17 Years of Sole/Soul Mates; 'Vogging in Van; Starstruck

Hey! Did you miss me? If you've been reading my blog for over a year, you might remember that our wedding anniversary was this past weekend. As L and I do every year, we go over to the mainland to Vancouver to get away, visit friends and do some shopping.

First of all, Happy Anniversary, my most awesome husband. Thanks for sticking with me through thick and thin.

Gawd, we look so young!

If we had to do it all again, we'd change a few things about the wedding (yes to "Ming's Wedding" from Flash Gordon and the "Imperial Death March" from Star Wars), but we would still pick each other.

Here's to another 17 years with my best friend.

Photo courtesy of Melanie here!

As seen on "Culture Serf: Vancouver Street Style" - go here! And here for last year!

More of that later, but let's get on with it. If you haven't already figured it out, this is going to be a big post. It's been a busy weekend!

We both took Friday and Monday off (so needed it!). We put together our mini-capsule wardrobes on Thursday night. We had several factors to consider: we travel by seaplane, which only allows 1-2 bags per person (weight is an issue); we'd be doing a lot of walking; and we'd be going out for dinner twice. Well, plus we wanted to look good! Nothing worse than traveling and looking like a tourist!

Friday travel/shopping/dinner outfit:

In retrospect, I would have changed the underskirt as it rode up every time I wore it. I liked the effect, but it rained most of the time we were in Vancouver, and the friction of my cross-body bag against my coat caused it to creep up to my waist. Most disconcerting!

This is my black leather "Buffy" slip dress, last seen here in February with leopard and thigh-high boots. Not sure if I'll keep the dress out for spring/summer - I'm thinking not, as it's best with a leg covering (it's short!).

I have nude microfishnets nylons on.

The blouse was nice and light for layering. I last wore it here in January. After wearing it for a couple of days in a row, I think it's going to go in the giveaway pile. It's a little pilly and the quality is not that good.

The floofy underskirt is a cool piece, but would have been better if I hadn't been wearing a coat most of the time. I haven't worn it since I layered it under my turquoise dress in June 2013 (here), but it's a useful item and doesn't take up much room.

I wore my awesome Desigual coat all weekend. It held up really well, although one of the buttons popped off (don't worry, I rescued it), and it was nice and warm in the craptastic weather (it's a wool base, plus it's padded). I last wore it in February for Chinese New Year, here.

My bowler kept the rain off my hair (and repelled water beautifully!). I also wore my purple Danier leather gloves, and my two-tone Fluevog boots, the Libby Smith Bellevilles. I knew it had been a while since I wore these, but really? June 2013? That's way too long. I think I will keep them out for spring/summer and try to get a little more wear out of them. I walked for hours in these and they were so awesome.

Blouse (Cleo, consignment), dress (Danier Leather, thrifted), underskirt (Noa Noa), boots (Libby Smith, Bellevilles, Fluevog), coat (Desigual), gloves (Danier), hat (Andre), earrings (gift from Lise), rings (Wendy Brandes).

Vizzini always knows when we're about to go away.

"I saw the bags! I know what you're doing!"

The look of pure outrage.

"I'm going to open all the closets and eat your stuff!"

We always miss our little bub!

As mentioned, we take the seaplane over to Vancouver.

Getting ready to taxi out of the Victoria harbour

Getting off the Island is an ordeal. You can only fly or take a boat. Most people take the ferry; it's cheaper, but it takes forever. Flying is more expensive, but you get to be from one harbour to another in less than 40 minutes. Our time is worth it.

Looking down on the southern tip of the Island.

 I'm such a geek about flying. I love looking down on the land.

Facing the Inner Harbour

Flying over the city.

Leaving a cloudy day

 I love the play of the sun on the water.

Little islands between Vancouver Island and Washington State to the south

This was our first time in a Twin Otter - it had the props on the wings instead of the nose, and was a much smoother flight.

Looking down on a private island. That's the plane's pontoon in the foreground

 We also flew higher than the nose-prop planes do. It was cool being above the clouds most of the way.

 Such gorgeous morning light.

Mount Baker in Washington rises above the clouds in the distance.

It's such a fast trip. I can't ever go back to the long ferry trip!

It's like the opening "Jaws" homage in Airplane!

 Skimming in over the mouth of the Fraser River on the mainland.

Lots of barges, log booms in the water and farms all along the delta.

Look who we saw!

Damn, she's got amazing eyes!

It's Melanie of A Bag and a Beret! She's now part of our visits; what a fun, sweet and cool lady. I like that she uses O's Magic Loupe to read the menu.

We went to Acme Cafe* in Gastown.
*linking 'cause I love

Gorgeous old Art Deco touches near the door. I gotta say: Mac and Cheese with bacon? Om nom nom!

