So wrong its...

still wrong?  Or possibly almost right-ish?

I did a little thrifting today (duh) and felt like I was buying the weirdest, randomest stuff that might never get worn, but I couldn't pass it up.  Red suede shorts with gold zippers?  Short metallic jacket with built-in dickie?  White patterned tights?  All wrong.  

Just for kicks I put it all on together, and I have to say, I was kind of digging it.  Am I totally nuts?  I spent a lot of time in the sun this morning, maybe I'm loopy.  Oh well, it's not like I left the house.  Not that I'm making any promises re: the future...

Sometimes I wish I was a stylist for a magazine.  Wouldn't it be fun to put models in crazy stuff and call it "fashion"?

Pardon the lack of hair and makeup, I worked in the garden and was looking pretty grubby.  You should see the soles of my feet!  I need a bath.  But what's the point of gardening if you don't do it barefoot?  Except when using a shovel.

Oh yeah, these shoes were marked down to $18 at the Bay, from $80 or something.  They are very high and distressed patent.  Me likey.

Like a Lady

My boss told me I look like a girl on Mad Men, which I fully approve of.  Got the floral cotton dress (late 50's or early 60's) and the sheer green tights at Value Village on Monday. 

I might be easing my way towards bare legs by doing the sheer tights.  I have to credit Lydia, who credits Poppet for the idea of buying tights at the thrift store.  If you know you have the option of cutting them into knee highs, or - my idea - footless tights, and it's an unopened package, why the heck not, for a dollar?

These are my wedding earrings, and it makes my happy every time I wear them, to associate them with the happiest day of my life.  They were custom made by Luisa LaBarbera, a Toronto designer.

Guess who I spied as Karl was taking my picture under the birch tree?  Ladybugs are the best!  Especially when they pick a lovely acid green bud to perch on.

Life in the Slow Lane

In school I took a marketing class and I remember learning about how new technologies are accepted at different rates by different consumers.  Innovators, early adopters, laggards etc.  I know there were a few more in between, but I always identified with being a laggard.  At the bottom of the scale were the Neo-Luddites.  Now, I'm not out there burning looms or smashing plows, but I'll admit to being slow. 

I don't have a cell phone and I don't want one.  People are shocked when I say that I don't have one, and in polite company I just say I can't afford it, or don't think I need one, but the truth is, I just don't want one.  People say, oh, you think you don't need it, but once you have it you can't live without it.  I don't want to add to the list of things I can't live without.  I feel like I've made it this far, and civilization has made it this far, surely I'll get by.

As a result of never having had a cell phone, I don't know how to use them, beyond occasionally using a friends.  I dread having to learn to use all the features and figure out a dozen functions and crap.  And I know that they are built to become obsolete, which I hate.  If I buy something, I want it to last a long time.  There are also the health risks, which I have read some scary things about, not least of which is how reluctant our government is to make these findings common knowledge.

I was the last person I know to accept that cassette tapes were dead.  I do have an MP3 player, but I don't own an i-anything.  I know how to do basic computer stuff, but I am very grateful that my job and daily life doesn't require hours on computer use.  I don't Facebook.  I don't Twitter.  I'm honestly surprised that I blog...  I bought a digital camera two years ago and have just in the last few months really learned how to use more that the most basic features.  I do love my digital camera, but I stiff have two film cameras which I use for certain things.  I am strongly against getting a new TV, much to Karl's disappointment, because the old one is fine.  And it's a TV.  It should not be a priority in our lives.  I never got into playing video games.  I've probably played a few hours of original Nintendo and Super Nintendo in my life, but it never really gripped me the way it did some kids.  I've had a couple of Wii Sport sessions and can't really did it.  It's a neat novelty, but something about interacting with a computer that way makes me kind of uncomfortable honestly.  And I get bored after about five minutes.  I'd much rather read a book or go play tennis for real.

