Dots, Circles and Spheres

After yesterday's Smoking Lily jacket, I was inspired to wear my lovely Smoking Lily dress today: Inigo barged into the shot - I didn't know he was there until I felt him rub my leg.

I haven't worn this dress since August! The short sleeves make it pretty much a warmer-weather outfit (I froze in the AC in the office today). I wore my burgundy vintage flounced slip with this (last seen on Valentine's Day).

It was a bit too full to wear under the dress, but I didn't mind.

The stuff:

Second wear of my gold shoes (last seen here). They were much more comfortable this time.

I love the circle pattern in this fabric, and decided to wear "ball" jewelry with it:

That's my Grandma J's necklace (it's Anne Klein, and I think it's probably from the early 80s), my cheap-o gold ball earrings, my fake Gucci eelskin bracelet and a bigass costume ring.

Dress (Smoking Lily, consignment), slip (Suzette Lingerie, vintage, consignment), shoes (Aldo, consignment), necklace (Grandma J's, Anne Klein, vintage), bracelet (Italian, gift from Mom and Dad), earrings (Aldo Accessories), ring (retro).

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).

Floaty Blue (and Swords for Megan)

I was asked to fill in for a receptionist at one of the Weight Watchers drop-in meetings today. I'm not trained on it, but I've been shown some stuff and I worked in retail for decades, so I'm fine in a pinch. I got the start time wrong, though, and actually had to RUN to the meeting. I impressed myself: I made it in 10 minutes! I did swap out these shoes for runners (I changed back once I got there).

But woo! What a crazy meeting! Nearly 70 people showed up - it was just non-stop.

Anyway, this is what I wore:
Part of my walking around yesterday was going to one of my favourite larger thrift stores. They had a "buy two, get one free" deal on (I do love a good deal!), so of course, I had to browse around. And of COURSE I found something. A few somethings. I had to get the deal!

This top is by Elie Tahari for Nordstrom - it was $16.95. I checked online and this brand's tops sell at Nordstrom's starting at $168! I've seen Tahari in some of the more expensive consignment shops and they are always way too rich for my blood. I like the cobalt and white pattern, and the pretty pin-tucks. And it's silk! So it was actually warm. The style/pattern was a little iffy for me - do you think it's too old/ageing? I like the tunic length, since I don't have many tunics in my closet.

Megan mentioned yesterday that I looked like Link from Legend of Zelda, and that I just needed a broadsword. Well, Megan, I don't have a broadsword, but I do have swords ("You idiot, we've all got swords!" - bonus points if you know what movie that's from).
This is a replica sword (longsword, I think, but L will correct me if I'm wrong) that L picked up in his Ren Faire days. It used to have a blue hunk of yarn on it as a lady's favour.

This is a replica of a Scottish claymore:

We bought it when we went to Scotland in oh...1996...from a guy in a shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh (he was really cute, I recall). We put it in with our luggage and brought it home, no problem, all duct-taped and wrapped in cardboard (it's not sharpened).

Both of our swords hang on the wall in the library. We have other swords and knives as well.

My outerwear:

My blue jacket and grey/black accoutrements.

I'm keeping this outfit on, because I have book club tonight, so no "stuff" photo. Instead, here's the closet shot:

Silver feather earrings, silver filigree cuff and my Scottish ring (hey, I got that and the sword on the same trip! Picture of the ring and how we ended up going to Scotland story here).

Inigo was being very cute:

Look at his little crossed paws. Awwww....

Coat (Mario Serrano), hat (Jacob), scarf (The Bay), gloves (Parkhurst). Blouse (Elie Tahari for Nordstrom, thrifted), pants (Kensie), shoes (First by Feet First), cuff (St. Paul's Cathedral gift shop, London), ring (trip to Scotland), earrings (no brand, local).

Out With a Bang! Last Casual Friday

And here we are - I'm done. It feels weird being out of work.

For my last casual Friday, I went over-the-top dressy - 'cause that's the way I roll. To be really outrageous for me, I should have worn pyjama bottoms!

I have never worn this skirt to work:
I have worn it twice before: once for Christmas and most recently for Daisy's birthday party. It's a challenge to wear; I can't take very large steps because the hem (above the bubble trim) is so narrow and it has no stretch, and (warning, TMI) when I go to bathroom, I have to actually unzip and pull it down.

Other than that...jeez, I guess I should wear it more! It's a beautiful skirt. Check out how good it makes my butt look:

Ha! Inigo looks absolutely terrified, doesn't he? He's listening to the beeping of the timer on the camera.

On the top half, I'm wearing this denim jacket (last seen back in January!), a brown silky blouse and Grandma W's pin:

I'm going out for lunch today with my manager, Joanne, and out for dinner/martinis tonight with my former boss at Fairweather, Tammy. Lovely! Now that's the way to end things.

