Portion Size

One of the big barriers to weight loss is portion size - especially if you go out to eat.  They give you so much food that you are stuffed to the gills.  I read that someone recently had a heart-attack while eating a "Triple Bypass Burger" a huge burger loaded with meat, cheese and calories.

We are so accustomed to eating big portions that we don't know what a real serving looks like. Serving sizes are actually much smaller than as served in most restaurants.

Here is the Canada Food Guide for how much of each type of food to eat:

But, how big is a serving?  It turns out that servings are actually quite small.

A serving of cheese for example is only 1.5 ounces.  That's about 4 or 5 small little cubes:

I could eat way more cheese than this!

A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand.

Included a penny for size reference

And a bagel is like having 5 servings of bread !!!

Veggies though you should eat lots of. So go crazy.  I'm not sure, but I think veggies are better than fruit because fruit can be sweet.

Chunky Scarf

I was watching Spanish Big Brother (Gran Hermano 12+1) the other day and one of the contestants had a big chunky scarf which she put around her neck for sleeping. It was unusual because it was tighter - like a turtleneck, but the neck part only.

I tried to find a pic either of the actual item or something similar but nothing.  The closest was:

image:ezisus.blogspot.com

but it was tighter and was a complete circle - almost like a giant hairband.

My neck always gets cold too and I have to wear a scarf or a high necked top most days.  I wonder if these big chunky scarves can be refashioned from a sweater?

Today's outfit, all different pieces but very similar to yesterday's which was also in shades of blacks and browns.

This was lots of layers again.  A long sleeved t-shirt which you can't really see under the floral tank.  The tank feels very old-ladyish - perhaps because both my grandmothers wore florals a lot, but I liked the neutral colours.  Here it is closer up:

A Thrifty Monday

Today's post was going to be a Refashion post, but what with making and eating dinner etc it is now a bit late to do any sewing ... I did get some more stuff from my favourite notions store and hope to have something to post soon.

So instead, onto my thrifty outfit.  We were at Costco again on Sunday.  They have good basic clothes (think jeans, t-shirts, jackets) at relatively low prices: jeans start at $19, t-shirts at $9 and jackets around $29.  They are usually not made from cheapy materials.

There was a long-sleeved Ellen Tracy t-shirt for $9.99 in a nice neutral taupe  colour and when I got to the cash desk it was only $2.50 !!!

It being Monday and thus cold in the office, I layered the t-shirt over a polo, and wore my Apologies Mr Miyake vest under a Ports Int'l sweater.

I matched it with a Sears skirt that was another deal from last summer.  It was $40, marked down lots of times to finally $7.99 and then I got 50% off, so $4.  The skirt is one of those tube waist things which I love.  It's become my "skirt to wear instead of jeans" and I have it in lots of basic colours.

Here's the outfit:

The visible-ness of course are the Docs.  These are the super-high ones from the other day and they always attract a lot of attention for some reason. 

The sweater I like because it has an interesting pocket detail:

2 Pockets !

Many Tanks

A refashion bonanza: Our local Jysk is renovating and had a few items on sale.  I got a fabulous thrifty deal on men's tank tops:

Only $1 for a package of 2 tanks, 100% cotton.  I bought quite a few black ones for refashioning and just plain wearing. 

I usually wear tanks under everything for extra warmth and especially like men's tanks because they are not quite so skimpy on fabric as ladies' tanks.  They are also longer in the body, so stay tucked in - there's nothing worse than that blast of cold air you get when clothing doesn't stay in place.

I already have a bit of fabric ready and hopefully will have some time tomorrow to do a quickie refashion.  Stay tuned!

Brocade!

I've always loved clothing which seems "normal" but is a little bit different, whether it be the fabric, or a weird print or cut.  But sometimes I also like clothing which is made to be looked at (whether or not anyone is wearing it) so when I heard that for Fashion Week, Proenza Schouler showed pieces in Brocade (!) I was quite excited.

Here are some fab pics from stylebistro.com:

This one is my favourite, it's like a piece of art.

Aren't they great?  I hope this dribbles down to us in the next year or so.  I can totally see dressing up an office look for dinner with a blingy jacket, blouse or scarf.  Can't. Wait.

A Dollar ?!?

Today we had a training session at work and to spice it up we had Mancakes. No, nothing racy, they are actually cupcakes for men. Quite tasty, but rather expensive and perhaps due to the not-so-low price and intended demographics we expected slightly bigger cupcakes.  Lots of manly flavours like bacon and buffalo wings though!

