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).

Another WW Meeting...and Lunch Out

WW meeting number two went well - although, wooo...funny how quickly you get out of the habit of getting up at 6am. Heh.


I had another new pair of shoes I just HAD to wear: Plus, I needed to break out the glitzy clothes for late December glamour! I last wore this vintage Alfred Sung skirt here (holy moly, last Feb/March!).

I really loved the neutral metallic colour of the shoes but the floofy bow really pushes them up a notch, so I kept the rest of the outfit (aside from the green lame lace skirt) also neutral.

Sorry, blurry - hard to keep my balance!

I last wore the jacket back in June (here) - it was a little cool, but I have a hard time finding really unique plain brown jackets.

Oh, but I know you're dying to see the shoes:

Pretty sweet, eh? My mom's vintage necklace added a bit more green up near my face (to bring out my green eyes!).

These were the best score of the four pairs I got:
$174.95 and I paid $40.00. Wow.

Mom gave me this awesome purse for Christmas:

I love the colour, and it's a really nice quality vinyl.

Jacket (Pelican Cove, consignment), top (Ellen Tracy, gift from Caro), skirt (Alfred Sung, vintage 80s, consignment), shoes (Jeffrey Campbell), necklace (Mom's, vintage 60s), purse (gift from Mom).

Today, L and I went out for lunch, then bought groceries. Of course I dress nice for groceries!

These jeans are new! I adore black jeans, and these were marked down to $27 at Plum, from $90. They are pretty long on me, but I'll see how they shrink after I wash them. It's not like I suffer from a lack of heels to wear.

The top was last seen here - the bright sunny colours make me feel happy!

I also got some new outerwear accessories at Plum earlier this week:

It's that 80s shade of green - really vibrant. The gloves and scarf are acrylic wool; the gloves were $4 and the scarf was $7. I love long gloves.

And if I'm going to do yellow and green, then I have to wear the yellow leather jacket:

Woo! Bright!

My new little wrist-twist:

I like the neutral metallic leather and the studs - cool clasp, too. It was $7, regular $45 (I hit the Club Monaco accessory sale selection again). Gotta have my rock 'n' roll, man!

I needed a) heels with these long jeans and b) comfy shoes and c) something that went with the outfit. My python wedges fit the bill:

I totally cheated and wore taupe socks with them! Bwahahaha! The jeans were so long, you couldn't see them, even when I was sitting down.

I also wanted to wear this awesome new belt buckle (I just attached it to the belt that I use for this buckle worn here):

I'm a huge fan of pin-up girls - and I fell in love with this lovely beauty. This buckle was 1/2 price for $12.50. I got it at the same store where I got all the shoes.

Top (Liz & Co.), jeans (Dish), shoes (Aerosoles), gloves/scarf (Plum), jacket (Danier Leather).

A very Happy New Year to all my fellow bloggers, readers and commenters. I am honoured to know you all, and thankful for your kind words, encouragement and I celebrate your general awesomeness. I hope you have a safe, happy and fun-filled evening tomorrow night!

I will be posting my New Year's Eve outfit (we're throwing a party!) after the fact...and stay tuned for the 2010 Major Awards!

How I Build an Outfit, Sheila Style

Okay, so some of you lovely people wanted to see how I build an outfit. We'll get to that. But first, here's the outfit!
I found this amazing top while thrift shopping with Elaine - it's Kitchen Orange, a brand I've liked for a while. I have a Kitchen Orange dress, you may recall. The top was only $12.50 - score!

I love the funky collar, the slightly flared sleeves and the stiff texture of it.

It's a wee bit snug in the boobular region, but I don't mind - as well as being a thick fabric, it also has some stretch to it.

This is the third wearing of the skirt (last seen here), ha, also with blue tights.

A close-up of the top half:

Yikes, bad lighting in the closet! Let's just move on.

The stuff:

Mmm...love those shoes. For a cheap pair of shoes that I bought over 2 years ago, these have stood me well.

