Monday, December 20, 2010

christmas cat.

[photo by me.] a little more well behaved than the last few years, probably still unimpressed and hating us right now, but merry christmas from mr. rohebo! i'm sure he wishes everyone a safe, happy and healthy holiday season (filled with treats and cookies of course)!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

holiday break.

[photos by me, photo 6 by ryan in august of us on the ferry from victoria]
up in roberts creek visiting my mom and dad and grandad sluggett for the holidays! rohebo is settling in to the "big house" and will hopefully lose a few grams while up here! mom has made all of her beautiful holly christmas wreaths and dad found us a neat tree to decorate! happy holidays!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

something special on its way...

[photo by me]
i guess technically 3 special things are on their way (if you count me and rohebocat)! BUT the most important treat is pictured above! 2 ferries and they'll be yours mom and dad! we'll try to save some for you ryan when you come home on wednesday (kidding dear, we will save a selection of your faves).

Monday, December 6, 2010

website under construction.


just a snippet of the website that i've been working on that i hope will be up and running at some point. i know, i know, mom and dad, thesis first! i'm on it!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

my costume jewelry.

my collection of costume jewelry: some pieces i've been lucky to inherit from my grandma page, and a few other pieces have been gifts or finds here in victoria. i really like the affordability of many of the pieces of costume jewelry, hunting for and discovering the many unique designs, and its ability to add some sparkle to a simple outfit.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

currently listening. kanye west ft. pusha T.


[video source: youtube, KanyeWestVEVO]
my weekend track (and video) on repeat for inspiration. i love the style of this video, the colours (the pink skin of the dancers and feathered dress on selita ebanks, the cream tux on kanye and piano, the black tutus, the washed/dirty/worn mint paneling) and the harder beat vs. the softness of the dancers.

Friday, November 19, 2010

friday faves.


the barefoot contessa.

[photo credits: quentin bacon for the barefootcontessa.com and the foodnetwork.com]
as mentioned in a previous post, i don't try to experiment too much with my cooking, my favourite recipes come from my collection of barefoot contessa cookbooks! i really like her recipes, as most of the ingredients she uses are accessible, and if a few items on her shopping list are too expensive/elusive, i've always found that anything i choose and use as a comparable substitute/swap, never changes the tasty end-product! (i think ina garten's favourite ingredients are gruyère, salt and butter - not that i'm complaining :) here are a few of my favourites (in no particular order)!

1. winter squash soup (barefoot in paris): this is a great, colourful autumn soup. warm, sweet & salty with the gruyère cheese as a garnish. i've made this 3 times w/out the help of a food mill or hand blender (a lot more work w/out). my sister-in-law michelle and i made it with limited kitchen tools up in our bunkhouse in bella bella, and the soup was still delicious and comforting!

2. carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing (barefoot contessa parties!): i made these cupcakes for coffee time in the biology dept. and for my friend amy's birthday. the recipe is super simple, but a great carrot cake recipe! the cream cheese icing is AMAZing, i may or may not have saved all the extra icing and slathered it over every pastry or semi-appropriate breakfast/dessert item i had for the next week or so :) again, very easy recipe, and again made by me in my tiny kitchen with no hand blender and it still turns out to be faaaantastic!

3. lime curd (barefoot contessa parties!): i made this lime curd for ryan and i's first year anniversary and drizzled it over a vanilla pound cake (store bought), iced with above cream cheese and covered in fresh strawberries! it was soooooooo tasty!!! great lime curd recipe and again, if i can do it, it must be super easy!

4. creamy cucumber salad (barefoot contessa back to basics): i made this recipe for karyn's potluck last year. i really should have read the instructions before making this... i read the ingredient list, but not the part where i was supposed to drain the cucumbers overnight. whoops. made perfect sense as i was making it - cucumbers contain a LOT of liquid... and the recipe involves adding MORE liquid. so the end product was a little slimy, but the flavours were good! it was tasty and fresh, a great side for bbq chicken in the summer! (oh and people generally like their cucumber salads chilled... another point i should have realized as i was about to make it 3 hours before the party - oops - for a scientist i wasn't very prepared!)

