Having a good eye and the ability to hunt for second hand  treasures isn’t always a skill that is easily developed. I’ve been trained by the best teacher, my mother. As far back as I can remember my mother was always hitting up thrift stores, making my dad drive around to find garage sales and stopping in little antique stores whenever we could. One of my most vivid memories are going to visit my Aunt Sherry who was also a thrift-queen, and watching my mother & her come back from their thrifting trips with bags of ‘finds’ that they would be so proud of because of how little they spent for such awesome stuff. Also thanks to my mother, I can see the potential of things that may not be so nice or obvious to the eye at first glance. Never underestimate the power of fixing things up, whether it be an ugly piece of furniture that can be transformed into something adorable with just a new coat of paint & some new hardware or a dress that can use a makeover with just a simple pair of scissors.

With the internet and everything being so accessible, shopping second hand has become a lot easier. There are people out there who do all the scouring for you! That to me is the best part but for some people they couldn’t be bothered with the dirty work.  There are many sites that offer second hand things, Ebay & Etsy are just a few really good places.

Speaking of Etsy, my friend Erin, a girl who has an amazing eye for beautiful things has started up her own vintage shop. Go check out her website on etsy: Under Capricorn she already has some very cute things.

Check out her blog & follow her on twitter to find out when new items are added!

If I had more time this is definitely something I would love to start up but for now, I’ll just keep the treasure hunting for myself.

I am obsessed with any makeup for lips. I don’t know why, I rarely use it (probably coz it never stays on long) but I am always strangely drawn to all the pretty colors and yummy scents. That must be it. But when I do use it, these are my go-to products:

Rosebud Salve & Strawberry Lipbalm by Rosebud Perfume Co.
I love these! They smell absolutely divine and work like a charm. I use the strawberry one as a lip balm and the salve I will sometimes use on my lips if they are super chapped but I also put this anywhere else that may be severely dry (my cheeks in the winter). These little tins are around $8 but last a long time so it’s worth every penny.

Nars Lipstick
Best thing about Nars lipstick is how creamy & moisturizing it feels on your lips, it also lasts a surprisingly long time for a lipstick. I also love their choices of colours, I love either really bright lipsticks or really dark and they’ve got every shade you could imagine.

XXX Shine Lip Gloss by Urban Decay
I used to be a lipgloss junky, nowadays I prefer lipstick (maybe I’m just getting older) but occasionally I feel like having some super glossy lips and I will opt for Urban Decay’s lipgloss. It’s minty and tingly and makes your lips look like diamonds. My only issue is that it can be quite sticky & messy.

Lipglass by MAC
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single girl out there who doesn’t own MAC Lipglass and if they don’t they’ve been living under a rock. It comes in all sorts of colours and all pretty much smell like vanilla cake, yum. I love it because you can wear it on its own or on top of lipstick or lip pencil. It’s super shiny and not that sticky. A classic.

Lipstick by MAC
Another favourite. I’m pretty sure this is the product that put MAC on the map. There’s so many colours to choose from, lipsticks are pretty creamy and last fairly long. My ‘Rebel’ lasted throughout my Racquetball session (beat that!).

Benetint Lip Balm by Benefit
I keep this little jar in my office desk drawer. For those days when I’m tired and drab looking I can put this lightly tinted balm on my lips & cheeks to give me an instant glow.  It’s got a really nice rose smell to it as well. What’s not to love?

Lip Pencil by MAC
These are so long that I’m pretty sure unless you use this 5 times a day you’ll only ever have to buy one of these in your lifetime. I like to fill in my lips entirely with the pencil and then use a lipstick on top, I promise it will last all day.

Dazzleglass Creme Lipgloss by MAC
These are limited edition and I only have one colour but it is so amazing to pass up as a staple. I have this in ‘Amorous’ a dark red. It is creamy, it is glossy, it has speckles of glitter in it, basically I feel like I’ve got Dorothy’s ruby slippers on my lips. I’m definitely going to keep this for special occasions only though, I don’t want to run out too fast!

What colours are you wearing right now? Any favourite lipsticks I should know about?

I’m a big sucker for teen thriller movies from the early to mid 90s with stories of young love involving troubled teens with psychotic behaviors. You gotta admit, they are quite entertaining.

