Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up: Concert Pleather, Vancou-versary Shopping Trip

Woo, I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed being at home, since we traveled out of town this weekend.

First up: Friday! That seems so long ago. I wore a super-comfy outfit for work, knowing it was going to be a very long day.

I wore this outfit from 7:30am (when I got dressed in the morning) to 11:30pm (when I finally got home).

• Dress - Joe Fresh, thrifted; last seen here in this exact outfit in late December 2016
• Boots - 1883 Lucchesse, consignment; last worn here (2nd outfit) earlier this month with fringe and flapping leather
• Coat (below) - Danier Leather 

I took today (Monday) off work, so I spent Friday preparing for that: placing supply orders, refreshing my back-up person on what to do, that sort of thing. After work, I joined a crowd of coworkers at a pub for a send-off of one of my favourite ladies. I'm going to miss you, Sherri!

Dashed home after one drink, and met L; we walked back to town to meet up with Nick and Karen, and Cat and Ross, for dinner.

And from there, we went to see a concert at the arena! K. Flay (here, all links 'cause I love) opened for Mother Mother, a popular Canadian band (link here). I can't find any reviews of the show online, but this one here is from their performance at Massey Hall in Toronto a couple of weeks ago - they were were awesome! You can also check out L's thoughts on their most recent album and his review here of the concert (did you know he has a music review blog? Check it out here!).

Outerwear:

"I refuse to perform for your stupid pictures, Woman."

The weather is getting slightly warmer, but I was still grateful for my skull scarf and leather Danier gloves.

I love Vizzini's expression there so much that I cropped just him.

"Yes, you should stay out of my pictures."

He looks rightfully outraged. He had to wait till 11:30pm for his kitty treats - he was nearly apoplectic with his yowling when we walked in the door.

The stuff:

Nothing beats my cowboy boots for some hard walking.

Simple bling:

A couple of leather cuffs, and bold earrings.

• Scarf - San Francisco, 2012
• Red cuff - vintage fair
• Black cuff - Guess, thrifted
• Earrings - local

After a late night, full of drinks and music, we were up bright and early - gotta catch the plane to Vancouver for our annual anniversary trip!

This is my entry for "Visible Monday" over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style. I missed it last week - bad me! - but no way am I missing it this week!

• Yeti jacket - Kimchi Blue; last worn here earlier this month with copper and black
• Cowl sweater - August Silk, thrifted; last seen here (2nd outfit) when I last wore my cowboy boots in March
• ORANGE LEATHER SHORTS - Danier Leather, vintage 80s, first worn here (2nd outfit) in February
• Boots - Prepare Guide, Fluevog; last worn here with fringe and plaid ruffles in February

Showing my ink:

As L and I both only carry a knapsack each, I have to maximize my outfit potential. I wore this same outfit all day Saturday AND all day Sunday.

At one point, L and I were waiting to cross a street in Vancouver, when L spotted a man taking out picture. We certainly stood out in the ocean of yoga pants and rain jackets!

There is no neutral reaction to this outfit. You'll either love it or hate it. I'm totally fine with that!

The stuff:

After two solid days of walking and shopping in Vancouver, my feet were very tired, but these boots held up admirably.

Simple bling:

These earrings were still sitting out, so I grabbed them and wore them all weekend.

• Earrings - local
• Ring - consignment

I kept jamming my hands into my pockets, and the ring kept catching on them and stretching out. Fearing I would break it, I took it off after Saturday and stowed it in my backpack for the rest of the trip.

And here are our trip pictures! As I mentioned before, we go over to Vancouver every year. I was really trying to focus on seeing our friends and enjoying our experiences, so I didn't take as many pictures as I have on previous trips. You can check out last year's photos here to enjoy the awesome scenery in our part of the world (Canada's west coast and Vancouver Island, where I live).

We always fly over harbour-to-harbour on the float plane. This is our new waterfront airport, the little white building in the middle.

There's a seaplane on the right. I find it hilarious that the airport is dwarfed by that ginormous yacht on the left, but it does help you see how dinky the planes are! They only hold about 12 people.

