Loyal Loot Collective

I came across this group of alberta artists...the Loyal Loot Collective and wanted to highlight some of their art! its really functional and clever..


These Log Bowls are made from reclaimed wood (birch, willow, poplar, cherry, or mayday) with the original bark on the outside and glazed inside with bright splashes of colour. They are so pretty!

Once I began to search for Loyal Loot I discovered that they have gotten a lot of recognition in the US, their items are sold on a lot of online stores and written about in a lot of design blogs, and they have been on Good Morning America and Martha Stewart! I just get a sense of pride when I hear of artists from Alberta making it as artists internationally. They also made it onto Chatelaine's 80 Amazing Canadian Women to Watch.

Bjork

This is not the first time I have blogged about Bjork and certainly not the last. I love her. She's so unique and really, a genius. If you hear the way she talks about music and the way she takes an obscure idea and makes it work, its amazing. But today I am strictly talking about her style.

Bjork is bold and brave. Her style is a direct expression of her creativity and personality. So much colour and texture and full of oddities. I had a really hard time choosing which outfits to feature. They are all so so different from each other and brilliant in their own way. I've been reading what others have to say about her wardrobe and of course there are always those who just don't get it and find them bizarre and weird (which of course they are) and those who just dig her style and really appreciate what she is doing for fashion. Each one of Bjork's outfits is a true art piece. And she becomes part of the art, she wears each one with such confidence that it becomes almost normal that she has a mass of pompoms on her head. I love this picture of her with Tom Ford and Stella McCartney at some fashion event, with jewels plastered to her face and sitting looking so unaware that she looks like a mystical creature from a planet of diamonds.

Everything she wears she does it with such grace, she is always so delicate and aggressive at the same time. She is a definite inspiration. There will be many photos featured today. Please enjoy and tell me which one you adore (or hate?) most! And a beautiful video to check out too:

I love this city!

wow! there is so much energy in Vancouver right now with the Olympics! Its just great to be out with everyone cheering and high fiving and fireworks flying! I came across this video of a flash mob on robson street! a huge group of people learned this dance and then came to the busiest street and started doing it, and then all these people joined in until there were like 1500 doing the dance!! I love stuff like this!! I wish I had known about it!




Here's a birds eye view to get a better idea of how long it stretched down the street:



I'm also loving the free yoga during the olympics: Lulu lemon and YYoga teamed up to give out The Gift of Yoga . If you go to Lulu Lemon and get a fob, Its unlimited yoga for the whole 2 weeks of the Olympics! I'm giving myself a yoga challenge and trying to go 8 times during these 2 weeks. I've only gone two so far though....but I will be going today and maybe tomorrow! Its so great that there's a class basically every hour so you can definitely work a class in somewhere! I think I'll do candlelight yoga tonight!

Selma Blair

Victoria Weekend

Last weekend I ventured over to the island (Vancouver Island that is) to visit friends and have a little getaway. Though it was short- just over 24 hours- since I have school on Sunday, it was well worth it! I drove to the ferry terminal, parked my car and walked on, it was so easy! Victoria is a lovely city with many pretty views and trendy little shops and restaurants. I will definitely be going back there. Apart from piling into a catering van with 20+ people to get a free ride to a karaoke bar (friend of a friend's birthday party), I did a lot of cool stuff! Here are some of the highlights!

1. Breakfast at Demitasse which is a cute little restaurant with very colourful walls covered with art work to the ceiling! The food was really good...though I ordered "The Infamous Early Bird" A Demitasse classic... 3 fluffy steamed eggs or a Jumbo croissant with Canadian swiss or Aged Cheddar, add fillings if you like" which was tasty, however the 3 steamed eggs were just a little too much egg for my liking. almost formed a thick sort of egg patty. blech. but once i divided it up a bit so i could actually taste the croissant and other stuff it was really good! plus I added bacon. yum! the dishes around me looked super good too.

2. Smoking Lily-such a cool little shop! its literally the size of my closet! My 3 friends and I didn't even go inside because we figured we wouldn't fit. But its simple to just window shop and the clothes go all the way up the really tall wall so there's a lot on display and apparently there is a way to make a change room but we didn't see it transform while we were there. The clothes are really nice, I've seen the stuff sold at Purr in Calgary and some other similar stores. There's also a Smoking Lily in Vancouver.

3. Fan Tan Alley-My friend lead me to this place in China town which is the oldest china town in Canada to see this little alley. I thought it was just a tiny gap separating the buildings but you can go through it and see all these little shops! Really cool. It reminded me of the markets in Marrakech though much smaller and less dense and no one hassling me to buy anything. (click on the link to have a virtual tour of it!)

4. The Seals at Fisherman's wharf-kind of sad to see them manipulated by tourists sucked into buying fish to watch them pop out of the water and grab it from their hand. But they are cute none the less. Its cool to see them so close.

5. View from Mount Douglas- we drove up this mountain and then walked a bit farther to the top and it was a beautiful view!! Mount Baker in Washington was so clear that day!

6. BUNNIES! My friend kept telling me about how he wanted to show me the bunnies at the University of Victoria campus and I was thinking maybe a couple show up every now and then and if you're lucky you might see them driving through....but it was like bunny island!! they were EVERYWHERE! and all different colours and sizes. and they weren't your normal wild rabbit, they looked like PETS! I'm not exaggerating. Here is a video I found on youtube about them..

.

7. and finally...A meal at The Rebar Cafe before it was time for me to head home...this place has great food. The best grill cheese I have ever had! I know it sounds like a boring thing to order, but it had this super good chutney which gave it a bit of a bite and slices of apple and fresh spinach and really good cheese. And I had a side of soup which was corn chowder and also really full of flavour and delicious and the best part was the brownie I took away with me to eat on the ferry. It was heavenly. The place has come out with a recipe book, they are all vegetarian dishes and for a meat lover like me I still found a ton of things I wanted to try on the menu. The book would make a really great present for someone....your mom, your sister...me......So...there you have it. A lovely weekend trip to Victoria packed with fun stuff. I'd definitely recommend it!

Ooo la la!

YAY Jonanna's new album comes out on February 23rd! and you can listen to a song off the album HERE!! (look on the right hand side where it says free music and you can live stream it)

wow it sounds a lot different!! her voice is less high pitched, and i don't hear any harp! just piano and drums....interesting......i like it. she's got a good groove going on. It turns almost gospel at the end! woahhh...lovely vocals. and the new album is supposed to be a triple album!! holy crap. this lady is incredible! i thought Ys was a work of genius...i can't wait for this one! The album cover is really amazing too! I'm not sure the font goes with the picture and its so much more bold than Ys's medieval look...but its definitely eye catching.