pretty pin curls...

i love vintage. that`s no secret to anyone who knows me, or who reads this blog. or, let`s be honest, glances at this blog.  but my  vintage-fashion was for the 50s-60s.  full skirts, swing dresses, the occasional wiggle dress, if i was feeling a bit more daring.  but lately i`ve been intrigued by the earlier 1900s... especially the 40s. 

 

a few weeks ago, after finding some new blogs to follow, with great 40s style clothing and hair, i decided to give it a try.  i followed a tutorial, pin curling my hair after a shower one night, and then sleeping on it.  i was so excited to wake up the next morning and brush out my pin curls, and have that 40s style.  the result? poodle hair. super pouffy, really tight, poodle curls.  it was awful.  i tried to brush them out, put in some defrizzer... no luck. my quick fix was to do a maiden braid, so that all of it was concealed. 

 

live and learn. attempt number two went MUCH better.  i tried it on completely dry hair.  same idea, pin curled it all, tied a kerchief around it, and slept.  the result was gorgeous.  or at least it was this morning.  something you probably haven`t realized is that how i look in my blog pictures, which i take when i get home from work, is 99% of the time not how i looked when i left the house in the morning.  my  hair gets messier and messier throughout the day.  it`s probably due to the fact that i don`t use much product.  my hair routine is wash, Moroccan oil on the ends, dry, and curl.  day two, add dry shampoo.  day three, put it up in a top knot, sock bun, or maiden braid.  

so this morning, when i was finished getting ready, i thought i`d snap a quick picture of what my hair looks like right away, so you can see the true dry-pin-curl effect. i absolutely love it.  it held up pretty well throughout the day.  my bangs did flatten, and some of the curl fell, but i think had i done it on freshly washed hair, and not day old hair, it may have stayed fresher.

i`ll keep that in mind for next time. but overall, it`s a great new hairstyle that will definitely become a regular for me.  while i admit, i felt awkward this morning with my uber short bangs, curled under, looking like a child, throughout the day it grew on me and i ended up feeling quite glamorous.  it took about 10 minutes to pin curl at night, and just a few minutes to brush out the next morning. so easy!

     dress: vintage
     coat and scarf: ruche (similar scarf available at modcloth and on etsy)
     shoes: spring shoes

lady tie twirls...

yesterday i woke up really wanting to wear my lady tie.  it's something i bought to go with a specific dress, and i rarely wear it, but i love it! so my goal yesterday was to find a new outfit to pair it with.  it took a few tries, hence my lack-of-time-to-do-my-hair-so-its-straight.  

i was a bit torn with this outfit at first, feeling it was a bit 'school-girl'... but it grew on me during the day. i told myself if i could find more outfits to wear this lady tie with, i could buy myself another, more neutral one. i feel like i carried out that task pretty well, and i'm looking forward to trying it with other outfits now.

so now that i'm *regularly* blogging again, i'm always looking for new locations around the house for photos.  i realized yesterday that our shed/shop is pretty cute, with that old window frame sitting on a shelf. so i thought that would make for a cute and different location. until i realized that the wood i was standing on was pretty old and starting to rot...

that face? that's not the result of hendrix... that's the result of my little kitten heel puncturing through the wood. yikes! time to replace that! last year was pretty hectic, with the purchase of a new home, painting, moving, new love... this year will be a year to do a few fixer-ups around the house and yard.  dominic has already started clearing a lot of over-grown bushes, trimming trees... we have an ever-growing list of to-do's and new projects to undergo. i'm predicting another busy summer!

 and, of course, i just had to twirl in this dress. flowy pleated skirts make for pretty sweet twirls.  and i just love how in the second photo i look like i'm pretending to be an airplane. maybe i was ;)

     dress: modcloth
     belt: forever 21
     shoes: bait footwear
     cardigan: pseudio
     lady tie: flappergirl

(really loving this new app)

inspiration: jess & joan...

it's no secret that i draw on inspiration for outfits from some of my favourite tv shows and actresses.  two of my favourite, stylish tv gals are Jessica Day of The New Girl (miss Zooey Deschanel) and Joan Harris on Mad Men (Christina Hendricks).  quirky, lovable and geeky meets sassy and sexy with these two ladies.

this season on the new girl, jess wore a light blue dress (from modcloth, which alas, is now out of stock), with a red cardigan. i feel in love with this colour combo.  i've also been wanting one of those dresses for sometime, and thought, i'll get the powder blue one! when i realized it was out of stock, my first reaction was to try to find it elsewhere.  then i realized, i've been wanting a joan-esque dress for some time.  something that hugs my curves in a classy way.  maybe i should mix the two?

and so i started to look for a powder blue, fitted dress.  my first attempt was for a vintage one.  unfortunately, anything i liked was much too small in size. particularly the waist. so, i started to hunt for a custom made one.  i came close to ordering one on etsy, which was stunning, and my find itself in my closet at a later date.

