Be Mine Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day lovelies! And cheers to all things cheesy & cute (typical post title included). Unfortunately I have to work this evening, but I'm trying to make the best of my morning with a little 10AM cookie baking & some Valentine's Day-themed blog reading ;)

When I went to my closet to find a Valentine's Day outfit I was amazed at the sheer amount of red, pink, peach, & burgundy it contained. Seriously... clothes, bags, shoes, hats, accessories... the whole nine yards. What made me choose this particular outfit is the simplicity & the dress itself. It's a member of the 'occasion dresses' section of my closet, so today felt like the perfect time to show it off. The structure details on this dress are what made me fall in love in the first place - the peter pan collar, the exposed back, & the cute pleats. I paired it with polka dot tights for a little playful fun, a girly gold bow chain bracelet, & my Jeffrey Campbell Foxy platforms in nude suede. I painted my finger nails for the first time in a long time... possibly years... & felt like a 5 year old sneaking her mothers makeup & making a complete mess of it. Ah well, candy-floss pink for the win. 

A note on photo location: it was raining; the ugly balcony backdrop long ago exhausted itself; & so the next best thing was bed. The place from which I eat my breakfast, read my blogs, & indeed, am writing this now. Not sure if you've ever tried to take outfit photos in bed, but it proved somewhat difficult for me this time around. Practice makes perfect? 

So you can see the entire dress a little better, not a testament to my terrible posing skills ;)

Obligatory back view of dress

I was wearing:

Red Dress - ASOS (old)

Polkadot tights - Gipsy, ASOS (here)

Nude suede Foxy platform - Jeffrey Campbell (Nastygal)

Weekend Recap

Just a little bit of life. Although this could also be titled as the 'weekend of poor lighting' I'd like to keep things on a positive note ;) Photo op's aside, I had a lovely weekend; simple but sweet. Friday night I trekked an hour through the rain (hence the worse than normal hair) to attend a farewell party for my friend Irena. It was wonderful seeing the people I don't often get a chance to see, & I also met some lovely new folks as well. 


Saturday, post-work, Kris & I had our traditional food+movie friend date. After lusting over the beautiful bright garments in BCBG we had a delightful supper at the Templeton on Granville (cutest little vintage diner), followed by seeing the movie 'Big Miracle' (aka the whale movie), which we both loved.


And then there is today. When not working, Sundays are so nice: I usually have a quiet morning followed by a productive evening (fingers crossed that's the case today). I'm spending the morning curled up on the couch with wholesome oatmeal, a tasty berry+hempseed smoothie, & a computer chock full of New York Fashion Week shows to catch up on! Planning on doing a little Valentine's Day themed photo shoot later this afternoon, & glueing myself to my German text book after supper. Wish me luck! 

The lady of honour is in the white & I am of course wearing the red Dolce Vita shorts. Big thanks to Irena's dad for taking this one for us :)

Granville Street on our search for some edibles

Rocking the ponytail (a rare occurrence).
Wearing: Banana Republic faux fur coat, BCBG animal print blouse, Michael Kors watch & bag, Dolce Vita wedges

Oh so amazing vegan lentil loaf from the Templeton

Sunday morning pleasures :)

And that my dears, was what my weekend comprised of. Obviously quite envious of all the bloggers attending Fashion Week in NYC right now (living vicariously through Style Scrapbook & BryanBoy at the moment), but I'll take what I can get. Hope you're all having a great weekend as well! :)

Playing With Print

Print blocking has been on my mind quite a bit lately (largely due to Miss Pandora & Man Repeller) & so today I decided to play with it a little. This vintage Mr. Jax animal print midi skirt was given to me by my Aunt about 8 years ago & I love it to pieces. I paired it with my striped Topshop tee which has a large bow detail on the shoulder, allowing for simplicity in other accessories (just left it at some rosette stud earrings & my Michael Kors ballet flats really).  When heading out to run some errands I just popped on my new black faux fur jacket (sadly not pictured here), for some added texture & warmth. Simple but fun; definitely something I'm going to play around with more... next time incorporating some more layering. What do you lovelies think? Yay or nay to the print blocking?

I'm headed out for the night, to attend a 'farewell party' for one of my friends. Hope you all have a lovely weekend! <3 

I was wearing:

Animal print midi-skirt - Vintage, Mr. Jax

Striped bow top - Topshop

Rosette stud earrings - Vintage

Lipstick - Revlon, "Nostalgia"

A Peplum Affair // IFB Conference

Please raise your hand if you too, are loving the peplum trend right now. Yeah, that's what I thought. Peculiarily enough, for a style which is listed as one of the top trends of the season, I've found them unusually difficult to find. My closet currently holds a grand total of two. The orange one pictured above was an October purchase from H&M. Thankfully the quality was good & it has withstood some pretty constant use. It's one of my go-to tops for work; generally paired with a navy pencil skirt or something of the sort. Here I've made it a bit more casual with my taupe American Apparel trousers & Michael Kors ballet flats. MK watch + Stella & Dot chandelier earrings (c/o) for some simple accessorizing. Perfect for a rainy day! 

I swear I'll get my hands on a tripod soon. And a better rainy day location... for now, the balcony it is ;)

Just wanted to show off my pretty Stella & Dot earrings :)

Recall a couple days ago when I mentioned a tiny purchase from H&M? Yes, you guessed it; my second peplum item. It seems as if H&M is the only High Street retailer on the peplum bandwagon at the moment. I had made somewhat of an unwritten resolution not to purchase any black items this Spring, but it looked so nice on, the material was lovely, & the price was too good to pass up. For any of you who are interested, they have it in a white/pastel orange combination as well (unfortunately white clothes & my skin-tone are not the best of friends). One combination I am loving however is black + neon yellow. Admittedly my intent was to order a Cambridge satchel in neon yellow, but my patience isn't the greatest when it comes to their month-long waiting period. Instead I ordered this soft jersey pencil skirt from ASOS. It's due to arrive next week so that's one look you can expect to see soon. And who knows, perhaps my upcoming bonus may extend itself to the satchel as well ;) 

On one last note, did any of you watch the IFB conference in NYC live streaming yesterday? I decided to take the day off from studying & followed it from beginning to end with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm haha. The second-by-second #ifbcon hash-tagging on Twitter was unreal & the panelist discussion was truly fantastic. Andy from Style Scrapbook was by far my favourite panelist... surprise, surprise. From start to finish each blogger was full of great advice from content quality, social media networking, & branding, to posting frequency & personal style. If you didn't get a chance to watch it yesterday the video is now available in it's entirety here. Hopefully I'll be able to attend their next conference in person :) 

Have a lovely day everyone & thank you so much for reading! <3 

Guest Blogging

  

 

Over the weekend I was asked by Jen of A Gypsy's Journal to do a guest post on her blog! The requested topic? Happiness. The relentless optimist, I was obviously up for the challenge. You can check out the post here, where I discuss my personal take on happiness - from clothes to music, everyday delights to general advice.

Let me know what you think! :)