Frozen and Fancy

Dress? Vintage 1960's (via Vintage Whimsy) Shoes? Nine West Clutch? Vintage via Shop Elofson

I wore this fabulous 1960's feather trimmed dress to my brother's wedding last weekend. Right after the wedding, the family went up North for a few days to spend some time together. It's been 3.5 years since we've all been together and since then, the family has grown with new sisters-in-law, 3 nephews and a niece... It was so nice to hang out, to be surrounded by the awesomeness and inside jokes of my family. Also nice to be irritated with each other a little bit sometimes, we live too far apart that we don't get to drive each other nuts enough, so that was a rare treat... 

I spent most of the time at the cottage in my leggings and when we got back home I got sick so I am still in leggings over here... Getting the flu is so inconvenient and humbling. There are 37 things that need to be done and the flu is all like 'girl, sit down, you just climbed the stairs and you are winded'. I'm definitely feeling a bit better now but writing these two paragraphs will require me to take a nap. Please leave soup, magazines, juicy novels, and fresh flowers at my door to help me with my recovery. 

^^ Look Ma, I made a joke, I'm almost back in the game...

New Year, New Space (!!!!!)

That escalated quickly... I signed a lease for a new shop!!!! Just a few doors down from the existing shop but with a few more square feet to go around...
The existing shop is 250 square feet... yup, a sweet little shop. If I had a quarter for every time people came in and told me my shop is small, I would never have a parking ticket again. And if I had a quarter for every time I would respond 'small but mighty', I could get a gum ball from the machine at the grocery store for the rest of my life... It's a great space to see if this is something you are into and I am actually really proud of how I managed to use every inch of the place, while keeping it looking cute. But it's no secret that I would get frustrated with the lack of room... I really want to continue to step up my online game but I just had so little room to photograph, measure and ship. And so I would do all that from home, if the light was ok. But there gets to be a point when you want to have a little division between work life and home life. And having room to organize back stock at the store instead of storing all my stock in the attic and spare room (and everywhere really)? Opening the new space will be a happy day...
Honestly, I've been looking for a new place for a while. And while it seems like there are possibilities on the street, nothing was just right. It was like Cinderella and that glass slipper, except I was the mean step sister and nothing fit. A few weeks ago I pretty much decided to just make the best of it where I was and I shut the shop for a week to strip everything back, clean it, re-stock, re-paint my floors and just make little tweaks so the space could work as well as possible. Ugh, those floors... honestly painting your floors with a pattern is not so hard with a little patience and time but when you have a full shop and have to move everything to paint the shop 1/3 at a time and wait for drying time between base coat, stencilled design and top coat... it takes a while. It takes even longer when you first paint one design and then change your mind... oops.

But they turned out cute! Not a bad solution to covering some gross old gray tiles eh?
And then, of course midway through, I got the phone call that a new shop was available...

I'm so excited and pretty nervous because it's definitely a much bigger responsibility but I just think I can do so much more in the new space. You have to leap a little if you want to move forward. Quote that;)
So, in addition to having family crashing at our house, a wedding and going away (yay!), it looks like we're also putting together a new shop space. Yup, January did just go from really busy to really, really busy...

Un-Hibernated

Vest? Vintage Boots? Holt Renfrew (Target has a wallet friendly version here) 

Clutch? h&m Cuffs? Unikati (here)

So far January is predicted to be really busy with a chance of being really, really busy. Usually January is pretty slow and we kinda hibernate along with all the bears we have up here in Ontario... Joking, not sure we have bears in Ontario at all. Hibernating sounds lovely though, especially with the cold snaps we keep getting. Minimal snow, maximal cold is what is up right now...

I guess the only reason I am telling you that our January is busy is because I am super impressed that I got this post up in a timely manner and I am currently accepting high fives in virtual form. I will also accept high fives for posing in the cold. Almost 6 years of blogging (so much time happily wasted...) and I still have to delete 95% of my pictures in the cold because my face is stuck in some grimace. Worth it though. Especially for those virtual high fives. 

The Art of Coat Accumulation

Top: Coat? Vintage Pierre Cardin (in my Etsy shop here) Boots? Holt Renfrew Hat? Delux 

Bottom: Coat? 1960's pink suit jacket Leather pants? Vince (consigned pair here) Shoes? Guess, thrifted

Clutch? Similar here

I met Claire Dam a few winters back when we both helped out at Help Portrait.  I pretended to be a make-up artist and she did not have to pretend to be an awesome photographer (seriously, look at this loveliness... all the heart eyed emoticons).

It's kinda funny that we only met two winters ago because when we started to play Dutch bingo or even Hamilton bingo, it was pretty obvious that we all know the same people. Apparently Hamilton has over half a million residents but sometimes it seems like a small town...

But it does not matter that her third cousin's neighbour's ex-best friend is my husband's aunt's neighbourhood mail carrier, what matters is how it's kinda an honour to do a creative shoot with Claire. I wanted to do a really classic (and almost a bit of a throw back?), light hearted editorial against a crisp white wall, featuring the unsung heroes of the Canadian winter and Claire was right on board. And if you are thinking that snow blowers are the unsung heroes, you would be wrong. I'm talking about vintage coats. Fashionable and functional; which is more than snow blowers will ever be.

My vintage coat collection is getting a little ridiculous these days. I try to stick to the one in and one out rule or I sell them to my friend Michelle because I know I can borrow them back from her (strong business tactic... I'll borrow this red dress back too) but the number still seems to grow. And I can't even apologize because being warm and fabulous at the same time is a rare feat for fashion bloggers. 

The Hudson's Bay coat with the Canada geese is already sold but I guess my next life challenge will be not keeping that leopard trimmed Pierre Cardin princess coat... 

And if you wanna see a few more pictures (more? Yes, even more... ha) click over to Merl's page where I blather on some more about the superiority of vintage coats. Riveting stuff, I promise!

Top: Coat? Vintage Fox Fur Jeans? h&m, thrifted and destroyed Mickey tee? Winners (similar here)

Bottom: Coat? Vintage HBC (sold) Headband? Dessert 4 Breakfast (I have a few left on my Etsy) Sweater? Vintage Scarf? h&m  (similar here) Boots? c/o Le Canadienne