*sigh*

what i wouldn't give to wake up each morning and look out this window. a glass house in a beautiful natural environment is my ideal living space. presently, the windows in the small concrete loft in which i live look out onto nothing but more concrete lofts, where once was a view of lake Ontario. i grow tired of city life. but i digress... let's take a closer look at this house, shall we?


a kitchen like this might actually inspire me to cook! (or stand around snacking and staring out the winda)


and where, you may be wondering, is this stunning abode? this is the Davis Residence in Bellingham, Washington, designed by Miller Hull. see more photos of this property here.

happiness is a rooftop swimming pool

to imagine myself living in the Universe House in Roca Blanca, Mexico, within it's perfect simplicity and harmony with it's surroundings, is to imagine a sense of deep and undulating peace. i need to live here. i need a swimming pool on my rooftop and a hammock on my porch. most of all i need more than 15 feet between me and the next human being. my neighbours are nice n all, but the city can feel a bit crowded at times, wouldn't you agree? read more about this wondrous house and see the inside here.

man shops globe

ever wonder where Anthropologie aquires all their marvelous wares? if you have the Sundance channel, you can learn all about it. long time buyer Keith Johnson's series Man Shops Globe debuts tonight, in which a camera crew follows Johnson in his quest for treasures "from the blacksmiths of South Africa to the salvage shops of Amsterdam". looks interesting. 'course i don't get the Sundance channel, so let me know if it's any good :)

i left my heart in nova scotia

back to reality in the crowded, money driven, hopelessly land locked city. this past week has been a halcyon dream. Nova Scotia was truly soul stirring. i can hardly wait for the day i set foot on her shores once more, next time perhaps for good.

nova scotia dreamin'

in four short days my husband and i are heading to Nova Scotia for a week long vacation. i've never been to Eastern Canada before and i couldn't be more excited! i look forward to seeing the ocean again, to fresh lobster, whale watching and to a slower pace of life. we'll be staying with a great friend as well, and i look forward to all the laughing and sh*t shooting! i promise to take lots of photos, which i'll post here when i return. these photos are from novascotia.com. anyone out there have any Nova Scotia recommendations for me? i'd love to hear some!

dreaming of bolivia

please forgive my absence these past few days. i've just been so busy with work, getting ready for the wedding i'll be in this weekend, and working out with my new trainer (!), that i haven't had time to write. . . and all the while, i've been lost in daydreams of the Bolivian altiplano. this will be my next big giant trip. not any time soon, as i wish to learn spanish first and to save enough money to be able to really dive into it. perhaps a year or two from now. these beautiful photographs are from szeke's flickr stream. i hope you've all been having a wonderful week, and that you always remember to daydream :)

the longest way

hope you all enjoyed your weekend! my Canadian readers and i just enjoyed a holiday monday, hence my absence yesterday, but i'm back :) i watched oodles of movies this weekend and didn't do much of anything else. a good chunk of my mind is still living in the worlds those films created for me, and this morning i'm finding it difficult to concentrate on reality. too busy day dreaming of the big wide world, as i often do. what i wouldn't give to be wandering it again...

on that note, here's a fascinating timelapse video made by a young man who walked across China in one year, called the Longest Way. enjoy.

the town of books

i found this beautiful wee post over at munna on the run, about a little town in Wales called Hay-on -Wye, the town of books. i'm smitten with this post and with the blog in general. perhaps because of a shared appreciation for Gabriel Garcia Marquez, my favourite author in all the universe.

tokyo dreaming

see some more of Antonio Saba's wonderful photos of Tokyo and its residents here.

in the hive

i found this really neat art project called the Hive, orchestrated by Kyle Cassidy, in which 23 cameras scattered across the U.S. are controlled by one photographer (in a sense). Cassidy sent random text messages to the 23 volunteers over a period of 48 hours, instructing them to take a photo of whatever was in front of them at that moment. here's a quote from the website:

This is travel photography -- of places I've never been; secret places.I've not been to Paris, but I know what the Eiffel tower looks like. I've seen it from multiple angles, and I've seen it at night. What I haven't seen is the laundry room of the apartment complex a mile from the center of town -- and that's really what I'm interested in -- the quiet, unknown moments that make up our lives.

it's fascinating browsing through the pictures on the website, popping in and out of the lives of random people. i dig it.

when life gives you rain, make rain-aid

Bonjour! and happy Canada Day! i'm back in the city and in one piece, though my long anticipated journey into the wild did not turn out exactly as expected. after driving 5 and a half hours due north, we arrived at George Lake in Killarney provincial park (above) and had a marvelous evening of swimming, fire-watching and hot dogs on sticks. the next morning we dined on a delicious campfire breakfast, shortly after which it began to rain. hard.

now, i'm no pantywaist. i've camped in the rain before. not a problem. trouble is, this rain did not let up, even for a moment. after 4 or 5 hours sitting under the tarp, we decided to brave the elements and went out to do some fishing. by the time we returned to our site, there was a moat around our tent and an ever growing puddle on the inside caused by a leak in the fly.

cold and drenched, we huddled beneath the tarp and listened to the man on Moose radio tell us that thunderstorm warnings were in effect for the next two days. this is when we decided to bail.

i can't say i wasn't extremely disappointed, or that i didn't cry just a little, but we made the best of it and drove in to nearby Sudbury to stay in a dry hotel and visit Science North.

and hilarity ensued...

then, on the way home we took whatever turn-off tickled our fancy. a kind of northern Ontario sampler tour.

all in all, i had a wonderful time, though it wasn't what i had envisioned. and next year, we will be better prepared (and will consult a farmer's almanac before we book) :)

i hope you all had magnificent weekends with little or no rain, and if you're Canadian, enjoy your day off! xo

(p.s. those pictures are of slept-in-a-tent-and-lived-in-the-rain-for-days me, dressed in don't-care-if-i-get-mud-all-over-them clothes, so please don't judge:)