So, onto today's post.  Something thrifty:

 The thrifty items in this pic are:

1. the striped blouse, $3.99
2. the kimono-sleeved over-layer, it was ~ $1 at a liquidation store
3. and the bracelet was only $1 too!

Here is a closeup of the bracelet:

I can't believe it was only a dollar! Or do I just not have a good sense of what things should cost?  Even for coloured glass and resin stuck onto machine-stamped metal, I would think it would cost more than a dollar, no?

So the other thing I'm trying today is to add Bloglovin':
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Let's hope it works!

A Wordless Post

A Very Pink and Red Valentine's Day

I've always wanted to join the



Link-up so have succombed and wore Pink and Red today.

Here is the outfit:

It looks like I need a giant picture for the link-up so here it is:

This wasn't the original outfit I planned, but it was colder than expected so I changed to this thick, lined shirt.  It has an interesting button configuration:

And I like the sleeves, they are slightly flared:

I guess pink and red really do go together because the scarf is actually pink with a red print.  Those brown spots are not dirt in case you were wondering.  It's part of the print and is more of a dark khaki-ish colour which matches the skirt.
  

Went so far as to have matching hair accessories:

Hope you have (or had) a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Meeting Clothes

Today I spent the whole day sitting in a council meeting listening to reports and voting on budgets. Since I didn't have to go to the office, I got to wear jeans and Docs - this time the 8-hole ones.

No leaves on our trees yet.

It's very hard to see, but the scarf is the one I made myself. The same one from the Scarf Ace post.  Here is a close-up:

It has yellow, white, black and grey circles and has a silky charmeuse-y feel to it.  Although I think it's just polyester.

The top I love for the interesting pattern and buttons:

When I got this, the armholes were uncomfortably small, so I had to alter it slightly.  I just sliced them up a tad, and tacked the extra bits in place: 

Outlined the extra bits in red.

It probably could've been done a little more professionally, but I didn't really know how and who's going to look under your arm anyway?

There were also too few buttons, so I added one of those sew-on snaps to the bottom, but it kept unsnapping and in the end, I had to just safety-pin it in place:

The snaps are circled and the arrow shows the safety pin.

So finally got to wear fewer layers as it's starting to warm up.  Spring is coming!

A Travelling Dress

A friend of mine has been going on cruises since before her kids were born.  And she brings back stories of dining with the captain, eating scrumptious food and just enjoying a relaxing holiday where everything is taken care of for you.

I've never been on a cruise and being prone to motion (think car and sea sick) probably never will.  But, I still like to imagine what type of clothing I'd take on a cruise to a tropical isle.

Ever since I saw one of these versatile dresses on tv when I was small, I thought they would be great for travelling but could never decide on a colour. 

The ones I've seen are called mai tai dresses and they are a stretchy knit material with a giant belt which allows you to loop and wrap the dress in literally hundreds of different ways.

images: maitaidress.com

It's not the height of fashion or anything, but looks like a simple basic dress that travels well.

Here is another one with an uneven hem-line from a different company:

image: fabsugar.com

Just from these 2 pics, you can see how many different ways the dress can be wrapped.  They come in long or short lengths and the short one can be styled like a top.

I still like this dress, but cannot imagine just wearing the same colour over and over again.  People would know it's the same dress. 

The other hindrance factor is the cost - they are quite expensive, around $300! basically for a giant sized piece of knit fabric with super long straps attached. You could probably make one.  Even if you paid $20/metre, how much fabric would you need?  maybe 5 metres at the very most = $100.  And the fabric would probably cost half that or even less.  

My New Boots

I envy women who can wear high heels. There are so many great shoes that get bypassed in the stores due to their (for me) extreme heel height.

My highest wearable heel is about 2 inches, and even then only if I won't be on my feet much. So, I lean towards boots, usually Doc Martens and Spanish riding/walking boots.

Here are my newest boots. Bought them down south, so saved a bit on the price. They are knee-high and have a zip down the side for easy off-on.

These boots aren't for everyone - my kids hate them.  But Big J likes them, they are super comfy and amazingly warm.

I'm glad Agyness Deyn made Docs popular again. Aren't you?

My First Wordless Wednesday

Safety Pins

One of the things which I'd like to try is to make a safety pin clothing item. A few years ago, I read a how-to in a crafty-sewing magazine and have been thinking about it ever since.

