the good news is...

...I found this lovely maxi skirt at Salvation Army for $7.

The bad new is I had to take this photo using my little point-and-shoot camera because I lost the battery charger for my new Rebel. I spent all day Sunday calling all the stores I could think of that might carry the charger I needed, and NONE of them had it in stock. I was finally told by one place that the chargers were on back order from Canon and could take an undetermined amount of time to be ordered and sent to me, and would cost me a minimum of $50. Horrible, horrible news.

Things are looking better now, as I was able to find an off-brand charger as a temporary replacement on Amazon for just over $7 (same price as my skirt!), but it's going to take 7 - 11 business days to get here. Sigh.

This has been incredibly frustrating, and I'm glad that I was finally able to find one, but for the next week or so the photos on this blog are going to be a little less than lovely. It feels like a bit of a set-back to my blog, as I was finally able to have the photos be up to the quality that I had wanted for so long. I've been debating whether I should take a bit of a hiatus until I can get things going properly again, but decided that I will still post on my blog, it will just look a bit different for the next while.

Anyway, please bear with me as things may not look as nice as they have recently, but as soon as I get my charger and am able to use my Canon again, things will be back to normal!

you send me

Three years ago today I started dating my best friend and the love of my life. So much has happened since April 28th, 2009, and yet it's hard to believe that it's already been three years! And Rob and I still have so many dreams for the future. I can't wait to see where life leads us!

Thank you, my love, for being the best man EVER!

P.S. If you want to know how everything began, you can read about it on the Ruche blog, where they published our love story last year!

blustery day

This weekend, my dear friend Hannah came to visit. She was living in Korea for the last 2 and a half years, so it has been quite a while since we've been able to spend some quality time together. Hannah is back here in Canada and is going to be attending a college for photojournalism, so of course she wanted to shoot some pictures while she was here.

It happened to be a particularly windy and cold day (not at all like the spring I've been anticipating), but I love this dress and the cold weather won't keep my from wearing it! This dress was my first purchase from Ruche and I bought it for my friend Bethany's wedding last year. It's SO comfortable and I love the tiny pattern and the flowy femininity.

Dress from Ruche.

Long cardigan from H&M.

Hair band from Forever 21.

Heart necklace from Aldo.

Sweet Holic flats from a local shop, Durumi.

AND, I just noticed that my blog has had over 10,000 page views!!! Some bloggers get this many views a DAY, but I feel like this is a little accomplishment for me, especially since I started this blog a little over a year ago, and wasn't really super active on it until this past fall. So I want to say THANK YOU to all of you faithful readers, who for some reason find my humble little life interesting! I greatly appreciate your visits everyday. :)

xoxo

30 and flirty?

Today is my sister Melissa's 30th birthday! 30 is a big year normally, but Melissa is also going to become a mama in August, so there are a lot of exciting things for her to look forward to this year!

We actually celebrated her birthday on Saturday and here are a few pics of the celebration!

The birthday girl with her birthday cake!

Melissa and our dear friend Anne, both 6 months pregnant!

My sister and her husband Dave. Two love birds!

Happy birthday Melissa! Not only are you an excellent older sister, but you are also a best friend! I feel so fortunate that we live so close to each other and have such a good relationship. I think it's rare. Happy happy day of your birth!

transitions

During the week I dress up for work and for events in the evenings, but most weekends I tend to throw on more casual clothes, as I'm usually doing housework or running errands. I love wearing skirts and dresses, and tend to gravitate toward those pieces more often, but I assure you, I DO own a pair of jeans and a few t-shirts! 

That being said, I thought it would be nice to do a post showing how I transition a causal at-home outfit for going out for brunch or coffee with friends. And good timing for this, because I just received two great accessory pieces from a giveaway that I won on lovely Rachel's blog! (Rachel the Hat)

The Before: 

Plain tee from Garage, Cheap Monday jeans (which I got at a thrift store for $10), and Sweet Holic flats.

The After:

Earrings and bracelet from Aldo. Joe Fresh lipstick in Melon.

Dorothy Perkins bag from Rachel's giveaway.

Dorothy Perkins infinity scarf from the giveaway.

I have to say that this is the first infinity scarf I've ever owned. I wasn't sure if it was very "me", but now that I've worn it, I'm pretty sure that it is going to become my go-to scarf in the fall. So easy to put on, and  so cute!

How do you transition a casual outfit? What accessories do you consider to be essential pieces? 

flower fun

 I had been patiently (or not so patiently) awaiting for this dress to arrive from When Decades Collide . It finally came, and I am SO happy with it! For a 1960's piece, it's in great condition and it fits like it was made for me (and let's be honest, it was made for me by destiny). I highly encourage you to check out this amazing Ebay shop based out of California (and check out their Facebook group too). I literally have to stop myself from constantly going to the shop because everything is faaarrrr too lovely and tempting. And the two sisters behind the shop are absolutely amazing to deal with.  

It was also very convenient that when Rob and I went out to take photos, we found this painted wall under the railway bridge near my apartment.  Perfect pattern and perfect colours!

1960's vintage dress. 

 Vintage coach bag.

 Purple tights from Legs Beautiful.

 J&T wedges.

Pretty bow in the back!

Lace details and high collar.

I love the femininity of this dress! I don't think I have anything else in my closet that has these same gentle pastel colours, which I usually shy away from, but the moment I saw this dress I could picture all the summer adventures that were going to happen in it!

spring blooms

Yesterday I had to run out and snap some photos of the beautiful blossoming trees in my yard. I'm so fortunate to have a cherry tree in the front yard and pear tree in the backyard. Every time I look out the bay windows in our living room, I'm greeted by a sea of friendly white blossoms. We also have a twisting grape vine that's climbing up the trellis, but hasn't quite bloomed yet. Once it does, I'll be sure to get some photos of the little flowers. It's amazing to surrounded by so much natural fruit, and I can't wait until harvest time!

