Front Lawn Fresh Cuts vol.IX

your mid-week source from the Granite City

On the Playlist: Can’t seem to stop humming Amos Lee. So while Dean's obsessing over missing Bloc Party in Aberdeen, I'm feeling kinda bummed that we missed AL's Vancouver show.

On the Reading List: [Re]Understanding Prayer by Kyle Lake

Current Obsession: Anthropologie dresses. ‘Tis the season to dress up and I would LOVE to get my hands on some of these.


Design of the Times: Everywhere I go on the web someone is linking to Port2PortPress. These hand screened cards & calendars are lovely (but pricey) and they were clever enough to come up with a Card Society.

Blog Log: Loads of goodies for home & design junkies to be found at Shelterrific.

Hipsters on the Web: Three years’ worth of Burnkit annual party Polaroids have recently been posted on Josh Dunford’s flickr. See if you can find anyone you know :)

Crisp of the Week: Kettle Chips, apple, sage & tyme [ 4 out of 5 stars... surprisingly good!]

Scot Slang of the Week: “skiving” — playing hookie (eg. going home when you are scheduled to be at the hospital ;) thanks Claire!)

Insider Scoop: This winter, 220,000 Innocent smoothies (Britain’s answer to Happy Planet beverages) will be sporting toques (AKA knitted hats). Each time one is purchased 50p will go towards the support of the elderly. Read all about SuperGran, and watch the video here .

Countdown To: Three days until Dean and I attend our first Sankt Nikolaus (st. Nicholas) party hosted by honourary German, Verity. It’s a brilliant idea—in Germany you get gifts on Dec 6 as well as the 25th!

To Do List: Christmas cards! Urrr. being a wife comes with all these new responsibilities. This year I resolve not to leave the delivery of my cards until the following autumn (Sam, your 2005 Christmas card came all the way to Scotland with me and I still haven’t sent it!)

Lastly: DailyLit is a gem for those who love literature but have a hard time setting aside time to read. Choose from hundreds of classic books and a digestible section will land in your inbox each day, just on weekdays or three days a week. My pic: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise

sun day

While the rest of you are enjoying yet ANOTHER snow day (or not enjoying it in some cases) we've got another 10 degree sun day here in Aberdeen. My how things have reversed!

******************************************************

today's bad news: our washer is still broken and i'm being forced to listen to the most mind-numbing conversation between two medical students at the table next to me (one complaining about the all the girls that keep falling in love with him and the other telling him he's an ass and to stop being such a player). Also I'm going to put off the next edition of Fresh Cuts until tomorrow cause I'm just not in the mood today.

today's good news: tomorrow is the Old Aberdeen Christmas lighting ceremony—sure to yield a fabulous flickr post in the near future. Also Verity loaned us the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice so I can finally see what all the fuss is about! Lastly, I've been having some fun with a potential freelance story this week—the inspiration drought seems to have passed.

******************************************************

Also, I got a call from my mom yesterday. My favourite great aunt, Auntie Mae went to Heaven on Sunday. This falls into the good news category—after 95 years she was getting pretty anxious to head on up there! Auntie Mae took us Smith girls on our first trip to Disneyland and she gave us the money to open our first savings accounts—she was this generous with pretty much everyone. Despite some seriously crippling arthritis, she was super adventurous and travelled all over the place—with a particular penchant for Reno's slot machines :) She will be missed.

flip

Three weeks to our (unofficial) homecoming (five until we're back in vncvr).

For the last month I've fantasized of nothing but clothes dryers, Starbucks that open before 9 and close after 6, sushi, my huge comfy bed and the end of mental currency conversions.

Then suddenly everything reversed and I'm feeling sad to leave Aberdeen so soon.

It started on Saturday night at a church céilidh (big scottish dance party, kilts and all) when I realized I'm going to have to wait 8 months to really get to know some of the awesome people I've only just met.

On Sunday, seeing those we HAVE gotten to know I was struck by how much they'll be missed when we go.

It's nice to have something to look forward to on our return.

