best. icing. ever.

Make your favourite buttercream (butter, cream, icing sugar) and fold in some melted, unsweetened chocolate. It's a kind of ganache, except you sweeten the icing and let the dark chocolate work its wonders.

shoot of the week: daniel

Lots of shoots going on these days, which is pretty awesome. I'm loving every minute of it. More photos on the way soon.

look du jour

rainy day tunes

I just walked home in the cold rain, in a skirt and uncomfortable tights. My hair is clinging to my face and I am chilled to the bone. I am both spent and overstimulated. I work during the days, and then I work on other stuff from the moment work ends until my bedtime in the wee hours. It's exhausting, but I hear this is how you "make it."

After work I took the bus to a café. I drank huge mugs of tea while typing, over the din of old men yelling at each other in Portuguese. Then I showed up at the restaurant for this week's meeting. Like the insanely welcoming, mothering woman she is, B served us burgers with every gourmet fixing you could imagine. Neighbours stopped by to join the meal, sharing stories and our big bottle of rosemary lemonade.

We brainstormed and planned, while a group of older men played amazing jigs and reels for their weekly Irish jam. B is the kind of woman who magnetically attracts creative souls, so it's no surprise that even when the restaurant is closed, it is still full of people.

And yes, it was surreal, conversing over enthusiastic Celtic tunes. It gave the night a dreamlike quality. So when I walked home close to midnight after a long, long day, I was okay with the miserable weather. My boots clicked on the pavement with a purposeful rhythm, as if I were marching to the last strains Irish tunes that streamed out the door after me. I am tired, but I'm walking with purpose. I'm on a mission.

curative properties

Easter weekend at home was a much needed breath of fresh, country air.

Dinner at Grandma's passed with minimal drama, minus the creepy man watching us eat from behind a tree (while clutching a Tim Horton's cup). "Oh don't worry, that's just Huey," I was assured. Right, the fact that this sketchy character is a regular fixture on the lawn should totally assuage my worries. Eeek.

My stress level dropped steadily as we drove further away from the city (Montreal, and then Toronto). I took some deep breaths, cut off a bunch of my hair, ate some great meals, and got a few decent nights' sleep. Funny how I don't seem to be able to do those simple things in the city.

a work in progress

Over the last week, members of the collective I'm working with have been excitedly combining our efforts to pull together everything we need for our website. Here, Liz (our makeup artist) does Adrienne's makeup for her headshot. Things are happening!

the trunk

I've been thinking a lot about consumption for several reasons.

First of all, my finance savvy friend just gave me a budget makeover, so I have become very conscious of my spending and consumption habits (my Cadbury mini egg addiction, for example, is now on hiatus). Secondly, spring cleaning has forced me to air out my unused clothing, tchotchkes, and junk. What was I planning to do with all those hideous wooden beads, anyway?

Living in Montreal is a big part of my lifestyle shift as well. I've noticed that there is definitely an ethos of sustainability (lots of restaurants ask you to bring your own takeout dishes; the proliferation of biodegradable water bottles), recycling (clothing swaps), and reinvention (many artists who use pre-used, found or eco-friendly materials) here.

Not to go all hippie on you or anything, but being eco chic comes surprisingly naturally for me. Plus, I'm a lot more inclined to recycle and reinvent given my strict budget of the moment.

Now more than ever, furniture shopping on Craigslist makes sense. In an effort not to waste resources or money, Brian and I have agreed not to buy crap furniture just for the sake of filling our apartment. Sure, we haven't had a coffee table since we moved in, but at least we haven't had a terrible coffee table (that we would inevitably toss out or donate) either! We had an idea in mind and decided to wait until we found exactly what we were looking for.

And found it we did, this Saturday. During a random scan of the furniture section on Craigslist, I spotted the antique, flat-top trunk we've been imagining for 6 months. It was affordable, and the seller only lived a 1o minute walk from us. So we picked it up, carried it home in the rain, and after a healthy spritz of vinegar and lavender extract (to banish the smoke smell), it's perfect!

Now only one question remains: does being excited about this make me as nerdy and boring as I suspect it does?

inspiration: katrina markoff

Have you ever come across someone - whether in person or via some other medium - that makes you want to work your ass off to try to accomplish even a fraction of what she has?

For me, that person is Katrina Markoff. I first heard about her 2 summers ago when my great aunt Joyce brought boxes full of Vosges chocolates to our family reunion.

Vosges is an "Haut-chocolate" company that Markoff founded after she graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, apprenticed under Ferran Adrià (one of the world's most famous chefs) and travelled the world. Her creations feature spices, flowers and other exotic ingredients (hello, bacon) from all over the world. She invents every recipe herself in Vosges' Chicago headquarters.

To summarize: this lady travels the world looking for flavour inspiration, then blends her discoveries into exquisite chocolaty concoctions. Pretty much the best job on earth.

Since my job places me in the food/lifestyle realm of the interweb, I often come across references to her chocolates. In this video, she explains her brainstorming process:



And, while on Design Sponge a few weeks ago, I was admiring photos of rooms decorated the way I would decorate if I had money. Intrigued, I scrolled back up to see the owner, and it was none other than Markoff. Small world? Or, is it that once we find something that inspires us, it keeps popping up in different forms everywhere. Why is that?

More importantly, how does one become one of the 26 most fascinating entrepreneurs by one's early thirties?

Photo credit: Design Sponge