The Unseen Outfit and My First WW At Work Meeting!

Woo, I've had a couple of crazy days! My first Weight Watchers At Work meeting started this week, and I have been scrambling, trying to get all the materials together, not mention I just got trained for this yesterday! Yes, yesterday!

Gee, you'd think they'd launched a new program, or something, haha.

I had to run up to the local centre yesterday afternoon to grab supplies and beg for presentation material, so I made an effort to get dressed.
It was trying to snow out, so I went with layers: a cami, with the leopard shirt (last seen here), and this navy cashmere sweater that I haven't worn since I got it last December (shocking!).

The skirt (another long one!) was just last seen a couple of months ago (here). A few people have asked me about walking in long skirts - I find that as long as they widen out just above the knee, they are totally comfortable. I really like the A-line or mermaid shape in my long skirts because of this. I have various thicknesses (from denim to leather to this faux thin suede) and they can be stiff or they can be drapey. This one's really flowy. When you try one on, stride around with big steps in it to see how it feels. I also sit down in them to see how they drape.

Aside from L at home (with very attractive socks on, sorry, love), it ended up that no one saw me - I kept my coat on everywhere - so this is what I wore on the bus and at the grocery store afterwards.

My awesome thrifted coat, my faux fur gloves and brown velvet hat - I look like a Hussar!

The stuff:

These Clarke's Indigo boots are my best walking heels I own, hands down. Love 'em!

A close-up:

I've been grooving on hip belts lately. I got these earrings on 1/2 price sale at Plum for about $7 a few weeks ago.

Sweater (Land's End, consignment), blouse (Planet, consignment), skirt (Marc D'Alcy), boots (Clark's Indigo, consignment), belt (Anne Klein pour Caleche, consignment), earrings (Plum).

Kitty interlude!

I hate when the recycle bin is full, but at least Inigo has a box to sit in:

He's upset because we finally flattened his boxes that he plays with in the dining room, in preparation for New Year's.

And...back to fashion. (ahem)

Today, I put a lot of thought into my outfit for my first At Work meeting. I really wanted to highlight my figure, but look professional and competent (ha, the opposite of how I felt!). And of course, I wanted to look funky!

Did I succeed?

I adore this cardigan so much (I last wore it here) - cranes! I love picking out the red and green in it.

I'm not usually a fan of skirts that hit this low on the leg, but the shape of this one is so perfect (it has a couple of deep box pleats right behind the knee). Last seen here.

The meeting went well and even though I feel like I screwed up right and left, I'm sure no one but (perfectionist) me noticed. But gads, so much paperwork involved! WW, you need to streamline some of your processes!

I was thrilled to see when I weighed myself (to test the scale) that I've dropped a pound and am once again below my goal weight - I've been really struggling with that lately. Getting back to tracking on the new program (although I didn't track at all while away this past weekend) is really helping me get myself under control again.

The stuff:

I would usually hesitate over these shoes with this because the laces are more of a pinky-burgundy than a bright red (and you know I like the matchy!), but I think they go just fine. I also wanted to wear a low-ish, more comfortable heel, and you can't go wrong with a good Fluevog (I last wore them here).

A close-up:

Another new piece of jewelry from Plum - the red stones are actually stone, and I love the weight of them.

Cardigan (Lucky Brand, consignment), cami (Smart Set), skirt (Precis Petites), shoes ("Sumatra Coffee" Fluevog), bracelet (Plum), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Old Lady Chic?

I found this awesome skirt in a thrift shop on Friday afternoon. It's Precis Petite, which happens to be the same brand as this jacket (I have the skirt that matches the jacket too - seen here with the same blouse, belt and flower). This lovely camel skirt was only $7.50, which is oh, about $150 more than what I paid for the jacket/skirt suit and they were on sale 70% off!

The skirt is an interesting length, but I think it's saved by the slight flare at the knee - it reminds me of those 50s "wiggle" dresses. It's a very soft faux suede.

I haven't worn this jacket since last December, as it's rather warm. This is the first time I've done it without the faux fur collar.

