BEEN A LONG TIME BEEN A LONG TIME

Hey dudes. I know it’s been a long time (months and months) since I’ve posted, and I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about this blog and I don’t intend to abandon it. I’ve been pretty swamped with school and future plans (will a find work in design or try to realize my dream of opening up a coffee shop/gallery?), so taking photos and blogging hasn’t been a priority for me. Thankfully it’s Easter weekend, so I have an extra flex day. Andrew and I decided to take a walk down Commercial Drive for some iced coffee. Since I have been avoiding socializing (I have 3 major projects due on Tuesday and I can’t afford to lose a whole day sick with the Vodka Flu) and will be spending the bulk of the weekend in sweat pants, I dressed up for no reason.

Um in other news (which most of you following me on twitter et al probably already know), Andrew and I got engaged on Christmas Eve in St. John’s! We’re gunning to start planning the wedding for June of 2013. I know a great deal of people find weddings to be a self-indulgent snooze-fest, so I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but I’ve been “curating” a pin-board of stuff I like if you want to check it out. Also we adopted a Betta fish named “The Captain”. I’ve been really into looking at beautiful planted aquariums on youtube (though I don’t have the time or patience for anything other than silk ones myself). 

Somewhere in the last while, I also made a portfolio website, so you can see some of the work I’ve been doing this year.

Also can you believe it’s been about 10 months since I shaved my head?

We hit the “golden hour” as we were walking home, and I had taken my back-breaking DSLR with me, so I got Andrew to snap a few photos to share with you guys.

BOWLER HAT - Goorin Bros.
SUNGLASSES - Karen Walker
DRESS - Gap
NECKLACE - “Material Girl” @ The Bay
BELT - H&M (too big :( Hint: if you’re chubz /w a tiny waist, you probz don’t need a LRG)
STOCKINGS - Wolford (I ripped them today ;________; Thankfully it’s not too noticeable)
SHOES - Jeffery Campbell
BANGLES - Kate Spade 

Also we met this beautiful heaven-sent angel baby dream love on our way home. Can you believe how cute she is? She was a tortie, but with the dusty velvety look of a Russian Blue. She had a super cobby body and actually the softest hair I have ever felt on a cat. If all of that and her obsession with getting pats wasn’t enough, she had the tiniest littlest highest pitch bell of a meow. We really wanted to bring her home with us.  ♥ East Van Kitties ♥

Anyway, you probably won’t be hearing from me again for awhile, because school is about to get even more harrowingly stress death status beginning on Tuesday… But this summer I plan to get back into posting in a MAJOR way.

Oh hey, if you miss me, I’m still relatively active on the internet elsewhere. You can follow me on Twitter @thefullnilson. If you don’t miss me, F U.

INSTAGRAMMIN’ MY MANIZ

Basically once a week (usually while watching Sunday Night TV - Breaking Bad, True Blood, Curb and now BOARDWALK EMPIRE - or playing video games, since I can use an xbox controller without gunking things up) I give myself a manicure. Sometimes I go plain jane, sometimes I let my nails trip the light fantastic. My secret is Nicole by OPI’s DRYING DROPS. I’ve tried other drying sprays etc. before, but this stuff is magic. It dries a coat or two of polish in under 60 seconds, so you can do multi-layer tricks without the polish becoming goopy.

Now back to being a SERIOUS STUDENT.

GOODBYE SUMMER

I’ve made a lot of promises I can’t keep about blog updating lately, but life has gotten in the way of things. And I’m gracious for that. I start school on Tuesday, so you can expect an even slower trickle of posts from me in the future. Summer was good to me. And a little tough at times and maybe somewhat confusing. But I’m nothing but optimistic for autumn and all that comes ahead (autumn and everything after!?). To make up for my shitty blogging, here’s a recipe for a salad I made up. One that Andrew’s brother told me was “The best he’s ever had”:

CURRIED QUINOA SALAD:

• 3 cups cooked quinoa (1:3 quinoa to water ratio)
• 1-2 cups chopped raw kale
• 1 apple, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 large red onion, diced
• 1 large yellow pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup dried currants (or dried cherries or dried cranberries, unsweetened pref)
• 2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or hemp oil! or flax oil!)
• 1 tbsp raw agave syrup (this is sweeter than sugar, so not much, if any, is needed)

SEASON WITH THE FOLLOWING, TO TASTE:

• Masala powder (curry)
• Roasted coriander
• Powdered (or fresh, grated) ginger
• Powdered (or fresh, minced) garlic
• Desert spice blend (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, cloves)

Combine everything in a giant bowl and eat it.

