Flowers and Denim on a Weekday (Oh, and A Butt Shot)

Today, there were glimpses of sun, and not just on my lapel:

I do like to make my own sunshine. And as you can see from the glare on my picture, it's actually light outside! Will wonders never cease?

This jacket is new-to-me: it's another Smoking Lily item (I adore their clothing - here's a post with links to my Smoking Lily items). It was $26.95 in a consignment store and you can bet I snatched it up! It's a stretchy denim with aqua denim piping all around the edges, and aqua on the cuff linings:

The skirt is my mystery skirt - I thrifted it in Seattle a few years ago. It doesn't have a label, just a little tag with a leaf on it. I love the heathery green tweed of it and the embroidered flowers on the bottom.

I'm wearing a red top underneath to tie in with the red in the flowers. My second day with no neutrals! Colours are the new neutral!

Detail of the jacket:

Hand silk-screened detail on the inside back.

The stuff:

I would love to show when I last wore these, but it's nearly impossible to search on a brand called "Me Too". Actually, I think I remember when I wore them last...yup, here. Hmmm...I need to wear that skirt again.

A close-up of the bits:

That is a most excellent flower. The earrings were a gift from my dear friend Sherylyn.

Note: no kick-backs from Smoking Lily - I link because I love.

Jacket (Smoking Lily, consignment), top (Planet), skirt (mystery, thrifted), shoes (Me Too), flower (Roberta's Hats), earrings (Shi Studio, gift from Sherylyn).

Oh, and yes, that is my butt over on Wendy Brandes' blog, doing an imitation of a Loverboy album cover. I was browsing online late the other night and well...the rest is history:

I guess you could say I got lucky!

A Wee Bit of Retail Therapy

I'm getting slightly frustrated (and depressed) about not hearing about this dang job. However, I found out today that my former boss had forgotten to check her cell phone (she also got laid off, so can't blame her) and had missed the call for my reference! She said she gave me a glowing review, but still...yikes. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what's going on - it's been a week since the interview and it seems like I should have heard something by now. I don't think that's too pushy, do you?

Anyway, I didn't want to sit around all day waiting for the phone to ring, so I got dressed in what I'd planned to wear to Book Club tonight (it was pushed back to next week) and visited four of my regular consignment/thrift stores. I had some major scores - I'll be wearing all the pieces over the next few weeks.

I was inspired by this outfit of Audi's over at Fashion For Nerds - I have been struggling to do a non-costume-y look with my long striped jacket that I wore for Hallowe'en and I loved how she did hers with over-the-knee boots.

Here's what I did:
My funky blouse (first seen here), with these new dark-wash skinny jeans (they're actually cropped with zippers - will be wonderful for warmer weather) that Caro gave me (I love my friends!), and my olive boots (last seen here). This is probably the last wear of my tall boots as the weather had better smarten up and be Spring-like, dammit!

Moving on...*ahem*

I'm also wearing my new zebra belt buckle that I bought in December when I hit my favourite shoe store (I got it the same time as my pin-up girl one).

And then I added the jacket over all of it! I must say, this looked awesome walking around. I did up the top 3 buttons and let the skirt part swing around - the jacket is quite a stiff cotton, so it billowed most satisfactorily in the wind.

I love the bits of embroidery on it. Please check out the details in the Hallowe'en link above if you want to see more of it.

The stuff:

I love that the blouse - which has no olive or khaki in it - goes so great with olive! I had fun mixing patterns in this outfit.

A close-up:

I also wore that necklace - I liked how all the patterns worked, and I think it's because they are all based on black and white. I had several compliments on my outfit from the ladies in a couple of the shops (although one of the shops is completely staffed by volunteer elderly ladies, who eye me suspiciously and follow me around. You'd think they'd recognize me by now).

Hee, you can see me in the ball earrings.

Jacket (Noa Noa), blouse (Marcona, thrifted), jeans (Jackpot, swap from Caro), belt (Shi Studio), buckle (She She Shoes), boots (Pegabo), necklace (Shi Studio), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

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).

Crazy Saturday - Weekend Wear (and a Book Blurb)

Saturday was a nutty day! I had to get to my WW meeting early to 'shadow' my mentor, then meet up with Elaine for lunch and an afternoon of thrift shopping. Then I had Winesday!