I dozed a bit and enjoyed the sun in my face as we approached Vancouver.

There it is in the distance!

Uh-oh, that is a suspiciously large amount of clouds hovering over the city.

We had fairly clear weather for Saturday, though.

Coming in over Stanley Park, looking at downtown.

Banked in for our landing on the water.

That's the little Seabus that you can take to cross Burrard Inlet [corrected- thanks to rosemarie!]. The big white thing at the base of all the big buildings is Canada Place, a convention centre.

Part of our annual tradition since 2013 is meeting up with Melanie of A Bag and a Beret. Melanie met us at the hotel, and of course, we took pictures!

She and L rock it out! L's wearing his Fluevogs that I bought him last year, leather-finish jeans, his baby blue blazer and a groovy shirt.

Melanie and I just can't be classy around each other (but we're "klassy"!). We immediately go into full Goof-Off Mode when we meet.

Yes, dahling, aren't we fabulous?

L is very patient with us, and takes lots of pictures.

We went for lunch at Forage (link). Soooo good! We went there for the 40+ Blogger Meet-Up a couple of years ago, and I knew L would love it.

Melanie came prepared for a special project. I'm not going to reveal anything she posts, but it involved props, dragging shoes down a sidewalk and she and I eating licorice shoelaces. Hee! It was hilarious!

She's instructing L on how to use the video function. We made a movie!

L is not particularly adept at gadgets.

Consultation with the Magical Loupe of O was required.

After our schtar-making video, we found this little gated building entrance for more phashion photos.

I am such a ham.

At this point, I noticed the security camera.

Bwah!

Okay, let's be serious.

 Well, one of us is serious!

Legs up!

I'm not sure why we did that.

Our serious fashion faces.

So damn glam!

Melanie headed off to throw our movie together, and L and I strolled down to the Gastown Fluevog store.

Our regular Fluevogologist, Wes, was there! So good to see you, Wes!

I bought L these magnificent iridescent silver Swordfish Malverns, and he bought me two pairs - I'll get to my purchases shortly.

I always try on a ton of shoes - Fluevogs often look very different in person, and sometimes they don't grab me until I actually try them on. Here's what I tried:

• These odd little flats - L really liked the look of these
• Blue booties with cutouts - the colour really appealed to me
• Funky silver heels - I liked the swirly shape of these
• Crackled red metallic flats - the colour was awesome, plus that toe
• Two-tone purple boots - duh, of course I tried the purple boots
• Crazy striped boots - these were a "what the hell, why not" try-on

Being a Saturday, it was a little crazy in the store, so I didn't try on as many pairs as I usually would. I also have a good idea of how most of the shoe families fit me (once you know your size in one of Fluevog's heel shapes/families, you will fit that same size in all the shoes with that heel). I am keeping an eye on a few of these online for sales.

And what did I buy? The first pair were these magnificent beauties, the Celestial Communication Andromeda!

These are just gorgeous on.

The bulk of the shoe is a silvery-pewter leather, with a swirled black perforated strap that goes across the instep.

A curly heel and a lovely custom buckle add wonderful detail.

The heel is actually split at the bottom.

I wore them out for dinner that night (forgive my blurry bathroom mirror selfies, I was in a rush).

Ha, you can't even see them there, really. Don't worry, I'll be wearing them again soon!

• Dress - Danier Leather, vintage 90s, thrifted; last worn here as Darth Sheila in January

We went to L'Abattoir (link) in Gastown for dinner with our friends Anthony and Laura.

As you may surmise from the name, the restaurant is on the site of the city's original meatpacking district - this area is on the verge of the gentrification zone in Gastown. One block away, it's a pretty freakin' scary neighbourhood. Our cabdriver made sure we didn't walk through it.

Post-dinner selfie. Sorry, Laura, I cut your face in half!

The food was excellent, as was the company. We walked back to our hotel (yay for comfy Fluevogs!), then decided to go upstairs to Earl's nearby for more drinks (I'm not linking to Earl's - they're just a chain restaurant).

