Being Tazim

Wusthof Silverpoint Bird’s Beak Paring Knife — Our Desert Island Kitchen

Tazim — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:41:06 +0000

Do you ever ask yourself what you would take with you to a small desert island? What about on a long holiday-or just visiting your family?

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that we carry a few of our kitchen things with us, wherever we go-from India to New Zealand. We thought about this just today, unpacking after a stint house-sitting for a family member. Over the next few days, we’ll share our desert island kitchen. The ten things we just can’t live without.

Here’s number one:

The Wusthof Bird’s Beak 2 1/4″ paring knife. From their ultra affordable line, it’s still laser stamped and silver-tipped. Super sharp-but inexpensive enough to risk on tough jobs like peeling garlic and cutting the thick skin off of cassava.

It’s a style of knife my Mom introduced me to years ago. Her deft hands used one just like this to make short work of mountains of spuds and piles of carrots. The slight curve to blade follows the contour of round veg perfectly, and it’s also great for fancy work. Whether you want to carve a radish into a lotus blossom or just break down that bushel of apples for pie, it’s the perfect tool.

Carbon steel made in Solingen Germany, it holds a razor sharp edge, but isn’t dishwasher safe and must be dried immediately after washing.

We’ve gone through a couple of them over the years, not because they’re cheap, but because we’ve abused the hell out of them. It’s our go to present for aspiring cooks and wedding showers, and never fails to be well received.

It’s well worth a spot in our desert island luggage-I’d just better remember not to pack it in the carry-on!

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PlayStation Vita Review

Greg — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:15:57 +0000

If I wanted to, I could be writing this blog post from my Playstation Vita. It has a decent web browser, and a touch screen that works. At 5″ it’s smaller than the iPad, but enormous as compared to the iPhone—even my thick and clumsy fingers can comfortably type. If I really wanted I could also tweet, update Facebook, watch movies, listen to music, or take low resolution photographs.

But none of these are good reasons to by the Vita: It’s all about the games.

For the first time, a handheld system offers dual analogs and a graphics processor that knocks visuals out of the park. More, it comes with motion control, front and rear touchscreens, a microphone, and augmented reality features as a result of front and rear motion cameras. As far as control systems go—it only does everything.

For the last week, we’ve been playing around on an early-release wi-fi only version of the Vita. Our thumbs still hurt, and we’re a little short on sleep—but we’re glad to say that it was all worthwhile.

For the first time, portable gaming doesn’t offer just a second tier experience.

Obviously, as a portable, Vita is perfect for on the go. We’ll definitely bring it along the next time we travel, heck, it’s coming with me the next time I take the bus. But less obviously, it offers the same truly immersive experience that makes console and PC gaming so much fun. It’s great for geek parents—you can play your M rated game without interrupting your kid’s homework session or Wizards of Waverly Place TV marathon. And it’s great when your partner wants to read or watch TV, and you’re itching to hunt treasure, race cars, or take on a horde of invading aliens.

Sure, if you don’t game, it’s not likely to hold much appeal. But if you’ve ever stayed up all night to clear the last boss level, or called in sick to save the world, the Vita is well worth the ask.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

Gameplay
The everything and the kitchen sink array of inputs the Vita comes with may raise alarm-bells for hardcore gamers—who wants another platform dominated by shovel-ware?

At first, I worried as well. But Uncharted: Golden Abyss made me a believer. The best games let you choose how you interact with them. This really does lead to a sense of interaction, as you’re tempted into new ways of playing by superior interaction. In Golden Abyss, I was blown away the first time I completed a side-quest where the game wanted me to take a picture. Tapping the screen to select the camera mode, I moved the whole Vita around—and the game’s image moved in perfect sync with me. It was exactly like shooting with my digital camera, but the picture I was taking was of the in-game environment. The same mechanism could be used later in the game to pick off distant targets with a sniper rifle—or I could revert to the right analog stick—I never did, I was having too much fun. Similarly,I could use the touch-screen to paint my way through vertical mazes of handholds, and enjoy the dizzying rush as my avatar climbed tall walls and cliff-faces. In the trickiest bits, or on the bus where I was in a dizzying physical environment myself, I could revert to the analog sticks for finer control.

Later in the game, came a dream like sequence of running rapids. I jumped into the drink to avoid an enemy, and had to rotate and lean the PS Vita to navigate my way through obstacles. If the motion controls weren’t perfect, I would have thrown the console in frustration—it was that hard. But the movement felt so natural that I had goose-bumps, and the same feeling of exhilarating speed that I feel sailing.

The graphics are unbelievable.

I really feel like Sony got the screen size just right. If it was bigger, I couldn’t reach across the touch-screen with my thumbs, or hold the whole Vita comfortably. But it’s big enough to be a thrill, and to offer a field of view that allows games to depict space realistically. And on the scale of the Vita display, the graphics rendered by the Vita are convincing and beautiful. From hair follicles to background effects like mists and flowing water, the Vita shows me a world that IMAX like, convinces me I’m there.

Most blockbuster games for the Vita are priced at either $30 or $40 for physical copies. Downloaded versions are often less. Physical copies come on small cartridges that are slightly smaller than a standard SD card. They are responsive to load, and there is none of the lag that was present with the UMD optical discs uses by the PSP—however, they are a little awkward to insert and remove from the system as the game port is a hatch covered spring eject system.

At the same time, developers are free to set pricing, and many download only casual games that offer great experiences start off around $10. Hustle Kings—a cross-play (PS3 & Vita versions inclusive) pool simulator with surprising depth and accurate physics, is $9.99. Cheaper games are available, though so far none have piqued our interest.

Tech Specs

The Playstation Vita is a handheld gaming system and the successor to the PSP. It follows a similar oval format that rests in the curves of your hands, but adds a second analog stick, as well as front and rear cameras, motion control, front and rear touchscreens, and a mic. It has a single 5 inch OLED display that’s vivid and bright. Battery life for gaming ranges from 3-5 hours, depending on wi-fi and processor usage. Speaking of processors, its primary and graphics processors are both 4 core.

Gamers who’ve previously purchased download editions of Playstation Portable games can redownload compatible games free, and many of the PSP’s best titles are both compatible and available for purchase on the Vita—including some of our favourites like Persona 3 Portable, and Tactics Ogre.

On release, the PS Vita line-up is already strong, with games ranging from casual pick-up-and-play like Hustle Kings, to hardcore gems like Drake’s Fortune: Uncharted—Golden Abyss, where players take on the role of an Indiana Jone’s like treasure hunter in gameplay that mixes puzzle solving, platforming and shoot ‘em up action. Future releases and third-party support look promising.

Unlike the PSP, Sony has designed the PS Vita with copyright protection in mind. This will hopefully ensure long-term profitability for third party developers, many of whom abandoned the PSP platform. The downside of this is that the PSP uses both a proprietary game cartridge and memory card format. Memory cards designed specifically for the Vita are comparable in price to class 10 micro SD cards, ranging from $20 for a 4GB to $60 for 32GB. Sony says memory cards are optional, and many game developers have left space on the primary cartridge for game-saves—however, must games need an extra megabyte or two of extra card memory. And, to use any of the Vita’s additional features—playing movies, music, or downloaded games—requires a memory card.

Is There an App For That?

According to Sony, Vita means life, and life is all about connection. So the console features a few cool features that incorporate social networking into gaming.

These range from Near, which lets you see what nearby gamers are playing, to the ability to host parties that allow for cross game voice chat. In addition, many titles feature social network integration, from your Playsation Network friends list to Facebook et cetera—so your game can automatically tweet the fact that you’ve just made 50 head-shots and disturb your friends and coworkers. I suspect we’re a little outside of the Vita’s target market here, but know my nephew would love this. I do appreciate the fact that unlike Microsoft’s XBox platform, the network is free of cost. Parents or those wishing to keep their nerdiness private can adjust the level of information they want Vita to share. Thank goodness.

