travel feature: 6 days 6 cities

Posted by kait / February 28, 2011

Starting tomorrow, I will be featuring four guest bloggers this week. The feature is called My Favourite Place: 6 Days 6 Cities. Essentially, each blogger will be sharing their favourite city in the world (to date – so much more exploring to be done!) through photos and words. Each blogger will have a different spin on their city so take notes for the next time you plan a spontaneous vacation. I am starting off the feature tomorrow with Santa Monica/Venice Beach. Here are the bloggers who will be sharing their favourite places with you:

March 3 – Barcelona

Marbella Anne Carlos -

March 4 – Calgary

Chelsea Watson – ChelseaWatson.com & YYC Disloyalty

March 5 – Halifax

Sarah Rankin – Sadie Designs

March 6 – Nashville

Nicoleirene Dyck – Words Are Cameras

Hillbilly Fever: Specifications

Posted by kait / February 28, 2011

My banjo is a Beaver Creek BCBJC18

Body – Mahogany Resonator

Top – Remo Head

Back & Sides – Mahogany

Neck – Nato

Fingerboard – Rosewood

Rim – Aluminum

Arm Rest – Chrome Plated 18 Piece Bracket

Machine Heads – Chrome

I’m to believe this is a beginner’s banjo, great for sitting on the couch and pickin’ away. Fine by me and my wallet So far I’m totally satisfied with the sound and general feel of the banjo.

For two reasons, I play the three-finger technique of Earl Scruggs. The first being, when I imagine what a banjo sounds like, I hear Scruggs’ style. Secondly, my thoughtful in-laws bought me the gospel of “Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo” by Earl Scruggs, Amen!

Recently at our house-warming party, I met a new friend who recently bought a banjo and has a punk-rock background like myself. Which got me thinking: ‘is there something in the greater-conscious telling us to play bluegrass?’. There’s several people I can think of in our local music community that has picked up the banjo in the last couple months. I’m hoping to get together with some of them and play! There’s a group in Alberta called Foothills Bluegrass Society that hosts a few weekly jam sessions. I’ve been meaning to go for about 6 months with my guitar, but work was taking up my early evenings. Now that I have the banjo, I’m really excited to take in some tips from experienced players. I will definitely be posting about it!

Happy pickin’

Mr. Honey

Hillbilly Fever: Intro to Banjar

Posted by kait / February 25, 2011

On Sunday February 20th, 2011, at Vintage Music 88, I bought my first banjo. It’s an instrument I’ve wanted for a mere few months. I can’t quite remember where I got it in my head that bluegrass music was something I wanted to learn. I imagine in the same way a mountaineer might look upon Mt. Everest, I found bluegrass towering over every musical influence of roots, rock and rebel music I’ve picked, strummed and bashed out on my 6-string for almost 20 years. But bluegrass isn’t like Mt. Everest; world famous and ‘can’t-miss-it.’ It’s more like the Appalachian mountains it comes from. Sprawls across the entire North American continent and still obscured, misunderstood, and mystical. My kind of sprawl. (congratz Arcarde Fire)

I’ve now decided to blog about my ‘banjar’ and my life with it. I’m hoping my banjo creates some great stories, relationships and most importantly, music. Earl Scruggs started picking when he was 4 years old. I’m 30 and just beginning…..I’ve also never blogged. Welcome to the 21st century! There’s no way Scruggs would approve of this. I’ll be back really soon to talk about my banjo and banjo-related discussions.

I know when you visit yuppielove.org you expect a higher degree of writing, ideas and creativity from the amazing Kait Kucy. It’s OK! You just happen to click on her husband’s section! All the good stuff can be found everywhere else!

Comments are always welcome (Thriftstore Cowgirl! That means you!). What’s the point of music without a community, right?! Even if it is the backwoods of the inter-web.

Happy pickin’
Mr. Honey

Introducing Guest Blogger Mr Honey with ‘Hillybilly Fever’

Posted by kait / February 25, 2011

Yes, that is right! My sweet husband, Byron aka Mr Honey is going to be doing some guest-blogging here on Yuppie Love about his new banjo and the experience of learning this new instrument. Be sure to watch his new blog series starting tonight if you are interested in music and specifically bluegrass, folk and roots music as he will be sharing lots of great videos of his favourites as well as him playing guitar and banjo.

