2014 Outfit Recap / Jan – June

December 30, 20148 Comments

Last year – before the New Year – I put together a little post with all the outfits I shared on the blog in 2013. So this year I thought I’d do the same, but change it up a bit. This post will be divided in two so you aren’t overwhelmed with photos, since I decided I wanted to share a full size image from each post (and you can click each image which is linked to it’s original post).

In 2014 I really started working on my own photography and taking my own photos with a tripod. Pretty well all the photos below were taken by me, save for a few by Meaghan and Ryan. My photography skills are no where near where I’d like them to be, but you can definitely see a progression, which is pleasing since I devote a lot of my time to this blog and making it a space you can enjoy and that I feel proud of.

JANUARY
FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

Wrapped Like a Present

December 29, 20143 Comments

I can’t believe Christmas is over and it’s nearly the New Year! I hope all those that celebrated or got some time off had a wonderful holiday – mine was just what I needed. I tried my best to give myself a few days off from blogging and anything blog related so I could enjoy time with family (Ryan’s) and friends, which I think is quite important to do from time to time. Blogging can really bleed into your everyday life, it’s sometimes hard to tell yourself that you don’t need to document absolutely everything that happens.

I wore this dress for Christmas dinner, and while it isn’t in traditional Christmas hues I think it was the perfect holiday dress. I liken it to a present with it’s rich metallic taffeta skirt and velvet bodice adorned with two sweet bows on the shoulder straps. But, the real star of the show here are my new boots. I’m pretty darn excited about these babies! They were a Christmas gift from Ryan. I had been wanting the Arc Boots by Samantha Pleet since they first came out a few years ago, and now I own them in the most beautiful marmalade colour. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of them here.

What did you guys do the for the holidays? Did you receive any gifts you are super excited about?! Spend time with people you don’t get to see often? I’d love to hear.

*photos by Ryan

Dress: Vintage via Common Sort
Coat: Vintage via Gisela and Zoe
Boots: Arc Boots by Samantha Pleet x Wolverine
Tights: old pair of ballet tights

Solace

December 15, 20148 Comments

I apologize for being sort of absent last week – I had such a nutty, busy week. I can’t complain though, often times I feel really lucky to be so busy doing all the things I love most. Our dance production, Choices, took up most of my time this past week, and thank goodness for that because I don’t think our two performances would have been as wonderful as they were without everyones hard work and time. I don’t talk about dance much on here – it’s just a thing you guys know I do – but dance is a huge part of who I am. It’s hard to explain without it sounding so cheesy and non-sensical, but my solo in the show entitled Solace, was a piece that was very personal to Shameka (the choreographer) and me. It was a story about her and at the same time, it felt like a story about me. So many people said such wonderful things about my piece – about the way I danced it, about how captivating it was – such kind words that all I could really muster was simple thank yous, which feels so insincere, but really there were no words for how grateful I was feeling during this time. When you are really able to just let go of your inhibitions and just be who you are on stage, well it is unlike any feeling I can articulate. And having people feel with you, even though they are sitting in seats many feet away, unable to really understand the inner workings of your mind at that very moment, it is again a feeling I will never be able to articulate. But it is special, and will always be special to me. That’s all I want to do as a dancer and as an artist – I want to feel with intention and I want others to feel with me. I came away from this show realizing that our bodies and our minds can be painfully connected, sometimes they fight each other when we are not at ease, but when we allow ourselves to just be, the two can work so harmoniously together, if only for a moment, we can find solace.

Coat: vintage via Tabula Rasa
Blouse: vintage
Skirt: Club Monaco via Common Sort
Cardigan: thrifted
Shoes: Topshop
Scarf: H&M
Beret: vintage
Tights: old paid of ballet tights
Bow tie: handmade

Busy Beaver

December 8, 20148 Comments

I’m in the midst of a very busy month (who isn’t?!) – I have two dance shows this month, so I’m at rehearsals every evening for the next little while, on top of work and trying to get my act together for Christmas – so I am especially excited when I get out of the house to just do something because I want to. On Saturday Meaghan picked me up and our plan was to head to the Distillery District Holiday Market, however, we clearly didn’t have our thinking caps on because it was very busy. The kind of busy where you could drive around the neighbourhood forever trying to find a parking spot to no avail. We ended up giving up on that idea and just heading to cherry beach to snap some photos and enjoy the sort of mild weather. It was a short excursion, but excursion none the less, and one I desperately needed, because I find during my very little down time I am just marathoning Buffy and being as lazy as possible, which is fine, but doesn’t really make for a social and productive human being.

I’ll have to cut this short today because I’m in a bit of a rush. But I hope you all had a lovely weekend and aren’t feeling too stressed about this holiday season.

*photos by Meaghan

Dress: vintage via 69 Vintage
Blouse: thrifted
Coat: vintage via Toronto Vintage Clothing Show
Toque: H&M
Boots: Samantha Pleet x Wolverine
Bow tie: handmade

Updon’t

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014Leave a comment

My hair being worn in any way other than down is a rare sight. If I’m being honest, I don’t much like the way I look with my hair up, but that feeling flip-flops. When I had short hair I didn’t mind having an exposed neck, and quite often when I was growing it out I would just throw my hair into a top-knot and go about my day (the top-knot was way better than the weird length it was at). But now that my hair is long it has become a pseudo-invisibility cloak of sorts. It hides all the things I am a bit self-conscious about (forehead, ears…), silly things really, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way sometimes. The other reason that my hair often stays down (or in a side braid) is that my hair is thick. When I’m at dance rehearsals I won’t even bother trying to put my hair up and out of my face because inevitably it will fall out after 2 minutes of moving around. The only way to ensure my hair will stay put in a bun or pony tail is a whole lot of hairspray and bobby pins galore. So what’s with the low bun in these photos then?! Well, sometimes after I take photos I realize my hair was covering some interesting and pretty details of my outfit. I really didn’t want that to be the case with this cardigan. I’ve been wanting to photograph this vintage dream for awhile and I originally thought I wouldn’t do so until around Christmas time…but well it’s close enough now, and there is no rule saying I can’t dress it up with a fancier holiday-inspired outfit later on like I intended. I’m still unsure how I feel about this low bun – although it’s still sort of on the safe side since it’s covering the things I always try to hide – I doubt it will become a go-to hairstyle for me, but I’m really glad my giant mane was not in the way of getting some nice photographs of the beautiful bead-work on this 1950s mohair cardigan.

*photos by Ryan

Cardigan: vintage via Carousel Antiques
Blouse: thrifted
Skirt: vintage
Coat: Vintage via Gisela and Zoe Vintage
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Scarf: H&M
Purse: vintage via Public Butter
Tights: old ballet tights