Movies I Can't Say No To

A few weeks ago, Cupcakes and Cashmere posted about some of her irresistible movies.

These are movies that you basically just cannot say no to. If I'm flipping through the channels and one of these movies is on TV, I will watch it, no matter how many times I've seen the movie before.

I've really been putting some thought into this and here's what I came up with, in no particular order... plus my favorite line from some of the movies:

• Mean Girls - "You can't just ask people why they're white."
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Clueless - "My foot hurts. Can I go to the nurse?"/ "Nice stems."
• The Wizard of Oz - "That's a horse of a different color!"
• The Sound of Music
• Mary Poppins - "Close your mouth please Michael, we are not a codfish."
• The Social Network
• The Princess Bride - "I do not think it means what you think it means."
• Can't Hardly Wait - "Nobody drink the beer, the beer has gone bad!"

Also, any animated Disney film made between 1920 and 1999.

Please note that these aren't necessarily my "favorite" movies, but definitely ones I can't resist watching.

What are your irresistibles?? Are any of yours on this list?

.  thanks internet  .

May's Draw By Night in Vancouver

On May 2 there was another Draw By Night meet up that I had the pleasure of attending. Before a month passes without me posting about it, here's a re-cap:

The theme of the evening was "Memory Theater" and was inspired by performance artist Cian Donnelly, whose work is...... fahkin creepy. Here's the short description of his work that was included on the Draw By Night event post:

"Donnelly's performances are a potent mix of costume, song and spoken word; expect nightmare lyricism and poetic horror."

Yeah. That was accurate. For this Draw By Night, we actually got to watch one of Donnelly's performances via webcam from his studio in Italy. After his terribly creepy performance (some of which you can watch here), he set up his cam (in full costume) to paint and draw along with us. His work reminded me a litttttle bit of artist John Frame, whose work I saw in an exhibit at the Portland Art Gallery last year.

Our drawings were to be loosely inspired by Donnelly's performance and artwork, so that made for some twisted and dark drawings in the room. Here was my doodle:

Then, as usual, I walked around the room and snapped some pictures of the other artists' drawings. And, as usual, they were all vastly superior to my own!

This was my third Draw By Night meet-up since moving here. The group meets bi-monthly in Vancouver, so we'll meet again in July to draw together and chit chat. It's a fun way to meet alllllll sorts of different people!

Check out the Draw By Night Facebook page to stay updated on future events!

Read about other Draw By Nights here:
- March 2013
- January 2013

Sara Bareilles Performs in Vancouver

On Thursday May 9, my homegirl Sara Bareilles performed an intimate show at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver. The venue itself was also an active movie theater, and both the small size of the room and the fact that we all had comfy theater seats were a shock to me. We sat dead center in the last row of the first floor of the theater - pretty perfect view of the entire stage, with no tall people sitting in front of us. #Score!

Sidebar: Notice I'm using pronouns like "we" and "us"... that's because I made Dave come. 

If you have never seen Sara B. live... you need to. This woman has the voice of an angel but the mouth of a sailor. She's really funny and witty and beautiful and likes to curse - all of which meet my approval.

Here was most of her setlist from our evening at the Rio Theatre (what I could recall) - not in the correct order, SUE ME.

- King of Anything
- Uncharted
- Gravity (my all-time favorite song of hers - and the first that I ever heard)
- Single Ladies (you can hear her version of it here)
- Love On the Rocks mashed up with Elton John's Benny and the Jets
- Let the Rain
- Brave
- Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
- Once Upon Another Time

The list is definitely missing 2 or 3 songs but I can't remember what they were.

When she came out on stage for her encore, something absolutely fucking magical happened. She decided she'd perform Part of Your World... from the G.D. Little Mermaid. #YEWKIDDINME? She got to actually live every little girl's dream of performing this song. On stage. To a crowd. It was just magical people. Don't believe me?

SEE FOR YOURSELF. YOU'RE WELCOME:


Don't mind the shaky video. I was looking at her, not the viewfinder. SUE ME AGAIN.

Dave was really blown away that everyone in the audience knew all the words to the song... but then he remembered that we were at a Sara Bareilles show and everyone in the audience was probably a female my age. I elaborated to explain that we also all grew up performing that exact song in every swimming pool that we had access to as youngsters. Cue dramatic wave crashing up behind us in the background with our beautiful (red) hair flowing in the wind.

Sara B. concluded the show with another cover - Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It was beautiful, obvi.

This was my third time seeing her live. The first time was at the House of Blues in Boston in 2010 (on my birthday!) and the second time was at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston in 2011. Each time has been a blast - she really puts on an entertaining show. Her banter is just top notch and her singing is incredible. Not to mention the fact that my company at her shows has always been stellar. ;)

Are you a fan of Sara Bareilles? Have you ever seen her live?

Pretty Things Around Vancouver Lately

Since arriving in Vancouver I feel like I take pictures constantly. Here are some random pretty things that have been captured lately that I didn't want to let disappear into the abyss. Enjoy!

.  a cherry blossom tree behind a green hedge  .

.  my favorite root  .

.  an adorable backyard with cherry blossoms and a swing  .

.  view of the mountains north of vancouver  .

.  blossoms in my neighborhood with the city in the background  .

.  sunset over english bay  .

.  airplane over kitsilano on a clear day  .

.  black bird in a mossy tree  .

.  crooked branches against a blue sky  .

.  daisies  .

