Moved!

Hey guys, I moved to www.stepintomyday.com
Kiss from the beach xox

Dawson College Illustration & Design : Alexandre Boyadjiev

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Vernissage of Dawson's Illustration & Design graduates. One of the graduates, Alexandre Boyadjiev, is a friend of mine from high school and I feel very privileged every time I get an opportunity to see his work (previously posted here). His distinctive style continues to fascinate me, I wish him all the best and infinite success in animation next year!

Signature 2011 by Lena Saharov

These amazing pictures were taken by my dear friend and photographer Lena Saharov during my graduation show.

Enjoy!

Signature 2011

Last night, I graduated. As of this morning, I am officially a designer.

The past few days were full of emotion, excitement and joy. The Signature 2011 fashion show was held at the Olympic Stadium in front of an audience of 4000, showcasing the work of 92 graduates and thousands of hours of hard work. I had the pleasure and honour of coordinating the back-stage group alongside other coordinators and supervisors. Our entire back-stage team smoothly juggled the biggest and most important fashion show in Canada. I'm so proud of everyone who participated. Let vacation begin!

video via ModeMontrealTV

 model T.K. and coordinator Anthony 

 hair and makeup

Mark-Antoine and I in our coordinator pose

 interview before the show goes live on collegelasalle.com/signature2011

our gorgeous models, competing to get a contact with Montage model agency

line-up of graduates, ready to walk the runway at the end of the show

photos by T.K. Kubo and Amanda Moloney

more pictures and videos to come!

Imadake

What is sho...chu? Or oooo.....ko...no...mi...yaki?

This was me Tuesday night at Imadake, a new izakaya, Japanese pub food, opened on St-Catherine street accross from Alexis Nihon ealier this year. I have been meaning to go there since my japanese designer friend T.K. told me about it over lunch at Tokyo earlier in march. "That place is better than Kazu". I haven't been to Kazu, but I knew about the hype.

What caught my attention at first was the decor. I was mesmerized . "Very plateau" Monsieur said. "You don't see this a lot in Westmount". Yeah, I thought, it's about time. 

The menu spikes your curiosity *, shochu turns out to be a date-alcoholic beverage (they were out of) and okonomiyaki is a seafood pancake, which I shall try next time. We decided on a handful of appetizers, all at 3-8$ each. The first plate (forgot the name, sorry, Imadake's website is still in the process of creation and my Japanese skills are ... inexistent!) was raw beef sprinkled with fresh black pepper and covered in a aroma-ful marinade, with green onions on top. This plate was a success, a perfect way to start our supper. Then came edamame, mushroom miso soup, karaage chicken (deep fried with a wasabi-mayo sauce on a bed of greens), vegetable tempura, chicken on skewers, shrimp tempura and black sesame ice cream.  Everything was fantastic, the tempura was lightly-battered, the chicken was juicy and the ice cream blew my mind. They have a wide selection of alcoholic beverages and ramen noodles as "mains". The clientele was mainly asian, which is always a good sign. Next time, I'm going for takoyaki and okonomiyaki, perhaps with my japanese friend.

*if you're not Japanese 

Queue de cheval

For our 5th year anniversary, Monsieur and I went to Queue de Cheval.

Queue de Cheval is a posh New York-style steak house, and I was expecting it to be intimidating to say the least. As we entered, a hostess walked us to our table, taking our coats along the way. Then, seated, our waiters brought us to the table the daily's cuts: thick, prime, dry-aged USDA beef butchered in-house  of various cuts, giant shrimp and crayfish lobster displayed on a rolling table. I was dazzled by the thickness of the meat. But I was set in mind before entering this place, I was going for the Lou's choice cut [20 oz]. At this point, cheating on lent was ... an understatement.

As a side I chose a Idaho style baked potato and Monsieur took garlic mashed. With red wine the mix was a delight. My "cut" was beyond any steak I've ever had = I see why this place costs an arm and a half. When we asked for the dessert menu, they brought a rolling display of all the desserts on the menu and we dived into a "Death by chocolate" cake. Death, indeed.

I left the place, roses in hand, impressed by the service (waiter to ourselves - check, bringing-your coat-for-you-at-the-end-of-your-meal - check, making you feel like you're on-top-of-the-world- check), meat-cravings satisfied... feeling like one hell of a lucky gal!