Where the ocean meets the sky...

...we'll be sailin'. Ha ha, Rod Stewart sucks. But we did go sailing yesterday. It was so much fun. It was a gorgeous day, and Krista and Tyler are regular old salty dogs. We even did real sailing, with the sails and wind and such. We went swimming and the water was frigid, but we forced ourselves to stay in until the panic wore off.

Listening to the awesome 70's hits, hopefully not disturbing the neighbors.

Happy Birthday Jessica!!!

Well, for a one-day weekend, this was an awesome one. Last night was Jessica's birthday party, and it was so much sangria-fuelled fun. She made bowl after bowl of amazing sangria with her homemade wine, and I drank an awful lot. There were also all the other makings of a great party: potluck food, birthday cake, music, perfect mix of people, A GAZEBO! I think the pictures above sum it up pretty well.

And as for today's fun, well, you'll have to wait for tomorrow. Must sleep.

Randomnation

First order of business - what do we think of this style of pants? My tall, thin intern at work got a Wilfred pair from Aritzia where she also works and it made me think... Only good on the tall and thin, presumably. But I hope I see lots of tall thinnies out there wearing them this fall, because I like the proportions.

Secondly - have you checked out Kitty Bellys? As the name suggests, it's truly pretty awesome.

And lastly, we watched I Love You, Man tonight and had some laughs. Good for the mens and the ladies, I'd say, a definite download, even a rent.

Boots

Most years I wait until about February to start thinking that it would be wise to have a pair of boots, after the hundredth walk to and from the bus with wet feet. This year I am really going to get a sensible pair of commuter boots. Really waterproof, yet really cheap, which I figure means rubber boots. Zellers. Superstore. That kind of thing. And for being so sensible, I think I might reward myself with a cute pair of suede booties from H&M. Good plan, right?

The only other fall shopping must I'm thinking about is a pair of narrow black wool pants. Kind of a step up from leggings, so that my butt doesn't necessarily need to be covered. But nothing that would be bulky if I did want to wear a long top or dress over them. I saw some nice ones at Zara that I'll have to go try on.

Other than that I think I can satisfy my need for flash and shoulder pads with thrift store finds. I'll be keeping an eye out for leather gloves, more tights, and glitzy sweaters. Happy back to (whatever) shopping!

This is me in grade nine...

Remember in grade nine when we used to tuck in just the front of our baggy t-shirts for some reason? We were usually wearing baggy pants too, and leather sandals or something. I thank my lucky stars on a regular basis that my early teens coincided with grunge allowing me to dress like a scruffy hippie, not worrying about having expensive labels or age-inappropriately "sexy" clothes. My parents consider themselves lucky too.

I got these shoes last week and I really love them. They were on the clearance rack, I love the different shades of leather, they look good with pants, or, when my legs no longer look like hell, skirts, and they are reasonably not too painful. One big downside though. The brand is Fergie, which I fear means some association with the skanky Pea. Eww. I'm sure she had no involvement with designing them, I'm just afraid she might benefit monetarily from my purchase, and god knows she doesn't need any more money to spend on trashy hair and "clothing".

Ocular Stimulation

Remember Angela Lindvall? She was (I'm sure she stil is) so beautiful. These shots are from an editorial in the late nineties I believe.

A Touristy Day

Karl's mom is visiting from Ontario for the week, so we got to play tourist today. We walked around downtown a little, where she twisted my rubber arm and pulled us into Holt Renfrew. I saw a few dozen pairs of shoes that will do nicely for fall.

Then we took the gondola up Grouse Mountain and had lunch at the peak. It was beautiful and sunny, and I stupidly got sunburned. Add that to my smashed knee and I'm quite a mess right now. After a little nap we went for dinner in Deep Cove and watched the sunset. It's Karl's birthday today so he had the full on steak dinner and was too full for dessert, which is unheard of! The lucky boy gets the whole week off work to spend with his mom. I'm jealous. I kind of got into vacation mode for a few hours today and could really use another week of it!