I spotted this blue dress on two different american sites, but the shipping was pretty pricy.  not to mention the added risk of duty/customs fees. i have another dress from heartbreaker fashion, and the sizing was pretty wonky. i had to have a lot of alterations done to it. so, $60 dress, + $30 shipping, + possible duty, + possible alterations? no thanks.

then my friend introduced me to a website, specializing in dresses, here in canada.  do you know what that means? fast shipping, and NO DUTY/CUSTOMS! this is so excited for an online shopper.  duty and customs fees can add up to $30 on a single dress! no joke, i've had this personally happen. and they just happened to have this dress in stock. fate? destiny? i think so.

and so this is the result. powder blue paired with red, à la jessica day, with a more form fitted joan-style dress. i'm quite happy with this look.  not to mention the dress is like wearing an extra long thick-tshirt. so comfortable! i may end up having to order it in black as well.

     dress: heartbreaker fashion (bought from dress911)
     shoes: modcloth
     cardigan: pseudio
     belt: forever 21
     pearls: anniversary gift

ps... have you seen a beautiful mess's new app for photo editing? it's just lovely.

mother's day happenings...

 yesterday was mother's day... and celebrate it we did. with a visit to my grandmother first, then off to dinner with my parents.  while i try to make certain both of my parents always know how appreciated they are, i do like having a day that's set aside to make them feel extra special and pampered.

it's also nice as a fur-mama. i know, it's not the same as having a child, nor do i pretend that it is.  but these little fur kids still rely on us to take care of them, to love them and shelter them.  i feel especially grateful to have all three of my fur kids to love this year, after having a scare with chloe this past winter.

yesterday at dinner was the first time a stranger (our waitress) was inside my personal bubble due to my tattoos.  it's something i've witnessed happening to dominic lots of times, as he has a lot of tattoos.  i've had comments on them, or friends take my arm and look at it.  but a stranger, who i've never seen before, took my arm, pushed up my sleeve, and commented on it.  while she did like the tattoo, she said that if she had her camera, she would take a photo of it.  what people seem to forget is that a tattoo is on a person, and you still need to respect that person's space and privacy. i now understand dominic's frustration when it happens to him.

    on me:                                                 

     dress/shoes: ruche, cardigan: pseudio, bandana: etsy, belt: forever 21

on my mama:

top/skirt: rw&co, watch: michael kors, shoes: seychelles

 two of my three furkids wanted to wish everyone a happy fur-mama's day as well :) 

an updated wall...

 you all may remember from my house snaps that i put up an instagram photo wall last summer.  i had lots of instagram pics, and i wasn't sure what to do with them, and i had a lot of bare walls at the time, so the instagram wall was a perfect temporary solution.  but that's what it was. temporary.  while i liked the look of it, and having an assortment of photos up that were easy to change, i found the idea of taping photos to the wall just a bit 'studenty'.  not something to find in a home of a 30+ year old. not to mention that we decided to put up a family photo wall going up the stairs, which you can see a glimpse of in the photo below, so it looked quite busy.

so after thinking it through, and taking down the instagram wall to force my butt to find a better replacement, we agreed on another idea... 

a plate wall.  due to the slanting wall from the stairs, it's hard to find one or two large photos that would work and flow with the wall shape.  plates are easy to hang in any shape or form you wish.  so then we were off to find some plates that we liked and worked with the decor of our home.

 success! the local antique shop had lots of options, and we quickly found enough to start our wall. once they were up, we realized there were some we liked more than others (surprisingly, we BOTH prefer the floral patterns to the blue ships/homesteads).  so as we find new ones, we'll add to and replace some of the current plates.

we both much prefer the plate wall to the instagram wall.  it's another step to making a house that was briefly just mine, to a home that's ours.