Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up: Funky Friday in Stripes and Converse; Saturday Brunch in Platinum Blonde (and a Wee Shop); and Limbo Sale

Hello, my friends! I have much to share with this past weekend's wrap-up. I wore some green stripes on Friday to work, sported a swooshy skirt for brunch (and we popped into the Fluevog sale, uh-oh!), and then on Sunday, I had a huge sale of my Limbo pile. Chaos! 

Starting us off is Friday's 'fit.

It's been a week of Jammy Dresses (and one Jammy Jumpsuit) - the weather's been warm and summer is here. Happy Solstice! 

• T-shirt - O-Gen, thrifted; last worn here (2nd outfit) layered under a red plaid dress in December 2023
• Dress - Zara, consignment, Vancouver; last seen here (3rd outfit) in December 2023 for Winesday
• Sneakers - Converse; purchased here for $56.99 at the mall 

Despite the office being fairly empty, I had a busy day.

I was happy to be wrapped in stripes.

I just layered a simple plain tee under this dress and added a bit of funk via accessories. 

Getting in a first wearing of these new Converse, found at the mall while on vacation. 

I noticed that the inside of the knit dress, near the hem, is getting fuzzed-out and bally from rubbing on various shoes and boots.

I might move this dress along at the end of the season...or I might just hang onto it. No need to decide now! 

Incognito and blurry - sorry.

Covering my arms with a silk scarf, and wearing this new hat for the first time. 

Accoutrements and stuff: 

I hopped the bus home after work, so just stashed the scarf in my bag.

• Hat - thrifted; purchased here for $5.95
• Scarf - Metropolitan Museum of Art, thrifted

Stuff and bling: 

I loved wearing these sneakers - they are a little big on me, and I still need to pick up inserts for them, but I'll be featuring them in outfits regularly!

• Glass bangle - thrifted
• Black and white cuff - vintage, vintage fair
• Silver/aventurine ring - consignment
• Green stone/silver ring - consignment, Sidney
• Earrings - West Germany, vintage 80s, vintage fair

L was out with pals on Friday night, so I had popcorn for dinner and watched the last few "Bridgerton" episodes (I adore Nicola Coughlin) until the wee hours. I was up bright and early to get ready for brunch. 

Finally getting around to wearing my "I was there!" Platinum Blonde concert tee from 1985. 

• Jacket - Dolce & Gabbana, vintage 90s, thrifted; last worn here (3rd outfit) in May for a Mom-Day 
• T-shirt - Platinum Blonde "Alien Invasion '85" tour shirt, consignment; purchased here for $60.00
• Skirt - LA Hearts, thrifted; last seen here in July 2023 for a Mom-Day at Swan Lake with red and black
• Shoes - Swordfish Marquis, Fluevog; last worn here in May with orange leopard

I paired the tee with this skirt of dark floral painty-ness (a technical term, hee hee), then layered this baby blue denim jacket over it.

A pretty easy formula. 

I had a few compliments on the jacket - and I flashed the leopard lining at those folks! 

I should really photograph that when I wear it! (here's an old pic of it).

I took the jacket off while we had our brunch at John's Place. 

It was a hot, muggy, overcast day. 

I rolled the sleeves of the tee to a better length for my arms. 

I am so chuffed at finding a concert tee from 1985...from a concert I was at! I'll have to dig out my old diaries - I think I kept my ticket stub. 

Incognito - this is how most folks saw me. 

My Bowie pin always gets lots of love. 

Accoutrements and stuff: 

I carried my lovely 00s purse under my arm, as in the Incognito pic - it's a pain for shopping, I admit it, but it looks so good. I SUFFER FOR FASHION (tee hee). 

The stuff: 

A massive season clearance sale just started at Fluevog Shoes, so L and I headed down to the store after brunch. Of course, I have to wear a pair of 'Vogs when I go there! 

Matchy bling: 

I love red and turquoise together. 

• Mixed semi-precious stone/silver bracelet - Salt Spring Island, gift from L
• Bowie pin - vintage fair
• Enameled cuff - consignment
• Silver/turquoise ring - Glee
• Silver/enamel ring - antique shop, Sidney
• Silver/turquoise pendant - Karen's
• Silver/turquoise earrings - consignment

I had a quick look through the Beacon Ave Thrift Shop while L held our place in line for brunch. 

This cute orange, black and grey sleeveless top came home with me. 

The black part is sheer mesh, and the back is a cotton t-shirt knit. 

I thought the orange felt like silk...

And I was right! 

Cotton, silk and viscose (the mesh part, I guess). 

It's by Barbara Bui, who I've never heard of (about her here, all links 'cause I love). The mesh has a couple of small snags in it, but $7.00 felt like a good deal. 

And OH my goodness, I did get a good deal! The cheapest tee on her site is 120 Euros/$175 CAD! What a score! 

On to our Fluevog purchases! These are L's newest pair - lovely cloudy-printed fabric with leather sections in blue, pink and purple. 

These will go with a lot in my guy's colourful wardrobe! These are called the Ethan Future Angel and they were marked down to $199.99 from the original $299. 

I waffled over these amazing shoes, but L encouraged me. They were on the Last Pairs rack, slashed to $189.99 from the original $429.00.

They're called the Dali Signature. The colours are orange, pink, black suede with gold stars, and red suede with gold stars. 

