Regret-Me-Not Mustard Blazer

Welcome back, my friends! As I mentioned in my weekend post, I plan on styling up as many of my Regret-Me-Nots this week as I can, so that I'm REALLY sure I still want to keep them. First up, my silk blazer.

I was annoyed to find this green bag on the landing in the morning, and it was still there when I got home. Bad photobomber! 

• Silk blazer - Alfred Sung, vintage 80s, thrifted; first (not really) seen here in April
• Sleeveless turtleneck top - Contemporaine, thrifted; last worn here under Halston Ultrasuede in May
• Skirt - Soaked in Luxury; last seen here in February for a Mom-Day at Bowker Creek
• Sandals - Chie Mihara; last worn here in May with office pajamas

I remembered not to wear brooches on it - they were too heavy for this lightweight silk. This blazer flows and moves - it doesn't want to have any weight with it. 

I paired it with my painty skirt-of-many-colours, and defaulted to black to let these two pieces dance together. 

I was annoyed that the sleeves of the blazer didn't stay up or remain rolled the first time I wore it. 

That's my arm and a red celery elastic, a tip I picked up on Substack. This kept my sleeves shoved up, wasn't as tight as a hair elastic (ouch!) and didn't slip at all. 

I have always been fond of this long-over-long look, popular in the late 80s/early 90s. 

The key to not looking costume-y in a vintage 80s blazer is to keep everything else contemporary (at least within 10-15 years of present day). 

I was sweaty in the morning and didn't want to "pit" on my blazer so I went without for a while. 

All the better to show off my ink! 

Incognito - I tied my silk scarf around my head. 

I felt a bit pirate-y, which helped the Monday go down better. 

Accoutrements and stuff: 

This scarf goes with a lot in my wardrobe. The shoes were marvelous as always. 

• Silk scarf - vintage, consignment

Snaky bling: 

Three snakes and a leopard! 

• Gold bangle - thrifted
• Snake bracelet - Whiting & Davis, vintage 70s, vintage fair
• Brass leopard ring - thrifted
• Crystal snake ring - consignment
• Earrings - thrifted
• Snake necklace - vintage 90s, vintage expo

Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up: Friday in Vivienne and Agnes; Purple Mermaid Brunch, and a Wee Shop; Limbo Sale and the Regret-Me-Nots

Welcome back, my friends! I have lots to share with you, so let's get settled and dig in, shall we?

Here's Friday's work outfit, created to show off my Vivienne Westwood skirt.

I went with a more casual vibe, with a fleece cardigan and sneakers. 

• Cotton fleece cardigan - Agnes B, thrifted; last seen here in April with grey and spots
• Skirt - Vivienne Westwood Anglomania F/W 2011, consignment; last worn here in February on a snow day
• Sneakers - Findlay, consignment; last seen here in June at Fort Rodd Hill for L's birthday

It was too warm to wear a lot of layers - I have a blue camisole on under the cardigan. 

Laurie mentioned this massive necklace in a comment recently, and I thought it would work with the cardigan. 

I remembered to wear the skirt this way, which looks best on. 

I think this skirt works better with tights or boots - it has an irregular hem. 

Incognito - I tied my scarf around my head thusly on the way to work. 

But I tied it very loosely around my neck on the way home. I stopped to pick up some fizzy drinks and didn't want to deal with sunglasses and a scarf on my head. 

The stuff: 

Easy shoes. I walked both ways in them.

• Silk scarf - Forelle, vintage, consignment

Matchy bling: 

I do love a big necklace! 

• Gold bangle - thrifted
• Brass leopard ring - thrifted
• Eelskin bangle - vintage 80s, thrifted
• Lapis lazuli ring - Wendy Brandes
• Silver/kyanite ring - consignment
• Necklace - thrifted
• Earrings - thrifted

Saturday started early - I coloured my hair! I'd been feeling in a funk, then realized I hadn't given myself some TLC for a while. A little colour always lifts me up.

I really leaned into the purple theme, with my purple glasses and this vintage Hawaiian dress. 

• Shirt - Eddie Bauer, consignment; last worn here in June with matching pinks
• Cotton dress - Hilo Hatties, Hawaiian, vintage 90s, thrifted; last seen here (3rd outfit) in September 2023 for a party in the park
• Sandals - Doc Martens, consignment; last worn here (2nd outfit) in June with my butterfly blazer

A gorgeous view of the Castle on a lovely day, with temps soaring up to 28o. 

The birds were chirping loudly, crows cawing. I saw three herons fly over us on the way home. 