If you’re still not satiated, please feel free to check out the rest of the snaps I took this summer! I got really into using my Olympus E-PL1. I feel like I have to make a deliberate attempt to use my 5D Mark ii again, since it’s basically the perfect camera, however hefty…

SEASON OF THE BITCH

I just thought that I should try to do a quick little post while I still can. This isn’t even a very well conceived “outfit”, but I felt so amaze-a-crazy in this dress that I had to get Andrew to snap a picture. I saw this dress all over the editorials this spring, but I didn’t think it was ever even a possibility for me. However, when I passed it in a shop, I couldn’t bear not to try it on (even though I’m doing my very best to try to be more frugal and save money). Suprisingly it fit like a dream, feels great and falls under my maxi/midi summer hem length requirement. The skirt floats like a cloud around my legs and the cool silk feels great on a wilty balmy day. I feel like I can’t really pull off the whole 70s kooky aristocrat colourblock look that’s super popular right now, but with my ridiculous new hairdo, I can definitely do mid 1970s by way of the mid 1990s (which was my ~signature look~ in grade eight). Thinking about Deee-lite, Kids era Chloe Sevigny and Vicky from Reality Bites.

DRESS - Marc by Marc Jacobs
SHOES - Adidas
JEWELRY - Oak + Fort/Family heirlooms from my grandma and great aunt

Anyway, I’m headed off to Toronto/New York(!)/Kenora on Sunday, so I’ll probably be internet quiet for awhile. MISS YOU!

I’ve been preoccupied with gardening lately. And I don’t believe I ever posted a photo of my DIY front door window. Static cling “frosted” window film + stencils + exacto knife! 

Anyhow, I thought I’d mention that a number of you have been sending me messages through tumblr’s “ask” feature. Thank you all for your sweet messages! However, while it’s true this blog is hosted on tumblr, I don’t want to clog up my entries with replies to questions. The comments section is the best way to get ahold of me in a way where I can actually respond to you. Don’t be shy to use it! I love receiving and replying to comments!

RIOT GEAR

SUNNIES: Karen Walker
NECKLACE: House of Harlowe
T: H&M
SKIRT: ASOS
SHOES: Minnetonka
BAG: Thrift 

…Just kidding. Too soon?

Actually, this is what I wore to go eat farty hippie food with my boyfriend, but a riot happened to break out while we were eating dinner (these photos were taken before dinner, just to be clear that I’m not like… gleeful about what happened or anything). I had big plans to make an outfit post, and I just decided to go ahead with it because It’s helping me get sleepier.

I don’t think anyone is surprised. Everyone knew what happened in ‘94 and was sure we’d be in for a repeat. Some people are just looking for an excuse to go wild and unleash their idiot animal-selves. Truthfully, Andrew and I had for weeks been saying that no matter the outcome there would probably be looting and violence. A friend of mine was roughed up pretty bad by hockey thugs much earlier in the playoffs, so it just felt like there was this climate of potential violence in the air.

Either way, pretty depressing and disappointing. The city was really eerie and crickety and tumble-weedy. We actually got a table at the Naam at like 7 pm, and that never happens. We stopped to watch some of the footage on the news at a convenience store, and afterwards stood on Andrew’s front porch and watched a column of black smoke ascend into the ether while three or four copters did loop-de-loops in the sky. 

Some pretty awful rumours are flying around now, and I almost don’t want to find out if they’re true when I wake up tomorrow. I hope we can polish ourselves off and move on from this, but it’s a pretty big blight especially after feeling like we put off such a good impression during the Olympics last year. Can’t say that I’m not disillusioned.

Anyway, it feels trivial to talk about clothes following that, but I just wanted to add that my outfit was inspired by Heather and Erica from Degrassi Junior High (who wear pretty much only graphic black and white and midi-length skirts) and also by Bronny.

