She's at it again

I am on a roll. After wearing one dress as a top last week, I did it again last Friday. And this time I got my butt out to Dow's Lake Park and took some photos. It's a beautiful park and, thankfully, a mostly empty one. I still got some funny stares though. Now I know how Liz feels.

Dress (as top) - Purchased from Heather's Etsy shop Moonshine Junkyard

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Shoes & Belt - Fairweather

I could probably have done with a better belt for this, since this one is rather loose (I'm actually holding it tighter in the photos, shh) but I'm pretty happy with this outfit. The dress is too short for work, but its light fabric and sleevelessness were offering me what I needed on a hot day.

Covering the bottom half with this long skirt worked perfectly. It compliments the green from the floral pattern, and it just happens to be my favourite colour. I felt very much like a lady wearing this, and it was great being able to just slip the skirt and belt off at the end of the day, stuff them in my backpack, and walk home in just the one dress.

Speaking of which, I'm going back through my posts trying to find the last time I wore this dress and... apparently I wear it a lot but haven't actually photographed any of the outfits in half of forever. A shame, I love the dress! I'll have to try and get some outfit photos with it more often before summer is over.

I really outdid myself with this next photo (in my opinion) and I'm very happy with it. Why am I so happy? Keep in mind, I use my camera's timer, which gives me a total of 10 seconds to go from pressing the button, to running to the rock, posing, rearranging my ample skirt, smiling, and hoping I don't look like a dork.

I did quite well indeed, if I do say so myself. I'm kinda thinking of having some of these more posed outfit photos printed and framed and giving a few to my grandmother. Is that weird? She just doesn't have any photos of me that aren't blurry crappy ones, or the ooold ones from when I was pudgy and graduating college. I just think she might enjoy some pretty portraits of her granddaughter... am I crazy? Warn me if so, so I don't embarrass myself doing that hah.

A friend and I are going horseback riding tomorrow, and I am so excited. I've only ridden a horse once, back when I was a little girl, but I've always loved horses (what girl doesn't?) so of course... Excited! Then on Sunday we're going to go see the National Capital Tournament, a show jumping competition where the winner will earn points towards rankings that will decide whether or not they get into the Olympics! Pretty darn impressive. Expect photos of horses in the coming weeks!

I know this is the "last summer weekend" for some of you, so I hope you all have absolutely super awesome weekends. Cheers!

Paradise Point

I mentioned a while back that I spent a weekend with some friends at one's cottage. The place is suitably called Paradise Point, as the cottage is built on a "point" of land jutting out into Sydenham lake. It doesn't matter where you are in the cottage, you can see the water from any window.





Plus, there was a swimming raft, kayaks and a jet ski! Plenty of things to keep us happy and entertained all weekend. We did arrive rather late Friday evening, so we were pretty mellow and just hung out eating tasty food and listening to music.

Saturday morning I went down to the dock to drink my coffee and admire my surroundings. There was definitely plenty to see (and photograph) around the place. I wish I had someplace like this to sit with my morning coffee everyday.

The day turned into one of those ideal not-too-hot days with enough cloud cover to keep you from crisping in the sun, but still hot enough to warrant swimming. We discovered during our swimming however that the fish in this lake are apparently very bold. They were nibbling at the people around the raft first, and then one particularly brazen fish decided he was going to try and eat the strings on my bikini top. Strings do not equal worms, little fish!





I was also thrilled to bits when a special visitor stopped over. The friend's mother had told us that a large snake had been coming around the front yard for a while, just sunning himself lazily. I of course wanted badly to see this snake. Turns out, I got even better, and was able to catch and hold it! It was a Black Rat Snake, very calm thing, had no real issues with me holding it. I'd never seen a snake like this in the wild before so it really made my weekend that I got to hold it.



Eventually the day started to wind down, people taking naps and spending some relaxed time off by themselves. Since I've never been one to nap, I took the opportunity to sit and read. I changed dresses and finally put all my things up in the Bunky (a cute little guest cabin where I got to sleep) and then settled on the front deck.

Meanwhile, the boys had acquired themselves some fireworks in the nearby small town and our friend Matty decided he was going to go Frankenstein on us and try to get more bang for his buck. Here he is taking the explosives apart, and then having way too much fun lighting them with his hand-made holder.




We got the pit ready just before sunset, and had ourselves a nice fire. Pity none of us thought to bring marshmallows! It was a perfect night for our few fireworks too, no wind at all.





All in all it was a good weekend. Friends, laughter, good food, good times. Something everybody could use a little more of any day of the week. Cheers!

Feeling Floral

This outfit seems to have caused a remixing chain-reaction in my wardrobe. Ever since I wore this dress as a top last Wednesday, I've since worn two more dresses as tops and bottoms. I only wish I'd figured this out earlier on! So much fun! I'd seen other bloggers doing it but couldn't for the life of me figure out how... I'm learning. (Just please ignore my face and the harsh whiteness of the photos... It was drizzling, so not a great photo day and I was in a hurry.)

