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!

Weekend Outfit - WW Meeting

Went to my regular WW meeting for the first time in a couple of weeks. As always, I wore something nice and lightweight:
My new-ish teal cardi (last seen here, ha, with the same tights), my bright orange corduroy skirt (last seen here, scroll down - I am wearing that same necklace today, too), and flat shoes for walking.

I also wore my chartreuse jacket (last seen here) because it went so well with my new purse.

I also had long brown leather gloves on for the morning.

A shot of the purse:

The handles and the bottom of it are wood. It was on for 50% off, so I got it for $12.50.

Check out the cool pattern:

I think that green blob is supposed to be a dragon - rar!

Jacket (Alison Wonderland, consignment), cardigan (Kersh), skirt (Jacob Connexion, consignment) , shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction, swap from Cat), necklace (Lavishy), earrings (gift from L).

Well, my exciting news for this weekend was going to be that we got a new kitten companion for Inigo, but it was not meant to be: no kittens at the SPCA for another month. I'm disappointed, but we'll go next month and get a new family member.

In the meantime, as I type this, Mr. Drooly-pants is sitting on my lap. Here he is when we got home last weekend and unpacked our Fluevogs:

Kitties and tissue - an unbeatable combination.

Heh, he's digging for mice:

There must be one there somewhere, buddy!

Happy Friday! Plaid Casual

My new company does jeans day, so I wanted to ease them into Casual Friday, Sheila Style:
Plaid dress (first seen here), skinny jeans and my good ol' black boots.

The fabric on this dress is so thin it layers easily over my pants.

I did my rocker cuff and my crazy black chainlink necklace for some pizzazz.

Today, I also debuted my new messenger bag:

I had to wrap up the ends of the strap with some hockey tape so it didn't flap around, but isn't that front panel amazing? The design is called "tattoo" - the bag itself is by Licence 71195 and was on for half price at $29.50.

Gotta dash! Have a great weekend!

Dress (Kensie), jeans (Jackpot, swap from Caro), boots (Aldo, consignment), earrings (Aldo Accessories), necklace (Club Monaco), cuff (vintage).

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).

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).

Fake Boots, Games and Making an Effort

Being currently out of work, it's really easy to fall into the "wear my robe around the house all day" trap, which is directly related to the dreaded "jammie pants" syndrome. My wonderful husband, L, doesn't deserve to see me always looking like a schlump, so today I am making an effort to look nice for him. We're going to hang out tonight, maybe (maybe? who am I kidding? ha!) drink a bit of wine and play some board games.

Do you like board games? I love playing games. I grew up playing cribbage, Rummy, Rumoli, Monopoly, The Game of Life, Scrabble, Yahtzee and various other games. As an adult, I continued to play crib, backgammon, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit (I kick ass, but History is my weak category. No one can touch me on the Entertainment version).

Since I met L, I've gotten into role-playing games (shhhh, don't tell anyone, D&D is super-geeky). But he's also into playing strategy games like Risk. Risk is not my cup of tea, but I love other types of strategy games. My favourite by far is Carcassonne, a tile game where you build your own board. It's great with a group (and easy to learn), and awesome with just two people - it's different every time you play, so you never get bored (board? ha, see that?).

We have several versions of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, The Castle (a two-player only game), and The Discovery (my personal favourite). We have most of the expansions and mini-expansions, and our original game has all kinds of random tiles mixed in from these. We sometimes play "Calvinball" versions where we make up our own rules.

I also really enjoy all the versions of Fluxx. What? You don't know Fluxx? Fluxx you! You need this game! Anyone of any age can play Fluxx! It rules! If you're super-geeky, there's Monty Python Fluxx! Look for it in your local comic shop.

Um...yeah. Anyway, I'm making an effort to look night for our game night tonight.
This is my super-soft faux suede thrifted BCBGMaxAzria dress last seen here. Added my stripey tee underneath for warmth, as well as my patterned grey tights and black knee socks in an effort to help this look like a more dressy outfit. Does it kinda look like I have flat boots on?

Hee, see the curly tail in the above pic?

Someone wants an early dinner!

I tied a black scarf obi-style at the waist - not as uncomfortable as a belt (I'll be doing a lot of sitting on the couch, hunched over the coffee table) but still dressy. And because it compresses my stomach just a titch, it will remind me not to eat too many chips tonight - weigh-in tomorrow!

I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Dress (BCBGMaxAzria, thrifted), tee (Majestic, swap from Caro), tights (Hue), socks (McGregor).