In addition to social network integration, the Vita features apps ranging from Google Maps to Netflix. It also has an excellent built in video content player and a passable MP3 playing application. Because the screen is fantastic, we’ll be using the Vita over our iPhone and even our iPad when watching movies on the go (we always feel like we’re holding the screen at a drive-in theatre when we watch movies on the iPad—does anyone else find this?). Google Maps works as expected, and more third party applications are expected to follow. Which is cool—but I doubt we, at least, will use many of them. The ones we do expect to use are things like Livetweet—why dig your phone out of your pocket to catch up on twitter when the Vita is already in your hand?

Sadly the video and music applications are hampered by a difficulty in adding and managing conent on the device. We use our PS3 to watch videos all the time, taking advantage of it’s ability to stream content wirelessly from our PCs throug DLNA. However you need to plug the Vita directly into your PC, Mac, or PS3, and then use Sony’s content management software to copy media. It takes forever.

That being said, applications run great on the Vita. You can have up to five things running at once, and overall the systems interface is easy to use—despite it’s hideously ugly main-launch screen which features childish 3-D bubbly icons that wobble about nauseatingly. Once things are running, you can press the PS button to pull up a menu and select from open applications. It’s much easier on the eyes, and I’m ashamed to admit to leaving everything I use open all the time, just to avoid the Home Screen.

We’ve yet to have a hang-up, stutter, or crash.

The app that we’d most like to use, but so far haven’t found much use for is Remote Play. What it does is allow you to take remote control of your PS3 via the internet from anywhere (your PS3 turns on when connected to, and cannot perform other functions when being remotely controlled). We’ve used this on the road to watch movies we’d loaded onto our PS3, and likely will again, but the real idea behind remote play is to allow you to play your PS3 games on the Vita—an idea that has us drooling. So often we’re stuck in some airport or hotel, when we’d rather be in our living room finishing off Final Fantasy. However so far very few games support remote play, and because this feature never took off on the PSP, we wonder if the feature has a future on the Vita.

The Cost

In our opinion, the Vita is cool. But it’s also not pocket change. At around $250 without 3G, or $300ish with, it represents a significant investment.

Whether or not it’s worth it is likely a matter of how much you game, and whether you’d have the opportunity or desire to play it

We used to use our PSP a lot on the road, but never picked it up at home because everything was so much better on our bigger consoles.

Already though, one of us will often pick up the Vita and play a bit during the day, or while the big TV in the living room is in use. For this reason, the Vita was an attractive option to us—and we haven’t regretted picking one up.

So far, the 3G version is yet to be released or scheduled for Canada, but I suspect the additional up-front cost and 3G data cost of either $15 or $25 a month would have made it an unattractive prospect—it’s not that often we find ourselves without wifi—unless we’re somewhere exotic where 3g service is expensive and unreliable.

Macaw Mountain Bird Park—Copan Honduras

Tazim — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:00:05 +0000

On the way to meet up with Greg’s family in Roatan, Honduras for a scuba diving trip, we stopped in Copan for a few days. One of the highlights of our time in Copan (other than the Copan Ruinas) was the Macaw Mountain Bird Park.

This place didn’t look like a zoo at all—all the cages were surrounded by native trees and plants, and there were tons of platforms, walkways and bridges to make the Bird Park extra interesting.

If you’re looking to spend a few hours at the Bird Park, there is a restaurant as well as a really nice coffee shop (both outdoors, amongst trees and looking out at the stream.

Other than the birds, there were tons of Central American plants to check out.

These beautiful birds were hanging out on branches and there were trainers available to provide information and allow guests to get close to the birds.

Who would enjoy this park?

I really think that this is a place for children, and adults—there are paved pathways for wheelchairs/strollers, but certain areas have stairs instead. There is still plenty to see even if guests can’t use the stairs to get to all the areas.

Tickets: $10US per person.

Located: 5 minutes drive from Copan. We just took a taxi up the extremely steep road up to the Bird Park from our hotel.

Learn more about the Macaw Mountain Bird Park in Copan and get information on their conservation efforts on their website.

Best Travel Experiences 2011

Julia Child’s Kitchen at the National Museum of American History Washington, D.C.

Tazim — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:00:11 +0000

Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History was an exhibit that I was really looking forward to checking out whilst in Washington D.C.

Having watched the movie Julie and Julia, based on a book about a woman who was obsessed with cooking from Julia Child’s recipe books and blogging about it. I think Greg and I watched this movie with his parents while we were visiting them in the Shushwaps in British Columbia (B.C.). My mom didn’t have Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I know so many other people’s moms did. Did yours?

What is it about Julia Child’s kitchen that is so appealing to me?

Her kitchen isn’t enormous, considering how much and how elaborately she cooked. She just has everything neatly organized, and customized for her specific needs. She had the counters raised because of her height, and had multiple very good ovens/stoves that she and her husband bought, that lasted for a really long time. That’s a good lesson—create a space that works for you and buy the best major appliances you can afford.

You can see how things are organized on peg boards on the walls—knives all together, pots and pans in one space. . .

I love this idea, even though I find it hideous—though, those shiny copper pots are nothing but beautiful.

There was a ton of information around about Julia Child’s success, including magazine covers.

Check out some more of Julia Child’s kitchen on the Smithsonian site.

Crazy, Stupid Love Jacob’s Classic Modern Bachelor Pad

Tazim — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:42 +0000

While watching the movie Crazy, Stupid Love I noticed how great Ryan Gosling’s character’s bachelor pad was. Jacob’s place is a combination of classic, modern pieces and random stuff, like a Zebra skin rug. While, I’m not going to tell you to go out and put an animal skin on your floor, I am going to suggest some ideas for recreating the best parts of this look:

Glass Top Table from CB2

Lounge Chairs can be found from Stl Loft Style

Sectional Sofa from CB2

Rather than using the black stool in the photo, I would go with one of these stools from Ruksliving:

If you’re going for a classic, modern look—you have to have Alessi accessories, like this Alessi 205/29 Salad Bowl:

The lamp in Jacob’s living room is the kind of floor lamp that I would absolutely love to have. Here are a few options:

Arco Lamp from Design Within Reach

What do you think of this look, and could you see yourself with this style of furniture/accessories?

Love from Sweden—Bantie’s Patterned Home Décor Products

Tazim — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:00:11 +0000

Recently exhibited at the Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, Bantie caught my eye with their fun patterns that they use on cushions, wallpaper, and bags. Bantie also sells fabric that you can use to make curtains or whatever else you’d like.

I could see myself making curtains out of this fabric, or a bedspread/duvet cover.

If you don’t want to add a lot of pattern to your home permanently, how about bringing some out in the form of a tablecloth, occasionally?

These floor cushions would be really great on a neutral floor.

What do you think of the patterns—could you see yourself having some of these products in your home?

Calgary Home & Garden Show 2012 Preview & Giveaway

Tazim — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:40:48 +0000

I’ve been looking forward to this event for a long time—when I used to live in Calgary, before moving to Vancouver, the Calgary Home and Garden Show was always a yearly favourite.

This is the time of year that people think about things like spring cleaning, renovating, redecorating and just refreshing (renewing, and restoring) their homes. The Calgary Home and Garden Show is sure to give visitors lots of ideas for their upcoming projects.

What can you expect from this year’s Calgary Home and Garden Show?

There will be stages with the best celebrity guests from HGTV, as well as other guests who are in the interior design and horticulture fields. Here are a few of the highlights for me:

Saturday there will be a presentation by Tara Jamieson of Lauren Lane Décor about furniture restoration for your antique and vintage items that I’m looking forward to. You can check out the full 4-day schedule here.

Karoleena modular homes will be on site with their 1750 sq. ft home The Kensington.