No banjo in the Little Jimmy Dickens version but this song inspired the title of the blog series.

xo Kait

Holly’s Dream Kitchen

Posted by kait / February 25, 2011

My sweet friend Holly over at Thriftstore Cowgirl has entered this amazing contest on Chatelaine to win your dream kitchen from IKEA. You can view and vote for her submission here at Chatelaine. I took a screencapture of her submission which you can see below and I definitely think she deserves an amazing kitchen to spend her time in. With her lovely little son, Miles, getting bigger and smarter everyday (I’m counting down the days until he gets his first baby baking set) and her baking and cooking endeavours expanding (you can read all of her foodie adventures at Thriftstore Cowgirl) she will certainly need a beautiful kitchen to feel inspired by. So please vote for my friend!!! xoxo

our new place: the kitchen

Posted by kait / February 23, 2011

Happy Wednesday! Sorry for the delay in posts! This grey and bitter weather has me bundled up on the couch watching movies instead of spending time on the internet. I’d love to continue the tour of our new apartment; today with our kitchen. The first photograph is featuring one of the most important places in the kitchen: the coffee zone. My parents got this great KRUPS Espresso Machine for Byron for his 30th Birthday and it was probably the best gift for him ever. Guy is addicted to making cappuccinos now which works out great for me! Though, I should track down some decaf beans now that I am off caffeine right now. The light blue cake stand holds some of my favourite items. Those beautiful lace-inspired espresso cups were found in Nelson, BC and the ‘Milk & Honey’ pitcher & white honey pot was a gift from my Mom to me for Christmas. Its definitely one of my favourite parts of the kitchen.

This cabinet is where I store all of my canned goods and preserved that I make. As you can see, supplies are currently low but I have a plan to make Blood Orange Marmalade and Key Lime Curd this week. I keep my 1950s Easterling Celestial Starburst plate set here as well as various cake stands, tea pots, and cheese boards. And of course, a bottle of dessert port from Sonoma Valley on our honeymoon.

This has got to be one of the greatest built-in features of our kitchen. This glass front cabinet houses all of my favourite cookbooks and food magazines. Along with that I keep all of my party plates and those little cups from our wedding. Pretty handmade doilies from Nicoleirene Dyck are folded up for future beautiful table displays and a selection of red wines wait to be opened.

I am still so in love with our new dining table. We like to keep it simple with a bowl of Pink Lady apples and my favourite art piece, ‘Get Food’ by Calgary-to-Brooklyn artist Matt Luckhurst.

My Mom gave us this darling drink set for Christmas! I just think it is SO sweet so it remains on the kitchen bar at all times. Love!

Views of the kitchen….

Another favourite corner of the kitchen. My beloved Kitchenaid mixer and my equally beloved Cuisinart bread maker. A lot of amazing foods get made in this area of the kitchen and I can’t wait to experiment with more amazing recipes. I am thinking a delicious cinnamon bread and some butternut squash ravioli with my pasta maker attachment. Also, I love the “Oh Deer” plate we picked up in San Francisco. It is so adorable!

Here is a tiny peak into our (very messy) walk-in pantry. I plan on doing a whole makeover on the pantry with no organizational containers making it much more usuable and less likely to have a half-full bag of chocolate chips spilling all over the floor. Stay tuned for that project. It shall be wonderful! xo

a new addition to our family!

Posted by kait / February 19, 2011

Byron and I are picking up his brand spankin’ new banjo tomorrow! Can’t for more twangy good times to be happenin’ round our house. Now I just need to pick up the fiddle and get rolling right?

market finds

Posted by kait / February 19, 2011

Saturdays are the best. Today we slept in and ate random food for breakfast like avocados and brown rice tortillas. Yum. After I HAD to finish watch Serendipity on TV we headed to the Market to get some fresh fruit and see what else we may find. Sadly, I was seriously craving ataulfo mangos but they were are over-ripe so I settled on some blackberries and blueberries. Also, picked up some sweet corn-on-the-cob and a big bag of blood oranges to make more Blood Orange Marmalade! We picked up a new jar of honey from our favourite honey man at the market, this time we got creamed honey with cinnamon! Can’t wait to try it out!

After visiting the fruit market we ventured into the “flea” part of the market. We found some great stuff including Byron’s score of a great old country record.

I found these adorable vintage baking supplies including a box of beautiful coloured baking cups and this adorable box of vintage birthday candles. I am in LOVE with the design.

I also found this awesome tin mug feature these three fabulous hillbillies apparently from Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada. I love it.

I am totally excited about this perogy maker tool. Not sure how it works yet but once I open it up I hope to become a perogy-making machine. It came from a place called Sara’s Pyrohy Hut on Centre Street and 12th Avenue NE. I wonder if this place is still around.

Pink Lady Apples are the pretties apples you can get. So shiny and pink!

Pineapples at the Farmers Market. Somehow I can’t fathom that these are local.

Even though I have a huge collection of beautiful deer figurines I couldn’t handle this wall pair. They are actually fuzzy to touch which creeped me out and had me imagining miniature deers coming to life while I sleep.

The ultimate cookbook. There is nothing about the cover of this book that makes me want to eat any kind of food. Shudder.

