When I looked over Sarah Burton’s latest collection- I was floored! How can she keep the McQueen look with such simple, elegant, classic pieces?

Look 2 and Look 10 (below) are definite throwbacks to past collections with the mirrored prints and signature necklines.

I want every piece. One for me, one for the men in my life.

What have your favourite collections been this season?

I can’t wait for Dior, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Viktor & Rolf, Miu Miu and Stella McCartney at Paris Fashion Week.

Monday morning Nathalie Godbout from Lawson & Creamer Lawyers posted a trivia question about my favourite Saint John City Councillor (also a lawyer at Lawson Creamer), Mel Norton.

Next thing I know, I’m making a date to sit court-side for the Mill Rats at Harbour Station with my good friend and fellow BBall fan, Kâté Braydon.

Here is my idea of the perfect basketball attire….

1. Skinny Jeans
2. The Perfect Black Scarf
3. iPhone – for Live Tweeting and Instagrams!
4. Chuck Taylors
5. Ray-Bans
6. Black T-Shirt, part of my uniform!

I did, however, make a point to sit down and soak up the Michael Kors Fall 2012 RTW show…. and I was not disappointed.

Michael Kors has editing down to a science. His looks are so creative and yet, never too busy.

Let me know what you think!

Red and Black and Grey…. my ideal closet colour palette.

xo!

There is nothing more exciting then looking at runway looks and recreating them at work the next day or on the weekend with your girlfriends.

Rachel Zoe’s Fall collection is perfect. Menswear inspired looks with the 70s edge she’s known for. Totally into it.

After seeing a few other collections… I have to say, I’m not really into it! I’m excited for the muted colours along with the greys and blacks but PLEASE, don’t like leprechaun chunky heels come back.

Seriously, who doesn’t love their favourite celebs strutting their stuff in one of a kind designer wear!?

Here are a few of my favourite looks from the Grammy Awards:

{ Adele in Armani }

{ Carrie Underwood in Gomez Garcia  }

{ Paris Hilton in Basil Soda }

{ Rihanna in a custom Giorgio Armani }

{ Gwenyth Paltrow in Stella McCartney }

{ Taylor Swift in Zuhair Murad }

Some of the men at the Grammy Awards hit it out of the park, too….

{ Bruno Mars. Babe. }

{ Maroon5. Adam Levine is wearing Tom Ford. }

{ Mumford & Sons in WOOL and UNTIED WORK BOOTS. Sigh. }

You may remember Michelle from the City Market – she opened Sisters Italian restaurant! You may remember her from Saint John City Council, she was elected Deputy Mayor under Norm McFarlane. Now you will remember her as the curator of Italian eats at the Urban Deli.

Read on!

{ Michelle in her kitchen. Photo by Kelly Lawson }

Hi Michelle! Tell me about yourself and what you do!

I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t think about cooking. I was 5 years old when Mom and Dad gave me an Easy Bake Oven…poor Dad! He choked down every nasty little cake that I made! I was a latch-key kid. It was my job to prepare our family’s week night suppers from the time that I was 10 years old. I remember sitting in grade school thinking about what I would cook for supper. It was no hardship to me. I loved being in the kitchen…nothing has changed. I rarely cook for myself. If I am alone, a box of Kraft dinner and a beer does me fine . For me, cooking is an expression of love. I cook for the people that I love to spend time with.

*From her Website

You’ve been keeping a secret in Saint John for almost a year.

How did Liz approach you?

About two years ago, my husband Ralph and I went for lunch at the Urban Deli. The owner, Liz Rowe served us. As we were leaving, she told me that she was really interested in Italian food and wondered if she could ‘pick my brain’. She knew that I had developed Sister’s Italian Foods in the City Market. I told her that I would love to talk ‘Italian’ with her and left her to get in touch with me. I did not hear from her so I figured she was just making small talk. A year later, we were at the Deli again when Liz asked if I was still willing to chat with her. I no longer thought she was serious but said, ‘you have my number’. She called the next day.

{ Michelle and Liz in the kitchen. Photo by Michelle’s Dad }

Surprise! You’re not only coming up with the concept and the menu, you’re going to be cooking.

How did that come about?

We planed to meet the following evening at my home for, what I thought would be, an hour long chat. Five hours later, I had agreed to spend the next three months teaching Liz to cook ‘Italian.’ We met two to three times a week for three-hour sessions. She was very serious and learned very quickly. Beyond our cooking lessons, Liz also hired me to develop a menu for her ‘dream Italian restaurant’. She did not want North American style Italian. She is passionate about offering authentic Italian food. I loved working on this project. When I finished, I thought that would be the end of our business relationship. Three months later she presented me with a concept that she had seen in New York City. A deli by day that serves Italian food in the evening. A tiny little place with seating for less than 20 people! I understood immediately what she was thinking. Brilliant – Capitalize on your investment. I loved it! Then she said, ‘but there is one thing – I want you in the kitchen.’ I was stunned. I had retired three years earlier. I was considering running for council again. I was spending a lot of time on my blog. I was not thinking of cooking professionally again. I took some time to digest her offer. It felt right so here we are.

