As I discussed in my Everyday Edwardian overview, the best way to bring a bit of Edwardian style into your day-to-day life is best to take your cues from a current Edwardian-era drama. In this case, it’s the first two seasons of Downton Abbey and James Cameron’s Titanic.
The sweater Mary is wearing here reminds me of the Villa Wrap from Icebreaker.
The naming in the metric system is all predictable prefixes and suffixes. That might sound intimidatingly scientific, but I promise it is actually way easier than the Imperial way! It’s sort of like those funny flip books where you could match different heads with different bodies and legs to make cool characters.
Canada, for all of its wonderful traits, is a wee bit confused in the measurement department. We officially switched over to the metric system in the 1970’s, but we did a pretty half-assed job of it. We measure distances in kilometers, and temperature in Celsius, but our stoves are in Fahrenheit, and the great majority of our grocery stores advertise prices in cost per pound.
It wasn’t until I went to Australia, where they are 100% metric, that I realized how haphazardly we bounce between the systems. Anyhow, between my love of cooking (most of my cookbooks are American or British, and therefore Imperial… though 2 different versions of Imperial…) and my love of travel and common sense, I know both systems quite well, and I can tell you without a moment’s of hesitation that I prefer the metric system.
I can scarcely believe it, but Humblebee & Me turns two today! I’m not exactly sure how it has come to be two years already, but in that time I have published 445 entries (including this one), gathered over 3,700 comments, learned countless new things, and made a fantastic host of new friends with shared interests. I couldn’t be more thrilled about how things have gone since I popped up online (again) two years ago.
Anyhow, as I sit here sipping some tea (which was preceded by a few glasses by white wine, if we’re being honest), I thought I’d dig back into the archives and look at a few of my favourite/most monumental/most popular/etc. entries from the last two years. (more…)
Sometimes I find all it takes to kick-start a great DIY run is a new ingredient or two. A scent, texture, colour, or flavour can really spark my imagination and send me off into a fabulous little world where I make a gigantic mess and come out with tons of new tubes and tins of goodies (and the occasional whoopsie as well). Here’s a list of ingredients that have been inspiring me as of late—I’d really encourage you to give them a try, they are all fantastic!
Labdanum Essential Oil
This essential oil was a curiosity buy, but I ended up absolutely falling in love with it. It smells utterly fantastic. It’s deep, spicy, mysterious, a little cinnamon-y, and slightly addictive. It’s technically a resin, and as such it is very thick. I like to rub a drop of it between my wrists until it melts and blends in. I keep a bit of it next to my bed, I add a little to my argan oil (USA / Canada) serum. It was used by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt to bind their false beards made from goat hair. It’s sometimes used as a substitute for ambergris, and if royalty loved it, I think that explains why I think it’s so fantastic.
This isn’t really the type of blog where I tell you about all the things I do in my day to day life, because, frankly, that would be a very dull read, much like my journals (Dear Journal, Today I went to work, and then I came home and had dinner and now I am going to sleep). Today, however, is worth reporting on. Due to huge amounts of rainfall in the last 36 hours, Calgary (along with much of southern Alberta) is under a state of emergency. Around 100,000 people in Calgary alone are under mandatory evacuation orders, with evacuations going late into last night and early this morning. The rain is still falling, and everybody is saying this is the biggest flood they’ve ever seen. I can’t help but agree.
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!