I felt a little weird about the leg business, since these are actually...get ready for it...

*gasp!* Knee highs! I'm officially an old lady, haha!

Actually, when I bought these at Winners my intention was to wear them like socks. The cuff at the top is a really nice lace, and the knee-highs themselves are quite thick, without a lot of stretch. Check 'em out:

It's a nice olive green sort-of plaid pattern.

The stuff:

My lovely thrifted shoes and blouse (that was $2 some months ago).

Jacket (Precis Petite), blouse (no label, vintage, thrifted), skirt (Precis Petite, thrifted), knee-highs (Winners), shoes (Steve Madden, thrifted), belt (Nygard), rose (Roberta's Hats), earrings (Renoir? vintage, Grandma J).

More Snow! And Many Adventures Today

Today's forecast: more snow! Yikes! With this in mind, again, I dressed warmly:
A whole lotta layerin' goin' on. I have a long-sleeved tee under my camel dress (first seen here), with my denim skirt underneath that (blatantly violating the company's dress code, but what are they going to do? Fire me?). I also have on tights, knee-high socks and boots.

Today is a bit nutty. I have a dentist appointment that takes me an hour to get to by bus - and it's in the middle of the afternoon (because I scheduled it when I thought I would be out of work), so I have to get back to work after...another hour+ by bus.
Then I have an eyebrow waxing (my one luxury) downtown, and then it's our fantasy football pool re-draft! I am in first place (wee!) with a few people breathing down my neck, so I need to do some prep work. Spreadsheets and such.

The stuff:

I love that belt buckle. It rules!

I've had this necklace for years:

I like that the stones are real stones, not plastic.

The leg business:

I wore these boots last winter and they are great in the ice and snow.

I am taking tomorrow and Friday off work, to watch football all day with my guys (I'm making turkey burgers in honour of US Thanksgiving) and then hang out with Ruth on Friday - I'm also going to the theatre with Mom and my nieces. And I have Weight Watchers training all weekend! Crazy!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends!

Dress (Coupe), tee (Press), denim skirt (Bebe, swap from Caro), tights (Voila), socks (Point Zero, I think), boots (Indigo by Clark's, consignment), necklace (Plum), belt (Shi Studio).

How I Build an Outfit, Sheila Style

Okay, so some of you lovely people wanted to see how I build an outfit. We'll get to that. But first, here's the outfit!
I found this amazing top while thrift shopping with Elaine - it's Kitchen Orange, a brand I've liked for a while. I have a Kitchen Orange dress, you may recall. The top was only $12.50 - score!

I love the funky collar, the slightly flared sleeves and the stiff texture of it.

It's a wee bit snug in the boobular region, but I don't mind - as well as being a thick fabric, it also has some stretch to it.

This is the third wearing of the skirt (last seen here), ha, also with blue tights.

A close-up of the top half:

Yikes, bad lighting in the closet! Let's just move on.

The stuff:

Mmm...love those shoes. For a cheap pair of shoes that I bought over 2 years ago, these have stood me well.

The shiny stuff:

I have been wearing that ring to death, lately.

Top (Kitchen Orange "L-Bow", thrifted), skirt (Nygard), belt (Denver Hayes, consignment), tights (Hue), shoes (Le Chateau), earrings (gift from L), ring (Aldo Accessories).

But wait, you say! How the heck did you build that?

Here you go.

First, I keep all my new stuff in a special place in my closet. Whenever I buy something new or acquire an item, I put it in the same place so that I don't forget: a shelf on my closet. Here we have a silver headband, a brooch and a pair of weird plaid knee-highs:

There is also a leopard skirt, a camel Kitchen Orange top, and a khaki cami with copper sequins. I usually hang up all the clothing items and put them at the left side, near the door of my closet, but I'm low on hangers 'cause I need to clean out my closet, so the clothing items are laid across the tops of my long skirts and pants hangers.

I'm now looking at my new stuff...hmmm...which piece grabs me? I think the top - do any of my long skirts or pants look like they would go?

