Sweetness and Light

Love the festive charm of decorated Christmas cookies.


(via sweet + lovely things)

Buffet

This week's links. Enjoy.

Somewhere
A review of Sophia Coppola's new film Somewhere, along with a fascinating examination of the personal journey she took to get there.

Canadian Modernism
Wallpaper magazine has a nice slide show of contemporary Canadian architecture, which it describes as "... somewhat conservative, it can also be wonderfully considered design: elements of Swiss and Finnish architectural aesthetic blended with a vernacular born out of a harsh climate and unique geographical conditions, be they crowded cities or endless expanses of wilderness."

50 Wonderful Things From 2010
NPR rounds up their favourite things from this year. Fun — and a nice break from last minute shopping stress, too.

Holiday Recycling in Paris
Clever idea in Paris — old Christmas trees are dropped off after the holiday in 95 parks and gardens throughout the city, where they are crushed and used to enrich the soil in local parks.

The Crossword Wizard
Watch Dan Feyer, crossword puzzle champ, complete a Saturday New York Times crossword (considered the trickiest of the weekly NYT puzzles) in less than 8 minutes. Wow. Via Andrew (thanks!)

8 Year Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study
This is totally great. From Wired: "A group of British schoolchildren may be the youngest scientists ever to have their work published in a peer-reviewed journal. In a new paper in Biology Letters, 25 8- to 10-year-old children from Blackawton Primary School report that buff-tailed bumblebees can learn to recognize nourishing flowers based on colors and patterns." We need more kids excited about science (and art, literature and music too).

25 Facts About Your Favourite Christmas Movies
Another fun list from Mental Floss, with lots of geeky details about classic holiday movies — perfect for impressing the family when watching, oh, It's A Wonderful Life after Christmas dinner.

Tuscan Bean Soup
With all the holiday feasting we'll be doing over the next couple of weeks, I'm thinking that something a bit lighter and easier here and there would be a nice break from the substantial traditional fare we eat at this time of year. This soup would be a nice change of pace — hearty enough for cold weather, but not too heavy. Via Saveur.


(photo via LivingEtc)

Handmade Holidays

It wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas music! Each year we tune into the CBC to listen to the European Broadcasting Union's annual daylong programme of Christmas music from around the world — and as everything is available online, we also check out the BBC for classical, jazz and more, SomaFM (they have a great Christmas lounge channel), or we go here to see what else is available, too. Happy listening!


(photo by Magdalena Björnsdotter via blue pool road)