Behind In the Times

I meant to post this outfit before I left for Europe but it kind of never happened. So before I can start posting more current outfits, here's a final summery one. As it is, the weather is gloomy and cool and not at all like summer. September is here and it's making itself known, that's for certain.

Skirt as a Dress - Walmart

Belt - Can't remember

Necklace - Value Village

Sandals - Value Village

I was a little bothered that everybody could see my bra straps but I got over it quickly enough. This was comfy and breezy and colourful and lazy, everything I needed it to be that day in mid-August. This morning I have to get dressed for cool temperatures and rain though, since my classmates and I are going to a farm to pick some corn! Cheers!

Moving in a Dress

I wore this to help my parents move. I do pretty much everything in a skirt or a pretty dress, nearly all of the time, if I can possibly manage it. It does make cycling a bit complicated sometimes - my longer skirts keep getting jammed in my rear breaks argh - but I'm still doing it. I refuse to compromise!

Dress - Thrifted from Value Village

Sandals - Thrifted from Value Village

For a moment I'd thought I'd gotten rid of this dress but it was just in another closet. Thank goodness! Because it's such a sweet dress. I've been wearing it for a few years now and hopefully can continue to do so for several years to come. I've also been trying to mix up the food I'm eating. After a trip to the big city of Sudbury with my parents a little while back, I scored some delicious ingredients that prompted me to make a fresh new salad.

It's mixed baby greens, with buffalo mozzarella, cashews, raspberries, and a raspberry red wine vinaigrette. I wasn't certain I would be able to do much with a raspberry red wine vinegar but it was perfect for this. The cheese was wonderfully rich and smooth and creamy, the cashews gave a nice crunch and the vinaigrette was sweet enough to balance out the tartness of some of the baby greens. Definitely something I'll be eating again. Anyhow, I hope you are having a good week. Cheers!

Rainbow Garden

After all the rain we were having recently, I have absolutely no complaints about all this gorgeous sun! I've already got a bit of a tan and a sunburn haha... Things went from winter to summer and sort of skipped spring, which is a bit confusing, but I'm getting used to the heat.

Dress - Purchased from Siam2u on Etsy

Sandals - Fluevog

Necklaces - Thrifted from Value Village

With the help of my parents, I've made a lot of progress with my little garden. I'm kind of early, but the weather is so warm that there's really no fear of frost. I've got potatoes, green pepper plants and some strawberry bunches planted already. I'll be putting in so catnip seeds later today, both as a treat for my cat and as an added insect repellent along with the marigolds I planted around the edge.

I never thought gardening would be for me, but I've found it more fulfilling and enjoyable already than I ever thought possible. I really like digging around in the dirt, putting down little living green things, planting seeds that I nurture and tend to as they sprout. It's exciting!

The only thing I could wish for right now is that the lake were warm enough to swim in already! But there's still ice, floating to and fro depending on the direction of the wind. Not to mention all the rivers and creeks are so high and rushing into the lake with their cold water, it'll be a good long while before it warms up enough for comfortably swimming. Something to look forward to though. I hope you all have a good Saturday. Cheers!

Past Pandemonium

I can't believe I never got around to posting my photos from the Pandemonium Festival! Apparently I just take forever to do just about everything these days, unless it involves food or laundering my school uniform. So here, months after the fact, are the photos (a whole whack of them) from my time spent with my wonderful friends Becky and Marty at the Pandemonium 2012 music festival back in August.

I consider this to have been my very best and most favourite festival experience so far, in the few years I've been attending. It's one of those times that will stay with me until my very last, a joyous time I take out and turn around in my hands and smile in gladness, knowing it is mine and no one can take it away. I love my friends, so very dearly, and I love that we shared this experience together. I hope you may all know such joy and goodness. Cheers!

Pandemonium

I just got back yesterday from the Pandemonium outdoor electronic music festival in Quebec. I had an absolutely amazing time once again. And I even managed to take more than 6 photos this time!

I've been having computer issues though and I'm heading back to the shop a second time to trade up for a stronger unit after replacing my old dinosaur of a desktop. My poor hard drive kicked the bucket (thank goodness for my external hard drive). I hope you're all having a good week, and I'll leave you with this until I write something more later. Cheers!

Another Life

I can't believe I haven't posted real outfit photos in nearly a month! A lot has been going on at my end of things, and it's also been very hot so I haven't been wearing much in terms of interesting clothing. I think I spent three days last week wearing the same altered men's t-shirt and a black skirt because everything else felt too fussy. This outfit is far from grungy though, and the skirt was actually a gift from the lovely Anne way back when she sent me a package over the winter.