I also sent out "farewell" emails to all of my favourite coworkers, contacts and clients to thank them for being so awesome - I got dozens of responses, and spent a good half hour being quietly teary at my desk. Then I did the tour of the building, saying goodbye to all the people I've known. There's nothing like tearing up in front of your colleagues (I'm such a sap, I cry at everything).

And now...off to drink!

Jacket (Bisou Bisou, consignment), blouse (Mexx), cami (Esprit), skirt (Kensie), shoes (Guess), pin (Grandma W), earrings (gift from L).

Out With a Bang! - A Whole Lotta Frosting

Okay, have to make this quick as we have to eat dinner and go to our Strata AGM. The joy.

I was happy with this outfit. After all the cake and frosting discussion (and strangely, I am not craving cake AT ALL) yesterday, I resurrected this "cake" dress:
Can you believe I haven't worn this in a year? What's wrong with me? Clearly, I am deranged.

I enjoyed playing with layers with this - button-down shirts (this one was first worn here), once my sworn enemy, are now a staple for layering under my sweater dresses (and are good for showing off L's cufflink collection).

I felt too exposed in the middle (and lumpy) from the shirt, so I added the bustier over it (last seen for Hallowe'en - look out, costume pictures), and my bigass belt. I love the striped tights with the plaid.

Iced it all with the shiny shoes, two necklaces and the cufflinks:

This just didn't look right to me without all that blingy goodness.

The stuff:

The shoes were last worn in May with my groovy London dress (here). They are up high in my closet and I totally forgot about them!

The shiny stuff:

I've worn that pair of necklaces together for years.

The cufflinks are from the 50s-70s and feature hematite (known as "Alaska black diamond" back in the day, I believe).

They are stamped "Senator" which was by Sherman:

Nice.

Dress (Vero Moda), shirt (Ann Taylor, thrifted), bustier (Le Chateau, consignment), tights (Filodoro), shoes (BCBGirls), necklaces (Plum and Jacob), earrings (Aldo Accessories), cufflinks (Senator by Sherman, vintage).

Out With a Bang! - Sky-High Red Heels

Well! This is my last week of work, and frankly, I have nothing to do. I played Free Cell for two hours this afternoon. Nothing like getting paid for doing nothing. Ha!

I decided that this week will be a theme week: Out With a Bang! I am going to wear a bunch of my most outrageous stuff...'cause when or where am I going to wear some of these things again?

Like these shoes:
Not exactly appropriate in most offices!

This is the second wear of the $3 polka dot top (first worn here, when I formally got notice that my job was over), the fourth wear of this $7 striped skirt (previously seen here), and also the fourth wear of the shoes (seen here).

I like the mix of the two black and white patterns. I also felt very "out there" with my semi-sheer black tights and these open shoes!

Inigo was not so impressed:

He's more like, "Feed me!"

The stuff:

Man, I love those heels!

I wore my classic black and white baubles:

A black rose for a (sort-of) black week.

Top (Majora, thrifted), camisole (Mexx), skirt (Linda Allard for Ellen Tracy, thrifted), shoes (Carvalo), bracelet (Le Chateau), earrings (Plum).

Dinner Out Friday and Saturday Casual Wear

I had a quick nap after shopping on Friday, then got dressed for dinner out with some friends. I wanted to wear this new sweater I found at Winners:
Isn't that a great colour? I am so grooving on that marigold yellow right now.

That's my suede skirt that I wore first here, and those are my favourite boots (last seen here).

I have a really tough time with big sweaters, because they almost always have high turtlenecks or big cowl necks. As a woman who's...er...gifted...in the boobular region, those are no-nos for me. So when I look for sweaters, I try to find open necklines like this:
That gives the look of a cowl, but is nice and wide and shows off my collar bones - and distracts from the boobage.

Sweater (Pria), skirt (Danier Leather, thrifted), boots (Indigo by Clarke's, consignment), belt (Anne Klein pour Caleche, consignment).

L and I are going to see Leonard Cohen again this month, so my tour t-shirt made an appearance today for my Weight Watchers outfit:
I've worn this tee and stripey top several times before (here, here (ha, that's another Winners shopping trip!) and here after the last concert in 2009). I stripped off the belt before weighing in!

I wore my new cobalt blue wooly coat:

I love the semi-military look of it and the off-centre buttons. This was on sale at Winners for $59.00.

Coat (Mario Serrani), t-shirt (Leonard Cohen tour shirt), striped top (Majestic, gift from Caro), skirt (Club Monaco, consignment), belt (gift from Ruth), tights (Hue), boots (Miz Mooz).

Friday Hallowe'en Madness

Well now. I am a fan of Hallowe'en and dressing up in general (check out my Alice Cooper concert-wearing outfit here, and last year's non-costume outfit for Hallowe'en here).

