Best Weekend Ever!

So, following yesterday's outing to drop off my signed offer at my new job (!), I headed downtown to look for a Desigual jacket - I really wanted one like my dress so I went to two stores that usually have a few.

Not much selection, sadly, but then I remembered another store that I'd seen them in last summer - and I found an amazing jacket there! Yay!

I caught a bus home, then quickly realized it wasn't going where I thought it would, so I hopped off and headed for another bus stop. On my way, a woman stopped me and asked if she could take my picture. She does a Twitter thing where she takes pictures of people on the street that she thinks are well-dressed. Well, how cool is that?? Shout out to Missy - I've forgotten the name of your Twitter account, so if you drop by, leave me a comment.

As I was standing at the bus stop, I waved to the bus driver so that he'd stop (they're touchy that way sometimes), and some random person started waving at me down the block. It was Ruth! And G! And they had just picked up Ruth's engagement ring! We celebrated the good fortune of all of us with a few drinks. How cool that we all got to have a nice moment together. Awwww.

Which brings us to today:
I do like to dress when I'm going out, even if it's just to the regular ol' diner for brunch. This is my purple cashmere sweater (last seen here) and long denim skirt (last seen here), along with my purple combat boots (last worn here).

But no one looked at that stuff. This was the star:

Let's take our time and fully enjoy this beauty. It's Desigual and it was $489.00. Yes, I choked a little bit when I heard the total, but I'm in love and it's worth every penny - this is a piece of art and I can tell a lot of hand-work went into it. Plus, I paid cash so I don't feel a smidge of guilt. I will always own this jacket.

Fully buttoned-up (except for the collar):

Like on my dress, every button is unique. I love all the emerald greens with the turquoise. The black sections are a felted wool. That sort of pebbly texture at the cuffs and on the centre panel is the same as the back panel on my dress (although the dress has black beads sewn on it). And yes, that's a peacock embroidered on the front!

Someone is helping me show off the back:

Hee, he always looks so startled when he's listening to the camera timer.

Ooh, the purple, the floral patterns, the line of embroidered roses across the waist! Like my dress, this also has the large panel at the top. It reminds me of how guys would put a "back patch" (like an Iron Maiden one or something) on their jean jackets back in the day. Heh.

As with all of Desigual's pieces, the attention to detail is wonderful:

Emerald green satin lining and the backing of the front edge is a fine turquoise and brown dot pattern. There are two hidden pockets on the front as well (you can see my hand in one above) and both are lined...with different fabrics. Attention to detail is my thing, man, and this jacket goes to 11.

Here are some detail shots:

The inside back lining. It's two fashionable ladies having a stroll in some overgrown gardens. I am too old for such short shorts/skirts.

The front of the jacket:

Click the pic to enlarge a bit.

The wonderful mix of fabrics, patterns and textures...my heart is happy. The peacock is sewn with metallic thread.

The back patch:

It's some sort of crazy abstract art composition. The entire patch of fabric is fuzzy, like bouclé wool. And check out the purple lamé section across the back of the neck! Caw! The crow in me loves this.

I had to take a picture of this button - it's the bottom one:

Just like with my dress, I've always got my eye on you.

Anyway, the jacket caused a stir (well, duh), and my favourite waitress at the diner bought me mimosas to celebrate my employment, so lunch was delightful.

But best of all, tonight it's Winesday and I'm going to surprise my lovely women (whoever hasn't read my blog in the last 24 hours, ha) with my exciting news and we will eat and drink and be merry and swap clothes.

Best. Weekend. Ever.

And because it's not a great weekend without another cat picture:

Such cuteness!

Jacket ("Abrig_Colette", Desigual), sweater (Daniel Bishop, consignment), skirt (InWear, consignment), boots (Penny Loves Kenny), earrings (gift from L).

Weekend Outfits - Winterizing Summer Dresses

I occasionally view my Stats tab on Blogger, just to see what people are looking for when they end up here. By far one of the most searched-for topics is "how to wear a summer dress in winter" (closely followed by "dress like a song" which gets them this post). So they find this post, which I did a couple of years ago in response to a question from Faithful Reader Alison.

Well, here's another post for you folks to find! It's been so freakin' cold the last few days, I swear, my hair is going to crack like shards of ice and fall from my head. Anyway, I've been winterizing some dresses for a couple of special occasions.

