Discovery of a new secret shopping locale!

I am so excited!  Through one of my classmates, I discovered a new thrift store location to help cure my periodic cravings to add to my wardrobe.  It’s got a pretty decent selection of stuff that you can sift through if you’re willing.  On top of that, the prices are more what I remember Value Village’s being like when I was younger – i.e. $5.00 for a sweater, no $12.99!!  Best of all – it’s been running a 50% sale over the last couple of weeks making it even more thrifty!

Last week I snagged a sweater and a long sleeve shirt that only came to $5.00.  This week, I just couldn’t resist going again – I got myself a shirt, a skirt, a tank top and a sweater for a total of $11.00!  You can’t get better than that – a new skirt for $2.50!  Seriously.  I love it.  They’re almost totally brand new too.  I’m really happy.

Now my only trouble is resisting the urge to go every week…

Today’s a crazy day, but yesterday was good

It’s been a pretty busy day at work – I’ve been working on emails not stop for about an hour and a half now, but that was too be expected because I’m getting a bunch of vacation requests.  Phew – glad it’s almost over!

Yesterday was good – Rachel, Hannah (Rachel’s sister) and I went fabric shopping to get something that all of us can use to make our bridesmaid dresses.  It’s gotten to be an easier adventure because now we’re all matching – so it made sense that we went looking for one piece of fabric.  Rachel’s mum and sister can do the other girls, and my mum has graciously agreed to help me make my own verzion of the dress of my dreams.  Luckily we found some great polyester imitation silk-type fabric that doesn’t wrinkle much and is the perfect colour – and it wasn’t too bad in price, especially because the staff were awesome enough to let Rachel use Nick’s membership card.    Now all I’ve got to do it wait for the dress patterns I won on ebay so Mum can start on the dress.

It was also lucky that by chance we passed a store that was selling shoes at a very reasonable price.  Both Rachel and Hannah found the white shoes they were looking for for the big day.  Yess!

I’m getting excited!

Replacing your favourites

Most people will tell you that I’m a person who likes to shop for clothes.  Heaven knows I’ve curbed this habit quite a bit since I’ve had M helping to keep me in line.  But today, as I sit a work in a skirt that’s become just a little to snug/washed out I’m pondering about when the time comes to replace favourites – can it be justified?

Here’s my thoughts.  One of my favourite non-denim skirts is this awesome black Dickie’s girl one (the one I’m wearing).  I bought this the summer of 2004, my last one in Kingston, when I thought I could wear skirts that were a little be tighter.  Since then it’s been washed tons of times, worn tons of times.  It’s seen me through looking rocker chic and through passing for “dress casual” at work.  I love this skirt.  But alas, it doesn’t really fit right anymore.  It buckles in places I don’t want, it’s faded, and worst of all it no longer resides on my hips which have grown a little larger.  It now resides as a high-waisted deal that irritates my belly button.  But I’m heart broken because I don’t want to get rid of my beloved skirt, but I don’t necessarily enjoy wearing it either.  So I looked on-line today.  To order a new (and bigger ) version of the skirt would only be reasonable.  Should I do it?

Similarly, I’ve got a great pair of Silver jeans, but the button has come off so I can no longer do it up?  They’re also ripped and faded.  Do I replace those?  They’re my favourite jeans!

It’s a tough call!

The hunt is on!

I’ve been finally allowed to share the great news – Rachel and Nick are getting married – which is super exciting, and it’s going to be awesome.  In true FT fashion, Rachel and Nick are toying with getting married in the reasonably near future, because sometimes, it just makes sense to do that.  If you know, you know, so why wait?  It’s great!  But it does me that the time has come to search for something very, very important: dresses!

I’ve been super honoured with being asked to be Rachel’s Matron of Honour.  And Rachel, being who she is, has already got so many great ideas for the wedding party, etc.  Yesterday we chatted briefly about the bridesmaid dresses, and she gave me some great ideas to work with.  There’s only one snafu: Rachel has her heart set on me wearing yellow, a hue that can sometimes make me appear sickly, so the hunt is on for the perfect shaped and perfect coloured dress! 

Last night, I decided to do a little online research for a yellow dress – I searched for “yellow dress”, “mustard yellow cocktail dress”, “yellow cocktail dress”, etc and quickly began to realize that this isn’t something that is easy to come by.  It’s not an overly popular colour in the recent fashion world, unless it’s for a mini dress, and well, I’m not in to that, and neither is Rachel. (Praise the Lord!)  I did, however, find some awesome inspiration by searching on ebay.  I managed to find a seriously awesome 50’s inspired vintage dress that has a silouhette that I love!  I mean, seriously.  It’s awesome.  Plus, as Trinny and Susannah very snarkily point out scoop necks work really well for those of us who have a bigger bust (see their rules here – N.B. don’t open the first page at work!)

