Party flags

Gabi is making party flags today

Drawing

Since we were going to meet friends from Barcelona in Montreal last month, Pau made a small package with gifts for his parents and brother, so Albert took it back to Barcelona to them as early birthday gifts with free shipping.

To Jordi, Pau's dad, we got this very fun book, with 642 things to draw. It just says a word (in english, so he can also practice vocabulary) and a small blank space to illustrate each word.

Last week Jordi sent Pau some pictures of what he had been drawing:

All these fun drawings made us want to try too, and I enjoyed a great sale on chapters to get the 642 things to draw for Pau and the second book, 712 more things to draw for Jordi in advance for christmas or something.

I know I didn't get me one and it sure wouldn't hurt to have a reason to draw more (or to draw all together, because I definitively don't draw anymore at all.), but I can always just copy the words from Pau and draw in another notebook, right?

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!

Radio 557

Some months ago I lost my backpack in the Skytrain with my laptop inside and someone took it. It was a terrible thing. The "find my mac" app from Apple was supposed to block the computer but it did absolutely nothing. Thanks to Chrome, I could see from another device all the things that this person googled trying to wipe everything out of the laptop until he finally did so. Also, Gabi did a great detective work on Craigslist and we were 99.9% certain that we found the laptop, but we couldn't contact the guy.

Anyways, I'm telling this because today I remembered that between lots of pictures that now are lost forever, there were the radio podcasts that I did with my friends from Barcelona three years ago. I am actually really proud that we got to broadcast 42 programs, and today, searching in my old emails I could get some of the cover pictures of the show, which brought me lots of good memories. The covers were made late at night by Oriol Roca while Albert and I were uploading the thing.

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.

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.