milk & amber

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Bricolage

Outfits can take tinkering (or bricolage, merci Jacques Derrida) to get right. I was going to wear this yesterday, but I just couldn't seem to get the whole look to come together. Taking pictures helped me decide against the jeans, and - sigh - the beret. In the end, I threw on my dark indigo Rockstar jeans, as I often do, and went out the door. Those vintage Levi's and beret will have their day, they just need to wait for the right moment of bricolage to work them in.

+Thrifted vintage evergreen wool beret

+Thrifted vintage turquoise earrings

+ Mom's vintage brown scarf

+ Old Navy army jacket

+ Thrifted vintage waffle-knit thermal, made in Canada

+ Thrifted vintage men's Levi's

+ Payless grey almond-toe flats

Design-wise, you're also seeing

+ Huge gold sunburst mirror from How Bazaar

(one of a kind, I think, but they have lots of similar ones)

+My grandparents' vintage mid-century modern tweed couch

+Wicker Emporium orange throw pillow

+ Thrifted wicker "circle" table

+ Vintage pink & mint Hudson Bay Company mohair throw

(in the basket under the wicker table)

+ Upcycled wooden table, repainted in bright retro orange.

Cheers!

Morning Free

I'm not sure which I like better: working an early shift and having the evening free, or working a late shift and having the morning free. Honestly, the mornings are hard to beat, even if they do feel too short. This is pretty much my mornings on late-shift-days: sitting in bed under the duvet, wearing something ultra-comfy (like this recently thrifted Alternative Apparel waffle-knit shirt I found in the men's section), having a cup of coffee/tea/water/grapefruit juice (one of those, not a combo, haha), with laptop in hand.

Oh look, I figured out I have a webcam on this thing. Cue the unnatural photos!

+ Thrifted Alternative Apparel shirt (!), made in USA

+ Thrifted vintage psychedelic floral mug, made in Japan

+ Thrifted vintage bright orange corduroy pillowcase

Sunday, 4 November 2012

Microfilm

I found this picture when I was doing microfilm research for the L.M. Montgomery Institute. I think I kind of look like her? So much for being one of the "best known social figures," I can't find out anything about her on Google!

Friday, 2 November 2012

Repurposed: Kitchen Table Tray

I am one of those people who likes to have everything out in the open where I can see it. I am more likely to wear earrings I can see, or use makeup I own, or eat food we have, etc. So I decided to make a little tray for the table in our kitchen, with everything neatly corralled and visible. Plus, I just like to show off all my fun little thrift & vintage finds!

Thrifted basket-weave glass-topped tray

From left to right:

+ Vintage little milk-glass shaker with orange flower, cinnamon

+ Antique upcycled lamp from lime oil jug

+ White owl (pair from Attica in Halifax) sea salt

+ Black owl, cinnamon sugar

+ Metal shaker (old roommate's), powdered sugar

+ Vintage turquoise grinder, rock sugar and vanilla

+ Repurposed clear grinder, pepper

+ Vintage pottery, spoon holder

+ Vintage gold-rimmed abalone coasters

Cheers!

Cookie experiment!

Sometimes when you have no groceries, you have to get a little creative and make something from (relatively) nothing. We have bits and pieces in our fridge and pantry, so I thought I'd see if I could turn it all into something a little more substantial, and use up some stuff that might've needed to be thrown out soon.

The "Recipe"

- Some butter

- Some white sugar (used up! I usually buy brown)

- Some water

- A bunch of organic oats

- A bunch of bittersweet chocolate

- Some almond butter (used up!)

- 3 ripe bananas (used up, just in time!)

- A couple tsps of flour

It basically went like this:
Melt butter, add sugar, stir. Add some water to keep from burning (eek). Turn down heat (eek). Add chocolate, stir as it melts. Think of adding last of almond butter, stir in as it melts. Remember bananas, add all three, hope they are still okay to eat. Blend with a hand blender when it doesn't all mush together. Add some teaspoons of flour to thicken. On second thought, Add a shitload of organic rolled oats. Mush around a bit. Think, Hey, these are like spider cookies! Layer wax paper on a baking sheet and leave to cool. Decide to bake in oven for a few minutes just to be safe. Take back out to cool. Eat remaining batter in pot. Take pictures!