The shiny stuff:

I have been wearing that ring to death, lately.

Top (Kitchen Orange "L-Bow", thrifted), skirt (Nygard), belt (Denver Hayes, consignment), tights (Hue), shoes (Le Chateau), earrings (gift from L), ring (Aldo Accessories).

But wait, you say! How the heck did you build that?

Here you go.

First, I keep all my new stuff in a special place in my closet. Whenever I buy something new or acquire an item, I put it in the same place so that I don't forget: a shelf on my closet. Here we have a silver headband, a brooch and a pair of weird plaid knee-highs:

There is also a leopard skirt, a camel Kitchen Orange top, and a khaki cami with copper sequins. I usually hang up all the clothing items and put them at the left side, near the door of my closet, but I'm low on hangers 'cause I need to clean out my closet, so the clothing items are laid across the tops of my long skirts and pants hangers.

I'm now looking at my new stuff...hmmm...which piece grabs me? I think the top - do any of my long skirts or pants look like they would go?

Ooh, those plaid pants leap out at me - I bet they'd look good with the Kitchen Orange top. Let's have a closer boo at those:

They're practially a neutral!

And camel's a neutral - these will go together, for sure. Let's try a belt - that top needs something in the middle to keep me from looking like a Kraft caramel:

SNOOZE.

Try another belt:

Oooh! Me likey! But those pants are blandifying up the place, I need some more colour with this before I fall asleep.

After another scope through the long skirts and pants, I turn to the short skirts:

Ah, sweet rainbow of happiness. Notice how I block my skirts by colour, starting on the left with cream, yellow (it's there, trust me, there are just too many skirts here right now, must clean out), orange, red, multi-coloured patterns, browns, greeens, denim, blue, grey, black/white pattern and black. This really helps me decide where I want to go with an outfit.

It also helps to hold the top against the skirts and see what leaps out at me:

I'm veering towards the darker side of the spectrum.

This skirt actually has camel/gold in its pattern:

Mmm, that's pretty together, but the style of the top (modern, clean lines, almost geometric) fights with the twining leaves and flowers of the skirt. Let's try something else.

Ooh, hello!

I like that! The gold embroidery on the skirt goes well with the camel, and the grey (being a cool neutral) contrasts nicely with the camel (a warm neutral), and keeps it from descending into a gooey caramel mess.

But I still need a belt!

Wow, I would not have tried that normally - I would have gone matchy. But I like it - let's go for it!

Okay, now I need some shoes to go with this! I pull out shoes that are in one of the colours in the outfit, usually, or that are neutral. Here's a neutral one:

I like them with the top, but they're not right with the outfit. A little too busy.

I could go matchy:

Nope, the leopard pattern is too much with the belt and the skirt's pattern. I think I need to go with a solid.

I like blue with this:

Yeeeeaaaaahhhh...I like them with all the colours. Theoretically, these would work...but I feel like I need something a little more funky. But I'm going to mentally file away these shoes/this skirt and these shoes/camel for a future outfit.

Now, I know I'll be wearing some sort of leg covering with this - maybe a coloured tight? What shoes would really pop off a coloured tight and not fight with the other colours in this?

How about these? Oh yeah, I like those. Those are good. We have our shoe.

Now, we need to deal with the tights situation. These are how I store my tights:

I roll 'em up losely around my hand then tuck the toes into the centre. It's great for storage and they don't turn into a mondo-tights-octopus in the drawer.

But I digress: what colour tights? I grabbed the grey, those blue-y ones and the brown lace fishnets and put them on the bed.

Then I check out my new tights that I haven't worn yet:

Hey, what's that bright blue pair? I grabbed those too. Of course I chose them!

Next up: accessories!

Because the top has a wide funnel neck, and long sleeves that flare out, I know I won't be doing a necklace or a bracelet. This narrows things down nicely. I can also eliminate a brooch, at least with this outfit, as most of mine are too foo-foo/girly.