5. summer borscht (barefoot contessa at home): this chilled, beautiful magenta soup is a contender for one of my favourite recipes to make! again, extremely simple, extremely comforting and extremely delicious!

recipes i'd like to try next: fresh raspberry gratins, avocado & grapefruit salad, warm mushroom salad with prosciutto and her pear clafouti - my mother-in-law jeri makes a killer clafouti, i should get her recipe!)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

currently listening. dave matthews & tim reynolds.



[video source: youtube, bowlinballhead; photo sources: 1. live at radio city dvd cover, 2,3,4,5. various dave matthews band concert posters]

Friday, November 12, 2010

baby rohe.

[photo by me.]
thanks for reminding me about this picture ry. our little rohebo at 4 months old, on our way to mom and dad's house for christmas. i wish he could still fit inside our coats...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

i love food.


[photo credits 1,3,4: jamie delaine, 2: me]

another thing that ryan and i enjoy to do together (and separately) is eat! the deciding factor in choosing the Bonniebrook Lodge for our wedding reception was the first whiff of our appetizers when we sampled the food there in august 2009. (well really we were 95% certain after reading about all the goodies on the amazing menu). the above pictures by our wedding photographer jamie delaine show some of the tasty dishes we were lucky to have at our reception! :)

our favourite restaurants at the moment (in no particular order):
1. kintaro ramen noodle (denman st., vancouver)
2. tawara sushi (highway 10, surrey)
3. guu (thurlow st., vancouver)
4. pho'vy (fort st., victoria)
5. original tandoori kitchen (120st., surrey)
6. pizzeria prima strada (cook st., victoria)
7. fritz's fries (davie st., vancouver)
8. memphis blues (broadway st., vancouver)
we're always looking for neat new places to eat!

ryan is an amazing cook! he has been posting and photographing a lot of his meals/restaurant experiences since he has been in glasgow over on his blog: the hungry architect. i'm not too shabby when i make the effort, though i seem to have a better grasp on baking vs. cooking. maybe it is the scientist in me, as i really like working from a recipe, whereas ryan really enjoys improvising and figuring out the flavours of the dish as he goes. (as a scientist, i should be good at experiments, but my meals "sans recipe" never seem to produce a great end product!) my favourite series of cookbooks i like to work from are those written by ina garten, the barefoot contessa. i'll post about her in a subsequent post!

Monday, November 8, 2010

style inspiration: hot pink & leopard.

[photo source: stockholm street style on carolinesmode.com]
i have never been a fan of animal prints, but this one image (and subsequently discovering this image by the sartorialist a few months later - note to self, must combine polka dots and leopard), has changed my whole feeling about using leopard in a look. this exquisite jimmy choo martha clutch (unfortunately no longer available, and let's be honest, because of the price, never actually available to me hehe ;) is the most amazingly perfect accessory with this hot pink shirt/coat. i love the tiny dot of turquoise from her bracelet too. perfection! this has instantly and unwaveringly inspired me to keep my eyes (and mind) open for leopard accessories...

Saturday, November 6, 2010

currently listening. coeur de pirate.


[video source: vimeo, dare to care records]
trying to add some whimsy and charm to my dreary saturday working at home while it rains outside...

Thursday, November 4, 2010

okanagan wedding, new direction.





















[photo by me.]
some bits and pieces i've been collecting for my friend's vintage "tea party" wedding in kelowna next fall.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

my favourite things, from lush.

my top fav products from LUSH:
1. sympathy for the skin body cream. lightly-scented banana vanilla cream custardygoodness that cures my dryest of skin with no oily residue! hooray!

2. running to the embassy (in tin) foot soap. minty, gritty, creamy foot scrubber that leaves my feet smooth and fresh and smelling great!

3. pied de pepper foot lotion (not pictured, hint hint mom/ryan/jeri - christmas? ;). spicy, cinnamon foot cream for after the running to the embassy foot scrub, makes my feet smooth and soft and smelling like gingerbread!