There are over 650 booths that I’m looking forward to checking out, too. Greg and I will be taking lots of pictures and attending all of the talks that we can so that we can share the bets ideas with you.

Want to go to the Calgary Home and Garden Show? Tickets are $14 for adults (save $3 by buying online) or you can try to win a ticket below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Details:

BMO Centre & corral,
Stampede Park
20 Roundup Way SE
Calgary, Alberta

Times:
Thursday, FEB 23 N oon – 9 pm
Friday, FEB 24 N oon – 9 pm
Saturday, FEB 25 10 am – 9 pm
Sunday, FEB 26 10 am – 6 pm

Clipix Lets You Clip Things to Organize Your Life

Tazim — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:37:19 +0000

I often find myself looking online for one thing but then I come across something else that catches my eye. I may not want to stop and fully look in to this other thing right at that time, so I’d prefer to come back to it later.

I came across Clipix, a site where you can clip things you find across the internet on to your clipboards. I’d love to have you check out my clipboards and check out the site to create your own. You can add a bookmarklet to your browser to quickly and easily clip your favourite things. What can you use Clipix for? How about vacation ideas—with clips of all the pretty places you’d like to visit? I know people will want to clip recipes to try out later—but I most want to clip pictures to get decor ideas. Another way you can use Clipix is to share a clipboard to collaboratively add pins to a board with your friends and family.

Here are 2 clipboards that I just started:

One of the things I like about clipix is that you can create clipboards just for you. You have 3 options for your clipboards—keep them private so only you will be able to seem, make them available to your friends or make them public.

To see what you can do with your clipboards, check out the

Have an iPhone and want to clip on the go? There’s an app for that!

So, what would you clip on your clipboard?

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Marcato Regina Pasta Extruder Review

Tazim — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:18 +0000

One of the best meals I’ve ever eaten was in a miniscule Roman kitchen. Smaller even than the one in our 550 square foot Vancouver apartment, the tiny room was a wonder of organization and minimalism. Our hosts didn’t have a stand mixer or a microwave, a food processor or a toaster-oven—it seemed as though everything inessential had been stripped out—but they had made space for a Manual Pasta machine—the Regina Pasta Extruder.

Simple and straightforward, it’s a minimalist work of art in and of itself. You put dough in one end, crank the handle, and macaroni come out the other.

It’s almost funny that it’s hard to find a machine that does the job well. I tried an attachment for my Cuisinart stand mixer, but it runs too fast, fills the kitchen with a furious noise that makes dogs cower in fear, and is horrible to clean. I had an all metal one I picked up from a sweet old lady, but the dough stuck to every little nook and cranny on the machine—stuck, it would stall, then lurch forward—and eventually, it broke with a sheared axel. I’m sure there are other good machines out there, but I’m glad this one has found a home in my pantry.

What I love about the Atlas Manual Pasta Extruder is that it’s just enough machine for the job. It packs up into a little box. It’s easy to clean. It’s manual. And it’s relatively inexpensive. Though the MSRP is in the range of $120, it’s often able to be found for half that; especially just after Christmas, or in Italy, or even on Amazon where it seems to float at around $75.

It’s just a pasta extruder—there are attachments that can turn it into a grinder or mixer—but I doubt very much it’s the best machine for those jobs. It doesn’t make sheet pasta or spaghetti, but delivers all the classic tubular pasta. Slender delicate penne, sauce sucking rotini, smooth ropy bucatini, and fantastic rigatoni. We made a batch of almond ricotta stuffed rigatoni last night, and let me tell you, this machine is golden.

To operate the machine, you start out by clamping it to a table—the clamp is sturdy metal, and slides into a grommet in the side of the unit—it’s idiot proof. But you do need a table, or a counter that you can clamp onto, because otherwise the machine will fly all over the place when you try and turn its crank.

Next, you select your die from the integrated tray, and stick it to the front. The front of the unit has a screw lock. Its cleverly divited so you can get a grip, or use the included wrench to loosen and tighten it if you need to.

Finally, you stick the crank into the back, there are two holes, fast, and slow. Like the gears on a bicycle, the fast gear is harder going. It’s designed for the larger pastas—because of the larger holes at the front, they don’t put up much of a fight, and the fast gear lets you roar through squeezing them out. There’s also a slow gear, perfect for forcing out the smaller pastas. Honestly, I don’t notice the resistance when I’m rolling through the dough, but for older folks, or those who haven’t been eating their spinach, turning that handle can be a bit of a workout.

What turning the handle does is rotate a worm valve, a corkscrew like spiral that pushes the dough from the hopper and out the front of the unit. These valves are always the weak points of pasta extruders, but this one seems to be sturdy. I was skeptical at first, but I think that the plastic actually gives this machine an edge here—the metal units have weld points and fused materials, wheras the valve in this is all one solid material. Marcato actually makes a big deal of the plastic construction on the side of the box, touting the fact that this means the machine is free of heavy metals—like lead. And they’re probably right to do so, because there’s been more than one lead ridden machine found on the market.

The dies this unit comes with are three part affairs, a metal front plate to protect the plastic when you cut your pasta, and two plastic discs that form the pasta. Three parts sounds like a lot of bits and pieces to fiddle with—but it’s actually great because it means that you can clean them without pulling your hair out!

Made by Marcato, an Italian manufactuer that specializes in pasta machines, the unit does come with a five year warranty—but as always with buying European things, the benifit of expert manufacture comes with difficulty in getting the product serviced should it ever go awry. If I have one complaint it’s the recipe the unit comes with, which leaves out a vitaly important step: when making fresh pasta, it’s very important to let your dough rest after kneeding it—at least 30 minutes.

Do you make fresh pasta at home? What’s your favourite kind?

Transforming the Living Room & Dining Room with Olympic Paint—Renovation Redecoration

Tazim — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:00:53 +0000

In our quest to find the best no-VOC paint, Tazim and I have tried nearly every brand on the market.

Our first experiences could be cautionary tales that eco-friendly products aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be—but we were pleasantly surprised by Olympics Premium line, which offers no-VOC options at a value for quality price point.

Olympic is one of the only paint manufacturers to put their low/zero VOC-paint out there as their premium interior product—instead of selecting the green choice as an alternative, it’s the default if you select their premium line. Consumers might even over-look the Green Seal certification on the label if they weren’t looking for it, but we like to imagine that they’d be pleasantly surprised when they popped the can at home, and weren’t bombarded by a noxious aroma.

We selected Olympic for the large, expansive living areas in our Mother’s house. We were looking for a product that would fit into our budget, and that we felt would offer good coverage without foul odour. Because family members have respritory sensitivity, it was important to us to make sure that we chose a low VOC paint not just for ecological reasons, but with health in mind.

Because we were painting a pale yellow over a dusty-navy, we also selected Olympic’s Premium Zero VOC primer for our undercoat. Thick and creamy but with great coverage, we expect that it will become or go-to primer product for all our future projects (where we don’t need to transition from oil to acrylic, as it is just a latex product), It’s hard to describe just how pleased we were with this, primer often seems like chalky milk made from powder—by contrast this was thick and delicious coconut cream. It rolled and brushed on well, and after a single coat we were confident we could start with our top colour.

The top-coat Premium interior latex was also a dream to work with. exhibiting the same great creaminess and total coverage, with a colour consistent pigment that matched the swatch we’d selected. Because the paint is low VOC, we found that we had to let it rest a while between coats. This was of course to be expected. Though the base is Zero-VOC, the pigmentation does carry some VOCs into the product—that being said, we couldn’t smell a thing while we were working with the paint. Only a mild and rather pleasant chalky tempura paint odour crossed our nostrils. The paint was also less forgiving of surface imperfections, and didn’t fill in things like thumb-tack holes that you know you should patch, but that usually plug up with a lick of paint. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s something we’ll keep in mind next time.

