SHE SAYS: COTTAGE DREAMS

Here’s Chris enjoying my ad-hoc cottage, aka: my parents’ backyard.  

 

I wrote this week’s She Says column on how you should probably invite me to your cottage because I don’t have one (cue: #whitegirlproblem comment trolls). And FYI, I had no idea about the other usage for the term “cottaging.” Yikes.

With the Victoria Day long weekend behind us, the summer season has officially begun.

City dwellers delight in the mass exodus that takes place each sun-filled weekend as urbanites pack up their coolers and head out of town. As a national pastime, cottaging (a uniquely Canadian verb) is on par with wearing plaid shirts and truly believing that this is the year that our team will bring home the Stanley Cup.

I was never one of those fortunate people whose parents invested in a piece of summer property — yes, I know #firstworldproblem. Consequently, I’ve had to make some strategic moves to expand my social circle so that I might have a chance to experience the great outdoors while still enjoying the luxuries of indoor plumbing.

A few years ago, I was unreasonably disappointed when my good friend broke up with her long-time boyfriend whose family owned 3,000 square-feet of lakefront paradise and not one, but two boats. Sure they were never meant to last, but couldn’t she have waited until after Thanksgiving? He had a water trampoline for crying out loud.

Over time, as friends have moved on and moved away, I’ve found the number of annual cottage invites dwindling. And so, I’m going to take this opportunity to make a case for myself as the BEST cottage guest you never asked for.

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SHE SAYS: HELLO KITTY

I take a lot of flak for being a “cat person.”

Over the years, cats have been stigmatized as antisocial creatures favoured by spinsters and compulsive hoarders. If dogs are man’s best friend, cats are like a weird creepy aunt you try to avoid at dinner parties.

In actuality, cats are quietly cool creatures. Dogs are needy companions desperate for your affection, whereas cats are a low-maintenance alternative. They won’t leap against you when they enter your home or mount your leg in an unwelcome bout of excitement. They’re independent and effortlessly playful in a way that doesn’t scream, “Look at me! I’m trying so hard!”

Nowhere is the unintentionally comical nature of cats more evident than online. The Internet LOVES cats. Cat videos are almost as pervasive as pornography, and the comical LOLcats meme has a devoted fan following. If you own a computer, there’s no doubt you’ve seen these humorous image macros, which combine photos of felines with misspelled and grammatically incorrect captions.

Recently, Kate Miltner from the London School of Economics earned international attention for her 98-page dissertation on the popularity of LOLcats. Miltner spoke about her work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this month during an Internet culture conference. That’s right, a scholarly discussion about funny cat pictures happened inside the walls of MIT.

In Japan and other Asian countries, these domestic pets have found a new place in public life thanks to the increasingly popular cat cafés. The cafés charge a time-based cover fee for a beverage and a couple of hours’ playtime with cuddly calicos and tenacious tabby cats.

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THIERRY BOUTEMY

“I try to move away from a predefined need...each bouquet should have an impulsive, imperfect feel to it. It’s a two-way discussion.”

Photographs by Estelle Hanania

Belgian floral artist Thierry Boutemy talks to Nowness about how he creates the perfect arrangements for birthdays, weddings, Lady Gaga and Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

You can see more of Boutemy's signature blooms on his tumblr.

SHE SAYS: LOVE YOU MOM

Just a couple of babes back in the 80s. Responsible parenting at its finest.

Last week I wrote my She Says column on how Moms usually know best. In the case of my mother, she always does.

This year, for the first time in god knows how long, she was actually in the country for Mother’s Day.

We celebrated in her backyard with mimosas and bouquets and because she’s so wonderful, she even bought me some lovely peonies.

And yes, those candles in her pink velvet cake are joints.

PEONY PINK

Peonies in bloom. 

Most wanted iPhone case.

Peony Pink tuxedo jacket by Smythe. 

Floral dust jacket for The Secret Garden designed by melancholia ♥

"To be fair; the gap between most people's capacity to conjure beauty from scratch and to merely recognize it when they see it is the width of the Atlantic Ocean."

I know I'm kind of late on this bandwagon but We Need to Talk About Kevin is really good you guys.

THE SAINT

Every time I blink a new restaurant opens up on Ossington. And since I live around the corner, I have a home field advantage when it comes to stalking establishments until their boarded up windows are replaced with menus and hours of operation.

On Friday night Chris and I tried to go to The Saint, a three-years-in-the-making tavern that has been Coming Soon! forever. It seems everyone else in the neighbourhood got the memo that the restaurant was finally open and the "hour wait and no we won't take your name or number" sent us out the door.

However, we tried again on Sunday for brunch and apparently, nobody knows about their AM hours because we were seated right away, which is actually unheard of at 11:30am on a Sunday morning in the west end.

Anyway, the food was both reasonably priced and amazing.

I started with a house-made cinnamon roll drizzled with a generous amount of vanilla icing and served fresh from the oven.

I greedily went on to eat my entire main dish: poached eggs served with prosciutto wrapped asparagus and pommes dauphine (basically a crispy potato puff) and topped with hollandaise sauce.

I instagrammed (is that a verb yet) all of my food and left feeling stuffed and happy.

I can't wait to go back and try some of their dinner options (I heard rumours of lardon pierogies) oh and also, they'll soon be taking reservations.