Hello, my friends! Warning: the "Bigass" label is not misleading - this is one huge post. You will forgive me if I'm not terribly chatty, as I'm physically tired, and seriously need some couch time!
This is what I wore out for brunch with L on Saturday, followed by my dear friend Yvonne's closet clean-out.
This is my entry for "
Visible Monday" over at Patti's
Not Dead Yet Style. Coincidentally, she's showing some street art, which I also recorded on my travels that day.
- Dress - Dept, thrifted; last worn here in November 2018 for decorating my office
- Shoes - Camper, thrifted; last seen here in November 2018 with sparkle, grey and leopard
- Leather jacket (below) - Danier, consignment; last worn here in November 2018
I had a lovely Castle view from my stairs - we've had great weather all weekend: sunny, not too hot, not too cold.
A perfect spring day!
Cleaning out a closet is an ordeal - I had to wear something that I could move (and sweat) in.
We also walked to town for breakfast (and I had a wee shop, which we shall get to), and then walked to Yvonne's for our closet date.
I love this dress - it wasn't so long ago that my hair matched that magenta!
I am wearing nylons - it's not that warm just yet.
Getting coffee'd up.
I need to be civil to others.
Outerwear - leather weather! I love this orange leather coat.
I am still bothered that it doesn't have external pockets (why!?).
But I haven't seen a better orange leather jacket to replace it yet.
Super-klassy, I changed my bag!
The stuff:
I've been getting more and more comfy flat and low heels. I like the grey-blue of these chunky Campers.
Simple bling:
I decided to go "full Laverne" and wear my S pin! Link if you don't know what I'm talking about,
here.
- Gold hoops - 5th anniversary gift from L
- Lapis lazuli ring - Wendy Brandes
- S pin - Dodds, vintage fair
I took my camera with me, since I wanted to take a few pictures of our closet adventure - and I snapped a few scenes of my wanders.
This is Pluto's Diner, where L and I went for breakfast - maybe you can tell that it used to be a gas station? Those repair bay doors on the left open in the summer time. I've been going to Pluto's since I first opened in the late 80s. The food is delish!
From there, I popped into Heart & Sole's hosiery shop to look for replacement floral tights for the ones I wore to Vancouver (they have massive holes in them, not fixable, although I will try to get more wears out of them).
These are by Celeste Stein, and were $36.00 a pair. The left ones have a great pink/blue/purple/orange/yellow mix, and the right pair has an awesome mod look with its predominantly teal and orange mix.
I had a quick look around at Vanity Fair Antique Mall, and found two pairs of earrings.
The bead ones were $4.00 are very light wood - the backing fell off one of them as they were bagging it for me. I just glued it when I got home, no problem. The gold/silver ones on the right were $2.00 and will work well with my POLY jewelry.
I had to have this set of 1960s Italian-made plastic jewelry.
They were $25.00 each, but LOOK AT THEM. Ungh, I love them.
So pretty!
And they fit me perfectly.
I tried a few things on at the Velvet Crease, but nothing rung my bell, until I spotted this lovely gold bracelet made of round dome-shapes.
I love the rich gold colour.
I found stamps that say "Butler" on the inside of each dome.
And the clasp says "FAC" - that stands for Fifth Avenue Collection.
A little poking around reveals that this is probably from the 80s.
And since it's new with tags, it's been sitting unworn for a long time. I paid $15.00 for it.
I strolled through a lovely neighbourhood on the way to Yvonne's.
All of the Japanese plum trees and cherry trees are coming out in bloom - the trees "snow" with petals.
Whole streets are lined with them.
They make me sneezy.
I liked this door/wall painting and noticed that there's a very subtle title above the red and white design.
It says "The Deadbeats Club."
Vancouver Street still has a bunch of its original Victorian homes.
The colours are authentic to their era. Most of these are designated Heritage by the City.
This apartment building is where L and first lived together, from 1996 to 2000.
That's our old living room window and kitchen window on the lower right corner. We hated when a bus unloaded at that stop - we'd always have to pause our VCR because it was so loud.
I love this old mansion. It's called the Beaconsfield, and it's a Bed & Breakfast.
I used to walk by it every day, from 1988 to 1995, when I lived in Fairfield, on my way to work.
I spy a kitty!
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| "That sun feels good." |
A very pretty white one. He seems to be very focused.
The corner of Beacon Hill Park - I'm at my destination.
Time to get busy on that closet!
We pulled out all of Yvonne's shoes, and took them out of the shoe boxes so we could see them properly.
A bit blurry - it took us over 4 hours to do this! It's quite an operation!
Storage racks removed from the closet, and the little-seen scarf rack was pulled out for inspection.
