I'm feeling French today. Not as in I come from France but I've been listening to my French music on repeat as I reconcile expenses and was searching the internet earlier for two French rappers I liked when I lived in Belgium. I know, I know, French rap - fairly gross and weird but I think that was back in the day when rap first crept across the Atlantic and French rap didn't have much in the way of flow. More recently its become pretty good, well, for those that like rap.
Anyways, attached are two videos - the first is of the Canadian band Coeur de Pirate, who I love and the second vid is by Kamini, one of the French rappers I was reminiscing about. I think his song and video are funny and he rocks some serious hair! The gist of his diddy is that he's from a very small village (and yes, that's his village in the video), is a member of the only African-French family in the village and mentions some of the social perils of that status and that he can't rap about pimps and hos because he's from a very small village. So without further ado...
Coeur de Pirates - Comme des enfants
Kamini - Marly Gomont
Apologies for the pixilation and small format but alas I couldn't embed the video from youtube.
Sidebar: Carisa A. of Wisconsin was not a happy bunny this morning when I did not have a word of the day for her to enjoy. Apologies to Wisconsin. I read several online news sources today to try to find another great and rarely used word but alas, no dice. I shall keep my eyes peeled for other lingustic gems.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Word of the day
Insalubrious
as defined by Webster's online dictionary:
not conducive to health; unwholesome (an insalubrious climate)
I love this word. It's awesome to say and I've only ever seen it used in 19th century writing or BBC adaptions of epic novels. Today it appeared in The Times (London) in an article about building a modern design home in Stratford. The sentence was "The five-bedroom semi in the insalubrious suburb..."
I will be returning on my insalubrious suburb after the gym this evening. Front yards littered with the carcasses of cars mounted on cinder blocks and festooned with remanents of lawn mowers, bbqs and other household applicances is most unwholesome... :)
as defined by Webster's online dictionary:
not conducive to health; unwholesome (an insalubrious climate)
I love this word. It's awesome to say and I've only ever seen it used in 19th century writing or BBC adaptions of epic novels. Today it appeared in The Times (London) in an article about building a modern design home in Stratford. The sentence was "The five-bedroom semi in the insalubrious suburb..."
I will be returning on my insalubrious suburb after the gym this evening. Front yards littered with the carcasses of cars mounted on cinder blocks and festooned with remanents of lawn mowers, bbqs and other household applicances is most unwholesome... :)
Soccer.Football.Futbol!
Prior to moving to Europe in 2003, to me soccer/football/futbol was a participatory sport that primarily girls/young women played and dominated or so was the case in my home town. It wasn't so much a couch sport or a go-down-to-the-pub-to-watch type of sport, however, when in Rome (or the UK)...soccer/football is a way of life. Anyways, this spring Seattle got its very own MLS team, the Seattle Sounders, and they're actually really rather good...not that I really know what's considered good in professional soccer but they win a lot of their matches so that's gotta be a good thing, right?! :)
Well, my friends Tracy & Alberto hooked us up with tickets for tomorrow's Sounder's game against...wait for it....Barcelona!!!! Wicked! I think the game is going to be pretty awesome and it'll be a very cool experience to see a professional and incredibly good European team play and all the way out here on the West Coast!
I hope to have photos of the game posted before the weekend! Go Sounders!!!
Well, my friends Tracy & Alberto hooked us up with tickets for tomorrow's Sounder's game against...wait for it....Barcelona!!!! Wicked! I think the game is going to be pretty awesome and it'll be a very cool experience to see a professional and incredibly good European team play and all the way out here on the West Coast!
I hope to have photos of the game posted before the weekend! Go Sounders!!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Etsy stuff I am hearting
Etsy is by far my favourite online shopping site. I love that stuff is either handmade or supplies for you to handmake with. My mom and Nanny instilled a love for craft fairs and my Grandma and Grandpa were talented painters and jewelery makers and Grandma also liked to sew and embroider.
Anyways, below are a few things that caught my eye on Etsy today when I was going through my Favorites list. Some of its crafty and some of its vintage finds.