I missed wearing this lovely Hawaiian dress from legendary Hilo Hattie's - it's been two years since I wore it.

I tied my plain white shirt over it for sun coverage. Do you see my brooch at the knot?

I love this dress - it still fits me perfectly. 

It has a slit on my right side, up to the knee - good for walking. 

Incognito. We ran a couple of errands after brunch at John's Place diner, including a grocery shop. 

Ready to be fabulous! 

I felt so good in the dress, I left it on for the evening's board gaming with L. 

Not the shoes, obviously! 

Accoutrements: 

More ocean theme - my seaweed and shell brooches.

• Straw/leather purse - Street Level, thrifted
• Bug scarf - Smoking Lily, 1997, wedding shower gift from Janet
• Shell brooch - JJ, consignment, Powell River
• Seaweed brooch - thrifted

The bug scarf was purely for decoration, plus I always like feeling close to Janet, my bestie for nearly 45 years. 

The stuff; 

These sandals are so comfy! 

Sea bling: 

I knotted the pearl necklace to make it sit shorter. 

• Gold-plated silver shark cuff - Tom Binns, 2012, consignment
• Crystal bracelet - thrifted
• Silver/crystal ring - Uffizi Gallery gift shop, Florence
• Silver/amethyst ring - gift from Mom & Dad, c. 1986
• Gold/amethyst ring - Frances Jewelers, Dad's, c. 1965
• Pearl ring - The Pearl Factory, Honolulu, 1985
• Pearl necklace - thrifted
• Pearl earrings - vintage fair

My shark cuff ended up matching L's outfit: 

His "Jaws" shirt is so fun! 

I literally had a 5-minute shop at the Beacon Ave Thrift Shop while we waited for a booth, but I managed to find two goodies in the case. 

A fun pin and a set of actual stone (with some plastic beads) jewelry. 

The pin is a book with "Secret Plans for World Domination" on it. 

I look forward to wearing this! 

It's by Badaboom and was $6.00.

It's still for sale on their site here (all links 'cause I love - they have some hilarious designs) for $13.00 if you want to be twinsies. 

I liked the heft of this set, and that about 75% of it is actual stones. The "pearls" are plastic, as are the pearlized green discs, but I think that's it.

The metal on this one is quite worn - it was well-loved. 

The necklace, in contrast, is pristine, so likely was left languishing in the jewelry box of its previous owner. 

I like the short length of this - it sits at my collarbones. $12.00 felt like a good deal. 

I had planned to wear my new-ish white eyelet top over the dress. However, as I was steaming it, post-washing, I noticed it was ripped in the back. I guess we know why it was donated now! 

I didn't like the top over the dress and prefer it worn buttoned, but I had time while my hair colour cooked to sew it up. 

I'm challenging myself to make small repairs like this to things that I still love. 

It's not perfect, but neither am I! But if you didn't know it was ripped, would you notice? 

And now, the Limbo Closet Sale is over for another season! It was a little quieter than past sales, likely because of the GORGEOUS sunny hot day, but I still did brisk business and added to my shopping funds account.

The aftermath! 

There's still so much good stuff here, so it'll just get packed away till my next event. 

Chaos in the vintage/boutique section: 

Thanks so much to all my friends and acquaintances for coming! I'll ensure your funds go to purchasing more exciting clothes! 

The Regret-Me-Nots

These are all the items I pulled from my Limbo pile while I was sorting it on Thursday. I'd thought about all of them, reached for one and missed it, and one is a long-gone piece that made its way back to me from Vero. 

• Buffalo by David Bitten, vintage 00s, consignment, Powell River; last worn here in March at Colquitz Creek with Mom 

The Tsarina Vest! I love this teddy bear of a vest. I have good memories of finding it, I love the plush lining, the 360o embroidery. I love it. 

And yet, I threw this into the Limbo pile in a fit of rage after yet another outing with No F**king Pockets. But I'm trying to move from a "Get rid of it, then!" mindset to a "Then fix it!" vibe. 

And speaking of...

• Paparazzi, thrifted, Vancouver; last worn here in November 2024 for a Mom-Day visit at home with Vizzini

My embroidered denim coat. And what does this have in common with the Tsarina Vest? 

If you said, "No pockets!" you are correct! It - like the vest - has fake ones. 

I intend on cutting those fake pockets open, and sewing my own pockets into them. It's better than letting them go because that lack is SO annoying to me. 

