Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up: Emojis and Mushrooms Artners at the Gallery; Shop Hits and Miss; Orange Leopard Spots; and Sheer Embroidered Brunch....Plus Cat PIcs

Welcome back, my friends! How was your weekend? It was hot hot HOT here, so unusual for early May.

I'm backing things up a bit and covering my wee shopping expedition post-Mom-Day, plus my visit to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on Thursday evening. I do not know how I used to push out ginormous posts with multiple events in the Before Times. 

I spent the weekend mostly hiding from people and staying home, reading, playing boardgames and spending actual time with L, who I barely see for an hour or three on weekdays. We also gave lots of time to Vizzini - with his recent odd spells, it's reminded us how short and fragile those little furry lives are.

So here we are - this is my whackadoo outfit for my first time "arting" with new "Artner-in-Crime" Rosanna. 

She was mightily impressed with my outfit, and I enjoyed putting this together. 

• Denim dress - Emoji x Peacebird, consignment; last worn here (3rd outfit) in January for a primary-coloured Book Club
• Striped top - Renoma Sports, vintage 90s, vintage store; purchased here for $10/00
• Tulle skirt - Adidas, consignment; last worn here in August 2022 for Mom-Day at the Gorge Waterway Park
• Sandals - Doc Martens, consignment; purchased here for $112.00

And I put my hair in pigtails, or as I prefer the UK term, bunches. Is a 55-year-old woman "allowed" to wear bunches? I think you can figure out my reaction to that, heh heh. 

As this denim dress is rather short, I really liked how the Adidas tulle skirt worked layered underneath. There is a massive slit on the other side of the dress as well, plus I'm wearing my wee sporty black shorts under this.

This is the first outing of the semi-sheer mesh top with the striped neck and cuffs. 

I was prompted to layer this due to the yellow stripe at the neck (just visible in the stair pic). 

The embroidery and stenciling detail is fun - I'm showing that it says "Magic" inside the pocket with the Waving Man emoji. 

Rosanna admired the solo grommet. "You had me at the grommet."

I stashed my camera in one pocket and loaded a few things into my bag. 

We walked to the Art Gallery (only a few blocks from my house), so this was the perfect time to test-drive these chunky Docs sandals. 

The stuff: 

I wore my silicone sleeves on my most vulnerable toes, and I'm happy to report I had zero issues with these shoes. We walked both ways, stood and admired art, and wandered all over the gallery, including a stop at the gift shop. I joined up as a member, and now I get a discount - but I behaved myself! Friends and family will be getting presents from there, though - I love supporting local artists. 

Bold bling: 

My earrings are always admired - they are light balsa wood. 

• Leather purse - Club Monaco, thrifted
• Earrings - consignment, Sidney
• Silicone bracelet - Materia Design, thrifted
• Lucite cuff - thrifted
• Kyanite ring - consignment
• Silver balls ring - Sidney
• Silver/malachite ring - consignment

Rosanna also admired my squishy silicone bracelet. 

I took a few pics of us at the Gallery, but first, here are my hits (three of them) and miss (one) from a quick run through the Women In Need (WIN) Warehouse store on the way home from my earlier Mom-Day Adventure. 

It felt like slim pickings this time. Lots of yucky fabrics, so I seized on the good stuff. 

A lovely 100% silk scarf with a great combination of brown, caramel and cream with a bold aqua. Aqua is another one of those rare scarf colours (like purple) - hard to find. 

It was $6.95 and I spotted the Vera mark. 

Hard to see! 

I was excited about this skirt - the fabric is very much like my Finnish woven Arola pieces. 

I like the length - not too short, which can be tricky with a full skirt. 

Isn't that a lovely weave? It has belt loops at the waist - I pictured this with all my lovely autumn tops and blazers and boots. 

It does up with two buttons at the waist, and one snap that holds the pocket in place. Pocket! 

Tan Jay by Jacob Fashions. I thought the vintage size 14 (a modern size 10) would fit, but this is more like a size 4! It's far tinier than I thought - it must have been cut for women who wore girdles! 

I paid $19.95 for this...I just considered it a donation to a good cause and put it in the giveaway pile. The infamous Canadian designer Peter Nygard joined existing business Jacob Fashions in 1966 and renamed it Tan Jay - so this is from around that time (source here, link 'cause I love, although Nygard is a noted jerk). 