Unfortunately, the bus came early and I was late to WW (nice way to start, Sheila!), then my meeting/mentoring went way longer than anticipated and I was 45 minutes late for lunch with Elaine (ack! I bought her lunch), then of course, our shopping took longer...and I still had to get home to prepare for Winesday, and my mp3 player's headphones broke! You'd think it was a full moon or something! Fortunately, everyone (including my husband, who I ranted at for several minutes) was very understanding and nice about it. I hate being late for anything!

Anyway, after Saturday, I spent today watching football. Ah...

Clothing considerations: the forecast called for snow (yikes!), I had to weigh in, and shopping conditions (see my post here for how I put together a shopping outfit).

And here's what I ended up with: My recently-purchased sweater dress (layered with thick tights and a cami underneath for added warmth), first seen here. My belt is easy to take off, as are the boots (no zip, they pull on and off).

I can't stand dealing with a huge bulky coat when I shop, so I wore accessories that I could fold up small and tuck in my purse when shopping:

My new short coat did the trick, as did my fuzzy beret, black thin pashmina scarf and insulated velvet gloves.

Dress (Eric Alexandre), belt (Shi Studio), coat (Mario Serrani), boot (Miz Mooz).

I finished my last Book Club book this weekend: "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls.Stats: Paperback, 288 pages. Started November 7th, finished November 17th. Karen's pick for Book Club.

Blurb: I enjoy autobiographies, and this is easily one of the best I've read. Jeannette Walls is able to write about her "free spirit" parents' behaviour and choices (like moving a family of 5 to a shack in the desert, or deciding to become homeless in New York City) in a way that is matter-of-fact and many times heartbreakingly sad, but avoids blaming her parents for their decisions. It's hard not to condemn her parents for her childhood, but her own attitude of "this is how it was" avoids placing blame - the reader is able to see where the parents were coming from and understand them, even if you don't agree with their lives.

This was an easy read. Anecdotes are told in short bites, usually no more than 3-4 pages (making this a great reading-in-bed book), but are succinct and poignant. I strongly recommend this. Great book. I plan on reading Walls' other book "Half Broke Horses," about her grandmother's life.

Shopping Trip! How I Shop at Winners

Ah, I just love a long weekend - Thursday was a holiday in Canada (Remembrance Day), so I took Friday off too. The lovely Cat also had the day off, so we met up for brunch and went shopping at Winners (I had my $60 gift card to spend!).

A trip to Winners is not to be taken lightly. Many people find it overwhelming: all those racks just jammed with clothes, people and shopping carts everywhere, and so much to look at! It's exhausting just thinking about it.

That's why I plan very carefully in advance, starting with what I'm going to wear. I nearly always wear a dress to shop at Winners (or any other big store, like Value Village) simply because it's easy to take on and off. Who wants to mess with jeans or a button-up shirt in a fitting room? Not me!

I've numbered my key areas below:
1. Earrings: small rhinestone studs. They're not going to snag on anything that I try on, or likely to go flying off if I pull tops overy my head.

2. Wide neckline: this makes it easier to get the dress on and off without messing up my hair, knocking my glasses off or rubbing off my makeup on to my clothes.

3. Statement necklace: no rough edges anywhere on this, so no snagging on sweaters. It also helps keep this outfit from being totally boring.

4. Tights: these pair also have control top, so if I'm trying on any skirts or dresses, I know exactly how they are going to fit. I also went with a neutral colour (these are heathered grey) so that they don't distract from whatever I'm trying on. Tights are not useful if you're shopping for pants, however - if I were shopping for jeans or dress pants, I'd go bare-legged but with high socks and boots.

5. Slip-on low-heeled shoes: I walked to town in these, then shopped for 3 hours, then walked home from town. My feet felt fine! Slip-on shoes are essential for shopping; messing about with buckles or laces is a huge pain when you're trying on shoes, or have to take off your shoes to try on a dress, skirt or pants.

Dress (Max Studio), tights (probably Hue), shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction, gift from Cat), necklace (Shi Studio).

It was a nice sunny, but crisp, day. Shopping in outerwear can be exceedingly annoying; there's nothing worse than getting sweaty and feeling bulky when you're shopping - it will wear your patience. I went with a thin 3/4-sleeved jacket:
This allows me to get my hands right into the racks without sleeve cuffs getting in the way.

A few warm accessories keeps me from freezing my butt off:

Someone was hiding in the side of the photo (see him?).