Ooh, those plaid pants leap out at me - I bet they'd look good with the Kitchen Orange top. Let's have a closer boo at those:

They're practially a neutral!

And camel's a neutral - these will go together, for sure. Let's try a belt - that top needs something in the middle to keep me from looking like a Kraft caramel:

SNOOZE.

Try another belt:

Oooh! Me likey! But those pants are blandifying up the place, I need some more colour with this before I fall asleep.

After another scope through the long skirts and pants, I turn to the short skirts:

Ah, sweet rainbow of happiness. Notice how I block my skirts by colour, starting on the left with cream, yellow (it's there, trust me, there are just too many skirts here right now, must clean out), orange, red, multi-coloured patterns, browns, greeens, denim, blue, grey, black/white pattern and black. This really helps me decide where I want to go with an outfit.

It also helps to hold the top against the skirts and see what leaps out at me:

I'm veering towards the darker side of the spectrum.

This skirt actually has camel/gold in its pattern:

Mmm, that's pretty together, but the style of the top (modern, clean lines, almost geometric) fights with the twining leaves and flowers of the skirt. Let's try something else.

Ooh, hello!

I like that! The gold embroidery on the skirt goes well with the camel, and the grey (being a cool neutral) contrasts nicely with the camel (a warm neutral), and keeps it from descending into a gooey caramel mess.

But I still need a belt!

Wow, I would not have tried that normally - I would have gone matchy. But I like it - let's go for it!

Okay, now I need some shoes to go with this! I pull out shoes that are in one of the colours in the outfit, usually, or that are neutral. Here's a neutral one:

I like them with the top, but they're not right with the outfit. A little too busy.

I could go matchy:

Nope, the leopard pattern is too much with the belt and the skirt's pattern. I think I need to go with a solid.

I like blue with this:

Yeeeeaaaaahhhh...I like them with all the colours. Theoretically, these would work...but I feel like I need something a little more funky. But I'm going to mentally file away these shoes/this skirt and these shoes/camel for a future outfit.

Now, I know I'll be wearing some sort of leg covering with this - maybe a coloured tight? What shoes would really pop off a coloured tight and not fight with the other colours in this?

How about these? Oh yeah, I like those. Those are good. We have our shoe.

Now, we need to deal with the tights situation. These are how I store my tights:

I roll 'em up losely around my hand then tuck the toes into the centre. It's great for storage and they don't turn into a mondo-tights-octopus in the drawer.

But I digress: what colour tights? I grabbed the grey, those blue-y ones and the brown lace fishnets and put them on the bed.

Then I check out my new tights that I haven't worn yet:

Hey, what's that bright blue pair? I grabbed those too. Of course I chose them!

Next up: accessories!

Because the top has a wide funnel neck, and long sleeves that flare out, I know I won't be doing a necklace or a bracelet. This narrows things down nicely. I can also eliminate a brooch, at least with this outfit, as most of mine are too foo-foo/girly.

I scope out my big earrings:

I love how the flash (my bedroom is dark) reveals cat hair stuck in the black velvet. Gads!

Then I check out my earring drawer of my jewelry box:

I pull out the ones that I think go best:

Then I go through my rings and pull out the ones I like.

This outfit can go silver or gold metals - or even a mix - but I think I prefer gold. The fou-fou ones get eliminated when I look at them next to the clothing pieces...and I ended up with my big gold hoops and the coil ring.

Edit: Oh, I guess I should add - that took me 20 minutes to put together. I don't try anything on, and my outfits get packed into my knapsack right away for my walk to work in the morning.

And that's it! I enjoy putting things together and trying new combinations! Hope you enjoyed this!

Keeping Busy - and Some Goodbye Pictures

Hey! Emotionally, I'm all over the map this week (and I'm sure next week - my last week at work - will be the same. Mental note: waterproof mascara), so I'm trying to stay busy, make plans with friends and not wallow and/or dwell too much on my impending unemployment. Amazing how much our work ties into our feelings of confidence and self-worth.