The weekend included:
- James Bond
- international market on Union st
- much dizziness (those Scots'll spin you hard and fast)
- another DVD box set (House, season 1)
- church
- Pretty in Pink at the Belmont
- my first toffee nut latte of the season
- getting creamed (again!) at scrabble

notes

- last night's double birthday celebration was much fun, if a wee bit cold. Typical—the one night I opt to smarten things up and wear some nicer shoes (sans socks) is also the night we choose a restaurant with defunct heaters and the world's slowest service. ah, but the company of friends can warm any room ;)

- even though I would NEVER admit it to the boys who teased me relentlessly about my order last night, veggie korma is really not very good.

- our weekend in Edinburgh is booked: train tix—check! guest house—check! very minimal sightseeing schedule—check! We're excited to see something new and I've heard countless reports that Edinburgh is one of the most stunning cities in Britain.

- braving the symphony solo tonight. I've gone to rock shows alone in the past, I don't know why this should be any different. At the intermission I'll just have to hang out by the bar and get the middle aged men to buy me drinks.

- the washing machine broke again. I got very angry. my fist kinda hurts.

-18 months ago today, under the Space Needle in Seattle I asked Dean to be my boyfriend. Five months ago tomorrow, at an ocean-front mansion in Vancouver, he stepped up to husband status.

- I'm still busy flickring away. in fact I've reached my limit for the month. check out the new photos of Balmedie, Royal Deeside, and visits from Trev and Joe.

Front Lawn Fresh Cuts vol.VIII

your mid-week source from the Granite City

On the Playlist: Christmas tunes! Courtesy of Jules & Kyle (thanks for the package kids!)

On the Reading List: Jane Austen’s Emma and the 90th Anniversary issue of British Vogue, alternately.

Current Obsession: Vintage Penguin paper backs (the original orange spines). I’ve decided to start collecting.

Design of the Times: quite enamored with this oak sideboard at the mo’ and pretty much everything else from Unto This Last.

Have an ’Art: Port2port has a fabulous gift guide for affordable art… I’m partial to the Natalie Tweedy print (pictured) and have been a fan of Lovely Design goods for quite some time.

Blog Log: Face Hunter—international street fashion at its most authentic (stumbled across this peculiar little blog via la coquette)

Hipsters on the Web: Indie darling Miranda July (you know her from her fabulous film Me and You and Everyone We Know) has written a book called The Boy From Lam Kien—a gorgeous letter-pressed edition is available online from Cloverfield Press.

Crisp of the Week: M&S salted sweet potato crisps [3.75 out of 5 stars]

Countdown To: one day until I get to enjoy the Scottish National Symphony from the front row of the Aberdeen Music Hall (sadly, without the company of my guy), courtesy of our friend Barbara.

To Do List: Finish up the last of my Christmas shopping before the first of December!

Lastly: Today is the double birthday of two special Northern Irish Aberdonians: David and Stephen. Happy birthday fellas!

scottish travels

currently planning a weekend in Edinburgh. I'd say it's about time—less than a month until we're home, afterall.

been thinking about some things I'll miss when we leave:

Jaffa Cakes, Top Shop, Gerrard St Baptist, cobble stones, crossing the street diagonally, charity shop books, M&S pre-packaged salads, free time, castles... loads more.

One thing about Aberdeen i'll really miss is proximity to awesome places... St. Andrews for example (I just uploaded Dean's pics from our visit there).

me and martha

what is it they say about about "idle hands..." ?

As I recall the expression claims that nothing good can come of them.

Well, I beg to differ.

Since moving to Aberdeen i've had more than my fair share of idle time. However what you don't see on the blog is that I've been using it to transform myself from the girl who had to call in for reinforcements to make spaghetti to a veritable culinary whiz!

Whenever my mom calls I tell her all the things i cooked that week in hopes that she'll be impressed. I think on the other end of the phone she's rolling her eyes because she's been cooking five days a week for 35 years and I am rollicking because I made meals three nights in a row. well, at least I'm making progress

but seriously, I am tapping my inner Martha Stewart in ways you wouldn't believe.

This weekend I made butternut squash soup from scratch, dried pears in my oven, and invented my own (mighty fine) lasagna recipe. I've started spending afternoons with my nose as likely in a cookbook as in a copy of InStyle.

To all my aunties and married friends who scoffed when I received cookbooks and bakewear at my wedding showers, let it be known—I have come into my own as a domestic goddess.

Nigella would be so proud.


meanwhile, my idle hands have also updated flickr with more of Dean's Paris photos.

flickred

Finally got (back) on board. Our photos have begun to make their way to a superior photo manager.

