Stay in : Watch & Relax.

So it is freezing cold, most of the big cities have been hit with a great deal of frost and snow. I recommend if you have the option to stay home. However even if you can't stay home during the day this list will provide you with some great watching material.

I love movies, however sometimes i get quite restless through whilst watching. So here is a list of movies, cliche or not, that i have enjoyed in one way or another. Note these are not the only movies i like these are just a few of them !

1. Almost Famous
I could watch this movie on repeat. From the incredible soundtrack to Kate Hudson playing one of my favourite characters thus far in my life, this is quality cinema.
The movie  tells the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater, and his efforts to get his first cover story published. The best part is that this film is semi-autobiographical, as Crowe himself was a teenage writer for Rolling Stone. You know that the situations you're viewing have some traction to them because he has real experience in this area. 
I recommend everyone see this movie once ... or twice.
Kate Hudson as Penny Lane in Almost Famous, she is mesmerizing.

2. The Spectacular Now
This movie was good, it felt a little bit like every other teen movie but it brought up some themes that i feel we don't always see in those other movies. It brought up ideas of self worth and how we project ourselves upon there, it brought up themes in a more serious way. However, i will say Shailene's character kind of drove me crazy with the amount of laughing she does i still think it's a worth seeing, not only because i'm  fan of hers but also because you can see her grow as an actress. 

Sutter and Aimee having an awkward moment. 

3. The Way We Were
Okay so I think there's 2 types of people in this world, people who like Barbara Streisand and people who don't. This Movie is for both groups of people, if you don't like her this movie will make you like her, and if you already have a love for Barbara, then this love will just deepen. This flick is about a politically active Jewish girl, meets Hubbell Gardiner the popular boy with a hidden talent in writing & literature. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet again and, despite their obvious differences, marry. Hubbell wants to be a screenwriter, so the two move to California despite Katie's objections. They prosper there, but as the Hollywood blacklist looms, Katie's activism threatens her husband's reputation.
P.S: I have been known to declare that in this movie there is the most sexually charged non sexual scene of Hubbell tying Katie's shoe- yes I'm serious; the scene is a must see.




Yes the outfits are this good throughout the ENTIRE movie.


Well there you have it a few movies that i'm currently liking. 
Check them out or don't but seriously they're quite good and they'll keep you captivated. 

Adios Amigos. 
Stay warm: wrap yourself in blanket like a little taco.


SOF

Save your money on Organic shit.

Eating healthy is a great thing but sometimes it can be a little expensive.
And what is worse than spending money on groceries and then seeing them shrivel up and die... not a lot.
So featured below is a sweet grocery checklist and a sweet how to store grocery list.
There are so many tools out there to assist us in eating healthy and staying healthy but it's up to us to use them.
Remember the healthier you eat, the healthier you crave. It's science.




SOF

Meals of the Great: Results

Ok so about a week ago i wrote the post Meals of the Great, this is the follow up - the result.
If you haven't read it just click here.

Ok to start here are the images of the Bell Jar meal. Esther Greenwood and her obsession with avocados encouraged me to make Crab stuffed avocados.

Recipe 
1 Large pear avocado
5 oz Fresh crab
Grape tomatoes
Celery
Scallion
Mayonnaise
Curly italian parsley
1/2 Tsp of paprika

Start by draining the crab meat.Then chop it up into little pieces.Then chop up all the ingredients seen up above.Mix it all together.

Note: i didn't really measure how many tomatoes or celery i put in etc... i just judged how busy the mixture looked, and depending on what you prefer you can alter the recipe slightly.


Secondly, was the first meal from Ernest Hemingways Garden of Eden- David Bourne eats a delicious breakfast of Soft Boiled Eggs with Fresh Raspberry Preserve and Brioche.

Recipe
2 Large eggs
3 Slices of brioche
2 Tablespoons of raspberry preserve
2 Squares of fresh butter

Start by boiling water, when water is boiled put the eggs (shell still on) in the water.
While the eggs are boiling toast the bread, we want everything ready at the same time.
Prepare your raspberry jam in a little dish.
After 6 minutes the eggs will be done.
Remove them from the water and place them in egg cups.
When the toast is buttered, break the tops of the eggs and start dipping that bread!


Lastly is the meal David Bourne eats once his marriage has essentially fallen apart. He eats a very manly meal of Plat aver Jambon and English Mustard.
So the meal can be interpreted a couple different ways, i interpreted it as such.