I might have a few of those colours in my wardrobe...

Yes, that's a HIGH heel - part of it does come up higher to cup the heel, so it's not quite as high as it looks, but it's still high. I won't be wearing these for a lot of walking/standing. 

I've been threatening to buy these since I first saw them. I have been needing a pair of red comfy flat shoes, and these are SO chunky and fun. 

L hates them (as does niece Zoe - I sent her a picture of them, ha ha). I believe L's words were, "Those are the most hideous shoes I've ever seen."

Oh, come on now, they're not that bad! 

At least I have "Soul Speed"! They are called the Soul Speed Duesy (rhymes with "doozy"), and they were marked down to $199.99 from the original $399. 

L and I had a wonderful evening hanging out and playing boardgames, but I was up early (again!) to prepare for my Limbo Sale on Sunday. Y'all may have memories of posts covering my previous giveaway/swap events...well, as I cruise down the highway towards retirement, I have been aiming at "Net Zero Shopping" - where I earn enough through consignment (store credit) and re-selling my clothes/thrift finds) to not spend any money at all on my shopping hobby. 

I prepared myself with a small investment in tags/stickers for pricing. The stickers were from the Dollar store, and the hang-tags with threads and larger paper tags were from the local office supply store. 

Overall spend = $16.00. I used up all of the medium-sized white thread tags, and ended up writing on the big cream tags and stapling them to the tiny tags with purple threads. The threads are necessary to attach the tags to the clothes. 

I spent Thursday afternoon sorting and pricing my goods. I gathered a bunch of odds and ends for the Free Zone. 

Two shelves on the bar, plus 3 giant bags of free stuff. These are things I wore a lot, or didn't pay much for. I am happy to give them all away, and much of it went to good homes. Things in the Free Zone will get one more chance, and then they'll be donated to charity. 

I picked up some clearance make-up (why??) so that's in there too. Most of this stuff was snapped up. 

"Free! Really!"

I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to weeding things out of my closet. No regrets! I didn't wear this stuff enough (or at all) for it to stay. 

This is the massive collection of "TAGLESS" clothes. I count 12 big bags. I spent Sunday morning sorting it into piles.

I set fixed "thrift store" prices for these things - clothes I'm tired of, things that don't fit, some vintage - there were are some good deals in here! Over half of this was sold to people with impeccable taste. 

On Friday morning, I did my usual "Where is Vizzini?" hunt before I left for work. 

"I'm here, on my lovely new bed."

Vizzini, get off there! You cannot sleep on that bag of clothes.

And then I found him on a different bag later that night. 

"What? I'm not sleeping on the same bag."

He hid for most of the "open house" on Sunday, only coming out at the end to visit with Jessica.

My "accoutrements" priced items. 

A purse, scarves, belts, gloves...

And my "everything for $5.00" table. 

Letting go of pieces that aren't good quality, or that I just don't reach for. 

My "good" jewelry. I decided to divest myself of my POLY collection - it's not me anymore. 

I was crushed to discover that the vintage Pierre Cardin wallet doesn't hold modern ID/credit cards! What??! Of course, I disclose things like this...and (spoiler!) it sold anyway. 

Five huge bags of vintage/boutique items. These are the Good Things - I priced them higher, more in line with what I might get at a consignment store for them. 

Nothing over $100, with most things in the $25.00 to $50.00 range. 

My pricing signs - thanks to my awesome boss who said I could have 2 of the very old foam-core whiteboards from work to keep. 

I accepted eTransfer or cash (shopping money!) as payment, with all sales final, and as I noted "Let's Talk!" for people buying multiple items or wanting to bargain. Heck, yeah! I'd rather cut a deal than have someone miss out on something they love. 

In case you're curious, my Tagless clothes are: 

• Dresses - $25
• Blazers, jackets, toppers - $20
• Bottoms (pants, skirts) - $15
• Tops - $15
• Shoes - $25 (I also had some Boutique-priced shoes)

And my Notes say:

• If you like it, try it on. Be open!
• Look at everything! 
• Ignore sizes! Sizes are wacky.
• Ask me about care/washing.
• Everything has a history - I wore most of this!
• Need styling tips? Ask! 
• There are treasures in the no-tag zone! 

and...

 

This is a judgment-free zone. Be kind to yourself and others.

I'd invited about 35 friends, work colleagues and fashion-loving acquaintances, and ended up with around 12-15 people popping over the course of 6 hours total. It was a whirlwind and the time passed quickly!

This is what's left of the Tagless (back section) and the Free Zone (on the right/bottom)

Still a lot of leftovers, but as I noted, over half of was sold. I've now re-bagged it all, and separated it out into things I'll try to consign, with anything after that moving to the Free Zone.

I divested myself of quite a lot of my vintage and Boutique items. It was fun seeing people trying some of my old pieces on! 

I'll also go the consign/free route with some of these items eventually.

I sold a few pairs of shoes and some of the small amount of menswear that L had contributed. 

My goal is to have a Limbo Sale every 6 months, so that different folks can attend, and as I plan to continue shopping (now that I have a bonanza of funds in my bank account) and weeding through my wardrobe, it will always be growing. 

Phew, and now I need a rest. A huge thank you to all my friends who came by! Enjoy your treasures!