I want to ride my bicycle

July 7, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

I recently got my bike fixed (Ryan used to be a BMXer so I’ve got my own personal bike repair man right at home) and have been biking as much as possible. I told myself at the beginning of this month I would not buy myself a metro pass so as to force myself to ride to and from work everyday (weather permitting), as well as anywhere else the weekend takes me. Dressing yourself for biking can be a challenge if you are someone like me. Ideally you’d wear shorts and a light shirt – that’s a pretty standard biking outfit – but well, I like to switch it up. I’m not always a shorts and shirt kind of girl. Many things must be considered when choosing an outfit that is biking appropriate. Since I wear dresses and skirts mostly I have to be careful that the dress/skirt has some moving room (sorry to my a-line minis) and is a comfortable length so it doesn’t fly up exposing your unmentionables. Midi skirts are perfect, but I have come to realize I don’t own as many midi skirts as I thought. This dress is an ideal biking outfit (also the print on it?! right!?), – and I had almost completely forgot about it in my closet because I consider it very much a Spring/Summer dress and wear it in no other season – it checks off all the boxes for appropriate bike wear, but I cannot wear this everyday, for obvious reasons (smelly!). I was reading on the internet how I could wear my shorter skirts/dresses without worrying about them blowing up in the wind. There is this neat trick where you tie a nickle (or penny or quarter) with an elastic band underneath the bottom of your skirt and it weighs it down for the ride. I tried it out on one of my short, lightweight dresses over the weekend and it worked wonders. Problem solved! Now to figure out how to wear hats without them flying off your head.

*photos by Ryan

Dress: vintage (hand-me-down from Meaghan)
Boater hat & belt: thrifted vintage

Behind the Scenes / Gerald, Gwen, Leesa and Larkspur

June 30, 2014November 11, 20141 Comment

A couple weekends back I had the pleasure of working with Gerald again. I styled two shoots in one day, using Larkspur garb, as well as my own personal collection. I got to dress up the always lovely Gwen, who I have styled before. I worked along side hairstylist/makeup artist, Leesa – who I have also worked with before – to turn Gwen into an enchanting woodland goddess. This time I was not modelling myself, so I helped out behind the scenes in between putting outfits together. It was a long day, but magical and full of laughs. It’s nice getting to work with a model you have already met. Gwen is a little firecracker and I sort of fell even more in love with her. I feel a kinship to her goofy silly vibes. As always, it was a pleasure working with Gerald and Leesa, they are both such kind, lovely people. There are definitely worse ways I could have spent a day. I promise promise once any of the three (well four, if we include the one I did with Danielle) shoots I have worked on are released, you guys will be the first to know!

Houndstooth, and other things

June 23, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

I have not had a free weekend in what seems like weeks. Mind you, I normally have Sundays free for whatever I like, but I consider a true free-of-work weekend when I have both Saturday and Sunday off. I cannot complain though, I spent most of Saturday styling another shoot for Gerald, which really doesn’t feel like work at all, but rather something that is fun and gets my creative juices flowing. The other half of the weekend was for blog and shop affairs. I’ll be honest, I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed with finding the time to really give my online shop the love and care it desperately needs – it’s down to the bare bones at this point. But I spent a few hours on Sunday photographing items to list all through the week and I’m hoping I can keep up with this and get back to where we were before I moved a huge amount of stock over to Odd Finds General Store and became busier than ever. I’ve also been feeling sort of uninspired with my writing recently, so we’ll just leave it at that for today.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Pinafore: ASOS – out of stock, similar ones here
Blouse & shoes: thrifted vintage
Sunglasses: vintage via Public Butter

Not a Daywalker

June 16, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Last week I found a great spot to take pictures, similar to a secret garden, but I assume it eventually gets filled with water to become a pond, so I’m not sure for how long I can use this space. Another notable thing about these photos is that I wore my hair up! Just last week I talked about how I always wear my hair the same, so I thought I’d try something new. I quite like it. It will be a nice style for when the weather becomes really hot, and my hair loves to stick to my neck and forehead. This will be short and sweet today because I got an awful sunburn yesterday and I’m feeling very under the weather. A lot of red painful skin and I’m pretty sure I’m dehydrated. The woes of being a ginger. I’m usually very good at remembering sunscreen, because within 5 minutes of being in the sun I can turn into a lobster. But I forgot, and now I am a crustacean.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I’m going to slowly make my way to the drug store to get some aloe, because our little aloe plant has helped a wee bit, but we don’t want to kill her. I need an industrial sized bottle I think, much more than what little miss aloe can provide. I’m also planning on updating the shop this week. Something I have been having difficulty doing. Having stock in a shop and online has become difficult. I never quite know what I should add to the shop, and what should go online, so I’ve kind of just been avoiding restocking online. But I photographed some new stuff to add, so it just needs some washing and measuring. I’ll be in bed all day today, so it seems like the perfect time to do just that.

Shorteralls & Blouse: vintage via Common Sort
Socks: H&M
Shoes: thrifted
Lipstick: Trop Chaud by Mac

A clothes mind

May 20, 2014November 11, 20143 Comments

I had quite a busy day yesterday. I was styling and modelling for an editorial (i’ll tell you more about that later) which kept me from updating the blog yesterday with my usual outfit post, but here I am today, so all is well. The weekend was busy and lovely and lazy all at once, which is just the way I like it. I took these images on a day that was confusing as ever – the weather could not decide what it wanted to be. One minute it was sunny, the next sprinkling light rain showers, back to sunny, and then eventually became a downpour and I had to cut my shoot short. However, it made for interesting lighting and clouds, so I’m okay with it. I kept my outfit simple this day. Sometimes it’s nice to just throw on a dress and go. I’ve had this one for ages, and what I love most about it is the shift shape, 3/4 length sleeves and high collar so I can wear collared shirts underneath. It almost seems like a new dress every time I wear a different collar with it, and makes me feel very 60s, which is probably my favourite era, next to Edwardian, of course.

I feel I have not written anything of much significance lately. I sometimes hate just talking about clothes and why I love them so much. It makes me feel a bit shallow and vapid, which I know is not the case…you can love clothes dearly and want to talk about that love on a regular basis, while also being an intelligent person. And truthfully, clothing and dressing myself does feel like art to me, which is the very reason I love it so much. But I think sometimes discussing why an article of clothing is good just takes away from it and dumbs it down to nothing. What clothes are to you is what you do with them – how it creates you, and makes you feel. I’d much rather have my clothing and style speak for itself than to explain in the simplest terms why I like something. But to each their own. I’m always happy to read blogs that do just that. It’s just a personal thing really. I guess It’s my introverted, introspective side that never really wants to speak or write unless I have something meaningful to say. I’m not saying i’ll never discuss the clothes I wear in this space. I’ll always give you a little bit of both. My thoughts and my style are obviously huge parts of me that go hand in hand, and I love to share those parts of me in whatever way I can.

I hope everyone who had a long weekend enjoyed it thoroughly. I’m sick in bed today in a tremendous amount of pain, but hopefully will be back to the grind tomorrow.