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!

One-Time Deal

While I don't dislike this outfit, I will not be wearing it again. For one thing, that black skirt is way too big on me now (which I only discovered too late while getting dressed that morning) and now hangs around my hip-bones. The belt did a passable job keeping the skirt up, but there was so much excess bunched up fabric around my waist, and the skirt kept escaping and it was all very awkward. Not worth going through again for an outfit I wasn't all that crazy about.

Dress as blouse - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Socks - Fancy Sox

Shoes - Spring

I wore my snake-print shirt-dress as a blouse again. It's funny, because when I bought it, I never figured it would be such a staple in my wardrobe. But turns out, I actually wear it a lot, even if I don't post the outfits since they're usually re-wears. A large part of why I'm posting less the last few months is just because I'm re-wearing the same outfits over and over and it would bore you all to death to see them that often.

It was warm enough to get away with just wearing my leather jacket back at the end of October when I took these photos, but not anymore. I'm layering a thick hoodie under my jacket now, which helps keep me nice and toasty. I prefer layering this time of year just because it helps me regulate more easily if I do happen to get too warm. I'm hoping to find a mid-season winter coat and boots soon though. Gaps in my outerwear must be filled!

Another reason I'm not a huge fan of this outfit is just the lack of colour. While I don't mind it, I am usually just happier wearing colours. A wonderful lady said that bright colours suit me better anyway and I very much have to agree.

I hope you're all having a good week so far! Cheers!

These Are Bad

These are really bad photos. I'm all shiny and sweaty and disheveled and gross. But to be honest, that's pretty much how I feel and look most of the time lately. I should probably be working on my NaNoWriMo novel, to keep up with word count. I squeaked by yesterday with a little over 28K words, which is pretty cool. Hopefully I actually write out the other 22K and get this done.

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from The Salvation Army

Belt - Ardene's

Shoes - Lulu's

This outfit in real life is awesome, and I adore it. But the photos never turn out. I think the combo of this skirt and top might just make me look haggard. The outfit photos wearing much the same thing from way back in December last year don't look much better hah. It's another shocking example for me of how much I've changed since then though!

Layering is important for me to stay warm on my walks to work. My leather jacket is good on a nice day but most of the time it's not enough and I like to add hoodies or sweaters underneath. This faux-shearling cardi that I got at Value Village a while back is great for it.

This skirt was way too big for me and just looked like a potato sack, so I took it in around the back pleats to give it some shape again. I'm actually pretty proud of my efforts on it, considering I just up and decided to try one day. It's giving me courage to take in more things.

I'd probably do some more this weekend except I signed up for some over-time work tomorrow. I have to be at Ottawa University campus at 6:45am to help set up testing rooms. I'm a little nervous actually, because I'm going to be a Test Administrator and have a position that involves actual responsibility. I'll be in charge of three tests with classrooms of 25 candidates, and 3 Monitors that I have to train upon arrival tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I hope you all have a supper groovy weekend. Cheers!

Science Saturday - "Albino" Spider

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope your weekend is going swimmingly. I'm going to keep today's Science Saturday pretty short, since I've got lots novel-writing to do for NaNoWriMo. I just couldn't pass up this wonderful (to me) spider-news!

A new species of "albino" trapdoor spider has been found in Australia. The spider isn't completely albino, since its legs and abdomen still have pigment, but its thorax is completely white.

Someone just found it around their house, thought it was unusual and sent it to a museum. It turned out to be an unknown species! Kinda makes you stop and wonder how many unknown species there are in your back yard.

You can read the full article from which I got the info here. I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend. Cheers!

Kickin' it NaNoWriMo Style

Hello everybody! I hope your week is going well. I've gone pretty silent compared to usual, sparse posting and few comments being made on others' blogs. This is again because of NaNoWriMo...

I am now nearing the end of Day 9 with a total of 17 577 words. The goal is to hit 50K words by November 30th. I'm "ahead" by a day, in terms of word count, which is pretty awesome. I haven't had too hard a time yet but it's been going too smoothly for there not to be hurdles in the near future. I'm having fun though, and if I get around to finishing this sucker, I'll eventually post an edited copy online if anybody actually wants to read my nutty zombie novel.

I am also still wearing clothes, but I've either showed the outfit before or I just really don't feel up to taking photos or don't like the outfit. Or I take photos but am too busy furiously typing about zombies to post them. So I'll leave you with one sneak peak photo of an outfit you'll see more of in the future.

The top is particularly special because it was a super surprise gift from somebody totally amazing, something else I'll speak of in the future. My cat Caramel says Hi! Cheers!