I realize that all this makes me weird.  I'm not doing it to be kooky or to make a point.  I grew up in a house with no electricity, no real phone, two channels on an eight inch TV, no VCR, no video games, and I'd use that as a reason, except so did my brother and he's about the earliest adopter I know and is a computer programmer, so go figure.  I totally admit that technology makes our lives better and easier in many ways. I guess my general outlook is that I'm fine the way I am, and if I don't know any different, then I don't know what I'm missing and therefore don't need to spend the money.  But it's not about the money.  So I guess it's really hard to explain.   I'm just not in a big hurry to rush headlong into every new thing on the market.

"Earth laughs in flowers"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Am I really such a cheesy flower child that I can't stop taking pictures of what's blooming in my garden?  Yes, yes I am.

Irises and calla lilies - it's a beautiful season.

Soon there will be roses, and I'll continue the cheesiness, to be sure.

Maybe not a great idea...

I decided last week that I needed orange nail polish.  I wanted, like, the-colour-of-an-orange orange.  I happened to be in a drug store on Monday, so I picked out the best orange they had, which was a little too coral, but I figured it would do.  As I was paying for it I noticed a little sticker on it that said "scented when dry", but it didn't really sink in.  

So, I painted my nails, and sure enough, as it dried I noticed that the nail polish had quite a strong fruity smell.  Too strong, too fruity.   It kept distracting me, like when I was eating it was annoying, or I'd randomly catch a whiff and be confused about where the smell was coming from.  It's been on for a couple of days now and either the smell is fading or I'm getting used to it.  But I'm just not a fan.  I like my nail polish to be seen and not smelled.  I think from now on this one will be toe-only polish.

When I got this picture from the Revlon website, I clued in that my "mango" orange polish is supposed to be mango scented, and the other colours have corresponding scents.  The only one that might not be repulsive is the coconut one, but still, I'm not a big fan of chemical interpretations of fruit scents.  I don't want to smell like a car air freshener!

Borderline

I got this cute little dress at Value Village yesterday.  I feel a little Rosemary's Baby in it.  It's that cute eyelet-y lace that I should know the name of that was popular in the 60's.  However, I felt like the dress was borderline booby for work.  But I get to see so much of my customers' boobs, I guess it's only fair for them to have to see mine.  No male customers in today...

I did have an appointment with the girl who we are making a grad dress for, and at the risk of sounding vulgar, she's got a bangin' body.  Quite the rack, etc.  And of course, we're making her kind of a skimpy, drapey dress, and I had to manhandle the bejeezus of of her breasts to wrangle them into the dress.  I felt a little bit bad, but I figure if I just act like I don't care, which I seriously don't, maybe she won't be self-conscious.  We just kept on chatting about where she's going to school next year.

Sorry I didn't get a great picture of the shoes.  Mary got them for me at a thrift store ages ago and they are so hot.  I didn't really wear them at work, I just wore black flats, but I really like nude and black together, so I teetered around in them long enough to take the pictures.

Today's Inspiration

I really like the artist John Currin.  I first heard of him maybe eight years ago when he was featured in Vouge magazine, and since then he seems to be everywhere.  When Karl and I were in Vienna we saw an exhibition at MoMuk called Bad Painting, Good Art, and the painting below, Thanksgiving Dinner, was on the posters all over the city.

I love the combination of Seventies kitsch and the distortion of the figures like you see in Medieval art, and the rawness of the colours and how there's something vulgar yet naive about his women.

The home front

Sometimes beautiful sunny days make me feel like doing nothing but lazing around.  But today I felt motivated to get things done.  I planted beans, tomatoes, peppers and more lettuce and did a bunch of weeding.  Then I cleaned the kitchen, went grocery shopping, made pie pastry and filling for a rhubarb pie tomorrow and pasta dough for pasta tomorrow.  Read for a while in the sun...  It's all good.

That's the backyard veggie garden.  I know it doesn't look like much now, but in a couple of months it will hopefully be a garden of Eden, minus the snake.

That's the front yard.  I have no real strategy for the yard, except I don't want lawn or to have to water a lot.  I also like to mix flowers and shrubs and vegetables together, like the artichoke and rhubarb that are in amongst the roses and euphorbia. 