The end result: the final finish looks fantastic, and has proven to be hard-wearing. A month in and a few scrapes and bangs later, most marking comes out with buffing, and the delicate eggshell finish seems invincible.

We’re very pleased with the result, and are sure to use Olympic again soon.

Premium Interior Latex: Coverage 400 square feet/3.78L gallon

We received a sample of Olympic Paint for review purposes, which really helped out our Renovation Redecoration project. We were not compensated in any other way.

Happy Valentine’s Day—To My Blog Readers!

Tazim — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:00:43 +0000

Heart-shaped donut made by Greg

When things have me down—and right now there are a lot of things on that list—I think about what I love most, and it keeps me going.

Blogging really fills a special place in my heart. Okay, I can’t say that I always love the administrative aspects of blogging, but I do love interacting with my readers, fellow bloggers and the (friendly and respectful) PR reps that supply me with fun things to review and giveaway.

Having this blog allows me to be creative in my everyday life. Blogging is a lot of work, though—which I actually enjoy. I know there is always something I can be doing with my blog, and this makes me happy—even if I don’t get other things on my to-do list done, I know I’m sending another blog post out in to the world (for good or ill). Even though I’ve trained to be an interior designer and worked in that field for a long time, and recently got my degree in Art History, my full-time job is not a particularly creative one (unless you count the creative ways I try to make customers happy with their returns/exchanges), coming home after work to blog is my creative outlet.

Being here in Calgary—where I never thought I’d ever find myself again—has been particularly challenging. I’m grateful for the support of certain family members, even when others have been less than kind and welcoming. I’m, of course—grateful to have Greg in my life, who helps me by writing great blog posts, keeps me motivated and because I know he’ll follow me anywhere—for good or ill.

We’ll be spending Valentine’s Day in our ‘staycation’ home, dog and home sitting, enjoying a movie and some of my favourite cake. I can always count on Greg to provide the best vegan desserts and dinners for an occasion and everyday!

Round-up of past Valentine’s Day posts:

Robot Love Valentine’s Day Inspiration

Valentine’s Day Parties of All Kinds

Valentine’s Day Treats for your Sweets

Valentine’s Day Party Ideas

Love Notes

What are you doing to make this Valentine’s Day special?

Attending a Niche Blogging Conference or a General Blogging Conference? #Conferences and #cbias

Tazim — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:00:24 +0000

While there are a huge number of blogging conferences going on year-round, mostly in the USA and in Toronto, there aren’t very many blogging conferences geared toward the niche topics I write about. Amongst other topics, I blog about interior design and travel—and there aren’t a lot of conferences for those blogging topics.

One of my goals for this year was to attend a blogging conference—but I didn’t want to attend any old conference. Sure, there’s always something you can learn about blogging and writing from general conferences, but I really am most interested in learning more about travel blogging, especially. Luckily, The Travel Blogger’s Exchange isn’t too far away from where we are now in Calgary. By ‘not too far’ I mean about 20 hours drive away. The conference was in Vancouver last year, where we lived, so it worked out really well. Greg attended that conference and had a great time, while learning a lot.

We plan on driving down to Colorado for tbex in June and making a vacation out of it. We’re both really excited to go to Colorado, but also to work on our businesses together. Greg blogs about travel but also works as a freelance travel writer for magazines and newspapers, so this conference will be especially valuable for him. There will be people from all over North America at the conference—bloggers who travel all over the world and blog about it.

It’s always a great idea to see if you can get early-bird tickets to conferences—for TBEX, we bought tickets early for only $59 each. If we needed to cancel our trip, we’d be able to sell the tickets and transfer them to the new blogger. This is often the case with blogging conferences. Many conferences that I’ve looked in to cost far more than this and are located really far away, places where I’d need to spend several hundred dollars to fly to.

Are you planning on attending any conferences this year?

Best of IKEA: Home Organization Products

Greg — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:00:02 +0000

In the last ten years, we’ve moved around a lot. Each time we pack up and go, a process of elimination ensues: this means that only the best things survive. Here’s a collection of ten IKEA organizational products, most of which we’ve been using for over 10 years!

1 SLOM Jars

If you were vegan in the nineties in the mid-west, you bought stuff in bulk from weird stores with hippy-names, or oriental markets with labels written in Chinese. When you brought it all home it would pile up in baggies like sand-bag barricades, that would occasionally tumble all out of the cupboard and explode—sending mung beans everywhere. And if you were eco-mentalists like us, you worried about mixing out of the probably food safe bags into probably toxic plastic canisters.

Ikea rescued us with these glass, lever actioned SLOM jars (~$2-$5) Available in a range of sizes from a couple of cups to a couple of litres (quarts), they’re the perfect solution to storing in glass on the cheap. We hate is that their mouths are rather narrow, and that they do not stack—still, they’re machine washable, strong (I don’t think we’ve broken any, and we can break anything that’s glass), and practical. A friend of ours has worked out a brilliant system with a wine rack which we one day hope to copy. For now, we have them from big to small. They’re at their best on narrow ledges or in shallow cupboards.

2 OMAR Shelf

We bought one of these shelves for our studio back when they came on wheels—perfect for heavy and awkward items on in an attractive way, he looked great in our loft. When we moved into an apartment near to the university without a dishwasher, it made the perfect cart for our portable, and now he’s in the kitchen hosting our convection oven and espresso machine.. We love the OMAR shelves (~$50, this model) because they’re sturdy, modular, and easily reconfigurable. A bit of whacking with a mallet and you can disassemble it to move with, or shuffle shelves around.

3 LUNS Blackboard

Perfect beside the door in the mudroom, we picked up one of these when we moved into a Vancouver loft. It worked perfect as a message board for two in-and-out-of-the-house students, while we were amazed by how much we could cram on the hooks and in the little trays inset into the main frame of Luns ($25).

4 ANTONIUS Closet Organizer

Wire baskets on a metal rack—Antonius (~$28) doesn’t look like much—but it’s probably the one IKEA product we couldn’t live without. The drawers are sturdy, and the fact that it’s metal on metal means that even if they’re fairly loaded up, they slide well. In design projects, we’ve used them in clients closets for their intended purpose—clothes storage. In our own homes, we’ve gone crazy, using them to organize shoes in front-hall closets, store art supplies, and even to put drawers in kitchen cabinets. They slot perfectly into many spaces, and their low price means all that that practicality can be inserted anywhere.

5 RATIONELL Garbage and Recycling System

Blame it on the fact that I worked with non-profit environmental organizations for many years—I’m fanatic about recycling. Mild mannered and easy-going, I know that if I’m the one that cares about the mess, I’m the one most likely to clean up after my room-mates. I can deal with them leaving dishes on the side of the tub, like my brother always used to, or pots and pans all over the counter. But you’d better watch out if you don’t rinse that can and keep it out of the trash!

Anyway, given my fixation, it’s no surprise that I’m an enormous fan of the Rationell series (From $32). I’ve never found something cheaper that works better—crikey, if it didn’t work, the whole system is recyclable in many municipalities. The slide out base is on sturdy metal rails, and the bins come in multiple sizes, so whether you’re a couple with a bit of space under the sink, or a family with a whole cupboard for your trash, Rationell slots in anywhere.

6 Bjarnum Folding Hooks

Shelves, closets, and cabinets are great. But sometimes a hook is all you need. We’ve used these fold-up Bjarnum (~$14/3) hooks in a few applications, including to create a hanging strip for Tazim’s purse collection. We often put them near the front door, mounted with two screws, they’re sturdy enough to hang your grocery bags on, and fold up to almost nothing when not in use.

