Three Little Waves (Giveaway!)

photo 1 (15)After editing these photos, I’m now totally seeing what all the fuss was about with that black and blue (or white and gold, whatever) dress “issue”. Black, what a chameleon! Depending on where I was standing and where the sun hit my dress, this totally – and I mean completely – black dress from Three Little Waves looked golden and at other times almost completely blue. Anyways, all that aside, I love this dress, as I love all things I have received from Ellen of Three Little Waves. If you can believe it, before this dress, I didn’t really own a simple black dress. I have a tendency to overlook anything black when I’m in a store – it all just kind of blends together in a heap of boringness – but when I saw this dress, I knew it was just the right amount of simple with some fun detailing that it would end up being that LBD I didn’t know I wanted until I came across it.

Looking to find your very own LBD? Or maybe something more fun?! You’re in luck! Today Three Little Waves and myself are hosting a giveaway over on my instagram. Head over there if you would like to enter to win yourself any item of your choosing from Ellen’s shop. Don’t have an instagram? that’s okay my friend. You can head to Three Little Waves etsy shop and leave a comment below letting me know your favourite item (with your email contact) to receive an entry.

*giveaway runs until Sunday, May 10th. I’ll contact the winner privately through email if you enter here, or DM on instagram.

photo 4 (11)photo 3 (11)photo 2 (15)photo 1 (16)photo 3 (13)photo 5 (9)photo 5 (10)photo 3 (12)photo 2 (14)photo 4 (12)photo 2 (16)photo 1 (14)Vintage dress c/o Three Little Waves
Shoes: Seychelles
Sunglasses: Public Butter

Home Sweet Home / Organizing The Bedroom

As I had mentioned in a previous post, Ryan and I have been reorganizing our apartment in true Spring form. I guess you never fully saw my bedroom before we moved things, save for some style posts where I was in my bedroom (here, here, here, here, here, here and here), so you have nothing to really compare it to, but I can assure you things are looking up. One of my main goals was to have my clothes that need hanging to be a bit more organized, so that I actually know what I own. The truly unfortunate thing about our apartment is that we have one closet, and it’s in the livingroom (stupid, I know.). We do have some storage in the basement, shared with one of our neighbours, but we mostly keep things that we have no space for down there (ie, my boxes of vintage for my shop). So as you can guess, our closet was a disaster. It was a storage/my clothing closet…a true mess of a space. It was so disorganized, I hated opening it to get clothes out of it. Obviously my clothes are really important to me, and having a closet that is organized and showcases the things I own in a clean and presentable way is super important to me. So, I decided my only option, if I wanted to have things my way, was to get a clothing rack. Now, I actually have two metal, basically industrial sized racks for when I do vintage pop-ups, but those were way too big for our bedroom. I ended buying this shit one from Walmart which I’m afraid will probably topple over in the near future, which means I probably need to head to Ikea to get a more sturdy one, but for the time being it works and eases my anal mind (ha, she said anal). Now I can actually see my clothes and know what I own so that I can wear them. This obviously isn’t the entirety of our bedroom, I really don’t feel it’s ready for a room tour at this point, I’m still looking to get us a new bed frame because I threw out our old one, and Ryan’s side of the room needs a bit of work (yes, we have sides…clothing side, guitar side. ha!). So hopefully one day I’ll be able to share our bedroom with you. For now you’ll have to deal with this.

Them Jeans

If you had told me a year ago that I would purchase a pair of high waisted flared denim jeans, I would have laughed in your face. Yet, here I am, with a pair of high waisted flared jeans, and I’m loving them. When I bought them, I wasn’t really sure if it would end up being a wasteful purchase. I have a tendency to want to try new styles, only to find I feel totally uncomfortable and never end up wearing them. This is usually only the case with pants. It’s really just personal insecurities that make me dislike pants – my legs are too short, they look thick in pants (or in my own candid words, like sausages), I feel too masculine…silly things really. It’s not that these pants don’t make me feel that way…they still do at times, but I like them regardless, because they feel vintage, because they are so flippin versatile, because I can style them in a truly feminine way and because not having too worry about your dress/skirt blowing up in the wind is an amazing feeling. You probably won’t catch me wearing pants all the time, I’m still a dress/skirt girl to the very end (ride or die), but I like that I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and giving a little nod to the 70s, and an even bigger nod to Bridgitte Bardot with this hairstyle and oversized bow tie.
Blouse & coat: thrifted
Pants: H&M
Bow tie: TLO
Boots: Samantha Pleet x Wolverine

