Nice and Shiny

Lucky Day

2011-12-09T18:24:00.004-06:00

Yeah, I know, my last post was just after Halloween... this is bad. I really haven't been feeling blogging lately to be honest, and I'm not going to force crappy, uninspired posts on you guys sooooo I just didn't post for a month.
Anyways, while I get myself together and gather up some decent material to post, I just wanted to remind y'all that I still have some stuff left for sale! A few items from my closet sale were sold, but there some items left. PLUS I decided I'm ready to part with my infamous Sam Edelman 6inchers ... yep, THOSE boots.

They are amazing but I just never wear them, and I still see them on eBay and I know there are people still trying to get their hands on a pair.

I've reduced the prices on ALL the items, so take a look and email me if you have any questions. 'Tiss the season for buying!!

I'm gunna be a supermodel

2011-11-01T14:37:00.004-05:00

It's November 1st, so here's the enevitable "what I wore on Halloween" post. Y'all knew it was coming. As with most people's Halloween costumes, mine came together at the last minute. My first idea came to be about a month ago... well, maybe I'll just show you before I go any furthur...

I had the idea to be Cher from Clueless, but after many thrift store rummaging and eBay searching it was looking pretty impossible to find a yellow plaid skirt and matching blazer (it HAD to be that outfit). Then one day, after searching a new combonation of "plaid" "jacket" "skirt" "yellow" etc on eBay I FINALLY found something that just might work. I ordered it in a heartbeat barely skimming the description, and when I got it in the mail I realized it was waaaaaay too small! My mom and I figured we could add some fabric inserts from the scrap cloth left after shortening the skirt, and it turned out perfectly! So happy it all came together!

Suit - eBay, cardigan - thrifted, shoes - thrifted, socks and tshirt from my closet.
As you can see, I even had the furry backpack!Whipped it up out of a stuffed animal lamb, the poor thing! Whatever, a costume this good must require animal sacrifice.

So through all this stressing about whether or not I'd be able to find a plaid suit for my Cher costume, I decided to put together a backup look just incase it didn't work out. I wanted to be able to use my blonde hair to it's fullest... so who is someone blonde, recognizable, and someone I love and use every chance I get to dress like her? I think you know where I'm going with this:

I loved that this costume cost next to nothing. All I did was buy a very long (and cheap) wig and cut it in half, and attach the two chunks of wig to my real hair. I had a fake bang I bought on eBay way back when I had brown hair still, so I just took it and dyed it black (search wig dying on google, super easy technique!). I made the skirt in about 15 minutes out of an old dance costume, cut the crotch and feet out of a pair of tights as my top, and threw on my stipper boots and out the door I went! (Warning: major boobage below!)

And of course, I had to create a good set of falsies for the occasion.

There you have it, my Halloween looks. My favourite part of Halloween is seeing everyone's original costume ideas, and I want to hear about all of yours! Tell me what you were, I'd love to know!

I want you to notice when I'm not around

2011-10-13T16:38:00.009-05:00

It's that time again. Time for an iPhone outfit shot post! Also known as an I have nothing better to blog about so here are some grainy pictures of me with messy rooms and vaccum cleaners in the background... post. I hope you guys like these because I happen to like them a lot.
This is where blogging gets REAL. And by that I mean minimal makeup, tired eyes, just spent the whole day studying and errand running REAL. I mean, I read blogs to get a more personal take on style so I like them to be imperfect. Then again I also love magazines for their glossy fakeness and fantasy. So many "big blogs" out there tend to get their popularity from their over-polished, designer sporting quality. Which is totally FINE (I do like these blogs too!) but for me it kind of defeats the purpose of blogs as an honest diary-type outlet, as well as a medium where all types of people and styles can be represented. A lot of people stick up their noses at blogs that don't have ultra proffesional or perfect pictures... but, I mean, not all of us are trying to be photographers! That's what blogs are for! It's a place where people can showcase their style without HAVING to be proffesional if they don't want to be... I dunno, maybe it's just me who feels this way.
Back to clothes. So here's what I've been wearing lately:
Outfit is all thrifted
I realized I've been wearing a lot of (and by that I mean, like, 6 days a week) button up shirts for fall. I'm getting a bit obsessed.
Very old Urban Outfitters moto jacket, H&M tie up shirt, thifted circle skirt, Urban outfitters stiped tights, H&M booties.
I love these tights, and although making them look not so witchy isn't always easy I think I pulled it off pretty well here. If you're wondering how much fashion acceptance there is here in Winnipeg, let's just say this outfit got multiple stares at the grocery store. I know, I don't get it either.
DIY studded vest, thirfted 90's mini, thigh high socks from God knows where, thifted creepers.
Found this spotty mini dress at VV on half off day and I couldn't resist. I felt like a teenager again in this outfit, and I gotta say I kind of loved it.
Shout out to my favourite style bloggers who are keeping it REAL, my girls Marlena, Selina, Isabel, Elizabeth, and Gem just to name a few. Here's to seeing more real girls and guys in the blogosphere!

As she takes on half the world

2011-09-20T21:38:00.007-05:00

I wasn't really planning on posting today but there's just something I'm way too excited about not too share. I know eeeeeeeverybody and their Grandma has one, but now I too have my very own Zana Bayne harness!!!!!!

Yeah that's right, so excited I didn't even get a chance to put on makeup or set up a proper camera before taking a million webcam pictures. I haven't bought a new leather item --no shoes, jackets, accesories, ANYTHING-- in about 3 years (if you read my food blog, you'll know I'm a strict vegetarian) so you know it's something special when I break my leather ban. Zana's pieces are handmade, well constructed, and just so special... so I feel it's a justified purchase.

I opted for the necklace version, in raw leather. I mean, I plan on getting milage out of this thing, and the fact that it qualifies as jewelry means this bad boy doubles as clubwear AND casual attire. Can't wait to wear it around campus!

I never post music but I'm just really feeling this song, and of course the outfits and hair are to die for. It's so me today.

Middle of nowhere

2011-09-13T13:25:00.007-05:00

I love how different this outfit is from the last post just two weeks ago. Cutoff shorts and jelly sandals are now securely tucked away untill next summer as now we're fully entering fall mode, back to school vibes and all. Uni started Thursday of last week, but let's just call this my back to school outfit that I wore the 3rd day into classes (gotta ease into it, right?).

Sweatshirt - Aritzia, collared shirt - old from Le Chateau, assorted necklaced, H&M jeans, thrifted creepers.
It's kind of funny I didn't even realize I was wearing an all-black outfit untill about the middle of the day. I guess I'm just immune to my own darkness (wow that would be an awesome song title, hehe).
I kept the sweatshirt on all day over the collared one for obvious reasons (cold, visible bra, wrinkly, etc), but I just wanted to show this shirt for a second. I've been looking for a sleeveless collared shirt for a while with no luck, so to tie me over untill I find one I took an old shirt I don't wear and cut off the sleeves. This is the closest thing to a DIY I've done in months, I don't know what's wrong with me!
Even if my DIYs are lacking creativity, you know you can always rely on my nails to get a little freaky. My latest creation involves painting half the nail with a black crackle polish, then painting over the tips with a solid colour to get this piecey gradient effect. PLUS since your using a cracle polish then painting over it you get this cool texture on the tips of your nails in contrast to the smooth shiny polish it fades into.
I think these nails would look so good for Halloween too, with a red, orange, or even white base underneath! Speaking of Halloween, is anyone else starting to panic about not having costume ideas??

Oh, and you may have noticed something new in my outfit photos. My new vanity!
In my room I have a desk that I usually have all my makeup and things on, but it gets really cluttered with junk and I want to actually be able to work on it. So for my end-of-summer goal I wanted to find a vanity, which turned into a mission to create a full-fledged dressing mirror complete with lights all around! I've always wanted to have a mirror like this, and after some searching around online I realized I could make one just by wiring two bathroom light strips together and putting a mirror in the middle! I found the little table on a lucky hunt at Goodwill and scored it for less than $20! I painted it and attached some new handles and it's as good as new. Lastly, I found the little chair at an antique store for just $25! I think it all came together perfectly I am just in love with it.
Warning: I've become obsessed with taking pictures of myself in the lighted mirror (proof via my instagram)... just to warn you!

Note to self: get roots done

One more chance

2011-08-29T23:12:00.006-05:00

So a few weeks ago I had a garage sale in attempts to clean out my room. I sold some stuff, donated A LOT of stuff, but then still had some stuff left over that I couldn't bear to donate. These are the things I still love but just don't get a lot of wear from, so I thought if I can't wear them then the next best thing would be to offer them to my blog readers!
Everything I'm selling is in new or nearly new condition, and has only been worn a few times or never worn at all. This isn't my thrifted stuff either, it's all name brands including Cheap Monday, Irregular Choice, Boy London, and even Luella! To make things simple, I've included the shipping charge in the price listed, so all you have to do is email me with the item you want, and I'll send you a Paypal invoice for the listed price and nothing more! I've made a page with the despcription for everything, so go ahead and click below to shop my closet!

Just so I feel like there's some "real material" in this post, here are some pictures of the kind of outfit I wear on those crazy hot summer days. Usually my outfits are barely modified for the weather, but here in the praries it can get pretty damn hot sometimes and, well, something's gotta give... in this case it's my creativity. The only ounce of originality here are my "leopard print bike shorts", which were actually my favourite pair of tights that had a tiny hole which soon turned into a giant gash! My solution (couldn't throw them away, obviously) was to cut them and turn them into sheer shorts. Which actually have really come in handy to wear under my other shorts... my cutoffs tend to be veeeery short, oops!

UPDATE: Things are selling fast! The shoes, sunglasses, and sweatshirt are sold, but there's still a Cheap Monday dress, an American Apparel dress, a Topshop skirt, and a Luella top all up for grabs still! Check them out before someone else snatches them!

You always had the blondest hair

2011-08-20T23:54:00.005-05:00

UGH I'm kind of realizing how crappy my blog is right now. I'm not seeking sympathy, seriously I feel like I've not been getting any good material for you guys lately! I guess it mostly has to do with my real-life style slump that I'm going through, with I'm praying will pass in due time. So yeah, just saying I'm fully aware of my current suckiness!
I've got a few iPhone outfit pictures from the last few weeks, it's just way easier to take a few quick mirror snaps than to set up my tripod and make sure my room is clean enough to take pictures in (the real challenge). I think I'd like to start taking daily outfit pictures, even the ones that are less than exciting, just because I think it's way interesting to get a sense of what a person wears from day-to-day rather than just what they get dressed up in to post about... if you get what I mean.
Here's another outfit with my new favourite jeans I've already posted about: the crazy long flares! I still love them so much, and I just really liked how they looked with this t-shirt that I cut the sleeves off of. Speaking of this t-shirt, I bought it at an Alexisonfire concert in high school and wore it the other day as a mini-tribute to the band which officially disbanded recently. It's really sad but I guess all good things come to an end, and I've still got some good mosh pit memories from all their amazing shows (seen them about 4 times, I think?).

Jeans from Topshop, concert tee, thrifted bag, and Aldo chunky sandals

And can we talk about this bag?? I thrifted it a few weeks ago for like 4 dollars and I love it. Weirdly I find it goes with just about everything, and it's the perfect size to fit everything in yet not to big for it to get all jumbled up with stuff. Such a good find.

This outfit is what I wore to go to the 18th birthday party of some girl I don't know. My friend and I were out of town visiting her brother who had this party to go to, and rather than just sit around at his place we tagged along. Scouring my closet for a dress for this thing was not as easy as I thought, I HAVE NO "NICE CLOTHES"!! Good excuse to go party dress shopping, I think...

Thrifted grey lace dress, blazer from idk, random jewelry and clutch.

Now I wore this outfit today, but warning I'm not wearing makeup in these pictures! Scary. Dress I thrifted the other day, pretty cute in a high school kid from 1992 kind of way. But what I love about this outfit are my Vivienne Westwood x Melissa rocking horse shoes! I bought them months ago but I don't think I've blogged about them yet. They're the ones with the wings attached to the ankles, but I took them off because I wore them with jeans the day before and I don't think the wings look good with pants. Anyways, love these shoes and even though they're a strictly summer kind of shoe I'll probably try to get away with wearing them in the fall with socks. Rubber and woolly socks. I love it.

And before I forget, my current nails are a set of falsies in robin's egg blue (in my signature oval shape).

That's all for now, but I PROMISE this blog-slowness won't last forever. Bear with me, it's summer after all!

Too much, too little, too late

2011-08-06T01:14:00.005-05:00

EVERYTHING THRIFTED, except for the socks they're Monki from Sweden.
Is there any chance I'm actually getting whiter in the summer? Sheesh. I'm blogging this outfit not only because I loooove this skirt I thrifted last week (for like 2 dollah, hollah hollah!), but because I've worn this exact outfit 3 times in the past week. Hygenic? No. Saves me time and effort putting another look together? Yes. You see where I'm going with this, I'm just getting lazier by the minute.
So lazy I'm going to finish the post here. BYE

If I was your girlfriend

2011-07-28T22:05:00.002-05:00

I've been in a bit of a style rut lately, wearing jean shorts and t-shirts every day pretty much because nothing else appeals to me right now. Not that I think my style is dependant on trends, but there's not really any particular style or looks that I'm really crazy about right now (in my own wardrobe or otherwise). On a positive note, I've wanted to find the perfect 90's floral mini dress all summer and I finally found it! I love how the skirt flares out a bit like a skater dress, but the best part is the lace-up detail on the back! Decided to get extra girly with braids and cat-eye sunglasses.
How's everyone's summer going? I've just been extra lazy, and since it's the first summer since 2008 that I haven't been travelling I can really feel my wanderlust slowly creeping back into my consciousness. Maybe I just need a project to get preoccupied with, something to really get excited about... who knows. But really I have been enjoying doing not very much at all, it's just the lazy hazy days of summer.

It's all the glory that I bare

2011-07-19T17:15:00.005-05:00

Sooo my nail art kick is back with full force after I fiiiinally received my package of nail art bits and bobs off eBay (thanks Canada Post, luv ya too!). I bought some teeny tiny beads and some half pearls, but most imporantly a pack of 500 fake nails for like 5 bucks including shipping! They're blank because I like to create my own designs, and with 500 nails who knows what kind of crazy shiz I'll come up with. They came in 10 different sizes all labelled by numbers. I found which sizes fit best for each finger and marked the little baggies so I know my size for all the future nail designs to come (seriously guys, I'm so pumped the ideas are makin my head spin)!!
I knew before I bought these that I'd have to find a way to keep them in place while I paint them and stuff, so I brainstormed and ended up using double sided tape on a box... primative, yet very functional (doubles as a nail art supplies box too)!

I'm starting out with a simple 2D design, but don't worry the crazy will come! Started with a grey base...
Then did nude coloured half moons. I cut and filed them in a claw shape before painting the tips black, and that's it!

Part of me wants to start bookmarking some nail art tumblrs, but really I always prefer to think up ideas for myself overwise I just feel like I'm copying... yet on the other hand, I'm also really lazy so any extra effort can and will be avoided.
Anyways, do you guys wanna see my new shoes (wow, smooth transition)?? I bought them from the small town thift store I mentioned a few posts back, and HOLY CRAP my heart stopped when I saw them. They are basically me, in shoe form:

Crushed velvet, clunky heel, black, stretchy ankle boot. They are the new centerpeice for my chunky black boot shrine (not literally, I don't have one... or do I? ...No I don't. Guys, I'm really tired).

Ohhhhh and one more thing: I'M A BLONDE

Hahaha look at me all decieving, making you think this post was about nails and shoes. No way dudes, it's about something waaaay more deep and thought-provoking. I mean, look at my hair!!1~*$*(!@~

Lol, look at me I'm awesome at posing. So yeah, I got this done as a dontputitoffanylongerjustdoitalready Birthday gift to myself (mine was on the 14th, I'm 22 now babes). Not much else to say but I love it I love it I was born to be blonde, and I love it.

Like I said, I'm tired, so I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

In my dreams

2011-07-12T22:46:00.004-05:00

Whoa whoa WHOA, waaaay to long with no post. Sorry dudes, let's just pretend the last 2 weeks never happened, k? Just dropping in for a quick post for now, and hopefully I'll have some cool features lined up for y'all soon.
I've come in possession of some pretty amazing pieces lately, thrifted and some not (very rare for me if you've noticed!). Example, these perrrrrfect Topshop jeans! My friend who was away in England for uni just came back 2 weeks ago, but before she left there I gave her a shopping list of things to get for me... one of them being these jeans! I've been searching for the perfect pair of high waisted, super flared jeans for literally months after seeing Selina's amazing jean find and the inspiration behind them. I had been mostly looking on eBay, but haden't come across anything I love for a decent price. Then through some kind of perfectly timed miracle I was browsing Topshop's online shop when I saw these jeans. It was fate. They're from the Tall line so they're suuuuper long, which I love cos I can wear massive plaforms and they still graze the ground. Seriously guys, I'm in love and I'm going to have a very 70's summer with these bad boys, a la Dazed and Confused.

Check me out, hangin at a strip mall. Badass.

Not a bad fit considering I didn't get to try them on, just blindly picked a size to be honest!

So that's it for now, maybe I'll have some quicky updates soon on what I've been up to and show some of the other great things I've found... perhaps even a DIY or two? Lord knows I haven't done one in ages. We'll see!

Teenagers from mars

2011-06-18T17:27:00.003-05:00

I feel like I've had a lot of free time lately, but of course I haven't really done anything creative or productive because those kinds of things require effort. I haven't even been taking proper outfit pictures, BUT I have been taking advantage of the camera on my new iPhone so I thought I'd share with you guys a few recent looks...

I wore this a few weeks ago already, but I'm still really feeling it. Thrifted Miami tank, what I call my "PTA meeting trousers", and these chunky wooden sandals I got on sale at Aldo. I wear them with everything, I seriously can't stop.

See, I really do wear these sandals with everything! I love them with black tights, which are manditory when wearing these shorty short jean shorts (thrifted). Also wearing this crop top thrifted at a VV half off sale. I bought it aaaages ago but only now am I ready to wear it in it's full, midriff baring glory. Also wearing a thrifted flannel shirt. ALSO I just really loved my hair that day so I thought I'd get a close up... I think the green hair actually looks sweet with a side part, no?

And finally, I wore this yesterday to bum around and then go buy some frozen lasagne. Speaking of food, has everyone seen my food blog?? I just realized I've only ever mentioned it on twitter I think... but I digress! The outfit consists of my fav thrifted goth boots, black leggings from Winners, tshirt from UO, vintage Burton buffalo check jacket (my brother's friend left it at our house and I claimed it), and this cutey little backpack I thrifted for $3 a few days ago.

Maybe I'll try to do some sewing or something remotely productive for the rest of the day... all this spare time is actually boring as hell.

I met a girl in East LA

2011-06-08T23:01:00.005-05:00

So the other day I had this brilliant idea to go thrifting in a nearby town. I mean, the more obscure the shop's location the wierder and more wonderfull the finds, right? But due to some bad planning on my part, the shop was closed on the day that we went (what kind of store is closed on a Monday anyways??)! I was pretty dissapointed at first, but hey I got a few outfit shots out of it in the end.

The floral shorts were thrifted from the wierd secondhand store I talked about a few posts back, which I really like but, I'm not sure, they look awkward with this outfit.. maybe I should have rolled them up more like bloomers? Decisions, Decisions!

I was debating on whether to even post these photos at all, as the shorts are really throwing me off. I was going for bit of Proenza Schouler Summer '10 with the surfer vibes and green hair, clashing with oversized black polo buttoned up all the way and the chunky Aldo heels to girlify it a bit. I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANY MORE, working out outfits in retrospect is hard! I decided to post it anyways cos I want to just share more with you guys, even if it's not "my best work" or something amazingly creative, I'd rather this blog be more like a journal but from an artistic perspective. Ya dig?
Ok, off to watch Empire Records and Chasing Amy. Late 90's movie night y'all! Peace

I've had enough, this is my prayer

2011-06-03T22:51:00.004-05:00

Oh hey y'all, guess what... I got green hair

If you're following me on twitter you'd have seen it already! I've been dying (hehe) to do it for months, and kept putting it off for days and days. I had to give myself a firm pep talk and listen to Hair a few time before busting out the dye. I'm pretty proud of doing it myself, and I love how it turned out with leaving the tips blonde. I used Manic Panic's "Electric Lizard" with a bit of "Atomic Turquoise" and some white toner I bought in Camden last year.

I was going for mermaid-y, My Little Pony vibes, but what I got a bit more Garbage Pail Kids. Yet OBVIOUSLY it's supposed to be an authentic 1977 punk look, but most people are just too stupid to get it!
Some of my hair inspiration: Nicki Minaj in the "Massive Attack" video, an editorial from I Love Fake magazine, and (obvi) Enid from Ghost World.