Long suede gloves to fill in the gap with the short jacket sleeves, and a nice wooly soft cashmere scarf (thin and lightweight). Both of those items easily went into my purse while I shopped.

Jacket (Smart Set), scarf (Club Monaco), gloves (Le Chateau), bag (Ollie & Nic).

Heading to the mall in the Loser Cruiser!

Oh yeah! I find riding the bus a very Zen-like experience. You miss a bus...another will come. There is no stress...you just get off when you want.

And we arrive!

The store is starting to get their Christmas stuff in (already? man!).

We headed to the hosiery, belts and purses section first:

Scouted for deals - I always find interesting stuff in the hosiery department.

I always use a shopping cart at Winners. Just toss everything you are even remotely interested in into the cart, and sort through it later. If you plan to go back for something, odds are that it'll be gone when you return.

Cat and I have a good start: some knee-highs for me, some tights and a belt for her:

I always head to the shoe department next (I get very excited about shoe departments, giddy almost). Check out the awesome boots I found: They're sort of a black-purple mix. Love the studs, too. I squealed about these for a good hour. I'll be wearing these soon!

I also do a scout of the mens' shoe section - I know how L's shoes fit on my feet so I am pretty good at picking out shoes for him. These rockin' shoes were too good to pass up, especially at $32.00:

He loved them!

After we combed all the shoe racks (you have to check through all the size sections, because people move things around), we headed over to the clothes section:

Dresses and outerwear first. I go through the clearance sections, then scout through for anything that catches my eye. Because I already have a black winter coat and several black dresses, I narrowed my focus to colour.

We then moved into the actual clothing sections, dragging our shopping cart with us and parking it at the end of the aisles so we could keep an eye on it and make sure no one pilfered our fab finds.

I start at one end and work my way down:

I search for interesting colours, patterns and clothing that feels nice. I'll also check out how an item is faring from being handled on the racks. Satins that are getting fuzzy in the shoulders and cashmere sweaters that are starting to pill just from being together are a big "no, thanks" for me.

The racks are not as scary as they seem, because there is so much duplication. You're likely to see the same sweater 50 times in all sizes. This makes the racks faster to go through, since you can skip over the duplicates and watch for the unique items.

By the time we've done the racks, it's been about 2.5 hours of shopping. I'm getting tired! Time to head for the fitting rooms, which are back in the shoe department.

Because they only allow a limited number of items in the fitting room, we parked our cart and started going through stuff we could try on in the aisle, like sweaters, coats and jackets:

You can eliminate a lot of things this way, and save yourself time in the fitting room. I tried on a coat, 3 sweaters and a jacket (as well as those boots again) in front of the big mirror.

I only had to take 4 things into the fitting room, which sped things up and made the try-on experience much easier. I ended up with a sweater, a cardigan, a top, some knee-highs and a pair of boots! I'll be wearing them all this week!

And that's how I shop at Winners! This type of shopping strategy also works in other large department store type of environments, like Value Village or a big thrift store.

(Note: I have no affiliation with Winners - this is just one of the places that I shop a couple times a year. No compensation was received by me for this feature.)

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).

Black for Grandma, and the Funky Chicken

Yesterday, L and I spent the day going to to his grandma's memorial. It was a 3 hour drive, then over an hour on the ferry (and of course, you have to wait for the ferry) - each way! We got up at 5am and didn't get home until 10pm. I'm still exhausted.

I like to wear mostly black for memorials/funerals:
I've only worn this dress once (here) - I know, shameful. It's a wicked dress.

Because Grandma was a Wonder Woman, this one's for her!

The dress has a tie belt, which I've tied into a bigass bow. Usually, I toss such belts and use my own, but I really like the look of the bow.

I added the blue suede shoes, my Dad's scarf, and my yellow jacket in case it got chilly:

It did not, but I looked very chic carrying around my yellow jacket all day. I tied the scarf to the strap of my black bag.

Dress (Esprit), jacket (Danier Leather), shoes (Feet First), scarf (60s vintage), earrings (don't remember), cuff (St. Paul's Cathedral, London).

Today, back to work. I picked up this dress for $9.99 at Dots while I was waiting for the bus to get my hair cut on Monday night:

Classic! I am also thrilled that it does not wrinkle (and it's 100% cotton, go figure) across the bum from sitting at my desk.

I layered my floopy skirt under it (worn layered before here and here) for fun and to show off my awesome yellow boots (as previously seen here, here, here, here, and here).

