the bar and bean

The bar and bean have moved platforms! We can now be found at www.thebarandbean.ca

The new site will be headed up by Katie, with occasional guest posts by Mike. We will still feature all of our favourite things: art, architecture, food, fashion, and diys. We'll also be making more of an effort to showcase our beautiful home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

A HUGE thank you to the tumblr community and our followers. Your support these past couple years has been amazing. We'd love it if you followed along on our new site!

Much, much love

-Kate and Mike

Cold with sunny skies.

Edit: anyone else notice the badittude going on in this photo set? i think sunglasses make me feel fierce.

Some days you feel crafty. So you rifle through pinterest, get inspired, and head to your local home depot. This DIY was simple. We used copper pipe, a tubing cutter (which is not the big, scary, expensive thing that I thought it was), string, scissors, paint, and paintbrushes. It took us a while to decide a shape/design, but we're pretty happy with the final result. It's fresh, modern, and colourful. There are so many ways to make this your own - different paint colours, different pipe lengths, different shapes, different types of pipe - the possibilities are endless. A huge thank you to Sugar & Cloth for her DIY modern dreamcatcher post that so inspired us!

My friend Lisa (pictured above looking adorably sleep-deprived) runs Damsel in a Dress, a fantastic humour and lifestyle blog. This week I had the honour of contributing a guest post all about self-care. Read it here, and then read everything else on her blog. She is dynamite.

I, like many others out there, have spent years inspecting and criticizing every inch of my body. My forehead is too big. My skin is too bumpy. My calves are too chunky. I even criticize my body when it is in pain (talk about kicking her when she's down). I'd have a headache or a cold or sore knees and all I could think about was how defective and weak my body is. How wimpy and pathetic a body I have! I will admit, I have been incredibly cruel to my body. I have been destructive and nasty. I have said things to her I would never say to anyone else in a million years. And throughout it all my body would only say in reply, "I still love you." You see, you can hate your body all you want, but your body will always love you. No matter how mean you are to her she will still try to clot your cuts, nourish you, and even try to keep you cool on hot days. She will try to get rid of the toxic stuff you don't need, and she will try her damndest to heal you. Your body wants you to survive. She's an optimist. Even when you are calling her trash, or treating her terribly, she will try, try, try. My body is my biggest fan. If she was a soccer mom she'd be the one at the game with face painted and a huge poster saying, "You can do it!" If I fail a test or do something I'm not proud of, she's still there plugging away for me. Our bodies may be the only true source of unconditional love out there. So, maybe, let's show our bodies some love now and then. Treat her to a nice meal. Take your vitamins. Get a good night's rest. Or at least stop berating her for a day. Remember: Your body loves you, even when you don't love her.