Haul / Beauty & Housewares

Maybe it’s the refreshing feeling Spring brings, but I’ve been on a bit of a beauty/houseware kick lately. It seems I am getting more excited about buying makeup and skin/hair care products rather than clothes, and organizing/cleaning my home and welcoming cute wares into our abode. So I thought I’d share a few things I picked up recently.
I recently picked up Kiehl’s creamy eye treatment with avocado from the Kiehl’s store in Yorkdale Mall (a big ol’ mall in Toronto). I have a tough time justifying a more expensive purchase for a skincare product if I haven’t heard a recommendation or haven’t tried it myself (ie, a sample), but I had heard some good things about this eye cream, and I was looking for an under eye treatment product, so I picked this up and I love it. It may be a little pricey, but it will last a long while, so, well worth the money in the end. I’ve only been using it a few days now, so I don’t have much to report, but I do love using it as a morning product. The avocado sort of helps wake me up, and it’s a nice base for my under eye concealer.
Value Village is one of my favourite places to find houseware goodies. Sometimes there is absolute shit, and other times there are some real gems. This time I found some gems in the way of 4 little colourful bowls and this adorable teapot/kettle hybrid. I actually don’t know what it is (which is embarassing), the wooden handle confuses me. I originally thought it was a kettle, but then when I got home I thought maybe it’s a teapot. To be honest, it’s making me feel like an idiot that I don’t know what it is. Someone, if you know, please enlighten me! LOLA new makeup bag!! I had been using the same disgusting (read: old) makeup bag for quite a long while. So while I was waiting for a prescription at the drug store to be ready, I walked over to H&M for a wee browse. Now I don’t really like many of the clothes in H&M, at least, not the way I used to, but I do get quite excited about their accessories and this makeup bag immediately caught my eye because of, you guessed it, pink! There isn’t much to it, just a zipper and the inside, but it’s pink, it’s clean and it’s new, so I’m a happy camper.
While Ryan and I were in Yorkdale Mall, we also headed into Bath and Body Works to pick up some wallflower fragrances because our home was starting to smell of big stinky dog breath (ie, Beans). Bath and Body Works is a dangerous place for me – scents and candles everywhere! This body wash/bath foam immediately caught my eye. I swear, anything that says stress relief I’m like a moth to a flame. If you know me on a personal level, then you know how stressed out I can become (I sometimes talk about it on here), so anything that says it will help with stress, even if it is a stupid gimmick, I’m usually intrigued by. This body wash is with eucalyptus and spearmint, which sounds like soothing properties. I’ve used it a few times now and so has Ryan, and we both quite like it.You might be shocked to know that I really don’t use any products in my hair, like at all. I shampoo and condition, and that’s it. But when I was in MTL, Kristen had the Fructis Marvelous Oil in her cabinet, so after I washed my hair I gave it a go and the silky difference in my hair was so apparent I knew when I got back to Toronto I had to buy it. And buy it I did. I also picked up Fructis Triple Nutrition Double Care which I spray on my hair while it’s damp and it helps with tangles. The downside to having long hair is it tangles so easily, like dreadlocks style. I’m loving both these products. The oil helps my hair dry faster and leaves it feeling silky and the spray helps to make brushing my hair a less painful experience.
Candles!! Bath and Body Works has amazing smelling candles. I really like the Lemon Mint Leaf one and Ryan liked the Eucalyptus Mint, so I got one of each.There is a vintage/antique shop called Ransack The Universe really close to our home, and the last few weekends we have walked passed it on our way to get donuts and coffee from TBC Vegan Bakery. They usually have some furniture strategically placed outside on the sidewalk so as to force you to look at all the neat stuff they have without even having to go inside. Well, each time I walked passed I noticed a little light blush pink end table that so perfectly matched the colour of my kitchen table. So after about the 4th time of seeing it, I finally gave in and headed to the shop on Monday to see if it was still for sale. And now here it is, looking lovely as ever in my livingroom. I’m especially excited about it because our livingroom is very “Ryan”, which is fine, but it’s nice having some girlyness added to it.
I actually picked up this perfume oil while I was in MTL 3 weeks ago. My usual scent is Daisy by Marc Jacobs, but I ran out of it and I’m looking to get a Chloe perfume next, but when Kristen and I were browsing a shop (which I can’t remember the name of now) we found these perfume oils by Dot & Lil and I fell in love with the vanilla scent. I’ve never used a perfume oil before, but I quite like it. It seems longer lasting and I can also get whiffs of myself throughout the day, which I like. It’s also an added bonus that this perfume oil can be used in a diffuser in the home, so you could also have your home smelling of delicious vanilla – double whammy of goodness.

One Leg At A Time

I think this could be the very first time I am wearing trousers in an outfit post. While my wardrobe is predominantly skirts and dresses, I do actually own a few pairs of trousers, one pair of jeans (which I bought recently and are flared highwaisted 70s dreams) and some other pants I’ve had for years that I’ll wear, say, when I’m walking the dog, cleaning the house…etc. I own these things, and yet they often collect dust or are my ‘I don’t care if they get ruined’ clothes. This is mostly because I don’t really feel much like myself when I wear pants, so they often get ignored as a viable option for outfits. But every time I see that sort of cool, late 60s look of cigarette trousers and a casual untucked fitted top (Mad Men, I’m talking about you…), I wish to myself that I owned more pairs of that style, because those pants actually feel like me – casual, but not lazy, dresses down and yet still pulled together. These pants I’m wearing feel pretty darn close to that style, although I do wish they were a bit higher waisted, but meh, we can’t win em all I guess.

What about you guys?! Do you have an styles you avoid? Things you are hesitant to wear? Garments that collect dust?
Blouse: vintage via Local 23
Trousers: H&M
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy