Restoring An Old Family Sign

Over the weekend I restored this old Fandrich family sign. 

It originally hung on my grandparent's house, where I remember it most vividly as a little kid hanging off of their front deck. It then ended up in Calgary, then on my uncle's house back in the Hat, and then eventually in storage. This summer my cousin uncovered it (looking a little worse for wear) and asked if I wanted it. 

Following a cleaning, thorough sanding, complete restaining, and a little paint - this decades old sign has found a new home on the wall in my entryway. I think it turned out pretty good? It's always nice having a story attached.

Christmas Snapshots 2014

I had a great Christmas this year. After a week long run of get-togethers with family and friends, lots of food, and some generous gifts, I'm feeling exhausted, but happy. Here are a few of my snapshots of the festivities (including the Christmas tree at Hollywood and Highland from my road trip a few weeks ago). For more, you can follow my Instagram feed here.

Christmas Snapshots 2013

Our family had an amazing Christmas this year. There were lots of get-togethers, endless amounts of food, and some entertaining gifts. Here are a few of my snapshots from this year's festivities.

A Bigger, Better Christmas Tree

My tree last year (although still epic) seemed to be under an increasing amount of stress because of all the ornaments I had tried to hang on it. I've been collecting movie themed ornaments since film school, so the collection has been steadily growing. However, I knew that for 2013 an upgrade would have to be in order if I didn't want to come home to tree likely to fall over.

I live in a loft apartment with 12 foot ceilings, so I found a really nice 8 foot tree that fit the space perfectly. It matches the scale of the open concept a lot better than my previous tree did, and there's plenty of room for new ornaments now. As is always the case, my tree went up the first weekend of November and I've been digging the lights. The tree provides a perfect backdrop to my late nights spent editing as I'm still rushing to wrap up a ton of end of year projects. If it didn't seem so eccentric, I'd probably keep the tree up year round.

A Good Old-Fashioned Canadian Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebrations have never really been that elaborate. A stuffed turkey, the usual starches, and a few rounds of giving thanks seem to sum up the occasion. Spending time with the family is especially nice though, and my folks cooked an amazing meal for us to enjoy. A few games, lots of laughs, and full bellies makes it easy to be thankful for all we've got - and let's be honest, it's easy to forget sometimes. Cheers to you and yours on this festive turkey day. Happy Thanksgiving!

An Epic Spring Clean

Generally speaking I'm a pretty organized guy. I'd like to think that it's the editor in me that makes me compartmentalize things so efficiently, but then again maybe I'm just a bit obsessive. Unfortunately, this obsessiveness hasn't extended to my cleaning habits, which are fairly hit and miss. But then that's okay, because it's exactly the kind of thing that you can find yourself sucked into doing by accident on a day off.

Despite not planning to spend an entire day cleaning my apartment, once I started I couldn't seem to stop. I was looking for a book in my collection and started cleaning a shelf, then I was cleaning off the entire bookcase, and then shortly after the vacuum was out. Before I knew it I'd swept and dusted the entire apartment on the back of rediscovering a bunch of my stuff. Funny how much stuff you forget about isn't it?

There's something quite cathartic about cleaning like that. It's like my space is brand new again, and I feel surprisingly proud for doing little more than not being a slob. It must have something to do with the awesome weather we've been having too, as I can't help but stay busy to shake off some of the humdrum of winter. With so many big projects on the go, it's also just nice to finish something in a day and be able to enjoy the outcome.

The point is, my spring clean was a success and a surprisingly effective way to mellow out. With my birthday celebrations this evening, I look forward to waking up hungover tomorrow (on my actual birthday) in a spotless apartment. The timer starts again however to see how long I can actually keep it this way.

Salvaged Jaguar Decor

My 1999 Jaguar XJ8 may be gone now, but you wouldn't know it if you came to my place for a visit. Before it had to be abandoned I salvaged what I could from the Jag to sell parts of it online. Not surprisingly, I ended up keeping most of the best bits for myself as mementos - and who could blame me considering what a beautiful car it really was? I think my place is looking especially trendy now that it's decked out in some unique (and somewhat custom) Jaguar decor. 

I have to say that living in a loft space with polished concrete floors, exposed duct work, and 12 foot ceilings really suits the upscale salvage yard aesthetic (I'm not sure that's really a thing, but I can picture it being said on one of those home reno shows). Not everyone can pull off a Jaguar alloy in their living room, but given my eclectic surroundings I think it works. I only wish I would've had space to turn my entire car into a bookshelf like this. On the other hand, with several of the large photo prints I shot of my Jag as a backdrop, I think I'm well on my way to having a personal XJ8 museum in the comfort of my own home.

For starters, I kept the full size spare because of its pristine condition. I doubt anyone ever used it, and so it remained covered for all of those years in the trunk. The alloy has absolutely no scuffs or marks and the original Pirelli tire looks like new. Granted it was a big souvenir to hold onto, but it's so shiny!

Speaking of which, the hood ornament (or leaper) from my Jag was the most obvious of all of the souvenirs to keep. My dad made me a custom base to mount it to, and because I had previously replaced the leaper and made it removable after the original one was stolen, my new leaper hardly spent any time out in the weather. Looking at it on my shelf now, it's not hard to see why they're such a tempting target for thieves.   

On the slim shelf I have next to my front door I decided to get creative. I moved things around and fit each of the Jag's four circular headlights perfectly into their own cubbyholes. I suppose I could have sold them, but I think they look pretty cool like this. I'm still working out what to do with the taillights, but I like the idea of back lighting one of them and creating a novelty lamp for a shelf or something. We'll see.

The parts I saved from my Jaguar were both big and small. The custom gear shift knob I special ordered from a craftsman in Quebec for instance, now sits in a little bowl behind my couch. Compare this to the grill of my Jaguar, which is just slightly more noticeable and is fit snugly into the shelf in my entry way. I also fit a piece of the stained burled walnut dash into the space just below it.

Not all of the parts have a place yet, and I'm not sure all of them ever will. One of the nicest displays I put together though was of my Jaguar badges, the wheel centre caps, and my leaper key chain. They're all in a wooden box with a glass top and they look pretty sweet all laid out together. It's the one memento that seems most nostalgic, not just because the car's make and model is clearly on display, but because I carried that key chain everywhere, I bought that Jaguar badge as a replacement after a long search to find the right one, and the XJ8 badge was a replacement that I asked for as a Christmas present.

Everywhere you look in my place there's a little bit of my old Jag around. I'm still not quite over the car dying on me so suddenly, but at the same time I never would've been able to display and enjoy all of these souvenirs if I had sold the Jag as-is. This way, I'm at least reminded of what a beautiful vehicle it was, and the new decor certainly makes for some entertaining conversation starters.