Weekend Outfits - A Bit of This and That

A quiet weekend, which is just what I needed. I went to my regular WW meeting, and dressed light as usual: This is a new-to-me dress that I picked up last weekend on the 1/2 price rack at a consignment store for $11.50. I like the really drapey construction (it has an elastic waist) and it has beautiful movement when I walk.

The purse is also new-to-me. Got it for $20.98 at the same store - not bad for a Matt & Nat! I was practically willing Spring to be here in my bare legs - I had cold feet for most of the day.

I went shopping afterwards - I'd planned to go to Ellen's Bonspiel open house (the designer who made my cool blue jacket from last week), but the door was locked when I got there.

I continued on with my main goal of bra shopping. I loath bra shopping, but at least this dress made it less of an ordeal: I can just slide out of the top half of it. The dress will work perfectly for my next tatttoo which I've been planning. Now that I have a job, I'll get it scheduled, probably for the summer.

My shoes were not the most comfortable for a day of shopping, but at least they looked good (last seen here).

Coat (Plum), dress (Lady Dutch, consignment), shoes (Feraglicious), belt (Dorothy Perkins), necklace (Foxy), bag (Matt & Nat, consignment).

It rained on and off all day, but I have hope for Spring as the Japanese plum and cherry trees are in bloom:

I love the smell of them.

Today, L and I went out for lunch and got groceries:

Second wear of my OTK socks. *sigh* I wish this was the last wearing of my boots...

Cardigan (Kensie), scarf (Club Monaco), t-shirt (TMT), jeans (Jackpot, swap from Caro), socks (Steve Madden), boots (Aldo, consignment), bag (Licence 71195).

For those of you who have mentioned it, yes, indeedy, I am in the Huffington Post! Pretty cool - thanks again, Wendy! You rule!

You Know Me So Well!

Today was my First Day at the New Job - and following yesterday's poll, I realized, wow! You guys really know my style!

Here's what I wore:
Pencil skirt: check! (30 votes) Blouse/shirt: check! (15 votes) Belt: check! (16 votes) Kitten heels: check! (17 votes) Bold jewelry: check (21 votes) Also, good job on predicting neutrals and pattern mixing!

I fooled you, too, though. I wore sheer (the shirt) and strapless! The single votes for those are mine - of course, I always vote on my own polls.

The skirt is new - I got it at the same boutique as the fab New Job Jacket.

Oh, and blazer: check! (19 votes):

It was sort of sunny today, and this jacket is a heavy velvety brocade, so I wore it as outerwear (only worn once, here).

I did wear a scarf, because it got chilly!

I walked to one of my company's offices this morning for the HR orientation, then walked about 8 blocks to my main office (it's only about 6 blocks from my old office, so I'm actually on exactly the same route to walk as before).

For those of you who've asked, I will indeed be able to continue doing my Tuesday WW group - I'll just make up the time missed. Pretty sweet!

My first day was good - I liked all the people I met and it seems like the job will be right in my wheelhouse. Lots of different things to do - and you can bet that in a year, I'll be running things like clockwork!

This skirt deserved some detail shots:

It's hard to see but it's a felted wool, with patches of fuzzier wool with loops of yarn felted to it, and random stitches. Above is the front of the skirt.

And here's the back:

I like the pockets.

The stuff:

You can see the nice brocade texture in the jacket there.

A close-up:

Naturally I went with bold accessories: my watch necklace, my silver ring and big white gold hoops.

I also did cufflinks:

These are L's and are 60s or 70s vintage, I think. The silhouette is of Pallas or Athena.

When you open the "lock" mechanism, you can see the "Hickok" stamp on them:

The opposite side says "USA".

Jacket (Nine & Company by Nine West, thrifted), shirt (Banana Republic, thrifted), bustier (Le Chateau, consignment), skirt (Solola), shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction, swap from Cat), belt and necklace (Plum), ring (gift from Cindy), earrings (gift from L), bag (Ollie & Nic).

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).

In My Comfort Zone

I'm gradually rolling out all my Plum goodies that I picked up last week. First up: this top/dress that didn't grab me on the initial run through the store:
When I scout a store with the intent to buy and/or try on stuff, I grab all the things that immediately leap out to me. Then, for my second go-round, I pull out things that intrigue me, scare me (yes!), or are a little outside my comfort zone (especially if they're on sale). You never know until you try things on!