We went through every item, sorting things into Keep, Swap or Donate. We also did an Archive section, for those sentimental things that you just don't want to give up, but aren't going to wear any more.
So many hangers! We ended up with 2.5 garbage bags for donation, and two massive garbage bags for swap.
After we sorted all of Yvonne's clothing, shoes and outerwear, we packed away all of her fall/winter clothes to save space in her double closet.
And finally, we were done! Here's my beautiful friend showing off her sweater and top storage area.
She's promised to get pant/skirt hangers and hang those up.
Left side of her closet - previously, that had been crammed full of clothes and shoe boxes.
Those are the storage tubs with her cold weather gear, and only a few "I promise I will only wear these when I am sick and not in public" clothes are left. Lots of room for skirts to hang now!
The shoe rack was permitted to come back, but was moved closer to the front of the closet (leaving potential storage room behind it - good to have room for growth once you clear out!).
We sorted through all the shoes and then put them back nice and neat. The long fabric "box" organizer to the left previously held a million old shoes - we converted it to an easy sweater storage (and it's mostly empty still - room for more!).
All Yvonne's blazers, blouses and dresses, sorted and easy to see.
I see a couple of my pass-alongs there!
The upper shelf got a wooden rack for purses, a box of scarves and hats.
Again, lots of room for more! When we were done, I put together a week's worth of work outfits for her, incorporating some of her "I'm stumped" pieces. We could see where holes in her closet existed - I think it's time to go shopping! What a fun afternoon it was!
Our sweeties joined us near the end, and fetched us pizza for dinner. We enjoyed a drink and then L and I walked home.
That's one of my favourite houses in my neighbourhood - I'd love to live in the whole thing, but it's divided up into suites. I want that tower!
L and I hung out and played board games on Saturday night. I was pretty pooped after all our closet exertions, but was up early to get groceries and then start my own closet undertaking.
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| "Does this mean you're getting the vacuum cleaner out?" |
It does indeed! I clean my whole closet from top to bottom (sometimes moreso than others!).
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| "Eep! Wake me when you're done." |
Vizzini hid the entire time. What a chicken-cat.
I started with my tights. I store tights at the bottom of my lingerie chest, and in a large shopping bag. I roll them for storage.
I put all the dark tights into the double-deep drawer (out of sight, out of mind!), and kept out my plain nylons, trouser socks and other spring-y hosiery in the bag, where it's easy to see them.
This is my full lingerie chest, which lives to the right of my closet door (to the right of where I stand in most of my pictures). I store my camisoles in the top drawer, my "soft tops" (dressy sleeveless tops for layering) in the next drawer, and my vintage slips and camisoles in the next double-deep drawer.
My not-yet-sorted scarves are on the lower left, along with my paper parasol.
I cleaned off the top and rearranged my art from Caro's mom, Hazel, the replica lingerie chest model that L used to surprise me (the chest was a Christmas gift years ago), and my small perfume collection. I never wear scent, but they all have sentimental associations for me.
I am building a small collection of sunglasses (and a pair of reading glasses) for sunny weather when I have contact lenses in.
Okay, closet time! I've emptied my first two shelves of sleeveless sweaters, short-sleeved sweaters and other odds and ends of tops, and have weeded out some blouses, long skirts and trousers.
I pull out everything that's not spring/summer. That means anything thick, warm, and heavy.
It's also items that can only be worn with tights, or that maybe I associate colour-wise with winter (mostly dark colours, some Christmassy or more shiny/sparkly things).
My party hat and archive shoes live up near the ceiling on the left. I didn't touch this shelf this season.
My "long hang" - where I store my jumpsuits, long and short dresses and dusters.
Not too many dresses are year-round for me.
The shelf above the dresses has my more costume-y party accessories.
Those boxes contain my own Archives: a couple of Dad's sweaters, some old purses, things like that. I also didn't touch this area on this swap-over. Tired!
My blazers on the back left, below my skirts.
Stored away the wool/heavy/dark ones.
I took out lots of skirts.
There's another shelf above those, that has vintage hats and other fancy dress-up stuff. I also didn't touch that this time around.
My shoes reside in the "Tower of Power", a 6-shelf x 2 shelf that runs on the front left side of my closet, from the floor to the ceiling. I maximize space in my closet!
I pulled down my black/silver platform sandals to put them back in regular rotation, and tidied up my purses, but otherwise didn't do anything with these shelves. Screw it!
All my keeper stuff folded and ready for storage.
It's always so exciting to pull these back out again after 6 months! Bye for now!