{ Sisters in the Saint John City Market. Painting by Jack Bishop }

You have entrepreneurship in your blood.

Tell me about the businesses you’ve created and operated in Saint John and in NYC!

I opened my first business in 1982 on King St. It was an aerobics exercise studio. One year later, I opened Body Electric Aerobics at 626 Broadway in New York City. I returned home to Saint John five years later and opened a catering business called Larkspur and Sage with my best friend Christie McDonald. My twin daughters Kaitie and Meaghan were 10 months old when we landed our first job. We used to show up at our catering jobs with a super sized playpen and two adorable little girls in tow. When I think back on it, probably not the most professional way to present ourselves…but the food rocked! In 1992, I opened The Secret Garden in the centre aisle of the City Market specializing in fresh and dried floral arrangements. I sold The Secret Garden in 2001. In 1999, I opened Sister’s Italian Food. A small Italian gourmet take out and grocery store. I offered house made pastas, sauces, breads, salads, sandwiches and pizzas along with imported Italian groceries, meats and cheeses. I had a ball! I sold Sister’s in 2005. Both establishments continue to thrive today.

On you’re blog, Bite by Michelle, you’ve said that cooking is a social thing for you.

Who do you write to?

I starting blogging in April 2011. I write to my daughters. When the girls were little, they loved me telling them stories about our family. Bitebymichelle.com started out as recipes only and somehow morphed into what it is today.

{ Michelle’s Farm }

What is a typical day like for you? What is your dream day?

Sigh…sadly my personality has never allowed me to have a typical day. Every day is a mystery tour! A dream day would be to have Ralph and my daughters all to myself for three weeks on the island of Milos. Is it OK that my day is three weeks? lol

Just for fun….

What is your favourite song right now?

My favorite song – too many to list

What book are you reading?

I am in 2 book clubs. I am reading When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

What is the one cookbook every “chef” should have?

The Joy of Cooking- great reference book

What television show are you currently addicted to?

Downton Abbey

What is your “comfort food”?

Potato Scallop

{ Michelle’s Pantry }

What’s next?

All of my life I have lived in the moment giving very little thought to ‘what’s next’ As long as I am happy doing what I am doing, I am content.

——————————————–

Thanks, Michelle!

To stay up on all of the news, follow Michelle’s blog at http://www.BitebyMichelle.com

Follow her on Twitter:

Follow @BitebyMichelle

You have a chance this weekend to get a piece of original art at a STEAL.

Gallery Connexion is hosting an event called “Put Your Heart Into Art“.

Basically, you pay $75 for a dart. You throw the dart at the wall and receive a number. The number corresponds to a piece of art in the gallery that is now yours!

I don’t see how you could go wrong! The pieces have all been donated, so the fee you’re paying goes directly back into the gallery.

I hope you can make it!

It seems that these monthly makeup subscriptions are popping up everywhere! I can think of 4 Canadian makeup boxes off the top of my head.. do you know of more?

Just last week I received my newest Loose Button Luxe Box.

My original plan for these sample boxes was to fork out enough for three months and make a decision at the end of the term as to which box I’d keep subscribing to. So far, the competition is neck in neck. (You can see the contents of my January Glymm box here).

Without going into too much detail… here are a few photos of the contents of my box. I was especially excited about the coffee (!!!), the perfume samples and the 5 blade razor. Amazing!

{ I am in love with the personalized labels! }

!!!! SPOILER !!!!

{ Perfect packaging & presentation }

{ The Goodies Inside my Loose Button Box this month }

Contents:

Curly Hair Solutions // Curl Keeper
NYX // Round Lipstick **Full Size!
NYX // Jumbo Eye Pencil **Full Size!
Loose Button // My Scent (Collection of fragrance samples including Prada, Nina Ricci +++)
Seattle’s Best Coffee // Level 3 Sample

{ I also received an additional box called the “Bath and Body” Box – Exciting! }

I fully support the purchase of these subscription based makeup sample purchases. It’s so fun opening a new box each month filled with SURPRISES!

Just like Glymm….

If you’re interested in signing up, you can follow this link to their site. Look around… YouTube some Loose Button Luxe Box reviews and see if it interests you!

P.S. You can share this post if you liked it….

Tweet

Note: If you sign up for a Loose Button Luxe Box using any of the links posted above, I will receive points from Loose Button to use toward my own free boxes. I purchased this Loose Button Luxe Box as part of my own subscription. XO!

When I started approaching people to do interviews for my blog about the festival, Andrew was the first person I asked.

Instead of the “yeah sure, Barb. Send over the questions”… his response was “Have you seen my baby????? Here is a pic of him getting his feet inspected by his mom. Currently my favourite picture“. I love it.

Andrew released his newest album, “Treelines” on January 31st. You can stream it here or purchase a copy here.

Enjoy the interview!

{ Andrew Sisk a couple of weeks ago playing at Backstreet Records in Saint John }

Hi Andrew! Tell me about yourself and what you do!

I am a guy who makes music and I recently became a Father. I make music when I can and work whatever jobs allow me the time to do so.

You started performing under the name share, then started a collaboration called Coco et. Co and now you’re performing as Andrew Sisk.