Last night, I went as my mom's date to an awards night put on by the athletics club she (and my dad, when he was alive) belongs to. I'm so proud that she won Racewalker of the Year - AGAIN, for the fourth time! I cried with pride as they reviewed all of her accomplishments. You kick butt, Mom!

I spent a lot of money on this dress in London and I aim to get a lot of wear out of it:
As Sal over at Already Pretty will attest, Desigual makes the most divine, interesting and unique clothing I've ever seen. I fell in love with this dress as soon as I saw it, in the Desigual store near Carnaby Street in London. It was 169.00 pounds (over $300 Canadian), making it the most expensive piece of clothing (including shoes) that I've ever owned.

You should see the amazing jackets they make using the same technique of patchwork (if you do an image search on "Desigual coat" you'll see a bunch). I didn't get a jacket, though, because they button up on one side (like this dress does) and they only looked right when they were done up. That's not very practical, in my opinion.

I've worn this dress four times previously (here, scroll through the other stuff - there are some good close-ups in the last post from the first time I wore it), always bare-armed, sometimes with a jacket. This time I added my long-sleeved turquoise tee underneath and I had a cami underneath that! I'm pointing at the rooster, in case you are wondering.

Even with the layer underneath, I was still freezing, so I wrapped this orange scarf around my neck a few times and pinned it in place.

I've got my eye on you!

I wore thick purple tights, wooly socks and boots. This worked quite well to keep myself warm.

Close-up of the top:

Mom gave me this pin for my birthday and I've been remiss in wearing it. I liked how it went with all the different buttons thematically and kept up the round theme with the bird ring.

The stuff:

Dress (Desigual), tee (Plum), scarf (vintage, thrifted), ring (Lavichy), boots (Aldo, consignment).

Today, I went to my regular WW meeting (down a pound! Woo!), and had a bunch of errands to run. I needed to be warm, as it is still trying to snow, and also needed to be light on the scale. Did you know that a pair of jeans weighs nearly 2 pounds?

I'm trying not to cough. But there you have it - same formula: one light dress, one long-sleeved tee, one pair of tights, one pair of boots. Voila!

Dress (Gap, consignment), tee (Press), Boots (Aldo, consignment).

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.

Weekend Stuff and Keeping Busy

Whew! I finally feel like I'm a bit caught up on everyone's blogs (if I missed commenting on yours, let me know) that I read regularly. Life has been rather hectic lately, but hey, I've gotta live it, you know?

Friday night, we had dinner at Sherylyn's (she of Yummyland fame), and holy moly, she is an amazing cook! We had feta dip with cucumber and pita to start, roasted chicken breasts stuffed with olives, feta and sun-dried tomatoes, lemon potato wedges and tabouli salad for dinner, and peach crumble with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. Dee-lish!

The Dan Mangan concert was incredible. It was in a converted church, where we sat in pews. The sound was so amazing, and everyone sang along. We didn't get home until nearly midnight, so it's a miracle I was able to look this awake on Saturday morning:
I knew I was going to be doing the Celebrations portion of the Weight Watchers meeting as part of my mentoring as leader, but I didn't realize the leader was going to have me open and run the first part of the meeting. Hello! Not prepared!

Thank goodness the outfit distracted from the panicked look on my face (I hope!). I soldiered through with aplomb!

This skirt is one of my Dots finds from over a year ago (see here and here - really? Only twice? I thought I'd worn it more than that).

My groovy shoes:
Those tights are actually teal - they always photograph super-hero blue.

Mom's 60s choker:

It's made of sandalwood and amber.

Sweater (Kersh), skirt (no label), shoes (Pink), choker (Mom's, vintage 60s).

I was busy for most of yesterday putting up my Christmas tree. As I have mentioned in the past, I used to work in a year-round Christmas store. I did that for 11 years at the end of the 80s and through the 90s, and I amassed an amazing collection of Christmas ornaments. I usually only put my tree up every other year, though (we do Festivus on alternate years, hee hee), as it feels too much like work, even now, to put up both trees (I do two) and garland, and village, AND nutcrackers (oh yes, I have it all). It's a lot of work and it takes days.

So, when I took my trees down two years ago, I packed up my theme ornaments for the small tree together with the coloured matching ornaments off the big tree, so that this year I could do just one tree. I'll do a few posts of my tree (and my village, which is freaking awesome) closer to Christmas, but consider this a teaser:

Yes, that is the starship Enterprise.

