Cappuccino at 49th Parallel

Maybe it's the rain, or the cozy Christmas vibe at my house, but today I'm hiding inside all day. And it's making me think about cozy things like wool socks and coffee.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I'm posting a few of my favourite coffee videos from Vimeo.

The first two are amazing if you're trying to learn how to pour latte art or up your milk texturing game. Those two videos alone are what helped me actually start pouring somewhat okay looking latte art...

VCR StreetSmarts #11: Milk Steaming from Verve Coffee Roasters on Vimeo.

VCR StreetSmarts #14: Latte Art from Verve Coffee Roasters on Vimeo.

And these ones are great for learning about pulling great espresso-- straight from the Intelligentsia in Venice, California.

Espresso, Intelligentsia from The D4D on Vimeo.

and of course, a great cappuccino:

Cappuccino, Intelligentsia from The D4D on Vimeo.

I have been thinking a lot about coats lately. It's gotten really crisp outside these days and it seemed to sneak up on me, so now even though I have plenty of outerwear to choose from, I still can't help that feeling of needing more options...

Often my clients will, for one reason or another, have almost no good outerwear. For some reason it's one of those things that kind of gets pushed to the bottom of the list because it's sometimes tricky to find a good coat that doesn't feel too bulky or frumpy.

What I usually tell people when buying outerwear is to have at least two options, and always in black: 1) a "puffy" jacket, or a parka, that's super warm, but more casual for every day wear.
2) a dressy black wool peacoat.

The main key for buying these items is that they fit properly-- shoulders aren't too big, arms fitted, not too long if you're petite, etc... otherwise you end up looking like the michelin man, and you dissapear in a pile of fur and down-filled nylon.

Zara is a great option for coats, as they usually have TONS of options. Here are some of my favourites this season:




Also, The Selby meets Caitlin & James Freeman (of Blue Bottle Coffee and Modern Art Desserts). This article is worth checking out just for the Mondrian cake. All my senses are drooling (okay that didn't make sense... moving along...)

If you're like me, you have at least three years of Instagram photos clogging up your iPhoto, with no physical object to show for it. Every once in awhile I catch myself browsing through all the old photos, getting lost in the nostalgia, but it's not a satisfying experience. It's dizzying looking at a computer screen, and I haven't sifted through and deleted the duds (aka. when you take 40 photos of something to get the right shot and end up keeping all of them... talk about a waste of hard drive space!) Anyway Artifact Uprising makes these beautiful photo books out of your jpegs, so you can clear out that hard drive and have something pretty sitting on your coffee table. Check it out!

Artifact Uprising Instagram Photo Books

Also, Coffee brewing in the great outdoors via. Kinfolk


And don't forget, if you live in the Vancouver area, sign up for our newsletter to be notified when we launch our holiday custom gift box Pop-up shop! Have a great weekend!

This post is for those of you who, like us, are aspiring to maybe, possibly, one day become a true coffee geek (and really, can one ever actually achieve such status? Other than actually being "the" coffee geek Mark).

There are lots of places to buy coffee gear, including most of the third wave coffee shops in Vancouver, and Espressotec in Richmond. But a fun surprise for me was to find a bunch of legitimately "nerdy" coffee gear at Crate & Barrel, of all places.

So, while I wouldn't buy an espresso machine from them, they do carry a great selection of fun drip coffee accessories, including Hario and Chemex products.

Hario scale/timer and Buono Power Kettle

Chemex and Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee

Also if you're addicted to buying mugs (like me), there's a wonderful selection of colourful ceramics that please the eye.

A couple of our friends have been asking to see photos of our new place in Coal Harbour, and to be honest, I've been procrastinating because I'm sort of a perfectionist with my decorating. I never really feel like it's finished...I think every place we've ever lived in has been a work in progress. Ask anyone who knows me well--I tend to re-arrange my furniture on a bi-monthly basis (NO JOKE!). So, instead of forever postponing, I thought I'd just post some "as-is" photos of our place for your viewing pleasure, just keep in mind it will probably look different next week ;) ENJOY!

Living room

Dining table and our new pendant lamp!

Jamie's bedroom

Detail shot of our little "office" desk area

A detail shot of my favourite spot in the whole house :)

Our bedroom. Keeping it really simple :)

Feeling super thankful around here! Especially for one of our favourite places to get cappuccinos, Elysian cafe :)

So we decided to start an actual blog. We've been on Tumblr for awhile, but with the launch of our new website, we decided we really wanted to share with you a little bit more detail, (and a lot more photos!) of what we're up to, things we're excited about, and of course, tons of fashion stuff! So we'll keep it brief, but for starters, here are a few photos of our last trip to one of the best bakeries in town, Beaucoup. Stay tuned for regular updates about the latest in food, coffee and fashion in Vancouver!