Birthday Shop, Ship and Other Wall Things

Happy Birthday, L! Here's my favourite Boston Bruins fan, posing with his front-and-centre Hockey Shrine and one of his (many) CD shelves. 

Rock on, sir! He gets CDs, I get clothes (he also gets clothes...but I have more). 

Today, for L's birthday we had a chill morning, then strolled down Oak Bay Avenue for a wee shop. 

Mighty Cthulhu and the dinosaur wish L all the best, along with his mom, my mom and me. Guess which card I gave him? Heh. 

I planned on doing a little shop for myself while we were out, so I dressed for changing rooms. 

We also walked, so comfy shoes were required. 

• Dress - Eliza J, consignment; last worn here in July 2020 with the same shoes and belt
• Shoes - Karl Lagerfeld; last seen here in that same outfit in July 2020

I've been on a roll with jammy dresses lately - I have a huge collection, and I like to try to fit in a wear of all of them in every season. 

This stripe-y beauty ticks all the boxes: great shape, perfect fit, bold pattern, nice fabric, lined, and of course, POCKETS.

I have worn yellow accessories with this dress every single time - I think this is my fourth wearing of it.

I know I could wear red or orange or purple or another bright saturated colour with it, but why bother when there's already a nice yellow stripe around the hem? 

Part of the idea of jammy dresses is being lazy about styling them. 

Dress, belt, shoes, that's it...and I could skip the belt. So easy! 

Mask up for being around people and in stores. 

I had a ton of compliments on my outfit all day. Everyone appreciates matchy-matchy! 

Accoutrements: 

I carried a couple of shopping bags in my little leather purse, along with extra sunblock (I went without a jacket or cover). 

The stuff: 

I wore little footy nylons so that my toes wouldn't rub, although these are comfy leather shoes.

Bold bling: 

I love that yellow leather belt. 

• Belt - Liz Claiborne, vintage 80s, thrifted
• Eelskin bangle - mine, donated, re-thrifted
• Earrings - vintage fair
• Lapis lazuli ring - Wendy Brandes

L and I both enjoy a good treasure hunt when we go shopping - that thrill of "What will we find?" We popped into Good Things Vintage, House of Savoy and Turnabout, all on Oak Bay Avenue, and then strolled further down the Avenue to the Penny Farthing Pub for a late lunch and stop in Rogers Chocolates after. 

We didn't find anything for the house (I'm still in full-on nesting mode) or for L, but I did find a few goodies for myself. L brought a book and sat in the sun while I shopped. 

At House of Savoy, I found this belt in the sale bin, marked down from $39.00 to $12.00. 

The front of the belt is solid gold-coloured metal, with two strips of black leather that do up in the back. It's a really interesting belt, and it felt like quality. 

Yup, Club Monaco! Their belts start around $99.00 new. 

I spotted these funky - and light! - earrings in a bin. 

They are 2.5" long - you know I love big earrings. They must be hollow tubes to be this light.

I also noticed these stamps on the back. .925 (Sterling silver) and "Israel".

I couldn't find out anything about that mark, but these were only $12.00. Felt like a bargain! 

I spotted this fabulous fabric easily. That's a woven fabric, not a print. 

Look at that symmetry! The back and sides are just as exquisite. This dress fit me perfectly too. 

It has pockets midway down the front (almost pouches), hidden in the seams. 

They are very deep, which I like. Pockets! 

The dress is by Hallhuber, which I've never heard of - apparently, it's a European brand. Looks like this would have retailed for around $145 Canadian/99 Euros. 

I paid $38.00 for it. I love the print of black, grey and white, and you can see that there is also a bit of brown and peachy-orange woven into it. I like the unusual colours - it will make this fun to style. 

I'm pretty good at spotting the potential of Things That Look Terrible On Hangers. 

This is a skirt, for instance, not a bunch of rags or a garbage bag. 

It's a very funky skirt - I modelled it when I got home after I'd changed into my Leonard Cohen tour shirt from April 2009, first worn here - that's an early funky outfit; you'll recognize the hat and belt, which I still have.

Back to the skirt! It's black with a blue lame (lah-MAY, darlings!) thread woven in it to make a tartan plaid. My hand has found a pocket there - awesome. 

