Mad Men Period Pieces

Ok, I admit that I don't really watch the show Mad Men (but I want to start watching it!). However, I just heard about the Mad Men Collection by Banana Rebuplic and the clothes are gorgeous! I love how they are a modernized take on sixties fashion. And everything is so ladylike and figure flattering. Here are some of my favourite peices from the collection:

This leather print trench looks feminine and classy.

I love how these cigarette pants are cropped. They look amazing with pumps. I would wear these to work if I didn't wear scrubs every day.

The print on this cardigan is subtle. I bet it would look just as good dressed down with jeans and a white t-shirt.

What do you guys think?

That's Bananas

Apparently, the banana is on its way to becoming extinct. According to Popular Science, this is because the fruit has been genetically engineered to be "too perfect" and can't defend itself to fungal and bacterial diseases. A Panama disease called Race 4 has already eradicated bananas in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australian and Taiwan. They could be wiped out as early as 2015!

I am not sure how to take this news. Bananas aren't my favourite fruit or anything, but it would weird to have a world without them. They are a part of life like clouds and trees and puppies. And I think I would miss peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Sigh.

My New Roommate

Meet my (relatively) new roommate, Mouse. We adopted her a couple of months ago. She's about seven months old.

She sometimes (unfrequently) takes naps...

But more then often spends her time being up to no good!

Real vs. Presented

Photographer Sacha Goldberger assembled a team to shoot before and after pictures of joggers in a park called Bois de Boulogne in Paris. He asked the joggers to sprint and then pose directly afterwards for his camera. Then, one week later he invited the participants to pose for him in his studio similarly to how they had for their previous jogging photo. I think the results are so interesting. Goldberger stated the idea of the project was to "show the difference between our natural and brute side versus how we represent ourselves to society". To me, all the pictures taken while jogging look more beautiful. Here are some examples from the series:

Isn't this series interesting?

Happy weekend!

This weekend, I am doing nightshifts so my favourite hang out place will be my bed when I am not working. Sleeping has been much more comfy lately since I bought egyptian cotton sheets and a down duvet and have blinds that actually block out sunlight (oh the fun aspects to consider when being a nurse!) As anyone else who works the graveyard shift can understand, staying up all night is pretty tiring so sleeping becomes majorly important. And I know for the rest of you that work 9-5, Saturdays and Sundays are important catch-up days for sleep.

Here's some tips from Apartment Therapy for creating calm in your bedroom:

• Consider taking the TV out of the bedroom: Or, if you simply can't stand the thought of not watching movies in bed at night before you go to sleep, make sure your TV is on a timer and limit your pre-sleep watching to stuff that won't disturb your sleep (ie Glee rather than Walking Dead)
• Put away the clothes, make the bed in the morning and keep your nightstands clutter free: The calmer your bedroom, the better your sleep. Rethink your bedding so making the bed is easier, clear the nightstands of anything but the necessities (or consider a box to corral the messy stuff) and practice putting away the clothes.
• Break out the scents: Those candles you got as gifts, that cologne you love but never wear, those gift soaps you never use, can all be put to good use here. Burn a candle to gently scent your room in the few minutes while you're getting ready for bed, spray a few spritzes of perfume on your sheets when you make your bed in the morning, tuck the soaps in among your sheets in your closet.
• Put a glass of water by your bed: It's an easy way to add a glass to your daily eight and with a glass handy, you are less likely to need to get up in the middle of the night (which means more chances of falling right back to sleep if you wake up with a parched throat).
• Think quality not quantity: Toss the threadbare sheets and indulge in the good stuff. Nix the poly blends and go for all cotton. Try different textures until you find one you like. Sateen's smooth and soft, linen gets softer with each washing, cotton jersey's like wearing that favorite battered t-shirt to bed and flannel is warm and cozy.
• Consider a fan: Yes, even in the winter. Apparently we all sleep better when the temperature is a little cooler and, if like me, you live in a neighborhood that's a little noisy, the gentle whirr of the fan can block out the sounds that prevent a good night's sleep.
• Turn off the heat at night: Not only will you save a little energy, you won't wake up parched and sweating in the morning. If you're cold, try an extra blanket, a down mattress on top of your regular mattress (I swear, it's like sleeping in a cloud!), a hot water bottle, a hat or socks (which both work to keep your body heat in).
• Make sure you have enough pillows: While you don't want your bed to resemble that of a teeny bopper, two pillows per person is a good rule of thumb (I'm a big fan of IKEA's Pinje side sleeper pillows which are inexpensive enough that you can treat yourself to new pillows every year or so).
• Check your bedroom's lighting A light on either side of the bed and one across the room or overhead means you can change the lighting to suit your mood and your needs. If you can't sleep unless the room's pitch black, consider black out shades or curtains.
• Change your art: If the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning (or the last thing you see when you close your eyes at night) doesn't make you smile, replace it with something that does.
• Bring some of your weekly flowers in here: There's something about a few flowers that makes a room seem ultra-luxurious.
• Consider a rug: What do your feet touch when you get up in the morning? Something soft and cozy will make the transition to morning a little less painful.

House By the Sea

Recently I've been feeling a little cramped in my 650 square foot condo. This has prompted me to look at larger, more permanent places. If I had a lot of money, I think I'd build a simple house by the ocean like this Nova Scotia cottage feautured in the New York Times. Can you imagine being so close to the sea you could go outside in your own backyard and feel the sea spray and smell the salt air?

And in the spring, you could walk among all these pretty, purple flowers...

And at the end of the day, relax on one of these deck chairs and  take in the beautiful sunset.

My Happy Place

My happy place is my grandparent's cabin.

In appearance, it looks more like a small house than a cottage. It has a faded blue colour, with a large window overlooking the dark, greener-than-green grass. The cabin is bordered by small evergreen trees. In the backyard, there is my grandmother's garden, where she plants flowers along the bank. Beyond the frontyard, a downhill wooded slope takes you to an expansive pond covered in lilypads and inhabited by ducks. Off to the side of the cabin, there is a stone path made by my grandfather that leads to another pond less crowded by lilypads and more suitable for swimming.

I guess it's my happy place because I spent the best parts of my childhood there. In the summer, we played hide and go seek with my cousins. I roasted marshmallows and picked blueberries and went swimming in the pond when it was most likely too cold to swim. In the winter, we'd take rides on my grandfather's skidoo and go sliding down the snowy banks and ice skate. My grandparents would spoil us by feeding us Poptarts for breakfast and desserts for every meal. It was my happiest time, because it was a time I felt the most like myself, and the biggest worries would be sunburns or fly bites or being forced to go to bed too early.

Ny two sisters and I are planning to go to the cabin for a weekend in September. I can't wait. Do you have any places like this?