Old Lady Chic?

I found this awesome skirt in a thrift shop on Friday afternoon. It's Precis Petite, which happens to be the same brand as this jacket (I have the skirt that matches the jacket too - seen here with the same blouse, belt and flower). This lovely camel skirt was only $7.50, which is oh, about $150 more than what I paid for the jacket/skirt suit and they were on sale 70% off!

The skirt is an interesting length, but I think it's saved by the slight flare at the knee - it reminds me of those 50s "wiggle" dresses. It's a very soft faux suede.

I haven't worn this jacket since last December, as it's rather warm. This is the first time I've done it without the faux fur collar.

I felt a little weird about the leg business, since these are actually...get ready for it...

*gasp!* Knee highs! I'm officially an old lady, haha!

Actually, when I bought these at Winners my intention was to wear them like socks. The cuff at the top is a really nice lace, and the knee-highs themselves are quite thick, without a lot of stretch. Check 'em out:

It's a nice olive green sort-of plaid pattern.

The stuff:

My lovely thrifted shoes and blouse (that was $2 some months ago).

Jacket (Precis Petite), blouse (no label, vintage, thrifted), skirt (Precis Petite, thrifted), knee-highs (Winners), shoes (Steve Madden, thrifted), belt (Nygard), rose (Roberta's Hats), earrings (Renoir? vintage, Grandma J).

Working on the Weekend

Whew! I am exhausted today. Do you think anyone would notice if I slept at my desk?

I did my WW training all weekend, and while it was fun, I'm glad it's over. I walked to and from the hotel, so I had to have functional walking outfits (the snow is completely gone, by the way! Wacky weather!).

This is my long denim skirt (first worn here):
I'm wearing my little ankle cowboy booties:

The blouse was last worn here.

Blouse (Vintage DCC Missy, consignment), sweater vest (Esprit), skirt (InWear, consignment), boots (Miz Mooz).

On Sunday, I had to do a mini-meeting presentation (with flip charts!), so I went a little brighter:
My lovely "painty" skirt, last worn here in July. I like that a lot of my skirts can easily translate from summer wear to autumn/winter wear by layering them with tights and adding boots.

Sweater (no label, consignment), skirt (Nine West), boots (Miz Mooz), belt (Le Chateau), necklace (Plum).

Long Weekend Update: I Need Another Long Weekend!

Hey! Is it still the weekend? Man, I am exhausted! I've been through one day of Weight Watchers' leader training and I am already set for another weekend.

So...it snowed again on Thursday, so I figured I'd get some exercise and shovel our condo's driveway and sidewalk:
It was snowing as I did it, which is why it's still a bit white. I was getting such a good workout, I did the neighbouring apartment building's sidewalk as well, right to the road in the distance.

Then I hoofed it to the grocery store, in my extremely fashionable (not really) snow gear:

Yes, that's very attractive.

I then changed into my football-watching gear:This what I typically wear around the house. Jeans, long-sleeved tee and some large layered piece over top.

On Friday, Ruth and I went for lunch and some shopping:

My second wear of the red velvet blazer (first seen here) and the stripey ribbon skirt (first seen here). The snow had all melted by then, so I walked to town and back. What a lovely time!

Jacket (Zara, consignment), sweater (Expression, consignment), skirt (MNG, consignment), boots (Aldo, consignment), choker (60s vintage, Mom's).


Friday night, my mom, my ex sister-in-law and my two oldest nieces went to see a local production of "The Wizard of Oz". Of course, Crazy Auntie Sheila had to get dressed to the nines!

I love that dress so much. This is the second time I've worn it (first here).

I broke out the long black velvet gloves to keep myself warm in the theatre and for walking to and from the car. Gloves are awesome for that! These gloves are about 10 years old.

I love the unevenness of the neckline:

One "sleeve" is narrower than the other, so it naturally dips off one shoulder.

I was pleased that the shoes (my awesome Fluevogs last seen here) matched the dress so well! Matchy-matchy! Yay!

Here's a close-up of the upper body stuff going on:

The earrings are new - no label, but I loved the shape and needed some big silver earrings. They were $16.99 in a local boutique. I'm also wearing my cuff from St. Paul's Cathedral.

My outerwear:

Furry jacket, faux fur scarf and my silver clutch.

