8 Hours

We spent exactly 8 hours in New York City. We paid $50 to park for those 8 hours. When I came back to Hamilton the first thing I did was hug a parking meter; the kind that takes dimes.
It was our plan to stay in NYC for a few days but with the impending storm (Nemo? We're naming snow storms now?), we figured we should get out of the city. This way we could also get the truck across the border before the weekend and then go work the storm. It wasn't the fun option but it was the right decision. Matt and I looked at each other and had a moment where we congratulated ourselves on our maturity. We're into celebrating that stuff...

8 hours isn't a lot of time but it was enough time to wear sequins to Kendi's Gap event, catch up with that kid and expose our ankles to the cold like true fashion bloggers. It was also good to hug Jessie, meet Anna and Sarah and talk to (and jealousy ogle) a sweet gal who was wearing a thrifted (!) Rag and Bone leather vest.
We left NYC at 11:30 p.m. and drove home straight through the night. We had to wait an hour and a half at the border to register the vehicle, so we got some sleep in the parking lot of a church. That made us feel like legit road trippers... Well, that and getting pulled over by state troopers a day earlier.

We came back to Hamilton Friday morning in the midst of the storm. I ended up pretty much sleeping for the next 24 hours. I'd been fighting against getting sick all week but after 4 days of road tripping, my body had had enough. I felt terrible. I felt even more terrible about not being able to plow in the storm. I know how hard it is to clear and stay on top of a big storm and I was not happy that I had to bail on work. Finally, we get a huge storm like the good old days and I end up in bed the entire time... Sad.

And that, my friends, was my foray into New York Fashion Week. What can I say? My life is 24/7 glamour...

Temporary Spring

Pants? Joe Fresh  (similar here or here) Boots? Joe Fresh (old) Silk shirt? Thrifted Necklace? Thrifted Biker jacket? Costa Blanca

Earlier this week, Matt and I flew down to Florida to pick up a work vehicle. We're road tripping it back up to Canada on a slightly relaxed schedule.
We spent the first night in Savannah. We were a little exhausted from flying through the night and then driving straight to Georgia (truth time; Matt drove, I slept, read and did a bit of whining) but we both fell in love with Savannah the second we arrived. It is the sweetest! Everywhere you looked it was so picturesque! I also appreciated the blackened tuna quesadilla I had for dinner, the margarita I got to take in a to-go cup (!) to enjoy along the water front and the magnolias that were blooming, just in time to match my pants.
I'm excited to get to NYC and see some friends but as we were leaving Savannah, it felt a little like I was leaving spring behind to regress back to winter. Good bye flowers, warm breezes and patios, we'll see you in a few months...

Decor Decisions

I have many plans for our master bedroom.
One of them being that I would get it done in 2012, I believe I even made that a non-resolution resolution on Kyla's blog last year.
Well, that didn't happen.

(I can't explain what is happening with the paint here. It goes in the file of questions that shall never be answered by the former owners of this house.)

We've been saying that we need to paint the room since we moved in over two years ago. Currently, as demonstrated by the picture above,  it's beige with a patches of off-white. It's at the top of our list of priorities but somehow we end up starting other projects instead (painting the spare bedroom on Christmas Eve?).
I think one of the biggest problems is that I can't pick a colour. I'm having a moment where I want to paint everything everywhere white.

(source: http://juliasvitadrommar.blogspot.ca)

Yes, 86% of Pinterest and I are digging that look. But that just won't work with what we have, it is impractical and it's also not exactly Matt's favourite way to decorate. And so, we're still living in a room with so much potential but with a bad paint job and stuff scattered everywhere. We close that door when company comes over. Unless we really like you, then we're OK with sharing that mess.
Then Glidden asked me to try their new My Image Inspiration tool to show how one can use any inspiration picture to pick out paint colours. And it's embarrassing but yes, it took a sponsored post for me to get my butt in gear and make some decisions. Decisions about what furniture to keep, what to look for and most importantly what colour to finally paint that stupid room.

You can use any picture anywhere as your inspiration when you use the My Image Inspiration tool but I was going through my old magazine tear aways and I loved the colours and tones in this particular picture.

(ripped from a Marie Claire in 2009)

I knew this would be the perfect picture to get my inspiration from. But before I use the My Image Inspiration tool to finally pick a paint colour, I just want to share some elements that are in the room currently. These pictures are after I cleaned up the laundry and the crap lying around and did some serious organization. Not going to lie, the other side of the room is still a mess.

- We have this amazing original moulded flower trim. I want these painted white to contrast them off the wall a bit.
- I found this vintage purple, teal and black Hudson's Bay blanket at a flea market (bottom left). I love that it is such an unusual colour combination and pattern from such an iconic Canadian company. It's also a nice contrast against the floral trim and vanity.
- This vanity was purchased at the closing sale of a antique store on Ottawa St.. It cost less than $100 if I remember correctly. It was intended for my closet, as a super girly indulgence but it blocks the light from the only window there and that is a little depressing. So I moved it into the bedroom.
- My parents gave us that stained glass window as a wedding present. There was an unfortunate accident and it took almost 2 years to get the window back from the guy who eventually fixed it. The only original part remaining is the centre flower but it is certainly more solid now. I wanted to originally hang these refinished windows (refinished by Better Than New ) above the bed but I am not sure the wall can handle all that weight. I might be afraid to sleep under those heavy windows hung perilously above my head. The stained glass window is much lighter and is, of course, a special sentimental piece.

It kinda happened by accident but there is definitely a mocha and purple theme that is developing in the bedroom. And the fashion editorial I ripped out of that magazine years ago, captures the colour direction that is starting to come together in my head.
It's ridiculously easy to use the My Image Inspiration tool. You upload any picture (off your own files or the internets), select an area of the photo to focus on and a selection of colours pop up. You can click around on different areas of the same image to see additional colours as well. Once you have selected a colour, you can go to step three and search colour palettes that correspond to your original colour choice.

And now you are probably biting your nails in anticipation over what colour we picked for our bedroom. Well, after some serious consideration and a flurry of text messages, we're going with Mid Day Mocha. It's the exact shade of grey/brown/purple we are looking for...;) No more changing my mind, I'm sticking with this.

Can't wait to finally have a nice bedroom! 

Also, you are cordially invited over for a paint party. There will be wine and cheese in exchange for the labour of painstakingly painting around each floral moulding. 

*I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are totally my own. 

Rule Breaker

Skirt? (similar here or dress here) Jacket? Zara Purse? Filene's Basement (similar here) 

Boots? Nine West, thrifted Necklace? Thrifted

My friend has been telling me about a few good vintage/consignment/thrift places over in Brantford for a while now and we finally got together this weekend to go check them out. This is what I wore. The one boutique Netty Vintage pretty much blew my mind as the awesomeness continued from room to room. There was so much good stuff that I was overwhelmed. I'll be going back there to do some serious shopping after I've sold Matt's kidney. 

I broke my own guidelines for thrifting by wearing these boots that are a major pain to take on and off and pairing them with a skirt that is too short to allow footwear removal in an elegant manner. Sometimes a cute outfit trumps thrift practicality. I did however stick to my rule of not buying embellished pieces that are starting to lose beads or sequins. Which is a hard thing to stick to, because this fabulous jacket had some unravelling on the other side of the lapel and leaving it behind was painful...  

*f.y.i.- I did wear a parka over this outfit. No body parts were frozen in the making of this post.