7 VARDE Shelf/ GRUNDTAL Rails

I praise IKEA every time I walk into someone’s kitchen and see a rail system above the counters. It’s a killer way to make your kitchen tidier, more ergonomic, and more practical—as long as you don’t get carried away and hang up everything under the sun. Of all their rail systems, we prefer Grundtal in most settings. It’s sturdy stainless steel commercial look actually fits in in both contemporary and conservative kitchens. It’s also indestructible.

Matching Grundtal shelves extend that practicality, and we’ve installed them in almost all our own kitchens. For clients however, we’ve been more likely to turn to this Varde shelf (~$40). With beech wood shelves up top, that are just wide enough to be useful without taking up head-space in your kitchen, and a sturdy rail underneath, it’s probably the cheapest and most aesthetically pleasing way to add storage to any kitchen on Earth—where there’s a wall, or a wall nearby anyway.

8 HELMER Drawer Unit

I think everyone we’ve known, ourselves included has at one point or another stuck cheap milk-plastic and ugly matt blue drawers into their studio or craft room. The problem: they tend to be narrow and deep, flimsy and scratch attracting, and worst of all—to fall apart. After trying to move one from one side of the room to the other, and loosing ten thousand beads all over the place, we finally upgraded to something a little more sturdy by picking up one of these metal Helmer units from IKEA (~$40).

Not only is it built like a tank, it’s also more organized. The shallow wide drawers work better for our purposes, and the fronts have a spot to tuck a label, meaning that you can still keep a tab on what’s inside without having to stare at it constantly, and let’s face it, your art supply drawers look like junk drawers to those who aren’t in the know. Best to keep them out of sight.

9 BJORKEN Wall Cabinet

Where else can you pick up a solid beech cabinet with good hinges for $40?

We once stumbled across a pile of these in As-is, just a customer return, marked down for no other reason than the boxes had been opened. We bought three, and have installed them in every home we’ve had for the last decade. They’re perfect in the washroom as his/hers & kids/guests cabinets, but also work great in the studio, craft room, or mud-room.

We love them as an organizational product because they’re a perfect place to tuck away small stuff.

10 KASSETT Boxes and Magazine Files

It’s true—you can buy cardboard boxes almost anywhere, and magazine files too. But who can resist the walls of storage and the variety at IKEA? We go crazy for the metal grommets and label holders on their Kassett series, and use them to store magazines, as well as to sort out cables. We have one for gaming stuff, audio stuff, computer stuff, camera stuff, and video stuff—and the system works pretty well for us.The fact that they are all the same size means that they stack and stick together easily—our advice is to pick one uniform size and stick with it.

What are your favourite organization products from IKEA?

Challenges for Yourself—Pass or Fail

Tazim — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:05:59 +0000

How long does it take to make something new stick? Some say that it takes 30 days, but others say it takes as little as 21 days. Regardless, it seems more popular for people to partake in 30-day challenges.

January is usually the time when people start making goals for themselves—and also for their blogs. Problogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is one that many bloggers I know partake in. I’ve been working on fixing up my blog, but haven’t given myself a set number of days for a ‘challenge’. I’ve been giving myself a goal of fixing dead links and photos, and promoting old posts this month, and have finally got a professional theme!

I tend to start things, thinking I’ll be motivated enough to do them for a long period of time, but this just never happens. Tiffany, from Fabulous Finds by NovemberGirl talks about her recent 30 Day Photo Challenge Fail. I know I can relate to that, and many other people can, too. I like how she said that she hasn’t given up on the challenge entirely, but has just changed it a bit to better suit her time and situation, by still taking photos but not posting everyday..

I think this is a really good way to look at a challenge—and it’s great to make a challenge work for you.

What sort of challenges do you like to give yourself, and how good are you about sticking to the full length of the challenge?

Kodak Pulse Wi-Fi Digital Frame 7″ Review

Beautiful Light Balls from Bocci

Tazim — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:01:22 +0000

This past Interior Design show in Toronto introduced me to Bocci lighting, based in Berlin. Check out their collection here.

These light balls are really eye-catching. I think they’d be perfect for a chandelier or special focus.

Mitsubishi I-MiEV: Greenest Car of the Year

Greg — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:04:42 +0000

Congratulations Mitsubishi I-MiEV: Greenest Car of the Year

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to check out the Mitsubishi I-MiEV early in it’s release cycle. Hopping into the driver’s seat, it didn’t feel all that different from a regular vehicle—until I pressed the start button and put my foot down. The car has instant torque, and instead of engine noise, whispers a faint hum. I was instantaneously whirring down the road, feeling like I was riding something out of the Jetsons.

Roomy, practical, and electric, I’m not surprised it was recently announced as the greenest car by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy—the first electric vehicle to take the top of the list. Their ranking takes into account not just mileage, but also the energy invested in making and handling the car at the end of it’s life. People often think that because electric cars have such a high up-front investment in materials they aren’t as green as they’re cracked up to be. Fortunately, the technology used to make, and also to recycle these cars at the end of their life, has now caught up to their potential. The greenest car is still likely the one you already own, as long as it isn’t a gas hog—however, if you’re in the market for something new—or driving an SUV—this might be the car for you.

I say might because it is still an electric vehicle. Let’s take a second to get the facts straight. Electric cars are awesome. People talk about range as being the vehicle’s Achille’s heel—but this is really a phantom argument made by petrol-heads and pollutocrats/ For the most part. Here’s the deal: they’re perfect for the daily commute, going to the grocery store, and even camping nearby, but they may not be the best choice for a trans-American road-trip.

The car has a range—a total distance it can travel between charges—of around 100 miles / 160 kilometres, and I’d say that this figure is fairly accurate. Though range does decrease when going mostly uphill, or in start/stop traffic; the car features a very intelligent, and thankfully conservative on-board computer that tells you how much juice and distance you have left in accordance with your current driving style. Going up to hilly North Vancouver from Vancouver proper, you lose range at a faster rate as the car chugs up steep grades. Going back downhill the car is a lot more efficient, and you gain most of that lost efficiency back—unlike a typical gas engine the car does not use ‘fuel’ when idling, or going downhill. Since most of us drive far less than 50 km a day, the range is more than adequate to the average North American’s needs. And because batteries take exponentially longer to charge when empty then when near full, if you use half the battery, you only need to charge for a fraction of the total charge time.

The I-MiEV’s battery pack takes up to 14 hours to charge at a standard 120 v home outlet from empty to full, charging times from 220 v outlet are in the area of 7 hours, and the car is capable of charging in 30 minutes from a dedicated charging station. Dedicated charging stations are currently few, and they aren’t likely to crop up everywhere—but just think of all the times your car is parked and could be charging. In Vancouver several garages and businesses now have EV charging stations that offer a minimum of a 220 V charge point. This means that your car can be re-juiced while grocery shopping, visiting City Hall, or at work—should you need to top-up mid-day.

It’s hard to wrap your mind around. I think when we buy cars it’s partly about romance, and that’s fine.

But what if the romance wasn’t about cruising along the highway going nowhere, but the ability to inject a little romance into your drive to work in the morning?

The I-MiEV is a comfortable car to be inside. It has all the modern conveniences—air conditioning works great, the seats are comfy, and the car is huge inside—better yet it doesn’t lurch and spew toxic fumes while you’re sitting in traffic. Being stuck in traffic in a sporty car is hell, not least because you can practically see the fuel tank gauge falling as your huge engine idles. Being in the I-MiEV is relatively serene.

There are a few other electric cars on the market. We love the Nissan Leaf for it’s truly luxurious interior and space-age dash (tied for second with the Prius it might be the one we’d buy), we dislike the Volt because the added gasoline engine means the car has a lot more resources put into it up front (and it’s like driving an elephant). But it’s clear to see why the I-MiEV has come out on top from an environmental standpoint—it’s pared down to the essentials. The design philosophy manifests in the car’s interior in clever ways. In particular, the battery pack for the car runs beneath the floor-boards, meaning that the trunk is totally available for your use.

