the tower.

Hannah's closet leads to a magical white chamber decorated with pillows and animal bones - the perfect place to drink coffee and lounge after you've eaten so much breakfast.

wildfire picnics.

My lovely coworker Sophie set up 3 different picnics using breads, treats, and lunch options from the bakery - and then we photographed them!

Here are some of the photos I took // a look at some of the things I make!  I had so much fun helping to arrange different designs and adjusting the lighting that I was thinking, 'hey, why don't I just do this for a living?' But I like being in on the making of the things too.  Some of the photos made it to the Wild Fire facebook page and might be used on the updated website!

**check out Sophie's blog!  She's exploring raw/whole foods and blogging along the way.

a local market + backpack giveaway!

Recently I was contacted by a large sunglasses company to host a giveaway on my blog.  It's my first request for a sponsored link, and honestly, I considered it -  traffic coming through here and somebody gets a free pair of sunglasses!  Their requests were that I post photos of cool looking fashion bloggers wearing their sunglasses and give an introduction with links telling all about their company.  After a bit of consideration, I decided - nope.  I would have to warp my personality to pretend that I've always wanted these sunglasses, and that you should too - it felt like selling out. 

And to be honest, I already often resent how material and opulent the blogging community tends to be - sometimes making it seem that you have to be wealthy and live in a perfectly clean big white house filled with nice/expensive things in order to have a successful blog and a happy life.  Or how many blogs post endless products that further inpire this wanting - perpetuating the idea that owning more and more things will make you happy.  While of course, this urge comes over everybody (I have a bit of a clothing problem myself), I generally like to promote the ideal of: 

live simply, work with your hands.  

And, it's probably best to support others who are doing the same.

So, I didn't really feel that this globalized sunglasses/glasses company was fitting into this ideal.  But, it did spark the thought: hey, I should still do a giveaway!  

So, I present to you a woven straw, drawstring backpack, lined with cotton, and attached with adjustable leather straps - I picked it up from a crafter at a vintage fair here in Victoria.

And, and, and that's not all! I'm going to fill the backpack with products from local Vancouver Island farmers markets!  Things like salves and seed bags and locally crafted goods, all produced here on the island, or from neighboring islands!  A sort of local farmers market kit + plus beautiful straw backpack giveaway!

I mean, I think we all have the desire to collect lovely/cool things, and as long as it's not done in excess, why not satisfy that desire by supporting nearby farmers, artisans, and crafters?

All you have to do is post a comment below and you'll be eligible for the giveaway!

Winner will be picked and posted on June 3rd!

** This post was also inspired by Milla of The Girl Who Married A Bear.  She's doing a series right now on buying and selling clothing, personal style, clothing ethics, and more!  Check out her blog!

assorted vancouver island.

Just a few moments from living in Victoria - like the time I went to an ecovillage on Shawnigan lake expecting a potluck and then realized I'd shown up on the wrong day... but had come just in time to help make dinner!  They liked my cooking so much they offered me a job!  If I wasn't so busy with the bakery I probably would have taken it too.  A happy accident.  Then, there's also that if I walk my bike, my kitten cat will travel pretty well in the bike crate - it makes me look pretty eccentric, and it's pretty cute to have a cat companion rolling around town with you.  And the view coming from washington is always so dreamy.

from the garden: zucchini pasta with poached egg and arugula bleu cheese pesto

It seems like with breakfast I either go all out, or I'm eating shortbread cookies at work trying to convince myself that it's somehow healthy.  This morning though - I went all out. I woke up this morning with an odd craving for pesto (I don't know is it a being Mediterranean thing??) and using what I had, and what's growing in the garden - I made this! Zucchini pasta sauteed with arugula almond bleu cheese pesto and a poached egg on top.  

A decadent and still healthy breakfast.

The zucchini and poached egg aren't too hard.  You just take a peeler to a zucchini and collect the shavings (I used about half the zucchini, saving the core for later) and then saute them in olive oil.  I was at first sautéing the zucchini as you would with bacon, but then realized they would hold their shape if you gently swirled them around the pan.  Toss in the pesto and you have delicious zucchini pasta.  Since this is breakfast, I cracked an egg into boiling water (with a bit of vinegar) and layed the poached egg on top.  So delicious.

The pesto was a bit more of a creative process, as I wanted to make a classic pesto, but only had two of the ingredients.  So, I came up with:

 a r u g u l a   a l m o n d   b l e u   c h e e s e   p e s t o !!

makes about 8 ounces

1 big handful of arugula 

7 basil leaves

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 clove of garlic (I used 3 though for a super garlicky taste)

1/4 cup almonds slivers

6 oz bleu cheese or 1/3 cup bleu cheese dressing

salt and pepper

If you have a food processor, put the arugula, basil, garlic, almond and bleu cheese and pulse so that it's still chunky - then gradually add in olive oil - and - ah! pesto!

...I don't have a food processor, so I used my old blender and blended together the ingredients with olive oil and bleu cheese dressing all together, to help the poor blender out.  It still turned out incredibly delicious though!  The arugula adds a nice pepper-y taste and the almonds give it a good crunch, and you can never really go wrong with bleu cheese.  Plus the arugula and basil came straight from the backyard!

to washington II

A few more moments from my trip to Washington.  Melissa and I went to Bellingham, WA for a procession of the species through the downtown, most people dressed as various animals, her and I dressed up as nymphs, she a nereid and I a siren, and we joined the proecession.  We walked through the downtown smiling at the people on the sidelines and admiring all the creative costumes (somebody attached a dust wand as their 'tail'!)  It wasn't what we expected, but fun nonetheless.  The march led to a park where there was live music and everybody danced together in their costumes.  Honestly, I thought the best part was when we went out afterwards to drink iced tea and share fish and chips.

** melissa took that last photo of me

Marita, the squirrel that guards Melissa's house and will eat peanuts out of your hands.

Otherwise time was spent eating more things and drinking as much coffee as possible.

farm animals by the sea

My lovely friend Sophie, and I were walking down to the beach, when we discovered a petting zoo in the park!  We were met with baby pigs, all of which I wanted to take home (seriously, honestly considered owning a pet pig for an hour or so), alpacas, sheep, and my favorite, baby goats!  I'd always heard that goats will eat *anything* but geez, we were mauled, they found all parts of my outfit delicious, even attempting to chew on my glasses.  

and then it was a few hours laying by the ocean with veggie sticks and sophie's homemade avocado hummus (so good I was eating it with my fingers).  Best day.