Extra Mark Downs

Jacket? Rebecca Taylor, Off Saks (whoa, expensive vest version here) Booties? Ash, Winners (here) Jeans? Primark Turtleneck? h&m Plaid shirt? Simon's Necklace? Thrifted Bag? Roots

I love a good sale. A mangled price tag with red pen or red stickers all over it? It is like art to me. Even better, when that marked down price tag can be taken up to the cash for additional discounts. Then it is like art and mathematics together. Magic. It makes me a little dizzy. And when I come to, I have a monstrously furry jacket in my shopping bag. So I take the jacket home and it sits in my closet for a while as I work up the courage to wear it. I visit the jacket often and tell it stories of the Canadian winter which hasn't really arrived yet. When the mercury drops drastically for a few days, I finally wear the beast... Turns out I would rather be courageous than cold.  

Warmth and Word

Snood? American Eagle (similar) Jeans? J Brand Lovestory (here) Sweater? Handknit alpaca, thrifted

Purse? Thrifted

Everyone needs a snood in their life. Not only because of their neck warming abilities and general adorableness, but because they are called snoods. And snood is a fun word. That said, I get over words very quickly. Once social media gets a hold of a good word, they like to throw a # in front of it and over use it so much that you want to shut off the internet and enjoy the real world. So, get yourself a snood now because if you get it in 2 months, I will be thoroughly un-enchanted with the word, and you can only call it a faux fur neck warmer. Definitely not as cool sounding as snood. Also, in two months, I am optimistically hoping that winter will be on its way out and the snood won't be a part of my everyday wardrobe...

#snood#snood#snood

Great, I just ruined a nice word in one stupid post.

P.S. Yeah. It just happened, I made a Facebook page for the blog. I am so connected, it scares me... If you wanna 'like' me, I will try to be a positive addition to your Facebook feed...

She Thrifted

Meet Jennifer from Belle de Couture. She thrifted that dress.
My initial urge when I saw this picture was to bite down my seething jealousy over her bare legs and arms in December. Then my jealousy was replaced with pure admiration for this vintage dress that she wore out for her birthday. We may think that we invented bright colours in 2011 but vintage clothing proves us wrong. Everything old is new again. Hence, we search the thrift store for treasure...

New Year, Old Mistakes

Dress? Thrifted and re-worked Shoes? Ash, Winners (here in grey) Earrings? Garage sale Tights? Zara

And just like that, it is a new year. Happy 2012!!! We spent New Year's Eve at home with a small and extremely elite group of family and friends. It was a low key night, except for that moment when my brother-in-law came out of nowhere to beat me in Settlers of Catan and those few minutes after midnight where I kept spraying champagne on our front porch... Other than that, just a relaxed fun. But even though the night was laidback, I didn't want my dress to be... The dress started like this, with a the potential of the well draped bow and beautiful colour hidden by too much fabric...

Just like with my Christmas dress, I thought it would be a simple fix but once I got started, the scissors were flying. The hem came up (yes, way up...), the side seam got taken in, the sleeves were shortened, the overly heavy lining got trimmed down and then the back of the dress got a scoop. I didn't have a game plan as I did alterations (not recommended) and so I should have scooped the back and then taken out the access lining. That didn't happen in the right order and so I wasn't satisfied with how the scoop looked. Here's the full disclosure, instead of taking the time to redo it (ewwww....) I used a trick that any fashion design student knows well... I put some glitter on it. Sequins cover (and distract, unless you point them out like I am doing...) construction flaws. And here you thought sequins were just shiny discs that attracted your eye and opened your wallet. The more you know...