Ephemera

Ah, Monday. I spent most of the day at work in pain, due to pulling or tweaking something in my hip after picking up Vizzini at 5:30am. He's not even a heavy cat!

I can walk, but stiffen up quickly, so I'm gritting my teeth in these pics.

I tried to get up from my office chair once an hour and gently stretch my lower back, as well as walk around to loosen up. I also iced it, and took some ibuprofen.

Wool sweater - Banana Republic, thrifted; last seen here in July 2020 with mismatched colours
Trousers - Cartonnier, thrifted; last worn here (2nd outfit) in January with zigzags
Shoes - Banana Republic, consignment; purchased here for $45.00
Coat - Club Monaco, thrifted; last seen here in September 2020

I built the outfit around the new-to-me leopard shoes, but it's mostly made up of things I've had for ages.

I usually wear the black coat as...a coat...in spring, to keep myself covered from the sun, but today I just wanted the cocoon shape to comfort me.

I let go of these trousers a year ago, and then they came back to me, but now I am really not sure that I want to keep them. Thoughts?

I like the look without the coat better - it shows off the touch of leopard better.

But that was too cold in the office. Let's just pretend this is what I wore all day.

Masked up.

I'm not feeling this look, but is it the pain in my back that's making me cranky, or the clothes themselves? Is this still me?

I was supposed to rain today, so I carried my umbrella both ways to and from work.

It did not rain. It was just cloudy and a few spittings here and there.

Other stuff:

I love the cutout work on these thin vintage suede gloves.

Gloves - vintage, thrifted
Mask - Lazy Susan's

The stuff:

These shoes were super-comfy for the little bit of walking I did, but I think I'd like them better with a skirt or dress. How would you style them?

Copper bling:

My copper collection never fails to cheer me up, though.

Necklace - Matisse by Renoir, vintage 60s, vintage expo
Enameled cuff - Renoir, vintage 60s, vintage expo
Copper cuff - Karen's
Copper and turquoise ring - vintage, Grandma J's
Turquoise ring - Karen's
Fulvia Ring - Wendy Brandes
Copper/enamel earrings - Renoir, vintage 60s, Grandma J's

Forget silver; there's always a copper lining!

Hello, my friends! This weekend, I got my email to book my vaccine appointment, and I'll be going for my first jab a week Tuesday! I am SO excited, and it feels like a weight has fallen off my shoulders. I find myself having little "relief cries" - it's like there is an end in sight.

I have a special occasion to share with y'all in today's post! Our Winesday Spring Tea has returned, to honour and celebrate our spring birthday gals: Caro, Ali and Yvonne. Karen was also one of our spring birthdays, and she was there with us in spirit. I have oodles of pics from our Tea Party in the Park below, and if you're interested, here is the 2019 Spring Tea (here, scroll down) at the Abkhazi Gardens.

And, finally, this is the outfit I'll be entering for the "Good Buy/Goodbye Book", and I'm linking up with Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style when that airs in a couple of weeks - so if you are here due to that, thank you for stopping by to check me out!

L called this "possibly your best outfit ever!" which is a huge compliment as he's totally used to my excessive levels of whackitude. I went full-on Mad Hatter for this tea party!

Yeah, I went pretty over-the-top with this! I am stoked to dress up for every single freakin' event. Life is short - wear the clothes!

Leather jacket - Baez Leather, consignment; purchased here for $348.00
Dress - Anne Elisabeth, thrifted; purchased here for $19.95
Floofy underskirt - Noa Noa; last worn here under my Hallowe'en dress in October 2020
Shoes - Half Truth Veda, Fluevog; last seen here in October 2020 with casual plaid

It was finally cool enough to wear this new-to-me leather jacket, and I know you've been looking forward to seeing me style it. As the peplum on it is a full circle, it worked perfectly with the full circle skirt of the dress.

I took the sash off the dress and tied it around my vintage top hat.

I can't stop looking at the jacket.

It is truly magnificent, and as you can see, it's a perfect fit. At close to $350 it is easily the most expensive second hand piece of clothing I've ever bought, but so worth it!

