New Muse : Erin Fetherston

I spend hours a day on this computer mindlessly browsing pictures of celebrities or other bloggers who I consider to be inspiring to me style-wise. Occasionally I wander over to the pages of the designers that dress the celebrities I look up to...but I had never really given much thought as to what the designers themselves looked and dressed like.
I went to browse around at E.R.A again last night (quite possibly my favourite store in the city, vintage or otherwise) and got to talking with the owner again. We got onto the topic of Erin Fetherston when I picked up a 1940's coat that resembled something she would design.
She told me I reminded her of the Erin herself, which I didn't realize until now might be the greatest compliment I have ever received (as well as the most innacurate!!)! I've been idolizing girls like Zooey Deschanel and Kirsten Dunst for their style without even knowing that the girl behind it all is actually just as adorable!!!

So Erin Fetherston, aside from designing scrumptious, girly little numbers that make me want to spend money I don't have, you are also my new muse for the winter season!!!

sleepwear

I've made a very important decision today. I spend lots of time shopping for clothes, shoes and outwerwear but I never have anything nice to wear underneath. I always thought I didn't care about having matching bras and underwear or cute things to sleep in, but now I seem to be entering a phase where I do care about such things.
And so, my goal for 2009 is to build a collection of beautiful, matching undergarments, some pretty, satiny things to wear to bed and wake up feeling pretty in, and a cozy bathrobe that doesn't make me look like I'm 90 years old!

I think I'll begin my quest at Urban Outfitters, because even though I rant and rave about how expensive they are for nothing, their lingerie section seems to be the one reasonably priced department in the whole store!
When I have a little saved up, I'll head over to Stella McCartney and buy out the entire line...



From top left to bottom right:
1-3 Stella McCartney
4 Night gown from Urban outfitters
5 Vintage nightgown found on e-bay
6 Betsey Johnson knee length bathrobe sold at Urban Outfitters
7 Underwear sold at Urban Outfitters
8 Goldie Hawn (image found via google image search)

My very first tag!

The always wonderful Mila from Loveology has honoured me with a tag! This one is about 6 of my favourite things...

The rules:
Mention the person who nominated you. List 6 unimportant things that make you happy. Tag 5 blogs. State the rules. Notify them with a teeny comment on their blog that they have been nominated.

1. Filling notebooks with useless lists of things i want to buy or how i want to decorate my future home...(I have a drawer full of them!)
2. Hanging my laundry on our clothes line to dry! (i've never had one before and it reminds me of a movie....)
3. Getting e-bay or etsy packages in the mail. Secretly I shop online more just to receive more packages! It's so much more exciting than stupid bills, and I feel like I'm getting a gift!
4. Putting on a record and dancing in the kitchen with Mike Lola and William for hours!
5. Going on late night drives and stopping at random locations in the country to take pictures and go on adventures, the way Stef and I used to do when we both lived with our parents!
6. Reading the lyrics written by artists I like, and especially reading along as the song is playing...

Now it's my turn to tag, I tag: esme and the lane way, sweet dreams till sunbeams find me, the snail and the cyclops, a clock without hands and ringo have a banana!

Once again, I can't tell you just how much I'm enjoying slowly integrating myself into the enormous world of blogging! It;s intimidating once you see how many people out there are so fantastic at it!

This morning there was snow on the ground when I walked to work. I can still see some on all the rooftops of the houses but the ground snow seems to have melted. The holidays are just around the corner and as I've mentioned many times I just can't wait for Christmas sweaters and party dresses and gift wrap!
I received my dress and boots in the mail today and they are just as wonderful as I hoped they would be! I've already paired them together and worn them to work despite my intention to save them for europe! Either way I felt like an angel in the beautifuldress and the shoes are absolutely the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned! It'll definitely be one of my favourite outfits!

Blogger Inspiration

This whole blogging community gets bigger and friendlier by the day. I started this blog (reluctantly might I add) to keep up with all the girls in my group of friends since they had all started them too!
It didn't take long for me to start enjoying the idea of having a place to put my thoughts out there. I never really knew about or could have imagined the fantastic world of everyday people like me who have absolutely beautiful blogs of their own that I am now completely addicted to reading. Although I could probably post for three weeks straight about all the lovely girls out there who inspire the clothes i wear every day, I think I'll pick 5 for now and maybe start a "blog of the week" type deal or something...
Here are the 5 girls I'm currently the most obsessed with following:


1. The Snail and the Cyclops
Aside from liking to pretend I look like her sometimes because we have blonde hair and bangs in common, Libby also recently informed me they had a friend in common back in Boston! Basically I look to her wardrobe remix and blog posts as a sort of vintage style bible when i'm not sure what to do with a certain outfit!