Doh!

I fell off my bike today and it sucked! I was just whizzing along, tried to change gears, the chain jammed and stopped, the bike stopped; I kept going. My knee took the brunt of the impact, but I got pretty banged up all over. Karl bandaged me up nicely, but I'm annoyed since the hot weather is supposed to be back for the week and now I've got a mangled knee.

Getting injured is really shitty. I guess when you are a kid you're kind of used to falling down and hurting yourself, but it's been a long time since I did something like this and I hate it. I don't want to be nervous to ride my bike, but I also don't want to do anything potentially painful.

In happier news, it's Karl's birthday tomorrow. His co-workers gave him balloons, and I loved how reflective this one was. You can see the whole backyard and house in it!

Oops, I forgot to rotate this picture, but anyway, I think the best thing to do with a jumbo zucchini is chocolate zucchini cake. So yummy!

Karl's pride and joy - his pepper plants. He's making BBQ sauce and salsa as I type this!

One note wonder

Don't know why I'm so obsessed with these colours. I don't remember having been so fixated on a colour combination before. And I never wear the same thing twice in one work week, with the exception of maybe a pair of jeans, but here I am in this blouse again. I wish the colours were more accurate on my camera - the skirt is much more purple. Now all I want to do is search thrift store for really weird shades of purple, yellow and green.

Which reminded me of two of my favorite collections for Fall. I was so drawn to the colours in the Erdem and Dries Van Noten collections, it must have sunk into my subconscious. Wearing the opaque black tights and the loud print today reminded me of the Erdem look.

Aging Badly

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, there were many things in the April 1992 Vogue that stood the test of time well and looked surprisingly modern. Of course, the opposite is true as well. Lots of ads looked more like 1987 to me, with the terrible perms and offensive colours. Sad that some of this stuff made it into the nineties.

And remember when there were cigarette ads in magazines? There must be over a dozen in this issue. It seems pretty filthy in hindsight, but I guess you still see models smoking in editorials now, so some people still must see a link between fashion and gnarly, diseased lungs.

I thought this was kind of odd. Just a little ad near the back. Was that the first generation of implants gone bad? How sad. I hope those women got sacks of cash for their long lists of ailments.

'Bout Time

Well, if you need more fashion and gossip in your life Perez Hilton has anticipated your cravings. He's got a new website, CocoPerez.com, and it's pretty funny. I like the Ed Hardy hand sanitiser bit. I like anything that makes fun of Ed Hardy though. It not as funny as Go Fug Yourself, but I guess it's got that gossip element that's a bit of a bonus. Like I didn't know Escada had filed for bankruptcy. Thanks for the heads up.

Can you tell that I am totally wiped out? Maybe it's the lack of exclamation points. Too many ten hour days at work and too little sleep. I keep waking up two hours too early to worry about dresses. What is the cure for that?

Hours more fun on the computer!

OK, I just found a really fun new toy. I wanted to show some colours that I'm liking right now, so I googled "colour palettes" and tried out COLOURlovers.com. It lets you make new colours, palettes, patterns, all kinds of good stuff. And you get to name your palettes and name your new colours. It's pretty addictive for someone like me, who was kind of fanatical about Colour Theory class and collected LOTS of paint chips from the hardware store. I think it would be a great website for planning a wardrobe, home decor project or makeup palette!

Oh, by the way, I'm wearing my other new lipstick, MAC Please Me. It's magically matte and almost chalky in just the way I wanted!

Best Buy of the Weekend

I remember having this iconic April 1992 issue of Vogue when I was twelve, so I had to but it at the thrift store. It's a great issue, with a photography retrospective of Vogue's first 100 years, and all the superest models on the cover.

These are just a couple of the most recognizable ad campaigns. It's funny, some ads look so outdated, more like what we'd think of as mid-eighties. Then some, mostly for cosmetics, could be totally current. Shiseido and Clinique have not changed one bit. That's consistency.

