I Like Your Sleeves...They're Real Big

That's what my husband said when he saw this outfit - ha! Silly man.

Someone actually asked me today if this is what I'd be wearing for New Year's Eve.
Like, duh, NO. I dress up for New Year's! At least, a lot more than my work clothes!

The new item here is the dark red cardi - don't you just love the big pouffy sleeves? I love having something to wear my red patent Fluevogs with. Oh, and the earrings are new. A close-up:

The shoes are divine. I'm sorry, I do get a little silly about my shoes.

Speaking of, here's a couple of shots of yesterday's shoes, so you can see the full platform (the burgundy blended into my jacket) and the soles before they wear off (blurry, but you get the -pun intended- picture):

*drool*

Oh, so pretty!

Cardigan (I.N.C.), turtleneck (Smart Set), skirt (Kensie), shoes (Fluevog), earrings (Plum).

The Painty Skirt and a Cream Jacket

[insert theme from "Welcome Back, Kotter"]

I'm back! The snow's almost melted away and we're back to slush and rain - ah, real West Coast weather. I've been out in it for the last few days, bargain hunting and stocking up on some basics, so I'll be rotating all kinds of new stuff into the outfits. Oooh, exciting!

Today:
The jacket was a bargain at Jacob: $29.99. I like the velvety thin-wale corduroy and the slightly military cut of it. It has a belt in the same colour, but I swapped it out for the brown belt this time.

I love this skirt - it's so pretty and painty.

The jewelry:

A Christmas gift from a few years ago from Mom - it's Avon. I haven't worn this set much before, because the dangly parts just don't sit right. Think I might find it a new home.

This is the Shi Studio necklace and earrings Mom got me this year:

They are pieces of silk pressed behind glass and framed like stained glass. Pretty! I love the shape of them and the gorgeous fabric. I want one of their belt buckles...

Jacket (Jacob), blouse (Mexx), cami (InWear), skirt (Nine West), tights (Hue), boots (Roberto Vianni), belt (Plum), jewelry (Avon).

Merry Christmas!

Hooray! Work is done until the 29th for me, so this will be it until after Christmas (well, I have an outfit planned for Christmas, so I'll probably post a picture of that on the weekend).

Today: Casual with velvet and satin.
I don't have my boots on in this picture, because they are wet. I'm much shorter without them!

My Christmas pin, a gift from my boss from the Christmas store:

Thanks, Ev. You were a great boss for all those years.

Best wishes to my fellow bloggers! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, no matter how and when you celebrate it.

Blazer (RW & Co.), blouse (La Classe Couture), jeans (Esprit), boots (not shown, Cougar), pin (gift).

Purple and Black

I felt like wearing purple today. This is one of my favourite blouses - I don't usually do ruffles as I don't really need extra emphasis on my chest, but I just love this blouse. The big belt is totally kick-ass too.

The shrug kept me nice and warm. Of course, I had to wear the Purple Ruth Shoes:
Pretty Pearlized Purple Shoes! They (and the shirt) are more purple than they look in that picture. My lovely husband got me that bracelet and earring set for Christmas last year.

And look what arrived at the office for me today from my favourite real estate broker:

A big basket! It was loaded with chocolate, cookies, cheeses, crackers, fruit (including a whole pineapple, kiwifruits, apples, pears, bananas and oranges), teas and coffees. What an amazing gift!

Shrug (Debut), blouse (Esprit), suit pants (Max Studio), belt (some tourist store in Times Square, NY), shoes (Bronx), jewelry (Fossil).

Casual Friday - Mad for Plaid!

I must confess: I wore my denim cropped jacket over this outfit all day, it was so darned cold out!

This is one of the dresses I got last weekend.
I totally love the style, colour and cut of this dress. It has a faint reddy-orange stripe (you can see it better in the close-up below), so I went festive with my red tights. The only downside is that it got very wrinkly over the day from sitting in front of my computer.

Mom gave me her other 70s choker last weekend - thanks, Mom! I'd always wanted it.

She bought it from some hippie in the 70s, who told her it was from Egypt (right off a camel). It's sandalwood and amber beads.

Jean jacket (not shown, Ann Taylor Loft), plaid dress (Vero Moda), tights (Merona), shoes (Unlisted), belt (Plum), choker (vintage 70s, Mom), gold hoop earrings (gift from L).

Casual Thursday - Faux Fur, Tweed and Denim

Brrr! More snow overnight meant I had to get out more of the warm stuff in my wardrobe. I'm starting to feel Christmassy!

