What's up?

I have been updating things over at Tumblr, but I don't quite have the hang of things there, so I'm not ready to make the grand announcement that things have moved. I'm still trying to decide if I even want to move.

I'm still blonde, still growing my hair out, and still going through all my nail polish. I have 4 more colors to go and then I'll be through all my O.P.I. and moved on to my Essie polish.

I just bought two NYX eyeshadows and some new eye shadow brushes. I am in LOVE! I bought a perfect matte pink, ballet slipper pink, and a gorgeous gold glitter. The brushes are perfect.

I'm really looking forward to new fall clothes as I am super bored of my summer wardrobe.

That's all.

How are you?

Look of the Day

Shirt Chadwicks
Tshirt ModBod
Pants Chadwicks
Shoes Via Spiga (a million years old)
Earrings Claire's
Necklace Puca shell gift from friend who
came back from Hawaii when I was in
High school

I absolutely hate everything I'm wearing today.

I had to wear closed toe shoes because my toes were naked.

I had to wear pants because my legs needed a shave and all my other pants were in the laundry so I chose these navy ones.

The shirt is too short and boxy and needs some reconstruction, so I just wore it like this.

Even though I hated this outfit, I strutted around like I owned it.

171 lbs

Look of the day

Necklace - gift from Peru
Shirt - Dickies
Sweater - Costco
Belt - Ross
Pinstripe pants - Chadwicks
Shoes - Pleaser

"Mom, you're supposed to wear your belt in your belt loops to keep your pants up."

I love living with boys.

Adding a pop of color with the red necklace.

169 lbs.

Look of the Day 12-3-12

Blue peplum sweater Nordstrom rack
White Jeans Banana Republic
Black boots Fluevog

To celebrate winter, I thought I would wear colors that make me think of cold and snow. I am also wearing the coziest, warmest wool socks. I will blog about them later.

Sporting my plumeria necklace too. It's not just for summer!

Plumeria Pendant Necklace

Plumeria Necklace

I bought this in Maui in January 2007.

DH and I had wanted to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but we were poor newlyweds and couldn’t afford it. DH went to school in Hawaii, and I had never been, so he wanted to show it to me. I had thought that we could save up and go for our tenth anniversary.

After we had been married for a year, my in-laws took us and DH’s sister and her husband to Hawaii and Oahu for a vacation. I fell in LOVE with Hawaii. To the point that I don’t know whether I would prefer my beloved home of Vancouver, or Hawaii for my ideal place to live forever.

The plumeria is my favourite Hawaiian flower. I love the simplicity of the shape of the flower. They come in many colours, but my favourite is the white ones that are edged in yellow.

We went to Maui for our tenth anniversary, and the place we were staying had a plumeria tree by the sidewalk on the way to the beach. Every day, I picked up a flower off the grass and tucked it behind my ear.

We were shopping on the actual day of our anniversary, and I found this necklace and some earrings. I bought them for myself for my annivearsary. It cost ten dollars.

I love the simplicity of the necklace. I love the black-and-white. It goes with everything. I dress it up, I dress it down. I love the leather thong - it gives it a little edge.

Polyvore

Polyvore is a website that lets you put outfits together. It’s fun, check it out.

I’ve known about it for some time, but was never quite able to figure it out until recently. Now I love it. It’s like playing paper dolls, but with clothes that have links to where to buy them!

I’m not much of an accessorizer (yes I made up a word), but with unlimited access to any kind of accessory that I can think of, I can accessorize the heck out of an outfit. I now can see why I wear the same accessories over and over. If I price out an outfit, sometimes the cost of the accessories can double the cost of the outfit! (or more, depending on the shoes and the bag) Plus, takes time.

The plus side:

1)      It has inspired me to sew. One of the things that I hate about shopping is that I have a hard time justifying the cost of some things because I know that I can make them for a fraction of the price.

2)      It has inspired me to design. I see a thing that I like, but the sleeve’s wrong, or there’s a detail that I’m not in love with, so I can use the thing as inspiration.

3)      It has inspired me to draft. Last Halloween I declared that we were no longer buying costumes; my mum and I made all my Halloween costumes and DH’s mum made all of his. I can make much better/cooler/more creative costumes. I bought a pattern drafting book to replace my textbook from college that I lost years ago, but had not used it. I dusted it off and made a new pattern block from scratch for myself since my body has changed considerably in the twenty-two years since college. I love drafting and making patterns. The measuring and the cutting and the truing… it’s all so soothing to my brain. I have my island in my kitchen cleared off, so it’s high enough that I don’t kill my back when making patterns.

4)      It inspires me to get my chores done so that I have time to play.

5)      I have discovered endless.com which is the fashion arm of amazon.com. They have the cutest stuff that I can’t make for myself and the prices are reasonable.

6)      I have discovered other sites with cute and fun stuff that I can save my pennies for and add to the things that I love.

7)      It’s like Pinterest where I can put together ensembles that I have floating around in my head. I can save them on Polyvore and refer to them when I’m ready to shop.

The down side:

1)      It makes me sad that I don’t have time to shop for fabric or sew or make patterns.

2)      It makes me want to spend money

3)      It makes me want to have all these outfits NOW.

