Montreal Je T'aime

One of the things I absolutely love about Montreal is how much creativity and talented artisans you can find. It's a beautiful thing: a vibrant community of creative people that thrive in making lovely things and those wonderful curators, that encourage creativity by surrounding themselves with carefully crafted, local, beautiful products, attending local craft fairs, shops and galleries.

The other day I made a treasury on Etsy featuring some of my local faves, just some of them as I have plenty! I'll share with you some of them. To see my complete list, click on this link to the Treasury!

Iconic Montreal Airport Sign by excellent photographer Jane Heller

Sugar Maple Seed Necklaces by silvermith Lucie Veilleux 

Druzy crustal earrings by the lovely Noemiah 

Cord and brass minimalist bracelets by the multitalented Natacha from Nanoukiko

Aah, this photo reminds me when we lived in Outremont and used to walk past these doors everyday. Miss my old neighbourhood! Photography by Ginette Brosseau.

Blades bronze earrings by the amazing miss Marmod8.

Montreal fashion represent by Les Enfants Sauvages!

Lastly, map of Montreal by awesome illustrator Raymond Biesinger.

Hope you like my Montreal picks! 

Ice world

We got freezing rain the other day. Is it wrong to get excited by a freezing rain storm? I mean, not precisely excited about the dangerous driving/walking conditions but there's something magical in seeing everything covered by ice. It's like a crystal world. And when the sunshine hits the ice, is absolutely stunning :)

Mile-End guide

Just found this awesome post-tour guide of the Mile-End here in Montreal, my favorite neighborhood in town :). We live in Outremont neighborhood, just some blocks away from the Mile-End but we go to shops, restaurants, bookstores, fruit shops and coffee shops over there on a daily basis so we consider it as our second neighborhood :)

This post was made by Amy Johnson and Marilis Cardinal of Puces POP for Poppytalk (and speaking of Puces POP, I have great news regarding it but I'll tell you soon!!) and it's very nice and helpful if you plan to visit Montreal any time soon (This is for you Chrystal!).

Check out the post here!

St-Viateur bagels (my favorites!)

Cafe Olimpico, yummy.

Genaral 54

Drawn & Quarterly

Phonopholis

(All images via Poppytalk by Amy Johnson and Marilis Cardinal)

I wish you have a great weekend!!

The first day of spring

Looked more like winter.

It was beautiful though.

Mother nature was playing tricks on us. She let us believe we could start tossing out our winter boots and coats because Sunday was so sunny, warm and lovely and then Monday was like, what the hell is going on?! it snowed the whole day and it did not look like spring at all. It was like a perfect winter day. We even went out to play in the snow. My little one was sliding down on it and I was trying to make a snow man but couldn't because she would come and toss the snow balls away, hehehehe. It was fun :)

I hope is nice where you live and that you are enjoying the first days of spring :)

Snowy day

Hi and happy Monday!
I hope your weekend was nice :)
It was really snowy here and not too cold which is a good thing. We took advantage of the weather on sunday and went to play at the park in the snow :) It was real fun: husband and little one sliding, playing on a snow fort and just running around like two kids! and me, taking pictures! i wanted to play and make a snow man but silly me, i forgot to bring my water-repellant gloves and my hands were wet and freezing!!

Oh, i was asked (Kerry, i hope you read this :)) what camera i use to take my photos, regularly it's a Nikon D3000, but this time i didn't want to take it outside (because of the snow) and just used my regular, small Nikon Coolpix which also makes a great job, i think! The photos were a bit pale, so i also fixed them with piknic, i love to use the "cross process" option :)

I hope you all have a really lovely week! see you later!

Is Outremont considered downtown?

Metro, metro, YAY!

Big move.

This picture is because there's a big Jewish community in Outremont, plus i find those outfits pretty awesome!

Image by Violetta Farias.

Ever since we signed the lease for our new apartment i've been telling everybody that at last we are moving to downtown.

Suddenly, a doubt crossed my mind: Is Outremont even considered downtown?
I find it very funny how my friends from the plateau or mile-end always seem to consider places just a couple of kilometers away from where they live "the middle of nowhere". For me, even if the nearest metro station is 40 minutes away from home by bus, Lachine is still very much the city. I think they have always been laughing silently at my concept of city-ness, afraid that it would hurt my feelings. But i'm aware. I'm aware of what you're thinking.
For me, every place with a metro station close by, is definitely very much close to the heart of the town. I guess that is what someone ends up thinking after living far from downtown her entire life :S
And now, my new place is just 2 blocks away from a metro station. Wow. I still can't believe that Alex agreed to move to the middle of town. I guess my being all day trapped at home was worst than I thought.
I'm going to miss Lachine. Mostly i'll miss the beautiful Saint-Laurent river just across the street and the sunsets at the park, sitting on a big rock to contemplate the calm water or the angry current -depending on the weather, of course. We have had some amazing years here, the best years of my life.
But,hey, we're moving downtown now! hooray! No time for feeling nostalgic ;)

Note: Thanks Marie for help me editing this post :) Love ya!