A Fluevog A Day - Listen Ups Ivanna

I have embraced Casual Friday as a way to play a little bit with the business casual dress code. Maybe I'll wear something made of denim (a dress, a skirt, a vest, a jacket, jeans) or maybe I'll just wear something a bit...different. Today's Fluevog is an old favourite: my Listen Up Ivannas.

However, the real star of the outfit is the pants. But onto those in a minute. Here's the outfit: Pretty sedate for me, yeah? Nice brown pants, black cardi, pretty top with some sparkle, and oh, check out the shoes:

It poured all day today and my feet got wet every time I went outside. I have thick socks on now.

I got this top at Plum in their closing out sale. It was $18.00. I love the pattern and the loose tunic style. I don't have a lot in this cut, so it's been a bit of a challenge to find something to wear it with.

Yes, these are real leather pants! I found them in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago at a retro/vintage/thrift clothing store (the same store where I got my python jacket and my vintage Gianfranco Ferre pencil skirt).

They felt wonderful on the rack and when I tried them on...well, they fit like they were made for me. The length is perfect, they don't sag anywhere and they're not too tight (they're lined from the waist to just below the knee). They were $59.99, and worth every penny. It's hard to see here, but the colour is a rich cognac brown.

And they do amazing things for my butt:

I felt powerful in these all day. No one said a thing to me, although when I was standing at a stop-light a lady asked me if I worked in Melanie Lyne (a clothing store that caters to middle-aged rich women - they have nice things, but I have only bought jewelry there) because I perfectly had their "look." I think it was a compliment.

They are way better than my last attempt at a (p)leather pant.

When I got them home, I went through the pockets and found this piece of paper:

At first I thought it was blank, but then I saw very faded printing:It's a receipt from Finale Bar in Cambridge, Massachussets (which apparently, still exists). Not a huge deal (although cool that my pants travelled all the way to Vancouver), until I spent some time figuring out what else was printed on the receipt.

The total on the bill is $19.85 for a drink and white chocolate cheesecake, but the interesting thing is the date of the receipt: Dec 31 '02, at 10:37 PM. Someone was wearing these pants on New Year's Eve 2002, and paid for her food and drink before midnight! And then she obviously never wore them again, because this receipt remained in the pants' rear pocket for over 8 years.

Isn't that neat? The stories these pants could tell! I wonder if she had a bad date, or left to go to a(nother) party? Maybe these pants had such a bad association with her NYE that she never wanted to wear them again and they sat in her closet accusingly until she threw them in a garbage bag and left them at Goodwill, where they sat on a $5 rack until a buyer for this retro store spotted them and shipped them back to Vancouver and marked them up horrendously.

The stuff: A much better representation of the colour of the pants there. That's a pretty high waistband, but it felt comfortable all day. At least I didn't have any plumber's crack or muffin-top going on!

These shoes were last worn here. I got them in October 2008 (on sale) at the Granville Street store in Vancouver. They are the last of the old Listen Up line, with that exact heel. This was a shoe that didn't grab me at all until I put it on, and then I had to have them!

Oh, one more thing about the leather pants. Since they're from the Gap, it's easy to figure out exactly how old they are: All Gap (and Banana Republic) labels have the season on them (it's true, go look). These pants are from Fall 2000. Hmmm...and these are vintage how, exactly?

The sparkly stuff:I love the coppery sequins on the tunic, so themed my accessories to go with that, rather than contrast. Please ignore the Band-Aid sizing on the ring.

Cardigan (Kensie Girl), tunic (Dex), leather pants (Gap, thrifted), shoes (Listen Up Ivanna, Fluevog), leather cuff (Oscar & Libby's), ring (Fossil), earrings (Plum).

Inigo was just being so cute last night:We restocked his cat fud (spelled like in The Far Side) and gave him the tray to sit in. All cats love sitting on any kind of paper product. It's a fact.

Inigo sort of...overflowed his tray: Still - utter cuteness! Have a great weekend and may all your trays be full.

Tuesday WW Group - Coral for Spring

Ah, my last day off before I get back to the ol' grind. I'm excited/nervous about starting fresh - I'd been at my old job for 5 and a half years before they outsourced us - but with Spring finally arriving, everything feels like a fresh start!

I even decorated my flip charts for today's meeting with shamrocks and tulips. Unfortunately, I got caught in a flash rain storm on the way home and got completely soaked - at least it was warm!

