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10/13/11--15:19: Lusting (chan 1543135)


Barney's Glitter Ankle Boot via The Style Crusader




10/21/11--14:51: WANT (chan 1543135)

Despite being swamped with French studies, I find a little time here and there to read some design and fashion blogs and scour some of my fav online shops. I was just checking out the latest footwear on Solestruck and came across these absolutely gorgeous booties - the Dandia by Vagabond. They would be so hot with a pair of jeans, a crispy white men's dress shirt and a royal blue clutch. And they're only $130! (On a side note, I found out today I have to wait another week for my Fluevog boots. AAAGGGHHH!!!!)






10/26/11--16:29: bear with me (chan 1543135)

I am sitting here trying to get a post done for the blog's main page and I am suddenly having a complete meltdown (tears and everything) over this f*cking French test I have next week. This has been the most frustrating and stressful thing I have ever gone through in my entire life. I have endured 8 years of this linguistic hell. I cannot believe the Canadian government puts public servants through this. I have busted my ass working for the same group for my entire career as a public servant (I think almost 9 years now) and I am finally in a position where I really feel like I'm doing something I enjoy. Now I may be forced to leave because I cannot ace a goddamn verbal French test (might I add that I have never had to speak French at work in all this time). I want to keep this job, my boss wants me to keep this job, and I am fairly certain the team I supervise wants me to keep this job. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???




11/04/11--11:34: New stuff to cheer me up (chan 1543135)

As I mentioned in the comments in my last post, not long after I got back from my French test I got a call that my Fluevog boots (the Prepare Volunteer in black leather) had come in. They are FAB U LOUS. I absolutely adore them and wore them while out running errands the last 2 days. They are super comfy, great quality (which explains the price) and the curved heel is HOT! 





(worn with a sweatshirt-esque poncho/batwing jacket I found at Winners yesterday for $38 and a scarf from Sayulita, Mexico) 

Earlier in the week some jewelry arrived that I had ordered mid-October from the shop The Chains Of Love. I picked out an antiqued silver twig bracelet (I should have bought a couple more) and a cross necklace. 






11/06/11--11:44: Winterizing (chan 1543135)

Now that winter is fast aproaching and I finally have my life back, I spent a few hours cleaning the house and winterizing the living room. I went around the house grabbing all the darkish pillows I have left that didn't sell in the garage sale in September and found the pieces of fabric I had put over the couch cushions last winter (washed them first as they were covered in fur, of course). I think it's not looking too bad considering this is all bits and pieces I had laying around. I have a gorgeous Scandinavian blanket in a rusty red and black I should have brought downstairs and draped strategically at one end of the couch but I am too tired from cleaning and I've been up and down those stairs enough already. Maybe next time. ;) (Yesterday I finally brought my winter clothes up from the basement. What an annoying chore that is. I cannot wait to have a large closet/bedroom for my clothes so that nonsense can end).








11/14/11--02:35: Goodies by Kelly Wearstler (chan 1543135)

As most of you probably already know, Kelly Wearstler recently released a clothing and accessories line. I was so stoked when I heard about this as I have been a big fan of her quirky and eclectic style for a long time (apart from the fact that she's an incredible interior designer). I have devoured her online shop on numerous occasions, picking out all my favourite items. (In fact, I adore just about every single piece).














11/16/11--14:15: Oh my... (chan 1543135)

I had some time to kill while I waited for a ride home from work so I stopped in at my favourite taunt-my-wallet shop Holt Renfrew. I usually head right to the shoe section (nothing too exciting there right now except for a super soft and gorgeous pair of Modern Vintage booties and they still have Marc Jacobs studded mouse flats), but this time I went for the handbag section first. AH MAH GAWD. Hellooooooo Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors (drooled over this one), Kate Spade (drooled over this one and this one...), Prada....and yes, my beloved Balenciaga. This time there was a salesperson unpacking some boxes and she asked me how I was doing. I took the opportunity to ask her to see the black Balenciaga City bag on the shelf behind her. 



*SIGH* This was the first time I had ever touched one of these bags. It was heavenly. I had a short conversation with the her about my love for this bag, and I asked the price (although I already knew roughly). UGH. WHY for the love of gawd do I have to have such expensive taste?!?! She told me to work hard and maybe one day I can own one (note this was after I told her that I was trying to justify getting one, and was attempting to convince my family to ALL pitch in and get me one for Christmas). I thought to myself, I have 2 jobs....I work my ass off....I have the money....but OH WAIT, what were the hubby and I doing last night? Designing a house we want to have built that will cost us every cent we have and MUCH more? I let out yet another big sigh, and let her put the bag back on the shelf. Heartbreaking moment. But it did save me from the heart attack I may have had for spending so much money on a freaking purse. That purse above my friends, is a mortgage payment. 