4)      It makes me spend money because I. CAN’T. GET. THOSE. SHOES. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!

5)      Needs and wants have become skewed.

6)      I hate all my current clothes and want my Polyvore closet!!

Overall, it’s a fun place to play and experiment with new looks and I really enjoy it. Here is a sample of a set I created on Polyvore. Try it out!

Weight - under 160!

White jeans - Canadian tuxedo

Yesterday I weighed in at 159.6 and today was 159.4. I am completely wowed.

Here's what I've been doing:

• Last week I vowed to stay away from fast food. Since last Friday, I have had no fast food.
• I am on vacation, and therefore am not making my daily 7-11 run for 34 oz of soda.
• Dewey has had me jumping with him on the trampoline.
• I have not been sitting at a desk all day, but running up and down the stairs cleaning various areas, doing laundry and ironing.
• My period is ending.
• I have been eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner thus not bingeing on a burger in the middle of the day and then feeling so gross about myself that I don't eat anything for dinner. I have also been eating at home, so I'm sure that my sodium intake is at least half of what it normally is.
• It's summer, it's so hot. I normally lose weight in the summer because it's so hot all I want to do is drink water and eat fruit and vegetables, which is what I've been doing the last few days.

Here is my Canadian tuxedo. I've also heard it called a Texas tuxedo, but I'm Canadian, so I'm going with that. A Canadian tuxedo is denim with denim. Normally, I abhor such behaviour, but I thought I could get away with it by wearing different types of denim - like the above white jeans with a jean jacket. Not so, according to canadiantuxedo.com, but whatever. You will not catch me DEAD wearing blue jeans with a blue jean jacket or denim shirt.

Stone Necklace

This necklace was bought for me by my DH and my son Huey at the Pioneer Day weekend in Emery, UT. I very much like it, it's kind of rock star, yet I will wear it with a blouse in place of pearls. It's another one of my favourite accessories. 

Nana's ring

Nana's Ring

I'm not much of an accessory person. I don't have accessories for every outfit, I mostly have accessories that I wear every day. I have some favourites that I change around when the mood suits me.

This may seem weird for a girl from the eighties who had coordinating plastic earrings, rubber bracelets, slouchy socks and headbands for every occassion, but thankfully those days are gone. I dress by 'feel' more than anything else.

This is my Nana's ring. I wear it just about every day.

In the first year of my marriage, my dad brought my Nana for a visit here in Salt Lake City. When she first arrived, she was wearing this oval shaped tribal looking silver ring. I loved it. "Nana, I LOVE your ring!" I exclaimed. She told me how she and my baby sister were shopping in Steveston and she had convinced my Nana to buy it.

Later that week, we were at the Scottish festival. We were sitting up on a hill looking down where the Tatoo was being performed. The weather was beautiful. A storm was rolling in, but there was a soft breeze and the temperature was perfectly mild. As the pipes were playing and the men in kilts were bringing in the flags (the Canadian flag was one of them), she took her ring off her finger, pressed it into my hand, looked up into my eyes, and said, "I want you to have this."

I have always felt like that ring held a piece of my Nana. Every time I would put it on, I would think of the moment that she gave it to me. Now she is gone, I wear it every day not only as a reminder of her, but also to remind me the things she taught me about being a lady. I use the word 'taught' loosely - drilled into my brain is a more accurate description, but to this day I am grateful for the things she taught me about what is proper and how to be a lady with class.

The Darks

Despite the 4 inches of snow that we’ve received in the last two days, Spring is just around the corner. I can feel it. It’s coming.

The reason why I know is because I get horribly depressed this time of year.

I come from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and I consider that city to be the most perfect place on earth. Spring comes somewhat early, usually February, in my hometown. The crocuses and daffodils come up, and the cherry blossoms bloom. Vancouver is a beautiful city, but in Spring it’s a sight to behold. Suddenly, the rain doesn’t seem so cold and the air is oh so much fresher.

Having lived in the Vancouver area the first twenty-five years of my life, something in my brain just clicks in February to tell me that it’s time for Spring.

Spring doesn’t come so early here in Utah (remember the four inches of snow I just described?) When I go outside and get beat in the face with the bone-chilling cold, but my brain expects it to be Spring, it’s a major downer.

The other thing that depresses me about the weather in Utah, is that we are not eased into Summer like on the West Coast. One day it’s ski jackets, then two weeks of mild, tulipy, blossoms, then BAM! The hot hot heat of summer for 6 months. (I’m exaggerating for artistic purposes, but you get my drift)

I’m completely sick of my winter clothes, but not totally. I love my sweaters and boots and hats and gloves and scarves. I love wearing dark colours and with all the sun and heat that is a Utah summer, that’s mostly impossible.

I have decided to ring out the Winter season by going through all my dark coloured nail polish. In this post I showed the black manicure. I am going to go lighter with each post, so here is chocolate brown. It’s O.P.I. Espresso your style. I specifically bought it when I dressed up as a UPS driver for Halloween, but I love dark chocolate (the colour AND the treat) so it goes with just about everything I wear.

O.P.I. Espresso yourself plus Dewey's little toe toes