Bigass Weekend Vacation Wrap-Up: Velvet Dinner, Day of Indolence, Brunch and a Shop

Well, this is it, my vacation is nearly over! Where did the time go, and can I please have another week (or three?) off?

Casting out minds back, this is Thursday night's dinner out with L - we walked down to the Fernwood Village and had charcuterie at Stage, a wonderful little restaurant. 

 I wore my new Betsey Johnson dress for L, who is enamoured of the curvy stretchy velvet cut of it.

This is my entry for "Visible Monday" over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style - get yourself over there!

• Dress - Betsey Johnson, vintage 90s, thrifted; purchased here for $24.99
• Shoes - Effortless Bebe, Fluevog; last seen here in a pink party outfit last weekend
• Jacket (below) - Burberry, consignment, Vancouver; last worn here (2nd outfit) in April 

This was a lovely and comfy dress to wear.

 L was surprised that I'd worn pink shoes with it, but I was doing "goes" instead of "matches" - I like how the pink goes with the warm burgundy, and the lighter pinky-burgundy of the ruffled trim.

 I also didn't want to walk the 4 blocks each way in a heel.

Jacketed up for the chilly evening.

 As we were walking to the village, a guy hollered at L, "I like your outfit, man! You guys have got great style!" Yup, we sure do!

The stuff:

I love the shoes, and I think we can all agree that they are awesome.

 Elle of The Elle Diaries recently posted about the "Round Bag Trend" (post here) - this is a dark olive green printed leather/suede vintage bag that I picked up a few years ago. I'm so on-trend, ha ha!

Blurry bling:

 Wearing my new-to-me earrings from Mom. Perfect!

• Amethyst/gold ring - Frances Jewelers, c. 1965, Dad's
• Amber ring - c. 1996
• Earrings - Mom's

Here is L's outfit - it's actually the same thing he wore out on the town earlier that day, with a new-to-him coat found a few days earlier at Rich Rags. 

 It's a spectacular silver-grey long coat with black satin detailing at the collar. It's beautifully-made (no labels), and will be a great addition to L's going out looks.

On Friday, we celebrated L's birthday (end of Birthday Week!) with our annual Day of Indolence.

 I went casual with a bit of flare. Click here for last year's Day of Indolence adventures.

• Jacket - Vero Moda, thrifted; first worn here with sticky velvet for Jeans Week in May
• Sweater - Bellessa, thrifted; first worn here with aqua and floral in April
• Jeans - Levi Strauss commuter jeans, thrifted; last seen here for Jeans Week in May
• Shoes - Matisse; last worn here (2nd outfit) in April for a shopping trip

It was grey and chilly with some rain - not nice and warm and sunny like last year, unfortunately!

 But we make our own sunshine when we're surrounded by friends, don't we?

Overall, I liked this outfit, but I was cold by the time we walked home.

 Also wet - my hair got all ripply from the rain, and my toes were wet through my shoes.

My indolent face.

 The Day of Indolence is when we take the day off work (a Friday), and invite all of our best friends to do so as well. We start with brunch, and then wander around, having drinks, eating and generally not doing anything worky at all! It's lovely.

The stuff:

 I make a lot less effort to accessorize when I'm on vacation.

• Earrings - 5th anniversary gift from L
• Ring - Frances Jewelers, c. 1965, Dad's

L's indolent outfit. His "rock star" jacket is over 10 years old.

The "Jesus" pose - L does this in most photos, based on all the Renaissance paintings we saw in Italy where Jesus makes this pose!

 Funky Fluevogs, jeans, a Monty's Pub tee (gift from Cat/Ross a few years ago - Monty's was a stripper bar), and the Etro shirt we found at Flavour Upstairs the other day. Stylin'!


The gang on our way to Spinnakers Pub. We started at Floyd's Diner for breakfast, followed by a stop in at the Yates St. Taphouse (Caro joined us briefly), then to the Garrick's Head (where Cat joined us), to Lure, to Spinnakers...and then finally home at about 7pm. It was a long day!

 Ross, Yvonne, Cat, L and Randall. I love my people.

Cat, me and Yvonne.