Anyway, I have all these lovely Spring-y things I've thrifted and nowhere to wear them (yet!). First up, this new cardigan and skirt:
The skirt is almost a neon coral - it's a linen and nylon blend, so it feels luxurious but doesn't crease! It was all of $5 in the thrift shop a few weeks ago. I vaguely recall that coral is an "it" colour this Spring, so woo!

The cardigan is also new-to-me - it was around $18 on consignment.

I love the big ruffles on it.

The blouse is one I've had for years - last seen here. Ha, I always wear the same accessories with it!

I can't wait to start building some new outfits for my new job...I have my clothes already selected for My First Day tomorrow, but how about a game? Let's see who guesses the closest to what I'll actually wear. Here's a poll - you can pick more than one item.

What Will Sheila Wear For Her First Day of Work?
	Trousers
	Mini skirt
	Pencil skirt
	Long skirt
	Dress
	Blazer
	Cardigan
	Blouse/Shirt
	Menswear-inspired
	Preppy
	Rock-n-roll
	Floral girly
	Multiple bright colours
	Primary/basic neutrals
	Pattern mixing
	Strapless
	Sheer fabric
	Bright legs (tights)
	Dressy boots
	Casual boots
	High heels
	Low or kitten heels
	Flat shoes
	Subdued jewelry
	Bold jewelry
	Belt
	Scarf
pollcode.com free polls

The stuff:

Lovely orangey-yellowy shoes. The buckle on the belt that came with the skirt is actually made out of bamboo!

A close-up:

I usually toss these belts, but I am going to keep that one. You never know when I might need to go on safari.

We donated a huge amount of stuff to charity lately. Inigo is very happy that he has his box back:

Lovey eyes!

Cardigan (American Rag Cie, consigment), blouse (I.N.C.), skirt (Rocket, thrifted), shoes (Tsubo "Erebus"), cuff (thrifted), earrings (Foxy).

Tuesday WW Group - Plaid Prada Peeking Out

After last week, this week feels very anticlimactic: I'm still waiting to hear if I got the job (they called yesterday for my references, yay!), and there are only a few social things on the calendar.

Today, my Tuesday group:
Our theme was "Celebrating Success" and it was a really good meeting - my group has now lost over 100 lbs!

I love this creamy white jacket - it was a fabulous consignment find a few years ago - it's amazingly good quality and fit. I haven't worn it since the 3rd Wardrobe Challenge (it was in the dry-cleaning bag for several months).

I built this outfit around the blouse:

First worn here (ha, same shoes and belt), this is my $3.99 Prada. I love bragging about it!

The stuff:

L and I are going to Vancouver soon, and I'll be checking out Fluevog for another gem like the ones above. What will it be? Hmmmm...

Jacket (Club Monaco, consignment), blouse (Prada, thrifted), skirt (Linda Allard for Ellen Tracy, thrifted), belt (Plum), shoes (Listen Up, Audrey, Fluevog).

Leopard Week! Plaid and Leopard? It Can Be Done!

Welcome to Leopard Week! Go here for links to participants.

For my Tuesday WW group, I wanted to bust out my leopard pumps. However, it's still frickin' cold out (thank goodness the snow is finally gone), so I didn't want to wear a skirt. I was waving my shoes around randomly at my various skirts and pants to see what went well with them, and lo! These pants looked good with leopard:
It's been randomly said around Style Nation that leopard is a neutral - TRUE! Treat it as the closest base colour (in this case, sort of a camel colour). Some leopards are more white/cream based, some are more brown or black, and yes, some are hot pink. Whatever. The rule of thumb holds true - go with the majority colour for mixing with other patterns.

This sweater is new-to-me:

I am secretly crushing on Emma Pillsbury from "Glee" and when I spotted this thin sweater in the consignment store, I grabbed it. I love the little bow! I think it was about $20 (and when I checked the Trina Turk website I see I probably got a good deal!).

The pants were last worn here, the shoes last worn here.

The stuff:

See? My shoes even have leopard inserts!

A close-up:

My spotty belt and earrings from Plum.

Sweater (Trina Turk, consignment), pants (no label), belt (Nygard), shoes (Steve Madden), earrings (Plum).

Three Days to Go

Wednesday is probably going to be my last day at work - Thursday is a stat holiday here (Remembrance Day), and I doubt my boss will make us come in for Friday (that's my "official" last day). It felt weird planning my outfit last night, knowing that I probably won't wear a lot of the stuff in my closet for several months.

