New Foodie Crush: The Little Paris Kitchen

I stumbled on The Little Paris Kitchen quite by accident. I love Paris. I love Amelie. I love food. Well, The Little Paris Kitchen is just all three things together. The program features Rachel Khoo, who is amazingly beautiful in her Amelie dark brown hair and red lipstick. She wears cute little sun dresses with polka dots. She cooks with large sticks of butter.

Moroccan tiles in her kitchen....the jealousy continues....

You can catch some episodes on YouTube and probably find some cute dresses like hers on ModCloth.com. The food is classic french cuisine. No big surprises but little twists. I think I like the show to reminisce about gay Paris.....oh, I must go back!

Little Paris Kitchen is relatively new and a cookbook probably is not in the forseeable future. As usual, it will be published in the UK (with those damned english weights - I don't own a scale!) and we Canadians will have to wait a year or two to have her cookbook in our hands.

It will probably take a year for Food Network Canada to pick it up too. As I do not have cable, that is no great loss. I just hope I can find all the episodes on youtube!

Dull to Shiny Rain Boots

Are your Wellies dull? Do they only look good in the rain? Here is a project you will be able to complete over the weekend.

The solution to make your booties shine is to use Armor All Vinyl Protectant wipes for your car. Easy Peasy!

Cute Top...

Had to show you this cute top I picked up at a sidewalk sale....

EEK! Scottie Dogs!!!

Art and Clothing and Consumption and Blogs

I was fortunate to visit the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg recently and had the opportunity to see Fashionality, an exhibition of contemporary Canadian artists who used clothing as inspiration. Despite how the topic can be kitsch, it was a really great show. I admire "process" in the creation of work. In other words, I like to see how the art took time, and patience, and tears, and strength to achieve the final product. I'm sick this way! I wanna see effort!

Day 121 This is a good picture to see all of the work Natalie has put into
her outfit: shoes, grey socks, blue stockings, dress and apron.

For this reason I was impressed by Natalie Purschwitz's Makeshift project. The poor woman undertook the incredible task of making all of the clothing she would wear, everyday, for the course of the year (2009). Everything had to be made by her. 

That is over 365 items of clothing people! Underwear and socks! Shooooooes ---EVERYTHING!

And like "Julie and Julia," she put it all on her blog.

The 2011 installation at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The nice thing about the McMichael show is a television screen that displays her changing outfits, every second, so you can admire amount of clothing she created. She did reuse some clothing on some days (ie, shoes, socks) but give the girl a break - there must have been smoke rising from the machine. Along side of the television is a long rail with a selection of the clothing, so you can look through her creations.

Day 79

She continues to work in Vancouver and design in Vancouver under the label Hunter and Gatherer. Check out that website here.

Comfy Jeans

Patiently, I have been curbing my dream of owning a pair of red jeans. I think I have waited about a year now. Finally I have succumbed to loverly red.

These red beauties are from Reitman's and are now on sale for $34!

To be honest, they aren't comfy though. While they are a great colour - a slight hint of burgundy to stop them from being too loud - they do not hold up to the bend test (i.e. does your underwear show when you bend over?) These suckers hang so low your butt crack nearly shows. It ain't cool. And my bubble is sorta burst.

Do you know how hard I worked into my investment of a red pair of jeans? It started last fall at H&M. I couldn't buy them. Red. It was loud. I - JUST - COULD - NOT - DO - IT. Would I look like a clown? A co-worker had a pair of red cords...but on me? I was scared.

Then this spring, voila, colour is all the rage. I went to the Gap. But they had red pants - not jeans. Later, I saw Old Navy ads and sought out a mall (a place I hate to go). And guess what? There weren't any on the floor. This was turning out to be a full time job! In the same mall, Reitman's had the above jeans, and they were a great colour. Okay - I'll get those.

But they didn't have my size.

Typical.

Now I have what I want I am not happy. I want another red pair. A comfy pair. It doesn't help I spoiled myself at Christmas with YOGA JEANS.

Sometimes, you have to treat yourself. Yoga Jeans is the way to go.
Price: $125 plus your loverly HST.  And to make things even better : they are
Canadian (!!!) and made in Canada (!!!)

Seriously ---YOU MUST TRY YOGA JEANS. These suckers wear like track pants, do not cut off at the knee, have a high waist (goodbye Britney Spears!) and guess what, they now have red! EEK! 

Now a quick advisory: everyone in the ads are skinny and skinny jeans are the trend at the moment. Do not be put off by this. An older woman (45+) was trying on a pair of Yoga Jeans the same time as me. She was a size 10 or 12 and she was no fashionista; just an ordinary woman. Well, they looked great on her. 

To add fuel to the fire, Second Denim is based in Montreal and are made in Canada! This warms the cockles of my heart and no more am I buying $30 Joe Fresh jeans. I bought mine at Shop Girls in Parkdale, Toronto and locations can be found on the Second Denim website here. Treat yourself.