11/19/11--11:42: Back Lane Café (chan 1543135)

There's a new restaurant in town and I've been dying to try it for weeks. It's called the Back Lane Café and it's located about a 3 minute drive from my house, in the downtown Ottawa neighbourhood of Hintonburg. Oddly enough, Karen emailed me yesterday with a link to a post she published on her blog about this café, as she had recently done a photo shoot of it. The decor is unmistakably Parisian and looks SOOO inviting. Inviting enough that I have called them 5 (since finishing the post it's now 9) times in the past 2 hours trying to get a reservation for this evening (no one ever answers...). There are lots of great reviews of the food so it's worth a few more phone calls attempts. (Lots of more details in Karen's post - including the fact that some ironwork around the café was the creation of her own sister!). Thanks Karen!!
























11/20/11--11:37: A hair-raising experience (chan 1543135)

Back in mid July I had my hair cut, and found the photo below in a magazine a couple of minutes before my appointment.



My stylist opted to do a version of this and while it was an ok cut, I was disappointed that he didn't just do what was in the freaking photo. So I've been trying to grow the back and sides of my hair out so I can get this style. About every 2 weeks the shaved part really needs to be reshaved, so I have enlisted my husband on numerous occasions to do this for me with his shaver (he shaves his head regularly). Yesterday morning I asked him to shave the bottom of my hair as always, but this time bring the shaved line up a bit higher. After getting his help to clip up the hair to be left alone, he shaved the remainder of my head.

  

Ya, that was a little scary. But Jeff did a great job and it felt AWESOME. I need to go in soon and get a trim, and maybe have it thinned out a bit and made shorter around my ears. The back needs to be grown out a bit longer too for more of a "tail" look. Hubby took some photos of my melon for me.

















11/26/11--09:23: Beautiful bracelet, beautiful cause (chan 1543135)

One day I stumbled across the blog of fellow Canadian, model Coco Rocha and she had written a post about a new venture of hers involving jewelry. Since I had been longing to update my sorry jewelry collection, I went to check it out (especially after reading a bit more about it). 

From Coco's latest post: The launch of the Coco Rocha for Senhoa jewelry line marks the first time I’ve ever tried to sell a product that was entirely of my own creation. But more than that, this is a very special venture for me. I first found out about Senhoa at my wedding in France last summer. Lisa, the founder gifted me a beautiful Senhoa bracelet which i wore the first day of my wedding. She told me the story behind the making of the jewelry and Senhoa - Aged 4 to 19, these girls are rescued from brothels and human trafficking in Cambodia. Many of the girls do not have a family to return to as it was their families who actually sold them into slavery in the first place. The girls receive a full education and rehabilitation in the Senhoa program and when they turn 15 the are offered a job in jewelry making where they are paid better than school teachers. In just 2 years Senhoa now has over 50 girls in this program. Our slogan with the line is "accessorize your conscience" because unlike many of the purchases you might make for yourself, you don’t need to feel guilty about this one. Once the older girls are paid for their time as jewelry makers, all the profit goes to fund the food, medicine, shelter and education of the younger ones. 

After reading the meaning behind Coco's jewelry and falling in love with the pieces, I decided to purchase the Chantha bracelet. It arrived yesterday and it is really beautiful. I took some photos of it with the assistance of one of the herd, Mimin. (How cute would a similar cat collar be?)










11/29/11--15:57: WTF?!?! (chan 1543135)

Once again, SSENSE has gone and done it again. They have included in their repertoire one of the most ridiculous items I've ever seen. This time it's a GLOVED SWEATSHIRT. Ya, that's right, a sweatshirt with removeable 3/4 leather gloves. Maison Martin Margiela is one of the strangest (and priciest) fashion labels out there responsible for some really odd stuff. Did I mention it's $1,525 CDN?






12/03/11--07:55: Merry Christmas, from me....to me (chan 1543135)

Yesterday after work I had a few minutes to kill while waiting for a ride from Jeff, so I headed over to Holts because I had received an email the day before that they were having an up-to-40% off sale. And as I have had designer bags on my mind lately, I went straight to the handbag section. To my delight I found a few tables of bags on sale, the first one being Prada/Vuitton/Gucci and even at sale prices were all over $1000. Of course, my beloved Balenciaga bags were up on a shelf, far away from the sale table. Dammit. Those things never go on sale. Anyway, as I was heading out to meet Jeff, I spotted a table with far more reasonably priced bags and one in particular caught my eye. It was by Kate Spade, the Bow Bridge Kennedy bag. It's boxy shape, patent leather bow across the front and ostrich embossed tan leather handles (it also comes with a long black patent leather strap not pictured below) makes it a fairly casual but totally cool purse (IMHO). It was about 30% off, so I decided to treat myself to my first designer bag (or first bag costing me more than $80).










