Fostering

Being international students forces us to live in a semi-temporary arrangement. We refrain ourselves from getting anything too permanent, since we don't know how long we'll live here. That includes nice expensive furniture, records, books and pets.

I miss having cats around. A lot. I like their company, playing with them and having something to take care of, but cats do live a long time and we're not one of those people (and there are many!) that move out and leave their pets behind.

Last weekend we finally decided to contact VOKRA to become volunteers. The Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association is a non-profit association that rescues cats in the Lower Mainland and does not have a central shelter. They rely on volunteer foster homes (like ours!) that help on keeping the cats safe, tame and socialized, making it a lot easier for them to be adopted later on. It is the perfect solution for us! It allows us to have a cat, help out and hopefully keep the mice away!

After filling an application and a few phone calls, our first foster cat arrived 3 days ago! They brought her together with canned and dry food, a litter box and wood pellets to use as litter.

Her name is Katrina and she's 14 months old and a real sweetie! She has spent the first day behind the bathtub (that's why she's so dusty) and so far has chosen the bathroom as her HQ. She's a talker and meows a lot every time we stand up because she wants us to keep her company by the toilet, where she feels safe.

But little by little she'll get used to the rest of the house and today she even played a bit with a string in the living room.

When we feel like she's ready, calmer and socialized, we'll right a short bio about her, take pretty pictures and try to get her adopted through Vokra. We get to choose who adopts her, since we will be the ones who know her better. I'll sure cry a lot and then get another foster cat to start it all over again.

Whiteboard

So, I got back to university for graduate school. And it's cool how everything feels totally different from the boring bachelor's degree. After discussing lots of physics with colleagues and my supervisor, I realized that whiteboards are exactly where the magic happens. That's why I got obsessed with getting a nice whiteboard for home.

I looked at many options, I was about to spend $60 in whiteboard from Staples, but since we were in front of IKEA, we got in there to see what do we find. They sell an actual whiteboard which looks nice (even though I would need like 2 of those to fit in some formulas).

However, we bumped into a 70 x 100 cm aluminium picture frame for $15 that is just perfect. You simply draw on the glass, and, even after many days, it's extremely easy to erase.

I use it a lot, and I actually own a bunch of different markers for the sake of good science!

Grillin'

We're on patio madness mode around here. It's definitely not summer yet, but it feels nice to be able to sit outside just because.
And then I saw this post on Buzzfeed (talk about procrastination!) about vegetarian grilling recipes... Combined with a portable barbecue sale on Canadian Tire and our new balcony, I guess I figured out what could be the next home upgrade. Pau is not THAT on board with my idea, but I would love to grill pizzas and sandwiches and vegetables and try to have an actual barbecue at least once with all the fake meat we can find here in Vancouver.
Off course the 10 dollar grill from Canadian Tire is not nearly as pretty as this Cast Iron Grill

Or as portable as this flat fold grill (I can only find the uglier black version for sale)

But I just wanna grill an asparagus and Gardein chicken lunch like this one!

and grill away like Bob Dylan!

Kettle update

We have finally substituted our old kettle that was dripping a lot to this new one about a month ago

A week after we got it, we went for a walk in Chinatown and found these other two kettles that we absolutely love for half the price of ours, but there's nothing we can do about it now... Next time we need any kind of cookware, Chinatown will be our first stop, for sure.

My favourite is the one on the left and Pau's favourite the one on the right. I would be happy with either one of them, but I can't complain, I'm quite happy with ours too.

We didn't buy the kettles, but we did get this enamel mixing/ serving/ peeing bowl and the most amazing papier-mâché head traditionally used during the Chinese new year's celebration that now sits in our bookcase.

I'll try go back there this summer for the new Chinatown night market, to buy our lantern string lights and to take pictures of the pretty pots and pans that we weren't allowed to photograph this time.

Balcony

We have finally fixed our kind-of-a-balcony. Pau says it's a "back porch".
It's a bit of space we have outside of our back door, by the stairs that lead to the back alley. Each of us neighbours have a piece of land like this that sometimes get invaded by people coming up or down and ours has never been anything.
We had a nasty small couch that the previous tenant left behind resting there that got substituted by our own old couch after we got a new one for the living room. After we finally sold the couch we were left with an open storage space. There was my bike, Pau's bike and two abandoned bikes we found on the streets. We sold them one by one and in the end there was only my bike and garbage left over from our kitchen renovation. Once there were also some embarrassing bags filled with kitchen garbage that we forgot to take down and got attacked by racoons (up in the third floor!).

We have been dreaming about this for a while and with summer starting to show its face, we decided it was time to take action. We took the old countertop and other junk to the dump, tied the bike standing up, cleaned the infinite amount of black dust and spider webs that we've been gathering for all these years and off to IKEA.

We managed to fit everything (perhaps illegally) in the smart car from Car2go and drove home through a storm. When we got home the storm had already stopped so we did some easy IKEA carpentry work transforming our nasty old space into a great summer spot! It got so great that we're working from here right now, even if it's still a bit nippy out.