From SolsticeHome - a vintaged painted galvanized tub with robe handles - I think this would look really great outside on a patio with large amounts of ice and pitchers of mojoitos & pims nestled in it!
www.solsticehome.esty.com
From Emily Lynch Vintage - a vintage souvenir plate of Canada - because every Canadian living aboard needs one!... ;)
www.emilylynch.etsy.com
From Bouquet - a vintage brass mouse receipt holder - I'm becoming increasingly more keen and interested in brass animal figurines, and I think my new found interest stems from the brass donkey figurine I have of my grandfather's...maybe the donkey would like company?
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5758691
From Teresa Sheeley - the super cute 1,2,3,4 tea towel
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5189006
From Montrealer Eva Juliet - this pretty 8x11 Les Cuilleres print
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7508447
From LinenMe - this lovely French Linen Tablecloth in Natural & Blue - I love simplicity and richness of this table cloth and as Mike can atest, I have a small yet still controlled addiction to table linens.
http://www.linenme.etsy.com/
Anyways, Bon Weekend!
Anyways, below are a few things that caught my eye on Etsy today when I was going through my Favorites list. Some of its crafty and some of its vintage finds.
From SolsticeHome - a vintaged painted galvanized tub with robe handles - I think this would look really great outside on a patio with large amounts of ice and pitchers of mojoitos & pims nestled in it!
www.solsticehome.esty.com
From Emily Lynch Vintage - a vintage souvenir plate of Canada - because every Canadian living aboard needs one!... ;)
www.emilylynch.etsy.com
From Bouquet - a vintage brass mouse receipt holder - I'm becoming increasingly more keen and interested in brass animal figurines, and I think my new found interest stems from the brass donkey figurine I have of my grandfather's...maybe the donkey would like company?
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5758691
From Teresa Sheeley - the super cute 1,2,3,4 tea towel
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5189006
From Montrealer Eva Juliet - this pretty 8x11 Les Cuilleres print
www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7508447
From LinenMe - this lovely French Linen Tablecloth in Natural & Blue - I love simplicity and richness of this table cloth and as Mike can atest, I have a small yet still controlled addiction to table linens.
http://www.linenme.etsy.com/
Anyways, Bon Weekend!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave...
The dodgy picture below is of the thermometer on our deck at 8:45pm! 30C! And tomorrow the mercury is suppose to rise to almost 40C!!! And what's weird, or at least compared to the east coast of North America, is that the heat of the day out here is between 3pm-5pm!
Anyways, 3 cheers for our window air conditioning unit!
Anyways, 3 cheers for our window air conditioning unit!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Weekend Projects - Part 2
As per usual, I get ideas in my head about how easy something is going to be and as usual, it’s not! That’s how this weekend’s projects played out. As mentioned above, Mike & I set about this weekend adding a new finish to the new/old spare bedroom bed frame, staining our new-to-us bench and staining our kitchen/dining room table and chairs. On Friday when I was writing my first ever post, I was full of confidence and for some bizarre reason thought that this all this work would somehow only take maybe 3 or 4 hours on Saturday morning! Ahahaha!!!!! Oh, how I live in a fantasy world!!! We ended up sending 6 hours on Saturday and another 5 hours on Sunday working on all our projects and will be doing touch up work in the evenings for the next 3 nights! Here’s how it played out:
Saturday morning came and we were up & out of the apartment by 9:30am ready to tackle our projects! My father-in-law Mark kindly lent us the use of his garage and equipment for the weekend as otherwise there would not have been any way us to do all this work. And being the novice that I am at both blogging and diy projects, I forgot to take ‘before’ photos so below is a random collection of nearly completed, and in the case of the bench, completed projects!
The bench was the easiest project to complete – a bit of light sanding with the electric sander and 2 coats of outdoor stain et violà – a new bench! We’re quite pleased with how it turned out and it now coordinates with our little teak table & chairs that also find their home on our deck. The second project that Mike diligently and painfully worked on on Saturday was the sanding/grinding down of the previous layers of paint on the cast iron bed frame. Typically you can spray paint directly on to previous layers of paint, however, there were a number of deep nicks and scratches covering the frame so we smoothed it out as much as we could and on Sunday Mike went to town with the white satin finish spray paint and the bed frame turned out really great! Now, for the last project and the one that was the most time consuming and in the end turned out completely the opposite from my original plan! The table and chairs! I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me to the garage on Saturday but as I forgot it this lengthy description will have to substitute.
