Birthday Week! Love, Leather and Leopard

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday was my 46th birthday, and frankly, I've been having such a great time, it's hard to find a few minutes to drop a post. Forgive me for not visiting y'all as much as I'd like to, but life gets in the way! 

So, of course, I wore leather for my birthday. 

And yeah, I was saving those gorgeous shoes for my big day.

It was one of my best birthdays ever. I am truly honoured by the outpouring of the affection and good wishes and gifts I received (and am still receiving) from my adored L, my family, my dear friends and my wonderful coworkers. I certainly teared up once or twice.

I really love my birthday, but I talk to a lot of people who are "meh" about their birthdays. I used to be like that; I never celebrated it, except for with my family and closest friends. I remember the last year that I deliberately chose not to celebrate: Blue Rodeo (my favourite band) was coming to town and I had never seen them before. And I chose not to go, even though L would have gotten us tickets. I didn't do anything for my birthday, didn't tell my friends or coworkers it was coming.

My birthday that year sucked. I had turned down the opportunity to have fun on my birthday. When my friends found out, a few of them said they wished they had known, that they would have liked to have gone out for dinner or bought me a card.

I realized that it's okay to celebrate yourself, and you know, once a year we're all entitled to it. So the next year I threw a party for the "October Birthdays" (there are a lot of them - I bet you all know a ton). I got cards, a couple of little gifts, nice emails. It felt great to receive so much good will from people, good will that they wanted to show to me.

I've celebrated my birthday with gusto for over 15 years now - I'll never go back to neglecting it. It charges my batteries for the whole year! You get what you give in life, and on your birthday, that comes back to you. I am working on giving a positive vibe to people; based on the good vibes I got this year, it certainly seems to be working.

*ahem*

Cara, huge props to you for coming up with the term "Soft Gothic" - I love it! I think I may be a Soft Goth.

I am happy to have this blouse out of spring/summer storage - it is truly a favourite. I've had it since March 2011 - I thrifted it for $4.50 and I've worn it easily a dozen times (it's machine washable, tumble dry!). I last wore it here in February under my red dress (and with the same tights).

Black leather skirt: well, it's a classic to me. Love it! I've had this since December 2011 (check it out, same blouse!) I last wore this awesome vintage 80s pencil skirt here in May with monstrous red shoes. Yeah, red and black and pattern is definitely one of my themes.

Howdy! I spent a good amount of time in my outerwear today. I went out for dinner with my besties Cat and Elaine, then we went to see "Funny Girl", a classic 1960s movie with Barbra Streisand. Man, she can sing! And costumes were to die for!

I also spent a lot of time walking in my new red shoes. I'm happy to report: they were awesome.

The stuff:

Gah, those just may be the perfect red shoes!  So utterly beautiful. I just bought them last weekend on clearance sale at one of my favourite stores for $111.00.

Lots of heavy metal too.

Blouse (Marcona, thrifted), skirt (Hemingway, vintage 80s, consignment), shoes (Marc), belt (gift from Mom), necklace (gift from Tina), silver/red ring (Oscar & Libby's), steel ring (vintage 50s, handmade).

These are my gifts from L, as well as a gift certificate to my favourite diner (thank you, Architecture team) and a couple of boxes of chocolate that I got from one of the directors at work.

Laphroig Quarter Cask Single Malt Scotch, the new Stephen King, the last two "Walking Dead" graphic novels, a steampunk novel, the new Kings of Leon and Janelle Monae CDs. I also got a couple of bottles of wine, a box of mini cupcakes, a bunch of cards and flowers (orange roses, I'll take a picture tomorrow - they're at work, away from Vizzini).

L also gave me this:

I actually picked this out at the Vintage Expo a couple of weeks ago. I think it is from the 30s, probably brass, and is from China or Japan. It's good quality costume (not high-end - can you imagine what Wendy Brandes would do with this idea?). One of the clasps has been replaced with a more recent one; the bracelet has the original. It has no marks or stamps on it.

Check it out.

Dragons! Each is mounted on a stamped brass backing, and there is a blue-green-white stone (not plastic or synthetic) mounted on it. What an amazing piece. Thank you, love.

Today, I wore my favourite tights and my favourite prints: leopard!

When I have trouble sleeping (not that often, but sometimes) I put together outfits in my head until I fall asleep. This is one of them.

This blouse is sort of on the fence for me right now. I love that it's this great shade of blue, I love that it's sheer, but I really don't wear it that much. Last time was during the April 2012 capsule (recap here). To be fair, it has been packed away for 6 months, and I only actually had 2 months in which to wear it after the capsule challenge was over. I last wore it in this outfit, layered under one of my leather dresses - maybe it's just a great layering piece.

What is that blur in the background?

The brown sweater vest is a piece I've had for quite a while. I don't really wear it much anymore either, but I like it as a finishing piece over a blouse like this. I last wore it during the November 2012 capsule (recap here); this was the last outfit with it.

The skirt is a lovely silky leopard. I last wore it here in July with the same shoes.

"Hey, I'm busy here, do you mind?"

The stuff:

 Such a great classic shoe. I last wore these with the same skirt back here in July.

Big blue bling:

My Wendy Brandes ring, a pendant from L and blue glass beads.

Blouse (Express, thrifted), vest (gift from Ruth), skirt (Club Monaco), shoes (Nine West, thrifted), pendant (gift from L), ring (Wendy Brandes), earrings (local).

I had lunch with my mom today. She gave me a gift card, flowers (carnations, of course, for my Grandad), and these awesome locally-made earrings:

 They are by Angelique Cejka of AC Silverworks (about her).

The inner and outer copper hoops spin:

Aren't they beautiful?

Mom also gave me these two pictures. Remember my Hawaiian 70s dress (2nd outfit)? Here it is on the original owner, Joyce.

Dude in the middle - what the heck? Is it some sort of bizarre German restaurant? Why are they holding hands?

Sorry, Joyce, I think it looks better on me! But I do love it.

Mom also gave me this picture:

Probably a local shot, possibly my Aunt Kathy's house from the 70s (it had a black bathroom, including toilet!).

She thought it was the pink dress that I tried on (picture) but the one in this picture has a different skirt with pleats. However, Mom did mention that Kathy had held onto the pink dress for me! How cool. I could live with mashed boobs just to wear that once...

Well, there you have it. I have a very busy weekend ahead! It's not only Canadian Thanksgiving (so happy turkey day to my Canuck friends!), but we're going to a monster-themed burlesque (gotta work on my costume tonight) and I have one of my nieces on the weekend for her birthday. I better sneak some naps in there!