pucker up

In Victoria it's picnic weather. Tulips and cherry blossoms are in bloom and everywhere I look people are once again befriending summer dresses and shades.

Along with peeling off tons of winter layers I love the natural, fresh faces that reappear in spring. No need for cover up and heavy shades. Go wash your face! My spring favourites are sunscreen, mascara and bright lips.

the perfect sunday

Is there a better way to start the week than with Truman Capote and homemade spinach and feta muffins? I don't think so. And if you're a smart cookie you'll make the muffins the night before so you can have breakfast in bed with Mr. Capote.

Recipe below for my foodie friends:

Ingredients
Canola oil, to grease
2 1/2 Cups self-raising flour
1/2 bunch of spinach,trimmed, washed, dried, shredded
150g feta cheese, crumbled
2 Tablespoons finely grated parmesan
1 1/3 Cups milk
90g butter, melted
1 egg
2 Tablespoons finely grated parmesan to sprinkle on top

Method
Preheat oven to 400. Brush muffin pan with canola oil to lightly grease.

Sift flour into a bowl. Add shredded spinach, feta and parmesan. Stir to combine. Use a fork to whisk together milk, butter, egg and dill until well combined. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and use a metal spoon to stir until just combined (do not over mix).

Spoon mixture into prepared pans. Sprinkle with extra parmesan. Bake for 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 12.

rural escape

My friend Aryn is a wonderful photographer with a keen eye. These are some photos she took around Yellowknife and on a camping trip near Kakisa, NWT.

I love the romance of the rural landscapes Aryn captures in each shot - my apartment walls are covered with her photos!

To see more of her photos check out her Flickr page.

pretty little party

Cupcakes and Cashmere blog is the perfect balance of food and fashion. These are some pretty party pictures from the site - Enjoy!

indie-rock, dream-pop

I've been working on writing a children's book for a class and it involves a lot of poetic language and dreamy scenes. To get in the right writing-mood I listen to the Trespassers William album. Below is a clip of the band live in Paris playing "Different Stars". I first heard it on the movie "A Love Song For Bobby Long" (a wonderful movie!) and fell in love with it immediately.



Curious about the name Trespassers William? The duo got it from a Winnie the Pooh tale: Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle by A.A. Milne.

"Next to [Piglet's] house was a piece of broken board which had: "TRESPASSERS W" on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name…short for Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one—Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers."

See more at: www.trespasserswilliam.com

flaherty's wake

Marc Christensen, Megan Cooper, Kels Magill, Jared MacNeil, Aaron Plotner, Andrew Silke
Photos courtesy of Flaherty's Wake Facebook page
Last December in Yellowknife the temperature fell well below -30 degrees. And still, there was a line that wound out the front door of The Raven and around the block. Flaherty’s Wake, a seven person Irish punk band, was enjoying free pints in the green room of the bar more commonly called The Dirty Bird. Through small window slots the band watched the 100-person line up, approximately a third of the bars already packed capacity. The bar that scarcely charges cover was taking ten dollars a head and in the last decade they haven’t seen such lines.

Just after midnight the band crowded on stage, roughly the size of two dumpsters, with a base, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, penny whistle and drum set. The set kicked off with Flogging Molly’s anthem Drunken Lullabies and the bar manager stepped in as impromptu security as fans flocked the stage.

A band that melds punk and Irish music seems out of place in the Yellowknife snow globe but when the band formed in the summer of 2009 Yellowknifers got a taste of something they liked.

“We liked taking the Irish songs we loved and making them more punk,” says manolin player, Andrew Silke. “Some of us are really into punk, others are metalheads, we all love Irish music, so we all bring a different sound to Flaherty’s Wake.”

Halfway through a cover of Against Me’s Pints of Guinness Plotner dove into the crowd.
“Everyone in the crowd was singing so loud that it drowned out everything. I was in the crowd, surrounded by good friends and tons of others and everyone just kept singing. They were so into it. That’s what it’s all about,” lead vocalist Aaron Plotner explains.