I nearly wore the skirt to this suit, but decided at the last minute to do the jean skirt.
The Return of the Brown Belt from the first wardrobe challenge! It's necessary because I lost the middle button off the jacket and I can't find the spare one. I have a huge tin of my spare buttons (I even have the extra one for the Pink Jacket for you, Jane), so you'd think it would be there, but no. I guess I could sew on a funky one.

The soft, fuzzy collar kept me nice and warm all day.

I love this necklace but it's tricky to find things to wear with it.

Green wool/silk tweed jacket (Precis Petite), brown sweater (no label, consignment), jean skirt (Smart Set), tights (Hue), boots (Roberto Vianni), belt (Plum), necklace (Le Chateau), crystal stud earrings.

Casual Wednesday - Denim and the Boyfriend Cardigan

My work is doing yet another "Casual Month" so we have the option of wearing jeans if we want to. As we still have snow, and as I type this it is snowing yet again, and I didn't plan my outfits this week, I decided to take advantage of this.
My H&M blouse, and some pretty jewelry that L got me for Christmas a few years back:

I seem to have a boot theme going on this week, also due to the craptastic weather.

A better shot of the jewelry:

I now have to venture out and get party supplies. L and I are hosting both an Open House AND a drunken revelry party on Saturday (one daytime, one nighttime). This requires supplies.

It also means I'll get to wear two party outfits in one day! And I've been saving a few things just for occasions such as these.

Sorry for not getting around to everyone's blogs lately! It's been a very busy week.

Cardigan (no label, consignment), blouse (H&M, consignment), black cami (InWear), belt (Tommy Hillfiger), jeans (Esprit), boots (Rinaldi), jewelry (Le Chateau).

Wardrobe Challenge - Dress Like a Song

Today's Wardrobe Challenge is brought to you by Jane at Workthatwardrobe.

My song is "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake. This is a great song and a fun band.

The outfit:

That's my new black brocade jacket (as one of my co-workers pointed out, it would make a good vampire jacket!), and my blue wool suit skirt (the shortest skirt I own).

Here's the song, if you aren't familiar with it:

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond,

I want a girl who knows whats best,

I want a girl with shoes that cut,

And eyes that burn like cigarettes.

I want a girl with the right allocation,

Who's fast, and thorough, and sharp as a tack.
She's playing with her jewelry,
She's putting up her hair,
She's touring the facility and picking up slack.
I want a girl with a short skirt,
And a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong jacket.

I want a girl who gets up early,

I want a girl who stays up late,

I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity,

Who uses a machete to cut through red tape.

With fingernails that shine like justice,

And a voice that is dark like tinted glass

She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack,

She's touring the facility and picking up slack.

I want a girl with a short skirt,

And a long, long jacket.

I want a girl with a smooth liquidation,

I want a girl with good dividends.

At Citi Bank we will meet accidentally,

We'll start to talk when she borrows my pen.

She wants a car with a cupholder armrest,

She wants a car that will get her there,

She's changing her name from Kitty to Karen,

She's trading her MG for a white Chrysler Le Baron.

I want a girl with a short skirt,
And a loooooooooooooooooooooooong jacket.

My husband likes to sing this to me. I wish my fingernails shone like justice and my eyes burned like cigarettes! Ha!

Jacket (Rainbows), turtleneck (Reitman's), skirt (Le Chateau), tights (don't recall), boots (some cheap brand), necklace (Melanie Lynn), earrings (don't recall).

Wooly with a Belt

Thank goodness for belts or I would just be a big lump of sweaters! It is so cold (-13 with the wind-chill this morning) that I have on 3 layers. It feels very bulky.
That's some attractive helmet head I've got going on! I had a toque and the hood of my parka pulled up, so not really surprising that my hair is all flat.

Not a terribly exciting outfit, just trying to stay warm! I have a t-shirt on underneath this, an extra layer of tights, and wooly socks under my boots.

Accessories:
Ah, you can see the blue of the sweater better. The black necklace is jet and crystal (Grandma J's), and the rhinestone bracelet is a Christmas gift my brother and I bought Mom back in the early 70s from Birks.

Cardigan (Jacob), sweater (Tobias), skirt (Lipton's, consignment), belt (Plum), tights (Hue), boots (Expressions), necklace (Grandma J, vintage), bracelet (Birks, are the 70s vintage??).

Special Occasion - Lawrence & Carollyne's Christmas Cake Party

It snowed last night which, contrary to what you might think you know about Canada, is very unusual for this part of the country. We do not get snow here very often - once a year, if that!

While it is very pretty, the novelty quickly wears off and the practicality of gettting out and about rears its head. It isn't a far walk to Lawrence & Carollyne's house, but I had to wear something warm:
Layers are the key: I have a t-shirt on underneath this. I put the shoes in my bag and walked in my boots, but unfortunately, it was a "no shoe" house, so I had frozen toes for a few hours.