The next step is to get some string lights for the night time. We already bought a huge pack of tea candles on this trip to IKEA, but string lights look so nice and cozy and pretty...

I've been researching on which on to get. I really love the look of the globe lights at night, but Pau has a point, they don't look so good during the day.

We're leaning towards the japanese lanterns made with nylon instead of paper so they can stand the Vancouver drizzle and look good in the day and night time.

But I've seen so many other fun novelty or more expensive string lights online...

I like the mini street lanterns or the "cafe" lights with a metallic dish on top from here. And I like all of the caged string lights a lot as well.

Bamboo lights for a tiki look, or straight tiki lights.

From the fun novelties ones that I'm sure we won't get, there are thousands of great ones (including some penis lights)

But I would have the greatest fun with these grape ones, just to reenact this video over and over:

Flowers

How nice is it to revive a pretty almost dead bouquet found on the streets?

Dansk Kobenstyle

Browsing on Etsy just because, I came across this enamel dutch oven that I really really liked and decided to investigate.

It's made by Dansk, an american company, and the Kobenstyle line was created by an Danish designer in the 50's. Recently Dansk reissued the whole cookware line with some extra items, and I want to collect them all, vintage or new.
Searching for "Dansk" on Etsy it's possible to find many many options.
They have these beautiful handles on the lids that double as a trivet and make it easy to stack the pots for storing or displaying.

I'm in love with them all. The wood handle on the frying or sauce pans are wonderful and so are the shape of the big paellas and ovenware.

Summer

I've never been much of a motorcycle person, but inspired by the tiny dots of light that are finally hitting our window, I've been searching for all things summer.

We have considered buying an electric scooter to be able to go to beaches and parks and so Pau can get to work more easily.

I have absolutely no idea on anything vehicle related and all the facts and information about the bikes mean close to nothing to me but I have gathered some of the motorcycles that I would buy if money wasn't that much of an issue.

These are only some scooters that we could actually own. The vintage Vespas and Lambrettas are nothing but dream material.

The Motorino XPd is one of my favorites. Its heavy duty looks make it seem less toy-like than most of the other Electric Scooters I've seen (on internet pictures!). From what I understood it's also a bit more potent than most others and I think it might be necessary to register it, pay for insurance and have a regular driver's license, which is a bit of a problem for Pau.

This one took me a little bit to find again. Gio has one model that is called "Gio Italia", and from the looks of this one, I was sure it was it. But no, this one is called MG500w+, the Italia doesn't have a vintage two-color design. It also looks faster, so it might require license and registration just like the Motorino, which is a no no.

Since we're already on the "license and registration" scooters, I really love the Vespa meets Mobylette look of the Honda Spree from the 80's and I found some cheap used ones, but unfortunately I was completely out of focus when I searched for it, 'cause it's definitely not what we need, I guess. It's also not electric.

On that note, the Honda Gyro X from japan also looks like a really really nice and weird 3 wheeled scooter I'll never have.

But I'm more and more inclined into finding a cheap electric bike sort of like a moped. Cheap, simple, light and easy. I wish I could find a Mobylette.

Can't find anything I really like for really cheap somewhere close by, but I wouldn't complain not even a bit to get something like this electric Chinese TaoTao, which is ugly but seems like the best option until now.

Kettle Update

After we fixed up our kitchen, the old burnt kettle instantly started leaking. Just a weird coincidence or not (I'm looking at you, landlord!), trying to find a gas stove kettle to replace this one is not an easy task.

I just love so many of the kettles I find, but unfortunately my pocket can't say quite the same. Here's a roundup of some that are too irresistible:

1. Le Creuset Classic Demi is a great classic but I don't really like the plastic handle $81.70
2. Stainless Steel Pour Over kettle must be great for brewing coffee and one of my favourites $70
3. Tetsubin Ikenaga kettle is absolutely out of my price range, but really pretty $450
4. Staub Square cast iron kettle $109.99
5. Glass kettle so I can see when the water is about to boil $34

1. Poketo Japanese Enamel is simple, traditional and I love it so much $125
2. Collapsible kettle, for those camping trips that i expect to happen some day £29.95
3. Picquot Magnalium is cast in one solid piece and leakage sure wouldn't be a problem $275
3. Bonjour porcelain tea kettle $36.89
5. Staub Round cast iron kettle, the cousin of the squared one $129.99

I had a love-at-first-sight affair with these vintage David Douglas Flameproof glass coffeepots. Although I can't find much more information about it, one will very likely make its way to our kitchen, either as a coffeepot or a kettle, since they can handle gas stoves...

1. Pinecone/Woodland Douglas Flameproof $12.00 (is this one with the matching cups too much?)

2. Gold Drops with the most amazing handle and a warming stand $29.99

3. Golden Rings design (the rings show the amount of liquid) with warming stand $32.95

4. Gold Snowflakes Douglas Flameproof $7.50

5. Gold Wheat David Douglas Flameproof coffeepot $14.74

Funny thing. While browsing for the Le Creuset kettle, Google and  Ikea sneaked this very misleading link at the top of the search results. 

I can only dream of a day Ikea sells Le Creuset cookware at Ikea prices.