2. LiebeMarlene Vintage
Speaking of style bibles, Rhiannon's daily posts about vintage inspiration and lucky vintage finds are the thing I look forward to most every morning when I open the internet! Sometimes I check her blog before even checking my e-mail. I realize i still have time to get as good as she is at picture taking and photo-shopping, but in the mean time I look at her blog as something to live vicariously through!



3. The Tea Drinking English Rose
Not so much for outfit inspiration as just a generally uplifting blog. From the layout and pictures in every post, to the eloquent way she writes this blog always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside!



4. Loveology
Sometimes I leave her blog open in the background just for the pretty music that she always chooses! She's also a girl I look to for cheering up when I'm feeling a little lack luster! She always has the prettiest Flickr Favourite posts and it's such a pretty layout!



5. The Cherry Blossom Girl
I'm sure I've mentioned this blog in a previous post. Alix of The Cherry Blossom Girl is one of my absolute favourite ones to read, probably because of the always interesting locations she chooses to photograph her outfits in and the way she always has a great theme going on! I'm headed to Paris in less than 2 weeks and I can't wait to discover some of the areas she mentions and take pictures in them myself and pretend to be even half as fashionable as she is!




Lastly, remember a few posts back when I said I wanted to let my hair go all natural with hopes that it would turn out like Kirsten's when she was on the Lula cover? Well I managed to do what I think is pretty close:

"I'm not fond of dogs"

The lady who just moved into the apartment next to mine (with whom I share a backyard) just informed me she is "not very fond of dogs" and that her boyfriend is so allergic that if one of them is in the yard, he will have an attack. (There are two dogs staring through the fence at us from the neighbours yard as she's saying this). She insisted that Lola must be on a leash at all times if I'm going to let her into the yard. I told her I would do that in the mean time but that I would speak to the landlord about maybe putting a fence up between our two yards so that we could each have our own space and her boyfriend wouldn't die and blame my dog. She said she only took the apartment because there was no fence. I said that was stupid and I only took the apartment because we could let the dog out to play. She said "oh." Then she proceeded to tell me that there are "poops" everywhere and she doesn't like that. And I explained to her that there are about 55 cats that live on this street and that cats don't have leashes in Canada...She seemed offended (which was my intention) and then said that she doesn't want to have a bad relationship with her neighbours.
To which I swiftly responded, I get along with every single person on this block.
She again stuck with "oh."

I carried Lola upstairs and explained to her without any discretion that that lady was mean and probably hated children too and that she can't enjoy the sunshine anymore because of the mean new neighbour.
I can't wait to make all the awesome welfare seniors on my street hate her with me and torment her until she moves back to wherever she came from.

After putting down Rebecca Well's Little Altars Everywhere a week or so ago I decided I really wanted to rewatch the movie (Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood). I remembered loving it when it came out in 2002 but, as with a lot of films I loved at 16 years old I knew I ran the risk of finding out it was actually just another cheesy Sandra Bullock guilty pleasure...

Well not only did the movie not disappoint, but it refreshed my memory a little as to just how badly I wanna see the Southern U.S. sometime soon!
I want a porch with a porch swing in a place where it's warm enough to go out in the middle of the night to drink a bloody caesar and gaze out at my long driveway lined with pecan trees if i can't sleep in the middle of the night!
I'd love to celebrate my birthday with a Louisiana style marching band carrying sparklers and put out my birthday cake with a fire extinguisher!
I'd especially love to have the kind of imagination that allows me to make homemade indian headdresses for my kids and build a campfire in our backyard where we have a powwow and sing songs in our nightgowns!

Inspiration wise the movie was also packed. Mainly in the sleepwear department...It is now my goal to eliminate all the boring tee shirts and pyjama pants I own and sleeve every night in a beautiful silk or satin nightgown with one of those robes that ties in a bow at the neck! Curlers and a matching silky headscarf will be the next step.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day and although I was only about 11% as productive as I wanted to be, It felt nice to slowly enjoy breakfast with Mike and a good old chat with Kristina.
My laundry and bubble bath packed Friday night has left me feeling rested and excited to do my last load and hand it in the sun on our clothes line tomorrow morning before meeting my mom at Walmart for some fall and winter necessities....

Have a lovely weekend!

Inspiration and New finds!

