I don’t usually post videos, but I keep running across this same artist’s stuff, and I am totally in love with her:
Her name is Robyn, she’s Swedish, and she used be a teeny-bopper pop-star in the mid nineties (remember “Show Me Love”? It was pretty ubiquitous at one point. Still hear it from time to time on adult-contempo radio). During the nineties her producer/song writer/Svengali was fellow swede Max Martin - Yes, that Max Martin, of later Britney infamy.
Eventually Robyn, not surprisingly, grew a little tired of being marketed as a pop-tartlet by her record company. But rather than put out a whiny new single about being misunderstood, or how hard being rich and famous is, she dumped her label and started her own.
Then she gave herself a asymmetrical bleach blond haircut; started wearing crazy outfits usually seen on more avant-garde artists (like a dress made to look like a Wurlitzer juke box); and started writing all her own material, collaborating with all the hip, young, up-and-coming producers and DJs Europe has to offer. Pretty awesome right? Now as a result, she’s the hottest thing in the British press, which means her total world dominance should be forthcoming shortly.
She’s pretty much Bjork and Gwen’s long lost Swedish love-child as raised by Missy. In other words: what’s not to love? She’s totally adorable in a wacky, Scandinavian sort of way and she’s got the chops to back it up.
While I’ve been out of commission, I’ve been working on a little website for my friend Vivian (she’s a talented girl, who is a fledgling DJ - among other things). I’m doing it just for fun and I’m totally digging it so far.
Granted, Vivian hasn’t seen this yet, so it might look entirely different by the time it ends up online, but at the moment, I’m pretty happy with it.
Vivian was using a little snail with a record for a shell as her little logo, so I decided to take the motif a step further and go for a whole story-book, woodland DJ motif. She also has a love of Alice in Wonderland, so I integrated a bit of that too. Vivian’s own personal aesthetic tends to lean towards rocker-mod, with lot’s of black and white and red so there’s a bit of a subtle retro, rockin’ influence (most notably in the use of cooper black for the header - and who doesn’t *heart* cooper black!). I, of course, added in a good dose of my own Mary Blair obsession into the mix as well.
Sometimes I feel weird that all I post is cat pictures anymore (crazy cat lady=me).
But I think my kitties have more fans than I do - it seems even our Vet’s office checks up on them via the web.
Plus this is the internet. I think it would be inappropriate if I didn’t post pictures of my cats.
Well, the kitties are still quite happy. When it snowed last week (which was super-pretty, and I’m very sad I didn’t get pictures of it, but I was in a lot of toothy pain) they were in love with the little flakes, watching them fall.
It’s definitely a four seasons kind of house. The ginormous maples scattered throughout the neighbourhood had just dropped their leaves a couple weeks ago - all at once. Everything on the street was covered in a good foot of orange leaves overnight.
Living in the old apartment was kind of isolating from nature. You couldn’t hear the rain fall, or sleet hit the windows like you can here. You couldn’t even just step outside to check the weather, because the windows didn’t open very well and you had to go out into the hall, down the stairs, through another hall, through the lobby, and out the front entrance. If we were parked in the parking garage, you didn’t know what it was like outside at all.
Here, I’m wondering if we keep the windows open in the spring, whether we’ll be able to hear birds singing in the mornings. It’s been a long time since I’ve been awoken by that.
Being stuck inside with gaping wounds in your mouth makes you notice these things I guess.
But being stuck in, means I’ve been cooking up a storm. Liam made me pancakes on Sunday morning, yum, and in the past week, I’ve made bacon and potato soup, re-fried beans and Spanish rice, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti carbonara and futomaki roll sushi (with egg, pickled turnip, japanese cucumber, and crab sticks).
We took advantage of the amazing, carnival like, local, Asian grocery store for the sushi. If you live in Toronto, and you’ve never been, you need to go. We also found shelled edamame, pickled ginger, and chocolate mochi there to go with our meal (along with a pink bottle of sake I had bought, well, for it’s bottle).
We’re going to make sushi more often now, I think. It gets easier the more you do it, and then Liam can take leftovers for lunch and stop buying questionable mall sushi.
