Hudson's Bay Point Blanket

So I spent two years in Canada while I was getting my masters and to me there is nothing more iconically Canadian (except perhaps the maple leaf) than the Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket. I never did own one but it is a life goal (they are three-hundred some dollars).

I love icons, or things that I can buy that symbolize an experience. In my opinions these are the best kinds of souvenirs--like another favorite Canadian (or rather Québécois) icon of mine, the ceinture fléchée or arrow sash. It kind of just screams Quebec.

Apparently textiles are sort of my thing.

I recently bought a scarf from HBC in the style of their woolen Point Blanket (they have loads of stuff with the same design) and I completely adore it! These aren't even my colors and there's loads of cream, which I typically loathe. But you can't mess with something that has been popular since 1780 (when they were used in the fur trade).

Just looking at this thing makes me want snow, a cabin, a fire, a hot guy, and this blanket.

Pie

Growing up, pie was my least favorite desert. Probably because my dad, who suffers from adult picky eater disorder, always liked my genius of a baker mother to just make pies with store bought filling (the horror!). But then a few years ago someone gave her a pie recipe book and I flipped through it over Christmas. For some reason I thought it would be cool to make a different pie every week for a year. So I did. Yeah, I'm that cool. Thankfully at the time I had five roommates (half of which were boys) so I didn't gain any extra weight that year. But it was super fun experimenting with weird ingredients and learning about thickening agents and perfect crusts. I have so many lovely memories of pie making now--like collecting salmonberries in an old growth forest in Vancouver with good friend, experimenting with pineapple pie filling on a date, or surprising a loved one with a cup pie to take for lunch.

During that times pies suddenly became super popular. Not unlike cupcakes and woopie pies (totally overrated in my opinion). One of my all-time favorite shows was on the air--Pushing Daisies was about a really hot pie-maker. And then the charming movie, Waitress, came out. And I was even more inspired. 

Here are some of my favorites:

• Salmonberry Pie
• Pear, Cranberry Camembert Pie
• Butternut Squash Pie
• Rosewater/Coconut Mousse Pie
• Peaches & Cream Pie
• Popover Apple Cranberry Pie

"Hero Piece"

So lately, after much goading, I've been watching that 2009-2010 television series, Dollhouse. I'm really enjoying it! Even if it is kind of the poor man's Alias. There is an episode where they do the back-story of one of the dolls, Sierra, played by the ethereal Dichen Lachman. Without going into too much detail, Sierra (or rather, Priya--her real name) is an artist who sells her paintings on Venice Beach. She is commissioned by the douche-bag who played Billy in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion to do a large piece for him as his way of trying to get into her pants. 

Anyway, none of this really has anything to do with this beautiful painting other than that it was the medium through which I discovered it. The true artist is a woman called Brooke Reidt and I wish to God that she had prints available for less than $180! Because I am totally in love with her work. The painting featured on Dollhouse is called "Hero Piece" and I just love the lines, and the colors, and the depth. It's a bit bittersweet to me. Like rebirth.

Can I get a dress in this print?

(*Update: I totally bought it)

Abstract Print Clothing

Okay, I know that this look is getting a bit old, (by fashion industry standards) but I am still in love! If I remember correctly abstract prints first started hitting mall stores in early 2010. Or at least that is when I started noticing them. For the longest time I hated contemporary art. HATED IT! But for some reason art museums have really grown on me, and while I'll always love classic portraits and landscapes, I finally opened myself up to abstract works (especially watercolors!). Richard Diebenkorn, Pol Ledent, and Mark Rothko are a few favorites--and I would gleefully wear their art on a silky dress. To have a color print option that is not floral is what I love most. Abstract prints are fun, cosmopolitan, and there's usually so many colors in them that they will match almost anything. Florals kind of make me feel like a little girl or a home-school mom*.

*I feel really guilty for hating** on that seamstress.
**Did I just use "hate" as a verb? Ugh.

Opaque Fruit Snacks

Listen, I don't know why opaque fruit snacks taste better--they just do. I groan with annoyance when I open a pack of [insert random cartoon] fruit snacks and find translucent pieces. Some awesome types, like Betty Crocker's My Little Pony, have ALL opaque fruit snacks. This just plain rocks.

