Yeah, Poppies

Tonight I made a new friend. It's name is "rubber mallet". It's a long boring story but suffice it to say, I ended up buying a mallet and making a crappy clothing rack my bitch. And the lesson learned today is "don't buy anything if it doesn't fasten together with screws or bolts" if you want it to stay together longer than 10 minutes. Also, don't expect a $20 clothing rack to hold an excessive amount of clothing.

Moving on!

A few months ago, eShakti asked me to participate on their customer panel where I would need to look at pictures of new designs and answer questions about them. I was pretty happy to do it and it was kind of fun. In return, they sent me $100 gift certificate.  Here's one of the dresses I got.

Cardigan: Pretty Things Boutique
Dress: eShakti
Shoes: Franco Sarto (last worn April 26)

It's just a plain shift dress but I liked the poppy embroidery and it has pockets. Pockets are happy making.

I took these photos in Boardroom 3B because my secret lunchroom seems to be being used more often. Nice map of Toronto behind me, eh?  The sticky notes have the first 3 digits of postal codes on them. Not sure why.

I'm wearing beige fishnets. My legs are still kind of bruised from moving boxes and furniture around my apartment so the fishnets provide a little bit of coverage without being too warm. I tend to bruise very easily. You just have to look at me harshly and I get a bruise. Oh, so sensitive.

I was in Ottawa yesterday with my new bosses so I didn't feel comfortable enough to take photos. I wore this dress, this jacket, and these shoes so you can image it for yourself.

Catching up.

I finally have cable and wireless internet! WHOOOOO! Donovan from Rogers is a wizard! He set up the modem fairly quickly but the cable/PRV installation took a little longer. Turns out my TV is a little old and it didn't like the HDMI cable that he was using so he had to jigger something out of regular coaxial cable. I spent most of yesterday getting caught up on Game of Thrones. Go TEAM IMP! :)

I may not have been blogging but I've still been taking outfit photos. This is a long one...

April 22

Dress and belt: Anthropologie (last worn here)
Boots: Cydwoq from Gravity Pope's Toronto store

I bought these boots on a bit of a whim. They were on sale and in my size. I'm not sure about the "furry" uppers and I'm not going to be able to wear them again until fall. I do love the metal heel though.















April 23

Dress: Desigual (last worn here)
Shoes: Hush Puppies (last worn here)

You will see these shoes a lot this week. My feet were a mess from all the walking in bad footwear so I just stuck with these shoes which are very comfortable. Maybe not the best walking shoes but certainly better than what I had been wearing.
























I like this dress but I think I'll be putting it aside for a while. I wore it a lot during the month I was in TO with only a few things. Plus I'm not as comfortable wearing it without tights and it's definitely too warm right now for anything other than bare legs.



























April 24

YAY! "New" clothes!!

Dress: Charlotte Taylor (last worn here)
Shoes: Fly London (last worn here)

This outfit was appreciated by my work mates. I'm not sure if everyone realized they were giant ants but no one said "yuck".

I need to replace this cardigan soon. It has served me well but it's starting to pill and lose its shape.






























April 25

I was glad to be reunited with these striped shoes!

Shirt: Smoking Lily (last worn here)
Belt: from Lut Boutique in Vancouver (last worn here)
Skirt: Chalet (last worn here)
Shoes: Poetic License (last worn here)

I have decided. I hate this belt. I hate the zipper, I hate that it's mostly elastic, I hate how it fits. So I'm going to purge it. Out out damned belt!

I took a back photo but it just showed how wrinkly this skirt gets after a day of sitting. DELETE!

April 26



Here's my "Canada Day" dress. It was starting to get HOT.

Dress: thrifted (last worn here)
Shoes: Franco Sarto (last worn here)

Stripes are big right now. As are asymmetrical hems so even though this is an older dress that I found in a consignment store in Halifax, it feels pretty "current".

True confession time (and a PRO TIP). I had to hold the front closed with a big paperclip. Quite a fantastic improvisation if I do say so myself.

And I quite like the back of this. Whoever designed it was thinking when they matched up those stripes into "consummate Vees".






























April 29

This is a long post. I'm running out of stream.

Cardigan: Knit by me (last worn here)
Dress: forevamore on etsy (last worn here)
Belt: from a store in Winnipeg
Shoes: Hush Puppies (see above)


























I like how the back drapes down.

And fishnets! Whooo!

May 2


Ok, this is the last outfit since I forgot to bring my camera on Friday.

Dress: Thrifted (last worn here)
Leggings: ?
Shoes: Hush Puppies (AGAIN!)

Black two days in a row. Must be feeling dark.

I was wearing my "I believe you have my stapler" Office Space pin. Only 1 person in the office got it.

Ok, my next post with be later today with today's outfit and the opening of the new Fluevog Store!

I apologize for how this post formatted. I messed around with it trying to fix it but I mostly failed.

If you can't beat them, go completely overboard

Ah Valentine's day.

As a married person, Valentine's Day was an annoyance. As a separated person, it's a pretty good reason to hit the bottle. Luckily, I have dumped all the alcohol out. Except for the beer I bought tonight at the mall. But that's another story.

