All this for $50 !

Yes, that's right.  Today's outfit cost $50. Retail.

Most weekends, I'll wear jeans, a top and a scarf; but, this weekend, a bunch of us were going for a surprise birthday lunch for a co-worker who has been off work due to illness.  So needless to say, I didn't want to look like a slob.  It being Saturday, I still wore jeans of course.

We went to Kingsway Sushi which is part of the Top Gun restaurant group.  As expected for a large group and all-you-can-eat, many of the tasty items which we ordered never arrived.  I think what may have happened is that since we had 2 tables, the food went to the other table.  I distinctly heard people at the other table say "What is this? ..."

My new invisible step stool ...

But, conversation was flowing and we had a good mix of family and friends at our table.  There was lots of yummy stuff which I had never tried before like teriyaki chicken roll, something crunchy and yummy inside sushi rice and wrapped with salmon, oyster motoyaki (oyster baked in a sinfully delicious, very rich egglike sauce), and all sorts of cooked and uncooked foods.

We topped it all off with mango pudding and birthday cake.  These photos were taken after, thus the stuffed look.

So back to my outfit of $50.  It's true, retail prices, everything bought on sale.

Today, I wore:

shortie jacket ... jessica ... $8 at sears

necktie ... ? ... $1 at dollar store

collared tee ... ? ... $3 at a liquidators

ruffle tanks ... hamilton ... $9 at winners

jeans ... kenneth cole ... $14 at costco

shoes ... reflexan laufkomfort ... $14 at army & navy

Here's a closeup of the shoes:

I really like the colour - goes great with jeans.  And they are a clog, slip-on style which I love for pants.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

It was back to the dentist today to see how the bone graft went.  Since they started growing the bone, I've been taking vitamin C; for scurvy I suppose. They took some x-rays and announced that all is well - the bone is there and I can go back in a couple of weeks to get another post.  I can't believe that it's been about 5 months since the fateful fall and we are still working on my teeth! 

My original thought for today's outfit was something warm - I was going to wear my Bianca Nygard little old lady vest but forgot that I gave away the blouse which I usually wear under it.

So, instead:

The top has, to my mind, a rather low neckline, so I tried tying the scarf a little differently today.

It's hard to see, but the scarf actually has little circles all over it too just like the top.

Today I wore:

circles top ... george

cardigan ... rino rossi

knit skirt ... kenneth cole

cable tights ... dollar store

shoes ... payless

scarf ... ?

So the other thing is that today is the start of the mid-autumn festival which to those of us in Lotusland means mooncakes!

Mid-autumn is an important festival in much of Asia, but our family being a hybrid of more than one culture generally sticks to just eating the cakes.  Good thing too since mooncakes are packed with calories.

Ruffle, Lace and Stripes

Ugh.  We went to Costco after work to pick up milk - the chocolate milk is almost $2 less than at our local super-market.  To avoid a huge bill we have recently been buying only if something is a staple or on sale.  So today we got cereal and chicken, both on sale. 

The ugh part is that there were all sorts of food demos - I tried deli cuts on bread, havarti cheese, barbecue sauce on a chunk of hot dog, kettle corn, bear paw cookies etc etc.  By the time we were done I was sampled out, and in no mood for dinner.

Why don't they ever have sliced watermelon, or blueberries to sample?

Today's outfit is my New Year's skirt with a multi-fabric lace top, my witchy tights and a ruffle jacket.  I am not sure about the tights - a solid colour would've probably been better.

The scarf was a gwp - one year I was buying a long coat and my mom took me to a little store downtown.  They had exactly the coat I was looking for (I still wear it to this day) and when we bought it, my mom asked if there was a gift with purchase and lo and behold I was allowed to pick out a scarf!

Today I wore:

tuxedo tank ... old navy

lace top ... merona

skirt ... della spiga

tights ... CK?

shoes ... privo?

jacket ... tradition

scarf ... ? gift with purchase

A Peasant in St Tropez

So I've decided to check the weather for the next day the night before.  It's all because yesterday was quite cold and so today I wore lots - only to have it turn out relatively warm and sunny.

For some reason, I hauled out this old Carole Little skirt this morning.  I just had the urge to wear something longer.  It is one of those "sets" which comes with a top, but the top looks quite 90's.

 

 
The skirt has a bit of khaki in it and my original plan was to wear it with a blazer - I thought it looked okay, but Big J thought blazer and hippy skirt looked strange together.

