My dog Isabel is a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd crossed with something small. I think she’s part Corgi because she’s so long and short. Whatever she is, she LOVES snow. Here’s a video of her running in the fresh snow earlier today. Makes me smile.
Author: avery
I Think I’m Danish
Okay, not really. I’m not Danish at all. But I have been hearing a lot about a Danish concept recently. I’ve seen a bunch of articles all about hygge, the concept of well-being/cozy/social/friendly/warm-ness that is a central part of Danish culture, particularly in the winter. The more definitions of hygge that I read make me think this isn’t just a strategy for getting through long, cold winters… it’s a way of life (this is the best definition of hygge I’ve read). And it sounds a lot like how I live my life (prioritizing time spent with friends and family, warmth, comfort, art, good food, drink, conversation, etc). Now I really want to go to Denmark and experience hygge first-hand.
[the blurry photos above are from an evening spent with my best friends, in the yurt at the Ceili Cottage in the middle of winter. It doesn’t get much more hygge than that]
We Watched A Wonderful Documentary Last Night
Last night Ian and I watched a documentary I had recorded on the PVR from before Christmas. It was called Twin Sisters and it was shown on The Passionate Eye on the CBC (an internet search shows it was also aired on PBS, but I don’t think it’s on Netflix. You can stream it for $5 on Vimeo).
The film is about twin sisters who were adopted as babies in China. Their adoptive parents were told they weren’t sisters, but they did a DNA test to check, and they’re identical. One is being raised with her family in a suburb in California, and the other is being raised in a small town of 200 people in Norway.
It is so so lovely. The filmmakers did a wonderful job being sensitive with tough issues of biology, siblinghood (I don’t think that’s a word), adoption, and cultural differences. If you get a chance to watch it, go for it. It’s won a bajillion awards, all well deserved. The trailer is below.
Moo.com is having a big sale, and it ends tonight
I just ordered a whole bunch of promo material for Camp Tech (business cards, stickers, mailing labels) from Moo.com. They’re having a 25% off sale for everything on the whole site (including the really thick “luxe” products). The sale ends at midnight tonight, so get your order in.
Wow. Space is So Cool.
Yes, that’s a trite blog post title. But seriously, space is so cool. Earlier this month NASA released a high-definition image of the Andromeda Galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope. You can’t see the image (it’s over 4 gigs!) but you can watch this video that YouTube user daveachuk made, zooming in on and panning around the picture. Mind blowing.
A Magazine I’m Really Enjoying Lately
Have you tried accessing the free online magazines you can get through the Toronto Public Library? There’s so much great stuff on there. In addition to the big titles (Vanity Fair, Wired, The New Yorker, etc) there are some great lesser-known magazines. The one Ian and I have really been enjoying lately is mental_floss. It’s a little bit of culture, a little bit of science, a little bit of art. They describe themselves as “mental_floss magazine is an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We’re the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times.” I encourage you to check it out.
I Always Get Compliments When I Wear This Scarf
This gorgeous linen scarf is by my pal Avril Loreti. I get compliments every time I wear it, including earlier today. She makes the most wonderful things (remember these pillows?). Would you believe we went to high school together?
PS- I know I’ve been away for a while. But I’m back to blogging now!
Before and After Pics Of My Stairs
Isn’t it funny how little things in your house can drive you nuts? We’ve lived in our place for over 6 years, and I’ve always hated the wall that runs through our living room and up the stairs. It was beige and so boring. And our stairs were looking pretty tired too – the paint was chipping in many places, and the carpet runner had seen better days. It took a consultation with Joanne from Resolution Design to finally get us to do something about it… and I’m so glad we did. Here are a bunch of before and after pictures for you to see the difference. There’s fresh white paint on the stairs and railings, a new carpet runner on the stairs, and (obviously) the boring beige wall is now a gorgeous teal blue. Yay!
This 4-Year-Old is A Better Photographer Than Me
I saw this link on SwissMiss’s blog. 4-year-old Hawkeye Huey (first picture, above) is a photographer with his own Instagram account. He shoots analog (using a Fujifilm Instax 210 camera) and his dad, a National Geographic photographer himself, uploads the photos to Instagram. His pictures are amazing. See them yourself here.
Creepy Modern Houses in Scary Movies
Ian and I went to see Gone Girl on the weekend, and during the scenes in the lake house, I turned to Ian and whispered, “OMG that house!” I looked it up, and it’s a real place – a gorgeous home in the hills of Southeast Missouri, designed by architects Maurice Jennings and David McKee. Those are pictures of it, above.
What is it with modern houses appearing in creepy ways? Here’s a list of 10 Modernist Houses in Scary Movies from Azure magazine. They’re all swoon-worthy. Especially the one in The Ghost Writer (which is a surprisingly good movie).