Spiffy Sandals

These are the fantabulous sandals that I purchased while in Montreal. They're Fluevogs, and if you've never heard of them before, for the love of Marie go check out their website! You'll be wiping drool from your chin in half a minute. I was delighted to find out they had a physical store in Montreal so it was great to be able to go in and actually try the shoes on. I'm not a fan of shelling out over $200 on something I haven't even tried on, eh? Good thing too, because I had to size up from my usual 8 to a 9.

Crocheted top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Sandals - Faiths Low | Reumah by Fluevog

And believe it or not, for a wooden-soled clog, these babies are comfy. I spent ten hours in them this past Saturday, including walking about 2 km's in 'em on hard city sidewalks. Had I attempted that with any of my other heels, I'd have been limping halfway through the day. Most of my heels don't even allow me the ability to stand for more than ten or so minutes, much less walk, dance and be sexy for ten hours straight. I'm in love! And while my wallet still hates me, my feet are thankful. Money well spent, in my book, and I know I'm probably going to be buying myself more Fluevogs in the future.

I wore this outfit to my friend's pantsless birthday party on Saturday. She's moving out of the city for the summer so we all descended on the Love Shack (as she likes to call her home) for good pantsless times. I'm glad I was able to wear the skirt too, it hasn't seen light of day since way back in September last year. As for the top, I've had it years but it's never made it onto the blog. It's actually an Extra Large, but I liked it too much to leave it behind. I shortened the straps a bit, and the under-bust drawstring helps give it shape but I'm still really swimming in the thing. Didn't stop me wearing it though, and braless to boot. Freedom!

My septum piercing is kinda wonky, but so's my personality, so I guess it works! The wee cow earrings were a gift from my friend Becky, and they're turning into one of my favourite pairs. She gave them to me while we were at Electronic Brain a few weekends ago (I'll get around to posting about that, I swear) and I put them on right away. You can see near the bottom my ugly-but-functional strap shortening attempts. Why I did that in the front instead of the back is beyond me.

These are the last outfit photos I've got on hand, so I need to buck up and start taking more again. Summer always does this to me. It gets hot and gross and all I want to wear is outfits like these, but when I go to work in an office five days a week, I'm then rarely inspired by what I do wear and don't bother taking photos. Speaking of work... my last day has been approved, with a date of July 11th. I am excited and terrified, but it will feel good once I'm finally free. Two weeks! I hope you're all having a good week. Cheers!

Insane in the Membrane

So you know how last week I mentioned I had a cold? Yeah well, turns out it was pneumonia. Yes, pneumonia in the middle of summer when I haven't been near a hospital or a seriously ill person in... I don't know how long. Thankfully I'm now on antibiotics and in another week and a half things should be all cleared up, and it won't feel like I'm breathing soup anymore.

Camisole - No idea, had it for years

Dress as skirt - Giant Tiger

Sandals - Aldo

This is me being uber casual. I threw this outfit on a while back when I thought I was going to be heading out with a friend. Then I changed my mind and canceled (because it's okay to do that) and figured since I was dressed I may as well take photos. Considering how few outfits I've documented this month, it's probably a good thing I did. The skirt is actually a little halter-tie dress, I just stuffed the ties inside and wore it as a skirt here. Yay for multi-use items!

My hair and I are still in a love-hate relationship. It seems that most days where it's actually cool enough to wear it down, it decides to misbehave, and then when it looks gorgeous and marvy, it's hot and humid and I've no choice but to stick it up in a bun or a clip lest it get all sweaty and stick to me like a damp towel. Not. Cool. I also find it funny that for all the years I've been shaving my legs, I still continuously nick myself at the back of my left ankle. Always the left one. So odd!

My world feels so upside down right now. I only wound up going to work for one day last week what with being sick with pneumonia and all. Everything is tinged with slight unreality. I could compare the feeling of it to that masked ballroom scene in Labyrinth. Wonder, confusion, awe, fright... and the nagging feeling that there's something important going on that I'm forgetting about. Speaking of Labyrinth... I had my super-awesome artistic friend Nicole make me another custom piece of artwork. Behold!

All unattended children will be given to the Goblin King. Awwwwe yeah. I've got it hanging in my kitchen. Nicole is the same friend who painted my flower-haired Jim Morrison. I'm starting to collect quite a few friend-made pieces of art in my apartment now and it's great. I'll never understand people with so little imagination or personality that they can be happy with sticking up Ikea prints on their walls and not feeling like they're living inside a boring cookie-cutter catalogue house. (The only 'art' I've seen at Ikea that sparked any interest for me is this huge picture of a jungle rope bridge, now that is awesome, mostly due to size and perspective.)

