notes on food.

1) Today I ate so many sausages at breakfast that it's now almost six and I still feel like I'm going to die.  They were spicy Italian sausages from this amazing Italian deli, though, and they were so worth it.

2) The best thing to drink, I think, is whiskey over three big ice cubes with a generous splash of club soda and a wedge of lime.  It's kind of like a deconstructed whiskey lemonade, which is a bit of a snotty thing to say.  I don't like the sugar, though, in a whiskey lemonade.

3) Sometimes I feel really good about avocados, and sometimes I don't.  There's this Mexican restaurant in town that does this avocado margarita, and it's just unreal.  It's barely sweet, and it has lime and avocado and cilantro.  It costs like ten dollars but you don't really need to eat anything else after it.

4) It is nearing the season for garden vegetables.  Right now all there is is asparagus unlimited.  I usually just boil it in an inch or two of water and then throw on some sharp cheese and pepper.  I think baking it might be a better route, but it's difficult to deviate from a recipe that takes three minutes, tops.

5) I am really excited for watermelon.  I am actually kind of worried for watermelon season, because then I will go into sugar overload and collapse.  My favourite thing to do is cut a watermelon in half and take it to the park with a pair of spoons and a friend.  I get half.  I don't like sharing.  I hear the thing to do is add alcohol to your watermelon, but I think I would rather have a drink and a watermelon in two separate pieces, you know?

this is what comes up when you google whiskey lemonade.  so, there's that.

drive.

Reasons I want to see this movie:

a) It stars Ryan Gosling (one of my many future husbands) and Carey Mulligan (girlcrush number one). 

b) It's made by maple pictures, and lord know I love anything associated with maple trees (including, but not limited to: syrup, small candies, golden retrievers charmingly named maple, canada).

c) The director didn't shy away from using silence.  I hate it when directors fill up every scene in a movie with music.  Silence is only awkward if you let it be.  I think quiet moments can convey way more than dialogue can.

d) The lighting is all yellow-y.  I like it.

e) Ryan Gosling, y'all.  Behold:

Today is a day for a rainforest inside of you, all mist and tall trees.

I'm feeling grey today, flipping what's usually my favourite colour into a foggy, invisible future.  It's sticky and cloudy outside, the kind of flat warmth that comes without the promise of rain.  I miss a few people more than I care to admit, and I just feel stupidly flawed sometimes.  You know these days?  On my worst days, I feel incredibly average.

Mediocrity is terrifying.  We're raised to be exceptional - stunningly brilliant children with endless charming quirks.  Aren't we all?  A survey I saw once found that something along the lines of 90% of parents think their child is gifted.  This culture of special, of achievers and go-getters - where does that leave me now?  I'm still me.  All those oars hanging in my wheelhouse seem a bit desperate, today.

So what do I do?  I avoid my homework, step over the clothes on my floor.  Listen to Sea Change by Beck.  I am the chain on my bicycle, stiffened with grease and overuse.  I move slowly, try to scrape the grime from my joints.  I slip blearily through todays and tomorrow.  I'm a rusty piece of metal, and I could break my fists trying to get anywhere near revival.  I, I, I am.

this is not happening.

So, I didn't start this blog to talk about fashion.  There's only ten million fashion blogs out there (and I read the shit out of every one of them).  But... it's sunny out, and I have a paper due, so the obvious solution is to sit outside taking pictures of my jewelery in the garden.  I think I scared the paperboy, who has a tiny black chihuahua.  Yes, I had to use spell-check for chihuahua.

One of my current obsessions, aside from referring to everything under the sun as being 'totally my jam,' is jewelery with some heft to it.  You know?  Weaponry on your fingers.  Layers of necklaces that you have to take off to sit down (true story).  Sun glasses with more frame than lens.  More than one watch at a time (actual trend).  So while I was going to do a post about how maps are the greatest and most beautiful things ever, instead I'm going to post a shitty android photo of the jewelery I wore today.  That's right folks, I use a hipstamatic knockoff.  Suck on that, Steve Jobs.

 
Collectively, I think all of this cost me twenty-two bones.  The chain was a gift, though, so it doesn't count towards the grand total.  I also took a picture of all the pairs of glasses I wear on the regular, which you're dying to see as well.  If you must!

These collectively cost me about four-hundred and fifty dollaz.  I am the queen of steals and deals when it comes to glasses.  This is likely because I usually get them from obscure internet sites without trying them on in advance.  It's kind of my thing. 

Thanks for reading even when my blog is mostly a meta piece on procrastination.  Y'all are the sweetest.

down to earth.

As I told my brother today, "my garden is going to be SO bitchin' this year."  (I believe 'bitchin' is a traditional word meaning 'garden of like, so many awesome plants.')  Gardening is the greatest because it confers not only short-term gratification, but long-term too.  You get to look at all the plants you just planted and do a little wiggle-dance every time you see them, AND you get to watch them grow all summer.  Gardens are the shit.

