Little Old Lady Vest

I've had this vest for yonks but am always hesitant to wear it because it looks like something a little old lady would wear.  But, I love the subtle colour variations and just hate having something in the closet which sits there so hauled it out for today.

It seems to look less little old lady like with a skirt and this time I wore it with brown, so that might be the trick.

I had lots of layers and even wore a sweater-jacket over the whole thing, but our unseasonably warm weather allowed me to go sweater-less the whole day.

It's also been a while since I put my hair up (it's been in a ponytail for weeks), so today I switched back; it feels better - no hair on the neck.

today i wore:

shirt ... ann taylor

l/s tee ... kenneth cole

vest ... nygard

scarf ... tentazioni

skirt ... reitmans

bamboo tights ... ??

booties ... from spain

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

Spanish Influence - Another Go

Today seemed like a good day to wear the other scarf which my Mom sent me.  This one is a peachy-red colour with black dots.  The dots almost look dark grey or brown.

I am trying to stay away from blacks and browns when it's super sunny out, so went for the taupey-khaki tube-waist skirt.

I am not sure if I like these tube-waist skirts anymore.  They are very comfy on, and the pockets are handy but I always have a thick-waisted look when I wear them.

I layered the scarf over the big disk pendant necklace and added a big plastic flower for my hair to complete the look.

I think today's Spanish inspired look is a bit better than the one from last Thursday - thick waist or no, but I am not sure if I like the non-matchiness of the colours.

Today I wore:

dark taupe tank top, Costco

orangey-red cardigan, Sears

taupe tube-waist skirt, Sears

Peack and Black Dotty Scarf, Tentazioni Barcelona

Burgundy loafers, Spain

Polka Dotty Butterflies

Finally a relatively hot day!  I'd actually hauled out thicker clothing the night before, the usual thick black tights, layers and such but woke up to bright sunshine so switched out to something a little cooler.

This dress is yet another Sears outlet item which must have been priced incorrectly when I bought it.  I got it quite a while ago and yet saw one in the outlet for about $5 more just recently. The print almost looks like butterflies ...

It's a bit thick looking in the photo because my slip was too long so I wore it strapless dress style.  I actually tried wearing it normally with the lace showing, but it just looked like the slip was too long - perhaps if it had been pink or orange instead of dark blue ...

The strange thing about this dress is that it has a weird tie on the side.  Really not sure what it's for - definitely not for holding the dress together.  I am considering cutting it.

I threw on a scarf too - I very rarely step outside sans scarf, it's like other women with lipstick.  I wore another dollar store necklace - you never know if it's going to be too hot and you have to remove the scarf.

I hope these dollar store jewellery items are safe - they probably are not, but at least I don't chew on them.

I also wore my blue cardigan again in case it got cold.

Does it look like a cape?

Last winter, I wore this dress with thick black tights - you would think such a minor change would scarcely be noticeable, but it looks 100% better with the white tights. 

All Dotty

I'm trying out the inspiration method of dressing today and am not sure if I carried it out or not.  The inspiration outfit from two birds was Kate Bosworth in a floaty skirt, sweatshirt and runners.  Not exactly what I can wear to work.

So I wore this, substituting a biggish sweater for the sweatshirt and flats for the runners. What do you think?

The floaty skirt I found in the PJs section - it came with a matching tank, but I don't think it is nightwear.  It's that chiffony fabric that wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep in.  There are 2 sizes of dots: big yellow ones and small white ones.

I didn't have a blue tee and black seemed to clash so I decided to go overboard on the dots and wore my dotty black tee with my dotty made-it-myself scarf which has yellow and black dots.

Here's a closeup:

I liked all the dots, and it was comfy, but the whole outfit felt a bit frumpy (or perhaps the lower half) - I think because of the shoes.  Plus the skirt was a bit big so I had to wear it lower down than usual.

I'm linking to these link parties today:

• Visible Monday @ Not Dead Yet Style
  
• Mannequin Monday @ ArtsyGirl Connection
  This is only her 2nd link party, so please have a look!
  
• Mellow Yellow Monday
  
• Inspiration Monday

Blast from the Past

Big J and I spent the evening watching Sevillanas, a documentary by Carlos Saura, and then we hopped around youtube looking for videos on flamenco and sevillanas.

As you probably know, I'm a fan of fashion from a by-gone era, and it struck me while watching the videos that some of our current fashion is inspired by traditional Spanish flamenco garb.

See any familiar themes?

Ruffles

Polka Dots
- the lady facing these 2 wore polka dots too!

Spanish Shawl

and finally all 3 in one outfit:

Feria de Sevilla

Now this is a look especially for Spain's April Fair, but you can see how the same elements are all still quite popular today.