It's the St Tropez line and has all the mix of prints elements which are characteristic of Carole Little's earlier stuff. 

The skirt is quite full and I found myself swishing it with my left hand as I walked about the office.  I'm not sure why, but I love going upstairs when wearing a long skirt - something about having to hold the skirt as you ascend reminds me of period movies.

I also decided to put my hair up again - you can just see the flower ornament which by chance matched the skirt.

Finally these cute booties are by Enzo Angiolini.  I love the height, not overly high, but I don't wear them much. I also like the dippy cut at the side - it almost looks like you can fold the tops down.

So anyway back to checking the weather - the whole day I felt rather like a Russian peasant: long skirt, thick tights, I also had a sweater. 

Real Russian peasant girls
source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic.html

I see now that actual Russian peasants are much more colourful, and serious, and wear aprons.

Today I wore:

v-neck t-shirt ... segments

scarf ... ?

skirt ... carole little for st tropez

cable tights ... dollar store

booties ... enzo angiolini

hair ornament ... dollar store

Emmys on the Front Porch

Here I am on our new front deck which Big J built just last week.  He's quite the handyman.  It still needs some paint on those things on top of the posts, but now we have a place to sit when we want to watch our fishies swimming or the neighbourhood pass by.

Today I wore:

tank top ... old navy

long sleeve t-shirt ... mexx

butterfly dress ... sears

blue cardi ... ?

black tights ... dollar store

mary janes ... spain

There's only one outfit photo of me because ... today's post of course will be about the wonderful gowns at the 2012 Emmys.

There were lots of bright colourful dresses and some of the gowns were less formal than at the Oscars last year.

Although I would never have anywhere to wear such fancy clothing, like everyone else, I do like to pick out my favourites and imagine.


My favourites were probably the printed ones - they looked fresh and new.  Here are the two I liked best:

I really liked this first one and can imagine wearing it - it's fairly modest, feminine and pretty.  The black dress is also cute - I love the ruffly hem.

Here are some other gowns which I love.  These ones are in fabulous colours.

I love the giant wavy peplum thing on Kaley Cuoco's dress, and I think I like the orange gown because it looks great on Ms Lakshmi.

These next few have that filmy Edwardian look which I love.  I especially like the midi-length one which seems to be something I could actually wear.

And now finally these last three just caught my eye - not sure why.




 Which gown is your favourite?

PS: ==> I got all these pictures from E!online and where there was a photographer's credit - I left it in the crop.

Snakes and Ruffles

I had no idea what to wear today, but wanted to wear non-black tights since it's been so warm.

In the end I had to resort to panty-hose because the tights were in the wash.  Microfibre has spoiled me, I'm no longer accustomed to the saggy-ness of panty-hose.  I like the sheerness though.

I've been wanting to wear this bracelet for a while - It's from Big J and is leather strips with silver beads.  It doesn't really go, but sometimes a girl can't wait.

We were all just told in a department meeting that we would be getting our layoff notices on October 1st.  No-one was surprised.  Our department has dwindled from a high of 45 staff down to today's 16 as people find jobs elsewhere.  Others are sticking around for the severance package.  At least we got DQ ice-cream at the department meeting.

Today I wore:

black tuxedo tank ... old navy

black ruffle t-shirt ... joe fresh

snake print skirt ... george

panty-hose ... secret

snake cardigan ... jones ny?

maryjanes ... from spain

leather/silver bracelet ... Big J

Dark Grey and Ruffles

When I was in school, the home ec teacher used to always wear light grey - head to toe grey with light grey hose and slightly darker shoes.  Even her hair was that silver grey colour.  She always looked sophisticated and put together.

I didn't really like the colour back then, it looked old and fuddy-duddy.  But now, I like it - all shades of grey. 

So today's outfit is mostly grey, but dark grey.  Before blogging, I would probably have worn the black blouse with black skirt and jacket but now I am (gasp!) venturing out to mix black and grey - I know shocking. But I think it looks okay.

I love the blouse and am on the lookout for more of this style - with ruffly stuff in the front.  I hope it never goes out of style.  I suppose if it does, I can always say that I'm wearing ruffles due to the Spanish influences in my life?

I always wear the same 3 strand bead necklace with this blouse - I like how the print picks up the round bead design.  The only thing which I'm not crazy about is that the blouse is sleeveless.  This limits me to wearing it with the jacket at work.

Although, now that I think about it, this style would look weird in a short sleeve and long sleeves would be too dressy looking.