Anyway, Fake It Till You Feel It, right? Wear yellow!
And a bright pattern! I treated myself to a little shop at Dots (a local chain that sells off samples from manufacturers - it's where I get my awesome Noa Noa items) and got this groovy top. I love the neckline (hard to see, but it has a flat wide collar) and the swirly pattern. It was $29.99 (note: shopping thrift so much makes new things seem so expensive!).

I'm enjoying breaking out my boots for the season too. I got these ones last year (last seen in the 2010 winter wardrobe challenge here):

They're cheap, but I love the styling: the wedge, the little bow on the back.

A close-up of the new jewelry I got:

This was my treat "from the company" - I spent my $35 Visa gift card from winning the Hallowe'en costume contest on these (and a necklace). They're by Lavishy (the Lava collection). Made in Canada - yay!

Top (Liz & Co.), skirt (Club Monaco, thrifted), belt (Aldo Accessories), boots (Outline), ring/earrings (Lavishy).

Last night I rushed home and changed to go to my friend Carollyne's art show opening. I promised her I would weaar something arty:

My favourite arty dress - doing my 60s mod pose. Worn this a few times (a selection here).

I walked down, so I wore my comfy boots, my leather coat (ironically, it's work swag), scarf and gloves.

I felt so colourful! I really wanted to buy a painting, but art purchases are just not in my budget right now - although I do feel strongly that when you can, you should buy art! Support artists!

Dress (Desigual), boots (Aldo, consignment), jacket (work online auction), scarf (St. Michael's, thrifted), bracelet (Fossil, gift from L), earrings/ring (Lavishy).

Inigo watched me pose from his view in the box:

This week's been all about wrapping things up and saying goodbye. I am going to miss my lunchtime walks, and doing my stairs, so I took some pictures of my walk to and from work, and of the views around my work location. I did something similar here in June 2010.

November here is lovely - sometimes it's rainy, sometimes it's foggy, sometimes it's lovely and sunny and crisp. Yesterday was a crisp autumn morning. I love all the colours in the trees. This red Japanese maple is one of my favourites:

It's just changing from dark to light when I leave the house in the morning. Check out the sky as the rising sun tinges the clouds pink:

Walking along with my mp3 player on, sipping my tea...this beauty greets me and reminds me how good it is to be alive.

Lovely yellows and oranges in the leaves overhead:

Puffy little cumulous clouds and streaky high stratus clouds:

The orangey-pink of the light hitting this steeple just blew me away:

My parents got married in that church.

A row of yellow-leaved beeches:

This mural's just recently been repainted to a circus theme:

Those roly-poly clowns creep me out. I do love when building owners let artists paint the sides of buildings rather than let them get covered in grafitti.

I had a very long shadow!

I look like I belong in a circus myself!

The view from my desk:

That's a scrap metal yard on the left, and a little bit of the ocean peeking through.

All the trees changing colour on the other side of the trestle:

Do you see what's on the dock?

A seagull having a sit in the sun!

Look at that glorious blue sky!

I had the sun on my face, the clean fall air...my stairs:

I have to find another set of stairs close to home that I can work out on - I'm going to miss these!

Looking down:

I always have visions of going ass over teakettle down these.

Coming back with the sun streaming through the bushes:

Back to the water:

See the mountains in the far background? Those are in Washington State.

For some reason, at this time of year, there are a lot of starfish close to shore. This one is not really deformed - the wind was coming up and the ripples of the water distorted him:

Hee!

There are two starfish in this picture;

The water is pretty clear - these are only about 2-3 feet below the surface (you can see some leaves floating on top).

This starfish is a lovely orange. There are dark purple ones too, but they're hard to see.

And I was so excited! Look what else I spotted:

It's a jellyfish! It's about the size of a fist, and he was gently bobbing along, not 10 feet away from me.

Edit: for other wildlife lovers - I also see otters swimming near here, and today there were 3 fat harbour seals swirling through schools of little fish.

This is my desk from the outside of the building:

I can just see my green file folders and my overhead bin.

Hope you enjoyed my autumn tour!