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Gift from Anne

Sandals - Spring

I don't have very many pieces of clothes with either pink or grey so I had a bit of a challenge when it came to finding something with which to pair this skirt! Finally I just decided that these patterned had a good thing going and went with it. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, and it was a comfortable and light outfit to wear on a hot day when I was still working.

For a while I was letting my cat out to chill on the terrace with me while I took photos or whatnot, but the little booger kept sneaking off to my neighbours' terraces and that's not something I could have him doing. So I got hm a harass and he grudgingly lets me put it on him. He'd rather look silly and be outside than sit staring at me through the window screen.



He doesn't stay out there on his own - being tied to stuff spooks him - but looping the leash around a chair leg at least keeps him from zipping off while my back is turned. July was a rough month for my cat because I was away three weekends in a row and very busy during the weekdays. He's happy to have me around so much more now, and I'm very happy to be home with him!

I'm much more tan now than I am in these photos. A few outdoor festivals and visits to a water park and I managed to avoid any serious sunburns though which is great. There's a pale circle around my left wrist where my watch always is that sort of shows how pale I used to be in contrast to now which is funny. Anyhow, now I'm rambling. I hope you're all having a good week. Cheers!

Gone Dotty

This is the dress that started a revolution. My style revolution, that is, many years ago - in 2007 to be exact. It is the very first dress that I felt good in. At the time, I was 18 years old and living in a shitty relationship, working a student summer job between college semesters. We were broke most of the time, in that rent-or-food kind of way. I had tried the dress on a while earlier but even at $20 I couldn't afford it. Later I was with my cousin Charlene and after telling her about the dress, she bought it for me. I'm still thankful for that. And while I'm not a huge fan of polka dots and the black-and-white thing is a bit boring for me nowadays, I still like this dress even if I don't wear it all that often anymore.

Dress - Fairweather '07

Red tank - No idea

Shoes - Thrifted from Value Village

I discovered recently that my rebellious PS2 is still willing to read my God of War 2 game disc and I've been ravenously playing - and yelling at the screen - the last few days. A friend of mine joined me last evening for a few hours of gaming and it was funny being the one actually better at the game for once haha. I have to admit I'm looking forward to going home and playing some more. It's still so hot out anyway, all I really want to do is sit around with a fan pointed at me, so I may as well have a gaming controller in my hand!

Quinoa has been making a lot of appearances in my kitchen lately, some more successful than others.  It cooks up so quick and easy, it's practically fool proof, I've been using it in place of rice and pasta a lot. This Thai peanut sauce, shrimp and steamed broccoli bowl on quinoa was a success. The pineapple quinoa I tried making the other evening, not so much (I was having ingredient issues). Hit and miss! I'll definitely be making this again though, it was way too easy not to.

Annoyingly I won't be able to take photos on my terrace for the next little while. I got home from work yesterday to find that the crew working on the outside of my building had set up scaffolding on my terrace, to do some brickwork. I can still get out and use my seating area off to the side, but my open space is all taken up by scaffolding. I hope it doesn't stay there long! I'm not too fond of the idea of men wandering around on my terrace. My doors are locked and they can't get in but still, privacy, you know? Although maybe if I'm lucky they'll do away with the wasp nest that the insects have started building in the outside frame of my window. I sprayed the crap out of it with oven cleaner (I have no insect killer) but that didn't seem to do much more than stun the buggers. Then I fled in terror. Anyhow, I hope you're all having a good week so far. Cheers!

Quick - before it rains!

It seemed every time I would get myself set up, it started to rain. So I would dash inside. Then it would stop raining and I'd pop back out... only to have it start raining again. After the third time dashing indoors, I just gave up and settled with the few photos I'd managed to take without getting myself and my camera soaked in a downpour.

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - From grandmother

Sandals - Fluevogs

The second gecko baby hatched yesterday afternoon and I was able to move it in with its sibling after coming home from work. Once they've had a few days to get used to their container I'll try getting some photos of them together. I'm really interested to see how their colours develop.

I'm going to enjoy the heck out of this weekend because it's the last one I actually get to spend at home for a while. Next weekend takes me out to Space Gathering, and the weekend after I plan on going home for a family visit, and the weekend after that takes me to the Eclipse Festival. I knew I was going to have a busy summer but man! August will bring more traveling, more music festivals, and more camping if everything goes right. I'm so excited for everything! I hope you all have a really groovy weekend. Cheers!

Another Newbie

You might recall a little less than a month ago when I shared photos of my first ever crested gecko hatchling. Well yesterday I got home from work to discover that an egg from the next clutch had hatched during the afternoon! I was thrilled, and I'm in love with the wee thing already. Its clutch-mate (since crested geckos lay 2 eggs at a time) still has yet to hatch, but I figure it'll join its sibling in another few days. Before photos of the new baby gecko though, here's a new outfit.