Seeing as the colour picture might not work for me – I’ve also taken some time to check out some great fabric colours that might better suit my skin tone – and I found one I really like, even if it is a little steeper in price.  It’s also a bonus that it’s a silk and not a cotton like the fabric used on the pictured dress, so I can possible plan to get someone to make me a dress inspired by the one in the picture.  How awesome would that be?  Seriously.  And it might end up being way cheaper than buying something, especially if I find a similar fabric that’s going for less.  I’m really excited! 

Woot!

Coming back to life!!!

I’m free!  I have finally finished all the work I started doing so long ago!  It’s all over!  And I’ve actually done pretty well for myself (A- all around!)  It’s finally starting to hit me that I have some of my freedom back, and yesterday morning I enjoyed my very first taste of it by sleeping in until 10:30.  Definitely worth it.

Other than the celebration, it’s been a pretty good weekend – I finished up my essay writing on Friday and then headed to a get togther with the QPT folks.  It was really good to catch up with people seeing as it was a shindig for all past and present alumni.  But I’ve got to say, seeing as I very rarely drink anymore, I’ve got a pretty low tolerance these days.  I was feeling pretty tipsy by the time I got home – thank goodness I had M to take care of me.  He says I apparently was awake one minute, and then asleep the next!  hehehe! 

Saturday was a good day too – M and I got up relatively early and headed to KW.  Our first stop was the Fairview Mall where we hooked M up with an awesome outfit for Brad and Jana’s wedding this weekend.  I managed to find another dress – RW & Co is my new favourite store for dresses ’cause they understand there are women out there who have big boobs and small waists like me!  And we also got a nice little care package for Dad.  We then met up with Mum, chatted for a bit, then headed to the hospital to check on Dad.  It was good to see him – he’s not looking too frail, but he’s not 100% great either.  I tried to keep him motivated to move and caught him up on my life.  I was also really glad he seemed to enjoy the snacks we brought, seeing as he hasn’t been eating all that much lately.  After out visit, Mum helped me edit my essays, and then we took her out for dinner!  It was good, but in the end it was a  bit of a long day – we didn’t get home until 10:30 and I was getting cranky from falling asleep in the car!  Oh well…at least I send off my final exam before bed!

Sunday was great – as I mentioned, I totally slept in until 10:30 – something I haven’t done in ages!  Then I got up, ate, and got ready to meet with the girls (minus Court) downtown.  (The girls = my best girlfriends from University).  We had lunch, got caught up on life and celebrated the fact that Nush is now a doctor and back in Canada after a long haul in Leichester.  After lunch, us girls did a little shopping, which was fun.  It took a bit, but Jen and I found some great new bikinis.  But I’ve got to say, looking for one that fits was a pain in the rear for me!  Enough said.  After that it was church, then home.

Oh!  I also had a chance to finally watch Sweeney Todd – I’ve had my friend Lucy’s copy for a long time now – and I really enjoyed it.  They didn’t do the greatest balance on vocals vs orchestra on the DVD, so it was sometimes really hard to hear what the singers were saying, but eventually we just added the subtitles so anything we couldn’t hear we could read.  I just have to say, I’m soooo very glad someone finally decided to tackle a really awesome Stephen Sondheim show and make it work really well.  Why?  Well, because Sondheim is probably one of the most talented musical writers of all time, and he’s often undervalued because he tends to do more technically hard music and different show topics.  If anything, people have to recognize his brilliant and clever lyrics – check out Into the Woods (written with James Lapine) if you don’t believe me!  Anyway – enough ranting – see the movie.

p.s. I’M FREE!!!!!

Shopping victoriously!

Yessss!

Yesterday I totally scored one on e-bay!

I’ve been looking to find a fun pencil skirt that’s a modern take-off of the traditional pin-up style. You know the sort of high-waisted totally awesome Rockabilly kinda skirt. I’ve found a few that I’ve liked, only bid on one, and loss – until yesterday. I just decided to go for it on this skirt I saw. And I won!

Check out how cute this one of a kind skirt by Zombie Kitten is: 

 

 

Retail therapy

I love Sonic Boom. Tonight I picked up some tunes at a great price:

• Bob Marley – Legend
• Radiohead – Amnesiac
• Radiohead – OK Computer
• Radiohead – Hail to the Theif
• The Fugees – The Score

It’s totally Radiohead in the lead, but the albums were in great condition and CHEAP! Plus, I don’t own them, just have them on my iPod thanks to Karl. So, I’m happy..ish.

