Tuesday Tunes (But on Wed) - The Chemical Brothers + Wayne Coyne

One of my favourite songs of the last decade, three weirdos get together and make weirdo music and a perfect song comes out of that weirdness. The video is pretty sweet too.

LOVE.

xoxo
Amarina

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

Getting Crafty, Martha Stewart Styles

It's been such a rainy summer here in Toronto (absolutely not complaining at all, I love it!) I've been thinking about and actually doing crafty projects like transforming some of my clothes. I'm quite the hoarder when it comes to clothing in particular, letting it take up valuable space in my closet when I could be donating or re-purposing.

When I was 10 or so, my hippie parents enrolled me in summer camp at the local museum in my small town. I vividly remember thinking it was going to be awesome at the time, but knowing it wasn't going to be where the cool kids were and could possibly be lame. Lame it was not, and we did a ton of amazing crafts like making corn husk dolls and sculptures out of a salty flour mixture that I'm sure kids ate behind everyone's back.

One of my favourite projects was tie dying clothes with vegetable dyes that we made ourselves from tea & beets, and this was exactly the first project I did.

This re-usable shopping bag made from a shirt is genius and of course came from the Martha Stewart empire. To oversimplify this awesome project, you cut off the sleeves and collar and then sew up the bottom. For full instructions click on the picture above.

Now I know why I've been hanging onto my oversized forest green extreme lion face t-shirt! I'll post pictures of my project when I'm all done.

Happy crafting,
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

Etsy Treasuries

I've been so lucky to have been featured in two Treasuries on Etsy this week! Click that hot necklace to check it out before it's over!

Thanks to my fellow Etsy ladies for that awesome surprise!

xoxo Amarina

Vintage Clip Ons from Hibou!

So I had my ears pierced when I was 7 or so and suffered from allergic reactions to pretty much every kind of metal. I didn't try to pierce my ears again until a few years ago when I learned that I had grown out of my metal sensitivities. Up until that point however, I had to get creative with the clip ons, which were difficult to find and often not my style.

I've been accumulating awesome vintage pairs to a point of hoarding, so I've decided to put up a bunch of really great ones on the ole Etsy store. Click on the pictures for the direct links to each piece.

Knowing that I love taking apart vintage jewellery and found objects to give them new life, dear friends and family sometimes share treasures, odds and ends with me. A jewellery fairy godmother dropped off these gorgeous Givenchy vintage clip ons from 1977 and a bunch of other amazing treats.

There's more to come where vintage goodies are concerned, as always!

xoxo Amarina

Toronto Air Sex Championships

Oh man, so excited that it's finally consistently lovely outside and my partner and I feel like we've broken the hermit cocoon and are venturing out into the world again. One of the things I'd been looking forward to for awhile is the Air Sex Championships that rolled through Toronto last night. A perfect mix of sexy slow jams from the 70's - 90's (hello Color Me Badd!!) and epic film instrumentals (maybe a ditty from Harry Potter?), the brave souls that ventured on stage wiggled and moaned and stripped and were generally sweaty and hilarious.

I like to think it takes a lot to shock me, but I was genuinely surprised to see the very first contestant light his prop dink on fire. This must be the ultimate sign predicting one hell of a summer and I'm so ready for it.

xoxo
Amarina