And yes, this is the Millenium Falcon:

And someone helped me decorate:

"I must bite this metal icicle!"

And then he had the nerve to look innocent:

I see your paw on the tree skirt, Inigo. You aren't fooling me.

Casual Friday: Purple Spirit Support

I missed the memo on "Spirit Day" during which participants wear purple to show their support of LGBT (edited: thanks, Ralph!) people and to bring attention to the anti-bullying message. I was bullied as a kid (you can get a glimpse of it in my speech "Found on the Ferry" that I wrote here), and I can't imagine how much more awful it could have been if I was gay or transgendered. My heart goes out to those folks.

Anyway, I hope I'm making up for it today:
My purple shirt and my purple shoes (I actually have two pairs of purple shoes to choose from!), and hey, look, I'm in jeans! A rare occurence, although I wear them around the house nearly 100% of the time.

Sorry the pictures are dark - it was dark out this morning when I took them.

Shoes last seen here. Also worn here, here, here, here and here. Wow, I didn't think I had worn them that much!

The stuff:

My new bracelet from L - love all the stones! Turquoise, quartz, amethyst, tiger-eye - it's handmade silver from India, and I love it. I also put on my amethyst jewelry from the 80s: my earrings, ring and the crystal.

The shoes:

It may be time for these shoes to say good-bye to my closet - I don't really wear them much anymore.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Shirt (H&M, thrifted), vest (Esprit), jeans (Seven7, gift from Caro), shoes (Bronx), bracelet (gift from L), earrings/ring/crystal (80s, gifts from Mom & Dad), turquoise ring (Plum).

Pretty Florals with Turquoise

I felt like wearing this dress again (first time worn here):
I needed to wear something a little warmer this time, so tossed on this thin brown wrap (it's like a super-sheer netting material).

The bigass rose is one of my favourite accessories, and these shoes are a long-time fave in my closet:

I liked the turquoise with the pinks of the dress. I have a hot pink lipstick on too!

The stuff:

Mmmm...turquoise shoes. I'll need to replace these...one day. Not quite just yet, they still have lots of good wear in them, but they do kill the bottoms of my feet (and I'm wearing full Dr. Scholl's inserts in them - oh yeah, I'm gellin').

Dress (Merona, thrifted), cardi (Guess, consignment), belt (Nygard), shoes (Le Chateau), ring (Plum), rose (Roberta's Hats), earrings (old, 90s).

Get Back on That Fashion Horse

After yesterday's deep-fried oatmeal and pistachio disaster, clearly, I needed to regroup. I needed the fashion equivalent of comfort food (mmmm....food...comfort...). Basics, familiar colours and patterns, put-me-in-a-happy-place shoes.

No, don't make me look at that awful dress again!
Gadzooks! It's like a happy soupy stew of Sheila's Favourite Things. We've got brown and turquoise, something bigass, a dash of leopard, and some killer shoes.

See? Anyway, I do have fashion bad days, but you've just gotta get back in the game. Feel better? I do.

The stuff:

This is only the second time I've worn these earrings (last time here). They make wind-chime noises.

Sweater (Kersh), skirt (Kensie), shoes (Fergalicious), belt (Plum), cuff and earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Feeling Vintage

Ignore the hair - it rained all day today, that fine misty rain. So my hair is asstastic.

Anyway. I suppose the reason I am feeling vintage is that I'm wearing vintage! And the reason that I'm wearing vintage is that I did the wash last night (I do my own wash of delicate things, L does all his stuff and all the sport clothes, socks, underwear, that sort of things). I tend to forget what new/once-worn things are buried in the pile, like this shirt.
Inigo's coming in for a rub: feed me!

Shirt worn here. I thought it would look cute with a high-waisted skirt, and because I knew it was going to be cooler out today, I picked pulled this vintage wool one.

I think it's from the 80s; that double front and back slit was very 1983. I've worn it lots of times since I got it: here, here, here, here and here (check out the pictures of the labels). It was $15!

The stuff:

My 6-7 year old pumps, my much-loved belt (I need to get a new buckle for that).

A close-up:

Yes, that's a flaming skull on the belt (it's upside down, just the jaw). I'm a rock and roll chick from way back!

Blouse (Esprit, consignment), cami (Esprit), skirt (Gianfranco Ferre, from Giorgio Beverly Hills, thrifted), shoes (Le Chateau), belt (no label, consignment), ring (Plum), earrings (don't remember, probably Plum).