Grinning and Grateful

I had such a great Saturday. I started off my morning by driving around with my grandfather - practicing for my driving test Tuesday - and then had lunch with he and my grandmother. My young cousin came back to my apartment to spend the afternoon with me afterward and I was a little nervous. It's not like I interact with tween girls on the regular, you know? Everything was awesome though, I'm pretty sure I didn't bore her and I think she might have maybe even found me interesting haha... It helped I probably spoiled her too.

Cardigan - Thrifted from Value Village

Dress - Thrifted from Value Village

Leggings - No idea

Boots - Some shop on Sparks Street in Ottawa

Of course the first thing we did was get her introduced to all my pets. She met all of my snakes, held my crested gecko and even put my ball python Galen around her shoulders. She was totally comfortable with him, it was awesome. A lot of our conversations revolved around animals and pets.

After she was introduced to the zoo, we went out and got ourselves some bubble tea - a new thing for her - and then walked through Chinatown, through Little Italy, and to Dow's Lake. That's where the above outfit photo was taken, by my wonderful cousin. Now if only I could get someone to take my photos more often!

We did a little tree climbing - which is why my dress looks funny, the lining was hiked up crooked from climbing trees! Now's the best time in this freaky warm weather, the trees are bare of bugs or other ickies. Afterward, we stopped at an Italian pastry shop to pick up some desserts, and went back to my apartment to bake muffins.

On walls off Somerset in Ottawa's Chinatown.

For supper, I took her out for some pho since she'd never had any before either. I think she may have liked it, but it can be difficult to eat. I mean, it is a bowl of super long rice-noodle soup that you eat with chopsticks. That requires some form of skill to eat (or an absolute lack of self-consciousness). She didn't eat a ton, but I don't know if that was from dislike, or just because she doesn't eat a lot at once, or it being difficult to eat. I am so clueless about children.

We capped off our time together by eating our desserts while watching the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (I felt old trying to explain who David Hasselhoff is and why he's a thing). It was a very good day.

I'm so very thankful for my family, for these wonderful people I can love and be close to. These sorts of days for me, these are new experiences, brand new and shiny. And now I'm holding that shiny new thing in my hands, and I know once it starts to tarnish - as all things do with time - that I will only love and appreciate it in its worn beauty even more. I hope you're all having a really great weekend, I'm sending you all a little love. Cheers!

Thanks Universe!

When I started writing this post this morning, I went on about how I hated my crooked too-short self-cut bangs and how my skirt was crooked and my top was being weird and all sorts of cranky stuff. Then I went home for lunch and checked my e-mail. I am not cranky anymore.

Some of you might remember how bummed out I was back in June when I found out my best friend was going to be moving away and traveling out to British Columbia. Well after that, she moved even further away to Rwanda, way out in Africa! A whole other continent! That has had me extra bummed out, and I have missed her dearly. Well... SHE'S COMING BACK! And not only that, she'll be back by Friday next week!

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village, Holt Renfrew

Tights - ???

Shoes - Spring

I literally pranced around my apartment in joy. My friend! My super awesome totally cool chill groovy wicked lady friend! She's coming back! Of course, she's going to be living with her sister in a small town further South in Ontario but hey, I'm pleased as punch just to be sharing a province with her again. I can't wait for when I can finally see her in person, it's been far too long.

She'd quickly popped in last year, between her cross-country escapade and her ocean-crossing, to say goodbye. We spent a few hours chatting and then off she went again. I won't be seeing her anywhere near as often as when she lived in the city, but I am still so thrilled that she's 'come home' so to speak.

I've also got a second thing to be happy about. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Katie Paul over at Head-Heart-Health. (I mentioned her blog the other day.) She'd had a little contest going, for membership to her Love Matrix Project. I had entered... and won!

I've been offered a wonderful gift, and my best friend is coming back to Canada. I am definitely a happy camper right now! And this evening I'm going to another dear lady friend's for a women's potluck and poker night (I'm bringing some lemon-blueberry loaf) and I'm going to share my joy at my friend's return with everyone. Because if being happy is bad then I'm downright evil :D I hope you all have a groovy weekend! Cheers!

Mall Rat

I wore this outfit last Saturday, for breakfast with family and to do some running around in the Rideau Centre mall with my visiting aunt. Clearly I have more clothes than I need when I haven't worn this skirt or this top since last year. I mean, I'm still keeping them both, but I definitely have too much clothing. Or maybe my problem is simply that I have too little time to wear the clothing. Yes, that's my problem: too little time for all my clothes!

Top - Forever 21

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Leggings - Sirens maybe?