So, yeah, things are pretty good,
And my head is almost healed,
And we’re almost unpacked,
And there are little kitties in the windows,
And they’re watching the last leaves blow out of the eaves.
I promised photographic proof of happy kitties, and here it is:
Three cats sleeping on one (unmade) bed. This occurred last Sunday - on our first morning waking up here. We had to capture it quick before they noticed us noticing them, so sorry about the messy bed.
This is also get a sneak peak of the bedroom. It’s not quite finished, but you get the idea. Cosy, bright, light, cheery. I’m calling the look: ‘Scandinavian Country Cottage’. I’ve still got furniture to re-finish and I’m not sure about that quilt (I love it, but I’m not sure it’s working in this particular spot - possibly hanging too high?). I’m also probably going to do something with that headboard so it isn’t so obviously ‘the-cheapest-bed-they-had-at-ikea’.
And, of course, it would help if the bed was actually made…
I am still very much enjoying my new digs. Something about this place just makes me happy.
I am also enjoying this bit of Indian summer we are having here (normally I’d worry about global warming, but right now I’m in love with watching the leaves change on the enormous trees we are on eye level with up here - a month late, but still nice - it’s like living in a giant treehouse).
I had a hunch in the old apartment that everything I owned looked dingy because they were being infringed on by their dingy surroundings. I have been proven right, as all my things look beautiful here. The honeyed hardwood and pale walls make all my pretty little knicks and knacks shine!
Even the cats are happier here (I will show you photographic proof of this later).
Also making me feel good: doing laundry whenever I want. It’s a small thing, but I really appreciate it.
Tomorrow though, I am getting my wisdom teeth out. I am pretty happy about this too, as I’m not exactly going to miss the little chompers, but it’s going to make me even more exhausted than I already am. So if I’m quiet for a little while, just imagine me on pain killers and be thankful I’m not deigning the internet with my whacked out presence.
We’re here, we’re alive, I’m making my way through the boxes, and really enjoying my new digs.
Also: why is it that when I open my big mouth to be snarky (as I have a habit of doing) I get the most positive attention.
Being negative and sarcastic = positive opportunities?
Is the universe trying to tell me to be meaner? After all these years of trying to curb my foot-in-mouthiness and just be nice? Or is it simply that (blatent, filterless) honesty is the best policy?
My only worry is that I won’t be able to find wool felt. It is hard to come by up here in Toronto, for some reason. Polar fleece, I can find oodles of, however, and it may have to do for this particular project (once fleece starts to get nubby and worn it sort of starts to look like felt, so it should be o.k.).
We spent the weekend at the house, and I finally remembered to bring my camera (before I started piling everything full of boxes).
This is my new living room:
I am in serious love with that pretty shade of pale turquoise. It was the perfect choice - any darker and it would have been felt like living in a Tiffany’s box, any lighter, and, well, it would have been white.
This is my new kitchen (with a hint of a back deck, just beyond the window):
The pale blue also makes all the white trim and the wood (which I am not normally a fan of beyond floors) pop deliciously.
My bedroom before:
That cream colour was all over the place (I hate cream walls, almost as much as I hate beige ones). It was gross and dirty too - definitely calling out for a coat of paint. The walls are a little wonky in places, but I like wonky. Just like chipped paint, and rusty hinges I like to call wonky walls: character.
Bedroom after:
The reason I’ve painted a single wall deep chartreuse, is that I’m going to treat it like a giant headboard. I have a bunch of white accessories (lamps, vases etc.) and they’re really going to stand out starkly against that wall.
I was worried about the colour being a little too neon, but after the second coat and a few hours to dry it really deepened. The high contrast between the bright green and the ultra-pure-white walls and trim is exactly what I imagined, so I’m very pleased.
Also: check out my bay window! I have a bay window! I have realized one of my childhood dreams (sad, I know). I’m gonna get my dad to help me build a window seat at some point, I think. Then I can sit in my window seat with mug of hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and a E. L. Konigsburg novel, just like the thirteen year old girl in me has always dreamed of.