I'm always amazing at how gently spring comes in. It almost comes about unnoticed, it until one morning you wake up and the trees are in full bloom. This is one of my favourite times of the year, with new life after a dreary and long winter (especially here in Canada), and the promise of summer days in the air.

Happy spring! <3

lunch break photo shoot

This weekend consisted of some housework and then a lot of downtime. I've been pretty tired lately (a big part of that may be because I stayed up late too many nights last week watching Game of Thrones), so I generally took it easy. And Sunday proved to be a rainy day anyway, so being in stretch pants and a sweater all day seemed to be the best option. To be honest, I only really went out in order for Rob to shoot a few photos for me. He is sooooo great and generous and took some time out of his lunch break at work to take these pics for me. What a guy! <3

Vintage blouse.

Vintage belt. Ring from Aldo.

Wedge cutouts from Piperlime. Vintage carpet bag that I found in the closet of my old room at my mom's place. Bought this years ago, and totally forgot about it!

Thrifted skirt.

 

Earrings from Aldo.

I also had a little Photoshop tutorial last week with a friend, and it has been extremely helpful. I'm hoping to get out soon and just shoot a bunch of pictures (especially since the cherry tree in my front yard has started blooming), and get to work experimenting with Photoshop.

Anyway, hope you have a lovely Monday!

phone photos: life lately

Quick hello! Been busy this week, so haven't really had time for outfit posts, but every once in awhile I like to share some of the photos from my phone. I got so excited when I heard that Instagram was expanding, but then realized that I have a Blackberry, and won't be able to do fun photo effects with my phone. Anyway, here are some snaps of little things that have been happening in my life lately.

Delicious berries!

Evidence of my shoe addiction.

 Raptor's game with coworkers.

 Hair experiments.

 Mom and sister enjoying family diner breakfast.

 My brother-in-law and I enjoying family diner breakfast (maybe a little too much?)

 More hair experiments.

 A puzzle tablecloth?

 Bright blue Joe Fresh nails.

New dress!

sun and wind

This long Easter weekend I went on a bit of a "blog vacation" and just spent time with family. Part of this blog vacation was also involuntary because I was out of the city visiting my mom and had left behind my bag with my camera in it, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise because all I did was eat, do puzzles, read, and hang out with my family. Monday I was back in the city and had a date day with Rob. We have barely seen each other the last few weeks because things have been so busy for both of us, so it was nice to have a good chunk of time to ourselves. So of course, I got Rob to take photos!

Romper from Dear Creatures.

Modcloth bag. 

Vintage wedge sandals.

Thrifted blouse.

Small details of the blouse.

Did you have a good Easter weekend? Do anything exciting?

over exposure

I present to you the skirt that I hemmed in my previous post! I am in love with this skirt now, and am tempted to wear it almost every day, which I think would get people asking questions (and probably not in a good way).  Also, I was debating whether I would post these pictures, because Rob and I were in a hurry to get these photos done and they ended up overexposed. This was my third attempt taking photos of this skirt, and wasn't happy with the other photos. Anyway, I really liked how these look, but was nervous about them being overexposed, since all my photos are always very clear and fairly "normal" on here. But then I thought, whatever, this is my blog and there are no rules and I can experiment with photos and be "artsy" if I want too. :)

The skirt!

Blouse from Modcloth.

Fun polka dot tights and new (eee!) platform J&T sandals

Lovely bag from Modcloth.

Vintage belt.

you don't need a sewing machine to hem a skirt

You may be one of the unfortunate people like me who don't have the pleasure of owning a beautiful, handy, wonderful sewing machine (can you tell that I'm jealous?). I was craving an adorable, short, flirty, poofy skirt but wasn't able to find one anywhere that fit the idea that I had in my mind. And then I went to Fabricland when I was on the hunt for cross stitching fabric, and found the wonder-of-all-wonders: hemming tape. I suddenly realized that I could make my own adorable, short, flirty, poofy skirt using an item already in my closet, and only spend....ready for it?...$5.00!!

Here's how I hemmed a skirt without sewing a stitch!

This is the skirt that I used. I've had this in my closet for over a year and have only worn it maybe 3 or 4 times. It's an amazing vintage piece that was clearly handmade and the pattern is so lovely, but I never loved the shape for some reason.

I measured 20 inches all the way around the skirt (since it's a circle skirt it should be the same length). Anything below the 20 inches, I cut off. I knew I wanted the skirt to be 18 inches, so I left 2 extra inches for the hem line.

After cutting the skirt, the hemming process actually began. Only three materials needed to complete this!

The first, and very important step, is to fold up your hem and pin it in place, always making sure that the hem line remains the same length all the way around. I used the iron on the hem, just to solidify my line.

Next, start in one section by opening up the hem line you just made and laying your hemming tape on the inside of your hem, as close to the seam as possible. The rough side should face down, but your hemming tape should come with instructions on how to use the brand. 

Last step, fold the hem back up and begin the ironing process! I held the iron on the folded hem for about 3 to 5 seconds, but some sections needed a bit longer. I found it easiest to do the skirt in sections by slowly removing pins, placing a new section of the hemming tape in the seam of the hem, and then ironing that section. It took a bit of patience, but was well worth it!

In the end I didn't need to sew anything, only spent about $5.00 on hemming tape, and spent about an hour on the whole project! This was my first time EVER hemming a skirt, and it was so easy, so I feel fairly confident that any one of you can do this too!

And what was the end result? Well, my friends, you will have to stay tuned for a lovely outfit post tomorrow featuring my little "no sew" skirt!