I've picked out a luxe velveteen shirt and just have to decide on a design. Here are some which I've found on-line.

This is Pelayo Diaz and apparently he created some of his own safety pin t-shirts last year and started a craze.

image: play.converse.co.uk

I really like this one; it looks like a fun way to add bling to a plain jacket.  And the design is simple.

image: ecouterre.com

This one is more haute.  From the people standing around in the background, and the skinnyness of the model, it looks like a show or something.

image: sodahead.com

And finally, one which looks rather difficult - although there is a pictorial on the site

image:smexy dred on instructables.com

Other decisions are colour: gold or silver?  I am leaning towards silver.  The great thing about this type of refashion is that you can always undo it.

Pleats Please

So it's Visible Monday again. I am trying that pleat-skirt look that is everywhere right now. It was sunny out so I didn't wear my army boots.

The skirt is actually way old, it's a summer weight Esprit from who knows how many years ago. It was still cold though so I wore thick tights and a fuzzy zip-front sweater:

The neat thing about this sweater is that the sleeves unzip and you can wear it like a vest:

Here is a closeup of the pleats in the skirt:

It all seemed a bit drab so I added the touches of red, including a hair accessory

Unfortunately, I felt very thick due to the cummerbund-style waist and the whole day I thought I should've worn Docs instead.

Meanwhile on the blog front, I'm trying to add pages and have started with a Blog Parties tab.  Hope you like it.

Jurassic Park Revisited

This weekend's thrifty savings post is about an enjoyable movie outing with my younger son. One of his favourite movies is Jurassic Park. It came out before Big J and I were even married, so he's never ever seen it on the big screen. But we've all seen it hundreds of times on vhs and dvd.

It just so happened that the cineplex odeon chain was holding a digital screening of old movie classics. They have old movies that have been put onto computer and cleaned up so there are no scratches or anything.

They had a one-time showing of Jurassic Park and it was only 5.99 to get in. We had to go into town, and were planning on taking transit, but traffic was so bad that Big J drove us all the way into the city. A good thing too, we got there with about 1/2 an hour to spare, instead of 10 minutes ahead.

And, just after I bought our tickets, our cashier announced that the movie was SOLD OUT !!! Talk about cutting it close!



The weird thing was that the popcorn and drink (my son & I shared a big one) cost more than the tickets! I guess that's how they make their money. It was a great time though, lots of dinosaur fans - some people brought along their Jurassic Park stuffed animals! and they had a trivia question for a gift card.

My son loved it, we had good seats, and I thought the movie was much scarier due to the heart-pounding noise which you don't get at home. It was a great time and not overly expensive.

Half 'n' Half

It's Fashion Friday and this post is about something which I've just started to notice.  Perhaps it's been around for a while, but I googled it and haven't been able to find many photos.

I've noticed that some people are wearing Half and Half sweaters or hoodies.  The two sides of the sweater are in different prints, or one side is a print and the other is plain. 

The few I've seen have been from the front, so I don't know if its sewn together or is knit that way since the front is buttoned or zipped up.

The only ones I could find online are like this:

This one is really pretty but is actually two sweaters.  The underneath one (half black / half white) is probably most like what I've seen.

image from coutureallure.com

The other one I found is not exactly the same - it's much more over the top, but it gives you a general idea:

image from smarmyclothes.com

And finally, even your pet can be trendily dressed:

image from KingWholesale.com

It might be a look that's easy to create with two old sweaters. Big J thinks this is horrendous, but I think it might look okay with the right print and colours.  What do you think?

Drinking Water

It's Wednesday, so a weight-loss post.  I'm still hesitant to do a weigh-in - afraid that there will be no progress.  They say it is much easier to maintain weight than to lose it.

Years ago, a friend wanted to lose weight and she was always overly pre-occupied with the amount of water she drank.  She thought that the more water you drank the more you weighed.  This is probably true: if you drink 2 litres of water and then weigh yourself, you would likely weigh more - about a small container of milk more.

Fast forward to now and we know that water is good for you and that you should actually drink more rather than less.  I've always been a person who doesn't drink much of any liquid - small bladder.  But I do get dizzy and light-headed a lot which people say is due to dehydration.

Picture from: www.mangosteen-natural-remedies.com

So, I'm trying to drink more water.  It's supposed to help with weight loss if you drink a glass or even two before each meal by making you feel full before you even start to eat.