In the course of THREE hours I managed to sand only ONE chair! 1 chair in 3 hours! Why? Well, the manufacturer of this table set had coated the whole thing in very durable sealant. And in order to apply wood stain, the stain must be applied directly to wood…so obvious yet so difficult to achieve! Once that labourious task was finished, I began staining the chair I had so carefully sanded…well, there were nearly tears…as I was applying the stain, very noticeable blotches started appearing on the seat and the stain colour itself was making the chairs look like they belonged at some run down country/western themed family restaurant! It turns out that the blotches were the result of wood glue that had likely been split on the chair during its assembly – awesome! The new stain colour was too dark to sand down so after some contemplation on Saturday night, we decided to spray paint the table & chairs the same white satin as the bed frame. It has not yielded nearly the same look I was hoping to achieve (aged, dark wood table) but it will make the table look like new and should brighten the apartment up.
On Sunday we spent another several hours in the near 30C/85+ F heat spray painting our hearts out! And I have to say we did a great job on the whole! The bed looks great and the table and chairs look fresh and new. Below are a few of the pictures I took on Sunday, when I remembered to bring my camera! More to follow with the final products!
The newly stained bench!
The table before we went crazy with the spray paint
The table nearly done!
Here's a shot of the foot board and 3 of the chairs.
Saturday morning came and we were up & out of the apartment by 9:30am ready to tackle our projects! My father-in-law Mark kindly lent us the use of his garage and equipment for the weekend as otherwise there would not have been any way us to do all this work. And being the novice that I am at both blogging and diy projects, I forgot to take ‘before’ photos so below is a random collection of nearly completed, and in the case of the bench, completed projects!
The bench was the easiest project to complete – a bit of light sanding with the electric sander and 2 coats of outdoor stain et violà – a new bench! We’re quite pleased with how it turned out and it now coordinates with our little teak table & chairs that also find their home on our deck. The second project that Mike diligently and painfully worked on on Saturday was the sanding/grinding down of the previous layers of paint on the cast iron bed frame. Typically you can spray paint directly on to previous layers of paint, however, there were a number of deep nicks and scratches covering the frame so we smoothed it out as much as we could and on Sunday Mike went to town with the white satin finish spray paint and the bed frame turned out really great! Now, for the last project and the one that was the most time consuming and in the end turned out completely the opposite from my original plan! The table and chairs! I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me to the garage on Saturday but as I forgot it this lengthy description will have to substitute.
In the course of THREE hours I managed to sand only ONE chair! 1 chair in 3 hours! Why? Well, the manufacturer of this table set had coated the whole thing in very durable sealant. And in order to apply wood stain, the stain must be applied directly to wood…so obvious yet so difficult to achieve! Once that labourious task was finished, I began staining the chair I had so carefully sanded…well, there were nearly tears…as I was applying the stain, very noticeable blotches started appearing on the seat and the stain colour itself was making the chairs look like they belonged at some run down country/western themed family restaurant! It turns out that the blotches were the result of wood glue that had likely been split on the chair during its assembly – awesome! The new stain colour was too dark to sand down so after some contemplation on Saturday night, we decided to spray paint the table & chairs the same white satin as the bed frame. It has not yielded nearly the same look I was hoping to achieve (aged, dark wood table) but it will make the table look like new and should brighten the apartment up.
On Sunday we spent another several hours in the near 30C/85+ F heat spray painting our hearts out! And I have to say we did a great job on the whole! The bed looks great and the table and chairs look fresh and new. Below are a few of the pictures I took on Sunday, when I remembered to bring my camera! More to follow with the final products!
The newly stained bench!
The table before we went crazy with the spray paint
The table nearly done!
Here's a shot of the foot board and 3 of the chairs.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Hello!
Well hello!
So I’ve caved, I’m finally going to give the world of blogging a try. I read a lot of blogs and enjoy them all thoroughly and have finally decided to create my own online repository for things I like and any happenings in my little world as I live far from my family and many of my friends out here in Seattle. I’ve never been good at keeping at diary or journal so who knows how well I’ll be able to hold this together but here goes!