Here’s my top 5 list:

#5 – Mad Love (1995) ft. Chris O’Donnell & Drew Barrymore
Matt (Chris) is kinda a wuss, he spots Casey (Drew) at school, she’s rebellious, outgoing & fun. They fall in love, Casey’s parents don’t approve and forbid them to see each other. Casey goes completely nutso-crazy, she tries to commit suicide, her parents to send her to a mental hospital. So then Casey & Matt run away together to Mexico. This soundtrack is amazing, from Nirvana’s cover of the 60’s song Love Buzz to 7 Year Bitch (oh so good), filmed in Seattle, watching this brings me right back to 1995.

#4 – Cruel Intentions (1999) ft. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair
Total weird story, rich spoiled step-siblings Kathryn (Sarah) & Sebastien (Ryan) who are secretly madly in love with each other, play manipulative games to pass their boredom. Kathryn makes a bet that Sebastian won’t be able to sleep with Annette (Reese), a virgin before the start of the school year. If he loses, Kathryn gets his Roadster, if he wins, he gets Kathryn. Things don’t work out so well in the end and who can forget that Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, I always think of this movie when I hear that song.

#3 – Poison Ivy (1992) ft. Drew Barrymore, Sarah Gilbert, Tom Skerritt
Ivy (Drew), a troubled, rebellious teen befriends Sylvie (Sarah), a loner. She infiltrates herself into Sylvie’s rich family wanting so badly to be loved, she even goes as far as seducing Sylvie’s father with hopes of taking over.  There’s some serious awkward and hilarious scenes. Gotta love these psycho bitches!

#2 – The Crush (1993) ft Alicia Silverstone, Cary Elwes
Nick (Cary) is a journalist who recently moves to Seattle (totally filmed in Vancouver though) he finds a nice spot in a carriage house behind a family. Adrienne (Alicia) is the family’s 14 yr old daughter and she develops a raging crush on Nick. Of course any 28 year old male would and should refuse advances of a preteen, she doesn’t handle rejection very well and in turn gets a little stalker-psycho. I’m pretty sure this is one of Alicia’s first movies and she is awesome in it.

#1 – Fear (1996) ft Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, Alyssa Milano
Proof that it’s not always the females that are the crazy ones. Innocent Nicole (Reese) falls for bad boy David (Mark), he’s mysterious and full of charm but quickly turns into a jealous psychotic freak. (We still love him though). There are some epic scenes in this movie, which is why I’m ranking it as #1, also pretty sure that the fact that Marky Mark is in it makes it land at the top spot.

The 90s seemed to be quite in the game for the thriller/suspense genre. I’m sad that there aren’t that many movies in this genre out now and even if there were, I don’t think they would have the same impact on me. I guess that’s why you always love the movies you grew up with.

What are your favourite 90s movies?

I have several books with different decades of advertisements. I think my all-time favourite though are ads from the 60s & 70s. If you’re a fan of Mad Men you will get a taste of what they used to be like. Think male dominated, over-the-top cheesy, they always told a story and they’re always pretty much awesome. Think a lot of these ads could get away with it today?

Here are a few choice picks that are from my book The Male Mystique: Men’s Magazine Ads from the 1960s and ’70s by Jacques Boyreau.

Slack Power? Slacks have soul? Seriously though, nice slacks. I love the word slacks. I should start using it in my vocabulary.

I’m guessing moral of the story is: Don’t go to a bunch of single girls’ pad without alcohol? Haha!

According to Cricketeer the best way to stay single is to wear their clothing like this shaped vested suit in a Raeford Mills fabric of wool worsted cheviot with natural shoulders and deep center vent. Wait what? Is this supposed to be a good thing? I’m confused. Haha.

I’m pretty sure next semester I will be taking an advertising class, I can’t wait to incorporate some 60s/70s ad style to my projects. I just hope people get the humour and don’t get offended!

For my Typography II class we were assigned to replicate a Vancouver building using type only (letters, numbers & glyphs). I immediate knew that I wanted to pick the Dominion Building. Easily one of the most beautiful buildings downtown.

After doing a little bit of research, finding out that it was built in 1910 by J.S. Helyer and that he supposedly died by falling off the building’s circular staircase, creepy! This building was built in the Second Empire style and influenced strongly by the architecture in Paris. Keeping that in mind, I decided to pick the typeface Didot which I felt fitted perfectly.

a few closeups of the detail:

I’m pretty sure this took me nearly 60-80hrs of work. This image is quite large so trying to depict in in a smaller image is kinda hard. But in a few weeks these will be projected somewhere in the city, and everyone is welcome to come! It was definitely a cool project (even if it was grueling). I am very excited to see how it will look at a very large scale.