4. candy fluff dusting powder. cotton candy, bubblegum talc for my smelly shoes and for a light scent! slight sparkle included!

5. snow fairy shower gel. a companion to the candy floss dusting powder, a bubblegum/cotton candy shower gel that is actually a fav of ryan's (sorry dear). smells sweet and makes my whole apartment smell like a candy shop!

6. hair doctor pre-wash scalp and hair conditioner. doesn't appear on the website anymore, but this minty, tingly scalp treatment was like a breath of fresh hair had swept through my roots! not sure that it was able to help my dry scalp significantly, as 1 pot only dealt me 2 treatments, perhaps after prolonged use it would affect my dry scalp. it did feel fantastic for my itchy, dry scalp the 2 times i was able to use it! i would use it again in a heartbeat!

7. ultrabland face cleanser. an ultra creamy, smooth, moisturizing face paste that left my face feeling super-hydrated and fresh! have actually stopped using cleansers all together as an experiment to see if my eczema improves, but if i was to ever start using a cleanser again, it would be ultrabland!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

bees.

[photo credits: all me (image 1: necklace - erica weiner, compact - vintage)]

i apologize for my lack of posting over the past week! i've been trying to focus on writing and heather organized a "CAGIS" event on saturday of last weekend, so we helped her teach some young girls from the ages of 7-12 about local marine invertebrates! it was lots of fun!

on to the post! some of you might know that i've got a strange interest in bees. i really don't know enough about them to warrant this obsession, but i'm trying my best to learn! i've been reading a book called "plan Bee" by susan brackney, loaned to me by my friend amy (sorry i've had it for ages, even though its only a 200 page read).

some neat bee facts that i didn't know before i read this book:
1. "bees are responsible for pollinating 80% of all the plants on the planet."(i knew the percentage was up there, but i never really realized about how proportionally significant their role actually is...)
2. (i'd had a feeling, but didn't know for sure) - honey, if cured properly (low moisture content and low pH), will never go "bad".
3. martha stewart keeps bees. (now why am i not really surprised by that fact? oh martha... how i love you...)
4.  during the world wars, beekeepers were often allowed to dodge being drafted in order to maintain their hives. with the extensive food rationing in place, honey was a popular way to add flavour to the otherwise bland food available, and the demand for beeswax for waterproofing and lubrication of mechanical parts and bullet casings was high.
5. bees can be shipped through the US mail.
6. swarming is actually a non-threatening, natural process undertaken regularly by colonies of bees in order to divide a colony when space becomes limited. the bees prepare to swarm for weeks, as it takes time for the colony to raise a new queen to leave behind at the old colony site.  the old queen will leave with thousands of swarming bees and wait at a new location until scout bees report back to her with their waggle dance about possible new colony sites!

another thing i like to do, is collect deceased bumblebees during the spring (i've read somewhere that this is death after emergence from hibernation, and read elsewhere that they are males that have died after reproducing?). whatever the reason for their passing, i collect these bees and keep them in specimen jars on my desk at work. morbid perhaps, but i find them beautiful and peaceful to look at.  another thing i like to collect is bee jewelry/pretty things. i love my bee necklace by erica weiner, and my vintage bee compact that my mom bought me as my bridal shower gift. i like my bees.

Monday, October 18, 2010

currently listening. lykke li.


[video source: vimeo, satelite]
wow. listening to this with headphones on a monday morning in the office. dreamy.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

the shaw ocean discovery centre, sidney bc.