Anticipating that today was going to be a difficult one, I decided to just go totally bonkers with the red clothing.

Look at me embracing the day that is named after Saint Valentine. Even making a cute heart with my hands.

Cardigan: Pretty Things Boutique
Dress: Eshakti (last worn here)
Tights: ?
Shoes: Franco Sarto (last worn here)

Red hair, red lips, red cardigan, red dress, red shoes. I had put on red tights but it was just too much. Even for me, who loves red.

and a red vintage slip!

And a pin with a skull on it. To demonstrate my true feelings about this day. o_O

Here's an outtake. I was trying to take the above photo when my coworker came into the kitchen. This is me covering my tracks and pretending that I wasn't doing anything. I like the look on my face.

I'm currently sitting on my couch, with my fireplace on, my cat at my side, waiting for my Swiss Chalet dinner to arrive. Including apple pie. I'm making the best of things.

My coworkers were so very good to me today. As difficult as things can often be at work, it's much easier to go in every day when you work with good people.

So good day to you Valentine's day. I said GOOD DAY!

Tart-an legs

I have put this dress into my "give away" bag too many times to count but I always have sober second thought.

Cardigan: Pretty Things Boutique
Dress: Anthropologie (last worn here)
Tights: Hue
Shoes: Franco Sarto (last worn here)

The dress is wool and pretty nondescript other than the subtle detail in the bodice and the bow. I'll not make the mistake of trying to get rid of it again.

I think I was uncomfortable with the length but now that I've embraced the shorter dress I'm ok with it.

Plus these tights provide a lot of cover.

You can see the detail a little better here. It has a little bit of a scoop above the bow and some gathers coming down from the waist.

The back has buttons. Buttony!

When I was leaving work and man taped me on the shoulder (I was wearing headphones) and asked me where I got my tights. When I told him (Sock it to Ya, a local store) he said "I know what I'm getting my wife for christmas!" I hope he gets her something else too.

Here's my accessories. Necklaces with birds and two pins. I support Obama, tea, and Jean-Luc Picard.

A demain!

April showers get out of my way

Today I had the opportunity to get a little more dressed up than I normally would on a Sunday. My friend Karen is getting married next Saturday so there was a little shower for her today. The theme was "tea party".

How'd I do? Tea party-ish?

Dress: Biscuit General store (last worn in my header)
Necklace: gift from my sister
Shoes: Franco Sarto (last worn here)
Lippy: MAC Russian Red

The humidity just won't quit so in order to tame the frizzies in my hair I used a lot of product and a very hot flat iron. It was a struggle.

I also think I'm wearing too much eye make-up but what the heck.

Crinoline! I bought this at Pretty Things Boutique months ago but it's been at B's photo studio where it has appeared in a few photos.

It makes me feel like an extra from Moulin Rouge. Alas, I had no opportunity to "yes you can-can-can" while I was out. It was too hot anyway.

Going to watch the Olympic closing ceremonies now. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Winterpeg, Manisnowba

Ok, so it's not winter here, but it's still cooler here than in most other parts of the country. I flew to Winnipeg on Monday for meetings and am leaving tomorrow. It takes a full day of travel to get here because flights go through Toronto, usually with a layover of a few hours, so it can be very tiring.

On the way here, I was seated next to a woman who kept invading my personal space and she didn't have anything to do like read, or play on an iPad, so she stared at me while I played Angry Birds. Also, I was on the aisle and when we landed she tried to get out into the aisle by climbing over me. I said "WAIT a minute!" I've never had anyone try to do that before. It was quite unnerving. Hopefully tomorrow's flight will be less weird.

Yesterday I wore my Charlotte Taylor ant dress that I recently had shortened. It was a maxi dress but I couldn't see myself wearing it at that length very often. I think its more wearable now.

Sweater: Pretty Things Boutique
Dress: Charlotte Taylor
Shoes: Franco Sarto

I'm probably the only government employee who has ever worn a dress with big red ants all over it to a meeting. Take that power suit!

After day one of meetings, my coworker and I went to the Cha Cha Palace, a very funky store indeed. I shouldn't have, but I bought a cool linen skirt and a tunic/dress thingy which is really neat.

This store sells Fluevogs, Fly London and Camper shoes. I wish they had boots like the one on the sign.

Unfortunately I left my grey cardigan there. It cost less than a cab ride back to the store though.

Today I wore the new skirt I bought.

It almost looks like pants but it's a skirt.

Sweater: Pretty Things Boutique
Cami: From Envy
Skirt: Chalet from Cha Cha Palace
Shoes: Fluevog Presence Hi | Desmond

Since I left my cardigan behind, I had to wear the red one again today. It didn't quite go with the grey and blue but it was necessary to keep me warm.




After the meeting we went to Osborne Village and I was very good. I only bought a belt made out of a tie, a plain black t-shirt, and a present for my husband which I won't reveal in case he reads this post.

I'm looking forward to getting home tomorrow AND I have Friday off. So thrilled about that.




Tonight we're going for supper at a place with a pizza oven and then we'll have an early night. Flight at 9 am!