Jan 11th, 12th, 13th & 14th - Outfits #9-12 - Road Trip!

Hey-yo, blogland! Did ya miss me? I was on a road trip - it's the annual jaunt to the bustling seaside town of Powell River! You can check out previous trips to PR here (lots of pictures of Canada beautiful west coast):

• August 2012
• December 2011
• Summer 2011
• January 2011
• Christmas 2009

I've posted more travel pictures below, but I won't be offended if you just check out my crazy-coloured capsule from the last few days. We drove up-Island on Friday and got back yesterday afternoon. L and I both took today off, and did some chore-ish stuff and went to the gym (I can't lift my arms!).

Here we go! Friday:

I got up at 6:30 to meet L for breakfast before our 3-4 drive. Long trips mean a good breakfast!

This is my red dress, last seen here (2nd outfit) on a casual weekend. I'm wearing a vintage slip under this for extra warmth - we had a very chilly weekend! The dress is layered under this fabulously thick 70s vintage suede vest. I got the vest on consignment in May 2010 for $30, marked down from $49; however, it has the telltale red slash that means someone purchased it (probably for around $20) at Women in Need (WIN), as they do that on all their clothes. It has tags, but no actual brand on it anywhere.

I've only worn this vest twice before: when I first got it in May 2010, with a floral blouse and jeans and in August 2011 (3rd outfit), where I wore a striped top and jeans (and some crazyass shoes, check 'em out).

Stripey tights help tie the red and purple together, but I would have done this combo anyway. I love red and purple together. Those are my studded purple combat boots - I've decided I prefer them worn laced all the way up, a la Doc Martens.

I bought them at Winners back in November 2010 (there's a shot of them here in my shopping cart; that post is all about how I shop at Winners, if you want some tips!). I think they were around $39.99. They aren't leather, they aren't good quality, but I like them, and I'll wear them until they fall apart. The brand is Penny Loves Kenny.

I've also worn them thusly: laced all the way up in Nov 2010 (to go see Metric in concert, in a very casual layered t-shirt look and jeans); in Dec 2010 unlaced to show off the stud detail, to yet another concert (Leonard Cohen), in a very half-assed outfit (2nd outfit); the very next day in Dec 2010 to work, trying to get them to look better (they flopped around a lot, so I laced them back up for dinner later that night); yet again in Dec 2010 with a dress that was cool, but I really didn't like that much (I laced them partway up and wrapped the excess lacing around the lower leg); not again until March 2011, all laced up to celebrate my new (and still current) job with my fabulous Desigual jacket; and lastly in January 2012 with another ultra-casual outfit for a moving day Friday at work (boots worn unlaced). Aw, the pic of my kitties there makes me sad...we still had Inigo a year ago.

But let's move on! This is the outerwear ensemble I wore all weekend:

Coat: warm and light. Hat: functional but still cute. Fur scarf: warm and can be worn in the house without me seeming to make a comment on how freaking cold my in-laws keep their house. Fingerless gloves: same. Purple leather gloves: pure fashion. Red purse: holds a lot, is awesome.

On Saturday, we met up with our friend Kelly for brunch at a diner (yum!). I changed up my red dress by layering the black maxi skirt over it:

My in-laws' whole house is painted this awful mint-green colour (*barf*)

I last wore the maxi skirt here with floofy florals. I swapped out the striped tights for grey ones, and put one of my Smoking Lily obis over the waistband. I wore the combat boots, but only when I was out of the house.

I had to cheat on the Sunday picture, because after getting up at 7:15am to catch the ferry back to Vancouver Island, then driving for another 3-4 hours to get home to Victoria, AND after wearing the same clothes for 3 days straight, I took everything off as soon as I got home and washed them (not the vest, but the tights, slip, dress and skirt).

So I took this picture today/Monday:

Back to striped tights (combat boots not shown), and layered the vest over the dress, which was in turn layered under the skirt. I'm so clever!

Here's how I built my mini-capsule:

The four main pieces that I wore variations on every day.

The accessories:

Grey tights, striped tights, the obi, a pair of ginormous over-the-knee socks (I wore them whenever I was in the house (see note above re: "fricking freezing"). I wore the leather cuff, the octo-necklace and the hoop earrings every day.