On the contrary I quite enjoyed the cover of this cookbook. I like the title and the little illustrations are great. Didn’t purchase either cookbook.

This weekend is a long weekend in Calgary so I am excited to have two more days off to get more things done and relax and watch movies. xo

chills and thrills: winter fashion

Posted by kait / February 18, 2011

Its pretty clear that here in Calgary winter is not over and won’t be over for quite sometime. It is literally -21 degrees Celsius out there right now and with the windchill it feels like -31. Awesome. Anyways, as I was pondering how long winter might be on the bone-chilling face-burning walk to work this morning, I came to think about winter fashion. We are so lucky in Calgary that we get Chinooks quite often allowing us to avoid the oft unavoidable slump of winter dressing.

However, lately it has been incredibly cold making it so hard to get dressed in the morning. I long for trench coats and flats with no socks. Cuffed jeans and light sweaters. Dresses? Oh my goodness. But instead I am forced to pull on thick black tights of which I own several pairs (the warmest you can buy) and layer on a skirt, a shirt, a sweater, a couple of scarves, and my biggen woolen coat. Oh yes, and my lovely toque and leather gloves. Depending on the sidewalk conditions, as I walk to work everyday, I alternate between some sort of black Ugg boot, sleek knee high flat boots, ankle length slip-on red leather booties, or post-Chinook I even walk out in my green & black plaid rubber boots from Joe Fresh.

I want to improve my winter fashion especially if winter is going to last so long. There is no way I am going to slump my way through the rest of this season. I’ve been doing pretty good so far this year, but another couple -31 days and I’ll be breaking out some fashion faux-pas. The trouble is though — how do you dress fashionable and NOT freeze?

Here are some great images I found on The Sartorialist that I think could be translated into my daily wear. Totally practical, gorgeous, and sophisticated not typical winter wear:

I found this image on the Sartorialist which was comforting because this is pretty much what I look everyday going to work. Flyaway curls, big black infinity scarf, and slouchy black woolen coat. Just substitute her hat for my black toque with a pom-pom.

Did I mention that I love monotone colour palettes in winter? Wish I could pull of heels like that but I would probably wear this outfit with a taupe suede Pan-esque flat boot instead to avoid breaking my neck on the icy YYC sidewalks.

This outfit wouldn’t be work-appropriate but I absolutely would wear this look like crazy on weekends. Love the little cuffed jeans with contrast of a fur vest and bit bulky sweater. The little wedge boots are great too — a little bit Seventies! I would be wear some tan socks with this outfit however, no bare ankles!

I love her take on menswear. This look would be worn on a warmer day or with more layers if it was really cold out. I find I get a lot of inspiration from menswear lately. Maybe its because Byron is pretty much the perfect mannequin/husband and loves to wear great tailored menswear — but sometimes I catch myself wishing I could wear all that great tailored stuff too! Trouble is, how do you wear menswear and still look feminine?

I look forward to taking elements from some of these New Yorkers into my daily winter style routine. I am not too far off which makes me feel a lot better but there is definitely some pieces and boots I could be adding to my collection to make it really work.

cleansing my soul/self

Posted by kait / February 18, 2011

I started a cleanse yesterday, basically eliminating all of the junk I have been eating since Christmas out of my diet. So far so good but it is definitely going to take a bit of time to get used to it. I set a goal of 14 days for the cleanse and essentially this is a self-crafted cleanse so I am eliminating anything I currently feel is bad for my body and I might be indulging in a bit too much.

As you know, I am already Celiac so no gluten or wheat, though I feel like I did have a gluten incident a couple of weeks ago so it will be could to rid my body of that as well. At the moment I am eliminating: refined sugars, dairy, sodium (already pretty good for this but NO CHIPS!), bread & pasta, red meat, caffiene, and alcohol. Its been a little tough already avoiding the coffee shops but I am getting by on lots of water and caffeine-free green tea. But how much I would love a nice warm latte!

Yesterday I tried soygurt for the first time and was unpleasantly surprised. The kind I bought was absolutely disgusting. One spoonful in and I was done. However, I learned from my pals on facebook yesterday that there are better tastier brands out there, but ultimately goat’s milk yogurt is the best way to go if you are not doing cow dairy. However, all of the veggies and fruits I have been eating lately definitely make up for that bad experience. Last night we had delicious chicken tacos with avocado, fresh tomatoes, onion, red pepers, and beans. I tried a really good mozzarella soy cheese which is made in the Okanagan. I just had a little bit grated on my tacos and then some amazing tomatillo salsa!!! A delicious grapefruit and a bit of apple for dessert finished me off. It was really hard though later in the evening because we had some brownie mix in the pantry and Byron was totally tempting me until I reminded him that brownies have loads of sugar and dairy in them! Geez!