This is the other side of the front yard, which was kind of scrubby before my parents helped me plant lots of wonderful new things.  I get kind of impatient; I want things to grow NOW.

Last night Krista and Mary and I had a great evening - sangria and snacks on a lovely patio, a seawall stroll, another drink, then some shameful reality TV and cat loving.  Oh, I love summer so much!

Women I Love - Part 6

I think I have my friend Ryan to thank for my appreciation of Tori Amos.  I don't know how I made it though my early teens not listening to her.  I just think she is so amazing.  Her songs can give me goosebumps or make me cry, even after hearing them a hundred times.  And seeing her live is just electrifying.

I know she has kind of a reputation for being flaky in interviews or whatever, but I think it's refreshing to hear someone who will really talk about her beliefs and her inspiration beyond like "it's a song about change, cuz I was going thru a change..."  Duh.  Watch how she has to dumb it down for these ladies on a talk show.

She's so beautiful and fearless and such a poet.  I'll never get bored of her style - her album covers and artwork are always really innovative.  You can tell she revels in being a chameleon, and I'll always buy her albums rather than just downloading them, because you can tell she puts so much thought into the look of them and the way she portrays herself.

DIY? Because we love you!

I'm in the habit of deciding not to buy cute accessories because I think I could make that.  Then I don't.  But not this time.  It took a while, but I did make a bow headband, and feather earrings.  

Some of the supplies I got at the dollar store or thrift store, which was excellent, but of course some were more expensive.  Not expensive enough to make me decide to buy already made accessories though.

What I lack is the patient and skilled craftsmanship.  I did the two headbands and the earrings in forty-five minutes, and it shows.  I don't really care though, it's the general effect I was after, not necessarily an amazing end product.

Soft Focus Lovin'

I've been waiting so long,

to be where I'm going,

in the sunshine of your love.

Indulging in my favorite mood altering drug, sunshine.  It's supposed by be here for the rest of the week!

Backyard photos.  The garden will be very happy to have a good dose of sunshine too.  The dress is a new acquisition from the MMC thrift store.

My friend Dawn made me this belt.  She's very talented; it's made from an old bottle cap opener.

This is one of my most beloved necklaces.  I got it years ago, second hand somewhere, I don't even remember.

Women I Love, Part 5

Margaret Atwood is so cool.  Her books were the first ones I started reading when I decided that I could no longer read books for "Young Adults".  Thirteen or so?  The first one I remember really loving was The Edible Woman.  Then Cat's Eye.  Then The Handmaids Tale.  Then Surfacing.  And on and on for the next decade and more.  I think there might be a couple of ones I haven't read - a non-fiction one, a collection of essays, maybe.  But I'm pretty dedicated, and never disappointed.  She is just so brilliant and clever and knows human beings uncannily well.

She has this voice, too.  Whenever I hear that voice, usually on CBC radio, it's so recognizable, kind of raspy, a little deep, and so smart.  Mary gave me her biography, and the most excellent thing about her is that she has aways been totally herself.  Even from a young age when she was kind of a tomboy and a little brainier than might have been desirable in a woman.  And she always had that halo of dark curly hair and that wry, knowing smile and those eyes that seem like they wouldn't turn away from anything.

It's hard to imagine what life is like with that kind of brain...

Rubber Ducky, You're the One...

Tonight feels like a bath night.  I had a lovely long weekend: multiple beaches, tea with a friend, bagels, a little thrifting, lots of gardening, sleeping in, a good movie...  And to cap it off, a relaxing bath listening to the rain outside.

I think what makes a great bath is satisfying all your senses, right?  If one sense is not pleased, it can throw the whole experience off.  You need soft lighting, nice soaps smells, quiet, a clean bathroom, warm water...  I don't eat in the bath (see Gummo!) but a glass of wine doesn't hurt.

I do like to read in the bath, and there are some books that are best.  Can't be too heavy, has to be a bit of an escape from reality, but not too much or you end up shivering in cooled water an hour later.  

All bath photos from Foto Decadent.

Thread Social

I'm a huge fan of cute little dresses (who isn't) and I think these ones from Thread Social are bang-on.