Recipe
2 Slices of egg bread
2 Fresh slices of ham
1/2 Cup of vinegar
2 Tbp of english or hot mustard
1 Large egg

Ok so, i poured the vinegar into a pot of water and brought it to a boil. The vinegar will help bind the egg. Then i cracked the egg into the water, Note: keep the egg gently swishing in the pot, otherwise it will cling to the bottom of the pot. While your swishing the egg roast the ham in a pan. Make the slices nice and thin (this is my preference) while all of this is going on you should be toasting the bread. 
Remove the egg after about 3 minutes.
Butter the bread, remove the ham, put some mustard into a jar and get ready to enjoy.


 To make everything better here was my little helper. Don't worry she didn't taste test , she just encouraged :)


S.O.F

Happy cooking

Winter soups for the soul

So Winter is upon us and needless to say some of us don't love it. One of the hardest parts of winter , other than leaving the house, is eating right. We all let our inner bear shine through and we eat our faces off.
One of my favourite foods during the winter ... and well... the summer,  is soup. 
It's a healthy smorgasbord in a bowl, and it's incredibly easy to make. 
So here is a great chart that I personally love that will help you eat right and eat warm during the winter. 
psssst my fave is the coconut curry.



Happy feasting.

S.O.F

Warby Parker Spring 2015 Unveiling

Drum Roll Please..... ba dum ba dum bum da dum.

So remember when you were a kid and you would see kids with braces, crutches, or a cast and you'd be thinking to yourself "Man i want a broken leg , ugh i want braces" 
Remember what it was like when you went to the optometrist and you LIED and said you couldn't read the letters because you really really wanted glasses. Well get ready for that feeling all over again.

Warby Parker has given me a sneak peek into their SS15 Collection and it is Great.(note the capital)

So if you don't know much about the company let me break it down for you: a handful of very attractive people (scruff, good style and even better glasses) started designing your glasses they way they know you want them. They've taken over a niche in the market where there used to be nobody, in their words they have " [...] circumvented traditional channels , designing glasses in-house, and engaging with customers directly, we’re able to provide higher-quality, better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price."You get what you want for the price you want. 

BUT WAIT! (it gets better...)

Not only are they making glasses that we North Americans want to wear, but they are also providing children in third world countries with glasses. In fact they have now donated over 1'000'000 pairs of glasses.  Yea, they're good looking do gooders. Click here for the full breakdown.

Alright so back to what you came here for, Spring 2015.

Their SS15 season is inspired by the sea; this means nautical touches, salt water matte finishes, jelly fish inspired colour flecks etc. They have created a story without being too literal, which is great.
I love colourful frames , I love when there's more than one colour in a frame because it adds intrigue to whomever is wearing them, and for that i love this collection.

Featured below are my pick of the litter, the strongest and most interesting frames.

Haskell in Crystal
Ok here is one of my favorites, such a simple pair of glasses yet we never see anything like this. They're clear, no colour debacle no questioning what colour to pick or whether or not they'll go with the majority of what's in your wardrobe. They're clean and classic and as crystal as the water we hope to see when we go to the beach. They're a must have.

Sullivan Saltwater Mattewith Red Seaweed Matte 
I really like the Sullivan's in this colour scheme, it walks the border between that 70's show and a cool guy. This teal and mohagony combination are a little bit retro, but, with throwing in a matte finish it adds a modern touch that helps to keep you from looking like you swiped your dads old frames, they add a little "je ne said quoi".

Theo Striped Beach
Every collection needs a couple pieces to help fill the collection, what I mean by this is that there's some items that are designed to tie things together, Striped Beach is one of them. These glasses are designed with the safe but interesting person in mind. These glasses are great because they're more than just your tortoise feel, they're lighter than that, they add light to the face. Great as a staple pair of glasses, not a pair to wear if you're trying to blow us away with your coolness.

Brooks Striped Pacific

These are so cool. They look like the beach. They remind me of the depths of the ocean; I immediately think of deep sea divers and how the water looks if they were to look up at the sky while still deep below the surface. This is a deep pair of frames, and the frame is manly enough for any man and modern enough for any woman. 5 stars.
Carnaby Burnt Lemon Tortoise
Ok weird name but it's not the frame composition i'm crazy about it's the shape. These glasses have a touch of cat eye flare without screaming "i love the 60's ", and yet they're still very 'unisexy' (sexy for men and women). The only thing i wish was that they were a little bit more narrow through the bottom for the ladies. Great and incredibly interesting mens frames.



Carnaby Blue Coral
I love all the added tones in these glasses but I wish they were a little bit more see through, or that the tones of brown were a little bit lighter. This teal clarity is really beautiful and the inspiration is clear but i feel like the darkness falls a wee bit flat against such a great colour, I would've gone with a sandier brown- but still a favourite.

