Mom-Day Adventure: Oak Bay Beach Hotel in Danger Kimono Fringe; Jewelry Swap-Over

Welcome back, my friends! I'm feeling much better after sleeping all of yesterday afternoon (poked awake by Mr. Vizz wanting his food), riding the couch all evening and sleeping in until 9:30 this morning. I'm still tired, but no longer achy. 

I certainly had enough energy to do a Mom-Day Adventure, as these are precious and may not last forever (work is getting a bit busier). Mom treated me to lunch at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel - so swanky! 

Today's outfit does not contain a Reader Request, but I haven't forgotten about you, Sam - we'll be seeing some Boss Lady Pants tomorrow! 

I have really been wanting to wear this kimono, but it's challenging to style. My eyes alit on this blood red leather skirt...then the sparkly gold Converse sneakers...well, I really had no choice! 

• Kimono - no label, consignment; last worn here in January for New Year's Eve
• Sweater - Judith & Charles, consignment; last seen here in February with snake pants
• Skirt - Hugo Boss, consignment; purchased here for $60.00
• Shoes - Converse, consignment; purchased here for $50.00

I felt very much like me in this, which becomes more and more important the older I get. 

Why be boring? 

Isn't the kimono glorious? It feels like silk velvet. The fringe and tassels are all beaded.

I discovered that when going down stairs the tassels get stuck in the back of the shoes. This kimono also attracts office chair wheels, and I've crunched a few beads. It also has to be removed to use the loo. Danger Kimono!

Without it. I'm happy that this skirt fits - it was a smidge tight when I bought it.

But it's not like I'm going to leave a $600 skirt on the rack at 10% of the original price! I love the rich colour. 

Back view is always important. 

Life's too short - wear the clothes! 

Masked up. 

Safety first, kids! 

Incognito. 

I had visions of going for a Mental Health Shop up Oak Bay Ave after lunch, but I'll be doing that with Yvonne in the near future, so I came home and did my jewelry swap-over instead, to save myself time on the weekend for the big closet swap-over.

Accoutrements: 

Metallic accessories go with everything. 

• Purse - Banana Republic, consignment
• Mask - by Mom

The stuff: 

These sneakers were lovely for their first wearing, and they sparkled delightfully in the sun. 

Gold bling: 

: 

I've had some of these pieces for decades! 

• Coin necklace - gift from Mom & Dad, c. 1984
• Earrings - vintage 60s, liberated from Mom c. 1984
• Leafy bracelet - Trifari, vintage 60s, thrifted
• Band bracelet - Mom's (was a gift from Dad), vintage 70s
• Amber ring - c. 1996
• Crystal ring - Uffizi Gallery gift shop, Florence, Italy

Mom dressed up - Birthday Week has officially started for me! 

Mom's turquoise jacket perfectly sets off her newly-trimmed snowy hair. She shocked me by wearing earrings, until I realized they were clip-ons. I also spy a bag of presents for me! 

A lovely card that made me tear up, and a ginormous bag of Rogers Chocolates.

Sea salt caramel, my favourite! 

We parked along Beach Drive and strolled back to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel (OBBH). 

I'd show you more pictures of the ridiculously massive mansions along the water here, but the Gary Oak trees obscure everything. 

See the dog?

Aw, waiting for his mum/dad to come home. 

I spied a deer on the apartment building lawn on the other side of the street.

They may be beautiful creatures, but they are urban pests here. 

We've arrived! This is the "new" OBBH - both Mom and I have memories of the former (much smaller, but more charming) Oak Bay Beach Hotel. 

It's good to build new memories in new places too! 

We had lunch in the Snug, and this was our view.

Hideous! A few people ate out on the patio (it was in the low 20s today). 

Mom's jewelry is from our trip to New York City.

Clip-on earrings for the win! 

I had to take pictures of our food - it was so good.

We both had open cheese-steak sandwiches. The bread was chewy, the beef tender and smothered in mushrooms and blue cheese on a bed of arugula/rocket. The side salad is all local greens. 

Flocks of ravens flew in from the water.

There are about a dozen in this picture - I saw whorls of them gyring in the sky on the way home yesterday. Maybe we're going to get some rain soon...

Mom and I split the strawberry cheesecake. 

Wow, what a presentation! 

We attempted to split it and were surprised when it cracked open. 

The pink pool was a creamy strawberry foam, and the drops on the plate were intensely sour strawberry. Inside the hard shell was a cookie bottom, and a cream cheese centre with a puddle of strawberry puree on top. I see Mom's already grabbed half a fresh strawberry!

Action shot! 

We scraped the plate! 

I spotted this picture of the old Snug on the way out, pic from 1990. Mom used to come here for beers after her University of Victoria classes back in the 70s. 

And I always used to get a free lunch here after I decorated their Christmas tree and fireplace every year (I worked in a year-round Christmas store for 11 years in the 80s/90s). I did their lobby for about 5 years - I even did their yacht, the Mesouda, once. 

