Material Archive

It's cute Delia:

 

ACME DeLuxe Ice-Cream Bricks

This is a real store sign! Unfortunately, it's sits on what is now an antique store on Queen West, next to Local Kitchen where I had dinner tonight.

Honestly, the concept of an "ice cream brick" store named "ACME DeLuxe" seems too good to be true – it's right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon...  :-)

Reminded of my love for Parra today:

Just ordered this print as I have loved it for ages.

Am a fan of huge Parra's work and hope to collaborate with him one day on the right project.

Penguin's Great Food Series

If you enjoy reading about food – this series should be on your radar. I just picked up several books from it and am in the midst of reading "Murder in the Kitchen" – which is more my speed since I enjoy a great story versus just straight up cook book. Here's a synopsis:

"In this memoir-turned-cookbook, Alice B. Toklas describes her life with partner Gertrude Stein and their famed Paris salon, which entertained the great avant-garde and literary figures of their day.

With dry wit and characteristic understatement Toklas ponders the ethics of killing a carp in her kitchen before stuffing it with chestnuts; decorating a fish to amuse Picasso at lunch; and travelling across France during the First World War in an old delivery truck, gathering local recipes along the way. She includes a friend's playful recipe for 'Haschiche Fudge', which promises 'brilliant storms of laughter and ecstatic reveries', much like her book."

 

J.Crew opens in Toronto: leaves all the interesting merch in the US

The recent pricing controversy didn't keep my curiosity at bay and so I went shopping with list in hand (after doing a pre-shop online) and ventured out to the burbs to see the new outpost of American retailer J.Crew at Yorkdale mall.

Someone must have sent Jenna a memo outlining Canadians' supposed predilection for boring basics because I wasn't able to find one thing on my list in stock. The most interesting shoes, blazers and dresses were left south of the border for their more "fashion forward" customers. Deep sigh.

Canadians love J.Crew because of it's sunny and distinctly American outlook. Having Canadian buyers curate the collection (the sales staff confirmed this) removes what makes the brand interesting to us to begin with. So thanks for your efforts Mr. Drexler but I'll stick to my online / catalog shopping for now.

Photo from the Grid

Today I bought: Miu Miu Glitter Booties from Net-A-Porter

 

Snagged the last size 39! Major shopping victory.

Modernist Cuisine – mostly no Photoshop

When I first saw this series of books, I assumed it was almost all retouching that produced the amazing cut-away photograpy – but alas, as this Ted talk shows, the majority of imagery is a result of actually sawing dishware and appliances in half! Pretty cool.

Watch several other videos on the book here.

Read a great article about Nathan Myhrvold, the book's co-author, and the former CTO of Microsoft, here.

Having a crap day? Watch this – instant prozac

 

Dying for this Givenchy:

Buy it here.

High Tea at the Windsor Arms

Last weekend, a group of friends and I enjoyed High Tea at the Windsor Arms.

The Red Room we started out in was charming as all hell but very hot, so we had to move to a cooler area. Once re-seated, our tea arrived quickly and we were grateful! The rose tea we had was wonderful, as were the scones and Devon clotted cream. The sushi style rolled sandwiches were not remarkable though – a bit dry and flavourless. The petit fours were also not terribly inspired either, although pretty to look at. I would advise skipping those courses and simply focus your attention on what they do best – scones & tea!

Overall, a nice experience, with attentive service.

Next up for High Tea – MoRoCo & The Four Seasons!


P.S. There was a wealth of great art all around too – many great Charlie Pachters throughout the space.

 

Alexander McQueen : Savage Beauty

With an absolutely eerie and haunting cover of McQueen morphing from portrait to skull, Savage Beauty is a must own for any lover of fashion – a beautiful book.

Hanging with the Abstract Expressionists (& General Idea) at the AGO

Spent a fun afternoon puttering around the Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the AGO today. Took in a little General Idea too.

Today I bought: Ports 1961 Perf Suede Booties

Saw these in the window at Ports 1961 on Bloor Street and decided I had to give them a good home...

Crazy cold AC is making me want this fur jacket:

 

How crazy adorable is this girl's style? The jacket is a: Must.Have.For.Fall.

From Jac&Jill

Jeni's Splendid Ice-Creams At Home: The Book

The last two weeks have been a bit rough at work and so @itbitme decided to cheer me up with a wee preezie when I arrived home today. How lucky am I? :)

Jeni's Splendid Ice-Creams At Home is a book that catalogues Jeni's 15 year history of making all manner of ice-creams in her bakery / creamery.

I'm super excited to try:

♥  Grapefruit Hibiscus Frozen Yogurt

♥  Wildberry Lavender Ice Cream

♥  Toasted Rice Ice Cream with a Wiff of Coconut & Black Tea

♥  Earl Grey & Cherries Ice Cream

♥  Cucumber, Honeydew & Cayenne Frozen Yogurt

♥  Star Anise Ice Cream with Candied Fennel Seeds

♥  Sweet Potato Ice Cream with Torched Marshmallows

 
Stay tuned – experiments will be documented!

In the meantime, here's a cute video about JSIC:

 

 

Chanel Make-Up

Was just looking through my YouTube favs and found this fun video from last January.

It's the little things that make me truly happy:

Like sweet fresh shelled peas from the farmer's market...

Or making more homemade ice-cream –

Here's the first strawberry flavour @itbitme and I ever attemped and it was amazing...

 

My Custom Wildhagen Hat

I was out shopping one day 2 weeks ago when I saw a girl wearing the most charming hat. Usually, when I approach another woman about an article of clothing she's wearing, she'll tell me she bought it in Paris two seasons ago or at an antique market – leaving me with no chance of finding one for myself. Luckily, this particular girl, named Jade, proudly told me that she had made the hat herself and directed me to Wildhagen.

Already familiar with the brand after buying several hats from the Canadian company over the years, I beelined over and ordered a custom "Miniçoise" from Cheri Wildhagen herself. I chose the hat material and grosgrain ribbon and presto, a week and a half later, I picked up a made-to-measure (for my larger than average melon) lovely chapeau! A fun experience that I would recommend to all.

El Bulli: Cooking in Progress

Keen to see this! Might go tomorow – message me if you want to join ;-)

*** Update!

I saw it and really enjoyed it.

It's received many bad reviews criticizing it's lack of interviews or voice over, but for me it was a voyeur's delight. It's a style of filmmaking that allows you to simply observe without the lens or bias of an interviewer – you simply spend the entire time listening to the occasional exchanges Ferran Adrià has with his staff and watching them experiment tirelessly – drawing your own conclusions instead of being spoon-fed every insight.

My take-away – the man is very precise and understands that the core of what he is selling is something magical, creative and inspiring – an experience to remember.

Midnight in Paris

Charming, silly film with an enviable Hermès, Chanel and Goyard laden wardrobe sported by Miss Adams.

Barque has bite

I've been to Barque Smokehouse twice, once for brunch and once for dinner and here's what I have to say:

• Call ahead – it's always packed
• Be warned, the cocktails are strong – the mint julep I had was so potent I couldn't finish it
• If you must choose between going for brunch or dinner, choose dinner as they do not serve the BBQ sampler at brunch
• Order the babyback ribs – after having the sampler with chicken and brisket, which was all good, they were still easily the best item on the menu

Enjoy!