• Desigual by Christian Lacroix coat, consignment; last seen here in August 2024 for a Mom-Day at Dallas Road

I admit, the buttons pop off this thing if you look at them wrong! There's one in a pocket right now, so I need to sew it back on before I can wear this. 

I might also need a cooler day to wear it. But I still have love for the craft and art of this coat. I'm not quite done with it yet. 

• Alfred Sung silk blazer, vintage 80s, thrifted; worn once here in April, in pictures you can't even see

I also had regrets over this beautiful silk Alfred Sun blazer, which joined its mustard velvet compatriot in Limbo, as I let go of that one for not having pockets (I need to stop buying velvet - the Velvet Rage always happens!). 

I need to give this beauty another shot. It's so wonderful and light, boxy without drowning me, and I love this colour. 

• Club Monaco vintage 90s skirt, thrifted; first worn here in April

I also found myself wanting this grey skirt back.

I really liked this skirt when I bought it, but the ties in the front kept coming undone during actual usage. Solution? I'm just going to perma-knot them at a spot where I scan still pull it on. Boom! 

• Brave Belt, thrifted; not tracked but purchased here in October 2012 for $6.50! 

I dumped this belt when I did my closet swap-over in early April, and have rummaged around looking for it multiple times. 

Until I find a better quality leather belt with turquoise on it, this is a keeper! 

Lastly, this piece came back to me when I was at Vero's doing her closet clean-out. She'd picked it up in one of my Closet Give-Aways (before I sold my clothes) and wanted to make sure it came back to me. I'd planned on re-selling it in my Limbo Sale, then reconsidered. 

• Helmut Lang, goat leather trim jacket, thrifted; last seen here (3rd outfit) in June 2018! 

I noted the last time I wore this, "No chance of it leaving."  Ha ha ha, I'm so fickle! 

I put this on...and I loved it anew! I bought it here in November 2016 for $19.95, can you imagine? I wore it only 6 times - I really wasn't sure what to do with it, styling-wise, as I wasn't in my Badass Era back pre-2018. 

My goal is to wear all of these - not the heavy vest or coats! - in the next week to really make sure I DO want to keep them. 

And now, I'm off to chill out and relax in the last few hours of my weekend. 

"Good plan."

This seagull was keeping an eye on me.

"I see you."

And then I found out why she was watching me: 

"My babies!"

Spotted fluffballs! So cute! 

I hope you all had lovely weekends! Thank you so much for being here! 

Art Project Update; Closet Set-Up and Deer in the Yard

Hello, my friends! No Mom-Day Adventure today, as I needed to spend the day prepping my Limbo pile for the big Closet Sale this weekend. Instead, I bring you: 

• An art project update - Yvonne's Badass Booties! 
• Glimpses into my Limbo Sale set-up!
• Deer and fawns in the front yard! (it's okay if you want to scroll down to look at them first!)

Art Project: Yvonne's Badass Booties

I bought these L'intervalle leather, made in Italy booties at Value Village when I went shopping with Emma back here, paying $16.49 for them. I'd always planned to illustrate them, but since the booties were too tight on me, I offered them up to Cat, taking them along to the last Winesday for her to try on. They didn't work for her, so everyone had to try them on, and lucky Yvonne! They worked for her.

Sorry for cutting your head off, honey. They suit Yvonne's style, so I asked her what she might like on them, design-wise. 

"I like ska, sort of a ska theme." Well, I do not know what that means, but apparently checkerboard, sharp graphics, slightly comics-looking. 

"I love those United Nude boots you have with the black and white!" she added. Well, I can work with that, for sure, but we don't want to copy them. 

I had a browse through L's closet for shirt patterns that fit sort of a geometric black, white and grey theme. 

L's done with this Adidas Farm Rio shirt, so it's now in the Limbo pile for sale. 

I took the colour out and played around with the contrast.

Great patterns! 

And I liked this shirt of L's. 

Yvonne's a badass like me, so I though the font or the skulls would be fun to play with. 

I printed off guideline pictures and started playing with drawing the patterns. I also started notes on them, including which pens I'm using, just in case I end up taking an unexpected break.

I moved from emulating the Adidas patterns to trying a Zentangle-ish "bandage" layered pattern, which is what I ended up with. I sent Yvonne pictures to get her feedback. 

"Love this, She! So excited!" 

Next, I found a test spot for my pens to see what colours I'd use/need. 

Because the boots are pull-on with cream elastic gussets on each ankle, those have to stay cream. I can't cover the entire bootie with colour, like I did with the neon floral shoes, or those big sections of cream will look off. 