So that was a miss, but I found two more good things, including this awesome black skirt. Why have a plain skirt when you can have one with some special detail on it?

Those two shinier panels on the bottom are leather. 

And they continue around to the back. 

The zipper surround is also leather. The fabric part is a very thick knit t-shirt-y material. 

I like the matte black zipper - that's so unusual. 

"A special coating has been applied to the metal hardware to produce the matte black effect." Blah blah, it might wear off, normal wear and tear, etc. 

Ooh, I recognize all these labels. 

No one removed the "Remove after purchase" security tag - I better remember to do that! Don't want to set off any alarms in other stores!

I think this probably around 10 years old, from when Danier still had brick-and-mortar stores. Although I see a lot of vintage Danier (80s and 90s, especially), they were around up until a few years ago and sold fabric/leather mixed pieces. 

New skirts by them (they're online only now) top our around $300 - as this one just has inset pieces of leather, it probably retailed for $200.00. Not bad for $19.95, eh? It's a perfect fit, too. 

As I have a few "dresses" that are a short tunic length, and I rarely wear leggings, I eyed this mesh Floofy Underskirt (technical term!) with interest.

It's lined to the hem and just pulls on. 

Oh, sizing, always changing! 

I'm an XL in this, but an 8 in Danier, and I couldn't do up the vintage 14. No wonder people get frustrated with second-hand clothing. 

Good thing I'm an expert in these matters (hint: just buy what fits, and ignore the number/size!). 

Luc Fontaine (I'm not copying that wacky font/caps) is a Montreal-based designer and all of their clothes are made in Canada. I'm sure this would have sold for more than $7.95! 

And now...pics of me and Rosanna from our Art Outing. Isn't she gorgeous? She's one of the artsiest people I know (she is the creator of this amazing space-themed party outfit here).

Posing at one of the "gates" on the way up to Craigdarroch Castle. Do you recognize the vintage 70s Israeli skirt? I wore it once here in May 2021 to accompany L on his first vaccination shot. 

We checked out the current exhibits, but were really there for "Symbiosis: A Shared Love of Mushrooms" (about it here). 

"Gaze at the mushrooms longingly," I instructed. 

They had an activity table (I LOVE when there are activities - my introvert-y heart likes stuff to do), which we both participated in. Can you tell Rosanna's a graphic artist? She did Xs and Os for "Shroomy Love."

I was inspired by us/our outfits as mushrooms, and called it "Artners at the AG." 

Rosanna was persuaded to take the shorter multi-strand green vintage necklace at my recent clothing swap as well, and added her own chunky green strand. 

Fabulous! 

And me. 

We mostly had the gallery to ourselves. I love that it's open late on Thursdays so we don't have to "people." 

We can now claim our creations were exhibited at the Art Gallery! 

We traded our drawings in for a poster from the event, and then enjoyed a thorough browse in the gift shop - art gallery gift shops are one of my favourite sources for really cool jewelry. 

When I got back to the house, Vizzini was very happy to see me, as L was still not home from work. 

"Where is the Man?"

L's job means very long hours, unfortunately. You will have to suffer my attentions, buddy. 

"As long as they include tummy rubs."

Always! 

Now, onto Friday. L enjoyed a well-deserved sleep in on an also well-deserved day off and I headed to work. 

Orange is a favourite colour and all these nice warm orange-peach-caramel tones made me happy. 

• Linen cardigan - Banana Republic, thrifted; last worn here (2nd outfit) over an ABBA-esque jumpsuit for brunch in August 2022
• Top - Garcia, consignment; purchased here for $15.00
• Skirt - Scotch & Soda, consignment; purchased and first worn here (3rd outfit) for the Family Day long weekend gather in February
• Sandals - Chie Mihara; last seen here in September 2022 with shiny shiny

I don't like that white backside of the skirt fabric, but it's not visible unless I sit sprawled across stairs...which I only do for the stair pose. 

I wore the light linen knit cardigan when outside, but temps were high even in the office. 

My coworkers loved all this pattern and colour.

A few even correctly identified the skirt pattern as leopard. 

Although they were confused by the peachy background. 

I pointed out the leopard in the top. 

Leopard print can be any colour in clothing - turquoise, pink, red...not so much on real leopards, though! 

I took an X-acto knife to the horrid extra WRONG apostrophe in "ITS". I gently scraped the gold foiling off. 

