mackin’ on kate spade bracelets

i’m day dreaming about some kate spade stuff.

without going into too much detail in a public forum, i’m about to have some fairly massive changes in my life and thus am on hold in terms of big shopping decisions until these changes transpire. but i LOVE these bracelets. love their message too. i may break down and get one. or two.

and i totally need a laptop bag. just probably not this one. ha!

my final choice

it’s a bit wild that i have a blog category for material objects, but there you have it. i do like Things.

anyway, this is my newestbestestlatest Thing – my new kate spade purse. it is gorgeous.

also:
– cashmere wrap (YES)
– navy suit
– silk blouse
– nude shoes
– black booties
– golden aviators (free from a friend!)
– cheap after-v-day roses

are some of the Things that make me happy lately.

camera, booq, ipod – object milestones

now that im self imposing a shopping ban of course all kinds of THINGS are floating into my head that i want to get.

my current (awesome, lovely, sweet, amazing) baby camera (sd500) is falling apart. (switches are stopping to work). i guess it’s been 5 years, so that’s about expected.

Ok, so the calculation of the timing took me on a lo-ong memory trip down my blog lane. in 2004 I went to Europe… in 2006 (Early) I went to Australia. So camera is indeed 5 years old. wild! what a long time.

what’s even crazier is that the “expensive” laptop sleeve that i bought in this entry of july 2005 STILL works and STILL looks awesome and STILL is super functional. wild. best $50 spent in terms of bag ownership. (milestone!)

my ipod touch loses its charge within 3-4 hours of operation (like music playing). frustrating.

i want headphones with remote control so that i can go next/prev when i run.

another milestone: i started using google calendar around May 2006 and one of the first entries is of Tim coming to live with me in Sydney. (17th).

media i’m enjoying and kitchen update

Lady Gaga, of course. All of her. Alejandro especially.


this knock off bag

IKEA’s new textile line

all the kitchens below on the path in our renovation :-)


All inspiration and floor plans are here

Currently I’m pricing contractors, finishes and appliances. The floorplan is basically finalized (last images in the set linked above), cabinets are most likely the shiny white abstract ikea line. Still up for debate:

countertop

appliances

tap

sink

I really love white careera marble but its freaking expensive from what I hear.



this beautiful preppy look

The desire for the material is awful. I want new shoes, I want to update my wardrobe to be more classic (as if I don’t have enough black in my closet), I want that knock off bag.

My camera seems to have died. Rest in peace, d70. I have no money to get a new one given how I want a new kitchen. Let’s just hope I won’t need to take any photos in the next month. (HAH).

I learned how to make some REALLY kick ass cocktails recently. @shazow and @limedaring were kind enough to let me experiment on them sunday night; then the experiments continued after the lovely dinner at colbourne lane (which apparently is probably like the fanciest restaurant in the city? who knew. SIMONA my darling coworker knew. here is simona.

simona - glance

she took us there as a treat, silly lady. though it was still much appreciated.), when simona came by for continuation of the party. i managed to whip up 4 different cocktails from what seemed absolutely no ingridients on hand.

one milky. (zeus’s… magic juice, let’s say, though our name is a bit more dirty)

one chocolaty (no name)

one lemony (elephaunt lips)

one sweet (a modified sweet lips or something like that)

i’m missing grenadine among other necessary ingridients

tonight i made banana bread and it again succeeded. if you ever want to try making it, this recipe can do no wrong. even with week old bananas. for serious. and it takes like 5 minutes all together of effort for a week of breakfasts. amazing.

proque te vas

first mac

after loving the shuffle; after becoming entirely attached-at-the-hip to the ipod touch; i have received/gotten the quad core 27 inch imac for my birthday. (Eg instead of paying off mortgage i got myself a fancy toy. This is me being a 26 year old adult. Clearly I’m learning something over the years…!)