A close-up of the vintage jewelry:

Both the necklace and the bracelet are by Coro. The necklace is from the late 50s, I think (Grandma J's) and the bracelet is from the late 60s (Mom's).

Sweater (Tobias), skirt (Nygaard, consignment), tights (Hue), shoes (Wild Diva), jewelry (Coro, vintage).

Shopping Clothes - Cold Weather

Brrr! Freezing (literally) today! Elaine and I planned this shopping trip ages ago, and wouldn't you know, the stupid weather predictions for cold weather (chance of snow tonight!) came true?

This calls for warm clothing, but since we planned to be trying stuff on, it still had to be practical for taking on and off all day. Solution: Sweater dress, tights and motorcycle boots!
Feeling a little silly this morning, haha!

I bought a black jacket, a plaid dress, a brown vest, some funky tights and a Betsey Johnson dress (it was almost 1/2 price) for New Year's Eve. Elaine got two gorgeous dresses, and a cami. I also bought a Christmas present for L, but mostly it was stuff for me. How bad am I??

Dress (Vero Moda), tights (Hue), belt (Jacob), boots (Cougar), scarf (The Bay).

Special Occasion - Theatre with Mom

Mom and I did dinner last night, followed by a play at the local theatre. The temperature has rapidly dropped in the last days, from a balmy 6 to 10 degrees to 0 to -6. Yikes! We delicate West Coast flowers don't do well with extreme temperatures!

Anyway, I did a dress with tights and boots so that I'd be warm:
Sorry it's so dark - I have no natural light anymore for my pictures. The dress is actually blue with a black pattern on top.

Dress (OC for Oleg Cassini), tights (Hue), boots (Expressions), black choker (Grandma J's), black stone earrings.

Casual Friday - Blue and Grey

Carrying on my theme of Sparkly/Shiny for the holiday season, I am wearing my metallic gladiators from Fluevog and this blue satin blouse.
Not terribly exciting, but a comfy, casual look. The jacket was on a clearance rack last spring for $39.99.

A close-up of the accessories:

The shoes are NOT that colour - the overhead light really wonks the colour in some of my pictures. That's the blue blouse underneath. It's not grey!

The necklace above is one of my old favourites from about 8 years ago when I worked in a clothing store.

Lady D: here's a shot of this bag - you wanted to see a better picture of it. It's dark burgundy faux croc.

Stuffed full of clothes that I took to work and gave away. Ho ho ho!

Jacket (RW & Co.), blouse (Tristan), cami (InWear), jeans (Esprit), black bead choker and black stone earrings, shoes (Fluevog), bag (KGB Studio).

Shiny Green - and the Heather Skirt

This is the second wear for this patterned green shirt. The label (Point Zero) is kind of surfer-dude and jeanswear, so I was so thrilled to find something more classic, but still with a lot of funkiness to it. Paired it with the brown skirt and turtleneck for warmth:
Then my very sweet co-worker Heather came to my office and gave me a skirt she bought and never wore! And it fit perfectly! What a nice thing to do. I wore it all day.

Ooh! Look! A skirt!

Considering this is Suzy Shier (a teen-oriented store, kind of like Forever 21 in the US), it's a really good quality (lined). I love the herringbone texture.

A shot of the accessories:

My lovely faux croc pumps, gold earrings and my mom's vintage chain belt.

I "liberated" the belt from her in about 1983. It originally had gold chains hanging down in a U-shape between each set of square links, and gold chain tassels hanging in the centre of each U. I left the little bits there so that I would always remember what this belt originally looked like. I removed the U and tassels around 1988 because they severely limited the wearability of the belt. You can see a little bit of one of the U chains on the left near the square link, and one small link from a tassel left on the O-link centred between the square links (it looks like a mark on the O).

Blouse (Point Zero: Nicole Benisti), turtleneck (Kersh), suit skirt (Kensie), Heather skirt (Suzy Shier), shoes (Jessica Simpson), gold earrings, belt (vintage, Mom's).

Burgundy, Black and Sparkle

I love the time leading up to Christmas. I'm feeling all sparkly (let's just pretend work is all happiness and light, shall we?), so I have to reflect that in my clothes, right?
This skirt is actually a micro-polka dot pattern (see the background of the accessories shot), and I used to have pants, a jacket AND a dress in this, but every piece got just a bit too big when I finished losing weight. I gave away all but the skirt, which I love. '

I had fun putting this summery cotton jacket over top of the turtleneck (nice and warm!), then playing with sparkly accessories:

Love the shoes!

Jacket (Vero Moda Jeans), turtleneck (Plum), skirt (Precis Petite), shoes (Blecka), tights (Hue), assorted sparkly jewelry (I can never remember where I get this stuff, but it's all costume and nothing's over $20).