I remember a Wired article where the author compared driving a plug-in Prius to driving an appliance. The I-MiEV is quite a bit more car than that anyway, I didn’t like the plug-in Prius either. I’d say the I-MiEV is more responsive and a better ride—but though the author meant the metaphor as a put-down, I’m not sure that it is. The I-MiEV is smarter than the average car, like a Dyson vacuum, it’s an efficient machine designed with a single purpose in mind: transporting you and your family safely from point A to B, a task at which it does a more than excellent job.

Sold as the Mitsubishi I in the US, the Mitsubishi I-MiEV in International and Canadian Markets and available rebadged from Citroen C-Zero / Peugeot iOn in Europe, this car is in limited release in many markets. US versions are around $30, 000 before government incentives.

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The Right Tools for the Job —Dremel Blades & Attachments

Greg — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:00:12 +0000

If there’s a problem with owning a Dremel, it’s that getting attachments can become an addiction! I was never excited to get a new drill-bit (alright, I’ll fess up to loving to buy the ones that go through concrete), but each time I pick up a new doohickey for the end of my Dremel, I feel like I’m adding a super-power to my toolbox. Recently, Tazim and I tried out a few new bits: A first party guard for the rotary tool, some new sanding and cutting disks with the easy release feature, and some nifty saw bades for the orbital tool.

These saw blades are neat. We picked them up with the idea that they’d be good for working with some trim and counter we’re installing. They’re small enough to work in cramped quarters, and they extend out and down from the tool so that they can be used flush against another surface without the body of the orbital tool getting in the way.

These Dremel blade packs include edges suitable for wood and metal—they also feature E Z Lock, a quick release and reattachment method that saves fussing with the tiny screwdriver and screws that are the biggest head-ache of Dremel usage. Instead, the blades just pop onto the end of the one piece mandrel, sold as part of a starter set or seperately.

Finally, this shield attachment is similar to the one we’ve previously reviewed, but doesn’t enclose the whole blade—instead it keeps the sparks away from your hand. It’s a lot less cumbersome than the aftermarket attachment, which is cool, because it means that it will probably see more use.

You can check out the range of Dremel Attachments on their website.

We received the above mentioned products for review purposes. We were not compensated in any other way.

Five Fantasy Faucets

Greg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:17 +0000

Recently, we’ve been haunting open houses. Wasting realtors’ time while we evaluate what’s happening in the local market. After looking at both high-end kitchens and some that need a little TLC, we have a bone to pick: we’re really tired of great renovations let down by ugly kitchen faucets. Here are our top favourite on the market right now: property developers, please take note:

Karbon, by Kohler

MSRP ~1050, prices from 600

Once in a while a design comes along that shifts paradigms and reinvents the function of a product, like the pop up toaster or pre-sliced bread, we’re tempted to call the Karbon faucet from Kohler a watershed moments. As the articulating desk lamp was to task lighting, so the Karbon is to the faucet. It’s gorgeous, beuatifully made, and hideously expensive. But also innovative and practicle. The faucet doesn’t have a corrugated gooseneck that’s sure to creak up and kink, a hose that’s bound to wear out, or a flappy spray arm that’s only real practical use is a waterfight—instead, the whole beast is built like the Canadaarm (the robotic arm on the Space Shuttle), and swivels in countless directions with both ease, and heft.

We are firmly in lust, and can’t wait to install one—somewhere. But with MSRPs from $1000 and market rates from $600, it will likely be awhile.

R10, by Rubinet

Rubinet is a Canadian company that’s based out East. Their collection ranges from a little over the top to quite avante-garde, but in every case their product is top-notch in build quality and finish. The R10 series, which we admit reminds us of the eighties a little, but in the best possible way, is lean and square shaped. One might be tempted to call it minimalist, but the small details and embellishments—inset bars of pattern or colour—make them so much more interesting. This particular version comes with a pull-down commerciall sprayer, and in a variety of colours. We like the brushed chrome with metallic red accents. It’s like washing dishes with a Ferrari.

From $600, it’s a bit of a spend. Colours or bronzed versions ring up $200 more, but we’d rather put down paperstone and one of these babies, then go granite and Wu-Mart.

Marielle, by Price Pfister

Both of the previous faucets are contemporary gems. Perhaps that isn’t to your taste, or simply wont correspond to your decor—if that’s the case, the Marielle might be for you, finished in antique bronze and with it’s revurved beak shape, it reminds us of a Victorian umbrella handle or cane. We think it would be the perfect finishing touch to a ceramic basin in an old world kitchen, and when we recently reviewed a Price Pfister faucet for the washroom, we were pleasently surprised by the build quality of this mid-market brand.

Its MSRP seems to hover at around $450, and yet, it’s widely available from the mid $200 range.

Trinsic, by Delta

Almost everyone has seen or used a Delta faucet. If we’re honest, we’ve found they’ve made a range that varies in quality and aesthetics. Some of them have been lookers, but others have been lackluster. But their new ToucH2O line has piqued our curiosity. We’ve long been fans of commercial style foot-stop on/off mechanisms, but this touch feature by Delta would seem a great alternative—and would require a little less drilling and plumbing. The faucets are touch sensitive and so can pe operated with an elbow, a knuckle, or even your nose. Perfect for when your hands are covered in dish soap or guacamole. Of the lot, we think the Trinsic is the pick of the litter, it has an attractive straighforward styling and offers reasonable value. Though it’s MSRP is around $450, we’ve seen it on sale from $200

Hovskar, IKEA

But what if you’re stuck with a small budget? It’s true that you can find a faucet starting from $40 at most hardware stores. Please don’t. Instead, turn to IKEA, where faucets start at an unbelievable $20. We’d advise you to skip that one two, we put one into a basement apartment as a stop-gap measure, and depite being hideous, it never seemed to leak or malfunction, so we were stuck with the thing. Ptetty ones start off around $80, our pick of the cheapies is Hovskar, a single lever faucet that runs about $100. It’s not an uggo, an is even handsome—in the right environment, the black matte version oozes rakish charm. Best of all, it’s well made. The cheapest faucets simply open or close the flow of hot and cold, the better ones, which start around this level, contain a pressure regulating mechanism that means your faucet will have some force even when the tap is barely turned.

Being from IKEA, it’s never on sale, and goes for its MSRP of $99

Which of these faucets do you most like? Do you have a dream faucet in mind?

Shoe & Boot Holder from Real Simple

Tazim — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:11 +0000

The Shoe and Boot Organizer from Real Simple hangs from a closet rod and would be great to use in the front entrance or in a bedroom closet.

The material of this organizer is really nice, much better than other shoe organizers I have (that have a few tears in them).

I like the colour combination!

This hanging organizer is great because it can be used for shoes and tall boots, too. Not only that, but there are so many other things—like linens, belts, hats . . .

I am using mine for out-of-season shoes and boots, in the back entrance closet.

You can purchase this from Bed Bath and Beyond for $19.99.

The sturdy polyester material stands up to wear and tear, while the Velcro wraps securely around the closet rod for hassle-free hanging. Measures 55″ H x 14″ W x 12″ D. Spot clean.

As an added bonus, there are ‘stretchy side pockets’ to put belts, gloves, scarves, and so much more.

We received the shoe and boot organizer from Real Simple in order to write this review.

What would you use this organizer for?

Taking Notes Keeps Me Organized—Personalized Post-It Notes Review

Tazim — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:05:33 +0000

Even though I’ve tried out many digital or online note-taking products in the past, I always reach for pretty note paper for writing my to-do lists. When I mail things out that are blog-related, I like to have my blog name on the paper—but haven’t had that until now. I had a chance to check out the Post-It Note personalized note program, and select 2 note pads to personalize.