I loved how this dress fit, and I'm totally (dude!) having an 80s flashback with the batwing sleeves.

There are two zippers off the neckline that sit at the shoulders - you can't see them very well in these pictures (sorry). It made for a very forgiving and comfortable outfit.

This is a very thin viscose knit (nice and soft, with some stretch), although the material is a bit see-through. I kept pulling down the hem when I was walking. Good thing the tights are thick! I think I might wear this with my skinny black trousers. The dress was $23, regular $85.

I wore this to my regular Weight Watchers meeting (I hadn't been in six weeks, what with being sick, going to Florida, Christmas, New Year's, and visiting L's folks) - it was perfect and light for my weigh-in. Only gained 0.6 lbs over the holiday season (and considering the amount of booze and junk food I consumed, that's amazing), but that has strengthened my resolve to exercise more.

I bought one of the WW workout kits: Punch! it's called. It's a DVD and a set of weighted gloves, and it has Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced kick-boxing/boxing moves. I did the Beginner mode (30 min) yesterday and I was actually sweating!

I did my fab yellow leather jacket over all this business:

All dressed up for lunch with L after my meeting. He dressed nice for me too (in his skinny purple jeans), and one of our regular waitresses, Sarah, asked us what the special occasion was. Heh, just bein' with my sweetie.

The stuff:

These boots have earned their price tag a dozen times over (I got them new, on consignment for $79.99).

Jacket (Danier leather), dress (Kensie), boots (Aldo, consignment), necklace (The Bay), earrings Aldo Accessories).

The Wednesday Group, a Crazy Aunt, and Sad Shopping News

As well as my Tuesday At Work group for Weight Watchers, I'm taking on a Wednesday group until I have a full-time job again. Since both meetings are at lunch and only take an hour, I'm sure I can negotiate maintaing at least one of them while also working, and just make up any extra time I need to.

Anyway, I accompanied the Wednesday group's leader to the meeting and introduced myself as their new leader. "But Kim's like our big sister!" they protested.

"Just think of me as your crazy aunt, then, " I said. We'll see how it goes, ha!

This is what I wore: I knew I'd have to wear low heels, as I had to run a few errands. I thought I'd go with a safe pencil skirt like I did on Tuesday, but went with a bold plaid this time (last seen here).

I wore the jacket unbuttoned whenever I had my outerwear off:

I love my shiny ruched brown blouse - it's machine washable!.

The stuff:

Plaid-y goodness!

Accessories:

I do love a thick leather belt.

The earrings are from Plum - and on Tuesday night, I got the bad news: my local Plum store is closing!

I've gotten so many lovely items from them over the last fifteen years (I shopped there when I was 50 lbs heavier too), and I am going to be so sad to lose their presence in my city. I have always supported them as a Canadian-owned company that sold Canadian desiged and made clothing. A fond farewell to all the staff, too - they always knew my name and recognized L when he came in shopping for gifts. That's quality service. Goodbye, Plum!

However, theyare going out with a bang (like I did) and have a clear-out sale on - and of COURSE I stopped by yesterday and spent my Christmas money from my dear inlaws. I'll have to be making special trips to Vancouver now to feed my addiction!

Jacket (Jacob, consignment), blouse (Esprit), cami (InWear), skirt (Casual Corner & Co., thrifted, vintage 80s), shoes (Outline, consignment), belt (Gap), earrings (Plum).

First WW Meeting...and Some Thoughts on the New Program

So I do have a few things that I'll be doing outfits for in the near future: Weight Watcher meetings! I had my very first one today as a leader, and this is what I wore: New top from Plum - it has tabbed sleeves, which really take me back. I remember having a shirt with tabbed sleeves back in high school (1984-5 for those of you keeping track). Things always come around, don't they? I liked this top due to the cut - it gathers at the waist, then has that nice finished bottom. I love details like that.

My meeting went fine - there were only about 6 people there, so it was quiet. I have another one that I'm filling in for (today's was also a fill-in) tomorrow morning, and it should be quite a bit busier.

Mr. Kitty was in the room but not in the picture today:

He kept an eye on the whole business, though.

The shoes are also new:

Look at that fabulous heel! Swoon! Because these have a very high vamp (the part that scoops on the top of your foot), I wanted to wear a darker tight with them so that they don't stumpify my legs.