It was only when I realized that I sort of resembled a chicken. Bu-kawk!
I'm a bit more Super Chicken than Wonder Woman today!

The skirt floofed out when I walked:

I felt like dancing!

The stuff:

Yep, those are yellow boots! Yellow boots!

A close-up:

The leather cuff is new too. It was $3.99 at Dots.

Dress (Coupe), skirt (no label, consignment), belt (Plum), boots (Aldo, consignment), cuff (Dots), earrings (Shi Studio).

Thank God for Waterproof Mascara

I found out this afternoon why the Boss was in the office: my entire department is being outsourced. They're sitting all seven of us down for "the talk" to discuss our future with the company, which will not be longer than 6 months. I've been with them for 5 years...and ironically, I just got a company jacket this morning as my reward for being there that long. I feel like cutting it up with scissors.

As we sat with the Boss and HR, all I could think was, "What timing! I just bought waterproof mascara!" Funny how your mind goes, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm still reeling and since I won't be there tomorrow or Friday for "the talk", I will find out on Monday what's going to happen with my life in the near future. At least I looked good today:
Yup, a bunch of remixed stuff. Nothing too special.

And I even did my WW pose:

I could use an invisible jet to whisk me away, but instead will be at my in-laws for a few days. I'll be back on Saturday - I've done a couple of delayed posts so y'all don't pine away for me, hee.

The stuff:

My "concrete" Campers, and Wonder Woman cuff!

Bug and bird:

A bit blurry, sorry. We all cut out early and went and drank vodka.

Take care - back soon.

Sheila

Cardigan (Vero Moda), top (Smart Set, consignment), skirt (Nine and Co., consignment), shoes (Camper), brooch (Le Chateau), leather cuff (Shi Studio).

Bride of Dress Week - Casual Friday Goes Cowgirl

Ah, Sunday. I guess I should get off my lazy butt and post Friday's outfit, eh?

This is the 3rd new dress - and I think I saved the most whackadoo for last!

Those are my new boots that I got a couple of weeks ago - pushing my own envelope again by wearing them with this party-style strapless dress. As Friday calls for denim, I tied my denim shirt at the waist...but then I really went cowgirl and added my brown belt (not matching brown and black - I'm learning) and a bunch of chunks of turquoise.

The obligatory Wonder Woman pose:

This is the Pouffiest Dress Ever. It's like tent material, so whenever I sit down (i.e. on the bus, at my desk), it puffs up and I have to pat it down. It also rustles when I walk - you can hear me coming!

The short boots made this extra insane. I got a few askance looks at work, and when Ruth and I went to the mall at lunch. Ha!

This is what the dress looks like on its own (those are my bra straps):

End of the day...cooling off my sweaty feet from being in the boots all day. Someone is also happy to see me.

The back of the dress is a panel of elastic ruched fabric so it fits snugly. Despite this, it slid down constantly. Arg. I also wish it had pockets. It also has a couple of bigass belt loops on either side, which I might remove, since they are lower than the sewn waist.

The stuff:

Aren't those sweet boots? They are Miz Mooz and are leather (they have that awesome leather smell). Very comfy. They were half price: $80.

A close-up:

I adore that belt buckle. I've worn that belt several times: here, here, and I guess for a couple of casual weekend outfits that I didn't bother to photograph...huh, I thought I'd worn it more than that.

The dress was thrifted for $22, and it still had the original price tag on it!

Apparently, it was made in the E.U. (that would be the European Union), manufactured in Russia or some other country that uses the Cyrillic alphabet. It was 165 something, though, possibly dollars. I got no hits for the label or brand at all.

Dress (Vita Boutique Couture, thrifted), shirt (Mexx, consignment), boots (Miz Mooz), belt (Shi Studio), necklace and ring (Plum).

I wore the dress again yesterday for my Weight Watchers meeting:

I wanted to do it more girly this time. I also wore this outfit out for lunch, and for wandering around town shopping in the rain (yes, rain. Thank you, West coast).

I got a lot less askance looks and way more compliments. However, not having a belt on meant that the dress was much more...volatile...in its shifting. I was constantly grabbing at the top and hiking it back up, as well as having to re-align the seams frequently as it tried to rotate around my body.

Dress (as above), cardigan (Guess, consignment), shoes (Expressions, consignment).

Cat picture!

He was being very meowy.