Resort 2010 - Thakoon

I'm digging the wearable shapes and bold colour and bleachy print of this collection. It's nothing crazy but it all works and sometimes that's enough.

Plus I really love how it's photographed with a light source, as if this very pale model was actually being exposed to the sun.

Cute top below, eh? Personally I'd wear it with a bra, but that's just me.

Fully Saturated Colour (insert "bright" pun here)

Yes, I jacked the Rachel Roy navy and acid green combo, though I like it better with a pair of navy shorts I have. Self-tanning religiously. Still pale.

Goofy new shoes, toe-cleav peep-hole!

Still life with sprinkler.

Karl took pictures of me goofing around.

This is why I love having a yard!

New little bright pink studs, and my standard starfish earring.

My neighbor gave me this gorgeous specimen of a peony. It's quite incredible. I was trying to take a picture of it with a background that didn't include a glass of beer or the TV, so Karl brilliantly suggested a bi-fold album, and chose me this one. Big bonus points to anyone who can name it. So easy...

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

I know that I should be grateful for every gift I get and not whine, but at the risk of sounding like a brat, I really hate gift cards. I think they are such a scam and I would, of course, prefer cash. In the last couple of years I have receieved a number of gift cards for birthdays, Christmases, thank-yous. Some were easy to use up: Holt Renfrew, the liquor store, Chapters, Pacific Centre Mall. Others were harder: La Senza, Walmart, Sears. You know, I had to really make an effort to find something to buy there. And when it's not somewhere that I would choose to shop, or even if it is, I don't really want to spend a cent more than the card is for, because they already have the money, I don't want to spend in addition to that. And I also don't want to end up with a couple dollars still on the card, because again, they already have the money, and now I'm left with two options: leave that couple of dollars to them for "free", or plan another visit to spend a few dollars over the remainder. Either way the store wins. I really hate that.

At the moment I have three gift cards in my purse, with less then three dollars on each of them. What can I buy at La Senza or Chapters for that much? Grrr... It's really the principle that bugs me, and that they won't give you any change. I have argued with numerous cashiers about this, and they are usually apologetic, but insist that their policy is that a customer has to use up the entire card. I finally remembered to use up one card the other day and no balance was reading on the cashier's computer, so I read the really really fine print and found where it said that after a certain amount of time a two dollar "administration fee" would be deducted every month. For what administration??

Resort 2010 - Marc Jacobs

It feel like it's been years since Marc Jacobs did anything that really turned my crank, to use a horrible expression, so I was really happy to see this collection. For one thing, sometimes I don't even believe in "resort". Like how is that a season? Isn't it just an excuse to sell more things? Because a lot of designers do collections that sure don't look like something you'd wear on vacation (Burberry Prorsum!). But don't these outfits make you wish for a fantasy holiday to pack for?

The soft colour combinations...
The drapey sleeves...

The retro swim-suity vibe dresses...
The wackadoo print mixes...
Thanks Marc, we can be friends again!

Women I Love, Part 7

Shelley Duval is just the cutest. She has such an expressive face it's like she hardly needs to act. I find myself watching The Shining on TV on a pretty regular basis (it's the only horror movie I really like), and I love her in it. For one thing, her wardrobe is killer. All these corduroy blazers and jumpers and culottes. And as she gets more and more scared her eyes just get bigger and bigger. It's almost funny, but it's not, because she just looks so innocent and worried.

And I will be so pissed if anyone ever does a remake of Popeye, because there is no other Olive Oyl. If you look at the comics, there could be no one else but Shelley Duval. It would be blasphemy.

I think the looks so beautiful because she really couldn't look any further from the way I look. Sometimes I'm most attracted to the opposite - dark hair and skin, tall and skinny, huge dark eyes, long neck. In my dreams...

Bananniversary!

Karl and I went out to dinner tonight to celebrate three years of wedded bliss. Three years goes by pretty fast, but I'm thankful everyday to have found the love of my life!

I know it's blurry; it like it.

OK, that's enough mush. The heat let up a bit today so I wore the starry leggings I got at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. I made the top a couple of years ago, but it's 100% silk and the love of my life threw it in the washing machine and it's taken me a while to make peace with the washed silk look. Maybe I should make another one.

I have been loving our heat wave though. It so rare here, I'm more than happy with the sweaty days and warm nights!!

Resort 2010 - Rachel Roy

I like getting my mind changed.  I always thought that Rachel Ray was one of those "wife of..." designers beacuse she's married to Damon Dash and he must finance her delusions of style etc. etc...  But I really like her collection for Resort 2010.  I love the colours, the silhouettes are classy with a little edge.  Obviously I was too hasty in my earlier judgement - she's talented.  The acid green and coral accents are perfect!  Don't get the headpieces, but maybe Nicole Richie can explain them to me.

Note to self: look for acid green to pair with navy.

Full, high-waisted leather shorts?  Can I get on that list?

P.S. Love the green background!

Adorn Recomends...

Necklaces!  Don't forget about them.  Easy to wear, cheap at flea markets, colourful and fun, plus they make an interesting display in an otherwise boring bathroom.

Don't stress about matching them to an outfit, just throw on any old one and people will think you planned it like that.

You can even make one out of a bit of old hardwear lying around and a silk cord - see above, longest one.  Ohh, arty!

Nostalgia

Sassy was the best magazine ever.  I wish I still had all my old copies of it - I would read every article again.  It was so funny and honest, and not preachy and boring like Seventeen.  It made me realize that there were women in their 20's and 30's that I wanted to be like when I grew up.

  

The issue above is the first one I ever bought.  I read most of the older ones at the school library later, but I remember an older girl on the school bus (Chris Carmen's sister, Karen, for those in the know...) was reading it, and I was sneakily peeking, and could not get enough.

It was a sad and terrible day when that evil "new" Sassy showed up in my mailbox.  It was all over and there was no going back...

You like to shop?

Me too.  If I was rich and shopped online I'd do lots of it here, at Not Just A Label.  It's an online shop based in London and they feature one-off and limited edition pieces by recent fashion grads and emerging designers.  I love that each garment is accompanied by a description by the designer that explains the inspiration or idea behind their work.  I think that human connection is missing in so much of what we consume.

I also think it's great for these designers to have a showcase that really respects their talent and values the work that they do.  So often designers have to practically give their clothes away until they have established a name for themselves, and NJAL seems to represent the designers really well.  I'd recommend just checking it out for some avant garde inspiration.

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.