Turquoise Tights

Since I had fun with the purple tights a few weeks ago, I thought I'd try out my turquoise pair. These are slightly darker than the top I'm wearing, and close to fully opaque.
This was a fun outfit - I even got a compliment from a stranger in the book store! I love the silver booties, and the mix of the black pinstripe skirt with the dark grey pinstripe boob vest.

A close-up of the accessories:

My fab BCBGirls booties, the coloured stone earrings and bracelet from L. The other bracelet has an addition by me: the black ribbon bow. The elastic on it is actually too big, so the bow helps hide the excess.

Blouse (Smart Set), vest (Kenzie), skirt (InWear), tights (Hue), shoes (BCBGirls), jewelry (all gifts).

Green and Ruffles

It felt so liberating to be able to choose whatever I wanted to wear when I picked all my outfits this week! Of course, I do tend to gravitate towards the same colours over and over...

Just like here:
Good old green and brown! I love this ruffled-front shirt (it ties behind the neck in a big pussycat bow which you can't really see in the picture) but have struggled a bit with putting it with other items. I'm pleased with how it looks under a sweater.

Love this suede belt and of course, adore the shoes:

Ooh, I'm so matchy. Ha!

Sweater (Max Studio), blouse (Vero Moda), pants (Mac & Jac), shoes (Luichiny), belt (Aldo), gold earrings (some ethnic boutique).

Wardrobe Challenge Wrap Up

Thanks so much to Jane at Work That Wardrobe for setting up this challenge! What a lot of fun to see what she and the other participants did!

Things I liked:

- having to work with a very small amount of items - I do love a challenge!

- once my outfits were set, not having to think too hard about what I was wearing each day;

- seeing how the other participants worked their mini wardrobes!

Things I didn't like:

- having to wear the same clothes over and over;

- limiting my shoes! Ha!

- limiting my accessories.

What I would have done differently:

- added another pair of pants;

- more layering pieces for tops - three of my tops were only worn once each;

- adding another belt or a scarf.

What I learned:
- I'm really inflexible about wearing the same items more than once!
- no one who saw me every day really cared about what I wore;
- I could pack a very efficient wardrobe for travelling.

There's a poll over on the right for you to vote for your favourite outfits - you can choose as many as you like.

My personal favourites:

My favourite outfit: Day 3I really liked the coral and brown together, and loved layering the dress underneath this. The boots are also shown off well. I got the most compliments on this outfit from my coworkers.

My favourite clothing item: The floral skirt
I think it's unanimous: this is a great skirt. It's got aqua, teal, green, shades of orange/coral/red, brown and grey, not to mention the white background. And it's machine washable! This skirt rocks!

My favourite accessory item: The brown/gold necklace I was surprised how much I liked wearing this. I wore it doubled up as a choker on Day 1, long on Day 3, and short/long on Day 5, and I could have wrapped it around my wrist as a bracelet.

Whew! Anyway, I am looking forward to digging back into my wardrobe and wearing some different clothes/accessories/shoes this week, not to mention wearing some different colours!

Thanks again, Jane! What a lot of fun this was. I am in for any other challenges you might come up with.

Wardrobe Challenge Week - Day 4

Today's outfit:
Kept it simple (no belt! ha!), and just played with colour and texture today. I actually really liked this outfit and would probably wear it again. Today was the first day that people noticed that I was repeating things I'd worn earlier this week (the skirt is rather distinctive).

The pieces:

Aqua turtleneck
Floral skirt

Brown boots

Gold hoop earrings

Brown/gold necklace

Red bracelet.

Sweater (Smart Set), skirt (Mexx), boots (Roberto Vianni), necklace & bracelet (Plum), gold hoop earrings (gift).

Wardrobe Challenge Week - Day 3

I am starting to get sick of this belt. And these accessories. And the shoes.

I'm still good with the clothes, but am predicting that as of Friday, I will be quite thoroughly tired of everything I've worn all week.

Anyway, today!

This is the brown dress that I wore out for dinner the other night, only worn to look like a skirt, with the coral sweater over top. Comfy and it looks all right. I'm starting to crave other colours...and black!

The pieces:
Boots!

The Dreaded Belt, which is making an appearance one more time.

The brown/gold necklace.

I never really get tired of gold hoops. My really big ones used to be a signature thing for me - I wore them with everything.

The brown dress. A lovely dress - it will be great for traveling. Worth the $24.

And the coral sweater. Great colour.

Dress (no tag, consignment), sweater (Esprit), belt (Plum), boots (Roberto Vianni), necklace (Plum), earrings (gift).