Dress (Planet, consignment), vest (no name, 70s vintage, consignment), skirt (Bianca Nygard, thrifted), boots (Penny Loves Kenny), obi (Smoking Lily).

Today, L and I went for brunch, then traveled around, doing various things (buying him a guitar, spending a $50 gift card at Costco, exchanging a video game, buying a mattress pad for our bed - isn't my life exciting?).

I needed to get another easy wear (not much walking) in of these wonderful red boots. They are quite stiff, so need lots of little outings to help soften them. I last wore them here with my turquoise fringed skirt.

I had fun in this outfit, so this is my entry for Patti's "Visible Monday" at Not Dead Yet Style - get over there if you haven't been yet!

The sweater was last layered here, in the same outfit as the boots.

This time it gets layered under my black leather "Buffy" dress (this is such a 90s look), last worn here with a shirt and tie.

Added a little leg fun with my textured grey tights.

For outerwear, I just threw on my new red leather jacket:

A pair of grey fingerless gloves and I was done. 

Dress (Danier Leather, vintage 90s, thrifted), sweater (Club Monaco, consignment), boots (Adriana Agnes, Fluevogs), coat (Danier Leather).

And now can stop reading if you're not interested in my travel pictures. But I'm going on a road trip, and you're invited!

As I've mentioned previously in my road trip posts, I live on a big island. It takes a while to get anywhere! The first leg of the trip is up the Malahat:

L and I were worried about the weather advisory for snow this weekend, so we rented some big SUV. It was way more comfy than our Miata for a long drive, but I wouldn't trade our little whizz-car for an SUV.

Looking south, back towards the lower island/Victoria:

This is as we're zooming past the look-out (for tourists, not us locals). We're up very high, and past that railing is a long drop down to an inlet of the ocean. 

A shot across the inlet, towards Saanich (a municipality) and Sidney (a little town). If you ever come here from Vancouver, over there is where the ferries come in.

For some reason, it was a lot harder to take pictures out the window of the SUV than our car. Most of my pics were pretty blurry.

At the end of the Malahat (we're higher above sea-level), and looking north towards Duncan:

Snow on the mountains! 

Passing the Somenos Marsh, a bird sanctuary just outside of Duncan:

We had good weather for the whole trip. No snow. 

Turning to avoid going into Nanaimo:

See that logging truck? Those are all over the roads - and they are scary to be driving near! 

Hitting the straight "new" highway north of Nanaimo

The centre of Vancouver Island is a spine of mountains - there are some beautiful parks, skiing and other outdoorsy things to do there. I wouldn't know. Never been there.

At a spot where we can look east:

That's Pacific Ocean, and one of the many islands that dot the coast between Vancouver Island (where we are) and the mainland (where, confusingly, Vancouver the city is). The mountains way in the distance are on the mainland of BC (British Columbia, my province).

Looking north again.

It was such a beautiful, crisp day. We saw tons of bald eagles, ravens and other raptors looking for lunch (I also saw some bunnies).

I didn't take any pics of the ferry docks this time, as we were tired and napped in the car. This is looking back at Vancouver Island from the back window of a pub in Powell River.

The long low island is Texada Island - that's the little bitty Texada Island ferry. There were a few sailboats out too.

The sun was just coming up as the ferry pulled out from the docks on Sunday morning.

You can see the reflection of L, his coffee and his breakfast plate.

Looking further north as we pulled out (so to the left of the above picture), is more of the BC coastline.

Those puffs of smoke? A pulp and paper mill. Powell River is a logging/mill town. Maybe your paper comes from there!

Driving down-Island:

This is near Nanaimo. The very farthest bit of land you can see is still not all the way to Victoria. *sigh* It's always so long coming home.

No trip is complete without the Gnome With the Biggest Hands Ever!

And he is a giant gnome! What an oxymoron!

You know what they say about a gnome with big hands, ladies.*
*He wears large gloves.

It started getting yucky as we climbed the Malahat:

All that white stuff on the sides of the rocks is ice. It looked really cool.

Nearly home!

We're heading down now, getting near to Goldstream National Park.

This is going through Goldstream. We saw a lot of eagles here!

So green! All the tree branches were covered in moss.

Hope you enjoyed my trip! Ah, back to work tomorrow.