Top - Fairweather

Skirt - No idea, some mall shop

Leggings - Sirens, I think

Sandals - Thrifted from Value Village

I wore this last Saturday to help my friend Chrissy (who took these photos) start packing up her apartment. In retrospect, wearing a white top while packing was kind of a bad idea and I wound up getting pretty dusty, but nothing a good wash won't clear up. I bought this orange tube skirt and one in pink for $5 each, only to realize they're near transparent. I wore this orange one as a tube top a little while ago actually, so while I can't wear them on their own, they're still proving very useful for light layering. Now if only I'd noticed my leggings were uneven...

Getting dressed that day made me realize how few shorter tops I actually have that aren't long-sleeved. I went through a phase where everything had to cover my butt, which is fine and dandy, but sometimes I want something that doesn't have the ability to stretch near-to-my-knees. Methinks I'll have to do a spot of thrifting to remedy this sometime soon. And now... the gecko babeh!

This photo is slightly blurred - I apologize - but I didn't think it would be very polite to blind the wee thing with a camera flash not hours out of its egg. You can see that the egg on the left is much bigger than the empty one on the right because it's still full of gecko cuteness. The eggs grow and expand as the little geckos do, so once they're empty they tend to collapse into themselves, unlike hard-shelled bird eggs.

I really love this last photo because you can see that the baby is still all wrinkly in its newness. If I'm really lucky I'll go home today to find that the second egg has hatched open. It was still intact when I left at lunch time though. It's so exciting knowing there's a little life in there, I can't wait to see what it looks like. I hope you're all having a good week so far. Cheers!

Happy Repetition

This skirt and t-shirt combo is one I repeat nearly weekly in the summertime. The skirt is both light and well-structured, which is good in this hot and windy city. There's much less chance of this one blowing up in a gust of wind. I wore exactly this outfit about a year ago - plus belt and different shoes - and it's interesting for me to finally be able to look at older photos of myself and not notice as many physical differences. It took a while for my body to figure out where it wanted to be but this seems to be it, and I'm more than happy with that too.

T-shirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Sandals - Fluevogs

I had a really great Canada Day long weekend. My Saturday was spent helping a friend start packing her apartment for an upcoming move in return for a tasty meal and lots of laughs. I think the best moment was when we were taping up boxes and I turned around to see she had taped an empty box shut. We spent the next several minutes laughing over this until we were both red in the face. Good times!

On Sunday my friend Tina and I went hiking in Gatineau Park. We did the King's Mountain, Champlain Lookout and Pink Lake circuits before calling it a day and sneaking off for an afternoon swim in a friend's backyard pool. It felt really good swimming after getting all sweaty on our hike, and I was able to wear a new string-bikini I got. I'm still a little amazed at my willingness to wear it, and I don't know if I'll actually wear it out in public around strangers, but I'm sort of okay with my friends seeing more parts of me than usual now.

I'm still happily hauling around my parrot purse. My mother always said I'd see the light and understand why she carried around huge bags someday, I just never figured it would be with the help of something so gaudy. I love my drunken parrots though! They make a great example for how to spend my free time this summer... partying and enjoying life! (And keeping hydrated and wearing hats to avoid sunstroke!)

Mister Caramel has naughtily been sneaking off to the neighbour's whenever he gets out onto the terrace, so he's been relegated to the inside until I get a dog harness - he's too big for cat ones - and can tie him up outside. The last thing I need is one of my neighbour's getting up in arms about my cat wandering onto their terrace.

 I was officially accepted into the Cordon Bleu's Basic Pastry program here in Ottawa, and I will be starting classes in October. I'm still kind of amazed that this is actually happening. My last day at work will be July 11th, so less than two weeks from now. I cannot wait to leave this building and never set foot here again. While I'm thankful for the things it has allowed me to do, I am also very thankful I am leaving this place. I was talking to my manager this morning and she's found employment elsewhere and will be leaving two days after myself. In her words "This isn't a healthy place." Good to hear it from someone else for once.

In two weekends I'll be heading out into Quebec for another festival, this time Space Gathering. It's a new one for me, but I've heard great things and I'm very excited. I do have to get myself a bigger tent though, just because now that I've acquired an air mattress, my little 3-man just isn't cutting it. (Who are the men they use anyway, there's no way you could fit three grown men in my tent.) It certainly won't go to waste though since I plan on spending plenty of time tenting this summer. I hope you all had a really great weekend and that your weeks are going well. Cheers!