Mar 23-25th - Outfits #21-23 - Trip to Vancouver, and a Shopping Haul

After a lovely day off on Thursday, L and I headed off to Vancouver. It's our annual pilgrimage to Fluevog (pictures from last year here), and we get together with our mainland friends. 

I did the same outerwear the whole weekend: this white leather jacket.

I travel very light, and try to bring as few things as I possibly can. I also leave behind items that I don't want anymore or that are ratty (a good time to get rid of old underwear!).

This is my lovely silk Smoking Lily blouse (last worn here) and my skinny black pants (last worn here). I had to do the most comfortable walking shoes as I had in this month's capsule, so these boots made the cut (last wore them here).

I added my Wendy B ring, a gold leaf and my black cuff.

My hairdresser didn't do the turquoise streak again - it seemed kind of pointless, considering it only lasted a week before. I just had her bleach out the streak and left it blonde. I like it.

Although the forecast was for sun and temps up to 10 degrees (Celsius), I still needed a scarf and gloves.

Jacket (Le Chateau, consignment), blouse (Smoking Lily), pants (Kensie), boots (Hispanitas, consignment), cuff (Guess, thrifted), necklace/leaf (found), ring (Wendy Brandes).

L and I checked in then headed down to the Fluevog store in the morning. We met up with our friend Anthony for lunch, and then we headed out for more shopping and wandering around. We had an early swanky dinner at our favourite steakhouse, Gotham. Mmmmm....steak!

On Saturday, I wore the same outfit as what I wore on Friday night for dinner:

I swear I would have stolen this chair and taken it home with me. Isn't it fabulous? 

That's my Desigual dress with my pink tights. This is the same outfit as when we went out for dinner a couple of weekends ago (here). Maybe doing these capsules has broken me from repeating outfits? Nah...the accessories are different!

These shoes did not make it home with me. My dogs were howlin' after a day of shopping in them, and as mentioned before, they aren't leather, and the vinyl is cracking and the colour is wearing off.

Dress (Desigual), shoes (Le Chateau, consignment).

We shopped out in the East Broadway/Main Street area on Saturday morning, then met our friend Craig for lunch back in downtown, then headed out to West 4th in Kitsilano for more shopping in the afternoon. We were exhausted, but made it out to dinner after a brief rest at the hotel. It was just the two of us again, as our friends Spence and Kim (and their daughter Eloise) were all sick.

Later that night, we headed over to the Sutton Place Hotel's bar for drinks with Anthony and his wife Laura. It was quite the hot spot! We saw a bunch of movie stars: Robert Carlyle, Ginnifer Goodwin and Julia Stiles were all there, and probably others that we didn't recognize. It was pretty cool, hobnobbing with the famous folk.

However, all that shopping and drinking did me in:

Ooh, hungover this morning.  

This morning I basically just wore the dress with my pants underneath and the same boots. I had to wear as many layers as possible to make room in my backpack for all my purchases.

That's it for my fashion pictures, however, if you scroll down, I took some pictures of the stuff I bought in Vancouver (there are Fluevogs, of course!). The rest are travel pics - you can click any of them to embiggen.

Taxiing out from the harbour - looking back at Victoria's downtown.

 It was fairly cloudy at home when we left.

The Coho ferry is coming!

 That boat is unnerving when it's that close.

There are always people out on the top deck.

This is a car and passenger ferry that goes from Port Angeles in Washington State to Victoria. I've never been on it.

A view of the waterfront and the breakwater. 

At the very top there, one of those points is where I often walk. I've walked the breakwater a lot in my life, but not recently. I should go out there again soon.

The sun breaking through to shine on this tanker in the straight. In the far distance is Washington.

The clouds cleared as we flew out over the Gulf Islands (Canadian islands) and the San Juan Islands (US islands).

Can you see Mount Baker in the background? That's an inactive volcano.

I love looking down on the islands when we fly over them. They look like little miniatures.

I would like to live there.

Approaching the mainland.

The mountains in the background are so crisp and clear.

That big spit is the BC Ferry terminal. It's the only way to get your car off Vancouver Island (where Victoria is located) and on to the mainland. There are lots of different ferry routes from the other cities and towns up the coast of the Island that connect up to places along BC's coast.

I love the patterns in the sand and silt caused by the river hitting the ocean.

 Amazing isn't it?

This is the delta of the Fraser River, which splits the city of Vancouver and spills into the Straight of Juan de Fuca.

Click this one - it's really cool.

 The city of Vancouver (well, that's North Van) and all the coastal mountains. They have snow still!

All sunny!

 I liked seeing the shadow of our little plane:

 The water is so blue!