Come Walk With Me

I refuse to be sick, so even though I was exhausted when I dragged myself out of bed this morning, I put on my many layers of walking gear and left the house.

And it was raining. I deserve a medal or something!

It's grey and rainy on the West coast - that's just how it is this time of year. Could be worse: could be snow! I was really happy to see this forsythia trying valiantly to bloom:
And just to completely refute the myth that Canada is covered in snow, here's a palm tree:

I like the twisty gnarled tree in the foreground.

I have a thing for twisty trees and other foliage:

Isn't that awesome?

After I did a couple of kilometres through residential neighbourhoods, I finally hit the water:

That is the Pacific Ocean, baby! On clear days, that grey horizon line is the Olympic Mountains, and sometimes you can even see the US city at the base of them. Today, just a harbour plane coming in, and a big barge on the right.

I approach the coast with this on my right/back as I follow the shore turning left:

I love the weathered cliffs and inlets. The tide was really high today, but there's still lots of beach to walk on. I see at least one brave soul getting some exercise down there.

I took this shot looking down from the edge of one of the cliffs:

Oooh, that's a long way down. Back away, Danger-Prone Sheila!

This little point is popular for tourists:

It's also awesome for kite-flying and, when you're a teenager, "watching the submarine races". Heh, heh, which I know my mom and dad used to do. Sorry to break it to you, Mom, but I also parked down here a few times back in the day. Ah, memories.

Looking backwards:

Some days I head that way instead, but there's usually a lot of people out walking their dogs.

Way out in the straights, there's a small island with an unmanned lighthouse.

I would like to live in a lighthouse, maybe for a little while, like a year. Would you? I'd get caught up on all my reading.

This bay was really calm today. The last time I was out here, the waves were almost crashing over the road.

You can see how the driftwood gets pushed up.

The waves push it right up to the left side - there were lots of little bits of wood and kelp there.

Looking back to the point:

Waterlogged cedar and deep orange arbutus tree trunks. That large pebble texture is typical of a lot of beaches on the coast. Not exactly sand, but it's still nice on the feet in the summer.

I liked this long string of kelp:

Kelp's a type of seaweed, in case you didn't know.

Coming up on the deepest curve of the bay:

This is a hugely popular area for tour buses, people showing off our coastline, and exercisers. Not so many today - it was really pouring by now (about 1/2 an hour into my walk - this is the halfway point).

Check out this ginormous tree trunk:

That's a yellow double-decker tour bus coming around the bend. Even in January we have tourists.

Remember the graveyard I strolled through back in June? This is the view from the water:

One day, I'm sure the graveyard will start slipping into the sea - a few good storms should do it.

I watched these little black and white ducks going underwater for up to 20 seconds, looking for food:

Floating log for scale. When I was a kid, those logs were gold - so fun to ride on! But lots of splinters (cedar's terrible for that), and brrrr...this water is COLD.

I couldn't resist this cool driftwood "composition":

On the left is one of several rock berms that were constructed years ago to help keep the bay from eroding and causing coffin catastrope (as noted above).

Looking back at where I've come from:

Because that's always useful to do, literally and metaphorically.

I headed back home through more residential neighbourhoods (nothing exciting), cold and wet but at least I got in an hour's good exercise. Go, me!

We have a brief strata meeting tonight and I'm sure my patient husband is getting tired of seeing me in my robe or ratty jeans, so I dressed properly:

My corduroy skirt (last seen here), a simple top, a tweed jacket (last worn last February!) and tights - it looks deceptively dressy, but the soft shapes are actually very comfy. I did laundry in this (sans shoes).

Added a couple of accessories to amp up the excitement factor ("she's wearing real clothes!"):

It felt weird to be dressed. L was rather startled.

The stuff:

I distributed some of the shoes from my closet clean-out last week - not many of my friends have my size feet (size 9 to 9.5 to 10 or a Euro size 40), so whenever gals that size come over, I give away shoes that I've grown tired of. My friend Alison passed these ones along to thank me. They're Farylrobin (swoon, why can't I have unlimited shoes?). I like the little robin cutouts and the pale pink backing.

L bought me this cool necklace the other day while we were out:

"We'll always have Paris." The other side is a chandelier.

I added one of my new Plum belts to the outfit:

I think this was about $7 on clearance. I love the studs (they go all the way around). The belt's a bit long, so I knotted the long end.

Jacket and skirt (both Jacob Connexion, both consignment), top (RW & Co., swap from Ruth), shoes (Farylrobin, swap from Alison), belt (Plum), rose pin (Roberta's Hats), necklace (Lavishy).