Flats - Ardene's

I'm probably much too bothered by the small spot on the bottom middle of my shirt. I dropped a tomato piece on it while eating breakfast, and it didn't really show, until it was subjected to my camera flash. Darn tomato, leaving its mark! I'm not usually a huge fan of billowy and draping tops, but this one is fun. (Kiss! <3 Oh Gene Simmons, how your mad Bass skills awe me!)

These photos really make me wish I hadn't cut my bangs so short. I'm due for an actual professional hair cut though, so I'm probably going to just let them grow out and then have my hair dresser fix the horrors I have done to my hair since I last went in December. (Okay, I haven't done anything that bad, but I'm not thrilled about how my hair looks right now either. I'm seriously contemplating growing the suckers back out again, actually.)

Tonight is the final class of our beginner level belly dance classes... I'm signing up for the next intermediate level, it's just too much fun to stop. I'm excited for learning more complex moves, but I'm also nervous. My limbs have got minds of their own and often times they just wind up flailing in every direction rather than being graceful and actually performing the move. I will be the master of you yet, flailing limbs!

I can't wait for the weekend. The weather is going to be gorgeous and ridiculously (unnaturally) warm and it's going to be lovely. I'm attending a ladies poker and potluck night at a dear friend's on Friday, and then on Saturday I'll be spending the afternoon with my grandmother's twelve year old granddaughter (we aren't blood-relatives). She came with us to the mall and she seems to like me and and wants to meet my pets. Hopefully my plans of baking muffins together and taking a stroll through Little Italy for a sweet treat sounds good to her. I was nothing like her when I was twelve so I'm kind of flying blind in the entertaining-tweens department. I hope you're all having a good week so far. Cheers!

Stupid Things

Sometimes, I do stupid things. Like spend an entire lovely warm Sunday afternoon indoors doing my taxes. And then nearly sprain my wrist punching my mattress in frustration over said taxes. And then wandering around aimlessly as the sun goes down because I can't just let a whole gorgeous day go by and somehow wind up with a mini Grand-Marnier white chocolate cheesecake in my possession. And then go home and cut my bangs ridunculously short. A final stupid thing with which to end my day.

Dress - Gift from Heather

Belt - Ardene's

Tights - We Love Colours in Ivory

Shoes - Payless

These are my bangs before I cut them ridiculously short, for the record. I won't be able to wear this dress again any time soon; the zip on it died on the day I took these photos. I'll eventually get it replaced, but knowing me, it's going to be a good long time before I get around to acquiring a replacement zipper and bringing it to someone who will change it for me.

If the print of this dress looks familiar, that's because you've seen it before, back when I wore it as a blouse with a skirt over top. I suppose it works out that the dress is unwearable; I need to replace a button on the skirt I like to pair it with as well. My mending pile is growing awkwardly tall again and I'm going to have to attack it sometime soon.

I had a really lovely weekend - apart from the whole tax thing - and spent most of Saturday with friends and family. I got some animal-related tasks done and out of the way too, which was good. I'm keeping very busy lately, and it makes the days go by so quickly. Right now I'm just looking forward to taking my final driving test on Tuesday next week. Once that's done, I can apply to my city's car-share program and hopefully, by then end of May, have access to a vehicle again. I hope you're all having a good Monday. Cheers!

Changing Times

I've noticed the last few months that my taste in blogs has been changing. For a while I was reading a lot of style blogs and fashion blogs, some with more intellectual content than others. Somewhere along the way, I started discovering more blogs about things like self-love, style and feminism, health and exercise and many less 'shallow' subjects. Then at some point, those kind of took over.

Blouse - Thrifted from the Salvation Army

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Boots - Some sports store

I still read my old favourites, as well as some new loves, but I have to admit that I'm losing interest in most others. My list of unread blog posts in Bloglovin is up around 150 and as I scroll through the titles, so few of them pique my interest. I feel a little guilty, because I started following them all for very good reasons. The women are bright, intelligent, creative, stylish, caring, friendly, inspiring... and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out. Yet I still don't read the posts.

I'm no less interested in style - I enjoy clothes now on myself and others more than ever - but I am less interested in the rampant consumerism and commercialism I see everywhere. It's almost impossible to read style blogs without winding up on a clothing website or scrolling through the shoe sales pages somewhere.

It really bothers me seeing young women being sent items from companies, to the point where their outfits are entirely comprised of 'care of' items. Most of them are too young to realize they're being used as free advertising. The pittance spent sending out pairs of shoes or tops saves companies thousands of dollars in formal advertising. And those 16-17-18 year olds have no clue, neither the ones wearing the items, or those happily eating it up and running out to buy more of the same.