Daisy Aurelia Tortoise
These glasses are the shit. They remind me of a pearls luminescence. The frame works well with the colors as it's quite neutral and not too crazy. But please take some more time to admire the colors: the sandy peach, this aquatic lavender, the dark hues that add some depth. These glasses will bring out your inner mermaid, and as women let's be honest that's almost all we want in this world.


All in all I would say Warby Parker killed it this season, they're creative and a little bit more risky than what we normally see; not too mention there is a great sense of harmony within the collection. 

However, a collection would not be any fun without a couple not so great pieces so here are the glasses we recommend you stay away from.

Archie in Citron
 The frame isn't terrible its more the colour that's off. It looks as though it was meant to be one color and the sun accidentally washed it out. We also fear the colour could wash you out, and well... we don't want you to drown behind these frames, so stay away.


Oak Barrel
The frame shape is great, its the colour that isn't working for us- it's just so flat and expected. If the collection is all about spring, these glasses give off too much of a summer school, stay home and read kind of vibe. 

Stick to the top portion of this article and it's all smooth sailing from here. 
Happy Seeing ?



S.O.F






Sorry for thinking about my face.

Part I (of Many)

I'm a deep thinker, at least by my standards; i think about everything all the time , i can never just see something as surface deep.

I honestly put my makeup on this morning and thought to myself with a very frustrated self narrative "why the *@%# do we even put this shit on our face? "
we put this on our faces to hide the bags under our eyes or to make our lashes look longer or to make our cheeks look flushed etc etc etc.

The happiest i've probably ever been in terms of with myself and feeling comfortable was probably when i was in Costa Rica. I wasn't just happy because i was on vacation or because i was with my family, i was happy because societies expectations were lifted off of me. I didn't wear any makeup and i felt totally different- better... almost happier with myself.

Yea, seriously.

Every day we wake up and we look in the mirror, we don't always (or even usually) think nice things.
We think "Holy shit look at that zit"  "Woah my hair is a mess" "Ugh look at my bags" or a hundred other things that probably don't make us feel better about ourselves. I hate it so much i can't even put enough power into a written sentence to describe just how much i hate it.


I wish women felt more powerful and strong i wish there weren't expectations for us to wear such simple things as mascara and cover up (WTF am i supposed to cover up my face my zits so that i can pretend i'm perfect well that's not realistic.)
I wish that when we didn't wear makeup people didn't looks at us and say "you look tired" ; is there a question hidden in there, are you trying to see if i did something cool last night ? come at me bro.

I think it's sad that most of us "abide" by these standards; and that we think we look better with it on.

Tonight i have a challenge for you, take of all your makeup and really look at yourself , look at your eyes, your nose and your cheeks , look at any "imperfections" (◁ Worlds shittiest word) and  admire yourself.
Because let me tell you, the majority of the standards that are out there are stupid anyways. 
We need to start loving ourselves for who we are,  as we are.



"symmetrical faces correlate with long term mental performance[39] and are an indication that a man has experienced "fewer genetic and environmental disturbances such as diseases, toxins, malnutrition or genetic mutations" while growing.[39] Since achieving symmetry is a difficult task during human growth, requiring billions of cell reproductions while maintaining a parallel structure, achieving symmetry is a visible signal of genetic health."

S.O.F

Sia's - Elastic Heart.& cold jets

alrighty , lets talk about Sia.
lets talk about how everybody needs to cool their jets.

I have this theory, and my theory goes like how you perceive something says more about you due to your perception than it necessarily does about what you're observing. Granted this theory only really works on things that are abstract or more artsy fartsy than direct.

example Sia's video , for all those people seeing pedophilia you need to give your head and shake and shake that thought right out.
it is a contemporary abstract dance . and if anything, what i'm seeing is Shia Laboeuf representing malice and Maddie represents the woman who is trying to rid herself of this badness that is associated with him.

Forget that she is a child and he is a grown man , if everything in this video represents something than their age shouldn't be taken so directly maybe sia just thought they could convey the right emotion. People love to look for the extreme and this is not a video where we should just jump to conclusions.


The video is called Elastic Heart right... elastic like pulling away and snapping back in and pulling away and getting snapped back in. At the end she gets away from this person who is doing her harm but let me say this once and for all:

 THIS VIDEO IS NOT ABOUT PEDOPHILIA , the dancers represent something, an emotion a struggle.

Below you will find some of the lyrics to elastic heart along with the link to the video .

