Sharing the Shame

Just a quick one this time: Hibou Accessories is now sharing hot shit and being generally sassy on Twitter! I figure if Colin Meloy and Diablo Cody are doing it, I might as well hop on the bandwagon.

xoxo
Amarina

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Peaches Screeches Speeches

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I'm so into the new Peaches album I just keep listening and dancing and listening and pretending that I have a great voice and charismatic stage presence. Up until now, the obvious favourite music video from Peaches was "Kick It" featuring Iggy Pop where they look hot and fight zombies. This video for "Talk to Me" rivals that with hair monsters emerging from a painting of her own face followed by a sexy hair monster orgy. Perfect way to start off a Saturday! Dance away friends.

xoxo
Amarina

Haunted Long Weekend Adventures!

Hurrah! I'm back and feeling great after a lovely long weekend with dear friends. Although I experienced various degrees of exposure to poison ivy, black flies, sunshine, tequila shots and malfunctioning scum spewing hot tubs (not in the tub at the time), the weekend was rejuvenating.

We were all excited to come across this dilapidated house on our way home and I thought I'd share these pictures.



This shot in no way represents how gross and scary this joint was, I half expected the Blair Witch to jump out and hypnotize me into the corner.



This darling little shack was full of old signs and interesting bird nests. We also had to be quite aware of the ground while navigating the patches of dog shit. That's my friend Eva, check out her fantastic blog here.

NEW! AWESOME! PIECES! Coming this week!

xoxo Amarina

Mix Tape Madness

For the first time in a million years, I am taking some time off work. Three days. THREE WHOLE DAYS! I'll be going on a mini-road trip with my partner and two dear friends, which means that I must spend every waking minute before we leave creating the greatest road trip mix of all time.

Allow me to pursue a new level of honesty here: I have reached a new level of procrastination. I'm now not photoshopping pictures (which I love doing but I have to be in the right mood), or making the ultimate mix tape (original procrastination strategy), I am fantasy shopping on Etsy.
So this is the list I've compiled of darling goods from various Etsy sellers that I probably can't live without.

Able & Game make cards that I want to send to people, including this Hipster mix tape card which has this pretty perfect description:

So I got your mix tape, it kinda rocked my world. The fact that you included The Smiths, The Cure makes me all warm inside, however this may not show on my sullen, depressed face. Oh and I also love Kate Bush by the way, just don't tell any of my friends.

Next we have this ridiculously cute felt pouch from Brave Moonman's shop.

Now I don't need to discuss the dangers of a 90 minute mix tape, I've written of this embarassment before. But when the love song mix tape is actually an adorable zip pouch free of fear-inducing confessions, what can go wrong? That's right, nothing. Embarassment-free satisfaction and there's more where this came from. Check them out for some really awesome pieces.

Finally, we have this wicked converted cassette tape notebook from Bibliopegy. This particular book is made with a map of Istanbul, which I can fantasize about living in while scribbling down master plans and dirty little secrets. You can choose one of several cities in cassette book form or request a custom city; maybe I'll see about a Toronto edition!

I hope you all have a great long weekend!

xoxo
Amarina

The Canadian Small Business Kit for Dummies - Book Review

I remember going to this place called Dorset when I was in Grade 6. It was our first big away trip from the parents for school. On the first day there, we got acquainted with this conservation area by playing the outdoor gym class game "Survival". Hopefully most of you played it because it's awesome. I guess we were randomly assigned characters that had been placed along an all-encompassing food chain. You could end up being anything from a worm to a large carnivore and the point was to catch the people who were below you in the food chain while avoiding those above you - tag styles.
I flip over my card and I've been assigned the role of THE SUN. The card also said something less dramatic than, but very much like, "Prey: Everyone, Predators: None". I was invincible!
The game starts and I'm just going apeshit attacking everyone I could get a hold of...I was good at this game. In this position. I'm chasing after this one girl who was like a rabbit or something and we're running full-tilt down a forested hill. She turns around to see that I'm gaining on her and as she proceeds to turn forward, she smacks into a tree at top-speed. Broken nose is the diagnosis, I felt like a worm.

So why the fuck am I airing out my guilty laundry? I'm not going to answer that but I will confess something else: I feel guilty that I spent my hard-earned dollars on this book.

I have to say that in my defense for choosing this book in the first place, I didn't realize the "for dummies" franchise chose a very literal name for themselves. This book really gets down to basics, including information I had previously considered to be common knowledge.

Also: While I certainly enjoy and appreciate a good Star Trek reference, this book has about 60 jokes riddled throughout. Allow me to share the first paragraph of the kit with you,

Starting a business: The final frontier.

Your entrepreneurial mission: To explore new products and services. To seek out new markets, new customers, and new suppliers. To boldly go into business for yourself (Page 1).

I could keep going.
I was really excited to read this book; to get a general overview of information that I need to research more and I liked that it was from a Canadian perspective. To be frank, I found the Canadian Small Business Kit for Dummies to be pretty condescending and full of tips and information that ended up being irrelevant and off-putting. The information that was useful can be found for free through the online Government of Canada Small Business Workshop.

I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you're interested in a craft business, read Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco. I'm currently working on a hopefully not so long-winded review of this helpful gem of a book.

xoxo
Amarina