Too often I'm also seeing fat-shaming, and an obsession with weight loss, becoming thinner, overly-expensive beauty products and well... just lots of things I disagree with and dislike. I support creativity, stepping outside the box, being a unique individual with different tastes, diversity and an open mind. Go take a stroll through any large mall though, and people look like clones of each other most of the time. I think the kicker is when I see someone wearing an item I was looking at in a store, but dismissed for being cheap, overpriced and mass produced. Moments like those remind me why I thrift and buy vintage.

I guess what I'm getting at with all of this is that, for the most part, I've moved on to another stage in my life, at least blog-wise. I'm more interested in content about emotions, self-love, desires, sex, life challenges, goals, health, exercise, food and eating habits, and things that add to my life. And while it can be nice to get a little outfit inspiration, I'd rather read something that inspires people to do something greater, be it starting to exercise regularly in a healthy manner or to stop thinking negative thoughts about our bodies.

If any of this stuff sounds like something you would like to start reading about (and if you follow Sal's blog, you've probably seen some of these before) here are some of my favourites. I really think any woman can gain from the voices of these strong female writers.

• Medicinal Marzipan
• Head-Heart-Health
• Zoe and the Beatles
• Fit and Feminist
• Roots of She
• Danielle Dowling

I've been putting off going through my blog list and cleaning things up, distinguishing what I really really love from what I just feel meh about. Reading blogs should not be an onerous chore and until I get that done, it's going to feel that way. I really hope some of you do check out these blogs, they shone light on a lot of things for me. I wish you all a super awesome weekend. Cheers!

Call Me Heidi

For some reason, now that I look at these photos, I feel like I should have pigtail braids and be traipsing across rolling Swedish hills to go milk a cow or something. I don't know. I'm quite mad! Mad enough to pair a neon green skirt with this tunic. I don't particularly like how my winter boots (emergency ones bought on clearance when I literally walked through my other pair) look with everything but I dislike being in my sock feet in photos anymore.

Tunic - Purchased from Mr. Idaho's Vintage on Etsy

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Belt - Gift from Heather

Boots - Some sports store

Is this outfit flattering? No. Is it pleasing to the eye? Most people would disagree. Is it classy, clean or crisp? Nope. And I like it that way. My workday outfits have to confirm to some slightly more polished dressing rules, so I tend to get sloppy and free on weekends and weeknights. Screw figure-flattery or looking sexy, I just want to wear something fun and something me. So I do.

I can't get over how much embroidery is on this tunic. So many itty bitty little details! The green in the embroidery was nearly identical to the skirt too, so it was practically a must to put them together. I can't wait to wear this again once it's not freezing outside and I can be bare legged! The skirt has such wonderful flounce and swing, with so much fabric to twirl about.

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was alright for the most part, but not as good as I had hoped. I'm a bit miffed with some friends who had promised me something, then not only promptly reneged that promise, but then offered two other people that which they had promised me. Right in front of me. It'd be like promising a thirsty person a glass of water, pulling it away at the last moment and saying there isn't enough, only to then give it to two other people who don't need it, in front of that thirsty person's face. And then acting like they'd never offered in the first place.

I am so over winter. So done. It's still frigidly cold outside though, of course. I just want bare legs and toes in the grass again. To be able to go outside without having to pile on 4 layers. For a time when walking to the grocery store doesn't depend on which direction the wind is blowing ice pellets (into or away from your eyes). I want to go camping, a lot. Come on warm weather, get here! Cheers!

Friday Frenzy

Admittedly things aren't all that wild around here today, but my outfit sure feels wild! There's something about having electric blue legs that just gives your day a good kick in the butt. Not to mention wearing two dresses at once... gotta love layering! And yes, I am actually wearing this outfit as I post it, a rare occurrence around here.

Shirt-dress + matching belt - Thrifted from Value Village

Black dress - Sears sale, 2008

Tights - We Love Colours

Shoes - Payless

This is the same black dress I wore over my snake-print shirt-dress back in January. It really is endlessly useful for layering. You can also see the shirt-dress and obi belt on their own in this post from last year. I don't wear the obi belt very often, but it turned out to be perfect for this outfit. When I saw the first dress sticking out past the second, I contemplated pinning the hem up out of view, but I actually really like the extra pop of colour (like I need more) it gives things.

My silly cold is still dragging itself out. It's nothing serious, just a mildly annoying constant sniffle and really intense occasional sneezing, although now I'm worried it might be migrating to my lungs as usually happens when I'm ill. I can't just be severely sick for 48 hours, nah, I'm usually mildly and exhaustively ill for about two weeks! Hopefully that doesn't happen this time.

I think the most fun part of wearing this outfit (after wearing this outfit) is that I am wearing it in a library. A girl with electric blue legs and platform stilettos is usually the last thing someone expects in a library. And I dig that. Because this life needs more whimsy. A world of grey is a dull world indeed! I hope you all have a super awesome weekend. Cheers!