It has all kinds of weirdass folds, pleats and tucks. 

I struggled to figure out what was the front and back, but I basically just tried every angle until I found one I liked. 

A look at the weave - the content tag is missing, but it feels like cotton/linen. 

"I can't believe you are ignoring me!"

It's quite wrinkled - I think it's been hanging in someone's closet for a while. 

L thought this was very "Come On, Eileen" and that bears out...

...as it's a Vivienne Westwood Anglomania skirt! 

I paid $125.00 for this (a bit of a splurge, but I LOVE Westwood), but her skirts new run $300-$700, and this is way more complicated than her current season. 

I found this collection promo image from a Flickr page dated 2012, and some digging around led me to discover that it's called the Eight Skirt. It has tons of folds and twists to give it volume.

The shoes definitely look 2012 (those platforms!), and I found this May 2012 article about the opening of her store in Singapore, whereone of the women in the lead picture is wearing this skirt/outfit, so I'd guess this is from her Autumn/Winter 2011 collection. Cool! 

I didn't fare as well at Turnabout, even though I tried a bunch of stuff on. I ended up with this fun scarf. 

I love the colours - this will go with both my red and cobalt blue leather jackets. 

Did you wonder what those two slits were in the above picture? 

It's for threading the other end through - you don't have to knot it and have all that bulk. 

It's made in France (KLASSY) and is a wool/poly blend. 

You can see the nice weave of the fabric there. This was $12.00.

When I shop second-hand, in my mind, many of you are along for the ride, whispering over my shoulder! Vix's collection of Lotta of Stockholm clogs and shoes reminded me that these styles are really cute and comfortable. 

These are Hasbeens, made in Sweden by Toffel. These sell at local shops for around $300 new. 

The leather metallic is a rubbed finish, so the brown shows through in places. The shoes are wooden, and the soles are rubber. 

They're in excellent condition, barely worn at all! 

These were marked down half price to $30.00 but I had $10 in Turnabout Points that I redeemed on them, so they were a whopping $20.00. 

That's it for my shopping - I'm happy with my purchases and super-excited about styling the Vivienne Westwood skirt. What's your favourite?

"I'm ignoring you, Woman." 

Vizzini has been mad at us all week, as we've been doing a major redo of all of our wall decorations/photos/pictures, so there has been a LOT of banging and things moving around (he really hates that). 

I had to give L his main birthday present early, as we had to factor it into our wall planning. 

He's been wanting a painting of a multi-masted ship for a long time. I always prefer actual art over a reproduction print (no offense, prints), so when I spotted this on the wall at Charmaine's, I gasped and said, "I'll take it!" This is the extra thing I had to carry home along with the footstool last weekend - it's a huge painting, measuring about 23 x 34 inches with the frame. 

An authentic signature for Sten Bille, a Danish artist who specialized in ship paintings. 

He lived from 1890-1953, so this is at least 70 years old, probably more. 

A close-up of the ship. 

The painting has lovely greys, soft blues and tones of ivory and yellow - it looks really good on our walls.

We haven't quite finished our redecorating, but here's a few areas that have changed. You got a glimpse of L's Bruins Shrine in the first picture. We moved an entire shelf of CDs down the hallway, to just outside the den (that doorway on the left is the one often seen in my pics - my closet is right behind this wall). 

The shelf doesn't get in our way, and it's freed up a bit of room in our living area. 

We hung L's signed Bobby Orr picture, and displayed some more odds and ends. 

Hats, a puck, a figure (also Bobby Orr), Orr's bio and a very old hockey card of Orr (not his rookie card, but close). 

In the living room, we hung more pictures in our "family collage". 

I printed a bunch, and put them into some thrifted frames. 

We made another small collage on the opposite wall. 

My Winesday family, Nick and L, and my gals at a Fluevog event. 

I found Vizzini hiding under my robe while we were in our flurry of banging and moving. 

"Just wake me up when you're finished."

I'll take more pictures of our living area soon, once it's finished. Sorry, I'm really slow at change! 

How's your week going? I am also slow at catching up on y'all's blogs, but I'll be around soon. I'm off to enjoy more of my vacay - I'll be back at the end of the weekend with a Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up. I actually have events and Things To Do, People To See, so I'm really excited.