All my fall-winter shoes and boots, ready to be stored away. Most of these get put into cloth shoe-bags (multiple pairs per bag), which get stored under/behind my clothes in the closet, or under our bed.
See you next September!
Most of my shoes lined up in the hallway ready to be loaded back into the closet.
As I put them back, I focus on each pair, to make sure I still love them, want them and am excited to wear them. Anything that doesn't tick all those boxes gets removed. I have to cull things in order to keep shopping - shoes included!
And also because I was shopping for spring summer for the past 6 months! Here are all my new-to-me items that I purchased.
Five pairs of trousers, five skirts, nine blouses/tops, three jackets and eight dresses. Oh, and five pairs of shoes.
Now that all that fall/winter stuff is out of the closet, time to load in the spring /summer! Ooh, can't wait!
The top three flat tubs live under my bed. The big bottom one lives in the closet under the dresses. As I empty these out, I then pack the empty container with my fall/winter and put it back. I tidy as I go.
Here are the bags of spring/summer overflow.
I have far less spring/summer garments and shoes than winter - at least it seems that way. Cold weather clothes tend to be more bulky, and boots take up way more room than flats and sandals!
As I put each thing away, again I was looking at it and assessing my love for it.
A few things didn't make it, and as I ran out of hangers, more "keeper" things either got removed for swap or were readied for storage. Above, my blouse/long skirt/trouser section is done - my new-to-me items for this section are all on the left.
Above that section, my tops and jean-style trousers are folded. I'm not a very neat folder - I just need to be able to see at a glance what's there.
My new-to-me jewelry is in the ribbon box on the right, with my two Wendy Brandes ring boxes. On the left are my new-to-me and recently purchased hosiery.
More sweaters, a few cardigans and a fuzzy top.
All wood surfaces are wiped down before I put my clothes back.
Here are the dresses all done.
You can see I've turned all my hangers backwards anew so that I can see what's not been worn. As I wear things, and they get washed and/or hung back up, I turn the hanger the other way. It's a great method to ensure you're wearing your whole closet. I've been doing it for around 5-6 years and it really helps me.
My skirts - oh my lovely skirts.
I can't wait to start building new outfits!
My jacket and blazer collection is also very colourful.
I'd forgotten about some of these!
I also swap over my accessories - my three round boxes of belts.
And my box of obis and wrap-style belts too!
All the shoes go in, now that all the fall-winter things in their bags are tucked away underneath. This is the lower left side of my closet, under the my blouses/long skirts/trousers.
I keep out a few pairs of boots for those chilly/rainy spring and late summer "feels like fall" days.
The shoes on the lower left - flats and walking shoes on the floor, then higher heels as we go up.
Most of my spring/summer footwear gets worn barefoot - that's a big determiner for me. Can I wear it barefoot?
These comfy shoes say yes!
I'm so happy to have these back!
More colourful friends!
A few pairs of booties on the lower section.
And way up high, I've put my tasseled magenta shoes up in the "party shoe" section.
Purses are still behaving.
This is the pile of items I amassed over 5 hours for giveaway.
That's a big pile of things that I'm ready to pass along. I can't wait for my next swap! I dumped all of this in the library where a monster pile of clothes awaits my friends and coworkers.
But I'm still not done!
I have store away my fall/winter jewelry! There is all my fall stuff, bagged and ready for me to rediscover in 6 months.
I delight in seeing my silver and colourful bracelets and cuffs again.
I use a vintage snack double-dish to store my cuffs - it works great! I highly recommend it - I can spin it around and see every single cuff, without them taking over my dresser top.
I go through every section of my giant jewelry box - this is where most of my contemporary jewelry lives.
Necklaces ready to go on the sides - I can't close the doors. Too many! The whole front is drawers, and the top lifts up for more storage.
I use a little flat crystal candy dish for my stud-style earrings.
I see my S pin and my Star Trek badge there too, ready for quick deployment.
My grandmother's jewelry box also gets cleaned out, and set up with all of my spring/summer vintage jewelry.
The bottom tray fits over the top section; the middle section is a drawer that slides in.
My dresser top all nice and tidy - ready for me to accessorize my outfits.
It feels good to get that done!
My stored jewelry is used in the corner here where we first started - my scarves sit on it.
I've cleaned those out too - many lovely silks to wreath myself in.
Meanwhile, Vizzini stayed hidden. It took me from around noon to 5:30 pm to do all of this (and another 2 hours to blog it!).
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| "Why do you do this to me, Woman?" |
Of course, it is all about him! I will make it up to you with some cuddles, buddy.
And leaving you, my friends, with these beautiful pink blossoms.
Wishing you blue skies...
Pink blossoms...
...and hoping you had a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by!