ALSO my nail game is at an all-time high with these freaking amaaaazing fake nails. My friend bought them for me from Forever 21. I don't buy clothes from there but I just couldn't say no to these 3D nails.

Kind of just a LOOK AT ME post but that's kind of all that's new with me at the moment. How's everyone's summer going? Unless it hasn't started yet, in which case how do liiiiive??

As long as I'm your hooker

2011-05-26T19:29:00.005-05:00

(prepare yourself for Born This Way lyric titles for a verrrry long time, k)

I know summer is the time when most of us fashion bloggers try to lay off the black and try to incorporate some c o l o u r into our wardrobes, but to be honest I have no intention of giving up my black ensembles for hot weather. Lately I noticed I've been wearing a lot of all black outfits which are ultra simple, and just having fun with my hair and nails.
Don't I look like I'm having fun?

Example: a week and a half ago came the return of the claw nails! I found some ultra long glue-on nails from the drugstore and filed them into shape. For the first day I just wore them as is:

Then I did a half moon design with white and this amazing seafoam green. Then used a glitter nail art brush around the half moon, and later added a few gems and pearls on just my ring finger and pinkie... just for fun. I was hugely impressed with how long these nails stayed on actually, it was a whole week before one came off!

I call them my mermaid nails ^o^, I'm kind of fascinated with mermaids atm (anyone seen Pirates 4? Wondering if it's worth the suffering just to see my gorgeous Gemma Ward as a mermaid...).

Next I had a little fun with my hair... make that A LOT of fun. That's right dudes, I went for the beehive.

This massive bouffant is courtesy of my good friend Ms. Hilton. I found these jank-ass Paris Hilton hairpieces on sale for $5 at Sally's Beauty Supply, and knew they'd be perfect to use for the beehive I'd been dreaming of. Hair DIY, wut wut!!

It's supposed to be be like a headband with hair attached, so it's like a half wig with combs underneath that help it stay put on your head. I backcombed some of the hairpiece before I used it, just to get that extra massive pouf (oh yes!). All I did was section of the front of my hair, backcomb it a little, place the hairpiece along the part, then pull the front section of hair over the hairpieces and pin it in place at the nape of the neck. Basically like this youtube video.
I actually like how you can see the blonde underneath, although really that's just because I was pinning my hair back blindly. And there you have it!

p.s.- Although I did go out with this hair, I didn't actually wear these stripper boots. I just felt like wearing them for the pictures!

There's a fire starting in my heart

2011-05-15T23:20:00.006-05:00

Ooooops, apparently I've completely forgotten about this here blog! 3 weeks no post, really not cool. I've added an archive button on my sidebar, so if this kind of thing happens again then feel free to browse through some old posts (they're really good! haha)
Aaaanyways, I've just realized that this past weekend I've been all about the MOM JEANS.

Isabel has already expressed her love of this forgotten fashion statement (statement, trend, horrible mistake, WHATEVS) and I've also been a fan for a while. Remember this washed out black pair I was going to turn into shorts? I've recently rediscovered them in a big way. What I love about them is that they're super high rise so I can wear crop tops with them this summer without any tum on display. Double win!
Three different Mom jean outfits from the past few days:
Out with Andrew, checking out a crazy thrift store I've never been to before. So cheap, and got some good stuff I'll show in time! I felt really tomboy-ish in this outfit, but the lace bodysuit I wore under the crop top did girlify it a bit. I wore my white creepers for the first time in a loooong time, I think they look cool without the laces no?

Top - thrifted and cut off by me, lace body - H&M, random necklaces, creepers - Demonia from Amazon.com
Wore this out for drinks that night. Basically too lazy to put a proper outfit together, so I went for my tried and trusted python print and some platform boots.
Top - secondhand off eBay, boots - Aldo
I wore this today after spending half the day in bed, catching up on Degrassi (I'm SO behind). Then there was a bit of a family dinner so I had to throw something on. Glad I made an effort... not.
Cardi - unknown, Hawaiian crop top - Topshop.

I've already got my next post planned, so I PROMISE I'll see you soon!

I'm just a holy fool

2011-04-22T22:47:00.003-05:00

I was mulling over whether or not I wanted to post my outfit from the other day, and decided to post it as part of my "transitioning into spring" wardrobe. As you might be able to see from the photos below, it feels more like fall at the moment as it's been dull and gray almost every day since the snow has melted. My spring outfits have mostly been based on black jeans and layers, but here's me trying to do something different...
DIY customized denim vest, Father Yod American Apparel tshirt, thrifted pleated mini skirt, Dad's socks, thirfted fake Docs.

I want to try and tackle the midi-skirt, as you all well know I'm the black maxi queen and I never shy away from a short dress or skirt either. This outfit is just a starting attempt for the midi, as you can see my legs are actually horribly pale so I'm in no rush to hike up the hemlines just yet.
I didn't really do much that day, just bummed around, but it was quite cold out so I ended up layering on a flannel and my thrifted faux-leather jacket. I thrifted this green flannel for a DIY project, but it's so soft and oversized I'm starting to become attached! I don't know if I can bare to chop it up!
I wish I could get some kind of beehive pouf hairdo going on, I think it would look rad with my dark brows and heavy winged eyeliner. For now my little bit of fun for my look was via this bright pink lipstick. I learnt lipliner is my best frend with a strong colour, and do not underestimate a good cheap lippy (this one is Wet and Wild, and I LOVE IT).

It's been a long time but now I'm back in town

2011-04-14T14:29:00.006-05:00

OH HI Gagaloo in Harpers Bazaar, graphic made by me

So I'm done school for now, and have a few weeks before summer classes start! I'm really excited for this summer because the last two I spent travelling, and I'm actually looking forward to have a REAL summer with my friends doing summery things (how many times can I use the word summer in one sentance, apparently that's my goal to find out). I've got a long list of things I want to do, like keep a garden in my backyard, try out a million new recipes, and maybe do a few photoshoots. Obviously, summer plans wouldn't be complete without a MASSIVE list of DIYs, ammirite?? All unknown sources (sorry!) except for the one in the middle, from Kristabel's blog

You didn't think my love of black just ends with warmer weather did you? I am dedicated to my dark side, and it looks like I'm craving a lot of drapey and interesting details for some future projects. I want to made a lattered t-shirt body con dress, kind of like the one in the top left corner, sheer skirts with interesting hemlines, lace-up details, drapey poncho-type shirts, grey jersey pencil skirt with lots of room for scrunching, and maybe even a mexican rug jacket to look stylish in any outdoorsy activities (camping?). Can't wait to get started, let the summer of domesticity COMMENCE!

Harvest of sorrow

2011-04-07T16:43:00.003-05:00

So exams/paper/assignment season is here, so I'm feeling really out of it and just can't wait to be done and enjoy spring! I mean, the sun is actually finally OUT, and I've got new sunnies in the mail, life is good. Here are a few outfits from the past week. I wore this one to go out with a few friends, although I admit I chickened out last minute and ditched the 6inch boots... I do want to try to wear them more often though (as in, more than just to Lady Gaga concerts). The lipstick is the Topshop one I talked about before, and I ended up using black eyeliner for lipliner... it's that dark! I really liked wearing it though. Shirt is army deadstock from a secondhand store in the U.S (channeling Simon from Misfits, hell yeah!), Topshop black jeans, Sam Edelman boots, thrifted leather blazer. This is what I wore the other day, just to school, etc. These boots are newly thrifted and AMAZING, couldn't beleive it when I saw them! They obviously belonged to some thin-legged goth, the ankle is tiny on these things! Whatever, suffer for fashion. Plus, I'm always up for adding new members to my clucky black boots collection. DIY spiked and studded vest (haven't seen it around here in a while, huh), thrifted sweatshirt and boots. And what's that peeking out from under the sweatshirt? Oh yeah, just my BOY LONDON body con mini!! This is one of the things I bought at Sick in London, I mean... I couldn't resist. It's so tight and so short but WHATEVER I'll make it work. Close up of the print, the BOY logo So that's it for now, I'll be all wrapped up with school by this Tuesday, and a few weeks later I'll most likely be starting summer courses (just one or two classes to make the school year course load a little lighter). Talk to you soon when I'm FREEEEE

I'm gunna drink my tears tonight

2011-03-31T19:37:00.004-05:00

I haven't done any kind of sponsered product review in a long time, so I was really excited when I got an email from a online hair tools retailer called Misikko, asking me to review one of their top selling flat irons! Misikko carries all kinds of different kinds of hair tools with a range of prices and model types, so you can bet they have what you're looking for. Hair irons, blow dryers, and even top of the line proffesional tools. I have naturally straight hair, but I like to use a flat iron once and a while to get that extra smooth and straight look. My old flat iron was pretty good, but I've had it for years and has seen better days. Misikko sent me the Hana proffesional flat iron... in pink! How fun! Not many people would guess this, but pink is actually my favourite colour. I normally wouldn't mention the packaging, but just look how nice the package was that I got my straightener in! How sweet, I felt so spoiled. The iron itself is really nice, and I love that it has a rounded shape which comes in handy if you use your flat iron to curl your hair as well (more on that in a bit). You can adjust the heat on this flat iron, and the instruction booklet shows just what temperature to set it at depending on your hair type (I never knew what to set it on with my old one!). I timed how long it took to warm up, and it took just under a minute, I was shocked! Plus there's a little light that flashes when the iron is ready, which really comes in handy.

Okay, now to test it out! This is what my hair looks like when I let it air dry and don't brush it either. On the description for this iron, it says you can use it on damp hair, so to test out this claim I started straightening before my hair was completely dry. Half way done! See how frizzy my hair looks when I brush it out (the right side)? Done! After using my old iron for years, I really forgot what it was like to get hair like this. It was PIN STRAIGHT... a bit too straight tbh, so after wards I backcombed the roots a bit and used a bit of hairspray to give it a bit of texture. I've never been able to do it successfully, but I really wanted to test out how well this iron would be when I tried curling my hair with it. You can find tutorials on Youtube of how to curl your hair with a flat iron, but I think it's key to experiment a lot in order to get it right. But I'm happy to say I finally got it! Before: washed the day before, no product, and air dried. I got some really nice, smooth curls with this thing! Some of them looked better than others, so I brushed out the curls to get a nice wavy look instead. I think it looks pretty good, especially considering it took less than 10 minutes total! I know I'm not a beauty or hair expert, but speaking as an average consumer I really liked this flat iron and couldn't really point out any major flaws. I'm excited to keep experimenting with it, and try out a few more curling techniques. Thanks again to Misikko! Just so there's a bit of clothes in this post, here's what I wore out the night I used the iron to straighten my hair.

My favourite leopard print tights somehow got a hole in them, then when I pulled them on the hole got HUGE. I decided to just wear them like that anyways, haha!

I looooove this amazing cropped sweater I thrifted a while ago (it had a feather trim neckline, but I cut it off). Long, slight bell sleeve shape, and the fabric is just too weird and too good. Part Alexander Wang, part Liv Tyler in Empire Records. LOVE

Your earrings bamboo, your long nails too

2011-03-23T19:42:00.003-05:00

The weather in Winnipeg is a little wierd right now: it's not exactly spring with all the snow still heaped on the sidewalks, but it's definately not winter any more with a few warm(ish) days and lots of sunshine. This has made getting dressed especially boring... I'm sick of sweaters, but can't exactly break out the floral mini dressed just yet. So I've been chanelling my creativity onto my nails instead, and I mentioned a few posts back how eager I was to try some 3D nail designs.

I bought a few things at the dollar store that I figured might come in handy. All you really need is nail glue, tweezers, and some stuff to stick on your nails! The 3D nail QUEEN Selina of Flying Saucer has some great tips on her blog, go check them out!
Let me just say that it was really hard trying to come up with some interesting ideas that actually matched my clothing style, and not all sUpEr KaWaIi~~. NOT to say that I don't love all that super girly, tacky, Japanese street style inspired stuff... I just know that it doesn't really suit me any more.
With that in mind, these two ideas I tried out ARE extremely out of my style bracket... but I just couldn't resist!
I'm not sure how I thought of this or why I did it, but since I don't have any nail art beads I guess I just really wanted to try using sprinkles!

Yes spinkles. As in, on a cupcake. Kind of reminiscent of the A Million Little Pieces book cover, no?

I started out with the lovely lilac Revlon shade I used when I had the claw nails (remember that??)

Then I put a clear polish over top and dropped the sprinkles on top, around the cuticles. Then I used about 3 more coats of clear polish on top... still, that didn't stop water from getting in the cracks and making it all run and fall apart... but hey, the 6 hours I had them on was fun while it lasted!

This next style I started out last night, and finished today. I first used two coats of this very 80s looking powdered pink shade I found in my mom's stash. Then I used 2 more coats on top of this milky topcoat I had, to make it more of a nude, creamy pink. I would have preffered it to look less pink than this, but whatevs... I didn't feel like going out and buying a new colour.

Then I took the pearl stickers from the dollar store and some crystals I bought at a craft store and just glued them on. Even though they're still not "me", I still quite like them!

What do you think, 3D nails still a bit too tacky for you? Or if you have any ideas that would be better suited for a 90's pseudo-goth like myself, then let me know!

Not everybody getting money spending money

2011-03-18T21:03:00.003-05:00

I just realized I've got a few outfit shots stashed away, so I'll quickly share before I dash off to go babysit (yes, on a Friday. Why do I agree to these things?? Oh yeah, cos I'm desperate for money...p.s.- I ordered a pair of shoes online today...p.p.s.- they weren't cheap...p.p.p.s- oops)

This is an outfit I threw on going back to class the day after I got back from London. Sometimes the simplist, most slapdash outfits really are the best.

(what is that face... lets call it "the silent nun")
Boy London moto jacket, H&M black maxi dress, snood was a Christmas gift, leopard tights off eBay, thrifted faux Doc Martens

Then I wore this last week to reconnect with my blogging bestie Andrew of Pull Teeth (did everyone see his sexy new Boy London tee??). Although this outfit is essentially just black jeans and a white button up, I just really love it. It's all about this necklace/bodychain I got from Monki in Sweden. I think/hope its a body chain... I don't actually know for sure, but that's how I've been wearing it!

Also this leather blazer! I don't think I've shown it off here before? Most amazing cut, couldn't beleive my eyes when I saw it at Value Village. And it was $20, which for a thrift is pretty steep, but I mean, the thing is just too good to be true!

Thrifted leather blazer, thrifted white shirt, Monki body chain, black skinny jeans from Topshop, Jeffrey Campbell "mummy" wedges

ALSO! You may or may have not noticed, but I reached 500 blog followers! How amazing is that, thank you guys so much! Seriously I cannot even comprehend how many people really read my blog when in my head I think there's only a handful of you (I'm talkin about you commenters, you all get gold stars). But thanks to everyone who reads, comments, follows, tweets, you all are soooooo amazing. And to celebrate, why not buy something from my shop? Bahaha, jk guys... actually no, please buy something. It's so dead over there.

I do my own thing when the phone rings

2011-03-14T14:41:00.004-05:00

I didn't buy too much in England, but I did have a few makeup things on my list that I knew I had to get. At the top of my list was LASHES! I only started getting into false eyelashes about two months ago, because I've tried them out a few times in the past but just couldn't get them on right for the life of me! Following the instructions to a t, they still ended up looking wonky or falling off in two seconds. Finally I found a way of putting them on that works for me, in this Youtube video (this girl is amazing, btw). I also found that cutting the lashes to fit my tiny shrimp eyes is VERY IMPORTANT. When in doubt, cut more. And also, I found that waiting 30 seconds for the glue to get sticky was just too long with the lash glue I was using... it dried up really fast, so putting the lashes on when the glue was still a bit wet helped.
I don't know why I'm trying to give you guys beauty tips right now, all I wanted to do was just show you what I bought!

So every girl in England is in love with the Girls Aloud lashes by Eylure, so I knew that with this newfound lashlove I had to stock up on a few pairs to bring home with me. I bought the Nadine and Cheryl ones at Superdrug, which I don't think are the newest style but I just really liked them anyway. When I met up with my friend later that day, he had bought me the Nicola lashes as Nicola is my fav out of the girls... how nice!

I'm also big into lipsticks right now. I knew I wanted to check out the Barry M colours, as I knew that they carry a lot of really pigmented and unusual shades. Now, I know a lot of people think it's horrible, but I love a good orange lip. Not Halloween orange, but I love corals and anything with an orangey hue. I had heard good things about Barry M's orange lipstick so I'm going to give it a go, even just to wear mixed with other colours. It's a bit on the dry side, but I prefer a lipstick to be a bit drier rather than ultra moisturizing. I find really "wet" lipsticks to just slide all over, and sometimes highlights the cracks in your lips, whereas a drier colour kind of "sticks" and goes on more evenly.

The same goes for the Topshop lipstick I bought: a bit on the dry side, but still really good. I wanted to buy this shade, called "vamp", as soon as the Topshop makeup line launched last summer but for some reason I just kept humming and hawing and never ended up buying it before I left England last September. It's similar to the Revlon shade I bought not too long ago, but the Revlon one I think is too slippery, which is especially problematic with a dark shade.
The super cool packaging is a major plus for the Topshop lipstick as well, AND it smells just like berries! The colour itself it a purpley, berry-stained colour, but has a red tinge to it so it kind of reminds me of dried blood when it's on... which sounds horrible, but I love it, haha!

When I got home I also bought the new Lady Gaga Viva Glam lipstick, which is a taupe kind of colour. I haven't gotten to test this one out yet properly, but like first Gaga MAC lipstick it goes on really smooth and smells heavenly.

In other costmetics-related news, I got gel nails last week! I wanted to get them as round as possible, which apparently is a pretty difficult request. It was pretty hilarious actually, I told the woman who did my nails beforehand that I wanted super round gels, then when she got to the shaping stage I kept telling her "rounder... more round... like an oval!". She eventually gave up and handed me off to another girl to finish them off, haha! Here's what they looked like right after I got them done, but the au natural look didn't last long as I was dying to mess them up and stick stuff on them! I started out with matte black all over, with gems only on the thumbs. I've had these for a few days now, and I'm ready to get a bit crazier!

I wonder if someday I'll be good with goodbyes

2011-03-11T00:17:00.005-06:00

Ok, let's finish this 3 part trip post garbage! We left London for Sweden on Monday the 21st early in the morning, and since it was only a 2 hour flight and an hour time difference, we arrived at the airport at about 10:30am and got to central Stockholm around noon. Arriving in Stockholm felt really comforting and familiar, not because I've been there before but because there was so much beautiful snow! I well and truly felt at home there, haha.

We didn't have much of an idea of what to expect of the city, nor did we know what we wanted to see or do, so after we got to our hotel we just wandered around the local shopping area. I went to Weekday, which had some great things, and planned to go back to try things on but sadly never made it. After some Thai food for lunch, we kept browsing the shops and then stopped for a coffee and desserts just before it started getting dark.

I tried to take pictures of my coffees and some meals during the whole trip because I think half the fun of travelling is getting to try new foods... so why not document it!

The next day we walked around the city a bit more in the morning, and decided that we didn't want to do the predictable tourist things like bus tours and looking at churches, so we decided to go a children's museum near the city's center called Junibacken. If you couldn't tell yet from reading my blog, I am basically a child in an adult's body. I don't think I'll ever fully "grow up" (whatever that means) and I love children's stories now as much as I did when I was younger. I also have a big thing for Pippi Longstocking (see my Twitter button on the sidebar!). Junibacken is a children's museum dedicated mostly to the children's author Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi stories, but had all kinds of things to see that involved the characters and stories of other authors as well. This place was so magical, and I don't want to unload all the pictures I took here, so this is just a sample of what we saw there.

After the museum we headed back to our hotel, but I knew I HAD to visit Monki before we left the next day. We knew there was one not too far from the hotel, but had to hunt for a bit (and ask around) to find it. It was worth it! It was a smaller Monki store but still had a lot of great stuff. I just picked up a few things, which you'll see eventually!
We thought we had to be at the airport for 3pm the next day, but just as we were falling asleep my friend jumped out a bed because she remembered we were actually supposed to be there for 12pm! Good thing she remembered!
Airport coffee!

So after the flight it was straight to Paddington station to catch our train to Plymouth (going to stay at my friend's flat, who's there on a student exchance type things).
Train coffee!

Now, we ended up staying in Plymouth for the last 3 days of the trip instead of going back to London, because it was just nice to hang out with my bestie, see where she lives, where she works, meet her friends, etc. The last few days were really fun and just chilled out, so there wasn't much to take pictures of... we did end up going to see The Sats again though, haha!
Here are some pictures from the seaside when we walked down there one day. A really lovely scene, especially for a Canadian prairie girl like myself.

