Assuming An Identity

November 24, 20144 Comments

When I put this outfit on I thought to myself “Okay, you’ve become a librarian or a Sunday School teacher, or both. Maybe you’re a librarian during the work week and Sunday School teacher on…Sundays. Either way, you look like someone with a seemingly stuffy and boring profession.” Not really a fair judgement of either occupation – singing songs with children on Sundays is probably a lot of fun and being surrounded by books all day would also be awesome – but you get what I mean. All this to say, the way I dress now seems incredibly reserved to the way I used to dress as a teenager. I like thinking about how we as humans are always changing and evolving. Some people do it a rapid rate, others seemingly stay the same way for a long time as if they have been certain of themselves all along. I’ve always been a person of change. My appearance and dressing myself has always felt like art to me, and as soon as I grow tired of the art I’m producing I change it up, taking on a new aesthetic. I think thats why I love vintage so much. There is always something new to learn about how people used to present themselves. We can take cues from the past and present them in a modern way or we can just downright look like we teleported from “insert your favourite era”. Either way, it feels like a mindful way of getting dressed. Instead of just allowing present trends to dictate the things we wear, we can assume identity through a myriad of pieces that no longer fall under a category.

Blouse & skirt: thrifted vintage
Cardigan: Larkspur Vintage
Hat: Shop Ruche
Purse: vintage via Public Butter
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Bow tie: handmade

Break The Cycle

November 18, 20145 Comments

I’m not sure if it’s the weather or some other factor unbeknownst to me, but I’ve been feeling a bit down of late. That down feeling usually manifests into obsessing over some particular thing in my life that I believe needs fixing. In this case, my home. Moving is always a transition, and while it’s been over 1 month, I still don’t feel like everything is as it should be. Our home leaves a lot to be desired – there are many things about the construction and interior of the house that have left me a bit baffled. It’s small things like maybe repainting some cupboards and reorganizing some rooms that could make the whole place better suited to my taste. But the problem I have – and have always had – is I never look at each thing that needs to be tackled as a separate. I look at everything all at once, as a whole, and it makes me feel like there is an endless amount of things that need to be done, and how can little ol’ me do ALL of those things right now?! It’s a horrible way to look at a problem when you need to tackle something. It becomes this cycle of not doing because you are thinking about how much needs doing, and you become so overwhelmed by it that nothing ever comes to fruition. Sheesh, right!? Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe even tips on how to get out of this cycle? At this point I’ve taken to reading Not That Kind of Girl (not the book I’m holding in these pictures, but this one is way prettier – sometimes I buy old books just for their pretty covers), listening to Serial podcast and re-watching the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to get my mind off my new-found obsession with wandering around my apartment thinking of all the things I’d love to fix and then wanting to run away from my house because I’ve made myself incredibly overwhelmed.

Anyways, a day in the life, I suppose. I hope you’ve all been having a far more cheerful time, and if you’re not, at the very least, you know you are not alone.

Pinafore: TLO
Blouse: thrifted
Cardigan: thrifted
Tights: Target
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Bow tie: handmade

All Hallows’ Eve

October 31, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Happy Halloween dear friends! I had some left over exposures on a roll of film in my Pentax back from the summer and thought it was due time I do a little shoot to finish off the roll. I had never shot in the dark, so Ryan and I were just kind of crossing our fingers hoping these would turn out. But that’s what I love about analog. Experimentation and not really knowing the outcome is all part of the fun with film.

I thought I’d go in a bit of a different direction with a Halloween post. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Halloween costume planned for today – I’ll likely throw something together last minute if we end up going out – so I couldn’t really do your standard Halloween costume photo shoot. I did however have this cape on hand, and this velvet dress that was dying to be worn, so I thought I’d just be a spooky little red riding hood/vampire/witch/scared/i dunno girl in the woods. Well, whatever I was, I think I succeeded with a bit of spooky vibes. I hope you enjoy!

All you gals and ghouls better have a terrorific Halloween.

*photos by Ryan

Dress: vintage via Public Butter
Cape: thrifted
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy

If The Shoe Fits

October 27, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Shoes are another item I don’t buy often. I own a lot of shoes, but most of them don’t get worn on a regular basis (and were bought years and years ago when I used to buy things just for the sake of buying something). In some respects, I am a hoarder of shoes. I have a very hard time letting go of them, so the huge shoe rack I have filled is mostly made up of shoes that I keep solely for “what if one day…” or for photo shoots I’m styling. I have the same few shoes in rotation on a day to day basis, and you see those on here quite often. Those shoes are the ones that I sought out after I saw them floating around the internet and fell totally in love (that’s sort of how I buy shoes now, I must be riveted by them first). The same goes for this pair I’m wearing. I follow a lot of local shops on instagram, one being Sylvie and Shimmy, a quaint boutique located in my old neighbourhood, Parkdale. I saw these shoes, (and another pair I ended up buying) on their instagram and knew I had to pop by. I was in luck that day. They had one pair left of each shoe, and both were my size, so I guess it was fate, or something like it. I now pretty well only by shoes I know will get a lot of wear, and slowly but surely I will hopefully start to let go of (or sell) the pairs that are collecting dust.