There are 2 sizes to choose from: 4″x3″ and 4″x6″. The designs for the backgrounds are categorized in to things like ‘art’, ‘travel/tourism’ and more—and there are hundreds of choices! It took me a while to look through everything, but I finally decided on two designs that I liked best. As you go through, you can add pictures and text to the notes, change font sizes etc. You can purchase multiple note pads for reduced savings, and even add-on an acrylic Post-It note holder.

This is one of the ones I created – Golden Bloom. This is the edit screen.

The designs I ordered are called Golden Bloom and A Green Earth, both with a green, yellow and brown colour scheme. Putting everything together was really easy, and kind of fun. I haven’t yet received the Post-It Notes, but knowing the quality of the products generally, I’m sure that they’ll be beautiful.

I like how you can narrow down the hundreds of design options to choose a style that would work best for you.

I received 2 Personalized Post-It Note Sets for review purposes. I was not compensated in any other way. If you’d like to win 2 sets of personalized Post-It Notes, you can enter to win them until February 14th, in my Share the Love prize package!

Share the Love Giveaway Hop – Prize Package Personalized Post-It Notes & Tiny Book of Tiny Stories {closed}

Tazim — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:48 +0000

Welcome to the Share the Love Giveaway Hop hosted by ShePromotes. This event will take place from 9am EST on February 7th and end at approximately 11:59pm EST on February 14th. There are lots of great prizes offered to share the love with you. The prizes are not all love or Valentine’s Day themed, we just are simply sharing our love for great products with you! Minimum prize value is $25. After you are done entering our giveaway you’ll want to check out everyone else’s AND enter for a chance to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle Fire sponsored by Tweetalicious! Each blog you stop and enter at will be another entry!

Enter the Grand Prize here!

The giveaway on this blog is for a prize package with a copy of Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, which is a a collaborative book from hitRECord, valued at $14.99 PLUS your choice of 2 personalized Post-It Note pads in sizes 4″x6″ or 4″x3″. Open to US only and ends February 14th. Rafflecopter entry is below, and don’t forget to hop along to the other great bloggers in this giveaway event!

Personalized Post-It Notes 4″x3″ $6.95 4″x6″ $9.95 (prize is for any 2, whichever sizes you’d like)

What can you get on your personalized Post-It Notes? You can choose from hundreds of designs for the background, and then customize with pictures and text!

See my review for more on these personalized Post-It Notes!

Enter to Win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLAIMER:
Please note that Tazim, or Being Tazim is not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. We have represented each sponsor with the expectation they will fulfill their prize and in a timely manner we will contact the sponsor regarding your prize(s). The sponsors, in most cases, are shipping their items to you directly. We will make every effort to assist you obtaining your prize. If there is an issue with a sponsor please notify the blog you won a prize from within 30 days for assistance, after that we may be unable to assist you.

Robot Love Valentine’s Day Inspiration

Tazim — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:02:59 +0000

For the geeky girl or guy in your life that you care about—shower them with some Robot love this Valentine’s Day. It’s no secret that I love handmade gifts for special occasions. Forgo the chocolate and flowers, and instead opt to give the one(s) you love something special, maybe even one of a kind.

Check out the Robome Robot Love Necklace $15

Looking for some new body jewelry? I love these Robot Heart Ear Gauges

Set of 12 – Letterpress Printed Robot with Heart Coasters

You Make My Heart Beep Print

Robots in Love Screenprint

Who do you know that would appreciate some Robot Love this Valentine’s Day?

3-Piece Trunk Organizer from Real Simple

Tazim — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:33 +0000

trunk organizer with shopping bag and cooler bag

The Real Simple 3-Piece Trunk Organizer comes with a 4-sectioned container, with movable sections. I like this unit because it has handles and mesh pockets on the sides. There is tons of room to put in several bags of groceries or other things you may need to transport. The set also containers a cooler bag with a zipper. On a hot day, or after several stops between the grocery store and home, some food tends to melt or go soft, so this cooler bag would come in very handy. There is also a single cloth shopping bag.

Organizer measures 24″ W x 16″ D x 10″ H. Insulated bag measures 5 1/2″ W x 16″ D x 11″ H. Shopping bag measures 15 4/5″ W x 3″ D x 24 1/2″ H.

You can see how much you can fit in to the trunk organizer in the above photo.

You can find the Trunk Organizer by Real Simple from Bed Bath and Beyond, and it is valued at $29.99.

You can win the trunk organizer above, along with 2 other organization products, in this giveaway, until February 7th.

I received the trunk organizer from Real Simple in order to write this review. I was not compensated in any other way.

Real Simple Peel & Stick Wall Calendar for Organization

Tazim — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:00:06 +0000

Real Simple’s Dry-Erase Monthly Calendar Combo Set is valued at $14.99 and is available from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Why this calendar is so great: it is re-positionable, it is peel and stick, and it includes a dry-erase marker. I like that you can write in the dates for the calendar and that it includes a blank board to write notes or reminders on.

I like to write in my work schedule on this monthly calendar, which makes it easy for other people to know when I am working and unavailable.

Another useful home organization product that would go well with this calendar is the Emergency Contacts Dry-Erase Board. These two products could be used on the same wall, and work well for keeping things organized in terms of schedules for activities.

This product from Real Simple, along with 2 other home organization items in a giveaway, ending February 7th.

We received this dry-erase calendar from Real Simple for review purposes.

Valentine’s Day Parties Of All Kinds

Tazim — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:16:56 +0000

A Valentine’s Day party can be as cheesy, sweet or sophisticated as you want it to be.

This cake is so beautifully created that I’d have trouble cutting in to it!

More than just having candy and treats for this holiday, get the kids involved with decorations, get them inspired to create valentines, or other related things. What about just having them draw all the things that they love? This type of activity is great whether you have a kid-only party or have a mixed one where the adults are free to bring their young-ones along.

Do you go with pink, red or pink and red for your colour scheme?

I’ve seen people throw in purple to the colour mix, too—so which combo is your favourite?

I, personally would go with a bold red rather than a pale pink—I especially love the shade of red below, on this vintage-looking table. This is something I’d have out year-round so I wouldn’t need to specifically decorate just for the party.

Instead of traditional goodie bags, wrap up some treats for your party guests in little boxes.

For appetizers, pick up some of these inexpensive spoons (often as little as 25 cents) for perfect portion-sized starters or desserts.

Photos from Hostess with the Mostess.

Here are a few more sophisticated decorating ideas for your Valentine’s Day Party:

Love this ‘grown up tea party’ theme.

Will you be throwing a Valentine’s Day party this year? What will your theme be?

How are your Health & Fitness Goals Coming Along?

Tazim — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:59:24 +0000

I’ve been eating a lot better since moving here from Vancouver—mostly because there is a full-sized kitchen to use. I have also been using my Ozeri 4x3motion Digital Pocket Pedometer to track the number of steps I take daily. My goal is to take 10,000 steps per day, which I am generally successful with—mostly, I take many more steps than that!

think happy thoughts

Source: shape.com via Kate on Pinterest

I’ve also added in more whole foods and less packaged foods in to my diet. Greg has been cooking all kinds of great things lately, which means that I have leftovers of good food for lunches, rather than the instant noodles I used to buy a lot. Cooking from scratch is not only more healthy but also a lot cheaper than pre-packaged food.

Source: womenshealthmag.com via Kate on Pinterest

It has been a mild winter, but being in the middle of the suburbs hasn’t made me want to go for walks very often. So, while I’ve been eating more healthy, I haven’t gotten as much physical activity as I used to. I thought I’d be getting more here—but was obviously just delusional! I look forward to spring and summer, when I can go to the Canadian Rockies (and the Colorado Rockies this June!!) and go on some hikes.

What about you? What would motivate you to get more physical activity?

