apparently, for girls you hook up with, randomly-ish, not seriously. At least, that's what I've gathered. I feel like an explorer in a new world sometimes.

It snowed today.

So I went out and bought a springtime lipstick.


I like pictures where my eyes are closed.

(p.s. it's MAC slimshine lipstick in lovey-dove.)

I want a dove grey bedroom.

Like this one. (from Design*Sponge)

I go out walking (way before midnight)

Today is such a glorious day that I had to abandon homework in favour of a long walk. It was so beautiful, and warm, and even though the trees are still bare I feel spring. Heck, I almost feel summer.

Two pictures from the walk:

Winterspring

Saturday was a glorious day. It was fresh and warm (er than it had been in a long time, at least) and beautifully sunny. People were out in the quad, drawing and playing music, singing, being young and gorgeous and alive. The whole world was young and gorgeous alive.

Then came Sunday. I woke up to white and black and grey, snow swirling heavily outside my window.

I was... a little bit despairing.

And craving colour.

So I went to the art store and dropped a significant amount of money on art supplies: a new sketchbook/journal (I love journaling on unlined pages) and 7 gorgeous shades of art pen.


And I drew pictures of flowers.


And felt infinite (ly better).

New sheets

I have no idea what my room in Halifax is going to look like, so I decided, for the first time in my life, to buy white sheets. I love the way they look, and I figure they go with everything. I've been on the lookout for months. At first I thought I wanted just all plain white, but plain white duvet covers don't seem to exist, so I found this lovely one at Ikea. It is a textured pattern. This photo is very close up, so the pretty shapes (like cells!) are fairly small, pebble sized. I really love the pattern. Very organic modern.

Holy Grail

I may or may not have spent thirty dollars on an eye shadow the other day.

I spent a lot of time cruising around makeupalley.com. Any time I'm in the market for makeup (or any beauty products) I try to go on there to see how people have reviewed whatever it is I'm thinking of buying. People on there have their own language, and one of the first terms I deduced the meaning of was HG. Holy grail. As in, this is the best blanketyblank I have ever used and I will keep buying it for the rest of my life. Before yesterday, I had never had one of those moments.

Enter Shu Uemura eye shadow in ME Brown 850. (Choir of angels sings here.) It has an overall rating of 4.9/5. I somehow discovered it on the internet and decided I had to have it, so almost two months ago I went to the Shu Uemura (I love saying that name) counter in Holt Renfrew and asked about it. They put me on a waiting list. A waiting list. It came in on Sunday, I picked it up. It cost thirty dollars (with tax). I was a little overwhelmed. I brought it home. I put it on. Holy cow. Holy grail. It is the most perfect eye shadow I have ever worn. A shimmery taupe with the faintest hint of violet that brings out the green in my eyes. When I put it on, it makes it look like I have naturally beautiful, shimmery, colourful eyelids. Tasteful. Lovely. All the boys will like me.

Ahem.

Alright, so it probably won't change my life, but it does make me feel nice. And, while lots of people my age easily spend $30 in a bar every night, I rarely do. So I don't feel too bad for spending it on an eyeshadow once in a while.

For you

So here are my slightly uneven, homemade bangs. For you. What I realized though, is that while I do think I look nice with bangs, you can't see my eyebrows. I think I like eyebrows even more than bangs... but I don't really like super short bangs on me, which would give me both, so I will just have to go back and forth between the two for the rest of my life. Sigh.

The things I do for you.

Beautiful ladies

La Boudoir showed me the way to these beautiful photos by Vera. I love portraits, and all of these shots have so so so much spirit. Soul.

Plus they make me want bangs again... I love bangs. Do I want bangs?

Halfway there

I wanted the title for this post to be check, check, check, check. As in: I got all of the things on my to do list done. Alas, I did not. I got a little more than half of them done, though, plus some other ones.

Things I did do:
Had coffee (Way to get things accomplished, Angela) (I mean Ella)!
Bought my ticket to Halifax (probably have more to say about this... Booking a flight = wow, this is really happening. In less than two months I will be LIVING IN a whole other city. This was a one way flight. No return. No return (ominous music here)! I felt so nervous as I handed over my credit card. Eek. Okay, deep breaths. I will love it.)

Things I half did:
Went to Au Petit Cafe for Banh Mi. Actually I went for the second time to Kim Saigon Sandwiches (the second time in a week... yum). I really want to try the Au Petit Cafe ones, because they are consistently voted the best in the city, but it was too far for today. And the Kim Saigon ones are pretty delicious... will post further about this delightful experience later.

Things I didn't do:
Go see The Visitor. Apparently (argh) the Granville 7 (cheapest regular tickets in the city) no longer has matinees! Or at least during the week they don't! Even though a showtime was on the internet for today at 1:50! Okay, maybe it was on the internet yesterday... but still. So sad. I love weekday matinees. Fortunately...

Things I did instead:
I love solitary trips to the art gallery almost as much as solitary weekday matinees. My membership to the Vancouver Art Gallery runs out at the end of this month, and I've been meaning to go see KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art since it opened. It was a really cool exhibit to wander around, but my favourite part was the fact that they had shelves full of graphic novels and benches where you could sit and read them. I discovered Shaun Tan, whose work is thrillingly beautiful.
His drawings are so richly detailed and sumptuous.
I'm fairly sure I've seen another of his books before, but these two drawings (it feels almost insufficient to call them that. There should be another word invented just for these.) are from The Arrival, which is a beautiful book that is entirely illustrated, with no text, no speech bubbles, just wonderfully evocative greyscale imagery.

Then I went and bought expensive sunglasses (of course the ones that looked and felt the best were the priciest, although not ridiculously so in the grand scheme of sunglass pricing) BUT! I found out that the dress I bought the other week had been reduced in price by half, so I got $40 (!!!) back. So that paid for most of the sunglasses.

I love days off!

An apricot

I get stuck inside my head sometimes. I'm sure you know what I mean, spending way too much time thinking, way too little feeling, like physically feeling the world. I have to remind myself to actually enter my body, pay attention to the way my body feels, what the is going on to me. So I love those moments where I enter myself fully. For example this:

I took an apricot to work to have as a snack. I didn't want to put it in my purse and I didn't want to take a plastic bag just for a single apricot, so I put it in my jacket pocket. I didn't think about it until I was walking to the bus stop and I automatically stuck my hands in my pockets. The fingers of my left hand curled around the apricot, and it was so soft. Because I couldn't see it, or smell it, or taste it, I was able to concentrate on how lovely it felt, how soft and perfect and soothing. I felt wonderful, and it really reminded me to take that time sometimes to pay attention to the way things feel. I think I will (and I think you should) try it as an exercise; Find different textures to put in my pockets, and really pay attention to them when I hold onto them, just using my sense of touch to centre myself in the experience.

A New Dress

Now I just need for summer to come along, so I can wear it.

I was bored yesterday, so I decided to go to the mall. That was also, let's face it, pretty boring, but!!! Like the yuppie in training I seem to be, I really like Banana Republic. I went in thinking maybe they have that dress I tried on... And they did!

I love all things Kimono inspired. If I could, I would wear a Kimono inspired outfit every day... I suppose I actually could, and I don't, so I guess that's a lie, but you get what I mean. I didn't buy it the first time I tried it on, a couple of months ago, because it's a little bit see through, and it was a hundred dollars. I've been thinking about it since, and I looked for it at two other outposts of said store, and then I found it. I was trying it on, thinking hmmm, on sale for 70 dollars... I dunno, when I heard two women talking outside of my stall. "If you love it, you buy it," said the one to the other. That's my rule too, I remembered, and I loved it, so I bought it.

Yay!