Let's sneak in an outfit shot to finish this up, shall we?

Wearing a cardigan from Monki, H&M circle scarf, thirfted creepers ,bag, and denim shorts, tights off of eBay.
The Monki cardigan is so great, with the loop fringe shoulder pad type detail... and it was on sale! This was actully my main Stockholm purchase, as I only brought a carry-on so major shopping wasn't in the plan!

So that's pretty much it! Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of what I saw, but I also hope you're ready for me to get back to some regular posting... I know I am!

I'm good, I'm gone

2011-03-06T21:57:00.006-06:00

The next 3 days of my trip most definately had the most pictures, as it was the most major shopping days AND we were in Sweden! This was my first time in Sweden, and even though it's not one of the most popular tourist stops for a Euro trip, I really wanted to visit and felt like I would really enjoy it there. We'll get to that in a bit, first I'll tell you about my last day in London...
The day before we left for Sweden ended up being our final day in London (as we decided to just chill in Plymouth for the final 4 days), but I made the most of it and it ended up being my favourite day of the trip. I ventured out by myself for most of the day, and although I already knew that I prefer going at things alone, that day I just especially enjoyed my freedom... just the chance to wander around, look around at the beautiful city, and do whatever I felt like doing! I was sent on a little mission by Andrew to hunt down and buy anything Boy London (remember my new biker jacket from a few posts back?) that I could get my hands on, so that was my only real goal for the day.
With a little internet searching, I found out my best bet to find some good Boy London would be in a shop called Sick in East London, just off of Brick Lane. It was a Sunday, so I decided to stop by Old Spitalfields Market first on the way over. I had been there before, but not on a Sunday (just to check out the Doc Martens shop) so I didn't experience the full chaos of the hundreds of stalls and people all squashed into one square. I didn't end up buying anything but it was still really enjoyable, and really half the fun is just the experience and seeing all the amazing stuff to look at...

(Didn't take many pictures, as a lot of the stalls didn't allow them)
Afterwards I headed straight to Sick, which definately not dissapoint in their Boy London selection. Most of their BL stuff was the new, re-issued pieces, but they did have a few originals mixed in.

I mean, really. I was dying. The girl working there was really amazing, and guided my through their BL stock. It was a small shop, but definately had a great selection. The top floor was like a Boy London museum with some select vintage pieces in the mix, while the floor below felt like the basement of your best friend's cool older sister, who has the most envy-inducing collection of clothes, knick knacks, and music paraphernalia.

These shoes!! I mean, have any of us really gotten over our Spice Girl obsessions? I don't think so.

Case in point:
ALSO!!

I bought a few things from Sick, which I'll show you in due time.
Next I wandered down Brick Lane for a bit and went into a few places, like Beyond Retro, but it was getting late and most of the shops close pretty early.

How cute are these animal charms I saw in a shop window?

There was a vintage market on an upper floor of some building, so I went for a wander before it closed up. Lots of good stuff, but I spent enough at Sick so I had to restrain myself...

Tiniest, cutest leather jacket I've ever seen!

Okay that was only one day and waaaaaaaaay too many pictures, so I think I should just put all the rest in the next post. Next up: Sweden and Plymouth!

Love, I don't get enough of it

2011-03-01T23:04:00.005-06:00

Eeeeek, hey guys! It's been a while! At least this absence was pre-announced (unlike most of my lazy blogging breaks) and I know you all have been DYING to see pictures and hear about my trip.... right? Unlucky for you, I'm not the best at storytelling or recollecting details, but I shall do my best!
As some of you may know, this wasn't my first visit to England. I lived and worked in London during the summer of 2009, and last summer I went again to do the same kind of working holiday but decided to come home early. The main goal for this trip was 1) visit my bestie who's studying in England, 2) give my travelling buddy the full London experience, as he's never even left Canada before, and 3) To see the Brit-pop group The Saturdays... the last reason being the most shamefull, but hey, at least I'm honest!
This post will cover the first 3 days, the second with the next 3 days, and the final post will be of the last 4 days... just to let you know, it will essentially be a photodump as there's a lot to cover. I'll try and guide you through my trip day-by-day, hopefully without being too boring...

DAY 1
We left Winnipeg the morning of the 16th, then had a 6+ hour wait in Toronto before getting on the plane again for London. With the travel time and time difference, we arrived in London the morning of the 17th and we were, unsuprisingly, extremely tired. We took the tube from Heathrow to our hostel, and sat down for some good ol' English brekkie while waiting to get into our room.

It's funny, whenever I arrive back in London it feels like I never left. I get really sentimental about seeing all the familiar things, and the smells just take me right back to my first London experiences. I don't consider myself an expert on the city or anything, but I really do feel like London is my second home now... being in big cities can be quite hectic and stressful sometimes, but I love it all and I've definately caught the travel bug since experiencing living in another country... I want to see more!
Carrying on! So after we got into our room we ended up just crashing for like 3 hours. Got up, got ready, went to see The Sats! Let me just say I know it's extremely uncool to be in love with The Saturdays, but I really can't help it... I just can't get enough!
So yeah, this is what I wore: Boy London jacket, thrifted and chopped dress, tights, and H&M wedges.
As you can see, I decided I needed a bit more colour and FUN to this outfit... in the form of pink hair tips. I bought some spray in stuff and wanted it as baby pink as I could get it. It wasn't flourescent, but it wasn't really a powdery pink. Still, it was fun while it lasted!

The dress is actually pretty great, but you can't see it properly here so I took a quick snap of it at home today. It has sheer sleeves with this piping details on the neckline and shoulders, very Alexander Wang.

The concert was really good, but the crowd seemed a little less than enthusiastic, not sure why? I was jumping up and dancing the whole time, hahah. When it was over we pretty much went straight back to our room and went to bed. Again, we were tired.

DAY 2
Our second day I though we should hit up the Southbank, London Bridge, Big Ben, etc. I really love the Southbank area actually, it's so nice to just stroll along there on a nice day.

While planning the trip, we talked about maybe going to a TV taping to be in the audience. There are a bunch of sites that you can apply though to get free tickets to be in the audience of shows, so we just applied to whatever we could and crossed our fingers. Lucky enough we got a hold of some tickets to be in the audience of Peaches Geldof's new show OMG! with Peaches Geldof (which, according to their FB page, premieres tomorrow). I'm not particularly a fan of hers, but really we just wanted to go for the experience. The show was kind of like a loose chat/gossip/audience participation program, which was alright... I'm sure they'll edit it down to make it a lot more entertaining (they taped for about 2 hours!). Any Brits who want to try and catch the show and maybe see me in the audience, I'll be in the 2nd episode of the series, on ITV2!
The show's taping was at the ITV studios which was near Waterloo station, so the whole day was spent in that general area. I think it was almost 7pm when it was finished taping, so I assume we went back to our hostel and had dinner or something (I really can't remember!).

DAY 3
More touristy stuff on our third day. We decided to go to the Tower of London, which was fine by me as I never did much of this kind of thing when I've been in London in the past. Sneaky tourist/outfit picture anyone? Wearing thrifted hat, blazer, flannel, t-shirt, bag, and creepers. Gloves from Jacob, and jeans from Urban Outfitters.

Goth lollies in the gift shop

It was raining a bit and quite cold that day, so we didn't stay there too long. In the evening we wanted to get a start on our shopping and decided to go to Westfield mall. We went to Jamie's Italian for dinner, partially so I could brag about it to by baby brother who LOVES Jamie Oliver... oh who am I kidding, I love him too!

Excuse the nasty hair here, this was after a day of hat-head and rain!
Hopefully you guys feel ~well informed~ after this post, and are excited to see the next 2 posts. I'm going to try not to drag this out, as (tbh) this stuff is already geting pretty stale in my head (sorting though hundreds of pictures doesn't help, either). Come back for part 2 and 3 later this week!

I must be myself, respect my youth

2011-02-15T20:02:00.004-06:00

Jeez, does it look like I'm packing for a funeral or what?

Oh haaaaai. Wanted to say a quick goodbye before jetting off, as I only just realized that I won't be blogging at all while I'm away. I'm not bringing my laptop, and frankly don't know how I'm going to survive but I'm going to just try to enjoy the experience technology free! ... Well, almost. I'm planning on getting in a bit of internet-checking here and there, but no blogging, so make sure to follow me on Twitter and keep up with me on there!
Not sure yet on my plans for London Fashion Week, but if worse comes to worse and no tickets pop up I suppose I'll be checking out exhibitions, and just walking around amongst the ~beautiful people~. Camera will never leave my side, so expect lots of pictures from the whole trip!
I'm really looking forward to my two days in Stockholm (a few posts back I said I was going to Gothenburg, but there was a change of plans) and just having a nice, relaxing time with no stress (traveling alone = fine, travelling with others = stress, ALWAYS). Talk to you when I'm back on the 27th, wish me luck!!

Rub that glitter and grease around

2011-02-10T22:51:00.003-06:00

Leather leather everywhere, but not a drop to drink... wait, that's not the saying. STILL guys, I just noticed that I've aquired a crap-load of leather lately. All secondhand mind you, I've really try not to buy any new leather products since going veggie over two years ago... shoe shopping is NOT EASY, people. But, on the other hand, it prevents me from spending every penny I earn on leather boots (truth: I would).
Number one! A teeny leather backpack, thrifted last week. I'm all about mini backpacks lately, trying to squeeze every last moment out of this 90's trend. It's simple, it's cute, it was 5 dollars.

Second! Bought this white leather dress months ago at a half off Value Village sale. I think it was half off $8, so 4 bucks! I love it but don't really know how to wear it or what to do with it... to shorten, or not to shorten? Customize? Stud? Paint? Ideas would be helpful!!

Thirdly, (saving the best for last) this vintage Boy London jacket I just bought on eBay! Urrgh, I can't beleive how lucky I was to snag this one. It was only me and one other person bidding, but I was still in full-on panic mode as the last seconds ticked past. I got it for a decent price too!
Dedicated to Andrew of Pull Teeth... eat your heart out!!

For those of you who have never heard of Boy London, it's a brand from the 80's that was really big with pop and rock stars (Boy George wore their clothes, for example). And since recently re-releasing a few t-shirt styles, they've been quite a hot commodity... anything Boy London can get quite pricey on eBay. Like I said, this was such a lucky find, and I can't wait to actually wear it IN London next week! I'm leaving on the 16th, so incase I don't post untill then I'll talk to you all from the other side of the pond!

I just walk up out the door, all the girls will applaud

2011-02-06T00:47:00.004-06:00

Let's play "guess that thing, really close up!"... I'll tell you right now you're not going to get it, because it's just too wierd and wonderful to be true. Months ago, on a Value Village %50 off day, Andrew came running over to me at the till with THIS in hand: a strange, ostrich feathery, light purple boa. It was $1, so I bought it hoping I'd figure out some way to DIY it into something quasi-wearable. On closer inspection, I realized it's actually made of Mongolian lamb fur. Creepy, yet still so alluring....
I thought about it for ages before I came up with something to do with this furry thing, then I decided to make it into an insane, purple, shaggy clutch!
First get an old or secondhand clutch/bag that needs some sprucin'. This grey one has seen better days...
You'll also need some scrap facric that at least kind of matches the colour of the boa. Also some scissors and a glue gun.
The fabric is to cover the clutch so that if you see any gaps between the fur and the bag, the fabric it's covered in kind of makes it all blend in... although mine doesn't really match at all, so you just get a glimpse of floral! Lay out the fabric and cut it around the bag, giving it a good extra inch or more all the way around.
I gave more fabric on the sides so I could cover the folds of the clutch (when it expands).

Glue gun the edges then press on the fabric, making sure there are no bubbles and it's smooth all over.

Next I cut the boa into 4 equal pieces. Then basically you just glue gun them on! A tip is to seperate the fur and put A LOT of glue down the parted area, then put the bag on top of the piece so it stays flat and neat.
See how the fur is parted on that piece on the left?

Then use glue down some fur on the bag on parts that look a bit bald, so you get an even fur-ball effect. Then, you're done!

I know this DIY isn't that practicle, and you're thinking either a) "Where do I find purple Mongolian Lamb fur??" or b) "Why would I want to carry around a thing like that...", but really I wanted to post this because it's just a bit of fun. I think we can all do with a bit of insanity once and a while, and toting something like this all around town is sure to make somebody smile :)

Total eclipse of the heart

2011-01-31T18:39:00.004-06:00

This is the outift I wore today, nothing too special... actually really sloppy if I think about it: extremely worn-in jeans, a sweatshirt, and my EXTRA AMAZING PLATFORMS which have no arch to them so it's just like wearing flats. I took these with my new tripod, which, after only taking a few photos with, I've fallen in love with and now don't know how I lived without it. I have two other tripods but they're both broken in some way, so fingers crossed this one stays intact!
My Reading Week (aka Spring Break, aka ENGLAND & SWEDEN FEST!) plans are starting to take shape. I've booked my flight to Sweden, booked my hostel, but most importantly I've applied for my London Fashion Week pass! I left just before LFW last fall, so I'm really happy I'll be around to go this time. I've pretty much only been able to reserve one day for FW festivities, as I'm travelling with a friend and can't exactly leave him hanging around alone half the trip, haha! More on that later!

I don't speak German, but I can if you like

2011-01-23T23:35:00.002-06:00

Looking through my blog lately I see there's a lot of ME ME ME going on... I'm guessing you all are getting a bit sick of my face at this point. I like blogs that are more on the personal side, but I like a good mix of personal style, street style, runway, and just other bits and bobs that don't necessarily have to do with fashion. That's what I want my blog to be: a mix of everything... with an emphasis on personal style and DIY. I like that my posts don't follow any particular format, even though it means starting from scratch when formulating and writing each one... it keeps things interesting! Maybe as readers you don't really notice, but a lot of blogs seem to follow the same structure post after post. DON'T GET ME WRONG I'm not saying this is a bad thing! I just like the fact that my blog always keeps me on my toes.
Ok I don't know if I'm making any sense, nor do I know why I'm rambing like this. CARRYING ON! No pictures of me in this post, as part of this new goal to mix it up a bit more. Here are a few pictures I've had saved in my "hair" folder. I never thought I would be one of those people who change their hair every week (you know the type!), always showing up with a different colour or style. But since I made the leap to (half) bleached hair, I feel like I still want to experiment with some other colours. I've had violet (as you may remember), but now I'm REALLY into the idea of a washed out green, as well as mermaid blue and maybe even bright yellow. I know, I know, some of you are thinking "eww green??!" but I don't care, I think it looks effing amazing and I'm more than tempted to get this manic panic shade and mix it with a white toner to wash it out a bit.

(sources clockwise: unknown, Facehunter, Drop Tokyo, I Love Fake magazine, Drop Tokyo)

As much as I want to get dying, I want to wait while my hair grows out a bit. See, I got my hair rebleached about 2 weeks ago and I'm so not happy with it... the front has only about 3 inches of brown, the blonde is so far up and it just doesn't look blended all over... it looks like the bleach was painted on, just really choppy. Idk... I've mostly been parting it on the side or clipping back the front parts (see my hair in the previous post) to make it look a bit better, but I guess there's not much else to do than for it to grow out and blend itself.
Oh wow, that was long and boring... did I mention I'm going to England next month? No? Oh, well I am! I'm going during my reading week, for about 12 days total. One of my best friends has been going to school in Plymouth for the past year so I'm going with a friend to visit her. While we're over there, my friend and I decided we want to visit somewhere in Europe for two days or so (we ain't sitting in Plymouth for 12 whole days, that's for sure!) and we've agreed on Sweden. Monki, Weekday, here I come!! ... no really, I've barely spent a penny on clothes in the last 2 months because it's all going to go to Sweden shopping. We're prob hitting up Gothenburg, so if you've been or you are Swedish, then feel free to leave some tips for places to go/see/show in the comments!

Put on my cape and hit the sky, heroine

2011-01-16T18:29:00.005-06:00

Sometimes I get so overly excited when I'm thrifting, I end up buying things that, in hindsight, I would never wear. Enter this Grandma sweater, bought almost two months ago.

Now, it's not so much the design on the sweater that I came to have second thoughts about. Rather, when I brought it home I realized it had the BIGGEST HOLE EVER under the arm on one side. How could I have missed this?? Must have been in on of those aforementioned thrifting highs, where my brain can't function normally and logical thought just never enters into the equation.
As I'm usually too lazy to go back and return something thrifted, DIY was the only solution. Well, some may not classify this as a DIY... I basically just ripped the shit out of it.

I cut a huge section off the front to make it asymmetrical, then I just snipped out holes all over and pulled the yarn to shred it as much as I could. I might go at it a bit more, as I'm looking at these pictures now and thinking it doesn't look as messed up as it could...

I also thrifted the PERFECT SHOES last week that would go flawlessly with this outfit. Ok y'all, you ready?... Are you sitting down?...

I beleive in fate, and these shoes are proof that it exists. I saw them first at a Goodwill downtown while shopping with Raez, but they were like a size 6, or something ridiculously small that would never fit my size 10 canoe-feet. But their clunky, schoolgirl-type charm left an impression on me, and then weeks later, while thrifting with Andrew at Value Village, I saw the exact SAME SHOES... IN MY SIZE! What are the chances, how often do you find doubles when shopping secondhand?? If that's not fate, my friends, then I don't know what is.

I knew they were the same shoes because how could I forget a pair of chunky MJ's with purple fur lining. I MEAN!!

When I saw them I thought of that Get Him to the Greek scene... if I ever get a heart attack I can just stoke the bottom of my shoes.

Like a dungeon dragon

2011-01-09T13:17:00.005-06:00

Coat - Zara, "vintage" Playboy t-shirt - Urban Outfitters, shorts, thrifted

After (literally) months of eBay and internet searching, dreaming about shaggy faux fur coats every night (ok, slight exagerration), I finally took the plunge and ordered one. I ended up getting this Zara coat off of eBay, and although I love the shaggy/yeti/gorilla-ness of the fur, and shape is pretty good, I'm having second thoughts. It looks great in these pictures, but I'm still deciding if I like the way it looks on me IRL. Thoughts?

----------------

Also, I've reopened Modernity with five different items still available. I've cut down the prices on everything, so no holding back now...
BUY MY STUFF!

The moment I said it

2011-01-05T20:58:00.006-06:00

I have an obsession.

It's sick.

It's incurable.

It's taking over my life.

It's black maxi dresses.

(click to enlarge, bigtime)

Left to right: wrap dress - thrifted, lace dress - thrifted, skirt - H&M, t-shirt dress - ASOS, mid-length dress - thrifted, skirt - DIY, long sleeve dress - H&M, tank dress - Winners, dress with shoulder appliques - thrifted

And the newest edition to the family, thrifted just the other day

I have an illness.

She's not broken, she's just a baby

2010-12-31T18:36:00.005-06:00

I thought I'd squeeze one for post before the end of the year, and it's a quicky... although I haven't got anything else to run off to do. It's Almost 7pm and I'm still NYE plan-less, and frankly I'm too tired after working all day to even give a hoot. I'm so down to just sit with a cappuccino (did I tell y'all I got an espresso machine for Christmas? SO much fun) and read my overdue library books untill I hit the pillow at 12:01.
On with the post! An outfit I wore the other day, in 3 parts:

My sheer and velvet cutout Topshop top, layered over a black tee. I love this top but deciding what to layer it with is proving to be harder than I thought. Wore it once with just a bra underneath (teehee), but other attempts proved not as successful. Layered with the black t-shirt looks good enough, I like that you actually have to look closely to see that I'm actually wearing 2 shirts. It also kind of looks like a bodycon dress like this, come to think of it!

Faded American Apparel African print leggings. Oldie but a goodie.

Topped off with my really old Urban Outfitters moto jacket.

Something that's not so old, these NEW Jeffrey Campbell "Mummy" wedges. Now, let me just say that I wouldn't consider myself a JC fan. Making your buisness by blatently ripping off other designers just doesn't sound like a very good buisness strategy imo. But I came across these on Solestruck's Cyber Monday sale and I liked them... a lot. Plus, as far as I can tell, they're not a direct copy of any shoes I've seen before (feel free to prove me wrong!). A second plus, they were %50 of the already reduced price of $99. So yeah, score.

Oh and remember that little claw-nail idea I had two posts back? I went through with it! Last night I bought some extra long dollar store nails, used cuticle scissors to cut the corners, then filed the ends to a perfect pointy shape. Then I glued them on my nails and finished it off with this perfect shade called "Lily" from Revlon's new Top Speed nail polish.
(note: I know I'm crap at painting nails)
I rocked them all day today, and guess what... so wierd looks or comments. I guess they're not as freaky as I make them out to be in my head, haha. Love them!