Glass Bottle Vases & New Succulents

I've been hitting up thrift stores recently, keeping my eyes peeled for some glass bottles that could be used as vases for holding just a couple of flowers at a time (inspired by this picture from abeautifulmess.com). Last Saturday afternoon, right after my Dog Mountain hike, I found these two glass bottles for just 99 cents each at the Salvation Army on Broadway in Vancouver. They're now holding beautiful flowers and wild grass that I bought on Sunday from Kits Food Mart:

In related news, the sunshine around here has been turning me into a crazy flower stalker. I take pictures of flowers almost everytime I'm out and about and drool daily over the flower displays in front of Kits Food Mart. I'm seriously going to be buying flowers and plants all spring and summer long.

Here's what I did with the rest of the flowers and tall wild grass that I bought that day:

.  photobomb by my awesome lemon cypress tree and its faaaaabulous everyday-is-a-holiday lights  .

While at the Mart, I also picked up three succulents and re-potted them together as soon as I got home:

Here's a look at the state of all of the other botany that's currently out on our balcony:

I love looking out there on sunny days and seeing all of our pretty plants in a row. It's a real pick-me-up! I'm especially loving the newly blooming azalea plant:

.  hey girl  .

Do you keep plants around the house? I'd love to hear about what you've got!

Black & White Polka Dot Accent Nail

Here's something I've been meaning to do for awhile - a black and white polka dot accent nail!

Here's what I used:

Stiletto (from the Revlon ColorStay line), Snow Me White (my trusty Sinful Colors go-to, shimmer-free white polish), and Orchid (from the Revlon Top Speed line).

.  photoshoot fresh, lewkin like wealth  .

I love Orchid (I have a few different polishes that look quite similar to this) - it's a perfect springy color with a silver shimmer. It seemed like a nice companion color to a black and white polka dot accent, but really I could have chosen almost any color, right? 

And of course I can't do a polka dot nail without busting out an awesomely relevant polka dot background for a photo shoot. Heyoooooo!

.  you better worrrrrrrk  .

Since black & white goes with everything, I plan on doing this often with lots of different colors! Which color would you choose?!

Veggies, Chickpea and Pasta Soup

QUICK! Make this recipe before the weather is too warm for soup!

Seriously though, we're still experiencing enough cool, rainy days here in Vancouver to warrant having a nice warm soup for dinner now and then. On top of it being a really easy dinner to make, it's also a great opportunity to throw a ton of vegetables and beans into a dish - and those things do a body good. So eff you, milk.

Here's what you need:

• whole wheat rotini (or any other kind of whole wheat pasta that you like)
• 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
• about 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1-2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
• 1/4 cup chopped basil
• kale - enough for each bowl of soup to have a nice handful
• chicken broth (or veggie broth)
• about 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• water
• pepper
• small amount of salt
• Optional: 1 cup of chopped spinach

.  what the french call "ingrédients"  .
.  see how they add that extra diagonal line over the e?  .
.  the french are so clever  .

The first step is to begin your pasta in one pot. NOW I DON'T WANT TO BRAG but if there's one thing I am pretttttty adept at doing... it's boiling water, lowering pasta into it and setting a timer. I guess that's three things. Nevertheless, I do them well (and often). So yeah, start your pasta. I'd recommend boiling the pasta for juuuust a little bit less time than you normally would. That's because you're eventually going to put your pasta back into the rest of the soup, and you don't want it to become overcooked at that point.

In a separate pot or dutch oven, sauté your onions and garlic in some olive oil until your kitchen starts to smell delish (usually when the onions are becoming a bit translucent). The most "difficult" part of this entire recipe is not burning your garlic. That's pretty much the only part where you need to exercise any real responsibility. Burnt garlic is enough to not only ruin your whole dish, but also make your entire apartment smell like.... burnt garlic. #NotSexy.

The rest of the recipe is almost entirely comprised of "dumping stuff into your pot" and then letting it reach the correct temperature. In this case, that temperature is "hot... but not so hot that you burn your tongue when you eat it." (Unless of course you're into that?)

Once your kitchen smells good from the garlic/onions, time to add some more stooooof to that pot. Add as much chicken broth as you feel like - it's your soup, I don't care how much of it you make! I added about 2 cups. Next throw in your carrots and your whole can of chickpeas.

In a tiny blender (all of my appliances are tiny), combine your chopped tomatoes with your basil and a little bit of water and blend till they've become one. Add this mixture into your soup and stir it all up. Scoop your tomato paste into the soup and mix well. Your shit should really be looking like a soup now.

Now take a look at what you've got... Taking into consideration that you're going to add some pasta into this mixture eventually, how do you feel about the broth-to-other-ingredients ratio? If you think it needs more liquid, add water. Season this pot of stuff with pepper and a littttttle bit of salt (don't forget your broth probably already has a ton of sodium in it) and just let it do its thing until it's a temperature you feel like eating. When it's just about "ready," add in your cooked pasta and spinach. (Adding spinach to a soup or sauce at the very end is a good way to prevent it from getting mushy and gross in your dish.)

YOU'RE ALMOST DONE.

Before you scoop your soup into serving bowls, throw a nice handful of roughly chopped kale into the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the soup over the top of the kale and serve. BAM! FOOD.

Pretty easy and pretty packed with gewd stoof. Don't act like you don't still want soup sometimes, even when the weather is warmer. This is fabulous as a dinner, by itself, or you could have a small bowl of it alongside a grilled cheese, in place of a boring tomato soup. It's also easy to make a ton of this soup and freeze the leftovers - I'd just recommend keeping the kale/spinach separate from everything else until you're about to serve it. Kale and/or spinach wilting away inside of soup is just not a good time.