A close-up of the stuff:

The shoes are suede, regular leather and the heel and platform are patent leather. My usual black accoutrements, otherwise. You can see the nice pink and red plaid of the top there, too - it has deeper red sort of splotches on it as well.

The shoes are Poetic Licence (I have three other pairs of Poetic Licence, seen here, here and here), and have the distinctive purple "ribbon" sole:

That $139.95 is the regular price. I paid $40.00. Score!

Top (Plum), cami (RW & Co.), skirt (Tobias), tights (Miss Sixty), shoes (Poetic Licence), belt (Plum), bracelet (Le Chateau), earrings (The Cobbler).

***********

A few people have asked me in the comments what I think of the new WW PointsPlus (PP) program. Now, I've been a WW member/lifetime member for over 4 years, and a leader for about a month, and I've gone through a couple of changes in their programs. This one is easily the biggest.

Disclosure: as mentioned, I am a leader and am employed by WW of Canada. I am not being paid to write about this or answer any questions about it. I did get free supplies of the new gadgets, gizmos and books as part of my training. All opinions of WW and the program are my own.

What I like:
0 PP Fruit: It has always bothered me that previously it was a better "bargain" to eat a 1-point processed bar than to have a 2-point banana. Obviously, the banana is better for you! Whole food is always better than processed foods. So having all fruit be 0 PP is awesome - I think that goes a long way towards weaning people off processed sweet snacks and steering them towards whole foods.

More science: I like that there are more factors involved in calculating the PP values in food. In the previous system, we only used fibre, fat and calories. But calories are different - they are not all the same, you can't just single out fat and fibre and leave carbs and protein out in the cold! It always felt like something was missing.

It also meant that some carb-y items were deceptively low in points (like my 1 point wraps that had huge amounts of fibre per serving)...which with my lawyerly/loophole-seeking bent, I would seek out and eat a lot of, even though I knew those couldn't be as good or as "cheap" as the numbers were telling me. And now...they're not. My 1 point wraps are now 3PPs, which, to be honest, seems about right.

A more balanced approach: We used to cover exercise 4 or 6 weeks in (I forget), and whole/less processed foods were mentioned with the "Simply Filling" technique for non-tracking types (like me). The emphasis was on points and tracking, and that's pretty much it. Now, they're pushing exercise right away, and "power foods" are the focus (just a new name for whole/low-processed foods). I also like that there is a "no food is forbidden" attitude - that hasn't changed. I'm not going to stick to any eating system that forces me to give up my chips, chocolate or booze.

What I don't like:
Having to learn a whole new set of points/PointsPlus: Yeah, yeah, I know, I did it once, I can learn a new set of numbers. But I'm lazy! I knew all the old points. I don't really want to have to learn all these again. I also don't like saying "PointsPlus".

But...I'm a leader, I have to "walk the walk" if I'm gonna "talk the talk". I went through my cupboards with my calculator and a permanent felt marker and labeled all my food with the new PPs. *sigh* I'm getting used to it. And I'm tracking for the first time in oh, three years!

Not getting a free calculator: I liked the little cardboard sleeve slide-rule thingy. It was great! It was free! Sure, you can get most PP values from the little book they give you when you join, but who wants to carry that around?

But...all the new stuff is heavily marked down (reiteration of disclosure: I got my stuff free as a leader), and it's not THAT expensive, considering I use it every day. You can also get an app for your phone to look up PPs if you have an online membership (I don't have a phone and I haven't looked at the online system - I spend enough time on the computer as it is!).

I'm resistant to change: I think I am not alone in this one. I know a lot of people don't like change, especially when they see WW as an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situation.

This isn't really a criticism, though, is it? This is just me, bitching about change. Hee.

However, my criticisms against the new stuff really aren't that major. I still think WW is one of the most balanced programs out there. I like that they aren't settled into a rut and are updating to stay with recent technology and science. The best thing about the program, to me, has always been that they encourage you to examine why you overeat, to be mindful of what you eat, and to make positive changes towards a more healthy lifestyle. It's not about the quick fix, a diet or rigid food options - those never work in the long run. It's about keeping the weight off and keeping healthy.

I know that 5 years ago, I would have put on about 6-8 pounds over Christmas, easy. This year, I made it through travel, sickness, work stress and all the other holiday stuff with only a 1 lb gain. I'm proud of that, because it shows me that I can - and I did - change how I think about food. It's in the deep grey matter now.