I did a quick search on the interwebz to see if I could find anything about that yacht (this was all in the pre-Internet times), and found an ad from a 1987 Washington State newspaper (here), and nabbed a screen grab:

Looks like the Mesouda was a 41-foot custom yacht. You can see a pic of the old OBBH there in the lower left corner. Victoria has about a billion seaside hotels now - things have changed! It costs that amount just for the Clipper package for two nights these days, not including the hotel. 

Anyway, back to the modern version. What a large table full of gourds.

This is one of the few hotels that is patronized by locals on a regular basis. There's a theatre and loads of meeting areas. 

This looks like the original fireplace. I remember that copper thingy. The logs are fake though - they used to be real.

I used to put their Christmas tree up in that corner on the left, and they always kept a roaring fire going. They insisted on a real tree for the first two years, but after multiple occasions of me having to back and truss up the branches with fishing line, we finally convinced them to invest in a good quality fake tree. What a relief that was! 

Looking over the pools and spa amenities below. 

There was a haze on the water all day.

Looking back towards the entrance.

There were a lot of people sitting around, relaxing and chatting. 

A lovely fountain. 

The van on the right was the company that was putting gourds and pumpkins all over the hotel for the season. 

Walking back to the car.

More hazy light. 

More deer! 

The tag on the deer is part of the test pilot of a contraception plan for the deer. 

Two more! 

No need for a lawn mower. 

Four deer! 

They also destroy gardens. 

Thank you for such a lovely birthday lunch, Mom! 

I love you! 

I futzed around with Blogger for a while, becoming very frustrated (it doesn't seem to want to upload pictures), and then decided to do my jewelry swap-over to let my crankiness pass. I last swapped out my jewelry here (scroll down) in early April. 

Here's how I store my jewelry, on top of my dresser in our bedroom. At some point, I'd like to move it all into our den/closet where my walk-in closet is, but this is good for now. 

I have two big wooden jewelry boxes (one for vintage, one for everything else), and I use crystal and glass containers, a silk bag and a tin for specific items. I also added the black velvet bracelet display recently. 

I swap over my jewelry because I have too much, and this helps me see it all and make sure it all gets worn. I cull pieces as I work, letting go of pieces that don't inspire me anymore.

I removed all the drawers from my Bombay Company box on the right, and took all the necklaces off the side hooks. I gave all the surfaces a good dusting. 

I laid everything out on my bed, and started unpacking my fall/winter stuff, which is stored in the box in the upper right, plus a the black velvet bag next to it (full of cuffs).

There's method in my madness! For fall/winter, I tend to put away things in lighter/brighter colours, and a lot of my silver is put away in favour of more pewter/bronze. I also have a lot of spooky seasonal stuff. 

My Gram S's jewelry box is for my vintage jewelry. The top shelf is necklaces and brooches. The pull-out drawer below that (it comes right out) holds bracelets and more brooches. 

The lift-out earring tray is stuffed with some of my favourites. The mix is always a little different every year, as sometimes I like to keep out something that I've considered spring/summer in the past, like the lemon-lime rhinestone brooch/earring set. It's all on a whim. 

This is the top hinged lid of my Bombay box. 

Oversized pieces and  my gold hoops. The head is an HP Lovecraft pin - the tentacles coming out of his head belong to a Cthulhu pin.

The drawers of the Bombay box: rings, earrings, brooches, bracelets.

The tin holds my pendants, plus chains for them. My Brutalist rings are in the ring-holder, and the crystal round tray is for my smaller earrings. 

Everything loaded back into place! 

I never put things back the same way - moving them around intrigues my eye and leads me to new choices when I'm picking my accessories. I need to see it all! 

On the velvet stand, I draped my tiger and alligator "creeper" brooches, and some of my vintage bracelets on the top bar. On the lower bar, I put my black/white/red Bakelite/Lucite and acrylic bracelets. 

I was using the sorbet dish for oversized earrings, but I realized I have some oversized pendant necklaces that needed their own nesting space. The tin has my pendant collection in it. 

My earring dish...

And my ring holder. 

I added another amber crystal dish, on the left, for my oversized earrings. 

I used the flat elevated candy dish for special bracelets, including the two clipped around the stem. 

The silk bag on top of Gram's jewelry box has my big clunky necklaces in it. I like to grab it and dump it out on the bed and paw through it. Fun! 

And the two-tier dessert tray is for my bracelets and cuffs. So much copper and ooh, I'm excited to have my claw cuff back! 

This has got me all excited for doing my closet swap-over on Saturday! 

I'll be back tomorrow with my last outfit of spring/summer. Happy almost weekend! 

PS - If you're also having issues uploading photos (for me, nothing happened - I did everything the same and no pics showed up), I did a work-around by toggling to HTML (the first icon on the left on the menu bar) and adding 3-4 pics at a time and then toggling back to Compose. It worked - I add my text after the pics - and hopefully this is just me, or a temporary glitch.