Tell me about your transformation/evolution!

When I first started making music I wanted it to be a band, even though it was only me at the time, I released the first 2 albums as Share that way and then was lucky enough to have talented friends join me on the later 3 albums. When I moved to Montreal 3 years ago my partner, Miranda, and I started making recordings and released an album as Coco et co. which is my current passion. We were working on our new album when we found out we were pregnant. I knew that we would be too busy to finish the record for a while so I finished up some recordings I had started with friends in Montreal and decided to release it as a solo album.

Where does your songwriting inspiration come from? Books? Real life?

Oh dear. I would say most of my songs are based on real things but not in a journalistic way. I would say my songs are fiction and sometimes based on fiction. I read a lot of poetry, especially post second world war Canadian poetry, and find those writers consistently inspiring but only in the way that I want to become a better writer. I see this whole artistic endeavour as an evolution, most of my favourite writers matured later in life and I hope to do this for a long time.

Tell me about your newest album, Tree Lines.

Well, it’s several songs that I’ve had kicking around for a while and then I added in a couple new compositions that are instrumentals that sort of punctuate the album. My favourite parts are the contributions that my friends made. It was recorded in bits and pieces over the last 3 years so I was able to collect performances from some of my favourite musicians and let the songs have time to grow. You can’t go wrong with having lots of time and talented people working on something.

Tell me why you’re excited to be playing during the Shivering Songs festival.

I have never been so excited for a festival line up, perhaps ever. Mark Kozelek, Mike O’Neill, and Mike Feuerstack (Snailhouse) are some of my favourite songwriters of all time not to mention some of my local favourites Postdata, Paper Beat Scissors, Gypsophilia, as well as all my friends bands that are playing. It will be an amazing time of friends and good music. I can’t wait.

What are your three favourite songs right now?

That’s always a hard question so I will keep it to acts that are playing shivering songs – Tonight in Bilboa- Sun Kil Moon, Wasted Time- Mike O’Neil, I never woke up- Snailhouse

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Andrew Sisk plays Saturday afternoon at the Wilmot United Church, 473 King Street. Show is at 2pm.

Stay up to date on all of the Shivering Songs happenings:

Follow Shivering Songs on Twitter:

Follow @ShiveringSongs

Like Shivering Songs on Facebook

When I heard about Southern Souls, it was like mitch Fillion was reading my mind. He videos artists playing a song or two in quiet spaces. 1 or 2 takes only, to get an authentic, unrehearsed version of a song.

He’s attending the Shivering Songs festival this weekend to shoot a few bands and to teach a class at the college.

Take a read through the interview and watch a few of the videos I’ve posted below…

{ Photo by Julie Lavelle }

Hi Mitch! Tell me about yourself and what you do!

Hi! I shoot live music videos for southernsouls.ca and have produced over 675 in the last 2 and a half years so it’s become a bit of an obsession for me and it can be depressing to have any long periods of time off.

What is the process for making a Southern Souls video?

In the early days I used to contact all the artists myself but I get about 20 email requests a day now so it’s just a matter of sifting through them to find the ones I want to work with. First off we decide on a location. If the artist is choosing the spot they’ll send me some photos for approval. Sometimes I show up early to where the artist will be in town and find a location myself, especially for touring artists. We hang out for about an hour and shoot a couple songs, usually one or two takes of each song. I tend to go home and start editing right away and send the band a preview that night or the next morning. I don’t have a personal Facebook account or twitter, but they are important when you’re running a blog so I just make sure to post a link whenever something new is ready.

Since you’ve started videoing band performances, was there ever a time that you were starstruck?

Definitely when filming with David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) and with the guys from Joan Of Arc. I grew up listening to their entire discographies so it was pretty surreal to hang out with them both. I’d say Joan Of Arc covering Owls was something I felt most proud to capture, yet it’s probably my least played video on the site oddly enough.

Tell me why you’re excited to be attending the Shivering Songs festival.

Do you have any video shoots lined up?

I’ve been out to Fredericton once before to shoot with The Olympic Symphonium. It’s a great little city. I love travelling and covering festivals like this. I covered Halifax Pop Explosion not too long ago and it’s just a lot of fun to be so busy in such a short amount of time. My main job is to cover the festival but I also snuck in a shoot with Mike O’Neil and on my last morning in town I also have to teach a class at the local college which will be a bit frightening for me and my anxiety issues.

What are your three favourite songs right now?

That’s a tough question but I’d have to say Devon Sproule – “The Unmarked Animals”, Doctor Ew – “Let’s Make It Legitimate”, and Mike O’Neil – “This Is Who I Am”

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THE OLYMPIC SYMPHONIUM – No Bad Habits from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

The Olympic Symphonium play Friday night at the Wilmot United Church, 473 King Street. Show is at 8pm.

CATHERINE MACLELLAN – True Love from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

Catherine MacLellan plays Saturday at the Wilmot United Church, 473 King Street. Show is at 2pm.

Stay up to date on all of the Shivering Songs happenings:

Follow Southern Souls and Shivering Songs on Twitter:

Follow @Southern_Souls

Follow @ShiveringSongs

Like Shivering Songs on Facebook