Today I planted some kind of drought-resistant thing called a salsa flower, which is representative of not only a delicious food that I put on my eggs (with avocado, too, of course) but also a pretty sexy dance.  Check!  I also planted bachelor's buttons, which is appropriate as I have sworn off boys for the time being and am enjoying my bachelorhood.  I planted a lot of those, as one is always better safe than sorry.  Lastly, I planted this really brightly coloured foliage-type deal called FIREPOWER or SUNFIRE or LITEBRITE or something like that.  I'm kind of a sucker for brightly coloured foliage, along with spiky grasses.  Spiky grasses, it must be said, are my jam.

Lastly, a word for xeriscaping.  Xeriscaping (zerah-scaping) is a method of gardening that encourages practices and plantings that require minimal water.  Living, as I do, in a semi-arid desert, xeriscaping is essential.  A few of my fave plants for dry regions are hens-and-chicks, any native wildflowers, and ornamental grasses. 

 

 

This guy knows where it's at, plus he goes to my uni.  Get out there and garden, people.  As Graham up there says, "you don't need that patch of kentucky blue to have your neighbours looking on like 'yeah, that's cool.'"

in your wheelhouse.

I've been thinking about the term wheelhouse.  You know the one?  It's used as part of an idiom to describe areas of knowledge the speaker is familiar with.  "Yeah, Russian literature is totally in my wheelhouse."  It's derived from baseball jargon, originally, used to describe the zone in which a hitter is most powerful and confident.  Makes sense.

I like to think of my wheelhouse literally.  Mine is a big old boathouse, with all my skills and expertises hanging on the walls like oars.  I can walk into my wheelhouse whenever and pick out whichever skill best suits my needs.  Literature is totally in my wheelhouse, as is yoga.  I've got some basic cooking skills up on the walls there, as well as a big old mantle I throw on whenever I've got writing to do.

I think visualizing my skills, abilities, and strengths helps to solidify them a bit.  I find that we often focus only on our failings, and forget about the things we're unusually good at.  Acknowledging your strong points is not only good for your self-esteem, but will drag you through any tough times.  If you're super stressed out or just really upset, take a wander through your wheelhouse.  Sit in there for a bit and maybe pick out a few things to carry about your day with you.

Lastly, remember that what's in your wheelhouse is entirely up to you.  As the UBC slogan goes, tuum est.  It's yours.  Embrace it, own it, live it.

okay, quilts.

Have you contemplated quilts, recently? Usually people think about quilts as kind of an old lady thing, you know?  Old ladies make them and then they get draped over couches in cabins.  I've realized, though, that quilts are pretty rad.  One of the superstars of the quilting world is a lady named Pattiy Torno.  She's one of the only people ever accepted to the Southern Highland Craft Guild with a perfect score, like omg right?

babies ain't my thing, but apparently taking a proper quilt picture isn't anyone's thing.

 

Her quilts cost upwards of $5000, but take hours and hours and hours to make.  She has a few that are all black and white, which is pretty bad-ass, for a quilter.  Anyways.  Check out her other stuff here.  Maybe we can start a craft revolution, people!  Just what we've all been dying for, amirite?

 

I'm eating pear yogurt and it's the greatest.

Okay, so I'm a real sucker for romantic comedies that are a little bit clever or unusual.  At their worst, romantic comedies can be almost sickeningly predictable.  At their best, they're funny, uplifting, and hopeful.  Mostly what I'm getting to is that I really want to see this movie.

I'm currently accepting applications for people to watch it with me.  This is a slight problem I have, as none of my friends are into watching movies.  I promise really amazing snacks.

breakfast milkshake.

Doesn't the title of this make your heart sing?!  I'll bet.  I am, as I've mentioned before, completely and utterly obsessed with milkshakes.  Sadly, however, I am not really into the crazy sugar and dairy overload of most milkshakes, as I am kind of a food snob, so I combined two or three recipes into this amazing one.  Mostly just put all these ingredients into a blender and then turn it on for a while.

1/2 frozen banana.
1/4 can coconut milk.
1/2 cup coffee.
1 heaping teaspoon cocoa powder.
1 teaspoon almond butter.
3-4 icecubes.

"my milkshake brings all the girls to my tumblr."

Your life is so much better now.

omg elephants.

I love elephants more than anything, almost.  Okay.  I love them slightly less than I love milkshakes and yoga.  Milkshakes and yoga are my besties.  Anyways.  Elephants hold grudges forever, stick closely to their families, and have killer memories.  I am, essentially, an elephant.  They are especially beautiful when painted, which is apparently pretty common practice in some parts of the world.

1) After culling in Africa in the 70's and 80's, groups of elephants began attacking human villages.  Reasonable, I feel.

2) Elephants stay pregnant for 22 months at a time.

3) Elephants have been scientifically associated with a number of behaviours, including grief, musicality, art, altruism and compassion.

4) Groups of elephants are led by a matriarchal figure.  So progessive, those elephants.

5) "Wallowing is an extremely important behaviour in elephant society."  Mine too.  Also, bonus: elephants use mud as sunscreen.  Genius.

(everything I ever learned I learned from Wikipedia.)