Bigass Long Weekend Wrap-Up: Baby Blues, Homemade Harem Pants, Crafternoon in the Park

Ah, what a wonderful relaxing long weekend it has been. What day is it? Monday? Really? Can't we just start over back at Friday night again?

Well, this was Friday. It was SO dead at work - I counted 25 people total out of 150+ desks at my office. I basically chatted with anyone who came near me.

• Blouse - no label, vintage 80s, thrifted; last worn here in April with ocelot
• Skirt - Joe Fresh, consignment; purchased here last weekend for $18.98
• Shoes - Noa Noa, consignment; last worn here with lace and pink plaid in July

I loved how the baby blue blouse went with the more intense almost minty-blue skirt.

I'll have to do this combo again.

The stuff:

Comfy shoes for an easy day. I walked home in these after work too.

Silver bling:

Um, blurry, sorry. I wore the brooch at the neck of the blouse - a very 1986 look!

• Brooch - thrifted
• Earrings - vintage fair
• Fulvia Ring - Wendy Brandes

On Friday night, L and I chilled out and played "Arkham Horror". We didn't have enough people for Ulti (BC Day long weekend is traditionally a "getaway" or "go camping" weekend for a lot of people), so L and I went out for brunch together.

It was a hot sunny day, so I'm fully sunblocked up here.

• Blouse - Jacob, thrifted; last worn here in May with nautical stripes
• Pants - Design Lab, thrifted; purchased here for $16.95
• Shoes - Dr. Scholl's, consignment; first worn here last week with cerulean

As noted when I bought these pants, they are about 4" too long on me, which is too long to hem myself (lazy), and too long to try to wear 'em with high heels (danger!).

So, while I was catching up on my fellow bloggers' blogs, I was perusing all the fun links here* on Jessica's blog Chronically Vintage (go here and follow my fellow BCer immediately!), I happened to click through on The Artyologist's blog here and specifically this post here about the scandalous history of harem pants.
*all links 'cause I love

And I remembered that I had tapered ankle harem pants back in 1983, and also that I'd converted a pair of wide-leg pants into gathered-ankle harem pants that same year...by using a shoelace. And I thought, "Hey, I can do that!"

The stuff:

Great shoes for walking all over town, walking to the pub and walking home after. Yay for comfy shoes!

• Earrings - local, Vancouver

A glimpse at my mis-matched toes. The coral polish on my big toes wore off/got marked up, so I touched up each with a different colour. Because why not??

And see how nicely my pants billow around my ankles? They swooshed and zoomed around, and I felt very mod and funky.

Here's what I did:

I carefully unpicked a few stitches from the hem on the outside of the ankle on each leg, so that I had about an inch-wide gap. Then I threaded these never-used shoelaces through the hems. I tied them fairly tight at the ankle, tight enough so that I could tuck the double-knotted bow inside the scrunched up hem, but loose enough so that I didn't have to undo them to take the pants off.

Presto! I made harem pants (and now I don't have to hem them!). I am so damned clever.

Vizzini, what do think of all this?

"If you were really clever, you'd build me a better cat-post."

We didn't buy those benches for you, you ungrateful cat.

"These are clearly mine." 

He is always grumpy when we go out.

L gave him lots of love when we got home.

"You're not going to take a picture of this..."

He's really quite happy to have a cuddle with L.

"I hear seagulls. I'd better investigate."

He's very squirmy, hard to keep him still.

On Saturday night, we had a friend over for dinner and board games, and on Sunday I just sat around the house reading for nearly the entire day. It was awesome! I'm 500 pages into our latest monstrously huge Book Club book ("The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt).

Today/Monday, I made plans to go to a nearby local part for a picnic and some art outdoors with Elaine.

Sunblock, comfort and style were my three goals, in that order!

• Blouse - INC, vintage 80s, thrifted; last worn here in June with a high waist
• Skirt - Club Monaco; last seen way back here in August 2015 for a shopping day out with Elaine
• Shoes - Born, consignment; last worn here (2nd outfit) last month with the now-gone plaid dress

Silk (the shirt) is a natural very good sunblock - I tied it at my waist. The skirt kept my fish-belly white legs all covered.

And I could sprawl around in it and still pretend I'm ladylike.

Added a fun hat that I haven't worn for a long time.

And I'm ready to go hang out in the park!

The stuff:

The hat is from a UK store, Accessorize, that used to have stores here. I last wore it back here in 2013 - I need to wear my fun hats more!

• Hat - Accessorize
• Earrings - consignment

I took a few pictures when I arrived at the park. It's about the size of 4 city blocks, between two busy streets in a mostly-residential/some businesses area.

You can enter here and cut through to the other street, on the other side of the hill.

Holly hedges border it, and straight ahead are some Gary oaks.

This neighbourhood is full of houses from the Arts & Crafts era, and Victorian-era houses too. Many of them are now being torn down to make room for condos.

On the other side of that chainlink fence is a giant hole where yet another condo is being built.

You could also go down this shaded path.

We hung out for about 3 hours, and areas that were shady got very hot!

There are some public tennis courts here as well. L and I sometimes go here; we also play Frisbee here once in a while.

There are lovely little pockets where you can sit on a bench and read, or spread out a blanket on the grass.

This Douglas fir is huge - probably over 120' tall.

See the tiny bench on the grass?

This is some kind of pine or fir tree.

The park is very well maintained and clean, very safe in the daytime.

Elaine and I each brought a blanket and some food. We had salad, chicken salad, hummous, crackers, veggies, fresh strawberries and a thermos of sparking wine!

We both kicked off our shoes and spent the afternoon eating, chatting and drawing. We had to move our blankets twice to get back in the shade.

