Flouncing Around

This awesome skirt was another of the gifts I received from wonderful Heather. It's awesome and flouncy and demands to be spun around in. All the time. Everywhere. So I spend a lot of time twirling instead of walking.

Top - Garage sale, from mom

Skirt - Gift from Heather

Leggings - Who knows?

Boots - A shop on Sparks Street

I'm pretty frustrated. I recently purchased online a new terrarium for one of my snakes. I took the day off yesterday to be home to receive it... only to open the box and discover my $285 purchase had a shattered left side and cracked front. After an unhappy phone call and some e-mailing, the company promised to send me a replacement at no cost, but only because I'd had previous issues with them (someone canceled my original order several days in and I had to re-order) but that usually they'd make me deal with UPS.

They said they'd crate the next one for extra measure but I really hope it arrives in one piece. It's stupid because they say on their website that they aren't responsible for damages during freight, but don't allow the option to purchase insurance. All I know is, that if the next one arrives damaged, I'm taking that company down. It's still small and independent, and in the reptile community, it doesn't take much to ruin a company when it turns out they do bad business.

I noticed in the damaged one's box that the sides only had small squares of styrofoam instead of full ones, and it looks like the smaller size actually put pressure on the terrarium and caused it to break. Seems obvious to me, so if it repeats itself... I will not be a happy camper. There's no reason you can't spend an extra $0.50 for a full sheet of styrofoam and save your clients from receiving a useless $285 box of shattered acrylic.

I really want this work week to be over. It just feels like such a major waste of time being at work. Winter is always the time of year that most makes me hate my job and the way we all live our lives. Society is so maddening. But anywho. I hope you're all having a good week. Cheers!

My Favourite Top

Hey everybody! I hope your week is moving along smoothly. I had an absolutely wonderful evening yesterday with my grandfather and more of the family. He hadn't seen me since I was quite literally still a baby in a high chair. Blood is definitely thicker than water, and I felt very welcomed and very loved. Speaking of loved... That's how I feel every time I wear this top!

Top - Gift from Heather

Dress - Thrifted from the Salvation Army

Belt - Ardene's

Shoes - Spring

I mentioned in my post about the package she sent me, that I believed the items were imbued with her love. And it's true! Wearing this colourful zigzaggy top is like wearing a loving hug all day. Plus, everywhere I went wearing this, people were smiling at me. I guess bright colours cheer folks up eh?

I'm going to try my hand at making one of those secret-compartment book-box thingers this evening, as a gift to a friend of mine. I read a couple DIY's on how to do it and it looks pretty easy. Hopefully I don't bungle it! It should be fun either way though. Wee! Crafts!

And unbelievably, this top is SO versatile. With all those colours, it's like a mix-and-match bonanza! I've got more photos involving my red maxi from Friday's post, and plan to style it with black and pink as focal colours eventually too. But lime green demanded to be first pick. If only this dress weren't such a pain to walk in... I hope you're all having a groovy Tuesday! Cheers!

Science Saturday - Gynandromorphs

What in the world is a gynandromorph? It's essentially any organism born with both male and female physical characteristics. Gynandromorphic creatures can sometimes be very easily spotted in species with sexual dimorphism (when the males look very different from the females) because they will literally be half male and half female, split down the middle (which is called bilateral asymmetry). There are also mosaic gynandromorphs, but their male and female characteristics aren't as easily identified.  Here are some great examples of bilateral asymmetric gynandromorphs.

This chicken's left half is male, while the smaller brown right half is female. Only about 1 in 10,000 chickens are born as gynandromorphs. Turns out, these chickens are born from an egg fertilized with two sperm. Other bird species like pigeons, finches and parrots have also been documented as having gynandromorphic specimens.

 

 

The insect world is another place where dynandromorphic creatures have been found. Butterflies often display sexual dimorphism and so their dynandrophorphs are most easily spotted.

The following example of a gynandromorph is my most favourite yet, and the one that got me started on the subject. I actually didn't believe it was real at first, thinking it must have been photoshopped somehow. But since the photo was posted by a reputable tarantula breeder I've dealt with for several years now, I knew it was no hoax.

So there you have it folks! Gynandromorphs, the amazing result of weird cellular activity. Hopefully all the pretty butterflies make up for the spider at the end haha... I hope you all have a groovy rest of the weekend. Cheers!

Don't worry, be happy!

Happy Friday everybody! I'm so excited for this weekend. I'm going to a Christmas tree decorating party at a good friend's this evening, then I'm meeting up with my women's social group for tea, cakes and talk tomorrow, and finally Sunday I'm going out for breakfast and doing some shopping with other friends. I'm just in such a good mood lately, I don't know what it is, but I'm not complaining. I've decided I want to be a happy person, all the time (or as much as possible).

Dress as blouse - Purchased from Sally Jane Vintage on Etsy

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Necklace - Made for outfit

Flats - Ardene's

I want to be that person that makes you feel better just by being around them, and that leaves you with a little extra warmth in your heart. Maybe it's naive. Maybe it's silly. But I always want to be able to give someone a smile and brighten someone's day and help people let go and be happy.