You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel

2010-12-25T22:33:00.005-06:00

A super quick post to say Happy Christmas to everyone who celebrates it! And if you don't, well I hope you had a fab day anyways and enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet. It's 11 pm now, and I've had a full day of jumping from house to house, opening presents, drinking tons of coffee, and eating many chocolates. Tomorrow I might sneak in a bit of Boxing Day shopping in the morning, but the majority of the day will be for two more family gatherings... and if that's not enough, I've got yet another on New Years Day. Oh the joy never ends...
I'll leave you with some holiday outfit details that I wore to a friend's Christmas party the other night. If I can muster up some creativity I might put something new together for tomorrow. If not, I'm going to be a total outfit repeater.

(The dress I bought secondhand months ago and hacked off the bottom. Cute, right?)

EDIT: I almost forgot that I wanted to use this post to just make a huge thank you to all of you out there, my readers. This time last year my blog was 1 1/2 years old and barely verging on 100 followers, now another year later and I'm at 420 followers and I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. I can't beleive how much my blog has grown in the past year, and at this point I can no longer deny that it really has become a part of me. It has changed my life in so many ways, but the best thing has been all of the online and real-life friends I've met through blogging, both abroad and right here in Winnipeg. I hope I don't sound too sentimental, but seriously just THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for reading my blog and supporting me, and keep on reading... I'm not going anywhere! xx

I'm at that slumber party sippin on that fizzy chrissy

2010-12-21T01:56:00.007-06:00

umm, hi? HI! It's me! Yessss I'm still here, but this whole waiting a month between posts needs to stop I think. In my defense I've been working a lot, watching Misfits a lot, painting, searching things on eBay, checking then re-checking my Google Reader, trying to make hair appointments, discovering Harry Potter tumblrs, pretending to read books, and in general the holidays have been just been crushing me. Lucky for me I got my gift shopping ALL DONE today (probs a record for me) and now I am so ready to be on the receiving end... of gifts... did that make any sense?
OUTFITS! I completely forgot I took pictures of a few recent outfits, and now that I think about it I wish I took more cos some of my looks lately have been pretty good (trust me?). This one is to show you a crop top I bought in the states a few weeks back (or ONE post back, in terms of my horrible blogging agenda). It's just a basic black, cropped t-shirt, but what I love about it is that it's got this really cool texture... almost like cracked leather.

Worn with high-waisted H&M jeans and leather cross necklace from a shop in Toronto (sup Isabel! If you're reading this, I wore my bloomers the other day and thought of you! We still need to take a picture of us wearing them together!!)
This next look is very Proenza Schouler pre-fall 2010, imo. Although I can't put a name to my stunned expression and strange camera claw-hand I'm donning in the photo...

Deets: I love how the holey sweatshirt and buttoned up shirt just mesh heavenly together.

Wearing a sweatshirt from Aritzia, shirtdress from Uniqlo, leggings from AA, and thrifted satchel-purse.

And lastly, my current nails! Leopard print in [whatithoughtwasbrown] pink, white, and black. I'm thinking of filing some fake nails into a more claw-like shape a la Gaga, in a really innocent colour like beige or lilac. Think I'll be able to pull it off?

p.s. - I'm going to be re-opening my shop, Modernity, to sell off what's left of the stock... about half of what was originally in the shop. I'll be re-pricing everything as well (SALES!!), so come back and reward yourself with some endofchristmasshopping gifties!

I'd rather give you the world or we could share mine

2010-12-01T22:26:00.003-06:00

This weekend I went on a mini-getaway to the states with my mom, aunt, and grandma for some good, old fashioned money spending! I'm talking about shopping, on Black Friday of course. For those of you who don't know, Black Friday is a huge shopping day in the U.S. that takes place the day after Thanksgiving and lasts the whole weekend. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October (when it SHOULD be!), so we left for for the 10 hour drive on Thursday morning and then started shopping when we got there at midnight! It's so strange how people were all shopping in the middle of the night... I like that it doesn't get that mental in Canada.

Some literature for the road, although I always pack too many things to read and I just ended up looking out the window the whole time, listening to Pink Friday.

I actually didn't end up scoring any major deals. I think maybe only one thing I bought was on sale? At least I got to hit up H&M, albeit a very poorly stocked one with nothing very exciting. Here are some of the things I tried on.
I ended up buying the maxi dress and the velvet mini-dress... although now I'm thinking I quite liked the jumpsuit? Oh well, too late now. While in the dressing room, I realized how much I love this leopard tights/Dad socks/creepers combo that I had on that day.
Oh yeah, that right there just turns me on.

We went out for dinner that night, and this is what I wore. Keeping the tights on, I just pulled on some panneled leggings and this asymmetrical top. The heels are pointy toed platforms that I bought there (on sale), which I almost didn't buy but I'm glad I did (or my mom did, rather... I was about to put them back and my mom's just like "well I'll just get them for you, that way I can wear them too", haha).

With yet another maxi dress in the wardrobe, I've got to start getting creative with the things! I just noticed I've got a few maxi dress inspiration photos in the ol' fashion folder. Here's a few ideas I love for wearing a maxi:

Left from Style East, right is Jazzabelle in a photo from I want you to know. A knotted t-shirt over the dress. So simple! Yet SO GOOD. I hope I look as amazing as these two when I try out this look.

Left's source is unknown, right is from Drop Tokyo. I love the belted button-up shirt wth the maxi, it gives a little more shape to the sometimes overwhelming silhouette of a long dress. Plus, the girl just looks amazing. On the right, I just really think these two look wicked, non? The guy's look is giving me the idea to hike up the skirt on one side, revealing some leggings, trousers, or great shoes... wow I really am starting to sound like a horrible fashion advice column: "complete your look with a punchy scarf and piling on the bracelets!"... And on that note, I'm out!

I've had the same jeans on for four days now

2010-11-24T22:10:00.005-06:00

... actually it's only been two days, and they aren't actually jeans, but disco pants. I just really wanted that song to be my title...
I wore this on Sunday to go see Harry Potter AGAIN. It's so sad, during the movie I was just thinking "I can't wait to see this again!!"... I think I just have an addiction to going to the cinema.
Now that I look at the pictures of this outfit, I'm not sure if I actually like it that much... whatevs, too late now! I do love this purple blazer though, thrifted over a month ago. It was like 4 dollars or some ridiculously cheap price at Goodwill, and then at the counter I found out it was on discount and was like $2.80. Cray cray! It's such a cool piece, I took a picture without flash to get a better idea of the colour... it's still a bit more purpley in real life, but you get the idea.

Next day I wore the disco pants again, this time with a thrifted acid wash tee and denim Uniqlo mini dress over top.
Took the dress off later and tucked in the t-shirt. Jeez now that I have a tripod set up in my room it's just way too easy to take outfit pictures, I'm doing multiple per day! I hope I don't overdo it though... I know a white wall can lose it's touch after a while... in my opinion, anyways.
After getting a little Christmas shopping done I decided to reward my hard work (HA!) by buying myself a lipstick. This Revlon colour was nice purple-y, berry stained kind of shade. Not sure if I like it on yet... defo looked better in the tube.

In boredom, I also bought this clip-in bangs thing off ebay.... has anyone tried these things before (and have it actually look good)? I got it in the mail today and the colour doesn't match my brown perfectly, but I was thinking it might be okay if I wear it at night. If anyone has tried these before let me know any tips, then MAYBE I'll show you mine, haha!

No regrets, just love

2010-11-19T19:42:00.003-06:00

Well looky here, an outfit post? What do you know, I'm not dead after all.

Haven't got much to say, other than to show you what I wore to go to the midnight show of Harry Potter last night. A few friends had started lining up at 7:30, then the rest of us got there at around 8 so there was a wee bit of a wait. Everyone was sitting on the floor at first, but then they made us stand up, packed against eachother like sardines for the last 2 hours of waiting.... so that was fun! I love strangers breathing down my neck! Some guy near us in line randomly started doing magic tricks, which was cute but also slightly awkward in the squishy-ness of it all. I spent a week convincing my friends that dressing up was a GOOD IDEA, then once we all agreed on costumes one girl texted me on Tuesdays saying she wasn't feeling it anymore. There will be no avoiding it next year though: last movie means the last chance to let all the nerdiness out of our systems!
Quick outfit recap: H&M leopard print dress, vintage flannel from a shop in Camden, Andrew's thrifted creeepers, and my NEW thrifted jean jacket that I found in the kid's section at Goodwill. I was pretty happy I found it, I think it's the perfect length and is just begging to be customized. Might need to add a part II to my ongoing denim customization project... which, unsurprisingly, hasn't really gone anywhere since that post.

Oh, and incase you're wondering what I thought of Deathly Hallows: I loved it! Don't want to go into specifics for those who haven't seen it, (which will be most of you. It hasn't even been out for 24 hours yet!) but it followed so close to the book that none of you diehards will be dissapointed. Oh, and Rupert kicked ass in the acting department... Weasley is our King!!

I'm a bad ass chick, yo my black magic

2010-11-01T00:59:00.005-05:00

Before I dive into my Google Reader for all the Halloween posts I'm about to read, I thought I should quickly post mine... if I didn't I probably would never get around to it, tbh...
First off: my Goth Tea Party! I had a little shindig at my house on October 16th, telling all my friends on the invitation (which I made, and looked like this fyi) to "dress in your Gothic best.. no excuses!". I was glad to see everyone show up in proper attire. Even if that meant just throwing on an all-black outfit, then hey, I'm happy.
If there's one thing you should know about me is that when I do something, I go ALL THE WAY. Exhibit A: The setting

Complete with dozens of lit candles, a pentagram below our feet, roses with their heads cut-off (À la The Adamms Family), and plenty of lace on every surface.

Exhibit B: The food

Everything had to be black, white, or red. This included voodoo doll and black cross cookies, homemade rasberry chocolate macarons, white chocolate dipped strawberries, and of course red velvet cupcakes (via THE GODESS that is Paula Deen).

Exhitit C: My outfit, y'all!

Okay okay, so I swear this didn't all start out as just another excuse to dress as Gaga. In my mind the concept was "Queen of the Goths", which I just happened to think of Gaga in the Alejandro video. Under the cloak I was pretty much just wearing underwear with lace tight overtop, and finally get a chance to wear my thrifted stripper boots! I made both the crown and the special made black version of this Alexander McQueen cloak, which she wears in the video.

So this costume was special not only as I dressed as my favourite woman of all time, but as I got to do my own kind of tribute McQueen, who also stands as one of the most influential people to me, as well as an incredible artist who will never be forgotten.

The coat was so special that I just HAD to wear it again on Halloween. It wasn't actually finished at the time of the party, as I didn't have enough time to do the gathering at the train. I did get it done though, unsurprisingly ON the day I needed it again.

I had a last minute change of heart before going out on Saturday. I was planning on wearing the same Alejandro Gaga outfit I wore to my tea party, but then changed my mind THAT DAY and decided to do something a bit different. Still Gaga, just something a bit more comfortable than hauling around a 5 pound headpiece the whole night.

Graphic from Pull Teeth

As you can see, I skipped the wig and just used my own hair for this look. Again, I pretty much just wore underwear under the cloak, haha! Whatevs, in my defense I kept the cloak on the whole night and the most anyone would have see of me was a flash of granny panties... scandalous. The stripper boots got cut off because, well, I just really wanted ankle booties. And the eyepatches? I feel like I want to rock them on the regs.

Won't go without my fix tonight

2010-10-19T23:28:00.003-05:00

It might be kind of self-evident at this point, but I've been taking a break from computers for a while and it feels pretty good.... that's why I haven't been forcing myself to post and my twitter account has been pretty dead as well. Nevertheless, I've got a few pictures to share today, and more importantly a few from my Goth Tea Party this past Saturday. I'll post those soon. The party went well, but my costume wasn't quite complete at the time, and being the perfectionist that I am I might need to just take all new pictures of myself once it is done (as I'll be wearing it to a few Halloween things I have lined up).
If you're curious as to what I've been wearing the past few weeks, these pictures pretty well represent my current outfit moodboard: lazy, dark, and simple (although I've kind of been like this for a while, hey?).

I dried this tank maxi dress on a hanger, so when I put it on the straps stretched out the tiniest bit and to my (somewhat pathetic?) delight the dress now grazed the floor on me WITH wearing heels. I'm happy, you're happy, we're all happy.
(um, what up with my face/hair in these? Whatevs, horrible pictures is what I get for taking pictures with my phone, balancing against the t.v. remote)
This jacket I thrifted before I went to England but didn't pack it on my trip because of the questionable bat wing-esque shape of the sleeves. Seeing these pictures confirms that I really do need to take the sleeves in, but other than that it's a pretty rad jacket, no? The mesh leggings are from Aritzia, and the lace booties are from Topshop.
Unfortunately that's all I've got for you today... wish I could come up with a more creative post. How about I avoid waiting 2 weeks between posts, and we'll call it even ;)

Hot damn make me scream like summer jam

2010-10-06T23:43:00.003-05:00

I wasn't really going for some "autum themed" pictures, but when I look at these I can't help but think of FALL. All the leaves, the cozy knitted sweater, etc. I thrifted this sweater the other day, and like most things I buy it looks cuter in my head than it does in real life. It's still kind of cute in a "my Gramma madez it" kind of way. What I was really on the hunt for was the perfect cable knit, oatmeal coloured sweater (I keep being tempted to say "jumper", but then remind myself "you're not in England anymore, gurl!") and bought this cream one cos I hate leaving a store empty handed... how's that for a shopping philosophy! Maybe that's why I'm broke all the time....
Today I quickly popped into Value Village, although another price hike means I feel like I'm being robbed every time I leave that store. Seriously, the prices are ridic. I'm going to really try and stick to Goodwill and Salvation Army from now on. Anyways, I bought this long-sleeved wrap dress and plan to wear it open like a long cardigan type deal. I think it looks pretty ferosh.

A perfect example of VV's ginormous price increase: these boots. I was browsing through the shoes section when I saw possibly the most interesting pair of shoes I've ever come across at Value Village: a pair of thigh-high, black patent leather stripper boots. Ooooooh yes my friends, I went there.

Immediately I went to the price tag and my heart sank. 40 DOLLARS FOR A PAIR OF SECONDHAND BOOTS!! I'm not lying, 39.99! I slipped one and almost started crying as the boot perfectly molded to my foot. I looked over the boots again, and realized the back of them were all torn up. I miracle in disguise! I figured I'd try to get a price discount as these were clearly very damaged and the price was ridiculous enough even if they were in good shape. At first the girl at the till said 10% off was the best she could do, so I said I wouldn't take them. Then as she was ringing me up for the wrap dress, she looked over them again and offered 20% off. I didn't want to push my luck, and couldn't stand to leave them there so I bought them. Still horribly overpriced, but you guys JUST LOOK HOW AMAZING

I didn't just buy them to prance around my house in, I actually plan to wear them to my Goth Tea Party that I'm having two Saturdays from now. Such a good idea, right? I've wanted to have one for ages, and even made a design on photoshop for the invitations months ago. I figured Halloween is as good a time as any to dress up in all black and eat massive amounts of cupcakes and sweets.

This is my heart and I won't allow the disrespect

2010-09-28T00:54:00.005-05:00

Why hello there. Have you met my middle part?

Haven't done a center part in my hair since fourth grade. FOURTH GRADE, GUYS. And now it's every day. When you have long, straight hair like mine, and kind of change is pretty darn exciting. Oh, and also I fully realize these pictures are almost identical to the last post. What can I say, when I find a white wall I get a little too excited.

This is pretty much what I've been wearing every day: leggings, t-shirts, a flannel or jacket, and these shoes which I ALMOST PUT DOWN but thank goodness I came to my senses and bought them immediately. They're faux leather platforms from H&M, which unfortunately my mom has taken a shine to so it looks like we're going to have to go splitsies with them. They actually have them on the H&M online shop so my mom could have a pair of her own, but of course they don't ship to Canada so that suxxx. To any of my UK blogging friends reading this, you may be getting a desperate "help me can you ship these to me please??!" email real soon.

She had her hair done, nails right

2010-09-22T23:10:00.002-05:00

Today a friend helped me colour the blonde bits in my hair to get the some of the yellowness out... I kind of want it to be as white/grey as possible. You can see some parts look really white while other parts are a bit bronze. This is because of the streaky bleach job I have, so if I want it snow white I'd have to bleach it again. Not sure what I want yet, but I think it looks fine for now.

Yesterday I bought these horribly ugly (yet amazing?) stick on nails with, that's right, cobras on them. I think fake nails are going to be my new thing. Don't have the patience to grow mine, plus if I want to do some crazy designs then painting them on fake nails would be way easier.

I haven't forgotten about the blog completely, I really will get back to regular posting asap. Love u.

Shake me till you wake me from this bad dream

2010-09-14T19:27:00.003-05:00

I know I said I'd try to post before the weekend, but now it's well past the weekend and you've still been staring at the dusty post below, wondering where the heck I am. Sorry about that. Here's just a quick post saying that I got home fine (after 18 hours of solo travelling) and the blog will be back in full force very soon. I've got some kind of ear and throat infection combo, so prancing around in pretty dresses and taking photos of myself are not exactly at the top of my agenda. PLUS I really need to get on the job hunt again now that I'm back home. All those London shopping spree charges on my credit card aren't going to pay themselves!

I know you're not a bluffer I'll take you to go see Usher

2010-09-05T15:26:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to squeeze in a quick post here as I'm going to be out of London until Tuesday (popping over to Plymouth!) and then Wednesday I'm jetting off back to Canada! No offence to London/Londoners, but I'm really ready to get out of this place and snuggle back into Winnipeg... even if that means facing questionable weather and draining my bank account for a last minute flight and excess baggage fees, AS LONG AS I'LL BE HOME ALIVE I DON'T CARE.
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So on Saturday, with a little last minute coach booking, I spent the day in Birmingham to hang out with Selina of Flying Saucer one more time before I left England. We met at the coach station and popped into this big yellow vintage store across the street called Cow Vintage. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the selection and prices, but was planning on not buying anything as I'm pretty shopped out at this point, not to mention that I often use the "I can buy secondhand at Goodwill when I get home" excuse.

We checked out a few shops in the main shopping area called the Bullring, including the required stop at Topshop. I loooooooove this jumper which is a clear knock-off of the interweb-famous Dries van Noten one I had in that collage I made a few weeks ago. Although I love the faded pink colour of this one, I'm not sure how well it settled against my "fair" skin. It also comes in a kind of wine, purple-ish, burgundy colour which I wasn't in love with either, so decided to pass on it. Sad, but I'm glad I'm learning how to exercise self-restraint.

Then again, if any of you want to encourage me to decide otherwise then I can always make a last minute Topshop run before I leave! Haha

Oh and I also did a changeroom photo of my outfit for that day: H&M leopard body-con, DIY vest, vintage eBay-ed boots.

I also kind of forgot that I took some outfit pictures a few days ago. I call this my "All-American Trash" look, with denim on (acid wash) denim and trashy tank. This was actually one of my favourite t-shirts from a Bloc Party concert I went to last year. It's a men's XL and the sleeves were getting so stretched out and sweat-stained I decided to cut them off. You can't really tell from the pictures but the arm holes are HUGE so this is defo a bra flashing/side-boob kind of tank.

Look at my white nails! My gel nails were getting really grown out and started lifting so I had to go to a salon to get them taken off. I was all excited, hoping that when they came off they'd reveal some lovely, long, strong nails that I could try all kinds of new nail art with. What I got was some stubs that are so weak and flimsy that this nail polish has cracks in it from bendy nails. Not cool. Now I have to basically wait untill my nails grow out completely until I can try anything too exciting.

Since I'm home Wednesday night, I'll for sure be able to post before or on this weekend. Talk to you soon from across the pond!

Me I'm a creator, thrill is to make it up

2010-09-01T17:48:00.003-05:00

The other day I started putting an outfit together but didn't really know what kind of look I wanted, but knew I didn't want to throw on the same ol' leggings and tee combination, you know? I started grabbing things out of my closet (which doesn't happen to have a lot going on at the moment) to see what I could come up with. Since I don't really have a mirror in my room I thought I'd do the ol' Cher Horowitz tip and take a pictures of my outfit to help me decide... I know I know, it's not the authentic polaroid method but a digital camera will do too.

Started out with my tank maxi dress and threw on the asymmetrical Topshop top on overtop... wow I just managed to use the word "top" three times in one sentance. Go me!

Felt too shlubby with all those long, loose layers so tried to belt it up.

I felt the plastic belt was too thick, tried a thinner one on and I think it looks much better.