Everything together:

Jacket (Mac & Jac), dress (Club Monaco, consignment), scarf (The Bay), clutch (Accessorize), shoes ("Memories, Madly", Fluevog), cuff (St. Paul's Cathedral gift shop), earrings (boutique).

More Snow! And Many Adventures Today

Today's forecast: more snow! Yikes! With this in mind, again, I dressed warmly:
A whole lotta layerin' goin' on. I have a long-sleeved tee under my camel dress (first seen here), with my denim skirt underneath that (blatantly violating the company's dress code, but what are they going to do? Fire me?). I also have on tights, knee-high socks and boots.

Today is a bit nutty. I have a dentist appointment that takes me an hour to get to by bus - and it's in the middle of the afternoon (because I scheduled it when I thought I would be out of work), so I have to get back to work after...another hour+ by bus.
Then I have an eyebrow waxing (my one luxury) downtown, and then it's our fantasy football pool re-draft! I am in first place (wee!) with a few people breathing down my neck, so I need to do some prep work. Spreadsheets and such.

The stuff:

I love that belt buckle. It rules!

I've had this necklace for years:

I like that the stones are real stones, not plastic.

The leg business:

I wore these boots last winter and they are great in the ice and snow.

I am taking tomorrow and Friday off work, to watch football all day with my guys (I'm making turkey burgers in honour of US Thanksgiving) and then hang out with Ruth on Friday - I'm also going to the theatre with Mom and my nieces. And I have Weight Watchers training all weekend! Crazy!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends!

Dress (Coupe), tee (Press), denim skirt (Bebe, swap from Caro), tights (Voila), socks (Point Zero, I think), boots (Indigo by Clark's, consignment), necklace (Plum), belt (Shi Studio).

It's...Leopard Lady!

Did I mention it snowed yesterday? It snowed yesterday! My poor little West coast flower of a city got dumped on - schools shut down, cars slid all over the place, power was out. We are such wusses about snow, but it's fairly rare here (we mostly get rain - hey, at least ya don't have to shovel it!).

Anyway, it's still cold today (and there are still patches of snow and ice all over the place), so I wanted to dress warm. I also wanted to wear this new skirt:
Okay, I have a bit of a love affair with leopard, perhaps only second to Wendy Brandes. This is not news. So when I saw this skirt, I was in looooove. It was only $12.95. Steal.

I'm wearing a long-sleeved thin tee under the thin wool sweater - and the Smoking Lily bug scarf is for warmth!

Look! It's Leopard Lady! Saving the world with leopard print!

The stuff:

Mmmm....Fluevog boot goodness. I can't believe it's been a YEAR since I wore these. Oh, Sheila, for shame! I've also worn them here and here. These are the "Blind Faith Hi, Rebecca" boots.

Check out the nap on the skirt:

It's like a thin plush! Don't worry, it's not so long that it looks like I scalped a stuffy toy. It was nice and warm, though!

The boots are killer to zip up:

My muscular calves means I get a workout (and a squished calf) whenever I wear these, but they're getting softer every time I wear them.

I wore another new pair of tights today too:

Leg on the table shot, hee.

Sweater (Banana Republic, consignment), skirt (S&D, thrifted), tights (Voila), boots (Blind Faith Hi, Rebecca, Fluevog), bangles (Aldo Accessories and some import shop), scarf (Smoking Lily), earrings (gift from L).

How I Build an Outfit, Sheila Style

Okay, so some of you lovely people wanted to see how I build an outfit. We'll get to that. But first, here's the outfit!
I found this amazing top while thrift shopping with Elaine - it's Kitchen Orange, a brand I've liked for a while. I have a Kitchen Orange dress, you may recall. The top was only $12.50 - score!

I love the funky collar, the slightly flared sleeves and the stiff texture of it.

It's a wee bit snug in the boobular region, but I don't mind - as well as being a thick fabric, it also has some stretch to it.

This is the third wearing of the skirt (last seen here), ha, also with blue tights.

A close-up of the top half:

Yikes, bad lighting in the closet! Let's just move on.

The stuff:

Mmm...love those shoes. For a cheap pair of shoes that I bought over 2 years ago, these have stood me well.

The shiny stuff:

I have been wearing that ring to death, lately.

Top (Kitchen Orange "L-Bow", thrifted), skirt (Nygard), belt (Denver Hayes, consignment), tights (Hue), shoes (Le Chateau), earrings (gift from L), ring (Aldo Accessories).

