a good dose of perspective

"we often feel compelled to buy our status-boosting goods because our tribal instincts make us measure ourselves materially against our peers, to see if we are doing ok in life. in the developed world, this massively distorts our idea of what we need to be just averagely ok.

wealthy londoners, for example, no longer feel very rich because they don't mix with less affluent people anymore. we need to look wider to the global neighbourhood that technology and travel has brought to our doorsteps.

about half of humanity lives on less than $2 a day. more than 852 million people do not get enough to eat, around 1.6 billion have no electricity and a third of the world's people have never made a phone call.

meanwhile, a fifth of the earth's people buy nearly 90% of all the consumer goods.

that's us, the stressed out guys in the wealthy neighbourhood."

taken from
enough: breaking free from the world of more
by john naish

fetishization of the teapot

happy monday everyone! mondays are great days to relax and reflect and gear back up to a busy busy week from the relaxation of a lazy hot weekend (and stellar garage sale finds, might i add!) the best way to relax in a morning is, hands down, with a great big cup of tea. what's even better than a huge cup of tea?

(if you said gorgeous teapots, you're right!)

i can't help it. i have a small thing for teapots. they remind me of my grandmother's old collection that i made sure to inherit when she passed away - a display-only copper one, an uuuugly clay one that i'd made in art class when i was in elementary school (but she displayed it anyhow despite it's lumpy hideousness).

when i was in high school, my friend duncan introduced me to a bubble tea place that had such an incredible intimate atmosphere.. dim lighting, a single tealight burning on every table, along with so many versions of traditional chinese tea and bubble tea. i was hooked. we'd go on long aimless drives several nights a week and would end up at one of many interesting places to sit and sip.

when customers would walk into this place, there was an entire glass display case that doubled as a wall that had three glass shelves, each one holding five asian-inspired teapots -- from that moment onwards, i was in love. not just like - i'm talkin l-o-v-e love. it's funny, since i didn't start drinking tea until very recently... but i just liked the concept of going out for a hot drink and chatting over steaming mugs.

i'd love to make my own display case one day. with my own wheel-thrown gorgeous handmade pots, much like these. one day. when i can afford to buy my own kiln. or even just a potters wheel. or even just figure out how to use one. maybe i should start there, then work my way up. kilns cost about $700 after all - a bit pricey for me to pick up as a first-try venture.

what i love most about these teapots is that they all have their own personality - these two pots (above and below) come from lawatson, remind me of teapots from a fantasy movie - beauty and the beast, or pan's labrynth. i love their curves. they're so interesting to look at. the angle of the handles, the knottiness of it... they're so gnarled and beautiful.

1) by Clayations46
2) by JMNPottery
3) by RedGate Ceramics
4 & 5) by lawatson

haay! vacay!

i'm pleased to announce that i booked my vacation today.

um, can you say WOOT?!

i'm so stinkin excited.

due to inspiration from Julia at Red Otter, we were originally looking at going to mackinac island, but decided to nix it (for now!) due to the fact that it'd be about 8 hours travel time. don't get me wrong - i love road trips, but when you're only taking one week vacation, spending two of those precious seven days in a car kind of eats up your relaxing time.

so, after having brainstormed a bit with my friend kelly (who seems hell bent on getting me to the caribbean one of these years), she forwarded me an email for Mont Tremblant, where there was an early booking special that gets you 25% off if you book before June 5. (have i mentioned that i generally travel on a limited budget?) so after having looked at the accomodations and activities that you can do there (which all look spectacular), we decided to book. awwwesome.

(sidenote for other bargain-hunters: anyone who books their vacation at Tremblant 21 days in advance gets 20% off of their visit)

today: well, hanging out. we get off work an hour early in the summertime so i'm outta here at 3:30! tonight, mike and i are going to have a spontaneous night of going out for dinner and then doing whatever we feel like doing next. we may be visiting the street festival in the super-cute downtown area of unionville, where they have craft vendors, street barbecues, outdoor music, and tons of people. or we might prep mike's stuff a little bit for his neighbourhood-wide garage sale this weekend. tomorrow: yep, humungo garage sale. no - street sale. seriously, this thing is the mother of all street sales. it's like everyone in the neighbourhood puts out a little something (or a big something. or multiple little somethings.) either way, it's gonna rock. even if it thunderstorms the way that the weatherman is predicting.

OH! and yesterday was my little sister's prom. aw. so cute. she looked like a celebrity - no joke. her hair was spectacular (not typical prom-hair curly updo) and her makeup and dress were incredible. pics to come.

further proof that i [think that i] know a lot about stuff.

i was talking the other day about the value in writing down your goals in life.. and what do you know, here's an article i found in body+soul on doing just that.

sneak peek - step 1

Think Like a Seven-Year-Old

"I'd never heard of life lists until my seven-year-old daughter made one. One day Rachael produced a piece of poster board with the title: "Things I Want to Do." The entries were ambitious: Go to Paris. Go to China. Learn to scuba dive. Be in a movie.

I didn't want to dash her dreams, but it seemed like a good dashing was in order. I was a single parent without much money. We lived in a rented cabin in the Missouri Ozarks. "That's nice," I told her.

By age 12 she'd checked everything off her list. I snagged a writing assignment in Hawaii, and she tagged along and took diving lessons. We were invited on a group trip to China, then used the frequent flier mileage for a trip to Paris. She scored a role as a zombie in a low-budget horror flick being filmed near where we lived (her list didn't stipulate that the movie had to be good).

The point is, Rachael made her list when she was too young to fret about limits. It's a lesson we can all take: Get back to that place you were in as a child, when "limitations" was a word grown-ups said. When you think like a child, you expose your limits as mirages."

i'm thinking of erasing my limits today.

weekend update

i saw sex in the city and c'était incroyable.
no spoilers here. just go.