Realized this might be a good opportunity to try out my black Lennon sunglasses I bought in Camden a week ago. I'm trying REALLY hard to not style them too 90's, I feel like it's too predictable. I'm trying to make them mesh with other types of looks, and not just throw them on with my flannels and crop tops, yaknowwhatImean??

And to lessen the Grecian Godess effect of this outfit, I threw on my moto jacket. Note the fancy new elbow patches! haha

Well wasn't that fun?! Dissecting the outfit making process! Sometimes I think about how other people put together an outfit, I'm sure we don't all do it the same way. How do you put together an outfit? Tell me your secret methods!!

I believe in what I'm feeling

2010-08-28T13:46:00.005-05:00

Didn't make an outfit bubble because this outfit is so simple: Uniqlo denim t-shirt dress buttoned up all the way, black tights, thrifted boots and bag.

This is what I wore today. First to sit around in my room doing nothing, and then to check out the Doc Martens sale in Old Spitalfield Market, then come sit in my room some more... didn't really feel like "exploring the city" today. I do love this outfit even though it's remarkably simple for my style. My inspiration/mood for this look comes from a blogger named Japke, who has the most beautifully refined and quiet taste and whom I've loved for ages. Definitely check out her blog, it's so lovely to skim through especially when your feeling quite dreamy and Sunday afternoon-sy.

I also want to let everyone know that I've decided I want to head home early. It's not for some sad reason, it's not an emotional affair: I'm leaving happy! I really just feel like I've done and seen pretty much everything I wanted to when I was here last year, and I just feel like I'm not meant to be here right now. I'm still taking off a semester, and I think I'd rather just find a job at home and chill out for a while. Anyways, if anyone has any places/shops/events you think I should check out before I leave then let me know!

Don't take no mess from nobody

2010-08-25T13:31:00.004-05:00

Guess who finally got a flannel

The most perfect flannel in all of Camden. I basically live and sleep in it now. Found the same day as the blogger yard sale which you can read about here on Style Bubble (I'm lurking in the crowd in the first pic) and here on I Want You to Know, because I can't be bothered to type up my lesser quality recolection of the day. I bought a crap load of Susie's stuff, will show them over time rather than a "here's everything I bought" kind of post. Still gushing about how cool/funny/real Susie is in person, and the same goes for all the other bloggers there. Was fun times.

I got the pieces of the heart you broke

2010-08-20T14:14:00.005-05:00

This has been me for the past few days. No, not nessesarily kissing my knee, but basically house bound as I'm really trying to NOT to spend any money... que PB&J with instant coffee for every meal! But seriously, if I go for a wander around the city I cannot be held accountable for my actions. I WILL buy something, and that's a fact.
To talk about some of the clothing-related going-ons in my life, I recently fixed one of my favourite pieces I've EVER owned, which was on the verge of death. My amazing Urban Outfitters moto jacket that I scooped on sale for $20 when I was, maybe, fifteen.

It has served me well, and when I was in denial of the sausage-like snuggness that developed in the arms the most predictable thing happened: it ripped. Right on the elbow. This happened months and months ago, and when I tried to stitch it up it not only looked odd, but didn't last more than 5 minutes. So basically I had two options: either say goodbye to my fav jacket, or take drastic measures. That's right my friends: elbow patches.
I just used some scrap fabric and fusable interfacing, and had to hand sew them on. I started this the NIGHT before I left Canada because I so desperately wanted to bring the jacket with me, but I realized it might take a while to hand sew them both on so I brought the jacket along with some thread and a needle.

Honestly, I'm loving the elbow patch look. And you know if this method doesn't hold up, I can always turn it into a sexy dance.

As much as I loved the gradient nail look I posted about last (anyone tried it yet?), I think the basecoat I used made a too smooth, slippery surface for the paint to stick to it started chipping pretty much immediately. Not to fear though! I did another design the next day using the paint again and just loaded on the layers of topcoat and it's still staying stong! What was the design you ask? Well I used a little J. Scott for inspiration.

And Jesus. Obviously.

This was made with acrylic paint and a black sharpie (or as my immitation markers read: shaerpie). Oh wow, you probably think I'm so cheap for using materials like this. Well, you're half right. But really I left all my makeup and polish at home, as you may remember, so I'm working with what I got! But not for long: my brother brought my makeup bags with him as he headed overseas for a trip to Germany. I'm meeting with him tomorrow as he's staying in London a few nights before heading back home. FINALLY I'll have some decent mascara (Revlon 3D Extreme for life!!) and my brushes and everything! Very excited!!
And another plus for this look: I match with my shopping bag.

Oh and you know that stuff I said about leaving the flat? Yeah, well to prove it I did go for a wander in Covent Garden yesterday and JUST LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!
Faux leather panelled leggings, on sale 5 pounds from H&M.

Some button earrings, as well as a grey jersey circle scarf. I'm so bad.

The night is young, ain't no one gonna know where you been

2010-08-15T16:27:00.010-05:00

This post is special for two reasons.
1) The first video EVER on Nice and Shiny
2) My 200th post!

Don't get too excited just yet! The video is very shoddy and unedited, but I wanted to post it as the first of more to come. Now that I have a decent camera that takes good quality video, I've been thinking about making videos for the blog. Also considering how much I LOVE it when other bloggers make them. The thing is... I don't really know what to make the videos of! I'm not a fan of my voice on camera and I'm not particularly chatty, so doing haul/tutorial/chat videos are pretty much out of the question (for now at least). But hey, I'm telling you guys this now so you can give me ideas! Saves me from having to think about it! It might be cool to make some DIY videos, but now that I'm in England and sewing machine-less that idea will have to be put on hold for a while.
Anyways, what I wanted to show you today is my nail design. It doesn't need to be said that nails are just blowing up right now. Which is fine by me as I've always been a fan of the insane, 3-dimensional designs that those Japanese girls come up with. SO COOL, although I don't think diamonds and bows and pom-poms would really suit me (if you haven't noticed, I've pretty much been wearing only black for the past few months).
So I wanted to do something cool with my nails that would actually go along with my current goth obsession. Luckily I found this beauty of an idea in some long lost folder on my computer.

I've been pretty obsessed with this design since I first saw it, and knew I had to do it for myself. While watching one of Gem Fatale's awesome tutorial videos, she mentioned how when she went to get her nails done that the manicurists were using acrylic paint for the designs, then using a topcoat to seal it. This got me thinking that using acrylic paint could work pretty well for this gradient design.
I went for a wander around Ikea yesterday and found some acrylic paints and cheap brushes in the kid's section by chance. I bought them right away as I doubt I'll be able to find any art supplies in central London that were cheaper than these.

I'm also going to do some paintings/artwork for my room, I didn't just buy all these paints for this one nail project!

The before shot. These aren't my real nails by the way. Right before I left Canada I decided I wanted to get gel nails done... don't ask why but I thought it would be a good idea. Turns out they started lifting the very next day! I had to go and get them fixed ON the day I was leaving, but even then they were majorly lifting less than a week later. I found a place in London that fixed them up in no time, and they still look great after 2+ weeks!

All you need is a good basecoat and topcoat, your acrylic paint, and a paintbrush.
The cheap paintbush I used has quite stiff bristles, so the it's not a smooth gradient effect but rather a scratchy, dripping kind of look (which I happen to think looks just as rad).
Basically all I did was, after first applying a basecoat, dip the brush in just a little bit of paint. Then paint just the tip of your nails, not going past the white tips. Wipe off the excess paint that's on the brush and carefully do little downward strokes, smearing the paint just a little bit past the white. Then you can put a bit more paint on the brush and dab a bit more on the very tips to get a more solid colour.
Here's the very sketchy video I made, just to show you how I did it. The video setting on my camera doesn't autofocus, you have to do it manually, which is why the middle section of the video is out of focus... you can still make out the general idea, right?

After the paint dries then whack on a few coats of topcoat. I don't think I did enough topcoat layers on mine as they started chipping after just an hour. Oops! Just make sure you have a good topcoat (I used Nails Inc.) and do at least 2 coats!
So that's it! I think they look pretty fierce, no? Don't forget to leave me a comment if you have any video ideas, or just anything you'd like to see on the blog! And of course, thank you so SO much for sticking with me for the past 200 posts! I know other blogs have way more posts, but I try to make each one special and of good quality... I hope it shows. I love you guys!!

Above is without the topcoat... I actually love the matte look that the acrylic paint gives. It would wash off right away though, that's why we need the topcoat!)

It doesn't kick like a pill anymore

2010-08-12T15:49:00.006-05:00

Good news guys, I haven't bought anything new since the last post! Although the Topshop ban isn't going too well, I had another wander just the next day. HA! What can I say, a sale is a sale. Actually I went in there the other day just before I met up with a London blogger named Corinne, who runs a fab blog called Used and Abused Vintage with her bff Mia. No doubt Corinne will become my official London thrifting tour guide, pointing me in the direction of any and all charity shops and vintage stores around town, maybe even a few carboot sales. We met up in front of Topshop and had a quick peek at Beyond Retro. I really want to go back there as the prices aren't too bad and they had some really amazing things. There was one dress, URG, so gorgeous. I didn't try it on because I knew I wouldn't buy it because I knew that I was broke. Will go back and try it on as soon as I have a source of income.
A few of you were curious to see what the asymmetrical top from the last post looked like on. Well, WAIT NO LONGER!!

(omg guys my skin matches my top, PALE VICTORY!!)
Well that was anti-climactic. Obviously this isn't the most exciting top but 1) it was on sale, and 2) I liked how dramatically it dipped to one side. I feel like I'm wearing a toga or something when it's on... it's sweet! My younger brother stopped into London the other day on his way to Germany, and when I met him at the train station he took a step back, looked at me up and down, and said "now I know why you like it here so much. Everyone dresses so wierd". Ahaha baby bro, wait till you actually leave the station and THEN tell me what wierd is.
Corinne was looking very granny-chic in her [flipping amazing!] 90's dress and witchy boots. Btw the dress is thrifted and I'm in love with it. The length, the floral print, errrrthang.

I'm going to buy some toner for my hair to get it as white as hers, it's the most PERFECT shade. White, but not too white it looks scary, if you know what I mean. I'm excited!
Oh and yesterday I moved into my permanent room in the flat. Loving it so far. Fancy a tour?

The very best part of my room is on the back of my door.

BAHAHA! My friend gave me this RPatz calander for Christmas, I just had to bring it with me to England. Tracy, you know me and my schoolgirl obsessions all to well.

Yesterday I heard Heaven was getting full

2010-08-09T15:03:00.003-05:00

I'm sitting here thinking "should I post... I should... but I have nothing good to post... but I hate letting old posts get all dusty... I should post." And so I'm posting, if for no other reason than to say HELLO my lovelies, and I miss you all. Even though I've had access to the internet lately I still feel quite detached from you all when I don't post. Alas, I shall bore you with my going-ons because I can't stand to be away from you any longer!

To keep you filled in on my living status right now, I've left my hostel and moved into my new flat just a few days ago. I'm waiting for my room to open up (the guy who's in it now is leaving Wednesday) so in the meantime I'm staying in a smaller room in the flat that just happened to be free. I really just didn't want to stay in a hostel any longer, 12 nights is more than enough!! Not that it was a bad hostel (best I've been to, actually) but it's horrible when you have nowhere to put your things and relax at the end of the day. Plus you have basically zero privacy, and incase you couldn't tell I do enjoy my alone time (blogging is a one person activity)! Anyways, so I've left the hostel and in my temp room in my permanent flat... all that there's left to do is find a job. It's kind of driving me insane, I keep looking and looking and applying any chance I get but no luck yet! Until further notice I'll be on the job hunt and using the rest of my energy to stay far away from Topshop. As you will see, that last pursuit hasn't been going too well:

Ooooooops.

In my defence, I have visited almost all the Topshops in London and have been to the Oxford street location at least 6 times and this is all I've bought (plus one little 5 pound crop top on sale, but let's just ignore that)!
It actually feels really strange being in all these high street stores, shopping like a normal person as I have been so accustomed to pretty much only thrifting over the past few years... normal shopping just seems too easy, you know? I'm used to digging through piles of junk and sifting through rack after rack to find something good. With regular shopping it's just... there. Sitting there for you, ready to be bought in whatever size you want. IT'S TOO EASY, I tell ya!!
Anyways, excuse me while I finish off this box of tissues from my leaky faucet of a nose. This London air contains no actual air, and I think has given me some kind of throat/nose related illness. I'm hoping Hobnobs and black coffee will make it all better. Mmmmm. See ya!

I am just another piece of an island

2010-08-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

So guess what I did the other day? Here's a clue:

What would involve five girls and cupcakes? ...A fashion blogger meet-up, of course!

Superstar blogger Rebecca, aka The Clothes Horse, was in London for a few days so of course surrounding bloggers flocked to meet her, haha! This eclectic group included myself (duh), Selina of Flying Saucer, Winnie of Diamond Canopy, Kristabel of I Want You To Know, and of course Rebecca from The Clothes Horse.
The four of them were already settled in at The Hummingbird Bakery, starting on their cupcakes when I turned up (always late, sowwy!). I don't think I missed much though because we sat there for another two hours just chatting about blogging stuff like comment etiquette, doing promotions for companies, and of course the big "should bloggers get paid" debate.
After the gossip fest we headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum close by to check out a few exhibits. But first... outfit shots, of course!
Everyone was being all coy and hesitant to start posing, so I'm like "someone take a picture of me standing on the fence!! Or the bench!". They all convinced me the bench was less deadly.

Btw, I call this look "The Goth Stephanie Tanner".

As you can tell, this summer I've made it my goal to NOT tan... at all. Eff people making me feel bad that I'm no Paris Hilton. I like my fair skin, OKAY?? Moving on...

Kristabel! Obvi I'm mad jealous of her thin legs (see sidebar). AND HER SHOEEEES! I mean:

Next is Selina. Ahhh, Selina. Flying Saucer was probably the second blog I ever fell in love with... this was well over two years ago and only now do I FINALLY get to meet her. All expectations were met, she is amazing and sweet and wonderful in every way. Mabes I should stop gushing and get to her outfit....

Selina is upping her jewelry and nail game BIG TIME. Amazing.

Selina and Winnie are both Birminham bloggers, which means I really need to check out Birmingham now... they churn out some pretty amazing girls over there! Winnie was so sweet and has the best smile ever. It's infectious! Loving her floaty polka dot top as well.

And because I'm dumb and tend to get caught up in the moment, I forgot to get a solo shot of Rebecca's perfect outfit (see: matching shoes and nail polish!). In my defense, I was using her camera to take outfit shots for her. I'm sure a lot of you read The Clothes Horse anyways, so just head over there to see her outfit!

There was a courtyard within the museum with some gorgeous flowers against a brick wall, so we decided to take a group shot there. Since it was only the five of us we had nobody to take the picture, and didn't really see anyone trustworthy looking to hande our babies (cameras), this can only mean one thing... self timer shots!! I told you, this was a true fashion blogger convention! Self timer shots also mean "blogger pose": pigeon toed, looking down, hand in hair.

Oh well, at least we amuse ourselves.

CrazySexyCool

2010-07-30T18:48:00.002-05:00

Urrrm, so I starting working on this post last night because since I don't have any pictures or excitement to share with you, (walking around all sweaty, looking at flats all day is less-than-fab blogging material) I wanted make a run down of some of the things I realllllly want right now. This whole clock idea seemed cool in my head last night, but now... I don't know, haha! Anyways, what's important is what's inside!

I realized that there are a lot of things I'm looking for right now, as in specific items that I have in my head and visualize myself wearing. It's not untill I actually finished the collage that I realize a bit of a theme going on... black, black, and more black... oh and did I mention black? For the first time ever I'm finding myself attracted to simpler pieces that are.... as much as I despise the word... chic. I have NEVER felt the need to be dressed in a way that's feminine, relaxed, and yes, chic, but that's just the kind of mood I'm feeling right now. I guess this is what Fall looks like!

12-2 o'clock: Topshop bra-top, Rayanne's bra-top from My So-Called Life, and Katy Rodriguez bra-top. Yes, I want a bra top. With high-waisted paperbag trousers, oh YES!

3-4 o'clock: I feel like I need more hats... I never wear them. I'd probably look like a fool in a bowler, but some girls just look amazing in them. One I think I could pull off is a felt scouts-style beret, yes? In green or black, please!

5 o'clock: Saw these leggings in Topshop yesterday. They have sheer panels. I mean...

6 o'clock: This skirt I saw in the H&M pre-fall style guide and I WANT. I love that it looks extra long and wide, so I'm sure it swishes around a lot when you walk. Need to keep digging around the H&Ms to find this!

7 o'clock: Baggy plaid shirt. Don't know why I don't own one. Really, there are none in Winnipeg thrift stores!

8-10 o'clock: A big, hairy/fuzzy/furry sweater! The more monsterous the better.

11 o'clock: Leather scoop gloves. Wanted to make these, but still haven't thrifted the perfect pair of leather gloves yet! May need to lift my leather ban and just buy these bad boys...

Spend the last dough in your pocko

2010-07-26T16:10:00.004-05:00

This post is going to be short, and possibly boring post for some. I just wanted to keep you all updated as I am now in London! For those who don't know, I'm in London on a working holiday, and I'm staying for about 5 months. Seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my hostel, blogging about this experience for the first time.

My flight yesterday had a stopover in Iceland, home of Bjork and....er, well that's about all I know about Iceland. The plane looked like it was from the 70's, lots of orange, and had those shared t.v.'s. Sadly, no horrid inflight movies (Actually inflight movies are pretty sweet, you get to watch all those corny, shameful films your wouldn't usually see and have the excuse to say "Oh it was just an inflight movie" when it comes up in conversation).

After the 2 planes, coach ride, tube ride, and taxi ride, I made it to my hostel and collapsed. I slept from about 3:30pm-8:30, then 10:30-5:30am, then dozed off again from 6-8:30, and yet then again from 8:30-10:30 am. Needless to say, I was really tired.

Today I just did a few basic things, like update my bank info and pick up a mobile. For those of you who follow me on twitter, you'll know that I'd an idiot and left my all my makeup at home! I had 2 bags of it! I don't think it's worth it to ship it, so today I also just bought some makeup basics as well. I can't beleive I walked around London all day without makeup on... oh well, no makeup means no makeup to smudge and run with all the sweating going on. It's so humid here, bleh.

I want to show off my phone, I think it's so cute. I love how it's square, it makes it look like a compact!

Cannot live without my Urban Decay primer potion!! Bought it at Debenhams along with this brow powder kit. I've never tried it before, but at home I was using a powder on my brows and the girl at the counter told me this stuff is waterproof and comes with wax that you can put on beforehand to keep all the hairs in place. Will keep you updated to let you know how it works out, it sounds promising!
A bunch of stuff from Boots. I really only bought this 17 mascara because it came with a free kit of eyelash curler, tweezers, and eyeliner. I've never even heard of this brand, anyone know if their mascara is any good?

I told you, not so exciting! Anyways, I might as well take this opportunity if any readers are from London, and if so do you know any free rooms available for rent, and any jobs you want to hook me up with?? Job and flat hunting is all I'm going to be up to for the next few days, so I'll keep you all posted later in the week!

Put your loving hand out, darling

2010-07-22T23:42:00.003-05:00

Ooookay, so now that Toronto posts are done with we can move on to more present events, yes? Like my birthday? My 21st birthday?? It was last week on July 14th (shared with my style soulmate Andrew) and I went out for dinner with some friends on Sunday, followed by kareoke at my house (my faaaavourite song to belt right now, who's with me??).

You may have seen on my twitter that I decided to go topless. It wasn't exactly a Romy and Michele moment ("I'm sorry, I couldn't find my top") because I had pictured this outfit it my mind for a while but NEVER thought I'd go for it forreal.

I thrifted the lace dress a while ago and I just wanted to use it's sheerness to it's full potential with the, errm, lack of clothing. The restaurant we went to was seriously empty (which is good because I get REALLY LOUD when I'm in groups, haha!) so I knew it would be a good time to try out a look like this. My friends are so cool, they don't even care any more when I pull out looks like this. The only comments were "Kylie, you're really Gaga-ing it up today with this outfit", and "you look like a character from the Addams family". Both of which I am totally fine with.

If looks could kill then we all would be doomed

2010-07-19T22:54:00.002-05:00

You may or may not be wondering who the other super special person was that I got to see in Toronto. If you are following me on twitter then you know that it was the one and only Isabel of Hipster Musings!