12/05/11--16:57: A pole dance like you've NEVER seen (chan 1543135)

My husband just sent me a YouTube link and when I opened it and saw the title was BEST Pole Dance Ever I was tempted to go over and smack him but I was too mesmerized by the video to do anything but sit there in shock while I watched. This is INSANE. Oh dear gawd if I could be in a quarter of the shape that this chick is....




12/07/11--15:55: Why stop at the women's section? (chan 1543135)

The other day I had the brilliant idea to surf around the men's section of SSENSE. And lookie what I found. It's a laptop bag (by Marc Jacobs) but I love it as a regular shopper-esque bag (but maybe the thinness would be annoying).






12/07/11--17:43: somebody. stop. me. (chan 1543135)

I really need to stop checking out online shops. During spare moments between blogging, cooking, laundry, avoiding studying French etc. etc. I find myself on these BAAAAAD sites...and within about 2 minutes I stumble upon these super cool Cassette Society studded booties....






12/09/11--14:36: never in a million years... (chan 1543135)

...did I think I'd ever see a video where Ice Cube pays hommage to the Eames. I almost teared up. (Thanks for the link Dave!)




12/10/11--06:50: another Black Friday sale purchase (chan 1543135)

Early this week I received in the mail one of my Black Friday purchases but since I am never home during the week in the daylight (gawd I hate winter) I only had a chance to take photos this morning.
There are a few local Ottawa fashion blogs that I like to visit regularly, one of them being Pop Champagne. Julie has a great sense of humour and style so this is one of my favs. She has mentioned an Ottawa company several times on her blog, called Demu Label, and they make the COOLEST clutches. I had been tossing around the idea of getting one but when I spotted them on sale, I decided to take the plunge. I chose the black and blue mushroom pouch which includes a bright blue zipper, fur tail, and is embellished with black and blue beading, Swarovski crystals and spikes! It's GORGEOUS. I totally love it and am really pissed off I am stuck at home studying until right before the holidays because I am dying to go out and get some use out of this clutch. (Note: Must keep this out of reach of the cat herd as the other night one of them was caught attacking the fur tail).








12/16/11--16:40: one of my favourite bands (chan 1543135)

In case you missed my post back at the beginning of October about my new neighbours who happen to include a member of incredible local Ottawa band Sound of Lions, there is a video on byward of mouth from a gig of theirs a few weeks ago at Babylon. They rocked it. (Go to 4:00)

 




12/18/11--09:26: my black friday purchases finally arrived! (chan 1543135)

When my twin sister and I found out that over Black Friday weekend Solestruck was having a huge sale on the Sunday (50% off sale items) we lost our minds. Julia got 2 pairs, and I got 3. They are SWEET and were certainly worth the headache....I got up at 5 that morning to feed the cats and started trying to order my shoes but the site kept crashing and after almost 2.5 hours my sister finally managed to place our order, which ended up printing out a receipt showing the 5 pairs of shoes at initial sale price, which means although we ended up being charged the right amount, customs thought we paid a helluva lot more. Which now means we have to appeal the ridiculous customs charges we got, even though it was the company's fault. Hopefully that works out in the end. 

So here they are...

These are Jeffrey Campbell Dino booties in beige. LOOOOOVE these. Wore them out for breakfast at the pub this morning. Found out the really flat sole is very slippery so here is yet another pair of shoes I need to take in to get some grip put on the sole. These were regular $170 and I paid about $58.





Then I got a pair of black suede Senso Ginneva booties. These are ridiculously comfortable. Love all the buckles and spikes. These were regular $240 and I paid $100.





Last but not least, the Jeffrey Campbell Razzo boot in black suede. They say it's thigh-high but that's not exactly true. They just barely cover my knees. Also super comfortable given the cute little heel. These were regular $335 and I paid $100.








12/21/11--09:59: It's FINALLY over!!! (chan 1543135)

I finally had my French test this morning. Always a brutal experiece...tried to eat some breakfast beforehand and almost threw up my cottage cheese so ditched it and went in with an empty stomach. At one point in the test I reached for my water and my hand was shaking. Good gawd what is the matter with me? So it's done, maybe I got my C, maybe for the 4th time I ended up with a stupid B, we shall see. On my way home from the test I headed straight for Holts. Shopping is a great stress reliever for me. Actually, it's my solution for any situation. :-) So I bought myself a pair of salmon-pink skinny Joe's Jeans (tag says they are Geranium). They are like butter and the colour is incredible. They had them in red, blue, green and purple but this colour blew all the others out of the water IMHO.