And another one bites the dust
Oh why can I not conquer love
And I might have thought that we were one
Wanted to fight this war without weapons


And I wanted it, I wanted it bad
But there were so many red flags
Now another one bites the dust
Yeah let's be clear, I'll trust no one


[Pre-Chorus]


You did not break me
I'm still fighting for peace


[Chorus]
I've got thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubberband until you pull too hard
I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
'Cos I've got an elastic heart


And I will stay up through the night
Let's be clear, won't close my eyes
And I know that I can survive
I'll walk through fire to save my life



SOF


2015's Biggest fitness trend

Hey everybody ,

So not sure if you heard but the biggest fitness trend as predicted by the American College of Sports Medicine for 2015 is ........ Body Weight Training.

This is pretty exciting stuff ! 
I teach Yogilates part time which has actually fused more into a Yoga/Piltaes/Cardio/Body Weight Training class and i love it. I've seen amazing results in the majority of my clients from simple things like their attitude towards working out to a nice set of abs, needless to say everyone is different.

I just wanted to share my opinion on this type of workout because with fitness making a huge rise I want to share some of the benefits i've seen from doing this type of workout and from teaching it. 

So with this type of exercise you build lean muscle with tons of endurance as opposed to bulky muscles that can lift a bijillion pounds 4-5 times. Think about Arnold Schwarzenegger VS. Bruce Lee ; lean muscles with loads of mobility vs bulky muscles with less mobility. I suppose it depends what kind of look you're going for because as we know men like to look a little big larger and women tend to prefer a leaner look.


Also, apart from the aesthetic of this exercise, what's so great about it that it requires NO machines, all you need is enough space to move around comfortably, some workout clothes and a yoga mat (optional).
I think a lot of people like this type of exercise because if they're motivated its easy enough to do in the comfort of your own home. Not everybody likes the  environment a gym provides. Boys ogling your booty , touching the same machines as a 100 people it ain't for everyone.

Featured below is a four move workout that i really like, its challenging and  almost everybody can do it.


If you're looking for the Article from which some of this information came from here it is. Meow.


S.O.F


Meals of the Great.

So i tend to read a lot ; a lot by my standards that is.

In every book the characters eat, or at least they should otherwise they're not really realistic.
I know this may sound strange but i love to eat, who doesn't . so my intrigue with what characters are eating stems deep.
It describes them, the same way how i eat almost the same breakfast every morning describes me.
- i like patterns, routine , my meal choice i healthy and unusual.
So it leads me to think when an author chooses a specific meal for a character there must be a reason right ?

Over the next couple weeks i am going to examine some of the meals i personally have come across in movies and books.
They will include but are not limited to :
(and if you have any recommendations i welcome them gladly)

- Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
The protagonists consistent obsession with avocados .

"Avocados are my favorite fruit. Every Sunday my grandfather used to bring me an avocado pear hidden at the bottom of his briefcase under six soiled shirts and the Sunday comics. He taught me how to eat avocados by melting grape jelly and french dressing together in a saucepan and filling the cup of the pear with the garnet sauce. I felt homesick for that sauce. "
An interesting pairing, nonetheless it will be tested in my kitchen.

“a vision of the celestially white kitchens of Ladies’ Day stretching into infinity. I saw avocado pear after avocado pear being stuffed with crabmeat and mayonnaise and photographed under brilliant lights. I saw the delicate, pink-mottled claw meat poking seductively through its blanket of mayonnaise and the bland yellow year cup with its rim of alligator-green cradling the whole mess.” 

-Ernest Hemmingway's The Garden of Eden
David Bourne the male lead is constantly eating eggs for breakfast, the better is marriage the better the eggs. The worse it gets the simpler is eggs become.
At the beginning of the marriage his eggs are served as such:

"[...]there was brioche and red raspberry preserve and the eggs were boiled and there was a pat of butter that melted as they stirred them and salted them lightly and ground pepper over them in the cups. They were big eggs and fresh and the girl's were not cooked quite as long as the young man's he remembered that easily and he was happy with his which he diced up with the spoon and ate with the only the flow of the butter to moisten them and the fresh early morning texture and the bite of the coarsely ground pepper grains and the hot coffee and the chickory-fragrant bowl of cafe au lait."

Near the end :

"the girl went into the kitchen and came out with oeufs au plat aver jambon and english mustard and Sorova [...] he wiped the last of the egg and mustard up from the shallow dish with a small piece of bread and then drank some tea"

Quite literally , the worse the sex becomes, and the more non existent it is (the sex that is) the food becomes less important.

For now i will start with these examples. I will interpret these meals as my own and feature them in the coming weeks on the blog. 

For all the foodies out there, stay tuned.