Tired in Brocade - Variations on a Theme

Tuesdays are difficult for me: work is busy, I have to take off in the middle of it for 2 hours to do my WW meeting (I work a 9.5 hour day on Monday and a 9 hour day on Tuesday to make up that time), then right after work I head out to the main WW location and give my evening meeting. No men this time, but I had 3 women who stuck around! It's progress!

And when I get home from that, it's poker night with the boys (I don't really play poker, I play D&D...shhhhhhh...it's my nerdy secret) which usually goes on quite late. So here I am, it's late and I'm tired. And yet, all this chatty chatty from me. Hmmm. I doth protest too much.

Anyway, onwards! To the outfit!
I last wore this cardi just a couple of weeks ago, here, but it's been a while since I wore the skirt and the shoes (both last seen here together). I've done variations on this colour scheme a few times (as linked to in that link), as the skirt somewhat restricts what I can wear with it. Matchy!

These shoes were comfortable for about half the day. I should have worn a lower heel for the amount of standing and walking I did.

Something flat tomorrow!

The stuff:

Blurry from low blood sugar (me, not the camera).

A close-up:

Tree!

Cardigan (Plum), cami (InWear), skirt (no label), shoes (Pink Studio), belt (Plum), necklace (Foxy).

Red Legs Ahoy!

It almost feels weird doing a non-themed outfit after what feels like several theme weeks in the last couple of months. Let's see...there was Super Stripes Week, the Fluevog a Day, and just last week, Revenge of Dress Week!

It's enough to drive a gal to wearing a burlap sack: While not actually a burlap sack, that is what this skirt reminds me of! I first wore this $1.75 (yes, you read that right) skirt here.

These tights are new - I picked them up in a sale bin a couple of weekends ago. My last pair of red tights blew, so I'd been looking for another.

The outside shot: This is my much-loved blouse (last seen here) - well, I've only worn it three times, but I really love it. The colours are so awesome, as is the pattern. I'm wearing my good ol' black sweater vest over it.

The stuff: I've had these shoes for a few years now - they keep surviving my biannual closet purges! Last seen here.

I love this funky belt: The earrings match perfectly! And see what I mean about the texture of the skirt? If burlap was made of raw silk, this would be it.

Vest (Esprit), blouse (Marcona, thrifted), skirt (Signature by Saks Fifth Avenue, thrifted), belt (gift from Mom), shoes (Unlisted), earrings (Plum).

Revenge of Dress Week! Sorbets (Saturday Outfit)

For some reason, when I planned my outfits last Sunday, I created six dress- and scarf-based ensembles. Sometimes I just have brain-farts like that. No matter! I wore this to my WW meeting, to the Ultimate game (big skirts are handy for changing into and out of shorts), out for lunch and out for a bit of shopping. The outfit is built around the scarf, which is by Smoking Lily (which as you may recall, I can't resist), and was $20. Again, a bit pricey for consignment, but it's handmade, silk and they don't make this design anymore. As well, I was spending trade-in credit so it wasn't like I spent cash. Plus, chartreuse green trimmed in pink! Squee!

I adore this dress: It's a pretty skimpy halter top, so I usually wear something over it to prevent excess boobage. Last seen here, as well as here, here and here. I saw this exact dress in a consignment shop yesterday, so I finally found out what the brand is (mine has had the label removed): Ricki's!

The sweater is one of my attempts to work pink into my wardrobe. Pink has been one of those "not me" colours for a very long time, but I do like this dusty shade of it. Last worn here.

The stairs shot:

I got a lot of compliments on the colours in this: butter yellow, pink sorbet and the pale green. When it was sunny (very briefly) I felt very summery.

A close-up of the scarf pattern:

It's gold amoebas!

Check out this one:

Maybe that's a spore.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Dress (Ricki's, consignment), sweater (Esprit), shoes (Circa Joan & David, thrifted), scarf (Smoking Lily, consignment).

Revenge of Dress Week! Architectural (Friday Outfit)

I was looking forward to this dress outfit not just because of Dress Week...
...but because of the shoes!

I bought these last week at my Winners shop with Angela - I spotted them on a top shelf and my heart went pitter-pat. I may have even gasped. I pulled them down. "Look at these monsters," I said to Ange. I put them back. I picked them back up. I put them on. They were actually walkable. I put them in the cart.

They are by Bebe, they are actually wooden, and they were $69.99. L hates them...and I admit they are not to everyone's taste (and they remind me a bit of hooves!).

But I love them. I love that they have that crazy 2-inch platform that's cut so bluntly. I love the chunkiness of them. I love that I am 5'10" in them.

Of course, I built the outfit around them:

This is my "lettuce" dress (last seen here, and also here during the last Dress Week, and here), worn with my black drapey cardi (last seen here), and my Dad's satin scarf from the 60s (picture here). I am also wearing textured gold/black tights because it was an awful lot of leg to be exposing, and even though I love the pale it was too much for work.

