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

Tuesday Tunes - Best Coast (on Thursday, natch)

My ears have been lusting after Best Coast all summer and I finally got to see them when they rolled through Toronto last weekend.  The sold out show at Lee's Palace turned out to be really! fucking! amazing! despite singer Bethany suffering from what appeared to be the flu.

Already a road veteran at the tender age of 23, she powered through almost puking several times on stage stopping only to sip water and smoke a joint that a bold (and clearly awesome) audience member passed to her in between songs.  Bethany even announced that it was the first time she's ever smoked on stage much to our surprise, since 90% of their songs talk about being in love and being high.

This is their new video for "When I'm With You", which I can't watch due to my coulrophobia and added hatred of Ronald McDonald.  But I imagine it's good anyway, plus the song is amazing.

Dance, dance, dance!

xoxo Amarina

New Jams Comin-at-cha!

Lately I've been spending a boatload of time making jewellery and then taking my sweet, sweet time getting it up online. There are no excuses, but at least I've been having an awesome time in my absence! The guy and I spent too little time in Ottawa over Halloween checking out Strayotic, and you should check them out too! Click, click, click. We looked ridiculous in our sleazy 80's costumes (Ron ended up looking a little rape-y) and this was the only picture we managed to get:



When we got back from our mini road trip, I remembered that I make jewellery and it's not going to share itself!



I'm really not a skull person at all, despite my interest in dark things and taxidermy. These however, remind me of Day of the Dead celebrations and they really have a lot of character. I decided that they needed to be long, swingy and shoulder-sweeping, one of my favourite combinations. They would have been perfect in the time leading up to Halloween, but these are definitely all-season.



I've also been doing a serious amount of photographic experimentation, and I've been so happy with the results. After shelling out big bucks for a portable lighting studio and various plastic animal props, I've discovered that the best way to take pictures is first thing in the morning with natural light and some simple backdrops. It's funny, keeping things simple is never my first instinct, I always have to work backwards from completely overthinking everything to get there...but I'm finally happy with the quality!



This crystal wolf necklace is absolutely my new favourite thing. You can wear it double stranded or open it up and wear the necklace super long like so:



There's so much more on the way, so much!

xoxo
Amarina

The Mumlers

My musical tastes are always influenced by the changing of the seasons. I'm more drawn to bright, dance-y beats in the Spring/Summer, and tend to go for darker, folksier, more organic tunes in the Fall/Winter. At the first sign of crispness in the October air, I ran straight into the arms of San Jose independent rockers The Mumlers. They are younger than one would think, based on the richness of their music and the talent that seems to run deep among every member. I was so intrigued by these guys that I found a 10 minute documentary that follows the band for a weekend. I have to say that it only made me love them more.

Enjoy!

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!