Evergreen Brick Works

This past Sunday, my cohort and I visited the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto.  Evergreen, a national charity, has changed the old Don Valley Brick Works from a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into a gorgeous area of urban sustainability and eco-conscious design that is open all year long. 

As we walked around this amazing building a rather attractive and charming wood worker was working some wood.  Should have taken a picture of that.

All of the foliage was screaming with personality as we walked through the trails that circled some small but duck-filled ponds.

Having no idea what to expect when we walked into The Kilns building, we were greeted with an onslaught of art installations and graffiti.  A far more impressive collection than what we saw during the entire evening at Nuit Blanche this year.  At the end of this corridor was a screen showing a Werner Herzog short.  There were three more of these featuring various films that I believe were created for this project.

I felt like this place crept up on me out of nowhere and now I can't wait until our next visit!  Highly recommended.

xoxo
Amarina

Apple Pickin' with the Fam

Last weekend Ron and I went apple picking with my brother, my mom (who I call 'Lady'), my grandma 'Nanny' and her best friend of over 60 years, Elsie. Just outside of Aurora, the orchards were bursting with fruitful trees and screaming children.



We were supposed to exclusively pick McIntosh and Courtland apples, but we couldn't resist these delicious Spartans. The dude-ish daddy in a Leafs jersey picking apples in the row next to us kept yelling "Spartacus" over and over again until I was dangerously close to pelting a Spartan at him!


The darling men in my life, Johnny and Ron crunching away.


A family shot! Lady and Johnny were rocking the shades despite the cloudy weather, now that's rock and roll!


MMmmmm at the first free moment in my kitchen, I whipped up this delicious, healthy and amazing zucchini apple bread. Here's the recipe, it's easy or I wouldn't make it!

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 cup white sugs
1 cup brown sugs
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup straight up flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup diced apples
and I threw in a handful of raisins for good measure

-Preheat oven to 350F
-Lightly grease 2 loaf pans
-Combine eggs, sugs, apple sauce and vanilla until blended
-In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
-Stir the dry shit into the wet until it's all one happy family
-Fold in nuts, apple, zucchini, raisin
-Bake 1 hour or until the tops springs back when touched.

Eat a bunch with a hot tea and your feet up. Enjoy!

So long summer, hello autumn

Alright, I don't usually share pictures of anything other than weird shit and jewellery. To honour an awesome summer that felt too short, I thought I'd share some of my favourite pictures that my man and I took over the course of the last few months.



"The Spaghetti Incident" - Oh man, I was so excited to celebrate the last days of this past Spring by turning on the oven to bake delicious! chicken! meatballs! yum! In anticipation of d.c.m.y., I had had an early lunch and was ravenous. I was also suffering from Class A Butterfingers, which reached a comic/tragic/sudden end when I smashed my newly plated dish of food INTO EVERYTHING. Tears, laughter and more tears ensued; this level of clutzy-ness is not foreign to me.



Just one of many beautiful shots Ron and I took on our long drive around Central California and beyond with my family this summer. Trip of a lifetime.



A major discovery: leaving Lake Tahoe felt like abandoning a home before you've moved all your stuff in. A return visit ASAP is in order.



I don't even know where to start with the ridiculous setting of this picture. Curiosity, BBQ corn on the cob and too much sun led my man, my brother, his girlfriend and myself into a "Classic Films on Ice" performance starring none other than former Canadian figure skating champion/grannie heart throb/aspiring singer/karate enthusiast Elvis Stoijko. Together with some extremely theatric singers and a bunch of amateur skaters, this solid gold team paid homage to such classic films as Top Gun, Moulin Rouge, Slumdog Millionaire with seemingly random choices like Shrek, High School Musical and my personal favourites Ghostbusters and Kill Bill, in which Elvis sported Uma Thurman's yellow unitard and went through a karate routine on ice. It didn't seem crazy at the time to honour one of our favourite overdone movie moments: Blue Steel!



Meet Yma. She's our darling cat who too often enjoys curling up on the couch with a hot cup of coffee, the morning news and the remote. All I ask of her is that she washes a dish to earn her keep around here. Do you think she does it? Absolutely not.



I came home from a long day to a smiling owl on a steaming shepherds pie. Yet another reminder that I found my soul mate at a young age.



Ah! A mapless driving adventure led us to a beautiful and enormous flower garden on the lake. We decided to give our afternoon snack of muffins to the overfed and ungrateful squirrels who were clearly after something more decadent! I don't know how their tails remain so perfect when they're off doing squirrel things all day, my tail would end up all covered in tree sap.



Ron is the Tree Whisperer. He can negotiate the branches of any monstrocity, regardless of it's size.

It's been such an amazing summer, let's hope for an even better fall.

xoxo Amarina

Back from California and in it to win it

Ron and I are back and recovering from our amazing road trip around central California. It ended up being an onslaught on the senses, with the diversity of gorgeous landscapes, temperatures, people and escapades inspiring us every step of the way. Here's a rather messy representation of where our travels brought us:



Swimming and rock climbing in Lake Tahoe, driving through the desert and losing our brakes in the Sequoia National Park mountains, this trip could never be duplicated. We're starting to think that maybe California is where we need to be for awhile.



I've been spending some time reorganizing my goods for the Fall and Holiday seasons. Tons and tons and tons to come!

xoxo Amarina

Hibou on Vacation! Monkeys as Pets!

Hibou Accessories will be on vacation from Aug. 11th - Aug. 20th. I'll be visiting my family in Santa Cruz, CA and I couldn't be more excited!

Any shop orders will be sent out Aug.21st and you bet your bottom dollar I'll be back with pictures of the random shit I come across while away. For the moment, this will have to do:

xoxo

Amarina

Kittens in Windows

Ron and I spotted these two darlings in Peterborough, ON and all I could think of was "Quick, let's document this wonder!" and "How has no one told us about this giant kitten breed? I want in, I want in!"

xoxo Amarina

Add another place to "Things I Must See Before I Croak" List

There are a million reasons why Etsy has become such a success and why artsy crafty people like me are so drawn to it. They've really managed to create a virtual environment that sucks you in and makes you feel like you are a valuable part of a community, and a community that cares about art and handmade things to boot!

This is one of their newest blog posts and I have to say that I'm really quite taken with all the locations they've featured so far in their "There's No Place Like Here" video series, and I'm especially seduced by this place in particular. It's an instant I must visit this place at least once in my life reaction. And so it will be, check it out.

xoxo
Amarina

Casa Loma Inspiration/Take Over Part I

So a couple of weeks ago Ron and I decided that it would be inspiring and awesome to go play in Casa Loma for the afternoon. He had never been there and I hadn't visited since a class trip in grade three. I mostly remembered Casa Loma as a vast space haunted by ghosts that I had barely escaped from and full of things I couldn't touch. It's pretty much the same now, with less things for you not to touch.

When we first walked in, we were greeted by Joe Goddard of Hot Chip's historian twin brother and I knew then that it was going to be a good day.

The mantel above was the first picture I took. I would totally love to just transport this wall into my home, family photos and all.



The no-longer-a-secret-secret staircase leads visitors to a hallway containing movie posters of Cocktail and something with Jackie Chan. The washrooms are there too.


This cute little number appeared to be a waiting room for Sir Henry Mill Pellat's washroom. I mostly just liked the darling floral curtains, and check out the chandelier below:



I took this picture (below) for my friend S. She'd be convinced that there was a semi-secret Masonic Temple meeting going on behind this door and I'd like to hope this is true. We missed the huge and amazing organ because this WHOLE WING was blocked off...seems like secret meeting trickery to me!

Happy Easter everyone,
xoxo Amarina