Tonight! The Tutu Project with Fashion Group International

Can't wait!

24th Illuminares Lantern (and more) Festival: A Cebration of Light, Community and Creativity

Written by Colleen Tsoukalas (Treasure Seeker Colleen)

The 24th fantastic Illuminares Festival lit up John Hendry Park, Trout Lake, Vancouver, last Saturday, July 21st!  The brain child of Artistic Producer, Ari Lazer and Creative Director, Azfir of the Public Dreams Society, this festival involves participants in making lanterns, displaying them throughout the park, parading their creations, story telling, singing, playing instruments, connecting with neighbors and artists and much more.  To me, there is something really special about using a city park in a different way, sharing it with everyone and being able to actively participate on many levels, in the show.  You can make lanterns or buy them, you can play instruments and sing even if you haven't done this before, you can be in a night parade and be illuminated or not and you can be a kid or an adult and both and enjoy every minute.

 

The park was filled with lantern lined paths, a l1 panel medicine wheel, choirs, bands, live sculptures, bicycles (for you to ride) hooked up to musical instruments, stilters, parades, fire dancers and people, people, people! To be greeted by a huge blue scaled fish stilter, as we walked onto the park grounds, gave us a hint of the magic unfolding as we walked further.  Mother Nature, Queen of the World, pulled us along a path right to the lily pads at the water's edge.  Harpists set the tone for reflection, making us take time to listen and look.  A wise pair of Snowy Owls were a reminder of the park in winter.  For every musical group, there were dancers, illuminated against the night sky.  A swan on the beach came alive in the wind. Fire Dancers from the group, "Radiant Heat" told a story with flames. whirls and sparks of light against the inky black shadows.  A giant floating face mask invited us to keep exploring and the illumni white faced twins cajoled us with their mimed dance.  We met Yoko Tomita, (yokogeo@shaw.ca) holding her beautiful rabbit, one of 150 she created for this event.  She paints, and works in Textile Art, Mosaic and Lanterns and invites us to visit her workshop.  Star Trek even made an appearance, featuring Spock, watching stilt walkers dancing from other planets.  Thanks to Public Dreams Society, Ari Lazer and Azfir, sponsors, artists, sponsors and everyone who made this fabulous event such a memorable experience.  Can't wait until next one: Parade of Lost Souls, Halloween!

Photos courtesy of Colleen Tsoukalas

Watches for him Part Two: Men's Vintage Luxury Watches

More men's watches!  I recently featured a post on how to buy watches for the special man in your life. I didn't consider getting a vintage watch for him until now.  There are several things one should take into consideration before buying a luxury brand vintage watch.  It is easier to get a feel for the condition of a watch in person, but sometimes we don't have that luxury.  Here are a few tips for buying online:

• Take your time,  don't invest in anything right away.  Look around at a variety of sites and sources to get a good take on the market right now.
• Just like eBay and Etsy, be sure to read reviews of your vendor and ask as many questions as you feel necessary.  It's a big purchase!
• If the pictures are not good and the price is too good to be true, it probably is!
• Find out if the watch is still running.  If not, repairs could be costly.
• Beware of: missing screws or regulator springs, scratches around the plate screws (meaning work has already been done on the watch)
• Say NO! to any rust/water damage
• Factor repairs into the cost
• For more on the individual brands check out this great article in the Daily Mail!

Vintage Gent's 18k Rose Gold Hunting Case

Single Push Button Chronograph Pocket Watch

Rolex stainless steal 

vintage Air King

Men's Zenith New Vintage Watch

Adventures in Fairview, Centralia and Portland

Written by Colleen Tsoukalas (Treasure Seeker Colleen)

We've been driving down to the Palmer Wirfs Antique and Collectible show at the Portland Expo Center, for a couple of years now.  Leaving Vancouver B.C., early, we usually hit the Harris Avenue Cafe in Fairhaven, Bellingham and then for lunch, we devour the pie at Berryfield's in Centralia,Washington.  We stay at the Best Western, Vancouver (pool and brekkie) and dine at the Abhiruchi Restaurant., Portland's leading Indian restaurant on Grubhub.com (with coupons provided by the hotel).  After a long but interesting day, both outdoors and inside, we head out in the cool morning to hit Bellingham and The Pepper Sisters for the best mex mix ever.  (Great patio and funky furnishings)  Just recently found The Buffalo Exchange, a new and new to you vintage and modern store, very close to The Pepper Sisters.  This year, I was fascinated by all the faces watching me as I searched for the unusual, the dazzling and the entertaining.  What did I buy?  Last year, I found a vintage edition of " Eloise in New York" as well as jewels.  This year, nothing but a good time!

 

 

Perfect Saturday: Sway Chic Dress

Yesterday was THE most perfect Saturday!  I finally had the perfect event to wear my Sway Chic dress and new pink sandals from Mum.  I received many compliments on my dress everywhere I went!  It is the perfect little black dress for any occasion.  At first I was a bit concerned about wearing this black dress 1. during the day and 2. during summer, but I got over it by pairing it with bright pink sandals and my trusty yellow satchel purse.  I was cool and fashionable on yet another hot Toronto day.  