Showing my floofy underskirt, which is my tulle element for the Good-Buy/Goodbye book. I test-drove this outfit on Tuesday last week to make sure I had all the main parts (clothes/shoes) ready to go, then added my accessories on Saturday morning.

I'd hoped to wear my new-to-me tulle tutu with this but it was TOO pouffy to go under the dress and/or jacket, especially as I knew I'd be sitting on the ground for most of the tea party. It will get worn soon, though!

I felt like a million bucks in this outfit and twirled in it multiple times (all the pics I tried to take of it were overly blurry).

I had originally planned for a little hat with a veil (more of a fancy tea look), but knew the wind would wreak havoc with it...plus once I had this whole outfit on, I realized, "Nope, I need the top hat!"

I varied between wearing the jacket fully done up and unzipped thusly.

Although we had a sunny day, it is still a bit chilly, especially closer to the water (the park is two blocks from the ocean). The thick leather was very good for wind resistance and the black heated up in the sun and kept me warm.

Without the jacket, so you can admire the dress on its own.

I adore a classic fit-and-flare dress.

Especially one with massive pockets!

This joins my Spanish Ladies dress as a permanent fixture in my closet. I always check how well a sleeveless dress will work with all of my tattoos.

I threaded my leather grommet belt through the existing side belt-loops.

I wore a full-length vintage black slip underneath it, with my floofy underskirt, which is a viscose liner plus a layer of tulle trimmed with three rows of double-tulle. My make-up-less face and house glasses.

I bought the underskirt in March 2010 for $27.95 at Dots - it was a sample from Noa Noa's "Avenue Net" line and originally retailed for $150.00. I haven't consistently tracked my use on it, but I do wear it a few times a year, and over 11 years, I'm sure I'm down to a few bucks per wear.

Just for fun, check out the first time I wore it (here, in April 2010): I forgot to pack the blouse for my outfit (this is when I carried my outfits to work and changed when I got there - I had a much longer walk to work at my previous job).

Funny, I note in that post about going back to Dots for a "fancy long jacket" that was also by Noa Noa - that's my frock coat (Flashback here), and obviously I did buy it!

Masked up. I forgot to take a picture of the mask on its own, but I wore it while I was in areas with people.

It's by Mom, and the colours went really well with the slightly aqua tinge of the green dress.

Some stuff:

My vintage 80s top hat (rescued from the giveaway pile from L's former boss' wife), with the dress self-belt, plus an additional fascinator clip of feathers. I added vintage 1920 shoe clips to my plain black shoes to jazz them up.

Hat - vintage 80s, Le Chateau, via Alexis
Fascinator - Heart's Content, Fan Tan Alley
Shoe clips - from Rad Juli @ a burlesque show ($10)

More stuff:

I wore contacts so that I could wear these blue round sunglasses.

Sunglasses - the Patch
Belt - gift from Ruth
Turquoise ring - Karen's
F@#! silver swear rings - Wendy Brandes
Silver earrings - consignment

I look slightly psycho here, since I forgot to look at the camera.

I re-purpled my hair (it will fade out to lavender in a few days), and as the weather was REALLY windy out, I did pigtails to keep it from snarling. My hat stayed in place despite the gusts of wind - it's pushed down to rest on the top of my bunches.

Showing my swear rings.

F@#!, I'm so excited to see my friends!

L also dressed up. He swapped his porkpie hat for a lower-profile blue cap later on, due to the wind.

Wearing dark jeans, a classic pair of Fluevogs, a baby blue suit jacket from Mango's, and a vintage shirt he found at the Patch on our anniversary weekend in March.

Vizzini did not join us in the park shenanigans.

"What? You're going out?"

We didn't get home until close to 7pm, and that was one seething ball of hungry, yowling fury!

L drove me down to the park - the Winesday Women gathered for two hours on our own, and then our men joined us at 4pm.

Look at that sexy car! I wouldn't let L take the convertible top down as I was dressed up. I have to plan for "top down" weather.

I was first to arrive, so staked out a nice open spot not too close to other people sunbathing or hanging out in this field.

Ali arrived minutes later, and unpacked her picnic bag. I recognized my skirt, my t-shirt and my leather shirt on her. I love seeing my old clothes on my friends!