I'm just filled with this overwhelming amount of joy and love and it needs to be shared. It comes out in warm hugs and home-made cookies and heartfelt notes to friends... I don't know, it's hard to explain. I've just been feeling so many strong, wonderful emotions lately. A friend of mine said its a sign of my growing maturity, and being able to understand things in more depth.

This month is going to be jam packed with activity for me. The thing I'm looking forward to most at the moment is this coming Monday however. I won't explain the story behind it, but I've just re-discovered a long-lost grandfather and more welcoming family than I know what to do with. It's all rather overwhelming and I keep wanting to cry from just how happy and thankful I am to have all these people in my life all of a sudden. And that they genuinely want me!

I want to be a bright sunny light, a gift to them, and everyone in my life. Maybe I'm just doing more growing up or having an epiphany over something obvious. But I intend to love all my friends and family fervently and fully, and to find joy in every moment I can. I hope you all have a really fantastic, joy-filled weekend! Cheers!

I'm a slacker, but my sleeves are cool

While my sparseness in posting for a large part of the month was due to my working on my NaNoWriMo novel, another large part was wasted spent playing Sims 3 for hours. And worse yet, I won't even hit the 50K required word count to "win" at NaNoWriMo. I'm just a lazy bones slacker who plays too many hours of video games.

Blouse - Thrifted from Value Village

Tank top - Fairweather

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Earrings - Thrifted from Value Village

Boots - Some shop on Sparks Street

I have at least been taking photos of what I think are some pretty awesome outfits. I'm looking forward to posting them all in the coming weeks. I'm still pretty challenged in terms of originality on weekdays but winter is putting a layered spin on getting dressed that at least changes things up. If that makes any sense at all. (I had a bad night, with my upstairs neighbour randomly banging and dragging things around after midnight, ugh.)

I am absolutely in love with the sleeves on this top. They're just so swishy and fun. And I am also absolutely in love with my little wooden hippopotamous earrings! That's right, wooden hippos are dangling from my ear lobes. I paid a whole $1 for these babies: thank you thrift store!

These photos were taken back on November 5th, but it wasn't long after that I made the decision to just stay inside to take photos for the rest of the cold season. For one thing, by the time I get home, it's dark out. And I do live in Canada and it's cold here. So I'm sure come Spring I'll be itching to get back out on my terrace to take photos, but until then I'll just admire these old ones and stay cozy indoors.

As much as I dislike Winter, I do enjoy being indoors cooking and baking. In the last month I've made a huge batch of corn chowder, some chicken taco chili and over six dozen lemon butter cookies. I just wish my freezer were bigger so I could make more food haha. I hope you're all having a good week. Cheers!

Fuzzy Slippers et Merci

Technically I wore this outfit yesterday. If you can even call it an outfit. Considering I am wearing fuzzy green slippers. And no jewelery to speak of or so much as an ounce of makeup. But I hadn't been intending on leaving the house at the time I took the photos. (Okay, I left the house with no makeup later too, I admit it.)

Blouse and Skirt - Gifts from wonderful Heather

I was intending on capturing my "weekend vibe" though so it makes sense to me. While my weekday outfits are often bright and colourful too, I still have to have some level of professionalism. I'd never go to work wearing either of these items. So I tend to indulge in the less-than-professional things on weekends. I also usually go easy on the makeup at least one day on weekends to let my skin breathe.

These two items in particular, along with a few more in my wardrobe, are extra special for me. I posted a little sneak peak to a future outfit a while back showing another of those items. These all come from the super, fantastic, loving, smiling, amazing Heather.

A few weeks ago, an amazing package arrived! It had a great card filled with awesome birthday wishes and wonderful words, more amazing clothes than I could have hoped for and other marvelous little things like rainbow butterfly earrings and a peacock feather! My cat even got a little something out of the deal haha...

I've already thanked you before but I'll do it again! Thank you so, so, SO much Heather! She is such an amazing, warm, caring, giving, glowing soul... Really, those of you who know the lady know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't know Heather, then please, go check out her wonderful blog Moonshine Junkyard, you won't regret it!

I've already worn everything that was in the package, several times over and outfits featuring all the items will be coming up in the near-ish future. I'm usually also super-extra-happy in all those photos just because the clothes cheer me up haha. I've decided they've all been imbued with Heather's love and happiness and so it transfers through when I wear them. Plus hey, look at this skirt, who can not be happy wearing this?!

I have to admit I'm doubting my ability to finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I've still only got a little over 39K words with 4 days left to write another 11K. And I just have zero motivation to do it. Ah well, I tried? I hope you're all having a groovy weekend! Cheers!

How did that happen?

I only just realized that I never got around to posting the second half of my Reptile Expo photos. You're all probably cringing now and wishing I'd have left it forgotten, but I must share the reptile goodness!







One woman had the most amazing collection of adult tarantulas I've seen so far. It's a bummer the cover had so much glare, they really were amazing creatures.

I've told myself no more pets while in my apartment. The ones I've got now have a lot of growing to do, which will require their taking up more space in the very-near future. Eventually I'd love to get more snakes, they're amazing pets, but money and space constraints stop me. I hope you enjoyed these photos, even though I know most of you aren't big on reptiles and whatnot.

I hope all you Americans are having a Happy Thanksgiving and a good week for everybody else! Cheers!