Isabel with a hot dog. What?
Okay so with Isabel skipping off to have adventures in NYC, we had just enough time to cross paths for one afternoon of, well, what else but a lot of vintage shopping. After we met at the bus station where her coach just arrived, we dropped off her bags at my hotel just down the street and then set off walking towards Kensington Market. You guys, I can't beleive I lasted the whole day walking EVERYWHERE. It wasn't especially hot out that day, but the air was so moist I could have drank it with a straw. Anyways, Isabel got off the bus looking fabulous while I only walked down the street and already am a sweaty mess. MOVING ON
I don't know the names of any of the shops we went in, so just enjoy the pictures. I'm pretty clueless around Toronto, so Isabel practically had to hold my hand to show me where to go.

Sifting through her beloved drug rugs.

Groping the sequins. We both have a penchant for shiny things. Obviously.

Street style shots! How do you guys like this idea of me being a photographer, haha!

Isabel looked wicked though, loved her outfit top to bottom.

These printed docs were just calling out for Isabel. Unfortunately they were a tad too small

Andrew would have had a hay day with all the overalls I saw, haha. The other day he declared overalls as "his new thing"

I really took a shine to this metal bra. Seriously, I was so close to buying it! It reminded me of the metal bra that Topshop will be releasing this fall (see here from Flying Saucer, and here in a press shot). Looooove. Will wait to buy the Topshop one though... it has spikes :)

Ignore the sweaty t-shirt, and look at the teensy tiny bit of purple left in my hair!

I had such a good time with Isabel, she is actually one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. I felt like I kind of already knew her, so when we hung out it was as if we had been friends for ages (hopefully she feels the same, haha!). We also both bought these lacey bloomers, and were going to take a picture of us both wearing them afterwards but sadly we ran out of time. It's wierd, I just noticed we didn't actually get any pictures together, haha! Well, there's blogger pictures for ya.
Oh and lastly, a dress shop we passed had this big Lady Gaga display. Kind of a perfect end to a perfect day.

Down every underpass you'll see somebody stealing the show

2010-07-15T23:24:00.005-05:00

I really can't decide the best way to post about Toronto. A lot of excitement. A lot of pictures.
Because I don't want to drag on about the trip, I think I'll just split it into two posts. By the way, it's late right now and I'm tired so text will be minimal. It's a good thing the pictures are going to do the talking here, because I got a brand new camera and it is sexxxxxxyyyyy. After A LOT of debate I finally settled on the Canon T1i, and I literally opened the camera's box the night before I left so I was (and still am) figuring out how it all works.
Testing out the cam with pictures of our lunch. I'm seriously still thinking about this food, it was so SO good.

My clever friend got us discounted nights at a really nice hotel downtown. Trust me, I wanted to take pictures all over but I really restrained myself.
The above shot was supposed to be, like, The Shining-esque. I dunno.
The mirrors! They decend into infinity!

So I mentioned previously that I was going to see TWO great people while in Toronto (besides Gaga that is). The first night we got there I got to see special person number one: Noel Fielding.

When I found out Noel was doing some stand-up gigs in Toronto I just lost it, it was too good to be true. All that day I was so nervous. I mean, getting to see one of my idols (besides being part of The Mighty Boosh, he really is my favourite stand-up comedian) in person is pretty daunting. Anyways, I ended up seperating from my group to sit alone right at the front. The FRONT, people! I was one foot away from his beautiful drainpipe-clad legs (wow, they were NICE). I'm not going to post any pictures from the gig, mostly because I haven't looked at them myself, so here are some really dark pictures of me in front of the venue. Note the floral green and white blazer. Thrifted for a DOLLAR. Score.

The next day we went to the Ontario Science Museum to check out this special Harry Potter exhibit they had on. It was pretty cool, there were costumes and props and stuff from all the movies, and I got sorted by the sorting hat (Hufflepuff, whaaat). In the evening we went out for dinner and then to see Get Him to the Greek. Have I ever mentioned on the blog how ferociously I love Russell Brand? Well now you know.

What I wore that night. This maxi is one of the amazing Winners finds I was freaking out about over on twitter the other day. Finally a maxi dress that actually touches the ground on me! Well, not when I'm wearing five inch heels, but still.
The next day I spent some time with special person number two, (will post about that next time) and then at night it was Lady Gaga! I didn't take any pictures, but just take my word for it when I say it was amazing. It was a pretty emotional experience for me, but maybe I'll talk about that more if I do an all-Gaga post. Let's talk about what you REALLY want to know about: what I wore.

I decided to go with my Cheap Monday dress that I ordered and had never worn yet. The boots are the infamous Sam Edelman Balenciaga knock-offs, which I ordered off of Victoria Secret OVER two years ago and have never seen outside my closet!! I don't know why I was so afraid to wear them untill now, because they were totally fine walking around in! Six inchers, flip-flops, no diff. And why yes, that is duct tape on my legs.

Kaeleigh looked sooooo so good, guys! At the concert they had this photobooth set up and were taking pictures of people who dressed up for the occasion. We both got our picture taken, and then they posted them the next day on their website. Kae got picked as a "featured Monster" so she's up there on the main page! Here's link to hers and mine, and you can check out the rest from the night here if you're interested. So yes, all in all it was a pretty amazing night.

LOL, smiley face, have a nice day

2010-07-09T12:07:00.004-05:00

I feel like nails are making a comeback.

Going to Toronto, be back on Tuesday.

When I get older, I will be stronger

2010-07-06T22:06:00.005-05:00

I'll tell you right off the bat, this post is not much more than a photo dump. This is what happens when you make two friends with really good cameras: dozens of pictures of me in every pose imaginable (which happens to be not a whole hell of a lot in my case).
I'm assuming most of you have seen the pool pictures on Cheap Thrills of Raez and myself. God, this girl can WERQ TO NO END. It was like BAM BAM BAM, pose pose pose, in true Top Model style. Some of the shots not posted on Cheap Thrills:

Probably the simplest outfit imaginable, yet effective nevertheless: oversized men's polo as a dress - thrifted, striped tights - Topshop, Creepers - secondhand.

Foxy blogger lounging in my backyard. No bigz.
And these are from yesterday in Andrew's backyard, taken whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Look closely at my legs if you don't beleive me. I'd also like to say that I love how pale, or "fair skinned" as I like to call it, I look in all of these. Screw tanning, I'm a vampire.

Why yes, I am standing on a rooftop: top - DIY, shorts - thrifted and cut, shoes - London Underground

First time this braided shoulder piece top has seen the outside of my closet. I kept on "saving it for a special occasion", but then thought "screw it, I'm wearing it to Value Village".

These shoes I will wear FOREVER so I only break them out on occasion. This occasion happened to be prancing around on a rooftop. I also might add that they have absolutely no grip on the bottom. I could have died, ALL FOR THE SAKE OF BLOGGING.

And one of me in Andrew's amish hat, for good measure.

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OH! And I keep forgetting to remind everyone to go check out my shop: Modernity. Help a broke sistah out and buy something, please. I won't be selling this stuff for long, obviously I'm not brining it all with me when I go to England! That means you have untill July 24th (ish) to get yr shop on!

But the back seat of the drive-in is so lonely without you

2010-07-04T00:10:00.003-05:00

Everyday outfit. Kind of boring. Do you people like seeing my everyday outfits? Even if they're less than exciting and taken in my laundry room? Hmmmm...

I cannot take credit for this bandana idea... although wearing a bandana isn't really some kind of original concept, but what I'm saying is I had some inspiration behind it! My friend pulled into my house the other day (before helping me search for my bro's runnaway chihuahua for 2 hours. FUNTIMES) wearing a bandana like this. I thought it looked so killer, and while I was thinking this was the inspiration, she said it was Isabel of Hipster Musings who was behind the idea. I will say, Isabel does rock a headscarf like no other!

This outfit was kind of a denim-on-denim attempt. I like how the colours are all quite similar from head to toe, which I'm actually only noticing now. Really, I'm no good at colour co-ordinating.

I didn't make an outfit speech bubble (do we like those?) but if you're curious: denim vest - DIY, t shirt - thrifted, shorts - thrifted, bandana - I don't know... dollar store?, and shoes - Aldo.

The shoes. An iffy subject. I like them, yet at the same time I fully realize that they're kind of ugly and unflattering. They remind me a bit of the kind of Margiela wedges we saw a few years back, and I kind of like the gathering in the front and the fact that they're made of grey jersey fabric. Whatever, they were on sale so no harm done if they really are hideous.

This is kind of o/t but I cleaned and re-organized my sewing room yesterday so I wanted to show you all my amazing accomplishment. Really, this was quite a feat. If you don't beleive me, see for yourself:

I actually stopped crafting in there because it got so bad. I started bringing supplies upstairs and scattering my mess around the house, haha! Hopefully I'll get back to doing some sewing projects now that I've got a more bearable space to work in.

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Oh and I also wanted to give everyone an update on my summer plans, for those who are curious. I started to talk about some of them in a post before I took a little blogging break, and those plans are still on! On July 10th, just six days away, I'll be off to Toronto to see one of my biggest inspirations: Lady Gaga. I know I mention her a lot on the blog but I've never actually said why I love her so much. Maybe after the concert I'll do a huge Gaga post? Yesssss. I'll also be seeing another special person in Toronto... scratch that, TWO more special people! Wow I'm a lucky lady, so much excitement in so little time. I feel like I'm going to barf... in a good way.

So after the Toronto excitement I'm coming home for a few days so I can see my friends over my birthday (July 14th... my 21st birthday fyi) before next heading off to LONDON... that's England, not Ontario. Like last summer, I'm going to be on a kind of working holiday, but this time I'll be staying for much longer, about 5 months, so it's really going to be a different experience. I can't wait to actually settle in and LIVE rather than feeling rushed about, finding a flat, job, etc. only to be going home 6 weeks later. I realize that last summer I didn't blog much while in London but THIS time I plan on posting a lot more. We'll talk about that stuff later, for now just leave me a nice little comment and I'll have a happy end to my weekend :)

Once again I see a piece of the sky

2010-06-30T18:37:00.005-05:00

Ok so some explaination is needed for the location of these photos. Remember a few posts back when I mentioned my basement flooded? Well one of the rooms that was affected was my older brother's childhood room, which, as you can see, is fully decked out in posters and magazine cut-outs of motocross, Puff Daddy (why?), and various wrestling parephenalia (remember when wrestling was cool? Again, why...?). Another brother moved down to this room a few months ago and hasn't taken anything down, so I'm using the opportunity to take pictures in this rank, flooded, and overall hideous room. You like?

My newish satchel here again, sans-fox tail. A kid I was babsitting (YES I STILL BABYSIT, OK?? It pays and I basically do nothing but watch iCarly and eat their food) was playing with the tail and it RIPPED! I didn't even know fur could just fall apart like that! I'm going to try to fix it but I'm not sure it will make a full recovery.

Although this picture is pretty hideous facially, (past caring about "looking pretty" on the blog. It's MY BLOG and I'll be ugly if I wanna!) I needed to show this jacket. Last night I went to a midnight showing of Eclipse (which was SO GOOD btw) and I wore it because it has always reminded me of Edward's coat in the first movie... just another bit of nerd-formation.
Perhaps a prettier picture after all that dark and dank basement stuff? These are my nails I did two days ago after watching Gem Fatale's tutorial on how to do leopard print nails. This girl is a nail wizard and her blog is one of my newest favourites, I just love her to death!

The black bits are done with liquid eyeliner. Such a good idea! I used this jank old sparkly crap that doesn't look very good on eyes, but looks good on the nails! Can you see the tiny sparkles? ...You know what else sparkles? Edward. Okay enough Twilight stuff, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
ps- A quick rant before I go! At the movie last night we were waiting in the theatre for like 2 hours before the show started cos we wanted to get good seats (at New Moon we had to sit in the 3rd row, major neck sore!). My group of friends and I were chatting, filling time before the movie, then about 20 mins before it started I said to my friends "Ok guys make sure your phones are off!", and this girl sitting right in front of me said completely out loud "Why don't you turn off your mouth!". My jaw just dropped. I never experience that kind of uncalled for bitchiness with strangers, it was just so unnessesary! She didn't even have the guts to turn around and say it, she was looking forwards but said it clearly loud enough for me to hear. I was like "whhhhhaa...?". Then she turned to her friend and repeated what she just said, again in a normal speaking voice for us to hear. I was just like wow, that was rude. The movie or trailers hadn't started yet, everyone in the huge theatre was talking, and obviously I was planning on shutting up when the movie started! I let it go cos I am NOT into drama, but I mean... so rude. Does this kind of stuff happen to any of you often? I'm curious.

Underneath it all I'm vulnerable

2010-06-26T23:47:00.003-05:00

If Jay-Z had to describe this outfit it would be "all black everything". Wait... that wasn't funny. It sounded better in my head, okay?
This is me not bothering to colour-coordinate, wearing the same t-shirt more than should legally be allowed, and pretty much looking boderline homeless in these ratty jeans. I thrifted them at the $1 Goodwill sale with the intention of cutting them into shorts, but when I slipped them on this morning I had a change of heart. I kind of like the mom-jean shape of them, and now I don't think I could bear to cut them. I have a thing about vandalizing clothing, it just feels wrong no matter how much the piece cost.

This bag is the one I was talking about before, the one that is so perfect for the fox tail. It's just so beautiful. I've wanted a little satchel-type bag for a long time, and finding this bag was like fate as I also found it on sale at Goodwill for just $2.99. I'm a little jealous of my OWN thrift finds lately, they've just been too good!

Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock

2010-06-24T00:43:00.006-05:00

I guess this could be considered an outfit post...? But really, it's just a lazy filler post. Basically, my friends and I went to a fair tonight and now I'm going to post a million pictures of me with slightly different backgrounds, basically sucking up every bit of camera attention possible. ENJOY

These shorts and this crop top are both new, found them on Saturday at a Goodwill. Goodwill had a sale on where all clothes and shoes were $1!! Insane! So basically this outfit cost $2. And can we discuss how rad this crop top is?? Who has been to Valleyfair in Minnesota? That shiz is the bomb.

Took literally dozens of pictures while waiting in ride lines. What else is there to do?

Spot the diva!! As you can tell, my friend and I dress nothing alike. On my left it's pure Abercrombie, and to my right... well, she's basically a full on Guidette. HA! Hopefully it goes without saying, but I usually don't dress this much like a hipster. You all can back me up right? Tell me my outfits are usually a little more imaginative!

There were also a lot of animals there. Hung out with some sharks...

Then in the petting zoo I had a heart-to-heart with a goat...

One goat started eating my purse... literally

I also almost kissed a llama, but that's another story for another time. My friend is completely obsessed with pigs (no lie, her WHOLE room is Monokuru Boo themed) so seeing some piggies was pretty much the highlight of her year. I could barely drag her away from this one little black potbelly piglet.

And finally we ended the night with some wholesome poutines and cheese fries. I won't lie to you, the poutine here is the only reason I come back every year.

Tell me how you've never felt delicate or innocent

2010-06-19T22:49:00.003-05:00

Andrew of Pull Teeth and I have been playing blogger ping-pong for a while now, posting eachother's pictures back and forth and forcing most of you (I hope!) to see the same pictures twice. Well sorry about that but it's about to happen once more right now. Andrew got a new lense for his camera so we got together to take some pictures... nothing more than some innocent cam-whoring.

This purple tank top and I have been best friends lately. I kind of wear it every day. One of those thrift finds that you can't get enought of... we all have one!
And can we discuss these plastic framed cat-eyed sunnies? They're also a newly aqcuired obsession... when did the mall become cool again (I got these from Icings/Claire's!)??

Legs.

Coon tail.
Actually I thrifted a bag today that will be SO LV s/s 2010 once I add the tail. DIY designer, that's how we do.
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Oh, and here's Andrew looking all hot and fresh in his coveralls. Jealous yet?

Trying to be heroic in an age of modernity

2010-06-16T23:56:00.004-05:00

Ok guys, the moment you've all been waiting for (right??)...
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MODERNITY

(a.k.a. my shop)

The time has come. I have finally, after months and months of promises, finished my shop. Now you can go ahead and max out your credit cards.

But seriously, I have worked so hard on this project, from creating the themes I wanted to work with, painstakingly contructing the pieces one at a time ALONE, to taking the pictures and putting together the final shop page that is Modernity.

To avoid sounding too convoluted and/or pretentious, I'll just say a few words on why I chose this particular title (there's a reason for everything, people!). Not only is modernity one of my favourite words (hi, language geek!) but what I really wanted to express with the things I make is that styles and trends are constantly changing and it's up to us, the fashion community, to create the future of fashion in our own personal ways. Instead of mourning over the past, and dragging on about how things "were better back in the day", we really need to continue to push forward and focus on the "now" rather than the "then".

What is considered "modern" is always changing, and it's up to us, right here and now, do define it. Like the title of this post ever so beautifully states (thank you Bloc Party), I am trying to carve out my own niche in what I consider "modern", whatever that may word mean to you, in clothing, fashion, and personal style. I beleive that the things I have made for this shop are not only %100 original in design, things you will never and have never seen before, but that they represent a new kind of aesthetic in their simple colours, bold graphics, and grotesque inspired themes that are represented in a very playful way. Hopefully when you see my pieces that you will feel the same way, and in some way connect with my personal vision of the future.

Okay so that WAS really long...

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You probably didn't read any of it anyways, so just CLICKY AND LOOK AT PRETTY THINGS!

She's got to love nobody

2010-06-12T21:57:00.004-05:00

You might remember my makeup post from a few weeks ago where I swooned over Lady Gaga's lavender lipstick. Thanks to some internet trekking I found that perfect colour I've been lusting over for months. I remembered Selina of Flying Saucer had a post about Lime Crime makeup, which carries the brightest and most insane colours you'll ever find. Of course they had the exact shade of lavender that I was looking for so I ordered a tube after all the great things I've heard about Lime Crime.

Before I show you the makeup allow me to introduce you to my new favourite t-shirt. It's my brother's but I forced him to give it to me. OK, I think all those scene girl hair tutorials on Youtube have gone to my head...
Moving on! The shade I got is called D'Lilac and I kind of love it. I know a lot of you will probably hate this and think it's way too bright, but ya know me + subtlety just don't mix. Okay, and the fact that there are unicorns on the tubes?? I mean...

Selina matched her lipstick to her nails, Gaga matched it with her outfit, and I'm matching my lips with mah hair!

Have you discovered any great beauty products lately? Spill in the comments, I want to know all your secrets!

Look at that, look at how they lookin at us

2010-06-07T23:16:00.003-05:00

Bleh, boring outfit post. I wore this top and clogs together a few post back so there's not much new here. What is new is that my basement has flooded from the ridiculous amount of rain we had a week ago, so we had to rip the carpets out of two rooms down there. At least it gave me a nice big white wall to take pictures in front of, HA!

Little bit of layout tweaks, if you haven't noticed. I realized that I didn't have any contact info on my sidebar, so if you want to email me, follow me on twitter, bloglovin, or ask me a question on formspring (always heard of that but never knew what it was untill now!) then just clicky on the round icons on the side... I mean icons literally in the sense that these people are some of my style icons. I love how jumbled my sidebar is getting with my own personal junk! Whatever, it's my blog and I can gush if I want to!

p.s.- Hair is entering granny territory. Can't really tell in these pictures but there's a helluvalotta gray in it right now as the purple keeps fading. Lovely.

I want to see you take the jackpot out the fruit machine

2010-06-02T00:40:00.002-05:00

As you may have seen on Andrew's blog, I now have purple hair. For now. It's semi-permanent so no need to get used to it. It changes colour pretty much every day in fact, as it washed out more and more with every shampoo, and although I bought the tub labelled "violet" (Jerome Russell "punky color", fyi) my hair looked more blue after the first few washes. The colour was way too vibrant at first, I shampooed it almost 15 times in the first 2 days. Right now it's at a colour I like, and is getting more grey coloured as it continues to wash out.

This outfit I wore Sunday AND Monday.... I'm sure I'm not the only one who wears the same clothes two days in a row! When I get a good outfit together I like to make it last, ok? This little crushed velvet, skater dress number was thrifted...

...And I found a matching velvet belt with a little pouch on the side. So cute, and stores various lipsticks/jewelry/candy.

Besides important updates such as candy storage, you should also know that niceandshiny.blogspot.com is now:

HTTP://WWW.NICE-AND-SHINY.COM

That's right, Nice and Shiny now has it's own domain after over 2 years in motion. I thought it was about time to start upping my game, no? No need to change your links as the blogger address still works, but if you're cool then you'll get with the times and update with the new dot com name. Just sayin.

This game will save us if we don't die young

2010-05-29T22:26:00.006-05:00

I really wish I could tell you that these pictures were taken this weekend. Unfortunately it has been pouring rain outside for what seems to be WEEKS and it's really starting to affect my mood. I felt so helpless and depressed yesterday, it was horrible. Rather than wearing these denim shorts in the wind and rain, I've been really into this new black maxi dress I got from ASOS. It's not as long as I had hoped but I still like it, and it feels so cool swishing between my knees... ok that sounded really shallow, but sometimes the way clothing feels can be really significant to how you feel in it! I'm sure you get what I mean...