Photo by Randall

 We discovered if you yell, "Shake it, baby!" before you take the photo, everyone gives a little shimmy and looks much more relaxed and natural.

See? Shake it, baby!

Photo by Yvonne

 My hair is all floaty!

Me and Cat.

Photo by Yvonne

 She has a pizza from Spinnakers for dinner.

Some random shots of my day.

 "So Victoria!" we all agreed. There's a harbour taxi, and a float plane, ready to take off.

A shot across the harbour, from Lure.

 The Vancouver-Victoria new passenger ferry is coming in, plus another wee harbour taxi/ferry.

A new dock has sprung up along the Songhees Walkway.

 We did not approve. Too many boats, people and density.

Looking across the harbour at the cruise ship docks.

L looks on

 There are three ginormous cruise ships! The city is crammed full of people. Must avoid downtown at this time of year!

Disassembly of the old blue bridge.

 Cranes everywhere. My city is being developed more and more every year.

On Saturday, we didn't have enough people to play Ultimate Frisbee (even though my back is feeling better, I was relieved not to play for another week), so L and I went to Shine for brunch.

 Road-testing a few of my outfit items that are in the "I'm looking at you and considering dumping you" category.

• Jacket - Helmut Lang, thrifted; last worn here in a drapey outfit in April
• Velvet tank - American Eagle Outfitters, consignment; first worn here in May with the above velvet jacket
• Skirt - Ricki's, consignment; last seen here in January with bad tights
• Shoes - Ecco, thrifted, Vancouver; last worn here in July 2017 in a mermaid-inspired outfit

Those items are both gone/removed from my regular wardrobe. Can you guess which ones they were?

 If you guessed this velvet tank - you are correct! It tried to rotate around me, and rode up while I walked, exposing my belly (good thing I had the jacket done up). It is in my "wear around the house" wardrobe now, particularly for summer when it's really hot, and I can wear a silk kimono over it, and it won't be all clingy. I like how it fits, but it doesn't work as a layering piece due to the 'cling factor".

I love the jacket - no chance of that leaving - and I still like the deep green of the skirt (plus, floaty!).

 So that leaves the shoes. Yup, gone. Even though I like the neutral colour and they are comfy.

The stuff:

 But they hit me on the ball of my left foot in a really painful place - it just hits a nerve. Gotta go. Shoes that hurt have no place in my closet! Bye, won't miss you!

• Earrings - Mom's

First wearing of these lovely and light earrings from Mom!

From Shine, I walked down to My Sister's Closet for a look around. They have 50% off on yellow tags right now - hurray!

 Replacing my current white leather belt, which is actually not a true white (so it bothers me) with this one with all the shiny gold studs and hardware.

It's by Banana Republic, and was $6.50 with the 50% off.

Feels like a good deal. This was likely around $75 new/$45 on sale.

 You know I won't hesitate to shop out of season for cool pieces!

 Like this fitted open-knit sweater - the colour is a steely-bluey-green. It's a shorter cut, to my waist. If this cool weather keeps up, I might wear it before it goes into the fall-winter pile.

I recognize this brand - Nor of Denmark - as being one that Dots carries.

 This was $19.98, which felt fine for a nice cotton blend sweater.

 Made in Italy!

This is a crushed velvet black mock-neck.

 Boring, but will be handy in the cooler months. Black tops are useful for layering under other things, and for showing off statement necklaces (of which I have a few). I hope I won't have the "velvet cling" issue that the silver cami above has.

The brand is Mantles, which was the Bay (now known as the Hudson's Bay) in-house brand back in the 90s and 00s.

 This was half-price at $8.50. I'll likely wear it to death.

Okay, I have to stop buying long cardigans now! I have blue, rust and now "linden". Let's call this green, shall we?

 This is a lovely rayon-viscose blend, and is very fine texture. Also - pockets!

It is by Joseph A, and was new with tags on.

This was $34.98, and the most expensive thing I bought on the day.

And there you go, my friends! I'll be back to my daily posting schedule as of tomorrow - I'm mentally girding my loins for going back to work, but trying not to think about it too much! Wishing you all a lovely week ahead!