Today I wore:

black sequin tank ... winners

black and white ruffle blouse ... ricki's

dark grey jacket ... jessica

grey knit skirt ... kenneth cole

tights ... calcedonia

shoes ... privo?

bracelet ... gift from mom

Today's post links to: what i wore wednesday

Totally Pink

Today I wanted to wear something a little less business-like since we were going for a nice lunch at work.  We have another retiree and a bunch of us went out to celebrate.

The weather is still holding up, so I hauled out my tiered Ann Taylor Loft skirt.  I've been wanting to wear it all summer and thought I had better do it now before it rains.

I wore it without tights and so it felt a bit cold; it also felt a little too unconfined for work - I'm accustomed to slightly tighter clothing for work.

We went to Black + Blue which is a steak house, but trying to be healthier, I had the Hunter Pasta, a yummy concoction of shaved pork, pinenuts, mushrooms, tomato and garlic on a bed of fettucini.  There was a big bunch of what I think was arugula on top as a giant-sized edible garnish.  Not sure why it was called Hunter since it is more of a Gatherer dish.

today i wore:

fuschia t-shirt ... gap

peachy-pink cardigan ... george

sparkly scarf ... ? 

tiered skirt ... ann taylor loft

red slip-ons ... bare traps

Today, I'm linking to:

• Ruby Tuesday

A Khaki Sort of Day

Apologies to everyone - I've been so busy that blogging has been moved to the back burner.  But today is Visible Monday!

What have I been up to?  Well, last Monday, I attended another council meeting; Wednesday I went to get a bone scan and at home, we are trying unsuccessfully to get the house in order after moving the older son downstairs.

We have some wonderful late summer weather - it was a nice 23 C degrees - any more than that and it tends to get sticky and unpleasant.

Today's outfit is my usual look, but sans scarf - it's my "work" look - a skirt, top and jacket.  Although it's sunny out, I'm starting to think autumn and wore darker tights.

I quite like this colour - it's sable and I think it would go well with all that burgundy that we are supposed to be seeing for fall.

The thrifty item from this outfit is the ruffled tank which I found at the Dollar Store.  Just the thing to wear under open v-necks.

I am still quite happy with the comfy, easy-on tube-waist skirts, although I am more comfortable with a jacket worn over top.

Today I wore:

ruffled tank ... dollar store

vneck sheer print blouse ... cleo

dark green suedey zip jacket ... tradition

tube waist skirt ... jessica

sable tights ... secret

shoes ... privo by clarks

Today's post links to:

• Monday Mingle
• Watch What I'm Wearing

Ginger, Chili and a Bone Scan

I was at the University Hospital's Nuclear Medicine facility to get a bone scan.  It's a 2 step process.  In the morning, they took some initial images of the area - in this case my foot.  Then they injected a radioactive dye or tracer. 

Apparently the radioactive substance gathers in areas of inflammation or disease.  It takes about 4 hours for the stuff to travel around the body. We decided to walk around the grounds a bit and I had a grande chai tea - I was supposed to drink lots to flush it out of my system.

image:foursquare.com

At noon, we went for lunch at Ginger and Chili.  The place was packed with neighbourhood people and a group of soldiers.  While my lunch of Singapore noodles was good, Big J's Chicken and Cashews was not.  In fact, you could've called it Chicken Fat and Cashews.

After lunch, I went back to get the scan.  They took images of the feet from every angle - the scanner is like a big split-open donut on an extendable arm and the camera revolves around you.  To stop you from inadvertently moving, they velcro and pad the part to be scanned. 

They did two scans.  The first one took about half an hour, and the camera stopped every few inches - there were 30 different images from all angles.  Then they did another scan with the camera spinning quite quickly without stopping.


No images available yet and I've been advised not to cross the border for 2 weeks due to being radioactive.

MNG Mish Mash

Today's outfit felt a little strange.  It was another warm day, but slightly chilly in the morning - autumn is coming.

I neglected to lay out the day's duds the night before and dressed in a bit of a rush and I think it shows.  The outfit seems to be a mish-mash of styles.

I feel there are way too many lines, distractions around the torso area by way of the ruffle-neck t-shirt, v-neck tunic with bow, pleated cardigan and self-tie skirt.

Good thing I did not have a scarf - it would've been waaaay too much.

 

But at least it was comfy.

Today I wore:

black ruffle-neck t-shirt ... george

v-neck tunic ... MNG

red cardigan ... jessica

grey self-tie skirt ... chapter one

grey tights ... calcedonia

black shoes ... ?