I love the Sway Chic brand and website and wish we had stores in Canada!  They do ship to Canada though which is the next best thing.  Their staff are helpful, the shipping is quick and the sizing is spot on.  I screen captioned their "about us" page because I think it captures the enthusiasm of the team and uniqueness of the brand.  Be sure to check them out everyone!

Shockers, I don't have AC in my apartment!  So my wonderful Mum (Treasure Seeker Colleen) decided to treat me to a hotel getaway for one night this weekend.  I spent the morning at a fashion event and visiting a new art gallery called Gallery House and then the afternoon at the pool enjoying the sun.  It was the perfect gift and escape from the hot weather and day to day monotony.  Some of you may think it is a bit ridiculous, but sometimes we need to get away from it all and take a break and reflect.  We don't always have the time or money to REALLY get away though.  This is the perfect solution and I recommend it to all during this hot summer.  I chose a very affordable hotel that is close to my apartment and has an outdoor pool (of course).  It has been the most phenomenal weekend and I can't wait to share it with you!  More to come on the weekend activities...

Dress from Sway Chic

Love the back of this dress!

Outside Gallery House

The Best Western Primrose Hotel Pool!

Post to come soon!

Event Today! Shop for Jayu!

I am off to the Gladstone Hotel today for the Shop for Jayu event!  Post to come soon...

Video Picks of the Week!

It's Friday! We survived another week! Here are my video picks for the week.  Love the new No Doubt video "Settle Down".  See Gwen's style evolution at NYMag.  Hope you all have a great weekend and remember to take time to enjoy and relax!

Twenty year old fashion photographer Liam Goslett

Paris Fashion Week 2013

Girl's Getaway: Las Vegas Baby

I have visited Las Vegas once in my life and can't wait to go again!  My cousin and I always said we would celebrate our thirtieth birthdays in Viva Las Vegas!  I am not into casinos much, but love walking and visiting the hotels, seeing shows and laying at the glorious pools!  It's great to take vacations with girls as they are more than willing to relax at the pool and enjoy, as it's supposed to be a vacation!  Guys on the other hand, always want to be up and moving and see all of the excitement.  

Regardless of who you are traveling with, it's always fun to get dressed up!  I think you can be a bit more outrageous with fashion in Las Vegas.  I'm not much of an accessory person, even though I have jewelry boxes full of bits and bobbles, but I've put together my top accessories for vacationing.  Kinda wishing I was at a hotel pool right now! It is absolutely sweltering in Toronto this week.  I am going to have to find a pool myself!

Jewelry for vacations

Through my travels I have learned not to bring valuable or sentimental jewelry on vacations.  I tend to lose pieces or worry about misplacing them. What's the point?  I picked a few pieces from the Forever 21 website, because let's face it, Forever 21 is one of the best places to go for fun and affordable jewelry.  I am usually all about investing, but not when items can be lost or misplaced.  What do you think of these accessories?

Wynn pool

Flamingo pool

More New York: Lucy's, Century 21, Financial District and Chinatown!

My sister is a very experienced traveler and likes to plan her days meticulously to get the most out of a new city.  I spent my first two days in New York with her and she kept me very busy!  She is great to travel with and of course a great sister to meet me in New York! Lucky me!  The first day was packed of course and involved great food, long walks and many different areas in Manhattan.  We started off at Lucy's, a restaurant with a roof top patio near our hotel, The New Yorker (on 8th and 34th). Lunch included tacos and margaritas to celebrate our arrival!

At Lucy's

Tacos

Century 21 came highly recommended to me as the number one shopping destination to visit in New York City.  I was sadly disappointed.  Century 21 is a discount store for high fashion labels.  It was packed, disorganized and too chaotic for me.  I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lot of time, patience and don't mind large crowds of people throwing things up in the air!  They also yelled at us for attempting to try things on in front of the mirror, which I am sure almost everyone does when there is a thirty person line up for the changing room! Nevertheless my sister got a few nice pieces and we were off on our merry way.  

Century 21 Nightmare

Amazing buildings and architecture

Loved this structure

At Reuters!

Century 21 is very close to the financial district, so we walked through and enjoyed a frapacino and took some great sky scraper pictures.  We were at a loss of what to do, when my sister pulled out her trusty Lonely Planet guide book which actually featured walking tours for the different areas of Manhattan.  We decided to walk up to Chinatown and follow the walking tour.  It gave us the route and the history of each area we walked through, which was really interesting.  My sister always makes sure I'm learning something!  The book also recommended a Michelin rated restaurant called "The Peking Duck".  It was delicious and I have shared some pictures below along with instructions on how to eat it!  Apologies in advance to any vegetarians!

Chinatown

Peking Duck

First the duck, then the sauce, then cucumber and wrap it up!

From Chinatown we walked up through Nolita to Soho.  We saw some fantastic shops on Prince street which I have also shared.  I was surprised at how well priced everything was and the great sales!  We also found the Fluevog store and to our surprise the church where Alec Baldwin was getting married.  Never a dull moment in New York!  More pictures and posts to come on New York soon!

So cute!