Then again, I know very few people whose homes look anything at all like mine, so perhaps I'm the lunatic for not being content with mass-produced photos of pebbles and nondescript foggy beach scenes? ....Nah! Maybe once I actually get my place cleaned up (it's been too damn hot for housework) I could take some photos of my lair and share it with you all here. Everybody who visits expresses delight and interest in my decor and various knick-knackery so may you would too.

It's barely past 10AM now and my brain already feels like it's turning to sludge and about to ooze out my ears. Two more weeks in this place and then I can finally escape be free. It's going to be a test of my character and personal strength staying here so long, silly as it may seem. Just being here this morning made me want to cry and scream and throw things. It's just wrong I tell ya. I hope you're all doing better than I am right now - which isn't difficult - and that you're all having a good Monday. Cheers!

Humid in Da House

Temperatures are continuing to climb to uncomfortable highs here in Ontario. They're calling for a high of 33'C/91'F feeling like 44'C/111'F today. This is expected to continue into the weekend but hopefully by next week things will be back to a reasonable level. I've had the misfortune of catching a summer cold so both my chest and head are congested and this humid weather is really not helping things. Not to mention I don't have A/C in my apartment so there's no real reprieve unless I'm at work.

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Pleated skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Sandals - Spring

Last night's sleep was fitful but I don't know if it's being sick or the heat giving me such trouble. Plus I keep having dreams where I think I've woken up and started my day only to have it go catastrophically wrong, but then actually wake up to realize I was only stressed over a dream. I think I had four separate dreams masquerading as reality just this morning.

I wore this outfit mostly to keep cool on a hot day while still being somewhat office-appropriate, but it feels a little like I'm in disguise. While I like the outfit, and how it looks on me, I'm not a huge fan. I think it's because there's so much black going on, and I'm really not used to being so darkly garbed. Even if my legs are pale as ghosts! I accidentally crisped a bit since then so at least not so much anymore.

I haven't really got much to say because I've just been chilling in the shade trying to keep cool and remember that just because it's warm doesn't mean my cold isn't real and that I still need to rest. At least I wasn't seriously sick while visiting Nicole in Montreal this past weekend. We had a really great time - and I bought some super special sandals - and once I get myself organized you can expect some photos from that adventuring. Anyway, I hope you're all having a good week and that you aren't sick like I am. Cheers!

Green Green Green

I love this dress ever so much, but it's a wiggle dress, and I always get frustrated if I have to walk more than a few feet anywhere. My natural stride is very long and wearing this dresses forces me to take awkward small steps, which I'm not used to. But I keep it and keep wearing it - albeit not often - because wearing head to toe bright green is too awesome to stop doing.

 Dress - Thrifted from the Salvation Army

Belt - Déjà New consignment shop in Ottawa

Shoes - Lulu's

The intense urge to chop off my hair has subsided, although the desire is still there sometimes. My bangs have finally grown out to a length where I don't feel like a total freak and they've actually been behaving quite well recently. The best description for what my hair has been doing is looking like it should be on the head of someone cruising the coast of California. Not sitting in a stuffy library. Would that I could obey my hair!

The buttons on the back of the dress are a light blue colour now but I have a feeling they used to match the dress. Their thread matches perfectly and I think the buttons may have just faded over time. I've got the matching belt that goes with the dress too but it's a bit too long and wearing it just makes me look like a giant tube of green and that's a bit too much.

 I'm ever so happy it's Friday again. I only had a three day work week, but it's still felt absolutely interminable. I'm out of patience and just want to scream and tell my work to shove their requests where the sun don't shine. Being here is just wrong for me, in every possible way. It's toxic to my mental and physical well-being and I do not like it. Knowing how close I am to finally being free of this places makes it so much harder to still be here.

I'm spending Saturday and Sunday in Montreal, where I will finally get to meet an awesome internet friend. We've known each other for years and only live about two hours and change apart, but our lives never really crossed. She and I have plenty of fun plans involving visiting the Fluevog shoe store, going to the Archeology Museum and then eating delicious crêpes, among other fun activities. So excited! I hope you all have a really great weekend. Cheers!

Cosmic Nebula

I waited far too long to make the repairs to this dress. It had been sitting in my mending pile for near on a year. Several holes had been poked and ripped through the thin outside layer, but I managed to mend them and now I can wear my crazy dress again. Admittedly it's rather large on me, but I like it too much to give it up.