I showed Elaine how to do Zentangle - she is very artsy, so she picked it up quickly.

What a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!

Linking up to:

• "Visible Monday" over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style
• "Hat Attack" at Judith's Style Crone - finally! 

And how was your weekend?

Grey and Turquoise and a Boob Window

This coming weekend is a long weekend here in the province of British Columbia (aka BC, and nothing at all to with Britain or Columbia, just to be super-confusing!). Monday's a stat holiday for BC Day! We're celebrating nothing, other than we get a long weekend! Yay! 

And here I am, all sedate in grey. My WW receptionist, Betty, commented that she didn't think she'd ever seen me in grey before, but it's a colour I'm warming up to.

• Dress - Lav & Kush, consignment; purchased here for...oh, I forgot to note it (roots around in the recycling). It was $24.98.
• Shoes - Prepare Guide, Fluevog; last worn here in May with a yellow princess dress

I like that the boob window (that's a technical term, I'm sure, ha!) is not too low. Fiona suggested that I put googly eyes in it - wouldn't that be hilarious?

I did love wearing this all day - it was hot, and this hemp/plastic bottle dress breathed wonderfully.

"Open this door or I'll eat your shoes."

It did wrinkle quite a bit from sitting at my desk, but it's in the wash now and voila! My lovely steamer will make short work of any creases.

The stuff:

Such a lovely shade of turquoise. I adore these shoes.

Turquoise bling:

Must. Wear. All. Of it.

• Cuff - Shi Studios
• Ring/earrings - local

I will be back on Monday with my weekend wrap-up - have yourselves a fabulous weekend, long or not!

Wonderful Whale Whimsy

I'm tired and still feeling woozy from yesterday's periodontist trip. Nap time! 

I felt good in this whale sweater all day - yes, a sweater in July!

• Sweater - C. Wonder, thrifted; purchased here for $14.00
• Pants - Topshop, thrifted; last worn here in June with wings of the bat
• Shoes - Aldo, thrifted; last seen here (3rd outfit) a few weeks ago for Winesday 

I was tempted to wear it with the navy and orange skirt (this one), but it's a little too matchy (even for me!), so I went with the houndstooth pants. The whale is navy blue and the sweater is a coral-red-orange.

"There are people in the camera? Really?"

Vizzini was prowling around this morning so I grabbed him. He's been very good lately, so has been getting extra cuddles.

"Blech, you taste bad."

It was a bit hot walking home in this, but the sweater is a very thin cotton and breathed well.

The stuff:

Last wear of these shoes! They rubbed my toe and my heel today, and you know I don't suffer from my clothes for long. Here's how they've been worn in addition to today's outfit:

• Here, as above in June (3rd outfit), with red and yellow and floral.
• Here in March (4th outfit) with a jungle skirt and stripes.
• Here in March again with leather pants and leopard.
• Here in February with houndstooth and Gaga shoulders.
• Here in February again with lilac grey.

I paid $8.50 for them so that brings them to...at 6 wears, $1.42 per wear. I'm good with that, time for them to go.

Simple bling:

Goodbye, pointy toes!

• Bangle - local
• Earrings - Plum

After I snagged Vizzini for his photo-op above, he was rolling around on the carpet while I made my breakfast.

"Come on, one more cuddle."

Okay, but just one!

Half-Day With Cranes and Yellow

I only worked a half-day today, as I had a periodontist appointment in the afternoon and those really mess me up.

It's the combination of stress, the happy pill they give me, all the numbing (oh the sweet, sweet numbness!) and the overall exhaustion from having my mouth ravaged for over an hour.

• Top - H&M, consignment; first worn here at the end of June to (disastrously) defrost a fridge
• Skirt - Tribal, consignment; last seen here in April with baby blue ocelot
• Shoes - Big Presence Desmond, Fluevog; last worn here a couple of weeks ago with chrysanthemums

I napped after Mom brought me home, and L woke me up a couple of hours later with dinner. He's so good to me.

I actually liked this outfit better with this top than the last time I wore it - the yellow was an accent rather than a major player, and it let the top shine a bit more.

The stuff:

Good shoes. I walked to and from our other office in them, and also assembled a floor lamp. Who loves lamp? I love lamp.

Simple bling:

Those earrings are cat-bait - Vizzini wants them.

• Earrings - gift from Megan Mae
• Fulvia Ring - Wendy Brandes

Southwest Cerulean

My neck of the woods (west coast of Canada, just north of Seattle) is often referred to as the Pacific Northwest; however, that's only true from a US-centric point of view. The Canada-centric view is that I'm in the southwest of Canada. Where this southwest US-inspired shirt totally belongs. 

Okay, maybe that's a stretch. I think people would be confused if I said I was from the southwest of Canada, though.

• Blouse - Max & Co., thrifted; last worn here in April with Versace mom jeans
• Skirt - no label, handmade, vintage 80s, thrifted; last worn here in July 2015 with a swapped top
• Shoes - Dr. Scholl's, consignment; purchased here yesterday for $26.98

I've had this top/skirt combo set aside for a couple of weeks, just waiting for the right day to wear it. I probably would have worn black flats or possibly lowish red heels with this.

This length of pencil skirt is tricky with low heels, though, as it can end up making me look like I have no legs.

The stuff:

Enter new-to-me shoes! And the world was saved. These were fabulously comfortable to wear all day - not a single rub or pinch. Loved them.

Toothy bling:

As usual I waggled the pointy bits of this necklace and pretended they were teeth and "Rar"-ed at my coworkers. Because I am goofy that way.

• Necklace - The Bay 
• Earrings - local
• Fulvia Ring - Wendy Brandes