I've spent the better part of the last 10 years trying to bully my hair into being something its not using straighteners, dyes, extensions and a slew of products that could probably make a person go bald! Lately however, I've been spending my time trying to find photos of hairstyles, past or present that better suit my hair the way it is!
Spending time on my hair has never been a burden, and always been something I've enjoyed doing. It would be nice however to let my hair be itself once in a while, even if that self is frizzy, middle-length mess.
I do sincerely believe my hair grows slower than most peoples, but now its time to stop complaining about not having big long luscious locks and do what I can with the shoulder length, grown-out bob I have in the meantime!


Top: Kirsten Dunst from Lula Right: Annabelle Jones for Charlotte Ronson Bottom: Barbara Stanwyck

As for my most recent online adventures...here are the 2 pairs of shoes I purchased with fall and winter approaching...as well as my upcoming trip!


The first pair are suede Jeffrey Cambell's that I got a pretty fantastic deal on. The second pair may seem to have a lot going on, but I am picturing paired with black tights and a little white dress like the little girls used to wear in the 1900's, but with a more modern touch. They are by Anthropologie.

my applejack, my silent night

Somedays I get sappy. Today is one of those days...
This morning during my routine blog-check I stumbled across a link to this overwhelmingly beautiful blog through the always wonderful Mila from Loveology.
Some of the content is kind of depressing, but in the good have-yourself-a-little-cry kind of way. The rest is absolutely uplifting and makes me get that distant, dreamy, i'm-living-a-fairy-tale-life kind of feeling.

sweet dreams till sunbeams find you...

Disclaimer: Explicit Christmas and snow related content!





Although any rational person would tell me to wait until Halloween has come and gone before panicking about Christmas, I just can't seem to avoid freaking out everytime I think about having less than a month to prepare for the event when I get back from Europe!

Gift buying, decorating, outfit planning, agenda filling and Christmas baking are going to fill my days and I'm worrying about how I'm gonna find time to work at all to help pay for all these exciting (and expensive) things!

However the following are things that are so comforting they outweigh all my festive-anxiety!

• Christmas print sweaters
• how cute Lola is when she bounds through the snow
• how good Chai tea tastes in winter
• the feeling you get when you walk in your front door after trudging through a blizzard to get there!
• my parent's fireplace!
• opening your advent calendar every morning!
• Church Bazaars!
  
• roasting marshmallows with stef over our stove in our beautiful kitchen!
• how pretty things are when they're candle-lit!
• how quiet it gets when everything is covered in snow
• fur collars on coats!
• Wrapping presents while william chases the ribbons I'm curling
• Coopmas, when Stef, Taylor, Mike and I celebrate Christmas at the coop with a small tree and little gifts and lots of delicious food!
• how pretty every house looks with Christmas lights on it!
• kids christmas specials on tv...
  

For the record, I realize it's way too early to be thinking about these things, but it really is my favourite time of year and I can't help but think of how little time I'll have to prepare for it this year!!!

the wedding

blogwedding
Originally uploaded by meaghanfkelly

Here is the beautiful Erlebacher coat paired with the Louboutins I bought a few months ago.
I decided it was finally time to let them out of their box!

The gloves are something I found at an antique store on Notre Dame street.

I do believe there is nothing more heartwarming than a warm bowl of homemade-with-love pumpkin soup on a monday afternoon with Patsy Cline in the background. Nothing at all.

The wedding was fantastic this weekend! Mike looked better than ever in his three piece suit and wonderful new boots! And his family was warm and welcoming!
Sunday was equally wonderful because my Grandmother and I put together the 2nd annual pumpkin-day at my parents house and baked 4 delicious pumpkin pies and a batch of pumpkin potato soup large enough to feed a family of 40!

I might be one of the only people who is excited for it to snow already, but more than that, I'm almost unbearably excited for my trip! Everything is booked, we have a fantastic apartment in the 2e arrondissement in Paris and have managed to book the entire trip for well under what we budgeted for! Now I'm going to make our itinerary so we can figure out which attractions we'll be visiting on which days!

I've registered for 4 classes this winter, one of which I'll be sharing with the most lovely Kristina Mahler!

So basically once I get back from my adventure, Christmas will be around the corner and then I can officially buy my bus passes at the student rate again! Hurray!

Who wants to rent a cottage at New Years?

oh noooo!

in case this doesnt work (cause youtube and blogger hate one another...) here is the link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DmtmmFEVo

hidden sanctuary

Every day I try to take a different route home in hopes of discovering secret little nooks and crannies..like this strange forest right in the middle of the city with an almost creepy little altar-ish thing in it...



my new camera allowed me to photograph the spot, which i will hopefully be doing from now on!
also...my new camera allows me to take silly mirror pictures of myself when i like my outfit! :D
hopefully this won't cause too many of my friends to stop loving me!