I have never owned an apple machine before. I remember the first time I used one – it was when we came to Canada and I went to grade 8. They had the old macs and the new ones – the all in one, brightly colored ones? I don’t think I really had much real exposure after that – in high school the machines were PCs. At home, they were PCs. At university, they were PCs (by large, anyway, I can’t recall otherwise).

But despite the rarity of the Apple I always had a deep dedication, fondness and a hidden desire to own one.

So as we are DINKs (Double Income No Kids) and I have worked my  butt off in form of many late nights, 11pm emails, 7am calls and 8am meetings, I feel (and kinda have) earned myself the ultimate. present. of. all. time. A new, TOP OF THE FSCKING LINE, 27 inch widescreen QUAD FSCKING CORE iMac. I wouldn’t swear but I CANT.

The entire reason for this entry is the overwhelming disbelief and joy that I have went and gotten myself the most top end thing of anything. I’m not whining – its just, I’ve always been very reasonable in my demands. iPod touch – not iPhone. Built PC – not a laptop. Nikon D70 – even if its falling apart quite literally after 5 (5!!!!) years.

But I went and gotten the computer of my dreams.

The funny thing is I didn’t even know how much I’d enjoy using it. My motivations were based in (a) esthetics – we live in a nice place, my computer is highly visible, and I wanted something that would look good – and (b) function – I sure as heck wasn’t going to get a Sony all in one or something silly like that. After the fairly recent announcements of the 21 and 27 inch macs I decided that – fsck yeah! – I’ll treat myself to top of the line.

The smell of new computer is makes me ecstatic. The hugeness of the screen …. is unbelievalbe. But every time that I look down and see THE DASHBOARD. Or everytime that I do ANYTHING AT ALL EVEN SORTING PHOTOS – I am blown away by HOW GOOD IT LOOKS. And I’m not being biased – my crazy dual core 64 bit 2gb ram 500GB raid + dedicated swap PC + 21 inch dell monitor (same manufacturer as one for apple monitors) is right by side. THEY CANNOT BE COMPARED.

2010 is the year I switched. I do not think I will ever, ever switch back. It pains me it took so long. But now – I cannot imagine it.

chair poster

thanks to my loving friends and coworkers my chair addiction is steadily being fed.

first, work allowed me to take an eames chair home. they didn’t need it.

then, scarf gave me a book of modern chairs.

(while meanwhile everyone else maha patiently listened after i called say “OMG OMG I SCORED A BERTOIA FOR $20!!)

(and my dear boyfriend fiance husband tolerated my putting said bertoias in our living room – and actually thought its a good idea!)

anyway.

third, work gave me another 70s chair, and now i hooked at least 4 more people into discussing the history of chairs with me.

aside: the building i work in was built in the 50s-60s-70s. the aesthetic is late mid-century-modern. there is a lot of side eames shell chairs floating around, teak furniture, old school chairs with great lines and awesome casters. whats hilarious, is that while i’m just happy to see this design gorgeousness, the rest look at it as “old furniture”. i have never realized more clearly how big of a gap there is between what is happening in the “design world” (not the high end; but the more common ikea-target-west elm-craigslist shopping people who like to discuss design on many various blogs) and what is happening in the “real world” (the people who buy furniture without having a “visual” of what they are looking for. or alternatively, people who don’t agree with me ;p ). regardless of this gap, the fact that i own an eames chair (broken-ish and old, but totally repairable) makes me eternally grateful to our building manager.

so, one of the chairs i had in my cubicle (i had 3 which almost became 4, but they forced me to give up one. which is probably for the best.) had to be moved out to another guy’s cubicle until they throw it out (oh the pain, please let me not imagine how the machine will crush it!). out of curiousity we flipped it upside down to check year made. made in burlingont, brought to mississauga from the toronto office. and a cleaning tag. “shampooed and vacuumed in 1973”. 34 years at least. and its more solid than some of the 5-10 year old office chairs we have. that is why i love old chairs so much.

anyway, so this is to explain how interested i have become in design, and chairs in particular lately. so this is so awesome that i have no words.

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