I scope out my big earrings:

I love how the flash (my bedroom is dark) reveals cat hair stuck in the black velvet. Gads!

Then I check out my earring drawer of my jewelry box:

I pull out the ones that I think go best:

Then I go through my rings and pull out the ones I like.

This outfit can go silver or gold metals - or even a mix - but I think I prefer gold. The fou-fou ones get eliminated when I look at them next to the clothing pieces...and I ended up with my big gold hoops and the coil ring.

Edit: Oh, I guess I should add - that took me 20 minutes to put together. I don't try anything on, and my outfits get packed into my knapsack right away for my walk to work in the morning.

And that's it! I enjoy putting things together and trying new combinations! Hope you enjoyed this!

Skirt Creep - Zebra and New Shoes

This will be the last wear of this skirt for the season. I wore it with micro-fishnets today and had awful skirt creep all day. Most annoying.

I did like the outfit, though, and L gave this one an enthusiastic thumbs up:
How much do I love this zebra skirt? Wow, a lot! Last worn here.

I actually had a few issues with the hip region with this outfit. The skirt has pockets and pleats, and the cardi has pockets, so I had a lot of...blousing...going on there.

I was more excited about spending my birthday money this weekend...
...on my new shoes! I spotted these a couple of weeks ago and pined after them, but they were too pricey for me (funny how you get spoiled by $6 to $40 shoes when you shop consignment!). When I was scoping around the mall I saw that they had been marked down to $75.00, so that was that.

The stuff:

Well, hello there, classic hidden platform, super-comfy teal shoes. Aren't you a lovely soft suede? I think you're going to like living in my closet.

I wasn't familiar with this brand (Me Too), but these were amazingly soft and squishy inside. The sizing ran really big, so I bought an 8.5 instead of my usual 9-9.5/40.

A close-up of the non-shoe items:

The necklace Mom gave me for my birthday, a mess of jangly bangles.

I also got another pair of shoes (boots). Look who found the box:

Aw! Kitty in a box! What a pretty boy.

Cardigan (Express, thrifted), cami (Ricki's, gift from Ruth), skirt (Plum), belt (gift from Mom), shoes (Me Too), necklace (Marks & Spencer's, gift from mom), assorted bangles (made in India), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

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).

Weekend Outfits and an Overdose of Cuteness

Another weekend, almost over. Why are they just not long enough?

I wore another light dress to Weight Watchers on Saturday:
I was able to my quick-change at the field after Ultimate very handily in this.

The weather's been a little cooler in the mornings, so my jackets are now back into rotation:

Dress (BCBG Max Azria, gift from Ruth), jacket (Ann Taylor Loft), shoes (Expressions? something cheap), belt (Nygard), earrings (Plum).

Today, I met Elaine for lunch and then we spent four hours thrift shopping. I got a bunch of great items (some are more for autumn, so I won't be wearing them right away). I wore my usual shopping outfit: a dress that goes on and off easy (no zipper, buttons or belt), slip-on shoes, minimal accessories, and a jacket:

The dress was a thifting deal from last year ($9), previously worn here and here. Wow, I can't believe I haven't worn this in over a year! That's crazy.

My python-print leather jacket (thrifted in Vancouver over a year ago for $20):

My feet are tired!

Dress (BCBG Max Azria, thrifted), jacket (Bebe, thrifted), shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction, gift from Cat).

Okay, I promised cuteness. Are you ready? It's awfully cute!

Last night, Inigo was in his usual crashed-on-L's-lap position:

I had to grab the camera quickly while L rubbed his tum.

The face of utter contentedness:

Moved in a little closer....

I see you!

Happy paws reached for me:

He really does this all the time. He is such a gentle, loving cat.

Full-on sex-ay kitty:

He just lays there like that. Such a funny kitty!

Hope you had a great weekend!