When it comes to food I am usually pretty picky. Were this any other type of snack I would opt for something like Annie's organic fruit snacks, or say an orange, because they're way better for you and I'm extremely conscious about what I eat (okay, maybe not extremely but more so than most people I know). But there are some things I just cannot give up despite all the bad press. I think the key is moderation. I say that after I just inhaled three packs. Fail.

Johnny Clegg "Dela"

Glorious new-found songs are like crushes (for me at least). Some are exactly what you need for a specific moment in time--like my brief mental flings with Shawn Mullin's Lullaby and Chad Michael Murray. Seriously, guys. What was I thinking?! Though who among us can honestly admit they weren't a little bit in love with Tristan on Gilmore Girls? He was the brown sugar to Dean's oatmeal.

But some songs thrill you from the first time you hear them, and for years after. I think about this so much that when I fall in love with a new song I'm always terrified that I will end up hating it. Some have stood the test of time (so far), but none as much as Johnny Clegg's Dela (Zulu for content), which I first heard it on George of the Jungle back in... 1997. 1997? Really? I thought I was much younger when that film came out. Anyway, I may not have figured out who the artist was until years later but even in that in between time of ignorance that scene in the forest where George and Ursula dance around the fire has always struck me as one of the most gloriously happy moments in film. It's light, it's free, it's innocent (but not childish)! I smile every time I think about it. I have never gotten tired of listening to Dela. And it opened the door to Clegg's entire canon, which is pretty freaking amazing. This white South African dude was like formally accepted by the Zulu nation DURING Apartheid! He couldn't even play his Zulu-influenced music in South Africa at the time. (Side note: Paul Simon's kick ass album Graceland was inspired by Clegg.) He's got some pretty sad stuff about injustice and all that but his joyful songs make me ridiculously happy. When I worked alone in a creepy archives I instituted dance parties (for myself) to Clegg's music on the hour every hour to distract myself from thinking about golums climbing out of the mikvah (don't ask). 

And guys, he did the opening song in Fern Gully. How's that for trivia?

I finally got the chance to see Johnny Clegg live in San Francisco last year. One of my life goals was to dance to Dela live and it was glorious! The crowd was a little old and sparse, so I think his South African concerts would be more exhilarating--and I'll try to ignore how brusque he was with me when I had him sign my CD. But he's still my all time favorite musician. And I still have Dela dance parties at work.

And speaking of individual dance parties... check out this chick. She is so cool!

*I started writing this post intending it to be about The Lumineers' song Hey Ho, which I only recently heard but I think will be one of those eternal crushes. I feel a sort of bemused acceptance of... life and my lot when I listen to it. 

Volkswagon Jetta

Okay. Usually I’m not embarrassed by any of my favorite things. Hold on. I totally am! So far I’ve only posted things I love that I consider kind of cool or quirky, but there is a plethora of other things that I love that I keep putting off posting because, yeah, they’re kind of embarrassing. However, in the spirit of self-love I will start off by proudly proclaiming my love for Volkswagen Jettas!

Now, I realize that normal people’s favorite cars tend to be super cool or at the very least unique, but for some insane reason I have always loved Jettas—especially black ones with bike rakes on the roof (even though I despise bikes). I have no idea how this began but I can trace it back to my pre-high school years. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with Maria’s Jetta on the TV show, Roswell. But then I remembered that I wrote about getting a Jetta my freshman year (pre-Roswell) in a future planning class.

Even to this day when I’m walking down a street or through a parking garage and I see that sleek squarish trunk I’m like, “I like that car. Oh duh, it’s a Jetta.” And so I wonder, what does it signify? What does it say about me? What kind of people love Jettas? I guess the kind of people that love Jettas (and this is a brash generalization based on no research whatsoever) are librarian-like. I mean, you can see it right? A librarian getting off work and walking through the parking lot in a pencil skirt and cardigan, a tight bun and glasses, piling her books on the passenger seat and driving off to grab some Thai food take out—never intending to use the bike rack.

I can see it.

Anyway, don’t judge. My eye is just instinctively drawn to every passing Jetta. The crazy thing is that I’m probably too practical to ever actually purchase one. It really is just all about personal aesthetic. I need a car that can handle rougher terrain. Sorry, love.