She's rockin' the side-pony, and has her teacup and saucer ready.

$2.00 at the Goodwill for the teacup, well done, Ali!

I brought my Ralph Lauren poncho as my picnic blanket, plus a placemat, cloth napkin, a fork, a spreader knife, a fancy China plate and a teacup and saucer.

Also a wad of paper napkins (because of course I have numerous spills, that's how I roll), a thermos of boiling water for my tea, some fancy hair detangler and samples for my gals, plus two tall cans of raspberry green tea. The gift certificates and cards are held down with my thermos, as they tried to blow away.

We all pre-ordered our individual teas from the White Heather Tea Room (scene of our first Winesday Spring Tea, here, in 2018), which was a wonderful experience. Look at this massive tea I got!

This is the Claudette Petite Afternoon Tea (link here, 'cause I love). We have: a ham pinwheel sandwich, an egg salad pinwheel sandwich, an apricot scone, a cranberry scone (with raspberry preserves - some of us got lemon curd - and clotted cream), a slice of Earl Grey shortbread, a lemon tart with cream, and a festive coconut macaroon, with a plump raspberry and sliced apple, and decorated with fresh flowers. I ate it all! Yum yum yum.

We got dry tea in pouches, so I popped mine into my thermos of hot water, and enjoyed a few cups of Earl Grey tea.

This is the cup and saucer that was mine at my Grandma J's when I was younger. The Harry and Megan spoon was a gift from Cat from when she, Yvonne and I stayed up all night to watch their wedding (shenanigans here).

Kudos and thanks to Yvonne and Randall who picked up our seven takeaway teas (one for Randall!).

Thank you guys! (pic by Ronnie).

Cat is a vision in her blue ensemble.

Awesome dress! Fabulous "arm party" of jewelry, her dad's watch and rings, plus she was wearing one of Karen's pendants. I love those Fluevogs!

She brought her Harry and Megan spoon too.

We outlasted the sunbathers in the background.

Yvonne wore my old coat - you can see how windy it was out!

The white boxes are our teas, individually packed up.

I'd bought cards for each of the birthday gals, and pens for all to sign them.

"Don't sign your own card!"

This has happened in the past, ha ha!

Vero is looking chill.

That cape is my old Smoking Lily one!

Those are my blue earrings too.

Looking gorgeous, Vero!

Caro's got her cast off, finally.

She is dressed for the chill in her puffer and duck boots - that's my old denim maxi skirt. Everyone but Cat was wearing something of mine!

My friends are glamourous movie stars! I see Ali in the reflection.

What a beautiful day.

The little brown thing in the foreground below Yvonne on the left there is a small wineglass that we brought for Karen. We tipped in sips of our drinks (a little wine, a little cider, some fizzy water - stay hydrated!). It fell over at one point - but it's not a Winesday gathering until someone knocks over a glass.

We stayed distanced outside, and kept to the 10-person maximum. Only Yvonne, Randall, Nick and Ali (who's a care-home worker) have had their first shots of the vaccine so far, but our friends should all be able to book their appointments in the next week or so.

By early-to-mid June, we should all have our first jab of the vaccine. Canada is delaying the second shots by 2+ months, to ensure that we get first shots to everyone before rolling out the second. It feels very slow, but I'm still grateful and hope that our numbers will drop to the point where we can have parties again - I am jonesing for parties badly.

Chris' chair is waiting. Great boots, Ali!

Thank goodness for the sun.

Poor Vero was so cold. She ended up huddled under Caro's blanket.

A view of the field behind us.

This filled up with people playing games, hanging out, and folks walked through/around/by us constantly. Lots of people were enjoying the great weather.

Our guys have arrived!

As this put our group over 10 people, we split up on gender lines. Nick is still struggling with putting his chair together, hee hee. From left: Chris, L, Nick, Ross and Randall.

Chris and L.

It was so good to see our pals in person and just shoot the sh*t, and talk about trivial things. Seeing people on Zoom is not the same!

Ross and Randall.

Ross is brave wearing shorts! Someone commented recently that our guys often wear hats - I guess they do! I'm just used to them all wearing hats, but we are very stylish folks for the most part.