Contrast

Last week I was in Iceland: walking through the trendy streets of Reykjavik, bathing in surreal Blue Lagoon, enjoying beautiful sceneries under the midnight sun and freezing my fingers because I didn't bring my mittens with me...come on we were in June! Iceland is a wonderful country that you can't visualize accurately until you see it by yourself but you can always try! Iceland has snowy volcanoes, surprising geysers, luscious green moss, powerful waterfalls, moon like fields and milky blue water. It does smell like eggs sometimes but you can't focus on a small detail like that when you are surrounded by such beauty!


This week, back to Montreal, I suffocate (35C) whenever I go outside for more than 30 minutes. To protect my pale skin against the sun I decided, even if it had bad reviews, to make the hat in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing book. It's not complicated to make but, I warn you, the brim is outrageously big! Cut at least 1 inch or you will get hit by a car because you didn't see it coming!

If London was a woman...

If London was a woman, she would probably have a high profile career. She would wake up early in the morning and stay up late at night. She would wear classic suits but would accessorize with the right dose of colours. If London was a woman, she would live at a fast pace but would take the time to stop and smell the flowers at St. James's Park. She would also buy sexy knickers at Agent Provocateur but would keep them for special occasions!

During our stay in London, we saw a lot of tourists with big cameras, we freaked out whenever we purchased something (can it be more expensive?), we got lost even if we had a map, we had bad hair day everyday because of the wind and we ate hot dogs without relish (a sin really)!

However, during our stay in London, we walked through beautiful gardens, we listened to bloody murder stories at the Tower of London (best guide ever), we relaxed in sling chairs for hours, we visited Tate Modern (fine, I liked the gift shop more than the actual museum...I'm not that cool you know!) and I got my very first pair of Camper shoes for 50 quid...a dream come true!

Hello midnight sun!

In a few days, braving my irrational fear of plane trips, I will head to London (4 days) and Reykjavik (3 days). Why such a short trip? Simply because I don't want to leave my puppy dog for a long period! I won't cry when my mom will pick him up tomorrow (ok, maybe I will) but I don't want Brian to feel like I abandoned him. I know it's silly but what can I say!!! Oh, yes...I also have a cat but Mr. Poon is a big boy and the worst thing that can happen is that he might bite and/or claw my mother! Anyway, last summer during our trip to Sweden, I had a difficult time sleeping because the sunset would be at 11:00 pm and the sunrise at 3:00 am. To avoid the the dark circles under my eyes (don't look pretty on pictures!!!) I decided that a sleeping mask would be an important accessory to bring with me. One last thing, taking a self-portrait, without a tripod and with your eyes closed is NOT a good idea! See you in a week :) xox

Out of the bag

Last weekend, I attempted to make a "simple backpack" from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing and, to my great disbelief, I miserably failed! Feeling like a complete loser I had to succeed, as soon as possible, another sewing project in order to feel competent again! At 8:00pm, I hurried to my pile of craft books and decided to start (and finish) a little clutch from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules. Success! I didn’t need, afterall, to sell my sewing machine and all my supplies to another crafter wannabe!

On a different note, Mirka from Oprikka tagged me (my first tag...thank you Mirka!) with a 4 secrets-series. Here it goes:

4 jobs I've had:
Event planner (the current job)
Transport coordonator at a film festival (the crazy job)
Sustainable development marketing coordonator (the best job)
Food service cashier at Dairy Queen (the first job)

4 movies I like:
Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain / Amélie (made me dream)
The shipping news (made me think)
Les Choristes / Chorists (made me sing)
Ratatouille (made me love rats)

4 places I´ve been (with my husband):
New York (our first trip)
Paris (our first trip to Europe)
Sweden (our best trip)
Iceland (our next trip…in june)

4 places I've lived:
Très-St-Rédempteur (little french village in Quebec)
Montreal (big french city in Quebec)

4 TV programmes I watch:
Gilmore girls (I miss that show)
Pushing Daisies (I’m the only one who likes that show)
Access Hollywood (I’m ashamed of watching that show)
Dog whisperer (I should be, with my dog, on that show)

4 radio programmes:
Nope…no radio!

4 preferred food items:
Pancakes (everyday if it was possible!)
Chesse (everyday if I had the money…$$$ in Canada)
Milk (everyday unless I have stomach flu)
Vegetable soup (everyday if I was still living with my mom)

4 placed I'd rather be:
Walking on the pebble beach in Visby (Sweden)
Eating macarons in Jardin du Luxembourg (Paris)
Watching icebergs from a tiny little boat (Labrador - Canada)
Swimming in a thermal pool (Iceland)

Now I have a dilema! Who should I tag? I was very happy to get tagged by Mirka. However, some ladies from my lovely blog list might already have answered those questions! So I have decided to tag bloggers like me...who started in the "business" a few months ago. I tag the ladies at Girl with Curlz, Little Acorn, SmoothPebble and Pondering Ponteuf.

That’s bloody expensive

I dreamt that I was happily walking the streets of London with a bag full of Cath Kidston items. Meters of fabrics, flowery tableware, polka dots tins and flirty skirts were all part of it. As soon as a Cath Kidston catalogue arrives at my door I always look at it with great envy. I tell myself: “If you ever go to London, you will visit that store and buy some nice goodies”. Happy me! We are going to London this summer!!! I might have carefully looked at every single item in the catalogue but I never really bothered to calculate the price with the exchange rate. My little hand, holding my calculator, was slightly shaking when I saw that the “cowboy skirt” (that would look so nice with a little red tank top and some delicate sandals) actually costs 150$ cdn. I must admit that I’m slightly disapointed but it’s not the end of the world. London certainly has a lot of very nice stores where I can spend my money at a more resonnable price. Does it?!?

Going across the pond

At the end of the day, there is nothing that I want more than to go home and spend some quality time with my hysband and my mini-zoo. I might even say that we are adepts of cocooning (individuals socializing less and retreating into their home). We also have our little habits: we walk the dog and feed our pets at the same time everyday, we go to the restaurant on Friday evening, we have feta omelets at the same iranian restaurant on Saturday for breakfast and we have pancakes on Sunday (I have nutella & bananas in winter and nutella & straberries in summer…with a glass of milk)! However, once a year, we pack our stuff, bring the pets to my mother’s house and go on vacation.

We could go to "sunny" destinations. Sandy beach, cocktails, palm trees… but it’s just not our thing. We love nordic countries. We were in Sweden last summer and we had such a good time. After some thought, we decided to go to Iceland and stopover in London for a few nights (No additional fee. Thank you Icelandair!). Now, how many pair of shoes sould I bring? I have 6 months to figure it out!!!