Circling down to land on the water in the harbour - I see the Seabus! I rode that once when I was a kid - it was a big deal! It's a little passenger ferry that goes back and forth across the river.

See the other seaplane coming in?

 We saw these statues in a glassed-in room near the Japanese restaurant we went to for lunch on Thursday.

That looks like an uncomfortable position...

Okay, these are the shopping haul pictures.

L and I always buy each other's shoes at Fluevog - they're our anniversary gifts to each other. I got these amazing boots - L was very happy to buy these!

Did I mention I want this chair? Please, good people of the Sheraton company, can you send me one?

 A slightly better (although a bit bleached out) picture.

Totally adjustable with the laces up the front, with a zipper on the inside of the leg.

They are the Velazquez Baroques* and aren't they divine? I love the floral pattern on the leather and the Rococo heel. The burgundy leather and the suede of the shaft are actually a lot closer in colour. See the little ruffle on the vamp of the foot? There is also a ruffle above the laces, at the top of the tongue. *swoon*

It's going to kill me to have them in my closet and not have them in my April capsule! Maybe they'll be in one of my Wildcard outfits...I have to wear them somehow! They will probably be in an autumn capsule.

The sizing on these was quite off - these are 8.5s and I usually wear a 9-10.

I REALLY fell hard for these next shoes - and poor L, he hates them so much!

You see the love in my eyes, don't you?

These are called the Guide* and they are from the Prepares family. I adore the turquoise colour and the crazy shape of them.

They are a deeper colour than this in person.

They are as comfortable as wearing flats, no kidding!

It's funny - I looked at all the Fluevogs online (for months) before we went to the actual store, and all the ones that I thought I would be in love with just didn't grab me when I saw them in person. Fluevogs have to be seen and they have to be tried on - at least for me! I would never have looked at these twice online.

The "John Fluevog" signature on the strap and the groovy buckle.

Again, these aren't going to be in the April capsule, but they will be in the May one (yes, I'm planning that far ahead!).

Here are some other lovelies I treated myself to.

The green item is a dress, and that's a silk and cotton obi belt, both by Smoking Lily*. The obi will be making an appearance soon, but the dress will have to wait, to be in May's capsule wardrobe. Ah, the anticipation!

The gold cicadas earrings were also bought at Smoking Lily, but are by Erica Weiner* - thank you, L, for buying them for me. I love the Egyptian look of them - and check out the sweet little Smoking Lily crow bag!

I found these amazing pieces in another store, Two of Hearts*. The octopus is on a mahjong tile, the tree and moon is on a glass tile, and the little crow pin is on a little ceramic tile. I love the look of them.

Click to embiggen! Too cool!

They're by Jennifer Conway of Ravens Rest Studio* - she's a Vancouver artist.

One grumble: we had to wait around for all the stores to open! Arg! I hate when stores don't open until 11am on Saturdays! That's a waste of good shopping time! 

I also found a thin teal sweater in a consignment store, and a red suede shirt in another consignment store.

The teal top will be in April's capsule.
 I'll probably wait until September or so before the red one makes it into a capsule!

I also made it to Gravity Pope, a crazy-insane shoe store. I found these lovelies on sale.

Yes, they're lavender!

They're Campers, same as these ones. I have to confess, I actually wore these last night as my feet were just killing me after two straight days of shopping and walking around. They're going to be in the April capsule.

I also found a Mat & Nat red velvet bag, but forgot to take its picture.

I'm not really asking for permission here (hee), but I hope it doesn't annoy anyone if I show my new things before I wear them. In the past, I've always just incorporated stuff I've bought into outfits right away to show them off, but with this capsule challenge, some of the items I thrift or otherwise purchase aren't going to be worn for a long time (and that's actually a really good check on my shopping, knowing that I have to really love things to keep them around that long). I miss the "show and tell" aspect.

Are you cool with seeing what I've purchased when I go shopping before I wear it?

I wanted to get a picture of one of L's pair of Fluevogs before he scuffed off the graphic on the soles:

He also found that nice burgundy shirt and pinstripe vest at Le Chateau.

I had intended to crop him out, but I really like the perspective. Plus, more of "my" red chair.

These are killer boots:

They are the Earl of Warwicks*, from the Coventry family.

And he hasn't even gotten the strap done up over the laces. They're sort of a cross between Doc Martens and Fry boots. They weigh a ton and they only let you carry on 25 lbs on the float plane, so L wore them home.

Inigo update: Someone missed us while we were gone.

What a sweetheart.

*I link because I love - I don't get any kind of kickback, discount or free stuff for linking.