Robson Street is the main drag.

L and Laura chatting. I love those trees all lit up.

We tumbled into bed late Saturday, then got up early to meet our friends Spence and Kim, and their little ones Rosalie and Elle, for brunch at El Caminos (link, we've been there before, and knew it would be awesome) before it got too busy.

Sadly, it poured rain all day on Sunday. I saw this art and it basically represents how we felt.

Cold and rainy! We had to buy an umbrella, but the wind gusted around it as we shopped up and down Main Street.

This necessitated many stops for refreshing beverages. We loved the decor in this pub-style sushi/fusion restaurant, called The General Public Sushi Lodge (link).

Yes, L, you rock! Happy anniversary weekend! 

The giant sculptures hanging from the ceiling were made of toys, and were lit with twinkling lights.

Strange heads were on the wall.

I sat under the Darth Vader one.

Very odd, but also very appealing.

Here's what I bought - all second-hand!

Our first stop was Turnabout (link), a luxury resell store chain in western Canada. We've been there before, and they do a men's section, so L is also able to shop. He bought two pairs of jeans (one is plaid!) and a lovely shirt.

I tried on a ton of stuff, but didn't have a lot of luck, unfortunately. Only these shoes made it home with me.

They are a pretty blush pink, and are fabric that looks like suede.

They're by Asos and were $29.99,

I love the blocky heel and the wraparound ankle strap. I suspect they are not that old.

As you can see in the first picture, they were marked as a size 8.

However, that is a 9 on the sole. These fit me just right! And they have very little wear, so bonus!

There are many vintage and secondhand stores along Main, but due to the craptastic weather, and L's flagging energy (he can't shop like me, for hours), we only visited a few. However, we both scored at Bohemia Gallery (link). The lady there was also super-nice and chatty, and we enjoyed a good browse. L bought a cool shirt with hammerhead sharks on it.

I spotted these funky taupey-bone coloured leather shoes.

They're by Ecco, so super-comfy.

I like the "all in one" heel.

And not a bit of wear!

These are sized 41, which is about a 10, but these fit me perfectly - I'm a 40 (or around a 9.5). These were $25.00, marked down.

I also found this cool blouse.

I love the fun image on the front of a flamingo and two fish with water lilies, and a tropical island in the background.

It's by Scotch & Soda by Maison Scotch, and it's a size 1.

How confusing! I have encountered this kind of sizing before, though - 1 is a Small, 2 is a Medium - so it didn't fool me.

The back is plain, but the overall pattern is of little black stars (you can see them in the above picture).

A very cute piece, for $34.95, which after quickly perusing their site, seems to be a good price, since their blouses start at around $129 and go up.

We had a quick nap at the hotel after our shopping adventures, then met our buddy Craig at Cactus Club (also a chain) for dinner and drinks.

And here are my second pair of Fluevogs...

The Effortless Sophia! I have already broken them in, doing a lot of walking in them (so comfy!), and wearing them in the rain.

The backs are lavender, the fronts are violet, and the toe section is patent leather - shiny!

They are very tight in the calves - thank goodness for the elastic there! Even so, I have to elevate my legs and really honk on them to get the zippers up.

For dinner out with Craig, I layered this blouse underneath my suede dress.

• Blouse - Violet + Claire, thrifted; last worn here for International Women's Day 

The lovely server at Cactus surprised us with a mini version of their peanut butter crunch dessert (just the right size. 

Aw! I ate all of it myself, as L can't have dairy and doesn't like peanut butter. How terrible for me, hee hee!

We jammed all of our purchases into our backpacks, and wore as many of our clothes as possible (to take up less room).

My dress is fitting snugly in the top, as I have both my blouse and my sweater on underneath it!

Home to Victoria, where the skies are blue and the blossoms are starting to come out.  
We really do have better weather over here than Vancouver!

Someone was very happy to have us home.

"I missed you when I wasn't sleeping."

And I'm off to enjoy some downtime with my guys, L and Vizzini! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.