capture the colours…help make me a winner
When I heard about Homesav’s and PosterJack’s ‘Capture the Colours’ contest that provides the winner with exposure to over 200,000 savvy shoppers specifically looking for new and colourful inspiration for the walls of their homes, I jumped right in and pinned a few of my colourful photos. HomeSav and PosterJack are in search of the coolest photographic wall art for this season’s hottest Pantone colours – Cockatoo, Tangerine Tango, and Cabaret. The Grand Prize winner will earn money and pride by having their image printed and sold exclusively on HomeSav.com.
And all of you fellow Pinerest addicts can help me win this clever contest that marries these hot shades with creative expression through photography. On May 31/12, the top ten photos with the most likes and repins will be short listed and the winners will be selected by a panel of expert judges based on originality and creativity, appropriateness to contest theme, and the amount of repins/likes/comments. So click on my photos or the links below to take you straight to the image on Pinterest and start liking and repinning!
Click here to like and repin this image of a graphically and colourfully pleasing set of old doors in a small Slovakian village.
Click here to like and repin this photo of this beckoning view from high above Positano, Italy.
Click here to like and repin this photo that captures a retro sign on a well-worn building in Toronto’s docklands.
Click here to like and repin this image of colourful fishermen’s floats hung to dry in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia.
Click here to like and repin this photo of a luscious pink peony – summer’s king bloom.
Like this:
pan-fried spiced chickpeas
Recently, working with my naturopath, I followed a food elimination diet / liver cleanse in the aim to ‘reset’ my system and to hopefully identify some foods that are taxing my digestive system. It was a 17 day program that involved restricting many problem-causing, typically allergenic, and likely sensitive foods from my diet. So to ensure I still had a bit of spice in my noshing, I made this easy dish of pan-fried chickpeas (inspired by this recipe) that made me feel anything but restricted. This is a seriously addictive dish, whether limiting intake of particular foods or when in the need for something delicious.
pan-fried spiced chickpeas
1 can of chickpeas
1 1/2 tbsp potato or tapioca starch
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to finish, to taste
- Drain the chickpeas and spread them out on a dish towel to dry for about 1/2 hour.
- In a mixing bowl, combine spices, salt and corn starch. Mix well. Add chickpeas and mix until well coated.
- Heat oil in a frying pan and then shallow fry beans in two batches. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching and to ensure they fry evenly. Remove from pan when they look done, to a plate lined with a paper towel.
saf on talk.cil: ‘art’ walls
A typical gallery wall is usually composed of framed traditional pieces of art – paintings, drawings, photographs. But a departure from the traditional can easily be achieved through utilizing clever arrangements and redeploying everyday elements and objects in an inventive way. Click here for more clever ideas over at talk.cil…
Album art is dramatically displayed in a grid pattern, with a bright coloured backdrop adding more impact. (House to Home)
Art and objects are displayed on a ledge that doubles as a headboard. (Southern Living)
A map is dissected and then unified within simple but the same frames. (House to Home)
Vintage suitcases become art shelves in this clever arrangement. (Apartment Therapy)
Like this:
muti warehouse sale update
I still haven’t made it out to the latest edition of Muti’s latest warehouse sale. Maybe this weekend? Good timing, new products are just being released – today!
Sometimes while out and about my eye lingers just long enough on a detail in the urban landscape to take note of something unique, an architectural detail, or an oddity. Such was the case while at the intersection on Bathurst Street at Bloor Street in Toronto while running errands one Saturday afternoon. I do love the old architecture of Toronto, and despite having lost many gems in the name of urban renewal during the last century, some lovely Victorian examples still exist. But some have trouble existing with any original beauty through ‘improvements’ through the years. Such is the case of these four shop fronts along the north side of Bloor, east of Bathurst, the facades of which are now as varied as the cuisine the restaurants in each offer.
Only the two right units of this quite substantial three-story structure still hint at the original design elements of grandly arched stained glass windows and intricate brick detailing, albeit struggling to do so under layers of paint. However, not as heavy a weight as the stucco and faux stone on their siblings’ fronts.
This City of Toronto Archives photo from 1911 shows these four store fronts were actually part of a bigger block of seven units. This photo also shows an impressive parapet running higher than the roof line of today. Even the building on the corner to the west of this block of buildings was once a far grander element in the intersection than the demure and disappointing bank that is there today, as shown in this shot below, taken from the middle of the intersection by the roaming Googlemobile. Funny how even Google Street View is a documentation of history, as it shows the now stone-clad facade as simply painted.