Some of the trends look really great for today. The black lingerie and sheer bodysuits, for example.

And hello, check out these rad leather leggings by Jean Paul Gaultier and studded shoes! Worn by Cindy Crawford in a mock-paparazzi editorial no less.

Sorry

Computer troubles on the home front mean blogging hiatus. Talk amongst yourselves.

**Update: Yay, my billiant husband fixed the computer. Apparently all he had to do was "take everything apart and clean it and put it back together".

Lick it up

Oh, can't life just be so wonderfully, achingly, brilliantly, succulently, deliciously beautiful? Do yourself a favor and look at the rest of the pictures from this shoot, just to drink in the genius vision in full colour and high resolution. Please, indulge.

Pale Fire

This hops plant (as in beer) is like the Little Shop Of Horrors plant. It's growing like crazy and I think it wants to eat us. Eek, bare legs today. I was wearing the sweetest sheer pale stockings with little dots on them until about ten o'clock when I put a run in them. No surprise. I was telling one of our interns at work about my wonderful weekend of relaxing in the great outdoors, and she was like "Wow, you didn't get any colour at all!" Yeah. Thanks for noticing.

I've had this Zara top for probably eight years and I love it so much. It's so soft and I love the colour and the Art Noveau-y print (detail of boob below). I hope we never part. I'm loving these kind of muted colours right now; mustardy yellow, grey-blue, eggplant, rust. For my final line in school a million light years ago my colour palate was inspired by the Dutch Masters and it was all those colours. Dang, that reminds me, I really want to see that show at the Vancouver Art Gallery before it goes. So little time/energy.

Totally random: Can you believe I hadn't seen all of the movie Roxanne until last night? And I love Steve Martin, and I knew I would love the movie, it just never happened. Torrentz, you have changed my life.

Rad

As in Rad Hourani. I think these clothes are so hot, but so not something I could pull off. Sleek and edgy and very "the new Helmut Lang".

Check out his website for more exciting stuff. The skinny pants with all the straps are wicked, and I'm sure someone very talented will by DIY-ing them any day now. By the way, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's starting to daydream about fall. I love the summer so much and hate to see it end, but "back to school" (ha, what school?) shopping always softens the blow.

Leather and Lace

First time wearing this blue (would you call it cobalt?) leather top and I liked it. I buy some things thinking "oh god, I will never wear this, but I can't just leave it here", and then sure enough I wear it. I thought this top was borderline ugly when I first saw it, but after I let it sit out on my dresser for a week or so and found that it was calling to me. It's colour and shape are reminiscent of gym class pinnies circa grade five floor hockey, but it smells much better, and it's really soft leather. It has cool diagonal seaming and a low V back. I feel like if I wore it for years it might get all wrinkly and worn-in looking, but it may be just a passing fancy. Can't tell.

The Best Four Days of the Summer, Part Two

So while I was chillaxin' with my book and a lemonade in the hammock, Karl and my dad built a garage. Or did the first few big steps of building it. I helped for several minute, just long enough to figure out just how hot and sweaty it was and how very weak I am.

We arrived home Monday night to a garden full of vegetables. We have to eat so many just to stay ahead of them. Please come visit me and take some! Everything below came from the garden - my best broccoli yet I think.

And... my first foray into canning. We eat a lot of pickles and I've been spoiled by the ones my mom makes, but I feel a little parasitic taking a bunch of jars home with me whenever we visit. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and put the excess cukes to use. They look good, and I think I did it right, so we'll see in a month!

The Best Four Days of the Summer, Part One

Yes, it was that good. So good I hardly even took any pictures. Swimming in the lake every day, eating amazing food, reading lots, wearing no makeup, very little bathing, minimal underwear - that's what happens to me. I think it might be dangerous long-term, but for a long weekend it doesn't get much better. These are the few pictures I took: breakfast, the yard and porch in the morning. Just the basics.