Anyway, I'm not wholly happy with today's outfit:
I think it's the skirt. I love the colour and the high waist, but with the dark tights, it really stumpified my legs and me, overall. But you know what? It's good enough.

With the jacket done up:

It's a bit too tight across the boobs to wear this way, but it looks nice. I have only worn this jacket once before (here, beware, vacation pictures) - I pinned my zipper rose on the collar this time.

I bought a whole year's supply of tights on the weekend, including these funky ones:

I do love plaid, especially with a nice red stripe.

The stuff:

My glorious Fluevog "Coffee" shoes (last seen here).

Jacket (Camden Market, London), top (Planet), skirt (Bedoe, thrifted), belt (Nygard), tights (Filodoro), shoes ("Sumatra Coffee", Fluevog), zipper rose (Victoria & Albert Museum Gift Shop), ring (gift from Cindy), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Skirt Creep - Zebra and New Shoes

This will be the last wear of this skirt for the season. I wore it with micro-fishnets today and had awful skirt creep all day. Most annoying.

I did like the outfit, though, and L gave this one an enthusiastic thumbs up:
How much do I love this zebra skirt? Wow, a lot! Last worn here.

I actually had a few issues with the hip region with this outfit. The skirt has pockets and pleats, and the cardi has pockets, so I had a lot of...blousing...going on there.

I was more excited about spending my birthday money this weekend...
...on my new shoes! I spotted these a couple of weeks ago and pined after them, but they were too pricey for me (funny how you get spoiled by $6 to $40 shoes when you shop consignment!). When I was scoping around the mall I saw that they had been marked down to $75.00, so that was that.

The stuff:

Well, hello there, classic hidden platform, super-comfy teal shoes. Aren't you a lovely soft suede? I think you're going to like living in my closet.

I wasn't familiar with this brand (Me Too), but these were amazingly soft and squishy inside. The sizing ran really big, so I bought an 8.5 instead of my usual 9-9.5/40.

A close-up of the non-shoe items:

The necklace Mom gave me for my birthday, a mess of jangly bangles.

I also got another pair of shoes (boots). Look who found the box:

Aw! Kitty in a box! What a pretty boy.

Cardigan (Express, thrifted), cami (Ricki's, gift from Ruth), skirt (Plum), belt (gift from Mom), shoes (Me Too), necklace (Marks & Spencer's, gift from mom), assorted bangles (made in India), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Girly Florals

I spent some of my birthday money on the weekend at one of my favourite consignment shops. This skirt is one of my finds:
It's silk, and very thin (I have a full-length slip on underneath). I love the two patterns. It was $19.99.

It got a little chilly this afternoon in the office, so I wore my jacket off and on:

I felt very girly in this (without being too frou-frou). Sometimes you just have to wear pink! and bows! and angora!

The stuff:

You can see the two patterns better there. they are separated by a line of irridescent sequins.

A close-up of the accessories:

The earrings that Sherylyn gave me, my Audrey Scrabble tile (it's "A" on the back), and my "S".

Jacket (Club Monaco, consignment), sweater (Esprit, consignment), skirt (Kenzie, consignment), shoes (Kensie), earrings (Shi Studio, gift from Sherylyn), "S" pendant (gift from Mom and Dad in the 90s), Audrey tile (vacation).

Purple Pops and Some Catching Up (and a Book Blurb)

Okay. The Dolphins are playing right now, so this is going to be fast! My birthday is this week (Saturday!), and so I'm going to be wearing some of the my favourite things this week, as well as some gifts.

Today, I wanted to wear these purple shoes that L got me for my birthday last year (well, a gift certificate - I bought them):
Eeee, purple goodness! I'm also wearing a new purple cami under this wrap top - it's getting its second wear (last seen here, also with purple - ha!). And I do love this skirt.

I've worn the skirt a couple of times since I got it (here and here). Both it and the top were thrift store finds - a total of $20 for them.

The stuff:

A bit of a drool over the shoes when I first got them here (have you been doing your push-ups?).

Top (Talbots, thrifted), skirt (Bedo, thrifted), cami (InWear), shoes (Friis and Co., gift from L), earrings and bracelet (Fossil, gift from L).

What I wore to Weight Watchers:

The belt weighs a ton - it's glass beads and is all hand-sewn. Of course, I took it off before I got weighed! It velcros together in the back so you can adjust the length. I paid $20 for it on consignment in Feb '09.