Long crazy catch up type post

This weekend was insanity. I was lucky enough to get a chance to leave work a little early on Friday so I could get prepared for my lovely sister’s visit. I left on a bit of a sad note though – the famous Greg aka GR aka Il Diablo resigned as of Friday. I’m excited for him, that he’s moving on to do something he really wants to do, but I was sad to see my friend leave. He’s kick ass. And GR, if you’re reading – all the best and stay in touch.

Friday’s commute home was interesting. Instead of dealing with the bottleneck taking the bus home (and hour and half, gah!) I decided to face the transfers and hit up the following route home: Bloor to Ossington, Ossington bus to Rosemount. Then I waited for sis. While Wends got stuck in traffic, I painted my living room, and I finally finished the red wall. I really like it. Too bad it’s still a little streaky in places, but I ran out of paint, and well, I don’t wanna get more 1) because it’s more expenses and 2) this is a rental house. All the same, I love my wall, I can’t wait to finish putting things on there. Yay. Next step is the rest of the room! ha!

Anyway – Wends finally showed up, she got a tour of the house and we stepped out to have sushi at Fujiyama on Baldwin. (Soooo good, if you haven’t gone I suggest you do). Then we decided to go for a little walk passed the gloriousness of OCAD (Wendy’s first time seeing it up close), through Grange park and down to Queen W. Apparently we picked a good night – there was a celebrity schmooze going on and for about 15 minutes, sis and I decided to let ourselves be a part of the whole “celebrity watcher” mentality as we watched Sarah Polly talk about her TFF movie. Then as we’re walking down John who does Wendy spot by EUGENE LEVY. Very cool. I seriously almost missed him, but sis practically smacked me so I didn’t miss him. Again, very cool.

Saturday was chock-a-bloc full of errands. We got up relatively early and headed to Starbucks for a morning wake-up coffee for Wends and my regular drink for me. Then we got practical things done – I got some glasses and LPs at the Sally Ann, a new phone to replace my much dropped old one at Telus, shower curtain hooks and other stuff at the Dollerama. We also checked out the Brick for some deals – finally decided to think about a really nice iron and glass TV stand. Sigh. By this time, though, it was nearing late afternoon and still no furniture had been bought. So, what do you do in this situation? Hit up Ikea. You bet. I ended up finding me some good furniture to go with my dining table and chairs. I found a nice chair, leather couch and a few others sundries. (Yes, I do know this means a HUGE Visa bill). Either way, I’ve got furniture now. Woo!

Sunday was all about brunch, hitting up the Brick again to get the TV stand (it’s being delivered next week, I’m excited) and then we went shopping for lots and lots of groceries. Yum. Then it was time for Wends to go. It’s too bad she didn’t make FT, I would have loved to have her there for Jess, but what can you do? Overall it was a great visit, and I was so thankful to have Wends help me get stuff, and I was glad she got to see the place. It’s slowly coming together.

Yay.

The new sunglasses

I love these. Good sunnies make me happy, and my eyes happy too. p.s. Thanks to Martine for the great pics taken on Olympic Island.

CD shopping a-go-go!

Today after work I decided to stop by Sonic Boom and get me some new CDs. I just wanted to look around, get inspired, and I sort of did. In the end, I just scored some sweet used goods – all albums that I’ve been wanting for a while but didn’t want to pay full price for, and then a couple of other choices.

The list is as follows:
1. Ben Folds ~ Rockin’ the Suburbs
- a good solid choice to add to my Ben Folds collection. It’s got my fave song “Annie Waits” on it, plus “The Luckiest”, a song I want to play at my wedding…not to forget the great title track.

2. Ben Lee ~ Gamble Everything for Love
- a little collection of tunes by a great Australian singer. I was lucky enough to see him in concert this summer with Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright. I really like “Hellbent for Heaven”, a great find in the end, which is nice when you take a chance.

3. Bloc Party ~ Silent Alarm
- just to have my own, really. I borrowed this CD from my friend Karl the other day, and well, didn’t get enough time to give it a solid listen. Figured for $11 used I couldn’t go wrong.

4. Feist ~ Let It Die
- SUPER SCORE! I’ve been meaning to buy this for a long time now. Love the album. Happy because it was just $11 used.

5. Metric ~ Live It Out
- the new Metric. Meh…I think I like the first a little better, probably because I really love the song Combat Baby, but I think there are some really solid songs on the album. I’m glad, seeing as this was a new purchase, and not used.

That is all.