fresh.

not too long ago, i was down in seattle on a shopping trip with a friend, and of course we had to stop in to sephora. i ended up just purchasing a bar of soap (as i’m not quite the make-up junkie she is). but not just any bar of soap! the best smelling soap in the world: fresh nectarine milk soap. wow, i’m hooked.

the smoothest cup in the west

wouldn’t you know it, but cup of style landed itself in regina, saskatchewan over the weekend. wackiness! insanity! coffee! jolly good times over there on the prairies, there’s not much to do, so stimulants go over a long way. seeing as how there was an abundance of west coast style weather: 12 degrees! sideways rain! goose poo! we felt that some caffeine was in order. yup we flew all the way from vancouver to vancouver, saskatchewan. sunniest capital in canada? my sweet west coast ass. anyway, as has been mentioned by the style half of this blog, we attended the cathedral village arts festival and holy shit it was happenin. don’t believe anyone lives on the praries? then check again at these awesome badboys.

yeah oh yeah and they have coffee there. we went to a brand new gourmet food store/coffee shop called moe & jeff’s gourmet foods (regina!) and i had an excellent americano. indeed, it was soo smooth and lacking in bitterness i thought it was a decaf. anyway, you can see for yourself from the decently sexy photo below that regina has good coffee and good times for all

dinosaur designs

my mum recently returned from a trip to n.y., bringing back lovely treasure for me in the form of two bangles made by dinosaur designs:

it’s a design trio out of sydney, australia, and their stuff is amazing. most of it is made of resin – the stuff that boats and surfboards are made of! check out their website for more gorgeous pieces, complete with an online shop!

new printed leggings!!

i just bought these fantastic insight leggings from nouvelle nouvelle. i love them so much i almost want to wear them to bed…
today’s outfit is comprised of:
- sisley jean jacket
- h&m scarf
- vince top
- insight tights
- vintage boots
- azuni necklace and bracelet

get excited!

PORTOBELLO WEST is this sunday, may 25th!! unfortunately, i won’t be around to go. make sure to check out:
- patina designs (denise makes the most gorgeous handmade leather bags EVER)
- filou (fiona louie’s beautiful silver and gold jewellery)
- dahlhaus ceramics (heather’s stuff is understated and tres cool)

instead i’ll be in regina with aaron visiting his mom. she reminded us that the cathedral village arts festival is on while we’re there.

we attended last year with her and it was great. tons of stuff going on, like music, food, vendors. so looks like we’ll be checking it out again. last year i scored this fab bag made by a local regina designer, lindsay edwards of conform & collide:

can’t wait to see what i find this time!

its all in the gene

i heard from a good friend of a good friend of mine that gene on main had one of the best cappuccinos in vancouver. cappuccino is a classic coffee and few places in van do it right. far too often (at least for my lactose intolerance), a cappuccino verges on becoming a latte and is therefore garbage. striking a balance between the milk, which requires its own level of love, and the espresso which requires a perfect extraction is always a difficult, nay herculean, task. given this tall order, gene on main @ kingsway does it up with a level of style and panache that sets the bar for the surrounding cafes (i’ll talk about that in a later post). long story short, the atmosphere, the super minimalist interior style, the killer breakfast, and yes the cappuccino make gene a welcome addition to the hood.

i heart nicole bridger

i just love all of the pieces from local vancouver designer nicole bridger’s collection. i am especially in love with this one AND it’s all eco-friendly. sigh.

The. Best. Coffee. I’ve. Ever. Had. Period.

starting off my series on maximum coffee snobbery, i’m taking you, my dear reader all of the way to jaffo, the old city of tel aviv in israel. this gorgeous number was found in a little italian shop off of the outdoor market. true it was a time and a moment, but i still think that it was the best coffee in a city full of awesome coffees. take a gander for your self and judge it on style, blackness and creme. try to envision pounding it back in 10 seconds, think of that delicious bitter aroma tickling, then burning the back of your throat as it flows its way down into your belly. oh yeah it was that good, i had to have another one.

the scarf of all scarves

i can’t get enough of this scarf from rogues gallery. i wear it almost every day. it’s so soft and it goes with everything! i will be sad when it’s too warm out to wear it. definitely my best purchase of this season so far.

new kid on the block

so here i am writing my very first post ever for our new blog “cup of style.” i say “our” because this is a sort of collaborative effort. well, let me explain…

i, danielle, have been enjoying reading blogs (mostly fashion and style-related ones) for some months now. my boyfriend, aaron, has asked me on several occasions “why don’t you start your own blog?” i thought, ya that’d be cool.. wait nah, i couldn’t do that, or could i?

meanwhile, aaron has been musing about writing a vancouver coffee blog himself (oh ya, btw, we live in vancouver, canada!). we both love coffee; he a fan of the americano and i a fan of the capuccino, or sometimes a good ol’ cuppa joe. we love trying new coffee shops around town, and also frequenting some of our favorite haunts (our town!!) in search of the city’s best!!

so i said to aaron, “why don’t we start a blog together?? we’ll throw in some style, some coffee, random cat photos (we love cats!) …”

the result will likely be a mish-mash of stuff (but mostly style and fashion, hee hee!) hope you enjoy it!!