L and I had a memorial service to go to for a gentleman whom we were acquainted with, so I wore a jacket so that my sparkly belt wouldn't be too much:

L wore a suit. When we went to our usual diner for brunch after WW (but before the memorial), our waitress was stunned to see us in "grown-up clothes". Heh, I love messing with peoples' perceptions, don't you?

Very sombre here.

There was a "no snivelling" request in place (the gentleman was quite a funny guy), but of course, I cried. I always cry.

A close-up of the belt:

Pretty awesome.

Dress (BCBG Max Azria, gift from Ruth), jacket (Mac & Jac), shoes (Fluevog), belt (Birks, consignment).

And I finished a book a couple of weekends ago! It's "The Crazy Years" by Spider Robinson:

I've been a fan of Spider's science fiction novels for years (he's a huge Robert A. Heinlein fan, as am I). I've read most of his Callahan novels - they're a lot of fun.

Stats: 294 pages. Started July 12, 2010, finished September 25, 3010.

Blurb: As you can see, this one took me a long time to finish. It's a collection of Spider's short essays that he wrote for Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper from 1996 - 2004. The essays are grouped by theme (there's a chapter on computers, one on Canada, one on space), and are nice and short - good bedtime reading. Spider is a "small l" liberal, which I like. Although I enjoyed reading these, I read them very slowly, to let them sink in. Hence, the long time period.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction - I like my books to be escapist - but since I love his novels, I thought I'd give his non-novel a shot. I'm glad I did.

My copy is a publisher's advance copy, before the book was for sale. It has a letter in it from the publisher. Cool.

Back to School - The Keys to Education

Football season has started, so I must be quick!

New jacket, nice and plaid-y:
The jacket is cotton with Spandex, unlined and really stretchy. I liked that I could shove the sleeves up. It was $6 in a thrift store.

I wanted to wear it done up, but it's been warm today. But see how nicely it hugs?

I haven't worn this skirt since last December! Crazy.

Check out the back of the jacket:

I love how it dips down a bit, like an English riding jacket.

The stuff:

The vintage mink pin was worn on the back of the jacket (see it in the picture above?).

I had many people ask me today if those keys opened anything. What is it about keys?

When I got this jacket, it only had two buttons on the front - and they were held on with safety pins! I rooted around through my button tin (everyone has some sort of button tin, right? Where you put all the extra buttons?) and found these:

The bottom one is an original, the one on the right is brown, and the top button is a dark red (the plaid has a brown and dark red thread in it). I hate sewing, but it was necessary!

Jacket (Armour Jeans, thrifted), lace top (Noa Noa), cami (InWear), skirt (Planet), shoes (Steve Madden, thrifted), necklace (Aldo Accessories), key earrings (some gift shop), brooch (vintage, thrifted).

Purple Power!

Okay, so I've been indulging in a little bit of retail therapy to salve my recent woes (job, dead Grandma).

I've tried to be good and only buy thrift or consignment, but I did go into one of my favourite stores (Jacob) that was having an extra 30% off last sale prices - and this purple skirt called to me!
As you can see, I've got the Power of the Wonder Woman bracelet going on.

Anyway, the skirt (which is a nice royal purple, not as blue as it looks here) was $39.99, so that would be $30 on sale. But it's made in Canada (not China) and it's machine washable (no lining), so I'm willing to pay a little more for those kinds of benefits.

The top is also new - it was a whopping $8 in a thrift store yesterday. It's Talbots, so the quality of the fabric is awesome. It's a thick, heavy double-knit that drapes really nicely.

But let's not kid ourselves. It's all about the shoes. Check out those babies! That's 5 inches of heel (less about an inch platform in the front of the shoe).

I really liked my accessories today, so here's a shot of my mug:

I especially like my wee ear cuff (you can see it just above the bigass pearl stud). This also shows the pattern of the top better.

The stuff:

I like that the shoes have the taupe colour, black suede AND black patent on them (the shoes aren't leather, however). I do like a mix of textures. I got them last year and have worn them a few times to work. They are tough on my feet though (I took them off when I was at my desk and even gave myself a foot massage!).

A close-up of the jewelry:

My leafy bracelet, the pendant Mom got me in Australia (real pearls and white gold), and my cheapy pearl earrings.

Top (Talbot's, thrifted), skirt (Jacob), shoes (Qupid, consignment), necklace (gift from Mom), bracelet (thrifted), earrings (Aldo Accessories).