When their set finished Flaherty’s Wake stepped down from The Raven’s stage. They cut through the crowd and retreated to the green room for a pint before rejoining the madness. Behind them a sea of roaring fans were left in their wake until next time.


Megan Cooper, Aaron Plotner, Kels Magill, Marc Christensen, Erik Chan, Roger Nendsa, Jared MacNeil
In downtown Yellowknife is a gutted out two-storey building that serves as the groups jam space. It was last a skuzzy bar and flames in the shape of female silhouettes still adorn the walls.

Downstairs is a maze of couches owned by a furniture store across the street. Upstairs amps and speakers sit on top of pool tables and the bar is used for Flaherty’s Wake’s own beer stash. It’s a fitting jam space for a band that formed after several Guinness soaked conversations.

Their performances are mostly covers of bands like Flogging Molly, The Dropkick Murphy’s and The Mahones but Flaherty’s Wake is also working on original material. Their first original Devil In Her Eye can be listened to on their Facebook page.
Their next scheduled show is a St. Patrick’s Day show tomorrow at The Top Knight in Yellowknife. The show starts at 9:00 but you’ll want to show up a few hours early with your dancing shoes and an appetite for green foam Guinness.

raspberry cupcakes

A few months ago I picked up the "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery" recipe book from Anthropologie and since then I've tried about a dozen of the recipes. My absolute favourite (so far!) is the Raspberry cupcake with White Chocolate icing. It's not as difficult as it looks but make sure you use the self-rising flour and not only the all-purpose flour, it makes a huge difference!


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Cupcake Ingredients:
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Large eggs
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons self-rising flour
3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup 2% milk (room temp)
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam

Icing Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 1/4 cup icing sugar
3 1/2 oz white chocolate
3 Tablespoons heavy cream
Fresh raspberries

Cupcake Directions:
In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth, which should take about 3-5 minutes using an electric beater. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.

Sift the two flours together into a separate bowl. Mix the milk and vanilla extract together. Add 1/3 of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in 1/3 of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

Gently fold in the raspberry jam until most of it is combined. The idea is to have some jam streaks running through the mixture, rather than an evenly coloured batter. Carefully spoon the batter into the cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave the cupcakes in the pan for about 10 minutes before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they have cooled, cut a small hole in the center of each cupcake using a sharp knife or teaspoon and carefully place a teaspoon of jam inside.

Icing Directions:
In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. This can take several minutes using an electric mixer. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar (I usually only use about 3 1/4 cups).

Melt chocolate and alternatively stir in cooled chocolate and heavy cream. It is best to frost immediately so the icing does not harden. Complete the look by plopping a full raspberry on top!

the converted

(My lovely sister, Erica, showing why the Kindle is so useful)

My dad is a technology junkie. He always seems to have the latest gadget and preached to me about 3G's and bluetooth until it sounded like another language. So when he offered me his Kindle (a device that can hold thousands of books at a time) I was hesitant. I love picking out second hand books with worn pages and comments scribbled in the margins, and leaving my own notes as I flip through.

I decided to give it a chance and read one book on it before making up my mind. Taking another of my dad's recommendations I read The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. (A decent book, well researched, but the last 1/5 of it was a flop that didn't meet the expectations it established earlier) and I've just started Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. The Kindle actually turned out to be remarkably handy. I could tuck it in the front of my binder when I went to class and slip it into my clutch when I was running around town. I hate being without a book wherever I am or whatever I'm doing so it was perfect... if only I'd had one when I was backpacking through Europe with all seven Harry Potter books!

One day I would still love to have my own little library, but right now the Kindle is a definite help.

juliette hogan designs

The perfect picnic dress




Check out her winter 2010 collection "the morning after the night before" her website's whimsical description is below to pique your interest!

"For winter 2011 the Juliette Hogan girl lets down her hair… Curfews are broken, hemlines are hiked and caution is blown to the wind.

The Morning After the Night Before sees our traditionally demure muse dip her toes into darker waters - though don’t get me wrong… there’s the inevitable return to the coquettish girl we’ve grown to love but for Winter 2011 the J Ho girl walks a precarious tightrope between naughty and nice with a surprising ease."

www.juliettehogan.com