It was a difficult week, so I celebrated the end of it with a single malt scotch:

Cheers!

The stuff:

Those mules have such an architectural vibe to them. One of my coworkers said they reminded her of those Japanese Geta shoes. The front wedge of the platform especially reminds me of Okobo.

These were not very stable with my tighted feet on the slippery wood inside, so I stuck a pair of Dr. Scholl's inserts (black ones) inside. Worked like a charm - I didn't throw a shoe once. I did carry these to and from work for practicality's sake - I only wore them inside the office.

The necklace:

My groovy Viking pendant that L got me years ago. I also wore bigass gold hoop earrings.

Cardigan (Kensie), dress (Taylor, consignment), shoes (Bebe), necklace (gift from L), scarf (60s, Dad's).

Revenge of Dress Week! More Leather (Thursday Outfit)

Well, looks like Blogger got the last word this week - the outtages hit me right in my prime posting times, so sorry for missing Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Also, in an unfortunate turn of events, many of the comments from Monday and Tuesday appear to have been lost. *sigh* Ah well. Let's move on!
Following my grey leather dress on Wednesday, here's my other leather dress again (last seen here):

For only having paid $20, I'm getting good wear out of this dress! I liked the neutral vibe of this outfit - the muted colours kept this from looking too outrageous. After all, I am wearing a sheer blouse (last seen here), a leather dress and massive heels!

I had Book Club on Thursday night, so I had to dash to get my outside pictures done before my ride picked me up:

These patterned tights turned out to be snagtastic following their last wear with my Fluevog booties here, which apparently gave them a huge fuzz rim midway up my shins. Shout out to Lesley at work who gave me an awesome tip for tights with snags - turn them inside out! Duh, why did this never occur to me? It's brilliant! The snags and fuzz weren't even visible, and now I have a longer lifespan for these tights, as I would have otherwise chucked them.

Recognize the shoes?

I've only worn them once - for New Year's Eve!

Mere minutes after I took this picture, my boss called - he'd locked his keys in his office and couldn't go home. Yikes! I ended up standing on the street to hand over my desk key so that he could find the extra key to his office. I wonder what my neighbours thought of me passing something through the window of a car that just drove up, ha!

The stuff:

I wore my scarf today as a belt. It's a long navy and gold Chinese patterned silk scarf (with fringe!) that I bought a couple of months ago for $20 (a bit pricey for consignment, but I was using my credit, so I didn't actually pay any cash for it).

A close-up:My Grandma J's leaf necklace and my bronze-y leaf earrings. I like the dragons on the scarf.

Dress (Truly, Part Two), blouse (Express, thrifted), scarf (no label, consignment), shoes (Aldo), necklace (vintage '50s, Grandma J's, stamped "Lisner," info about it here), earrings (Plum).

Revenge of Dress Week! Grey Leather and Dots

One of the reasons why I like doing the "last seen here" links within my posts, is that it reminds me of how long it's been since I wore some of my clothes.
For this Dress Week, I wanted to get a wear out of this awesome leather dress before (if??) the weather gets warmer:

I last wore it here, back in August 2010. I don't remember it being this heavy in my pack, but I made a mental note never to wear it for my WW weigh-ins!

The outside shot:

Today was very rainy, so even my outside picture looks gloomy. It does show the colour of the greys well, though - they are all very warm grey tone. I have trouble wearing grey - it washes me right out.

The stuff:

The pop of colour is my wonderful blue dotty scarf that the gorgeous and generous Megan sent me when she sent this amazing skirt. Thank you, Megan!

I tied it in a single knot style, like a man's tie - my dad taught me how when I was a teenager and I used to steal his ties to wear to school.

The shoes don't get worn enough (last seen here and also worn here, here, here and here). Huh, I guess I just haven't worn them much lately.

A close-up:

Another pair of L's cufflinks - I had to rummage through his closet and remove these from one of his shirts.

Shirt (Banana Republic, thrifted), dress (Danier, consignment), shoes (Camper), cufflinks (70s? vintage), ring (trip to Scotland), earrings (Plum).

Revenge of Dress Week! LBD and Hot Pink

Dress week continues! It wreaks its revenge on...scarves!
Um...maybe not. But I wore a dress and a scarf today:

This is my classic Little Black Dress. I have seven black dresses actually, but this is the most classic. I last wore it here, for Grandma W's funeral.

I had a tough time coming up with an outfit for this scarf (yes, it would have been fabulous with yesterday's dress!), so I ended up doing it with black and then bringing in more colour with the hot pink tights. I got a lot of compliments on the tights, including from strange people on the bus. My WW group loved them.