A smattering of Paris photos (shot mostly by Deano, I should say) and some around town Aberdeen shots are now viewable on Flickr.

Click here to have a look.

Front Lawn Fresh Cuts vol.VII

your belated source from the City of Lights

On the Playlist: Rufus Wainright’s Complainte de la Butte… or rather, I hummed it while Dean composed beat poetry in French while eating sushi beside the Seine.

On the Reading List: Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (purchased at the Pantheon)

Current Obsession: Inevitably, fashion. No city can rival Paris for originality or options. My one splurge was a fancy little top from the brilliant French clothing chain: A.P.C.

Design of the Times: Though we have it in the UK, one of my fave spots to shop in Paris was Habitat. After reading about it in Living Etc for ages, it was nice to finally get my hands on some of their stylish and affordable wares at Les Halles in the Marais.

Have an ’Art: One of the artists at the Spank the Monkey exhibit Lorah and I saw in Newcastle was a dude known just as “ Invader.” He installs mosaic tiles all over cities in the shape of little video game space invaders. Dean and I kept ourselves busy during our daily strolls through Paris by keeping our eyes peeled for them. There are hundreds of them but we spotted at least a dozen.

Blog Log: Voila! La Coquette: a fabulous blog about daily Parisian life (I confessed, I just spent an hour of my morning reading her archives).

Gastronomic Highlight of the Trip: Lorah, shelling her way through more than 100 mussels at an Italian bistro on the Champs Elysées.

Badly Adapted French Phrase of the Week: “Tray droal” (Dean’s bastardized pronunciation of ‘very funny’), inducing an eye-roll from me at least once a day.

Insider Scoop: Napoleon had his tomb installed below ground level so that your first response when viewing it from the Invalides balcony is to bend over—ie, bow.

Hipsters on the Web: Sofia Coppola lists her Paris favourites in The Independent.

To Do List: Figure out how to get my combined France and Scotland purchases back to Vancouver next month.

eating my (MANY) words

After years of turning up my nose at lengthy, verbose blogs, a quick glance below reveals i am guilty of that same faux pas.

Hence, a blog in point form:

- frost on the ground in Victoria Park this morning. Only one month (and 4 days) until I will be back to the warm rainy west coast.

- big Campus Crusade contract is wrapping up, just in time for some little jobs to drift in from TWU. parfait.

- if I thought walking all over Paris for 7 days would make our evening runs in Aberdeen any easier, I was wrong.

- finally put together a swack load of postcards and put them in the mail. Thanks to the PostCard Project Participants. There is still time if you'd like your own original Scotland-inspired haiku!

- after a two-week hiatus, Fresh Cuts are back tomorrow, the Paris edition.

'tis the season

so, it's only the middle of november, but things are starting to feel festive here in Aberdeen, and we have decided to get a head start.

It had been so long since we went to GSB (well, two weeks) that I forgot what time the service started. We showed up to find the Crothers on stage rehearsing and only the resident old-lonely-guy in the pews, so we figured there was time for a quick Costa run before the service.

Unfortunately a visit to Costa requires a stroll by the windows of John Lewis—Christmas displays up in all their glory. So we couldn't help making a quick pit-stop after church to purchase some adorable cable-knit stockings (cream for me, red for Dean) and a string of multi-coloured Christmas lights. Dean refused to heed Smith-Christmas-protocol and has already strung the lights all around our living room. They gave the flat a warm glow as we delved into Season 3 of the O.C. last night (thanks again Trevor!).

Christmas shopping began with a few treasures in Paris, but it resumed today with a visit to amazon.ca :)


it was a really wonderful weekend: tea with a group of Gerrard St ladies on Saturday morning, and then dinner out with our fave Northern Irish Aberdeenites (only one Scot in the group!) followed by good conversation, pims and wine gums.
Sunday's evening activities were decidedly more mellow—a crisp stroll to Old Aberdeen to have waffles with Verity, Rainer and Barbara. The two Germans shared with us the intricacies of "surprise egg" (Kinder egg) collecting, which is really quite fascinating...

more Paris photos are coming and I'm seriously considering getting a proper flickr site. and speaking of photos, Dean would like me to make it very clear to everyone that the ones i've been posting are ones that HE shot with the digital camera. My photos are still stored up in little rolls of film, waiting for the loving care of London Drugs in Nanaimo.

travel photos?

we're home.