 

ON BEING BALD

So the other day I half-spontaneously decided to shave my head. I guess I just reached some kind of boiling point where I was sick to death of my hair taking upwards of three hours in order to look presentable enough to leave the house (I have LOTS of incredibly thick, wavy, wiry hair in addition to it having been RUL damaged and too layered to wear wavy — necessitating deep conditioning every other day, air-drying and flat-ironing the ends plus tonnes of argan oil and a whole $$$$$ host of other products). I had been thinking a lot about shaving my head, since I’ve done it two other times before and more recently I’ve seen girls whose beauty I admire walking around with buzzcuts (like Gisela Ramirez or Amber Rose).

But more than aesthetics, I wanted to challenge my reluctance to wear my hair short (even though up until like 2006, with like two exceptions, I ALWAYS wore my hair quite short) because I had this hang up (probably because of an article about “gamine crops” in Vogue or something when I was like 12 that said “short hair is only for the very young and very thin) about being fat and having short hair (“tiny head syndrome”). I also wanted to see what it was like to stop hiding behind my unruly mane, which is something I’ve done since like 2005. 

Also, it is pretty weird to see my natural colour for the first time in about five or six years (where I saw it for like three minutes once before the hair dresser dyed it again). My hair is lighter than I thought (I kind of thought it was close to black, but it’s more of a mousey brown/dirty blonde at the temples). And I kind of assumed I had more white hair! I am not going to make any promises, because I’m super fickle, but I’m going to try to live with my colour for a bit before covering it up all over again with dye (and starting the process which invariably ends in me shaving my head or getting a drastic hair cut because it’s so damaged). 

I dunno, like now I am all FACE and I really can’t get around looking at and trying to admire my face unless I want to avoid mirrors altogether. Apparently I come off as having lots of confidence, but I don’t at all really!!! So however difficult this is, it’s a good practice in true self-appreciation. And not in the “radical self love” hair extensions, glitter and false eyelash variety so plugged by certain other bloggers (WINK).

It hasn’t been very easy. It’s like taking off a cast. I feel vulnerable and exposed and uncomfortable sometimes, and I won’t lie; I’ve worn some wigs and hats. It’s really hard to not emotionally regress to how it was for me when, like a lamb to slaughter, I first entered middle school as a skater-ish, tomboy competitive swimmer with a very short boyish hair cut, thick eyebrows and a penchant for oversized jeans. It wasn’t long before I pushed my natural inclination towards being a tomboy aside and started practising for my own little femininity performance. I guess I got so into that role that I get kind of uncomfortable and panicky if it seems like my femininity is not immediately apparent to other people. But like I live in one of the most gender-diverse/feminist neighbourhoods in Vancouver. I should get over it!

Anyway, however trivial it might seem to others; this is an important little test for myself. If I can’t be cool without hair, then I’ve got a real problem on my hands.

PS: The irony of promoting self-love through the act of shaving one’s head, while still wearing a full face of makeup, is not lost on me… but you can pry my liquid eyeliner from my cold dead hands. 

ROUTINE & DISTRACTIONS

I’m sorry I don’t update so much. I keep having these grandiose plans for a super regimented blogging schedule with super quality content, but the fact is; even without a job or school at the moment, my days get eaten up by routine and distractions. Also, summer’s here, so all I can say is I’ll do my best.

PS: I’m planning a trip to NYC with my girlfriends in July. I couldn’t be more excited. ^_______________^ I just hope someone opens a fire hydrant so I can play in it !

OLYMPUS E-PL1

Guys, I really am having a love-affair with my Olympus E-PL1. I already wrote a bit about it, and have used it for roughly 50% of the photos I’ve posted since right before Palm Springs. But every day I learn to love it a little bit more. It’s so nice not to have to carry the 5D and its ridiculous suite of lenses around (although don’t get me wrong, I’ve never loved a digital camera quite as much as the 5D Mark ii)… I’m building up quite the collection of teensy featherweight lenses for the e-pl1, but I mostly just use this: Lumix 20mm f/1.7. Currently drooling over these (especially the up-and-coming 11mm f/1.4).

How about you? Any of you jumped aboard the micro 4/3rds train yet?