5 Ideas Fresh From The Commercial Kitchen

Greg — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:41:51 +0000

Department store catalogs and glossy magazines are great—unfortunately, their ideas for the ktichen are often out of reach or impractical. How many of us can afford not only granite counters, but granite walls and built in Bosch appliances? And how many times have you seen a display kitchen with nothing real in the cupboards?

Here are five ideas from commercial kitchen catalogs that can make your home kitchen both more attractive, and more practical:

A Pastry Work-Station
A lot of us daydream about adding an island to our kitchen. Some of us even have the space—but not the cash. To acheive the same result on a budget, pare the idea down to its essentials.

An inexpensive and practical alternative to a conventional island is something like this pasty workstation. Having a dedicated surface that’s perfect for kneeding dough, rolling pie crusts, and cutting cookies is a cook’s dream. The key to the idea is to choose a great surface, unvarnished wood or marble are best—and then to keep the surface clear.

Hang pastry tools on a nearby wall mounted rack, or a rail mounted on the edge of the table, then keep the area underneath free from clutter—but feel free to use the space beneath for roll-away storage, like ingredient bins or a wire shelf.

And added bonus: Just like an island, something like this can double as an in-kitchen dining area,

While this commercial version is a bit of a spend, a similar end result can be achieved with a length of butcher-block counter on sturdy legs. In the past, we’ve rigged one up with height-adjustable desk legs, and birch countertop from IKEA (Lagan counter, $70; Vika Byske legs $20ea, total cost: $110).

Rolling Ingredient Bins

Let’s face it, if you bake often, that cool set of retro canisters you have isn’t going to hold enough flour for more than a day or two. Neither are so many of the canisters sold at your local department store a particularly great use of space. These rolling ingredient bins hold a whole sack of flour at a time, and their rectangular shape saves space. Factory fresh from your local kitchen equiment shop, they’ll set you back.

But, if it means that you are buying your ingredients in larger quantities, they may pay for themselve in short order (locally milled and grown organic flour in my city is around half the price when you get it in a 20kg bag). Other ways to pinch a penny: find a used set on Craigslist, or look into a distributor of food-safe pails.

While you’re shopping, look for other storage ideas that home-cooks generally only dream about: rectangular containers with volume markings and tight fitting lids, trays with racks to store them, and jars of every possible size and shape.

Racks & Rails

Kitchen drawers are a precious resource. If you only have a few, use them for spices, ingredients and containers instead of spatulas, whisks, and ladels—they just roll around and get tangles up anyway.

Instead, put them where you can reach them, on wall-mounted racks. This probably isn’t a new idea to anyone who’s been to IKEA, but it’s a great one, with origins in the commercial kitchen. For bonus points, and a cleaner look keep what’s on there to a minimum, and put things you use often, where you use them as often as possible (i.e. runers and ladels near the stove, whisks and pastry-cutters near your counter).

If you’re looking to do it on a budget, IKEA is actually a good place for the rails (check out Grudtal, or this shelf), and kitchen equipment companies are the place to go to find inexpensive stuff that’s designed with rack-mounting in mind.

Workhorse Cookware

I suspect that nearly all of us are sucked in by package deals—you know, those sets at the department store that go on sale for “40% off!’ for half the year. And I’m sure I’m not the only person thats bought and ruined more than one non-stick frying pan. But how many of the pots in the set do you actually want. And how long does that non-stuck coating last (let alone, what’s in it).

Take a page out of the very best commercial kitchens’ book by selecting sturdy carbon-steel pans that wont scratch should you use them with anything but nylson. These ones from de Buyer are my personal favourite. Once seasoned, nothing sticks. The construction is super sturdy. And the heat distribution and temperature response are fantastic.

Silicon Moulds and Sheets

When Subway restaurants expanded to Canada when I was a kid, I wasn’t impressed by the sandwiches. I wanted to know how they cooked on rubber. When I found out that they were mats made of silicon that nothing would stick to, I hunted all over town to try and find some, before finding some Pantec silicon forms at a restaurant supply shop.

I’ve been hooked ever since, and just got rid of the first few matts I bought over a decade ago rather recently.

Today, these matts are absolutely everywhere, and most of the major brands are decent-deMarle’s Silpat mats are well known for quality.

But, you’ll still likely find the biggest variety of sizes and purposes in a professional catalog—including items like the huge range of silicon molds from de Buyer, perfect for madelines and fluted cakes. If you’re looking for a Canadian source, check out Pantec, based out of New Brunswick they’re a huge manufacturer of these products.

Another great idea for the kitchen is a WellnessMats Anti-fatigue mat, which we had a chance to check out.

Note: de Buyer images from 2012 catalog, available at http://www.debuyer.com . other images from Russell Food Equipment catalog, http://www.russellfood.ca

What other commercial kitchen products do you think would be great in your personal kitchen?

Crazy Cupid Love Giveaway Event—Paper Coterie $40+ Stationery Prize US/Canada 02/07

Tazim — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:18:17 +0000

The event is hosted by Sweep Tight and Just Married with Coupons and each giveaway is valued at over $10. The entries are all super-easy, so you should be able to quickly hop from one blog to another!

I am giving away: a gift code for your choice of products from Paper Coterie, including free shipping! Approximate value is $40 (excl. shipping, which is included but prices vary). Open to US/Canada.

What can you get from Paper Coterie? Here are just 2 examples of types of products they offer:

Monthly Planners:

Memory Keepers, for storing photos and nicknacks inside the box:

Enter giveaway below and hop on to the next blog to enter there:

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All for Love #Giveaway Hop—Real Simple Home Organization Prize Package US/Canada $65 Value

Tazim — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:40 +0000

This event is hosted by Real Mom Reviews, and there are over bloggers participating. Each giveaway is valued at $25 or more. The giveaway on my blog is valued at $65 and is for a home organization prize package.

Prize Package Includes:

Shoe and Boot Organizer ($19.99)

This Shoe and Boot Organizer from Real Simple includes 20 pockets to hold 18 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of boots neatly in your closet. It also features 8 stretchy side pockets perfect for storing scarves, belts, bags, flip flops and more. The sturdy polyester material stands up to wear and tear, while the Velcro wraps securely around the closet rod for hassle-free hanging. Measures 55″ H x 14″ W x 12″ D. Spot clean.

3 Piece Trunk Organizer ($29.99)

Real Simple 3-Piece Trunk Organizer offers everything you need to store supplies, goods, food and even groceries in the trunk or back seat of your vehicle. Three-piece set includes a portable organizer, insulated zipper bag and a reusable shopping bag. The portable organizer features four customizable compartments to keep items from shifting when stored. This organizer has an exterior mesh pocket, and side handles for easy lifting. The insulated zipper bag keeps items cool during long trips. Includes a zippered lid and shoulder strap. The reusable shopping bag folds down into its own pocket. Organizer measures 24″ W x 16″ D x 10″ H. Insulated bag measures 5 1/2″ W x 16″ D x 11″ H. Shopping bag measures 15 4/5″ W x 3″ D x 24 1/2″ H.

Dry Erase Monthly Calendar/Blank Sheet ($14.99)

Look out for my reviews of these items over the next 3 days!

Enter to win the prize package below and hop on to the next blogs for more giveaways:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Artist Olaf Hajek Illustrations Work and Home

Tazim — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:31 +0000

Artist Olaf Hajek creates illustrations for a variety of different purposes and of varying subject matters. From commissioned portraits, to an illustrated alphabet project, to magazine covers, Hajek has done a little bit of everything.

Hajek’s colourful illustrations have a timeless quality to them. Some of the illustrations take inspiration from Dutch still life paintings and portraits, while others would have fit right in with an American folk-art movement.

The Selby takes us on a tour of Berlin-based artist Olaf Hajek’s apartment:

Check out Hajek’s portfolio for more illustrations.

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