Dress (as top) - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Rebuilt Resources

Shoes - Spring

Necklace & Earrings - Anika Burke

Ages ago I mentioned winning a necklace and earrings from Anika Burke, but until now couldn't think of what to wear it with! I'm not someone who wears large, long necklaces very often so it was a bit of a challenge. I really like how it helped add a little something to this outfit though, and I look forward to finding more new ways to wear it.

I was instantly thinking of Liz from 26 and Counting when I decided to belt the skirt. I didn't need one to hold anything up but it seemed to help complete the outfit. So thank you Liz, for showing me so many awesome belted outfits and helping me learn to belt skirts too!

Only after I'd taken all the outfit photos did I realize the flower-theme going on. Flower print skirt, subtle flower print on top, and flower accented necklace and earrings... Guess I was just feeling really floral! I hope you're all having a good week! Cheers!

Forest Wanderings and Beach Time

This is a continuation of the happenings from this post, pretty much what I was up to after I left the bog. I decided I was still up for a bit more exploration so I drove to another nearby trail area. Not before stopping in a field and taking some photos that is...





I was just being casual, enjoying the warm sunshine. So naturally I spread my arms to the warm rays... and did not think once of what a silly picture I must have posed to the people driving by hah. When I saw this after, I had to keep it and share it with you. What better than embracing the sun?




I just love these tortoise-crossing signs. I'm one of those people who will pull over to help a turtle or a tortoise to cross the road. There's no reason for the poor dears to get squashed for nothing.






I don't have too many photos from the first half of the trail due to the fact I was being eaten alive by every manner of biting insect known to man. I practically bathed myself in Muskol before I was able to walk without being constantly harassed. Clearly no one had been back here in a while, not even maintenance staff, because this tree was blocking the path and looked like it was a less than recent fall.



It was still a lovely little walk, insane insects and all. But I knew I wanted to cool off and wash the sweat and bugspray away so next I set my sights on a beach. I decided to check out the newly opened Petrie Island Beach near Orleans, and it did not disappoint. There's a white sandy beach for ages, and the island also has adorable little inlets off the river.

Crazy toes!

I was pretty surprised with how empty the beach was for a hot Saturday afternoon. No complaints though! I brought a book and packed myself a little pasta salad and had a nice time. I did get a pretty nasty sunburn - it's what happens when you have no one to put lotion on your back - but nothing I wasn't willing to deal with for the good day I had.






Eventually I had had enough sun, got dressed and headed home. I really need to do more stuff like this. I'm coming to the conclusion that solo mini-adventures are going to be my only ones. The only person I really want to hang out with is way out in British Columbia right now. I keep hoping beyond hope that she'll come back, but I certainly won't blame her if she doesn't. I just still really miss my friend. My real friend. Not that the others aren't but... eh. I get the feeling Becky was one of those once-in-a-lifetime friends and we were robbed of our friendship much too soon.

Anyway, enough of that, before my misty eyes turn to teary eyes. I went on another of those mini solo adventures on Saturday again, this time to a small museum outside the city and a new lake to swim in. I also did a lot of reading, which was nice. I hope you all had a lovely weekend too! Did you do anything fun? Cheers!

Losing that luster

So when I bought this dress back in June, I had the highest of hopes. Dreams of this dress danced through my head. Then, when it finally arrived - after being postponed by the darn Canadian Postal strike - I had my bubbles burst. While it was and is a beautiful dress... I just don't feel like lilac is a good colour on me. I still love the dress but... I'm just not sure it's for me.

Dress - Purchased from Jewels4pandas on Etsy

Shoes - Spring

Necklace - Lisa Burkin/Island Girl Designs on Etsy

I actually nearly decided to sell it off right away when I first finally tried it on. My bosom is apparently still slightly-too-much for this dress... There is very little that can be done about gaping buttons, and things are rather tight around the shoulders... No reaching for things on the top shelf while wearing this!

I did learn that wearing a sports bra squashed me in just enough to make the dress wearable though. But trust me, otherwise... there is no way in hell I'd have been able to wear it without seriously risking popped buttons. Plus it doesn't FEEL like I had expected it to while wearing it. It doesn't sit and move like I had hoped and dreamed. And I think that kinda shows while I wear it.

I still think it's a lovely colour, and that is has beautiful eyelet work and that it goes marvelously with my lovely necklace. But... I don't know if it's worth my keeping it around. Someone else might be able to love it more than me. Someone who won't risk popping buttons or ripping shoulder seems.

In the end, I only spent $36 on the dress, so it's not the end of the world, but it is pretty disappointing. Especially when something else I bought and received at the same time came as a let down too. I'm not too sure what to do now though. I don't want to just send it to the thrift store, it deserves better than that.

I'm probably going to wait a little while longer, try my darndest to style this thing in a way I feel comfortable. Wearing it with these shoes felt really wrong somehow for one thing, but there wasn't any other option. I'll be happy to receive my Chinese Laundry pair and give those a try. Maybe they'll help?

Otherwise... I might try and have a giveaway. Maybe hook up with a blogger who has enough watchers to make it worthwhile. At least then it would go to someone who really wanted it, and who could appreciate it, instead of letting it languish in some musty thrift store somewhere.

I am sooo happy it's Friday though! I have, as usual, too many plans this weekend, and hopefully the weather doesn't ruin them all. I hope you all have a great one! Cheers!