In other news, I've set a strict date for when I want my little online shop up so keep checking back! It's coming!! I've been saying this for ages but now I'm pretty sure I've got everything ready for the shop to open, I just need to research some shipping details because I really want to try and get the best shipping rates possible for you guys. There's nothing worse then being overcharged for shipping, I'm going to try my best to package everything as compact (and therefore as cheap) as possible! To prove that I'm not just getting your hopes up once again about my shop, I'll leave you with little sneak peak: this picture of my gorgeous friend modeling one of the pieces I'm going to be selling.

Hopefully this will stick in your mind all week, so when the shop opens you'll be ready with your piggy bank standing by... Just kidding... kind of. Buy stuff. Please.

We’ll still have the summer after all

2010-05-25T19:58:00.006-05:00

Like most of my DIY projects, I've got no idea how I thought of this one. A few months ago I just had the urge to make a Hawaiian print playsuit. I drew it out and actually posted the sketch on my twitter, if you remember. Drawing it out is pretty much the most planning I do when it comes to sewing; the rest is just trial and error and A LOT of improvisation. A warning to those of you with a slow internet connection: this is a very picture heavy post! I like tutorials with less text, more pictures... so here we go!
All you need for this project (besides a sewing machine, duh) is a too-big button up shirt. Best bet is to hit up the men's section at your thrift store, and try to find one that goes just past your crotch when it's on. It doesn't matter how long the sleeves are, but it's a plus if the shoulder seams fit somewhat.
To illustrate how long yours should be...

Flip the shirt inside out and lay it flat on the ground.
Take some chalk or a marker and mark out where your waist is on the shirt. Then draw out a curved line on both side to show where you're going to cut and sew later. The line should start at the top, a few inches away from the shoulder seam, then follow down the waist, then curve outward to the bottom for where your hips should be. Hopefully you can see how I marked it out here with pink chalk. Pin along this line (except for the sleeves) and try on the shirt to make sure the waist and hips curve well with your body. You DON'T want it to be tight, just shaped according to your body.
If it seems okay then sew along your pin line-- again not on the arms! Just cut along your marked out line to chop off those sleeves. You'll see from the picture below that your shirt should now have a slight hourglass shape.

I guess I lied before when I said all you need is the shirt for this project. You also need some scrap fabric and some one inch wide elastic, enough to go around your waist. With the scrap fabric cut a looooong piece that is about 1.5 inches thick. This is going to be the casing for the waist elastic. With your shirt inside out, take the fabric strip and pin it along the sides around the waist like of the shirt, like so:

Then sew it down on both sides of the strip.

The next step is to sew up the bottom half of the shirt. Make sure the waist line stiches match up, then pin down the front and take out any buttons along the way. Sew one line straight down.

Last part: the crotch! Take those sleeves you chopped off and cut one open and lay it down flat on the ground. Draw out an hourglass shape that's about 8 inches long, 4 across. I forgot to measure this piece but just use your instict: how much crotch coverage do you really need?

To make it look more finished, I took sleeves scraps, cut them into strips, ironed them folded in like bias tape, then sewed them on the 2 edges like so:
With your shirt flipped inside out, sew down the crotch piece in the center of the bottom of the shirt, front and back. Note that the center is NOT determined by the shirt's opening because the button holes need to overlap on top of the buttons. Use a measuring tape instead to determine the center of the front and back.
I sewed two seams across for extra durability.

Laying flat, inside out, the romper should look something like this!
Depending on where you chopped off the sleeves, you might want to roll them or you could just fold them a quarter inch and sew a seam. I wanted to roll mine up but after I cut them they seemed fine how they were.

The very last step is to take your 1 inch wide elastic, measure it around your waist so it's snug (not tight), and cut accordingly. Then use the ol' safety pin trick to feed it through the casing and then sew down the elastic along the casing openings to keep it in place.

That's pretty much it, you're done! If the shirt you start out with is a little on the longer side, then I think it would look great with rolled bottoms. Just fold the leg holes over once or twice then use a hand-sewing needle to sew them down. My romper was short enough, otherwise I would have loved to have folded the leg openings.

Manditory camera loving! Enjoy your new playsuit/romper/whatever for summer. I tried to de-cutify it a little with my round framed sunglasses, sheer bike-shorts, (really, they're just black tights that I hacked off the bottom) and lace-up wedges. I know what you're thinking... you're really digging my white legs in these photos. Be jelz.

Deja-vu, you're my obsession

2010-05-20T16:42:00.006-05:00

This past Monday was half off at all the Value Village stores (thrift department store, for people who don't know) in the city. As you may have already seen, I went thift crazy with fellow Winnipeg bloggers Andrew of Pull Teeth and Raez of Cheap Thrills and had got some seeeerious shopping done!! Andrew and I hit up one store before picking up Raez from school (aww so sweet! She's only 16 if you can beleive it!) before going to another two stores. The last location was definately had the best finds, we spent about an hour and a half in there and all left with huge bags full of clothes, haha! Obviously a blogger meet-up calls for a photoshoot, and in Winnipeg this means we do it in the parking lot...

Andrew and I hang out and go shopping all the time (a little too much maybe, I'm going broke from thrifting. Just kidding Andrew!! Let's go tomorow) but this was the first time I was meeting Raez. This girl is so effing fierce it's not even funny, and she is an amazing shopper and kept finding awesome things in the store for me to try on! The only downside of hanging with her is looking terrible in photos by comparison.

Slowly realizing I don't know how to take photos with others WITHOUT pulling faces. Lovely.

Andrew and I are going to start a book club, ok. Who wants to join?

I think it's clear than none of these pictures were shot on my crumby camera. It's time to start saving my pennies for a really good camera, these shots turned out so amazing! If you're curious, here's a quick run-down of what I bought:

At store #1 I bought this huge, fuzzy jacket (apparently I don't know what season it is right now), a slinky, semi-sheer black top, and this ostrich feather-like boa that I'm going to use for a DIY... don't know what I'm making with it but I'll figure something out.
No clothes from store #2, just these PERFECT platforms (why yes, I did buy them because they reminded me of THOSE shoes), a bunch of CDs, and a VHS of Trainspotting... although I don't even think my VCR works....
Store number three was the biggest hit, hands down. Found this oversized red coat (thanks Raez!), a crinoline/tutu from the kid's section, this black mini dress that flared out at the bottom, and polka-dotted crop top. As you can see, my 90's addiction is reaching an all-time high.

You get me hotter than a stick of hot glue

2010-05-17T21:56:00.004-05:00

This post is going to be a bit of catch-up, as I explained two posts ago that I was holding back some info from you guys! Here's why: I got my hair done a week and a half ago, on May 7th, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so I didn't want to post any pictures of my new har untill it was perfect. I scheduled another appointment for the following Thursday, May 14th, to get it fixed, so those pictures you see in the last post are from hair attempt number two. Bleaching my hair like this may seem pretty out-of-the-blue for me, but I've been mulling it over in my head for months and it just seemed like the right thing to do when nothing else exciting is going on. I'm glad you all like it, your comments are so encouraging and you're the sweetest readers any one could ever ask for, haha! I love you guyyys, I wish I could just hug you all at once, but ya know... internet...
Back to buisness! I know some of you might be still wondering about the Leslie Hall show I went to. Well, without explaining every tiny detail I'll just say that it was an amazing night and Leslie is one of the coolest, funniest, nicest girls I've ever met. My friend and I showed up to the venue waaaaaay too early so we got some quality one-on-one time with Leslie while I pretty much bought everything on her merch table. I got a shirt, a tote bag, a pen, and a headband, how's that for a devoted fan, haha! Some pics from downtown, before the show:

My only friend who knows about this blog, Kaeleigh, working that sailor pose as well as my (non-gem) sweater. Turns out Leslie loved it even though it's not an official gem sweater. Maybe I should have worn it, haha!

While we were waiting for the show to start, Leslie came up to us and asked if we could work at her merch table while her and her dancer got ready. How's that for random?? Obvi we said yes, and ended up selling almost everything on the table! During the show she called up three gem sweater wearers to come onstage and be back-up dancers, and obviously I went up! I didn't get my baby named, but it was so fun anyways. We talked to her more during intermission and at the end of the show too. The pictures I took aren't the greatest quality, but if you're interested you can look here, here, and here for some pictures that we took with Leslie. The last one is at the end after she took out her hair and changed out of her costume and stuff.... behind the scenes look! Haha.

Enough of that, let's see more pictures of my awesome new hair!! Only half joking...
I took these in my bathroom last week, I just really liked this outfit and I got to wear that floral sheer sleeved top from a few posts back. You can see here that not all my tips are blonde, which is why I had to go back and get my hair finished. It took so long, but so worth it! Took these with my phone by the way, so the colour is a bit wonky...

I just love how yellow my hair looks in the picture, haha! Gaga at the Grammy's, anyone?

This is just the outfit I wore the other day when I took pictures of my hair for the last post. The t-shirt is the same one from this post, but now I wear it inside out and backwards cos I'm not really into the design on it, but it's SO PERFECTLY worn out, stretchy, and thin that I'm not planning on giving it up any time soon. The leggings are from Babooshka Boutique which I bought aaaaages ago, but after some order mix-ups I didn't get them untill last week. They're faux leather on the bottom, and nude on top so they kind of look like knee high stockings from afar. Really digging them! The shoes are London Underground from ASOS, bought years ago but they still make me all tingly and happy inside!

Everybody's dressing up, I'm dressing down

2010-05-15T13:21:00.002-05:00

I was bored with my old hair.

How wonderful life is now you're in the world

2010-05-10T21:37:00.006-05:00

Really quick, unexciting post here! Better than nothing I say, especially since it seems like the whole blogosphere has gone on an unnofficial hiatus recently. Am I right?? The internet is so uneventful lately! Allow me to perk up your Monday night a bit with my ever-so-90's outfit from yesterday, i.e. Mother's Day. Went to Grandma's in the country and felt the need to blend in with my humble surroundings. Read: denim, riding boots, country florals, and vintage [looking] lace cardigan.

Bought these sunglasses this weekend, but only realizing now that I look like a try-hard in them. Hmm...

Note my Powerpuff Girl bow that has been on SERIOUS high rotation lately. I bought a big bag of bows and scrunchies from Value Village ages ago and recently re-discovered them in the deep depths of my sewing room. And yes, those are real horses in the background.

Hairbow - secondhand, crop top - secondhand/self cut, cardigan - Rodarte for Target gift from Tavi, shorts - secondhand, tights - dunno, boots - eBay/secondhand, sunnies - Vintage Glory

If you're wondering how this weekend was with seeing Leslie Hall and that, well, it was craycray. Will dish more this weekend. Don't want to post about it just yet for good reason, but all secrets shall be revealed soon enough!

You're fit, but you know it

2010-05-05T22:47:00.003-05:00

Whaddup dudes. Me here. Who else would it be, silly?? I started my first ever summer classes this week... it's kind of wierd being on a half deserted campus, plus my class is two and a half hours so this is definately something I'll have to get used to. Other random things you should know:

90's thrift finds are the BEST. Found these a few weeks ago while thrifting with resident hottie Andrew of Pull Teeth. He found the long lace dress which is amazing, haven't worn it yet but it will be fun trying out different layering opportunities with this one. Any ideas are welcome, k thnx.

My friend's Grandma was gathering a bunch of things to give away and my friend snatched up about 10 amazing purses and clutches. She brought them over to my house so I could take my pick (so nice, right? Thanks Marni!). Chose two Chanel 2.55-esque quilted purses and this amazing grey clutch that looks like an envelope. Sweet.

Lastly, here's my outfit that I'm going to be wearing this Saturday to meet one of MY IDOLS Leslie Hall! Arrrggg#$^&&$)$!!!! So excited it's not even funny. This girl is effing amazing and I love her to death. I mentioned a months ago that I was going to be her for Halloween last year but I actually didn't end up going out on Halloween night so I never got to use my costume.... well now it's being put to good use! At some of Leslie's shows she pulls people from the crowd on stage who are wearing gem sweaters and "knights" them by giving them their own special name! I hope my baby gets to be Christened, it really is one of a kind, haha.

Rock n roll suicide

2010-05-01T16:03:00.004-05:00

I've got an easy weekend DIY for you. Take an old jean jacket, cut off the arms, roughen it up and bleach to your liking, then stud it up with all the studs and spikes you own. This is exactly what I did a few weeks ago because I had been aching to find some kind of cool vest that I could throw over any oufit this summer. I found a men's jean jacket while thrifting that was just the right length so took it home and reconstructed it. Should have taken before shots but... well, I didn't. Too eager to rip things apart I guess. Here's the result!

I wanted to make the vest have narrower shoulders to feminize it a bit... otherwise it would look too 80's rocker, I think. Check out a similar jacket-to-vest project I did a year ago for more instructions. After I cut off the sleeves and re-sewed the seams, I let the jacket soak in a water and bleach mixture to lighten up the denim a bit. Then I took these one inch spikes I got from Studs and Spikes ages ago and put 5 on each shoulder seam. These were so easy to put on, you just poke a hole in the fabric then take the little screw that each spike comes with then screw it in untill it's snug against the fabric. Here's what it looks like on the reverse:

I'm going to do more with this vest over time. I want to roughen it up a bit more (even though I've already taken a seam ripper, sandpaper, and cheese grater to it), stud the other pocket all over, and who knows what else! There's no end to this kind of project. Cutomized punk jackets are so intricately and personally made that I really admire them and love the idea of continual customization. Now I just need to learn how to NOT constantly stroke the one inch spikes on my shoulders... seriously, it's so tempting and even other people want a feel, haha!

She's so lovely

2010-04-28T23:30:00.004-05:00

I wanted to make my first post "back to blogging" extra special. You know, a treat to say "thanks for not unsuscribing me from your Google Reader". If you're reading this then you'll have noticed that my little blog hiatus has come to an end, and I'm both excited (I missed y'all!) and slightly hesitant (ummm wtf am I going to post...) to be back. Not blogging for a few weeks really didn't feel that strange to be honest. I felt quite liberated! Of course I did miss posting every thought that popped into my head, and felt bad that other people's blogs were being updated more and more while mine began to gather cobwebs-- actually, what's STRANGE is that even over my break I've been gaining followers. Up to 170 now... huh? How does this make sense? Have you people been snooping through the archives and finally decided to follow this here blog?? Either way, Mama loves ya.

So for my first post back I thought I should fill you in on what I've been obsessing over recently. This thing is makeup. Yes, I've reverted back to my early teen years and rediscovered the joys of filling my Shoppers Drug Mart basket to the brim with lipgloss, eyeshadow, and every marscara on the shelf, bringing it all home and sitting in front of the mirror for hours. But THIS time my makeup shopping habits have stepped up a notch because now I'm all about researching reviews of different products... usually in the form of a Youtube video where I can shut off my brain for 9 minutes and watch some girl in the U.S. natter away about a single beauty product. The thing I DON'T like about this Youtuber makeup trend is that the videos are so looooong, wheras I could skim through a written review in 30 seconds and decide for myself if I want the product or not. The thing I DO like about Youtube makeup reviewers is that these girls are real girls with real opinions and very real budget restrictions (ummm, hi!). The review isn't coming from a magazine where you're not sure they're pushing a product because they'e been paid to do so, and also magazine reviews sometimes leave out a lot of details and leave me wanting more information. The girls on Youtube who review products are sometimes sent free products to feature, but it seems like most of them are honest about their opinion and note that they've received free products from the company.
I recently found out that one of my good friends has also discovered a new found love for makeup, and she knows all the good products and Youtubers to watch. She's given me some advice for things to buy, and luckily we share the same concern for only buying products that have NOT been tested on animals so we both know which companies to stay away from. Check out this site to see for yourself... chances are a lot of the beauty products you have at home right now are not registered as cruelty-free.
Now on to some of my favourite products! I've bought quite a bit of new makeup recently (for my standards anyways) so some of these things I haven't gotten a chance to try out too much or form a solid opinion on, so just roll with me!

This is a newer discovery, a company called EcoTools that sells cruelty-free cosmetic brushes. And let me tell you, these things are amazing! I started with just the foundation brush (the second largest one in the picture) and I loved it, so I bought 3 more! They are so soft, use no animal hair, have bamboo handles, and best of all they are so SO cheap. I mean, like 4 dollars for one of these amazing brushes! I've seen animal hair brushes at Sephora that are like 15 dollars, why spend that kind of money on a single makeup brush?! I found EcoTools at London Drugs and Zellers, but check their website for more places to find them.

Now I'm sure you've heard of Physician's Formula before, you can buy this stuff almost anywhere. I'm not blown away by their products, but considering mineral makeup can be pretty pricey, I like this brand for its accesability and mid-level cost (this jar cost $14). This mineral foundation is good because it's a powder so it goes on smooth and does a pretty good job evening out skin tone. The brush it comes with seriously sucks so use your own brush to apply.
Ok, this 3-D Extreme mascara by Revlon is THE best shiz EVER! I've been buying it non-stop since it was first released a few years ago. It's the best! People spend so much money on mascara (in my opinion) while there are great ones for wayyyy less. This Revlon mascara is only about $8 and I buy a new one about every 2 months (apparently you're supposed to chuck out mascara after a month of use because of bacteria build up... another reason to think cheap!). I like this mascara because it goes on quite thick so I can make my lashes double thier size in just one coat. It holds a curl pretty well and lengthens too, and also stays soft on your lashes when it dries. A tip: the first week or so this mascara is a bit on the thinner side, but after that it thickens a bit from being exposed to the air. After 1-2 months it dries up so buy often!

Haha, sorry I had to throw this in there to show that I'm still alive and CHECK OUT this sexy camera!! My friend left her baby at my place so I obviously had to take some major blogging pics before she realized it's gone. I think I might need to invest in a good camera like this one...
(sidenote: Johnson & Johnson products are NOT cruelty free and I don't buy that crap, this baby oil was just in my family bathroom)

Another Revlon favourite! Revlon is definately my favourite drugstore brand. I love that they don't try to be too trendy when it comes to packaging and new products, and of course all their stuff is top notch quality. I bought this makeup for the first time last summer before I went to London and wore it EVERY day while I was there... this stuff is amazing! I never wore foundation on a regular basis before this product and I've tried others after it but no others can compare. Like I said, I wore this stuff every day in London and last summer was freakishly hot for England! It was hot everyday I was there and this foundation stays put even through sweat (AND I worked as a server so hot weather + running around fetching orders = sweaty mess). I also find that it holds well on oily skin. I have combination skin and during the day if I'm not wearing this makeup I can tell that my skin is noticably more oily without it.
Also, this stuff really blocks out EVERY flaw so use sparingly otherwise it will look like a mask! To apply a light layer use a makeup sponge dipped in water, wring it out, then apply the foundation a little at a time so you don't over do it. I also use Revlon concealer which is great, but most of the time if you use the foundation it will cover up everything so you don't even need concealer!
These 2 products I just bought a few days ago, so I don't have a full opinion on them just yet. Everyone on Youtube uses this Urban Decay eyeshadow primer so I knew it was only a matter of time before I got it too. Haven't actually used it yet, but for $22 dollars it better be worth it! The MAC prep +prime lip primer is to be worn under lipstick as a base coat. So far I really like it because I have been really getting into bright lipsticks so I needed something to lightly moisturize beforehand. This does the trick, and although it doesn't help to make the lipstick last longer, I don't mind reapplying during the day.

Ok so without liquid eyeliner I probably would never leave the house. I use this EVERY day so it's a must in my makeup kit. From past experience I don't find that there's a lot of difference between drugstore brand liquid liner, so I just stick to Revlon.

Now THIS brand really takes me on a walk down memory lane. Don't you all remember Wet n Wild?? When this and lip smacker was all we could afford from our weekly allowance? Well I definately have a new found love for Wet n Wild and I am all about thier lipsticks. The colours are just amazing! These 3 shades are from thier new long wear collection, and fyi they come with flat tips like that... I didn't just use these 3 to death! I'm most impressed with the purple-but-almost-black colour, it's so great! It's just a tiny less harsh that pure black so I could actually picture myself wearing this colour out. I just love the way dark lips look! The pink is really nice too because its a matte pink which steers away from being too "Barbie pink" if you know what I mean. The red is super vibrant and haven't tried it out yet, but I love it already!