Do you have any questions for me about WW, or about food or eating in general? What do you like or not like about the new program?

Florida, Fashion and Festivities!

Ho ho ho! Hope you all had a fab Xmas! As I mentioned, it's been a busy last week for me - so I'm catching up now.

We went to Florida last weekend, as L's 40th birthday present (his birthday was in June, but no football then). It was a crazy time to travel. I should have listened to Inigo:
"Don't go!"

I had to wrestle my bag away from him so I could pack.

We traveled very light. This is what I wore for my travel outfit (it was 11+ hours each way):
I wore the same thing coming home, only a different long-sleeved top and tee.

I layered to stay warm on the plane:

My bare legs were chilled - thank goodness that stripey scarf opens up really huge (and it's cashmere so lovely and warm).

Jacket (Gap, consignment), t-shirt (Upper Playground), long tee (Esprit), skirt (InWear), shoes (Vans).
We stayed in South Beach, at a fabulous Art Deco hotel that had been recently renovated:

We had a big suite, complete with kitchen.

We checked out the beach, of course:

It was only two blocks from our hotel. Those rain clouds presaged a 10-hour stretch of torrential downpour, and although rain doesn't bother us (hey, we're from the Pacific Northwest, we practically have webbed toes), both L and I were so sick on the Saturday, we crashed in the hotel and slept during the rainiest bits.

I did manage to stick my feet in the Atlantic Ocean:

Ruth's black dress (I also have a cami on, but it's hard to see), and a scarf for a belt. I'm holding my orange sandals, which were pretty thrashed (I left them behind). I had planned to dress up for dinner on Saturday night, but we ended up dashing out to TGIFriday's for a quick dinner, then watching a movie in the hotel while we sniffled and honked.

Dress (BCBG, gift from Ruth), shoes (can't remember).
On Sunday, we met up with Kim and Spence and their daughter, Eloise, to go to the game. Self-portrait with L, all decked out in our Dolphins gear:

L looks really excited to be going to the game!

Sadly, our team lost, but it was awesome actually being there. We headed home on Monday - we had delays in Miami and in San Francisco (our flight didn't end up leaving until 12:30am) and ended up getting home at 3am. I'm sure glad I didn't have to work on Tuesday!

After spending a day doing nothing (movies and TV), I girded my loins for my Christmas shopping. I also met my bestie, Janet, for lunch:

Nice bright colours, thigh-high boots and some punk accents.

My outerwear:

I felt very Christmassy.

Coat (Mario Serrano), plaid tee (TMT), yellow tee (Mexx), jeans (Esprit), boots (Pegabo), gloves (Parkhurst), belt (from Ruth), cuff (old).
I had to get groceries and finish up my shopping on Thursday:

A bit more casual - I've been living in my jeans lately.

Black tee (BCBG, consignment), red tee (Kersh), jeans (Esprit), boots (Aldo, consignment).
I spent a few hours wrapping presents. Kitty helped.

I had to sacrifice a piece of tissue so that he could sit on it and stay off my wrapping paper.

We did our stockings Christmas morning. I was spoiled, as always.

"The Walking Dead, Vol. 12", the new Stephen King, the new Kim Harrison, "Never Let Me Go", a new crossword puzzle book, my usual page-a-day calendar of Forgotten English, a large selection of chocolate bars (yay!) and some mini vodkas (most chocolate and vodka has now been consumed).

L also got me a lovely top, but it's too small, so I'll see if I can exchange it at Plum tomorrow.

We do a stocking for the cat (aw...this is our first Christmas without Othello). We get some new mousies and toys, and wrap them up with a bunch of loose catnip and tissue. Inigo gets very excited about this:

He was flipping mousies all over the bed.

We had our breakfast, got dressed and headed over to my ex-sister-in-law's for presents with the nieces, then Mom came home with L and I and I did a roasted chicken. It all turned out pretty good except that a) I burnt the stuffing and b) my mashed potatoes' bowl broke in the oven and made a mess (but we saved most of the potatoes). Otherwise, tasty! I'm making soup out of the leftovers right now.

I dressed Christmassy:

Since we walked, I went with my boots again.

Sweater (Tobias), skirt (Nygaard, consignment), snowflake bracelet and earrings (Metropolitan Museum gift shop).
A very Merry Christmas from my fam to yours!

Inigo stuck his paw out just as the timer went. What a ham.