Sedmikrásky (Daisies)

My favourite thing about this film is that when I talked to my mother about it she said “Oh yeah we used to do that”.

My mother was born and raised in Prague. During the 1960′s she and her girlfriends would often accept invitations from foreigners to go out to restaurants that typical Czech’s couldn’t afford.

Just like Marie I and Marie II my mother and her friends would send their dates packing when the evening came to an end, and all that could be eaten and drunk was gone. Although those days were very difficult my mother seems to look back with nostalgia.

Unlike Marie I and Marie II I don’t think my mother and her friends decided to just be bad, they were rebellious and wanted to feel the freedom that they imagined people in the west had. Also they craved the luxury of an abundance of  food and fresh ingredients.

Growing up I can’t tell you how many times I was informed of how many hours my parents would wait in line for the opportunity to buy bananas only to get to the front of the line and find out there were none left.

The theme in this film is something I can relate to. Even though I haven’t struggled with living in a totalitarian state there are still freedoms and liberation from responsibility I wish I had.

Sometimes I want to just give in to being a little bit bad. Maybe a little food fight is all I need.

This image and these words remind me of my mother.

Hello 2012!

Here we are at the start of another brand new year.

I love New Years because it can be a giant reset button if you want it to be. It’s like a milestone, a moment to reflect on the path you’ve just walked, and also the moment when you move forward again. It’s also a great excuse to put Hunter in a hat!

Lark About is my notebook, where I’ll store and share the things that inspire me and how I buy for Lark.

Happy New Year everyone!

Messy office of a genius

(Photo: Albert Einstein’s office shot by Ralph Morse. 1955.)

Rocks Off

Rocks Off – The Rolling Stones (1972)

Super 8 footage shot by Robert Frank in LA and NY, 1971.

-N.

Summer Colours

My last Sunday afternoon was spent pleasantly at a poolside with my good friends, and I was happy to discover Richmond Country Farms on a way home from their house. This place is so charming and unique. The Lower Mainland climate is known for excellent growing conditions for an incredible variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Richmond Country Farms grow and sell the fresh produce from across British Columbia at this market (12900 Steveston Highway). Their farm and local, small-scale, family farms cultivate many unusual, heirloom and unique varieties that cannot be found in regular grocery stores.

Every colour, shape and smell of the fruit and vegetables couldn’t be more beautiful in the warm orange sunshine and my basket was quickly filled with lots of summer goodness. The vibrant atmosphere there made my grocery shopping experience very pleasurable.

Visit Richmond Country Farms

-N.

Objects

BONBON LAMPS, 2010

HIVE LAMP, 2010

NOODLE, 2009

KSILOFON CLOTHING RACK, 2010

M LAMP (MILANO-MORIMONDO-MAURO), 2009

HUG CHAIR, 2008

All by Ana Kras

She’s from Belgrade, Serbia. She draws, takes photographs and designs great furniture.

Read her interview at CASAFIBRA

-N.

Time of the Assassins

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Time of the Assassins

I walk in a line
I see where I’m going
I turn inside out
The days that I’ve known
I face to myself
And give up the ghost
I turn in my mind
What time already knows

In the Time Of The Assassins
They say hallelujah
It doesn’t take a miracle to raise a
Heart from the dead

I sift through the ash
I look for a sign
I open the wound
That keeps me in line
The shoulder that turns
The flame that goes out
The chapter I close

In the Time Of The Assassins
They say hallelujah
It doesn’t take a miracle to raise a
Heart from the dead

And can something change
But still feel the same

-N.

Tilt-shift Photography: Bathtub

Bath Tub IV, a tribute to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. Filmed in Sydney over three months, the short film shows the rescue of a man who has fallen into the sea while fishing on the rocks.

Keith Loutit

Sydney photographer and filmmaker Keith Loutit is known for his “Bathtub” series of short films that uses the tilt-shift / time-lapse technique. Loutit was the first to recognize how time and focus combine to support the powerful illusion of miniaturization in film. In his scaled down and sped up realities, real world subjects become their miniature counterparts. Boats bob like toys in a bathtub, cars race like slot-cars, and crowds march as toy armies. Loutit’s aim is create a sense of wonder in our surroundings by “challenging people’s perceptions of scale, and helping the viewer to distance themselves from places they know well”.

Tilt-shift photography is a fascinating way of tricking your camera into changing the way it focuses, creating a surrealistic blur effect. (Italian artist and photographer Olivo Barbieri is the godfather of the technique and uses a helicopter to get his shots.) The basic idea behind it is when a special lens (I’d love to use this lens one day!) in a camera creates a miniature effect on a full-sized subject or landscape.

I don’t quite understand how it works, but I just love looking at the photos and videos this technique produces. Doesn’t everything look super charming?

-N.

Destination: Old Faithful Shop

My latest favourite discovery in Vancouver : Old Faithful Shop

Oh my goodness. They stock Fog Linen!!! I’ve got a serious obsession with this brand (a gorgeous line of linen products for home from Japan) and it wasn’t too easy for me to keep myself calm while I was looking around this shop today. The space is absolutely stunning and they have a fantastic collection of “items for daily life”, that are classic and well-made by unique manufacturers with history and craftsmanship. I also got really excited when I saw the industrial laundry baskets by Steele Canvas Basket (Remember these?). The shop owners; Walter and Savannah kindly showed me around and shared some stories with me. Such lovely people! If you’re in Vancouver, I highly recommend to visit their shop.

Read more about this shop HERE.

Love the whole concept in here.

This is a perfect shop for finding lovely gifts. It’s also a very dangerous place for me…

OLD FAITHFUL SHOP

320 W. Cordova Street, Vancouver B.C. V6B 1E8

Check out their blog.

-N.

Somewhere

I love everything in this space.

-N.

Clair de Lune

This song has been stuck in my head since I watched Tokyo Sonata the other night.

-N.

Day trip

Zzzzzzzz…………

Destination: Le Petit Atelier de Paris

Le Petit Atelier de Paris is a small workshop and boutique operated by two artists in the Marais. Their motto, “Du bonheur au quotidien” —”Happiness in the everyday”—is reflected in their charming, simple pottery and housewares.

(Images below via HERE.)

!!! I screamed when I found their blog. They have the cutest Shiba inu (dog)! Some of my close friends know how much I love Shiba dogs and they think I’m crazy, which I don’t deny. They’re the cutest dogs in the whole world (to me anyway).

Paris, French antiques, beautiful pottery/housewares, plus Shiba dogs….. So perfect!

Look how adorable this one is.

-N.

Weekend Listening: Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg – All the things you are (1964)

-N.

Deleted Scenes (Part 2): Wesley

Another sets of the pictures that I liked but didn’t make it to the Lark’s latest season lookbook: Men’s Volume 1.

It was a bit of coincidence that Wesley got casted for this shoot. I actually knew Wesley from a Vancouver based Dutch bicycle company when they had their pop-up shop at Lark 3 years ago. I didn’t see him around for a long time after the pop-up shop was ended, so it was nice to see him through work again this time. He told me lots of good stories from Paris where he’d moved and lived until last summer. His passion seems to be travelling and his next destination will be Italy, and he’s learning Italian right now. Although I don’t quite remember how I first met him, there’s one thing I still clearly remember, which is the great looking vintage watch he had on that day. He said that was from his father and it had a big round face and a dark brown well worn leather wrist band. It had such a simple, beautiful and strong design and I especially liked the over sized numbers (from 1 – 12) on it.  He had a different watch at the photo shoot this time and I forgot to ask him what happened to the old watch. I hope he still has it.

-N.