I Know It's Summer, But...

...I fucking love this:

Desire to Inspire

Photographic Evidence

If you live in Toronto, you might read BlogTO, an online magazine, predominantly for residents, to give us the scoop on things like where to get the best charcuterie and what's happening on any particular day.

I've been following this blog practically since it started and, I have to say, the pool of photographers is impressive - and becoming more so all the time. It's rare I see photos that compel me more than those I've found on the site, and you know I dwell on hundreds of pics a day as I scout my 150-plus blogs.

To wit:

Photo by Neil Ta

You should really check out the post itself - or the feed - cuz the photo seems to be sharper on those sites, for some reason...

Night and Day

You know I love to dis TO. It's a cool place but it's frequently ugly.

Well, here's a shot (looking west over Lake Ontario) I can't take umbrage with:

Photo courtesy of Blog TO, by EvidencE

My Kind of Androgyny

Well played...

Photo by The Sartorialist

White Painters

Photo courtesy of FaceHunter (I love that guy.)

Just so we're clear, if I woke up looking like this one day, I wouldn't exactly complain.

Here's what I love about this outfit:

• Monochrome is so chic - so elongating!
• White is so chic - so elongating!
• Those purple heels are so chic - I think you see where this sentence is going...

You could actually recreate it very easily. Of course, you'd have to walk in those shoes so I suggest you recreate it for an elegant lunch at some be-seen restaurant (the kind with really great food and impeccable service). Doncha know one of our young 'un fashion bloggers is going to write a post on those shoes describing them as "comfortable"! (Ah, youth...)

Oh, I know, someone's going to suggest that wearing all white is hideously impractical and tends to make one seem a bit wan a la "veal sausage link". I really never got the appeal of white jeans (despite years of Liz Hurley being photographed in that garment exclusively) until I tried them for myself.

They truly are FLATTERING (not to be confused with flattening). And I am the palest - though hardly flattest :-) - woman you will ever hope to meet.

My husband took a photo of me in Mtl. wearing my own version of this look - it's not monochrome so it's really only half the look. Whatever. As soon as I can convince him to download the picture, I will post it for y'all.

My Montreal

Photo from Spacing Montreal

This says it all, don't you think?

3 Photos, 2 Gorgeous Things

No. 857 on my list of fantastic things I get to look at practically daily, while walking to work:




As you know, I live (more or less) downtown and walk through industrial spots and urban neighbourhoods alike. It's not unusual to see beauty and squalor literally abutting one another. Those flowers, for example, were a small patch in a bed of weeds.

Soft Focus

Till a couple of years ago, I was one of those people who categorically hated having her picture taken. Seriously - maybe there are 10 photos of M and me in her first 4 years. Back then, I couldn't operate the camera (not that it was fancy), much less bear to pose for it. And you know how intensely stressed and hideous I was back then... Well, unless you know me in real life, you don't. Which is just the way I'd like to keep it.

Anyway, eventually I got a grip on the stress and changed the whole lifestyle and started a blog about my true love (fashion) and the next thing I know, there I am taking pictures. (If I'm going to brag about that new gorgeous thing I've bought, I'm sort of obligated, no?) And then Scottie got me a cell phone for my birthday - which truly, I could care less about but for the pedometer and the built-in camera - and suddenly I was waiting in restaurants, taking pictures. Walking down the street, taking pictures. Going into vintage shops, taking pictures. Doing crazy eye-makeup, taking pictures. You see what I mean...

Somewhere along the line, Scott - who, for his many flaws, has supported my habit completely - went out and spent a living fortune on this SLR camera so that he could take photos of me and my stuff for the blog. Natch, he gets the occasional opportunity to snap "artful" shots for personal use which, in his opinion, justifies the cost completely. :-)

The fascinating thing about good photographers is that they capture what they see. I love this one, taken of me by my husband, because it shows me who I am to him:

Cat on a Not Tin Roof

This springtime riff on Dog and a Butterfly is affectionately known as Cat and a Squirrel...

Sunday Snap Shot

So I got it up a little:

Experimental layering

Springtime on a Tray

M thought this tasted like Emergen-C

You can't tell in the photo, but the windows are original stained glass...

You can read about this TO institution here

M took this photo. Not bad, huh? And yes, that's the parka.
And the sunnies - not the glamour shot needless to say.

Evidence of the sugar high from the cherry pop.

What? It's a Chick Site.

Thanks to Stephie and Dottie for posting about Le Love, a site dedicated to sexy and "heart fluttering" images. I vote for the sexy ones, myself.

Animal Magnetism 2

More Lookbook fabulousness:

Could this woman have put herself together more elegantly? The drape of the sleeves, the swing of the skirt, the knit vest a nod to this beautiful woman's obvious modernity... And can you get over the lady-bow?

Autochrome Magic

Charles Corbet, Melancolia - 1910

This is really not the kind of thing I imagined would interest me overly. People of the Victorian era don't call to me figuratively (or actually - I'm happy to say!). And yet, on going to this photo archive of three Belgian early colour photo experimenters, I was positively carried away. Never mind that these old pics are in colour - which lends them a modern resonance I couldn't have imagined. But they are beautifully composed. Like next-wave Impressionism.

Thanks to Sally Jane for posting on this topic.

Even if this isn't your thing you should give it 3 minutes. And if you're not sucked in, I'd really like to know about it.

PS: You must enlarge this photo for full satisfaction.

Dulce de Letdown

Hopes and Dreams Spoiler Alert...

Nice photos notwithstanding, the President's Choice Dulce de Leche cheesecake sucks.

I'm sorry to disappoint you. I only hope that, if you have access to this piece of genius marketing, you read the reviews before you go out and spend your hard earned money. And/or try to fob it off on guests. Next time I might try that.

The fulsome story:

• This thing is the size of a pancake. Not that this mattered to us, because we threw half of it away.
• One piece is insanely small (presuming you actually opt to eat it). The photo below shows it on a freakin' salad plate!
  

• The cheesecake has no bite (though it is on the dry side - rather than whip-y - the way I like it).
  
• Cake surrounds the cheese, rendering it the majority of the dessert. And the cake bit is one part stale-seeming, one part unimaginative and one part cake around cheesecake?!?
• As Steen said: It's a marketing vehicle for the Dulce de Leche sauce which, btw, you can buy in a jar. That's one fine product, for what it's worth.
• We all decided that, next time, I'm going to artfully swirl a little ddl around my world-famous poundcake. (Now, that's got me excited.)
  

Kensington Market, Thursday Morning

Nature Does Colour-Blocking

I try to keep a few bunches of fresh flowers in my house all the time. It makes me feel so much like an upper west side socialite having her house photographed for Vogue.

My husband just took these pictures of a spring-inspired tulip bouquet on the dining room table. Can't you see the Roksanda I. in them?