It was a fabulous week, but it's nice to return to the fresh aberdeen air and a bed that doesn't require a ladder :)

much to tell on our end, but happily this week is too loaded with work to spend much time on the blog.

Lucky for us and all of you, Trevor Meier has already posted his incredible photos from Scotland and Paris. Check 'em out right here.

les philosophes

Paris continues to enchant.

we spent five hours strolling through the Louvre yesterday (and of course, barely scratched the surface) and then continued to walk through the Jardin Tuileries then all the way up the Champs Elysees (with a side-street stop for an amazing capuccino) and then went a step further and climbed l'arc de triomph where we watched the sunset over La Defence and took photos of cars zooming around the world's most insane roundabout. Basically we walked from 9:30am until 6:30pm. whew!

I keep telling Dean that living in the UK has been the best possible training for Paris—my feet don't get tired any more.

Today we strolled through the left bank: Jardin de Luxembourg, the 'Mouff, the Pantheon (Foucault's Pendulum!), the Jardin des Plantes, circled La Sorbonne and spent a good chunk of time perusing the books at Shakespeare & co before browsing the goods on St.Germain.

Hunger drew us back to the Marais and into an incredible spot called Les Philosophes. Wine, the catch of the day and creme brulee were accompanied by unexpected conversation by a young American who joined us. A gay, trust-fund, UCLA student, named Peter. His dad's an art dealer with a flat in the neighbourhood and he eats at Les Philosphes three times a week (considering our bill hit nearly $100, that is no small expense). We chatted film and theology but he always seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack so we may not follow up on his offer to join us at the Catacombs tomorrow.

Two days remain. I love this place.

brie, gouda, du pain, des raisins et une bouteille d’eau

We just finished dinner on our third night in Paris. Sigh.

This morning the ladies left to catch an early plane to Newcastle while the boys met us (albeit groggily) for un petit dejeuner in Montmartre. We climbed the steps to Sacre Coeur where we said our goodbyes. Joe and Trev are heading back to Aberdeen for a few more days of relaxation at our flat before returning home to Vancvouer.

Over our respective espresso variations we four reflected on how blessed we are to have the means and the will to spend a weekend all together in Europe. I’m pretty sure that when I was sixteen and I thought about what I’d like my life to be like a decade later, this would be it.

After a tour of the basilica, we made our way through the hordes of tourists (hard to begrudge them when we are also exactly that) and saw the former dwellings of famous bohemians and revolutionaries.

Down the hill to eat lunch (un croque madame for me and a croque monnsieur for Dean—how appropriate) and to see two places we wouldn’t bat an eye at had Hollywood not immortalized them: the Moulin Rouge and Amelie’s Café des Deux Moulins (both, naturally, less spectacular in real life).

We spent the rest of the day moseying back to the Marais, stopping at design shops (getting inspired for a future business perhaps?) and boutiques to drool now and then.

The slow pace was a nice change from yesterday’s whirlwind tour which included: the Picasso Museum, Place des Vosges, the Jewish quarter (a stop for falafel), Notre Dame, the Louvre pyramids, L’Arc and the Champs Elysees. Whew!

We’re hitting the Louvre tomorrow morning. First Sunday of the month is free—pray for us ;)

for you: some photos. and a few more from Dean

future decided

pretty sure I told Dean at all of breakfast, lunch, and dinner:

"we're moving to Paris."

it has surpasses all my expectations. I fell in love (for the second time).

our guests just left. far too much Bordeaux to hit the right keys.

minuit dans le Marais (midnight in the swamp)

bon soir!

Paris is chilly but lovely and I'm rather enchanted with our little flat )in the 3eme and what we've seen of Paris so far—namely, the view from the Eiffel Tower and the friendly faces of Lorah, Christine (her South African shipmate), Trevor, and Joe!

much too late for words, but instead I'll leave you with some photos from the last week:

Saturday in Aberdeen (Footdee, Castlegate, dinner with Stephen and Claire








Sunday in Stonehaven






and back in Aberdeen (carving pumpkins at a downtown pub after Joe's surprise)






Wednesday afternoon trip to St. Andrew's









and now tonight, Thursday, in Paris (it's been a good week)






now, as you can see, Dean is already settling into our loft bed. Time to join him.