Weekend projects – part 1
I have a number of weekend projects lined up for my and the hubs and he is no doubt pumped…
The first of the projects is the refinishing of a bed frame I bought off of craiglists for $75 (photos to follow). We have a double bed in our spare bedroom for guests in the last several months have had the privilege and delight of receiving visits from Jane, my parents, my sister Beth and her friend Angie and Amy. While the current bed frame has served us well, it’s a bit of the wonky side of life and takes up quite a bit of space in the room. Both the new and old bed frames are relics of days gone by – the old frame has a nice Bed knobs and Broomsticks feel to it and I do like the warm feeling the brass adds to the room but its wonkiness is getting to be a bit much. The new frame is an old hospital bed, actually I don’t know if it was ever used in a hospital, but it does look like one you see in an old black n’ white movie and is made of cast iron. I really like it’s simple lines and it is considerably less bulky than the current one. The new frame will be getting a fresh coat of white spray paint and as neither of us have ever spray painted before – fingers crossed – it turns out nicely!
The second project is the refinishing of our kitchen/dining/junk-collecting/catch-all table! Its current colour is that rather unpleasant early 1990s yellow/blonde oak – yuck! Moreover, no matter how much I wipe it down, there are permanent grey streaks from god-only-knows-what that became caked on there during my husband’s bachelorhood. We will be changing the table from beechwood blonde/yellow to a rich light brown and staining the chairs a darker shade of brown to create some contrast. My inspiration for this change comes from a picture of our table I found online and of course now I can't find it to save my life!
And the third project is staining a wood bench we just inherited from my friend Tracy. She no longer had use for the cute bench at her new place and we knew it would find a good home with us.
So, a big weekend ahead! And the weather here is suppose to be lovely 26-28C/mid-80sF! And top it all off, on Sunday on I have Skype date with the lovely Sarah! Yay! :)
So I’ve caved, I’m finally going to give the world of blogging a try. I read a lot of blogs and enjoy them all thoroughly and have finally decided to create my own online repository for things I like and any happenings in my little world as I live far from my family and many of my friends out here in Seattle. I’ve never been good at keeping at diary or journal so who knows how well I’ll be able to hold this together but here goes!
Weekend projects – part 1
I have a number of weekend projects lined up for my and the hubs and he is no doubt pumped…
The first of the projects is the refinishing of a bed frame I bought off of craiglists for $75 (photos to follow). We have a double bed in our spare bedroom for guests in the last several months have had the privilege and delight of receiving visits from Jane, my parents, my sister Beth and her friend Angie and Amy. While the current bed frame has served us well, it’s a bit of the wonky side of life and takes up quite a bit of space in the room. Both the new and old bed frames are relics of days gone by – the old frame has a nice Bed knobs and Broomsticks feel to it and I do like the warm feeling the brass adds to the room but its wonkiness is getting to be a bit much. The new frame is an old hospital bed, actually I don’t know if it was ever used in a hospital, but it does look like one you see in an old black n’ white movie and is made of cast iron. I really like it’s simple lines and it is considerably less bulky than the current one. The new frame will be getting a fresh coat of white spray paint and as neither of us have ever spray painted before – fingers crossed – it turns out nicely!
The second project is the refinishing of our kitchen/dining/junk-collecting/catch-all table! Its current colour is that rather unpleasant early 1990s yellow/blonde oak – yuck! Moreover, no matter how much I wipe it down, there are permanent grey streaks from god-only-knows-what that became caked on there during my husband’s bachelorhood. We will be changing the table from beechwood blonde/yellow to a rich light brown and staining the chairs a darker shade of brown to create some contrast. My inspiration for this change comes from a picture of our table I found online and of course now I can't find it to save my life!
And the third project is staining a wood bench we just inherited from my friend Tracy. She no longer had use for the cute bench at her new place and we knew it would find a good home with us.
So, a big weekend ahead! And the weather here is suppose to be lovely 26-28C/mid-80sF! And top it all off, on Sunday on I have Skype date with the lovely Sarah! Yay! :)
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