[photos all taken by me, photo 4: lion's mane jellyfish cyanea capillata, photo 5: anemone tealia/urticina sp., photo 6: orange peel nudibranch tochulina tetraquetra eating orange sea pen ptilosarcus gurneyi, photo 7: china rockfish sebastes nebulosus]

we had a neat time at the shaw ocean discovery centre in sidney, bc today! i was invited by heather, kylee and dawna to join their field trip with the invertebrate zoology class that i used to be a teaching assistant for in past years. i'd never been to the discovery centre before, and its a very neat place!  quite a bit smaller than the vancouver aquarium, but it has some beautiful displays and tanks full of local species, microscopes set up over specimens and a great touch tank at the end of the galleries!  i'm sure as the years progress, it will gain more attention and funding and become quite a spectacular space! 

we saw lots of neat invertebrates (and vertebrates) including a spectacularly huge orange peel nudibranch (nudibranch or sea slug, photo 4) eating its staple favourite, an orange sea pen (ptilosarcus)! it was almost a foot long! we also got a chance to see a female octopus tending to strings of eggs that she had laid in her den in one of the overhead tanks! very cool!
we also ran into some great friends of mine and my parents, ted and dana and their daughter (a neat new friend of mine), sarah, who is visiting from tokyo! all in all a great day out!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

fall mushrooms and fungi.



[photo credits: all me.]
these are only a few of the amazing specimens that i've come across in my short walk through the forest to my office at uvic! i wish i knew what they all are! i've been eyeing this field guide "mushrooms demystified" by david arora, for years after i used it in chapters to identify the top image of the coral fungi, but have never actually bought the book! now that i have all these photos of these neat mushrooms and fungi, i might have to invest...

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

currently listening.




[video 1 source: youtube, islandrecords; video 2 source: vimeo, wfnx]

Sunday, October 10, 2010

happy thanksgiving!


happy thanksgiving everyone! i'm lucky enough to have been able to head up to my parents place in roberts creek for thanksgiving! mom made us a fantastic roast chicken :) have a great long weekend!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

inspiration of the day.

[original source: samesoso]
this stunning photo of actress/singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg that i found posted on a new favourite wedding blog of mine, "grey likes weddings", caught me off guard yesterday. i love the pinky cream and grey, the lush cascade of feathers next to the the patterned silk textures, very peaceful and warm.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

larval poetry.

[not so great photo credits: me]

"the veliger's a lively tar, the liveliest afloat,
a whirling wheel on either side propels his little boat;
but when the danger signal warns his bustling submarine,
he stops the engine, shuts the port, and drops below unseen."

an excerpt from my favourite larval poem, about a larval snail of course, "The Ballad of the Veliger or How the Gastropod Got its Twist".  this poem, and many others, can be found in an amazing book i was so fortunate to come by a few years ago (a free giveaway left on a table in the hall in the biology department).  the book is called "larval forms and other zoological verses" by walter garstang. a modest 76 page collection of poetry devoted to the marine invertebrate (and a few vertebrates) larva.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

green wedding shoes blog!



[photo credits: jamie delaine photography]

some of our wedding photos shot by jamie delaine are part of a neat new post called "pretty pretty parasols!" on the website "green wedding shoes" today!
as i mentioned before, we rented these amazing umbrellas from the fantastic bella umbrella boutique in seattle, washington. the styles we rented are #381, 477, 803, 841, 928 and 1095.
thanks again to bella umbrella, jamie delaine and to greenweddingshoes.com for including us!

Monday, October 4, 2010

side project, okanagan wedding.

[photo credits: both me.]
a friend of mine is getting married next year in kelowna, and i'm tinkering around with some centrepiece ideas. some preliminary ideas: fruit, magnolias, butterflies...

Sunday, October 3, 2010

movies, part 1.

[starwars ABC artwork by tweedlebop, planet travel posters 1, 2, 3 and 4 by justin van gendersen, movie poster by andy helms]
if anyone was ever to ask me to choose my favourite movie of all time, i would have to answer, hands down, "star wars".  i grew up watching "star wars" with my family, and whenever i want to feel like i'm back home again, watching the trilogy takes me back there instantly.
now, if i had to choose which specific movie (from "a new hope", "the empire strikes back" or "return of the jedi"), it would have to be "return of the jedi". obviously i love ewoks and endor, i almost named rohe, "wicket". the forests of endor have always reminded me of british columbia, and more specifically, they remind me of the forest out front of my grandma page's house in west vancouver.  ian and i used to play out there for hours, building stick houses in the trees and pretending to win the invasion by the empire...