A Plethora of Pink and Purple; Un-Decorating; Squirrel Swearing

Ah, back to work...for a day. Must wear something bright. They may look black here, but be assured, I am wearing purple: the jacket, the dark accent colour on the skirt, and my tights are all deep purple. 

People do love colour, and I had a plethora of it on today. I had to run out and do a quick errand downtown, and as I strode along the sidewalk (feeling like the only person in the city wearing heels), both a cyclist and a pedestrian shouted, "Great outfit!" at me within minutes. I should venture out more often!  

• Jacket - Tahari, consignment; last seen here (2nd outfit) in December 2020 
• Shirt - Ann Taylor, consignment; last seen here in September 2020 with fringe and floral
• Skirt - Escada, vintage 80s, thrifted; purchased here for $19.95 (but it was free on a buy 2, get 1 deal)
• Shoes - Arnold Churgin, vintage, thrifted; last worn here in October 2020 and Flashbacked then
• Coat - Sfizio, consignment; last seen here in December 2020

I built the outfit around this new-to-me skirt - it's a tricky one! 

This skirt is tricky to style because of the bold colours. Yes, I can do black or white with it, but after that it's pretty much limited to dark purple, red and hot pink and it doesn't feel right to me to wear something that clashes. It's not like I can toss on yellow or green with it. 

It was wonderful to wear - the sweater knit has lots of stretch and the waistband has two separately sealed sections of wide elastic, so that it stays smooth and flat. The hem is also a tighter knit than the pink/red parts, so it stayed snug on my legs.

Masked up - this is a pink one with purple specks on it (courtesy of Mom). 

I had "bought" 24 of Mom's masks by making a donation to her charity of choice (a cat rescue) for my company's Week of Giving in early December (which I ran), with her masks as prizes for the winning team, and I had a few leftover so I gave one to my coworker Keith for Christmas. He got it today when he came in and LOVED it. Her masks are loads better than the craptastic ones our company has.

Outerwear - it was gloomy and rainy in the morning, but we actually had sunshine today! 

When I ventured out mid-day, I did not wear my coat or my other gear. Huzzah! And it's supposed to be cloudy/sunny for the next few days - I'll take it! We've had massive storms and rain for the past couple of days - the lights even flickered yesterday while I was on a Zoom call with Mom. 

• Beret - consignment
• Gloves - Danier

The stuff: 

The shoes are not quite an exact match to the pink in the skirt, but they are far enough away that it's close enough. I really liked the purple tights with the pink shoes, and that all my purples were perfectly matched. MATCHY!

Pink and purple bling: 

I was quite pleased with how this silk scarf worked at my neck, deployed more like an ascot instead of a necklace or brooch. I rolled the scarf up, wrapped it around twice and then knotted it in front and tucked it into my shirt. It kept my neck warm AND was stylish in a different way.

• Scarf - Elaine Gold, Lazy Susan's
• Earrings - consignment, Vancouver
• Brooch - c. 1999, Eaton's
• Silver/amethyst ring - vintage mall
• Gold/amethyst ring - Frances Jewelers, Dad's, c. 1965

Gotta keep experimenting! 

Taking Down the Christmas Decorations

It took most of Tuesday to take it all my holiday stuff down. I pulled the boxes and bags out of the hall closet - this is the part where I'm very thankful that I took the time all those years ago to label them with what goes where.

"Really? You have to do this NOW? While I'm napping?"

Vizzini took off as soon as I started grabbing the bags from the hall closet. This is where I store everything. 

My coats live on the left side of the closet, plus there's storage below them and a shelf above that goes up to the ceiling. 

On the right side, where L keeps his outerwear and fancy blazers, I store the Christmas village pieces and a few bags with garland and lights up on that shelf...

And there's this whole side section on the right that goes deeper behind the wall, where the previous owner installed some simple shelving. It's perfect for my decoration storage. The trees get de-lighted and boxed and go behind the coats. 

Just getting started. I put some albums on and danced and sang as I packed up my goodies for another year (or more, who knows what next year will bring?). 

"You call that fast? I could destroy a pair of your shoes in less time."

I pulled out all the bags and then started repacking the ornaments as I'd written on the little boxes. Hmmm, celestial ball...go find it. It's fairly fast - it took me about 4-5 hours to put everything away. 

I did discover that I missed an ornament! I heard a "thunk" at the bottom of one of the boxes and there was another Jacqueline porcelain decoration. 

Along with a note from her. Aw! I'm sorry I missed this angel. Next time. 

While I was bopping along with the tunes, it was very stormy out - I glanced outside when I saw some movement in the maple tree out there. 

SQUIRREL! He was scrabbling up the trunk - this is above our condo's roof, so about 5 storeys up. That tree was waving back and forth from the high winds.

I zoomed in a bit to try to capture him - his tail was a blur in the wind. 

And then....

HE SAW ME!

Ack! 

He came barreling down the trunk to the same level as our window, so he was about 2 meters from our window. 

I could tell he was swearing at me in Squirrel. 

He raced down, a blur.

And then, near the ground, he dove into this bush at the base of the tree. 

And did not come out. Aha! I've found your squirrel hideout! 

Vizzini, did you see the squirrel? 

"No, my proper scratching post is missing from the living room and I am NOT HAPPY."

That will be remedied tomorrow when I de-light the trees and put the living room back to normal. I miss all the decorations already!