Also amazing:

Their selection of pies and desserts. Melanie had pecan pie, L had some of that pink cake (it was chocolate with raspberry cream cheese icing), and I had a chocolate meringue cookie.

The obligatory selfie-selfie:

I love seeing the Muppet coat in person!

We were very good and did no bum-grabbing (this time).

Melanie was a trooper and walked around with us in those shoes, showing us some of her Super-Secret favourite second-hand haunts. She also accompanied us to the Fluevog store in Gastown, but didn't see what we ended up with (go on, scroll down to the bottom - you know you want to!).

Thanks so much for coming out to see us again, Melanie! We had a blast!

L and I shopped for about 4 hours on Friday, then ended up having an early dinner and crashing at the hotel (ah, reruns of South Park). We've both been working some long hours lately, so we really needed the down-time.

On Saturday - our actual anniversary, right down to the day - we met up with our friend Craig for lunch at El Camino's on Main Street for brunch. Man, Vancouver really knows how to do brunch. El Camino's had amazing Latin American and South American food. It was excellent food in preparation for more shopping.

Saturday daytime outfit:

Same colour palette, with this magenta cardigan, last seen here in January while giving away all my wardrobe planning secrets. I have a belt on over the cardi, and I changed to flat shoes to rest my feet.

I see you!

The shoes were last seen here (2nd outfit) with my red polka dot pants earlier in March.

Cardigan (Jacob, thrifted), dress (Danier Leather, thrifted), shoes (Town Shoes, thrifted), belt (Nygard), earrings (gift from Lise).

It poured rain all day while we went up and down Main Street, which is full of second-hand, vintage and boutiques that carry locally-made items. My kind of area! I'll get to the shopping stuff soon, I promise!

After an exhausting day of shopping and walking in the rain, we had a nap back at the hotel, then got ready for dinner. We met up with our friends Anthony and Laura for a lovely dinner out at Joe Fortes. It was pretty good, although very expensive.

Variation on a theme!

Presto chango! Added my thin copper lame (lah-may!) sweater under the dress, back to the poofy underskirt, and back to the booties. I last wore this sweater here with a pouf skirt earlier this month.

I stick my tongue out at you!

This was a good dinner outfit - as you can see, the dress has a lot of waist room! I added my crazy barnyard necklace and gold hoop earrings.

Sweater (Main Fung, thrifted), dress (Danier Leather, thrifted), underskirt (Noa Noa), boots (Libby Smith, Bellevues, Fluevog), necklace (consignment).

L also looked very dapper in his ensemble.

Such a stylish man! A couple of times over the weekend, people asked us if we were artists. We certainly dress creatively!

After dinner, the four of us walked up to another hotel to chill and have a drink.

I love all the shops and trees lit up.

Even around our hotel!

Um, blurriness may have been alcohol-related. Heh.

Last year, we went to this same hotel for drinks and saw a bunch of actors from that show "Once Upon a Time" (Robert Carlysle, Ginnifer Goodwin), and Julia Styles. We played it cool - no gushing over celebrities! - and didn't say anything.

However, this time I spotted this gentleman at the table next to us:

Source, and about him

L and I are both huge Joss Whedon fans, and recognized him right away. That's Fran Kranz!

As he and his table were getting up to leave, I said, "Hey! Fran, right? Loved you in Dollhouse and "Cabin in the Woods."" He was really nice, and shook our hands, asked our names, and we chit-chatted a bit about Vancouver and Victoria (he'd just been there shooting a pilot the day before). He was friendly and gracious, and seemed pleased that we'd recognized him. I'm glad I spoke up. So cool!
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Anyway, Saturday was the actual anniversary day, right down to the actual day of the week. Here we are 17 years ago. That's my dad on the right, and my maid of honour, Janet, beside him.

These are pictures of actual photographs, sorry for blurriness

L is trying not to laugh like the rest of us, but my dad had just stepped on my train, yanking me to a very sudden halt. We'd teased him for weeks that he would do this - I'm wearing my mom's wedding dress, and he did it on their wedding as well - and of course, he did. Dad died 6 months later, so these are the last pictures I have of him with me.

This is my entry for both Judith's next "Hat Attack!" over at Style Crone, and for Patti's "Visible Monday" happening now over at Not Dead Yet Style.

My wreath of flowers became a torture device over the course of the day, but I love how it looked with my mom's wedding dress. Isn't the dress cool? She and Dad got married in 1965.

And after much reminiscing, we got up early to catch our flight home.

Tankers and shipping docks

Of course, it was a beautiful sunny day! Of course it only rained for our one full day in Van!

Looking north

Planes all in a row. And home we were, once again, just like that.

I actually wore nearly every piece of clothing home that I'd brought with me, to save room in my knapsack for all the stuff I bought. My bag weight increased from 5 pounds to 14 pounds, and even my purse's weight went up from "nah, we won't weigh it" to 7 lbs.