It says, "A leopard doesn't change it's spots," which causes me to fly into an apoplectic rage of grammar. Much better now. 

The top was lovely - the back of it is a light viscose t-shirt material, while the front is a polyester weave. 

I like interesting tops like this - it's like the fancy version of a graphic tee. 

Done up and incognito.

I pinned a pretty sparkly matching brooch to the side of the cardigan. 

The stuff: 

Our server at Baan Thai Restaurant was impressed by my platforms, especially when I pointed out that they're actually only an inch heel. "Shoe Math," I declared. 

Gold and green bling: 

There are bits of green in the top's image, as well as sparkly bits of gold foil. 

• Bangles - thrifted
• Snake bracelet - Whiting & Davis, vintage 1980s, vintage fair
• Earrings - Plum, c. 2008
• Coral/olivine ring - Hawaii, vintage 1977, Mom's
• Green crystal ring - vintage 70s, Mom's
• Brooch - Continental, vintage 60s, Hazel's

The brooch belonged to Caro's mom - she's such a dear person (both Caro and Hazel!). 

Mister Purryhead was nosing around while I did my pics in the morning. 

"I'm confused. Why is the Man home?" 

We had a bit of cuddle time and then I put him on the bed to snooze with L. 

L and I hung out and played boardgames (Ark Nova, link here 'cause I love, super-fun game, and Dune, link here, looking forward to the second movie!) till the wee hours, then had a leisurely sleep-in on Saturday morning. 

Nick's in Vancouver so we headed down to the Ruby for a yummy brunch. 

• Sheer embroidered dress - H&M, consignment; first worn here a couple of times over New Year's Eve in December 2022/January
• Floofy underskirt - Luc Fontaine, thrifted; purchased above for $7.95
• Sandals - Eject; last seen here in July 2022 with green and lime

It was a hot but windy day, with a high of 27! That's unheard of for May (this time last year - here - I was wearing gloves, jackets and complaining about the cold weather!).

With this hot weather, the Garry Oaks have burst into leaf. 

Now that I have a Floofy Underskirt, this sheer embroidered dress feels less scandalously short. 

I have a black tank on underneath, and my black sporty shorts as well as the underskirt. 

We had a lovely brunch, then got groceries for the week. 

Doesn't everyone shop for groceries in a sheer embroidered dress? 

My stair-climbing at work is paying off - good calf muscle definition here. 

I wore a pair of beige fishnet socklets under my sandals so that they wouldn't rub. There's always a bit of reacquaintanceship with my summer shoes. 

Incognito. 

I also dug out all the sunblocks (SPF 30, 45 and 60, plus two glide-on 45+ sticks) and 'blocked up. 

It's convertible weather, baby! 

Break out the Movie Star Wrap! 

Accoutrements: 

This silk hand-printed scarf is a vintage Smoking Lily, likely from the early 00s. I love the amoebas and gold parameciums on it. 

• Leather purse - Club Monaco, thrifted
• Silk scarf - Smoking Lily, vintage 00s, thrifted

The stuff: 

More Shoe Math - these sandals are only 1" high. They zip up the back of the heel. 

Green and gold bling: 

I have a good collection of green stuff. 

• Gold/pink stone bracelet - Robert Larin, vintage 70s, vintage mall, gift from L
• Green stone bracelet - vintage 60s, Mom's
• Green crystal brooch/earrings - vintage 50s, Gram S's
• Green crystal stone ring - vintage 70s, Mom's
• Coral/olivine brooch - Hawaii, vintage 1977, Mom's

I wore the sparkly brooch on the dress. 

As I was getting ready, Vizzini took advantage of a brief lull in L's work on the computer. This one's for Ally, who's a big Boston Bruins fan (*snort* tee hee). 

I like that the screensaver is a pic of Vizz going after L's bootlaces (aka Kitty Spaghetti). 

We spent the afternoon listening to music, reading and enjoying the sunshine. 

"Thank you for making it warm, finally."

Vizzini practically lives on our glassed-in deck when the weather's warm. 

"I like the heat on my old bones."

Don't we all? 

Sunday was a quiet day, with temps in the low 30s. We both talked to/called our mums for Mother's Day, then enjoyed some more quiet time reading and listening to music, then more boardgames. It's nice to not have screens or devices on a weekend! 

Thank you all so much for coming by! I so appreciate all of your kind comments.