But wait, you say! How the heck did you build that?

Here you go.

First, I keep all my new stuff in a special place in my closet. Whenever I buy something new or acquire an item, I put it in the same place so that I don't forget: a shelf on my closet. Here we have a silver headband, a brooch and a pair of weird plaid knee-highs:

There is also a leopard skirt, a camel Kitchen Orange top, and a khaki cami with copper sequins. I usually hang up all the clothing items and put them at the left side, near the door of my closet, but I'm low on hangers 'cause I need to clean out my closet, so the clothing items are laid across the tops of my long skirts and pants hangers.

I'm now looking at my new stuff...hmmm...which piece grabs me? I think the top - do any of my long skirts or pants look like they would go?

Ooh, those plaid pants leap out at me - I bet they'd look good with the Kitchen Orange top. Let's have a closer boo at those:

They're practially a neutral!

And camel's a neutral - these will go together, for sure. Let's try a belt - that top needs something in the middle to keep me from looking like a Kraft caramel:

SNOOZE.

Try another belt:

Oooh! Me likey! But those pants are blandifying up the place, I need some more colour with this before I fall asleep.

After another scope through the long skirts and pants, I turn to the short skirts:

Ah, sweet rainbow of happiness. Notice how I block my skirts by colour, starting on the left with cream, yellow (it's there, trust me, there are just too many skirts here right now, must clean out), orange, red, multi-coloured patterns, browns, greeens, denim, blue, grey, black/white pattern and black. This really helps me decide where I want to go with an outfit.

It also helps to hold the top against the skirts and see what leaps out at me:

I'm veering towards the darker side of the spectrum.

This skirt actually has camel/gold in its pattern:

Mmm, that's pretty together, but the style of the top (modern, clean lines, almost geometric) fights with the twining leaves and flowers of the skirt. Let's try something else.

Ooh, hello!

I like that! The gold embroidery on the skirt goes well with the camel, and the grey (being a cool neutral) contrasts nicely with the camel (a warm neutral), and keeps it from descending into a gooey caramel mess.

But I still need a belt!

Wow, I would not have tried that normally - I would have gone matchy. But I like it - let's go for it!

Okay, now I need some shoes to go with this! I pull out shoes that are in one of the colours in the outfit, usually, or that are neutral. Here's a neutral one:

I like them with the top, but they're not right with the outfit. A little too busy.

I could go matchy:

Nope, the leopard pattern is too much with the belt and the skirt's pattern. I think I need to go with a solid.

I like blue with this:

Yeeeeaaaaahhhh...I like them with all the colours. Theoretically, these would work...but I feel like I need something a little more funky. But I'm going to mentally file away these shoes/this skirt and these shoes/camel for a future outfit.

Now, I know I'll be wearing some sort of leg covering with this - maybe a coloured tight? What shoes would really pop off a coloured tight and not fight with the other colours in this?

How about these? Oh yeah, I like those. Those are good. We have our shoe.

Now, we need to deal with the tights situation. These are how I store my tights:

I roll 'em up losely around my hand then tuck the toes into the centre. It's great for storage and they don't turn into a mondo-tights-octopus in the drawer.

But I digress: what colour tights? I grabbed the grey, those blue-y ones and the brown lace fishnets and put them on the bed.

Then I check out my new tights that I haven't worn yet:

Hey, what's that bright blue pair? I grabbed those too. Of course I chose them!

Next up: accessories!

Because the top has a wide funnel neck, and long sleeves that flare out, I know I won't be doing a necklace or a bracelet. This narrows things down nicely. I can also eliminate a brooch, at least with this outfit, as most of mine are too foo-foo/girly.

I scope out my big earrings:

I love how the flash (my bedroom is dark) reveals cat hair stuck in the black velvet. Gads!

Then I check out my earring drawer of my jewelry box:

I pull out the ones that I think go best:

Then I go through my rings and pull out the ones I like.

This outfit can go silver or gold metals - or even a mix - but I think I prefer gold. The fou-fou ones get eliminated when I look at them next to the clothing pieces...and I ended up with my big gold hoops and the coil ring.

Edit: Oh, I guess I should add - that took me 20 minutes to put together. I don't try anything on, and my outfits get packed into my knapsack right away for my walk to work in the morning.

And that's it! I enjoy putting things together and trying new combinations! Hope you enjoyed this!