Dress- Thrifted from Rebuilt Resources

Skirt as tube-top - Sirens

Sandals - Spring

Life is just plugging along at a thousand miles an hour. It feels like ages ago that a friend and I made these chalk drawings out on my terrace. I'm responsible for the abstract shapes while my friend drew the embracing birds.

I really love these sandals but they're not very comfortable. Which is a shame because it was a whole song and dance just to get myself a pair. They've been sitting in my closet for years and only now am I finally taking them out more often. I'm also having plenty of fun with my makeup most days still. I probably went a little overboard this day, but with everything else going on, I couldn't help it.

I think the only big downside to bright outfits is that it's all the more apparent when you wear them on a regular basis. It's hard to stealthily re-wear a bright dress in comparison to jeans eh? I'm also still getting used to my outfits being totally visible to the public eye. After six months swaddled under drab and shapeless coats and jackets, it can be a little unnerving when every bum eyes you walking down the street.

There isn't a whole lot for me to say right now. I still haven't found that 2nd baby gecko but I haven't given up hope yet. Tonight my friend Laura and I are attending a small belly dance performance. We weren't a large enough group to perform ourselves this time around but maybe we'll be ready come December! I hope you're all having a really great week. Cheers!

New Arrival

I spent my weekend out in the wilds of Québec, and had an absolutely amazing time. We were camped out on the tippy top of a small mountain, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. The weather was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for better. I mean really, what more can you ask for when you crawl out of your tent to this kind of view?



And on top of having a totally amazing weekend, I got to come home to a new baby crested gecko. The eggs I had been incubating finally hatched - of course while I was away - and I was delighted to find a new little life in my home. Sadly one of the two seems to have escaped. I'm hoping it just hid somewhere and that I will find it soon. Admittedly I am worried that my cat ate it. Hopefully not! The one that didn't escape is adorable. I think I might name it Toffee.



The sun is shining and my heart is filled with joy and love. My mind has been expanded and my eyes have seen new sights like none before. I hope you all had a weekend as great as mine. Cheers!

Have Some Cuteness

Seeing as I am leaving to head off to the Electronic Brain festival today, I thought I would leave you all with some fuzzy baby-bird cuteness (after my outfit of course). These photos were taken a few weeks ago while out walking around Dow's Lake with a friend also kind enough to take my outfit photos. Said friend is very tall which explains why the view of me is from higher up than usual haha... Why it never occurred to me to take outfit photos by the lake is beyond me.

 

Dress - Purchased from Sally Jane Vintage on Etsy

Belt - Gift from Heather

Sandals - Spring

Is it weird that I actually feel more awkward having someone take my outfit photos than I do doing it by myself via timer? Even if I'm in public, somehow being by myself is easier. I guess because I don't care what strangers think but I for some reason still worry the person photographing me will think I'm a loon. 

That first photo with the seagull swooping down just cracks me up. The baby geese were already practically bigger than it was! We'd brought along old bread and so by the time we left there was quite a feathered frenzy going on. A couple with a young baby were there and I gave them some bread and it really made the kid's day to have those baby geese waddle up to him!

For being such cranky, cantankerous birds, geese are still very lovely to look at. It's just a shame they poop so much! I'm pretty sure these geese parents only tolerated our getting so near because we were handing out bread. Anyway, off I go adventuring! Expect a post with tales of my weekend sometime upon my return. Have a great weekend everybody! Cheers!

Out of Focus

I took these photos late in the evening after getting home from my grandparents' and the light was so low that they all came out really fuzzy. Ah well, it'll do! I just knew I didn't want to waste the chance at some outfit shots, and good thing because I haven't been taking any recently. My outfits only ever seem to get documented in spurts.

Shrug - Thrifted from Value Village

Dress - Thrifted from Value Village

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

Lizard broach - Gift

I'm trying to take it easy this week in preparation for the upcoming weekend. I'm attending the Electronic Brain festival out in Québec. There's going to be over 60 continuous hours of music from two stages and it's all set up on top of a forested mountain! Three nights and days of awesomeness! I'm going to dance myself silly. And hopefully take a ton of photos. I never take as many as I wish I would.

Hopefully we get some descent weather. I've been to more than one festival that resulted in spending copious amounts of time hiding from rain in a tiny tent so I am prepared for that, but I would really rather avoid it! I think the worst would be having to set up camp in the rain. Come on sunshine! Or at least... not-rain! I can deal with cloudy skies if it means being dry. Anywho, I hope you're all have a good week so far. Cheers!