Holy crap did I blab on a lot in this post! Lastly I want to share some makeup looks that I am in looooove with right now. Proceed and drool:

Top left is from backstage a Ashish runway show. I saved this picture for the amazing hair (ummm WANT!) but I love the clean face + heavy brushed brow look. I love it when models have bushy eyebrows and they are brushed perfectly so each hair is seperated. Know what I mean??
Top middle is from a recent Swatch ad, and I love the chola look here! Hahah! Seriously though, this girl looks fierce as HALE and you cannot deny it.
Top right... Gaga of course! It was really REALLY hard to only choose one Lady Gaga picture for this post, but I wanted to talk about her lip colour in this photo. It's an old picture, but I love how solid the colour is on the lips. Must find this exact shade!
Bottom left is from a recent editorial from Vogue Japan (I think... correct me if I'm wrong). I love the strong purple blush, I'm all for bringing back crazy strong blush from the 80's, who's with me?! Still, I think a clean face with purple blush and 2 coats of mascara would look gorgeous.
Bottom middle is from Facehunter, this girl has got all of her colours working beauttttiiifully here, ok! The purplely plum lips are perfect.
Bottom right is from some ancient photoshoot of Devon Aoki (still and always will be one of my favourite models EVER... is she still working?). I saved this photo because it's amazing, but I'm using it as makeup inspiration because I love the colour use of deep purple with grey and the green-tinged yellow. Urrg, so gorgeous! A purple lip with yellow eyeshadow and grey on the crease would be my inteperetation of this photo.

So that's it, probably the longest post I've ever made on a subject I rarely talk about on this blog! I guess I've just been keeping it bottled up in me for all these years and now I just need to talk about makeup. Next post will be about clothes, I promise. And thanks again for sticking with me after my blogging break, LOVE YOU ALL!!

Talk to me, dance with me

2010-03-29T20:24:00.005-05:00

So maybe I should have written this post a week ago, before I dropped off the face of the earth. The truth is that I've decided to take a teeny tiny blogging break... only untill the school year and exams are over. I've seriously been the worst student this term, so I figured with less than 2 weeks left I might as well throw myself into school work and just not worry about the internet/blogging world for a bit.
I will tell you all that this past weekend I took all the pictures for my shop, so once again it IS coming soon! The friends who helped me with the pictures really liked the pieces, which is so reassuring! Working on these things for months with no one's opinion but my own I start to wonder "will anyone even like this?", "Is this wearable?", etc. I really hope all of you at there like them soo when you see them! My friend took the pictures with her camera and hasn't sent them to me yet, otherwise I'd love to give you a sneak peak!
ALSO I've got another project lined up. Not blog-related, but it's something I'm SO psyched about and you all will for sure see it when it's done!
OH, one more thing: Going to Toronto in July to see GAGALOO!!

Then right after I'll be heading over to London for 5 months! Holy crap, that sounds scary now that I actually think about it... last summer I was there for 2 months and I didn't really get homesick, but who knows what will happen in over twice that time. Maybe I'll pick up an accent, haha!

The way you made it seem so real

2010-03-19T00:45:00.002-05:00

Today I've got some outfits for yaz from the past week or so. Who knows really, at this point in the school year a day, a week, one month... it's all the same to me.
This outfit was so obviously Annie Hall inspired (confirmed by my Dad, who also likes to call me Annie Hall whenever I wear a beanie or beret...) but it wasn't intentional. Whenever I wear this oversized blazer with badges on it I automatically think of: A) Mannen Som Elsket Yngve, and B) Rick from the Young Ones (see sidebar).

I love buttoning up collared shirts all the way to the top, but on my 36Cs I'm fully aware that it's not the most flattering look. Nevertheless, wear what you love, I say!

Speaking of collared shirts, have I failed to mention this sexy little slice of heaven, courtesy of Madame Hipster Musings?? Isabel remember my embarrasingly obsessive comment when she posted this shirt on her blog, so decided to send it to me just cos she's so dang nice. Trying to do this piece justice... looking somewhat like an 80's cowgirl... which I'm sorta liking...

Woopwoop garage photoshoots! If you dare to venture into the musty depths of my blog archives, you'll see that this isn't the first time I've skipped around my garage with a self-timer camera in tow. FUNTIMEZ!!

There's a tug-a-war and I keep losing

2010-03-15T17:18:00.003-05:00

Saturday the sun came out from hibernation and decided to grace Winnipeg with its presence. FINALLY. I was seriously getting depressed from all the grey everywhere. Grey sky, grey pavement, dirty grey snow. It was like technicolor had never been invented! It's sunny again today, but I can tell it wont be for long so I ran outside to take some pictures of my less-than-exciting outfit.

I kind of like how unflattering these pants are? Also, note my NEW GLASSES which you may have seen on my twitter? I have literally been looking for the perfect glasses for about 2 years and I'm so happy I found ones that I love. Besides the fact that they look amazing with my face shape (if I do say so myself), but they compliment my winged-out eyeliner which I basically have on everyday.

And I'm glad you all like my Gaga jailbait look... I'm nowhere near close to being sick of the Telephone video. I've watched nearly 10 times... including once in 3-D. I tried sending my pics into FYLG but I guess I'm NOT GOOD ENOUGH for them, jeez!! How rude! (Feel free to protest and/or try submitting it yourself ;) ). SPEAKING OF GAGALOO, guess who announced new tour dates today?? That's right!! Including several Canadian dates, and I'm going to be going to at least one of them! I'm so excited even though I don't have tickets yet... I can't calm down!!

K-kinda Busy...

2010-03-11T20:20:00.003-06:00

ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS UNTILL...

Bring me that nonsense sound and I'll be back

2010-03-09T09:00:00.002-06:00

As I drown in my own procrastination, I hope you will enjoy this outfit from yesterday. I realized that skirts aren't really my thing, although I love the look of them, as I constantly tug and tug and tug on the silly things! It just feels too breezy down there for my own good. I love the security of a good legging.

I don't even know why I made this into a gif, I don't like it when other people do it! It gives my eye cramps. More importantly, check out this new top I thrifted! SHEER polka dot sleeves with matching collar and pocket? What what??

Ignore mirror smudges and look at that red PVC doggy coat in the background! So Gaga.

How we move from A to B it can't be up to me

2010-03-07T12:53:00.004-06:00

I don't know what's come over me, but I've been lusting over wierd makeup lately. The last three nights I've been doing wierd things with my eyebrows: first trying to cover them up completely, then attempted Balenciaga brows, and last night I went full for on disco ball eyebrows. I would seriously consider doing this for a night out, I think it looks pretty rad.

How's that for an injection of fun into your day? Jeez it seems like everyone has been so busy and BLAH lately. Just because we have stuff to do doesn't mean it has to be boring, right? Maybe I'll start doing glitter brows everyday just to make people perk up a bit!!

Also, today I looked at my archives and noticed it's Nice and Shiny's 2nd birthday coming up. Maybe a special post is in order? Too bad I'm fresh out of ideas so you'll have to think for me people!

EDIT: Apparently great minds think alike! Fellow Winnipeg blogger extraordinaire Raez from Cheap Thrills had the same idea, just posted today! I promise I did this last night, I didn't copy her!

Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel

2010-03-03T16:23:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's outfit consisted of a whole lotta layers. When I was putting it together I was thinking kind of Japanese minimalist? But with a lot of layers? Note that my outdoor coat would be piled on top of all this jumble as well! Hopefully the Japanese streetstyle vibe translated at least a bit here, otherwise it just looks like couldn't decide what to wear so piled on half my closet (come to think of it, that's what I do most of the time...). Nothing in my wardrobe is really getting my attention right now, so I'm trying to outfit-compose the night before to escape the huge t-shirt + leggings combo that comes along with most of my rushed mornings.

Cotton tank slip (underneath) - H&M, button-up shirt dress - Muji, vest - DIY, moto jacket - UO, leggings - thrifted, necklace - DIY, platform sandals - thrifted

I fully intended wearing these chunky platform sandals outside IN THE SNOW, but as I teetered down my driveway I slipped and slid and almost fell over before I even got to my car, so I opted for the black lace-up boots that I've been wearing waaaaaaaaaaay too much lately. WAY TO TAKE RISKS, GIRL!!

There's no other superstar that I'll be

2010-02-27T21:18:00.005-06:00

Sooo, how's everyone hangin' in there? Dying from school/work/life?? YOU'RE NOT ALONE! Everyday I'm getting closer and closer to ditching this continent and packing up for jolly ol' London, which sounds pretty damn good right now! Although when I get there and get settled into a crumby waitressing job I'll think that home sounds much better BUT STILL, I'm keeping my eye on the prize: London shopping, concerts, and hot British boys. Hellz to the yeaaaaahh.

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Another goal that I've been kinda working on is taking more risks with my everyday attire. Maybe it's just those lousy old nostalgic feelings creepy in, but in high school I felt like I took more risks and pretty much wore whatever I liked. Maybe because high school is a much more contained and comfortable environment that university, but you'd think after the almost three years of uni that I'd be 100% settled in... but I guess not? I don't know, but I DO know that about half my closet needs to see the light of day more often, THIS skirt included:

skirt - DIY, t-shirt - H&M, denim shirt - Dad's, scarf - gift, boots - thrifted

I made this skirt about 2 months ago from a long, cotton t-shirt dress that I thrifted. To make it, basically all I did was cut off the top part of the dress, including the collar, cut off the sleeves and sewed the holes closed, then put in an elastic waistband on the top. Since the dress I used had an ugly graphic on it, I wear the skirt inside out so the graphic is on the inside. The seams don't really show so it looks fine even with the raw edges exposed.

I haven't gotten a chance to wear the skirt yet, but I fully intended to while I was making it! Obviously this thing begs to be gothed up, but I tied to keep it kind of basic with just a graphic tee, a scarf, and to girl-ify the look I threw in some pink lipstick (Lady Gaga for MAC) and blush. Namely, my inspirations were grunge (with the granny boots and oversized shirt) and Andrew from Kell on Earth... wanted to channel his flannel (OMG rhymez) but this denim thing was the closest I could find to plaid. Obviously this outfit isn't going to be blowing anyone's mind with it's overwhelming originality or theatrics, but I'm working in baby steps here... babysteps.
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Any other outfit suggestions for a clued-out girl and her long-ass skirt??

Show me your teeth

2010-02-22T23:41:00.004-06:00

My reading week is officially over as I was back to classes today. As I mentioned before, any actual reading has been avoided to the extreme, and I mostly filled up the 10 beautiful days with shopping, crafting, and watching movies. On Saturday I watched The Hunger, whilst making chocolate fondant in a toaster oven. I know, I party HARD.
So this movie, The Hunger, with David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, is my my opinion an amazing film. Without saying too much about the plot, it's basically a movie from the 80's about imortality, vampires, and most importantly it is a movie about SUNGLASSES

I've come to the conclusion that I want to become David Bowie. No clue how, but seriously... LOVE this man.

Urrrg, I can't get over how beautiful this movie is. Ok, so the movie isn't actually about sunglasses but I counted at least seven pairs of gorgeous specs. Obvi I needed to make an outfit inspired by this movie, broken down like so:
1) A blazer, representing the power-dressing trends of the 80's. This was a big part of the wardrobe, although my screencaps don't show it.
2) Obviously a good pair of sunglasses! These are really similar to the ones Bowie wore in the beginning of the film.
3) My Egyptian skull mummy t-shirt. Symbolic of the Egyptian pentants with hidden dagger, WHICH I WANT, worn by each of the lovers.
4) My garisson cap thrown in there as the female lead rocked one in a few scenes. SO GOOD!

It's a cruel world to face on your own

2010-02-18T20:49:00.003-06:00

I can't beleive my reading week is almost over! Of course I haven't done as much as I would have liked to, but in my defense I've been sick for a few days, don't have glasses so I can't really do much reading, and my serger is wack so any major sewing projects have been put on hold. I'm not complaining though! These new drop crop pants have cheered my up quite a bit, and these boots, which you can't really see here, are also helping to heighten my mood.

On another front, I'm starting to scrounge up some plans to go to England again this year. I'm hoping to go around the end on June because I want to take some summer courses but still make it to England in time to go to some music festivals. I've never been to one so UK peeps start giving me tips in the comments!

When we're young, we get seasick

2010-02-13T17:33:00.006-06:00

Yet another Aritzia purchase: this white top, which is kind of like a long, diagonally cut crop top. It just begs to be layered, and after cleaning out my closet I think its about time to start experimenting and STOP BUYING! I've bought a lot lately, and....er... I bought even more stuff last night. I swear, I'm done now. No more buying for at least a month. I also (finally) ordered some glasses, which are pretty amazing if I say so myself. Can't wait to show them off when they come in next week! For now, I'm just ready to enjoy my reading week with some ACTUAL reading, some painting, sewing, crafting, baking, and maybe even some paper-writing. Cheers!

Winter's cold is too much to handle

2010-02-09T19:31:00.004-06:00

New boots!! Scooped them up Friday instead of going to my only class OOPS! I swear, I'm a good student! Well, I will be. My reading week (a.k.a. spring break) is next and I plan to actually read and hopefully start on a few papers. If I can just get through this week (paper and a test on Thursday) then I think I'll be fine. I just need to get used to reading and working everyday instead of letting it all pile up, especially since I get stressed out extremely easily... wait, wasn't I talking about shoes before? DON'T DISTRACT ME, UNIVERSITY!!! I'm blogging important shiz here!! So yeah, these boots are my new obsession. They're so grunge and the square toe adds just a touch of ugly, which I love.

Dis sweatah is also new, bought it at Aritzia (of all places) last week. It's humongous and has a nice shape to it: bat wing sleeves and shorter in front/longer in the back. I think I've worn it about 3 times since buying it... and may have slept in it once...
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And because I can't get enough of this video, I'm going to share it with you now. You're welcome.

That wierdo with five colours in her hair

2010-02-06T21:36:00.003-06:00

I'm not going to start with a big 'ol shpeel about how "colourful hair is back!!" but, yeah... it is, and in a big way in the blog-world anyways. Not to sound pretentious, but I've had a thing for bright hair for years now. I remember seeing a beauty editorial in Teen Vogue (ah TV, how I used to love you! Now you're filled with Twilight stars and not-so-convincing arguments about how denim is SO big this year, which really just doesn't float my boat) a few years ago with some crazy coloured fake hair stuffed in big ponytails with a million hair accessories bouncing around everywhere. To make sure this colourful vision isn't something I just made up (I do tend to do such things when pondering magazine editorials), I scoured through my huge stack of Teen Vogues that I've collected over time. Am I the only one who keeps magazines FOREVER? I mean, I can't even allow myself to cut things out of my mags never mind throwing them out! These are sacred fashion artifacts!! I even still have stacks of Cosmo Girls from when I was in grade 11! Oops, maybe shouldn't have admitted that... ANYWAAAYS, after sifting though about 35 Teen Vogues, in the VERY LAST issue in my stack I found the editorial. Slightly less amazing than I remember, but still pretty good.

My point is with all of this is that I LOVE RAINBOW HAIR, but I'm not one to commit to anything, and bleaching and dying the mane I've been growing out for 7 years is just not happening. Sooooooooo, y'all know I had to think of a DIY for this!
Things you'll need for this hair DIY (first one EVER on the blog... yey!) are bobby pins, mini hair elastic(s), hair straightener, and most importantly your fake, candy-coloured hair. People, you need to suck up your pride and start scouring your Claire's and other such fine establishments to find this. The DIY will depend on what kind of hairpiece you can get your hands on, but I'm going to show you what to do using a row of fake hair, like the ones used for extensions. I found mine in the toys section of a dollar store which was SUCH a score that I'm going to go back and get a blue one too.

You could always find a cheap blonde weave at a drugstore and dye it the colour you want, but I lucked out and I was really impressed with the one I found. Just my length and super soft! I bought it as this hair-headband, so to prep it I removed the braid, plastic headband, and cut off all the shimmery strands in it. Then I had one long weave-type piece to work with.
Just a warning: I overloaded on pictures here so bear with my narcissism for one post, k? Well actually, they're grainy and pretty unflattering as they're taken from my laptop's built in web cam, so not all that self-ingulgent. Maybe more pictures = clearer instructions? I hope so...

First thing to do is to prep your hair by straightening it really well. I have naturally straight hair, but with all hair types you want your hair to blend with the fake hair as well as possible, therefore it should be pin-straights like the weave.

Next, decide how far up on you scalp the hairpiece will go depending on the length of your real hair. I didn't want to cut mine so I'm placing it about half-way up the back of my head.

Section off the hair on top and clip it aside, making sure the horizonal part is as straight as possible. I know, I look really hot right? Yooz like my bolo tie?? So country!

This process was inspired by the time I got extentions a few years ago. If you've never had the, errrm, pleasure of having extentions put in, the way they did mine was basically they made horizontal cornrows on a few sections of my hair and then sewed in the extensions. Since I don't know how to do cornrows (so shocking, I KNOW) I'm just doing regular braids.
Take a small section of hair above your ear (or however far up or down on your scalp your putting yours in) and braid it.

Do the same on the other side so you have 2 little braids on either side of your face. Then grab each braid and pull them back so they meet at the back of your head against the scalp. Use the small elastic to tie them together TIGHTLY. And I mean tight. You should have a mini facelift by the end of this!!! Ideally you want the braids to lie right along the horizontal hair part, but as you can see mine's below it. Sorry, I was rushing...

The last step was kind of hard to photograph, but basically all your doing is bobby-pinning the hair to the braid. Use about 10 bobby pins. No need to overload, but make sure it's secure so you can dance yourself crazy later. You will be really happy with rainbow hair, garanteed!!

What it should look like when pinned properly:

Then you just take the top clip out and give your head a shake! I would NOT recommend running your straightner through your hair again, don't want to risk melting the fake stuff. Just make sure you do a really good job straightning in the beginning.

There you have it. Rainbow coloured hair for commintment-phobics everywhere. Rejoice!!Aaaand, of course, some manditory hair flippage. I told you you'd wanna dance!!

Note the Rodarte for Target lace cardigan!! Tavi had a contest on her blog to give away a few of these bad boys. I didn't enter, but she sent some to a few bloggers, including myself, just because she's so dang nice! Thanks again gurlie! Check out how Isabel rocked it too. Sooooo good.

Not everything is what you say it is, that's just the way it is

2010-02-04T23:14:00.005-06:00

Blaaah. So, a week without a camera has been pretty suckish. I feel so bad about not updating at all buuuuuut I've got a cool post for this weekend which is BURSTING with picture-y goodness. Well... they're webcam pictures but for what they lack in quality they make up for in quantity. Wait, that's not really a good thing is it?
Anyways, here's what I wore yesterday. Crappy camera phone pics made crappier by the editing skills of yours truly. On the other hand, I recomend that everyone start wearing their skirts upside down. It's a very liberating experience, I feel very ~avant garde~ and edgy when I do such things. Like, "YEAH MY SKIRT IS UPSIDE DOWN, WHAT OF IT??". That's what I would say if someone asked but nobody cared so I just amused myself, really.

blazer - Zara, tank - thrifted, belt - le chateau, skirt - thrifted, tights - express, socks - ???

Taken in front of a bedsheet (which now acts as the door to my sewing room) from the era of my mom's southwestern decorating phase in the early 90's. I swear, our whole house was filled with potted cactii, pastel tones, and pictures of sombreroes. I kid you not.

Tears, stupid tears bring me down

2010-01-29T16:04:00.003-06:00

I've done the unthinkable. Three days ago I dropped my camera in the toilet. Yup. Me. I did it.

.
Thank the LORD it was a flushed toilet, so I grabbed it out right away. I took out the memory card and battery and left them all to dry. In the morning it turned on but I couldn't view my pictures. I tried again today and now it won't even turn on. I'll recharge the battery and see what gives, but otherwise I'm camera-less for the time being. A camera is pretty much an extra limb for a blogger, so I feel pretty useless right now. Hate to do this, but I need y'all need to just bear with me, k? I'll figure something out...

And since I don't like having pictureless posts, here's one of me from a few weeks ago... in my basement... with the same outfit from the cape post... exciting, innit?

p.s.- If you're not yet, follow me on Twitter

Dont pretend that you dont know me

2010-01-25T21:23:00.003-06:00

I seem to finding more and more interesting places to take pictures around my house. These pictures I took in this tiny storage room in my basement. When we bought the house over 10 years ago the room looked like this, blood red walls and green concrete floor, and we haven't touched it one bit! Who decided on that colour combination??
I'm assuming you've all noticed the new layout by now. You liiiiike? This is the first layout do-over I've done since starting the blog almost two years ago! I've been dying to get a white background, and I never really liked my old header that much to begin with so I'm pumped of all the fresh new graphics around here.

Oh, and one more thing: THE BOOTS! The ones I got off of eBay near christmas. I realized that the best way to wear these is tucked into jeans... not a major breakthough for most but BOOTS ARE NEW TO ME SO SHUT IT!! Ahhh, I'm really digging these. That is all.