For the stripe down the front, I tried a ruler (my dad's old drafting ruler!), but it didn't help on an undulating surface. 

I lit on using a piece of thick paper to help me keep the lines down the centre straight. This is nerve-wracking! 

Then I had the brilliant idea of using my broccoli elastics (I have a drawer of them) to get the lines right across the toes.

You can see that it's not perfect, but part of the process is being okay with that. 

I like how this looks! The cream background of the booties will still be there, in the negative space.

I could only do the elastics so far and then I had to just go for it and wing it. 

Even harder: making sure they are roughly matching on each boot. 

Finished the lines! Phew! The boots will each have a black line around the soles as well. 

These will be very dramatic on. 

I switched the name from "Yvonne's Ska Boots" to "Yvonne's Badass Boots."

I started colouring very slowly with my permanent black marker, doing the back stripe. I'll have to get a fuzzed out black marker and push it into the seams when I'm done to get rid of the cream bits.

Adding a cute skull and crossbones on the heel. This is the only spot that will have a detail. 

I did a dark grey "shadow" on the black edges, with a lighter grey blending it into the cream. 

I hope to find time to do some more work on it this weekend. 

Limbo Closet Sale Prep

After a nice long chat with Mom in the morning, I put the "weekend" lights on, and picked my soundtrack for the afternoon. 

Our 6-CD carousel means I don't have to change the music. 

The Chess soundtrack and the Les Mis soundtracks were constant companions to me when I worked at the Christmas store back in 1986-1997.

The Valley Girl soundtrack and the Xanadu soundtrack round out a "very Sheila" accompaniment. Mint socks! 

This is our "dining room" (we don't have a dining room table), where the bulk of the clothes will be. 

Doing the set-up was a bit bittersweet, as I didn't have to cover up things or hide them to keep a mischievous little kitty from chewing or sleeping on them. Aw...you can review the last Closet Sale here.

Time to get the Limbo pile out! 

About 15 bags worth. 

I sorted the newly-removed clothes into piles and started going through the older items, moving some into the Free pile and marking a few things down. 

The Free pile is on the lower right, and on the bar shelves.

This area is shoes, menswear/unisex and vintage/designer. 

I got all my pricing materials out - stickers for pricing and indicating damage areas, pens and tags for writing on. 

And here are the shoes all done. 

The ones on the left are priced (nothing over $100), and the bigger pile on the right are all $25.00. 

Bags with all the vintage and designer clothes, which are all individually priced. 

Nothing over $100, period. There's even a Vivienne Westwood jacket in there! 

All done sorting the Free section. 

Take it all, folks! 

I utilized the scratching post to display some vintage lingerie and pajamas, plus some bras I brought in the wrong size on final sale (grrr, but if you are a 34DD, you are in luck!). 

On the floor, my orange vinyl suit, and all the dresses. 

My pricing sign (thanks again to my boss for letting me have the two whiteboards). 

From left: skirts, pants, vests/layering pieces, tops and more tops. 

Payment details and helpful notes. 

And on the floor, tops/sweaters, jackets, blazers and outerwear. 

My $5.00 jewelry section on the table. 

Some vintage items priced on top of the Treasure Box. 

More specially priced items, including the necklace I just wore as a bracelet. 

I didn't feel any sadness in letting this stuff to - I'd rather see it go to a good home. 

Scarves, purses, hat, belts, gloves.

The most expensive item is $25.00. 

I hope it all sells! 

Oh, and I did pull out some Regret-Me-Nots which I'll show you next week, as I plan to style each one of them up (two items will be modified by me in the future).

Deer in the Yard

While I was talking to Mom, I looked outside from the deck and spotted a deer and her fawn. 

Like Bambi! Spotted baby! 

Oh my gosh, there are TWO fawns! 

They are really chowing down on our lawn...

This little one looks very hungry. 

She was the adventurous one of the trio. 

They moved into the flowerbeds near the building. 

Hiding in the shrubberies! 

Hey, we paid good money for these plants! 

Mama! Leave that alone!

Stop eating the gladiolas! 

She was not in the mood to listen! 

Meanwhile, this little scamp was venturing out to the sidewalk.

What's out there? 

Hey, stay off the road! 

We actually get cars along here! 

But no, she lured her sibling to the parking lot across the road.

But Mama came right along afterwards, so maybe this is their usual routine, and I'm just now witnessing it? 

I hope you enjoyed this triple post, my friends! I'll be back on Sunday after the sale with tales of adventure!