Made Over

Before: 6 PM

After: 10:30 PM

If these pictures would be an advertisement for anything, it would be about the power of a shower (yes, that rhymed).

It was my friend's (the one in the boa and in the centre on the bottom pic) bachelorette party last weekend. I guess my duties toward her as a friend trumped my duties toward her as her dressmaker (I hate that word...), so I was allowed out of the sweatshop for the night.

Because we are tricky kids, we pretended to the bride that the bachelorette was very low priority and we were just going to meet at my house and then go out to some local establishment. We acted like we really didn't care... but we did! Everyone was in on the secret and we got one of the supervisors to pull the bride aside and give her the whole 'you want to tell me what you did wrong?' speech while we snuck behind, tied a pink boa around her face (cheesy...yup) and threw her into the back of the car and whisked her off to Niagara Falls for the night. We had everything packed her (ok, we forgot shoes... )... If I'm going to be honest, us pulling this whole trick off had more to do with the bride being gullible than us being sneaky; I'm a terrible liar and we couldn't get our stories straight. Doesn't matter, all that is important is that we completely surprised her.

We all work to some capacity in the landscape industry, hence it was important to get the before and after shot. We clean up ok, huh? And my over packing paid off this time; 3 of my dresses and 4 of my belts made it out that night... I wore a vintage Alfred Sung dress that I bought from The Last Hurrah clothing sale. It had some full crinoline action going on and I've decided that every girl needs a crinoline on a bad day because it was so fun to wear. Put your cookies away ladies and grab a full skirt!

We got into trouble and generally just had a great time. It was the best night of the summer so far, though also the biggest headache the following morning... totally worth it.

Goldilocks

Pants? Rag and Bone, Holt's Last Call ($30?)
Sequin vest? Thrifted
Shoes? Thrifted
Wristlet? Coach, gifted
Sunglasses? Forever 21

Between work and making a wedding dress and six bridesmaids dresses, it feels like I haven't had time to do much else. Besides apologize.... apologize to my readers for not posting regularly the last while, apologize to anyone who has called or emailed for being a super flake and not getting back to you, apologize to friends for hearing but not having the brain capacity to listen, apologize to my parents for not visiting enough and mostly apologize to my patient husband Matt because clean underwear is constantly in low supply. So sorry, the madness is almost done!
Glad that's off my chest...

The beat on the fashion street is that kitten heels are making a big comeback. It makes sense. Over the last few years shoes have gone to the extreme in aggressive styles and heights and the tide will inevitably turn to a more demure look. I bought these heels years ago from a charity thrift shop because they were quite cute and in excellent vintage condition and this is their first time out. They are probably a tiny bit higher than kitten heels (teenage cat really....) but they are my lowest heels and it actually took a bit to re-adjust The Strut. I didn't wear them to be on the cutting edge of fashion (while I understand their use, I'm not a huge little heel enthusiast), I wore them because all my other heels made my pants too short and all my flats made my pants too long. Essentially, these heels were like Baby Bear's porridge.... just right.

Girl Power

My friends and I bought tickets to the Lilith Fair July show back in March. I envisioned strutting around in the sunshine in a strapless dress and sandals (to fill in work tanlines) on a lazy Saturday and finishing the night by releasing my teenage angst to Kelly Clarkson. It didn't quite go as planned. I've been really busy so I missed the day portion of the show, but that didn't matter because it rained most of the day anyways. It's not as fun to dress for a muggy but rainy day. I settled for cotton jersey and a hat; function and fashion. No tanlines were erased that day, though the hair was controlled.
Sadly we never got to rock out to Kelly Clarkson. Lilith has been having some slow ticket sales (though not in Toronto, the show was almost sold out), so they cancelled some of her dates and then she pulled out of the whole tour. She was replaced with The Dixie Chicks Minus the Loud One and Minus Any Songs I Know. Thankfully Chantal Kreviazuk, Lights (girl crush!), Mary J. Blige and Sarah McLachlan killed it. I am not really a huge Mary J. Blige fan but she had great energy with the crowd and I found myself happily singing along about no more drama or hatoration...
Some pics...

1. Proof that I went somewhere exciting.
2. I hate it when friends outdress me.
3. Might as well take some pictures if we're going to wait in line for pizza for an hour.
4. Proof I have real friends (as opposed to just peeps online...).
5. All the ladies singing together for the finale. But where was Mary J.?
6. Thinking about torturing my friends and making them take outfit pics... nah...too lazy.
7. Tsk, tsk... some people did not sign the recycling pledge...

Old Dog, Same Tricks

Dress? Thrifted
Broaches? Antique store and borrowed from my parents' stash.
Shoes? ?, DSW, super old
Snakeskin clutch? Saks, Winners

Just a week ago I wore a dress of synthetic material and tied a knot in the hem and here is the same trick again. Practice makes perfect? I found this handmade dress thrifting last week and I was hoping it was silk (no tags obviously). Judging by the fact that I was sweating like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee (sadly that is not my line...), I'm going to say that this dress is polyester.

What is a new trick is that I pinned the dress to my bra. The broaches were so heavy that it pulled the material down and made my chest look prematurely low. I pinned through my bra to stabilize it and keep things uplifted. A good bra and a pretty broach are going to make plastic surgeons unemployed.