Tonight was also the start of a new WW meeting that I am doing: "Mostly Men," which is why I'm late posting. Men make up about 5% of the usual WW meetings, but they deserve to have a meeting where they can learn, participate and talk when they don't have to listen to women going on about their monthly cycles (yes, women talk about this in meetings), babies and such. I like men (many of my best friends are men!) so here I am, the leader of this meeting.

Sadly, it hasn't had much promotion yet, so no one showed up. Ah well, it will grow!

I wore the scarf draped down my back:

Good mid-sized heels for walking too. My new scale arrived today while I was out - yay!

I layered this with my bright yellow jacket.

I pulled the ends of the scarf to the front then.

The stuff:

I found this scarf for $6.50 at the same thrift shop as yesterday's scarf. Isn't it pretty? I love the colours.

A close-up:

My yellow stone earrings and my bigass junk ring (some lady on the bus was very impressed with it).

The scarf is stamped:

I looked up the company - they have been around for over 100 years - and like Hermes, they make their scarves in France. Cool. I'm sure it's 100% silk.

Coat (Danier Leather), dress (Esprit), tights (Hue), shoes (Guess), scarf (Marc Rozier, thrifted), earrings (Plum), ring (some costume store, about 14 years ago).

Revenge of Dress Week! Yellow and Stained Glass

I haven't done a Dress Week since August 2010! That's outrageous! And so, without further ado, I bring you...
The Revenge of Dress Week! Thrills! Shock! Suspense! Scarves! (kudos to Audi for the title suggestion!).

Yes, scarves! I have a bunch of scarves that I've bought over the last few months and I never wear them, so all this week, I will be wearing scarves in various ways with my dresses.

Today: Blinding yellow! I gasped when I saw this gorgeous true yellow Calvin Klein dress in the racks at Winners. Isn't the colour amazing? And the cut? The length? I love everything about it and I'm so glad it fit!

It was $69.99, which is more than I've spent on a dress for nearly a year, but I love it so much. It's fully lined, and is made of cotton with a bit of Lycra for stretch. It has beautiful horizontal seaming from hem to neckline.

The outdoor shot:

Ah, that's the real colour. I added the skinny belt, although it didn't really need it - I just wanted to break up the expanse of yellow.

The stuff:

The scarf was $6.50 in a thrift store. It's 100% silk and is a lovely mix of colours. I pulled out the greens to go with the ring. You can also see the seams in the dress better there.

A close-up:

Birds! I felt very Spring-y.

A better look at the scarf:

It's like a stained glass window, which is what I am sure it is patterned after. I love all the bright colours.

I always look for a name on silk scarves and this did not disappoint:

Only from my favourite NYC museum ever! Museums have the best gift shops for good quality scarves and jewelry.

Dress (Calvin Klein), shoes (Feet First, thrifted), scarf (Metropolitan Museum of Art, thrifted), belt (Bianca Nygard), earrings/ring (Lavishy).

Casual Friday and a Too-Short Weekend

Friday's outfit: Pretty standard mix of my usual rocker-type ensembles. My sister-in-law, Angela, and I (yo! Hi, Ange!) went shopping at Winners after work, which was loads of fun (nothing like a little retail therapy).

I didn't dress as wisely as I did last time I did Winners, but it wasn't awful. The t-shirts came off as a unit - they are layered, but it's easier to work with them as one item when taking them on and off. The boots are my short cowboy booties, so easy to slip off for trying on shoes (although my sports socks were a nuisance).

I got some amazing shoes, a skirt and a dress. The shoes are killer.

I was tired Friday morning: Need. Coffee.

Yellow tee (Mexx), plaid tee (TMT), jeans (Seven7, swap from Caro), belt (gift from Ruth), necklace (The Bay).

On Saturday, I went to my WW meeting, then played Ultimate for two-plus hours, went for lunch, then wandered around shopping for the afternoon.

The weather was between spitting rain and just cloudy all day, but I am persevering with my belief that warm weather will arrive sooner or later. This skirt is one of the Winners finds. It was $29.99 - they had them in white and black as well, but this was the only green one I saw. I changed at the field into my Ulty gear, so again, I did easy on/off clothes (and light for my weigh-in too!). I am wearing a sports bra in these pictures (my poor boobs).

This is a better picture of the colour of the skirt:

It is sewn so that it has puckers in all the seams (the seams run in inverted Vs from the t-shirt waist to the hem), and the cotton is very thin and billowy, like a hot air balloon. It felt very romantic and airy when I walked around. I love long skirts!

These are a pair of new shoes that I got several weeks ago. I still have two pairs of sandals that I bought months ago that I haven't been able to wear due to the weather.

These are Indigo by Clarke's, and are super soft. I love the bronzy neutral metallic and the moulded wedge heel. They were around $40 on clearance.

Turquoise tee (Plum), white tee (Upper Playground), skirt (Cute Options), shoes (Indigo by Clarke's), earrings (Plum).