We both showered then headed out to lunch. Comfort was the name of the game.

This dress gets worn around the house a fair bit. And this is the last wear of the over-the-knee boots until next fall.

I last wore the dress here (3rd outfit), a couple of weeks ago. Also for brunch. I'm not that creative when it comes to brunch outfits. I'd probably do better if I had coffee in the morning.

I have one of my long-sleeved tees under it (which I continued to wear all day).

The boots were last seen here (2nd outfit) for a weekend shopping trip.

A low-slung vintage belt, plus my black leather cuffs, and bird skull earrings.

It was cold enough to wear my brown fuzzy faux fur coat for the first time.

I'm laughing because Vizzini is frantically mrow-ing and rubbing all over. He was so excited to see us back.

Dress (Kensie, consignment), boots (Pegabo), cuffs (vintage and Guess, thrifted), earrings (local), belt (vintage, thrifted).

Vizzini was especially interested in L's new Fluevogs.

"Kitty spaghetti! I eat the laces!"

These are the Gateway Brandenburgs (here, linking 'cause I love). They are a pewter metallic patent leather with a black leather toe cap. L wore them to brunch and got several "Whoa!" comments.

Okay, finally! Here's what I bought. Some items were splurges and some were not. I bought L his shoes; he buys mine - those are our anniversary gifts to each other. Following the "Second-Hand First" pledge, if I can't buy second-hand first, I will pay for quality, ethically- and locally-made or designed items. All links below are because I love.

I found this fabulous vintage dress on the sale rack at F as in Frank.

I love the shape of the collar lapels, and the little double pocket on the right side of the chest.

It's polyester or nylon and is by Haybrooke Classic, a company that existed from 1962 until 1984. I'd say this dress is from the early- to mid-60s.

It was only $10!

I'm excited to wear it. I'm really grooving on yellow this spring.

I found this lovely silk dress at C'est La Vie Consignment.

It's by Club Monaco, and I love the swirly skirt, as well as the mustard, lemon, lavender and brown pattern.

A super-flattering bust/waist cut.

In the sun, so you can see the colours.

It still had the dry-cleaning tag on it, and was only $40.

I had to visit one of my favourite boutiques, which is right next to the Smoking Lily store (didn't buy anything there this year), Two of Hearts Boutique. I bought my lovely chartreuse CiCi dress from them last year, along with a bunch of jewelry. They specialize in local designers, and the two owners make their own lines. Last year, I got CiCi; this year, I got two items by SaVVie.

I love the cornflower blue of this dress:

And pockets!

It's a lovely thick, stretchy cotton, and fits like a dream.

Great zipper detail. This is called the Mimi dress.

I never mind paying more to support a local designer.

It was on sale for $98, and is worth every penny.

I also fell in love with this classically-shaped skirt:

 What's not to love about this awesome pattern?

Pockets again! I adore when designers add pockets. Thank you!

A good deal at $49.

I am really grooving on simple patterns and high-contrast right now. I know this skirt will go with a lot of the colours in my spring/summer wardrobe.

I found these cool earrings:

They are by dconstruct jewelry, and as you can see on the tag, they are made from "ecoresin" with 40% recycled content.

I like the little details, even down to their packaging.

They were $32.00.

I also went into Devil May Wear, another cool boutique specializing in locally-made clothing and household items.

What a cool belt! I had to have one.

It's reversible, with a different pattern on the inside.

I might change up the ribbon colour, but it's pretty with white.

"Handmade with love in Canada" - it was $40.

For those who made it this far without scrolling down to see them, finally, here are my two new pairs of Fluevogs!

 These are the Half Truths Tanya (link) in green.

These were L's favourite shoe that I tried on - I try every Fluevog that even remotely appeals to me, because sometimes they look differently on the foot than on a table.

Love that kitten heel and the double strap, and the way the ankle comes up and cups at the back.

 Look at all that squishy padding! These are hugely comfortable. Due to the narrowness, I bought these in a 10, so size up if you're shopping online. I usually wear a 9 or 9.5 and I have narrow feet.

Fluevogs always have good soles. And Fluevoggers have great souls!

On the other hand, L hates these booties.

They are the Prepare Map (link), my 3rd pair of Prepares.

They are much more of a pinky-purple than they look online, where they look very browny-purple to me.

The laces are leather and based on the comments on the style on the website, I need to be careful with them, as they are more delicate than regular laces. I think if they break, I'll replace them with ribbons.

John's signature

 Right down to the blue soles...

Based on my other Prepares, I know that these are a dream to walk in. As expected, I wear a 9.5 in this style.

Well, that's quite enough! I'm tired and am going to enjoy the rest of my day off before I'm back to the grind tomorrow. I hope y'all had an awesome weekend!