My Book Club meeting was last night (check out Sherylyn's Severed Foot Cheeseball recipe over at Yummyland!) and we decided to do a theme night in honour of Hallowe'en: come as a literary character. I chose the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland":
I also decided that, despite the lack of morale in my department at work lately, I would dress up for work today in the same costume. Some of these pictures I took last night and some are from this morning.

The full costume:

The coat is the only thing I've never worn on the blog. It is Noa Noa and I got in the spring (it's been too warm to wear it up to now). It was regular $375, marked down to $79.99, with an extra 30% off, so $56.00. Not bad!

Last night, I used my shiny black purse to carry my book to the meeting:

All done up. I got some strange looks on the bus on the way there!

The thing I like about my costume is that I didn't buy a single new thing for it - I had all this stuff in my wardrobe or in the house. For me, that makes it more creative and special than going out and buying a costume. Here's how I built it ('cause I know you guys like to see how it's all put together).

First, I did my stripey tights (previously seen here) and my red vintage slip (seen here):

Then I added the blouse I wore to the interview a couple of weeks ago, and my flouncy Noa Noa skirt (seen here):

I gathered the black skirt up and pinned to the red slip to show off the red more. I also scrunched my hair up with a glob of volumizing mousse.

Then I added my plaid bustier (last worn here) for a nice smooth look:

Lastly, I put on my coat, tied a long scarf-belt (from an old skirt) around my neck as a floppy bow-tie, and put my hat on. And I added the boots (last seen here with the same black skirt):

I tied a long length of ribbon across my body, and draped a measuring tape around my neck.

Here's a close-up of the upper body details:

I copied Johnny Depp's makeup from the recent movie (it's not very good, by the way, but pretty to look at). Those are my lace cuffs from my "Never Seen" series (here). I raided my knitting box for various pins with fancy heads, my seam ripper and scissors (in the breast pocket). I also had a big needle threaded through the measuring tape, which was wrapped around the brown ribbon.

Some coat details are needed! The back is embroidered in cross-stitch: As is the breast pocket:

So amazing. I love details like that. I looked at this coat for weeks before I finally bought it - when I had that "what if it's sold?" panicky feeling, I knew I had to bite the bullet and buy it.

Here's how I decorated my vintage 80s top hat:

I tied my Smoking Lily obi around it, then started pinning things. I cut out a sticky note and wrote 10/6 on it (it's the one feature I made). I've had the feathered eidelweiss pin and the bug pin for ages. You can also see that I hung needle threaders on my hoop earrings. The starburst pin is the one on my skirt.

I also pinned one of my butterflies that I got at the Victoria & Albert Museum gift shop in London on the hat (seen on another hat here), along with a couple of straight pins:

I like how the ends of the obi looked:

Mom's old kilt pin (noted in the "Never Seen" accessories post linked above).

Here's a shot of the lace cuffs and my red fingerless gloves (it's a little chilly today). The gloves looked great with this.

And the tape measure...for good measure.

I hope you have a safe and spooky Hallowe'en! Let me know if any of you posted costume pictures - I'll link to them if you like.

By the way, I won my company's Best Costume contest today! I got a $35 Visa gift card.

Coat (Noa Noa), bustier (Le Chateau, consignment), blouse (Esprit, consignment), black skirt (Noa Noa), red slip (vintage, Suzette Lingerie, consignment), tights (Hue), boots (LaTianna, consignment), top hat (vintage 80s, Le Chateau, L's boss' wife).

Annie Hall-ish

I built today's outfit around this blouse that I got at the thrift store:
It's Banana Republic and was $19.99. The tag says it's "HOL 02" so it's nearly eight years old - and it still had a remnant of its original tag on it, so it's barely (if ever) worn. I gravitated to it because of the cuffs - something you can watch for when you shop thrift/consignment because they hang down lower than other long sleeves.

It also had a really nice feel to the fabric - soft, not rough or snaggy. It's machine wash and dry too. And it's really quite see-through! I was really happy that I decided to wear this floppy bow, ha!

The menswear-ish vibe reminds me, of course, of "Annie Hall" and Diane Keaton's signature style from that movie.

The vest is another workhorse item in my wardrobe - I've worn it tons of times (really, I have, it's amazing how many). I've only worn the skirt once, so about time I dragged it out again! It's a really thick ultra-suede.

The stuff:

I wore the boots a few times last winter (here, last Christmas' capsule wardrobe, and originally here). The scarf is actually the belt from one of my skirts.

A close-up of the bling:

Another pair of L's cufflinks - these ones are stamped "Gilt." I think L's mom found those ones.

Look who decided to hang out:

Kitty in a box!

Vest (Vero Moda), blouse (Banana Republic, thrifted), skirt (Liz Claiborne, thrifted), boots (Indigo by Clarke's, consignment), earrings (Plum), cufflinks (vintage 50s).