Red Letter Days

A little while back I decided to put my shop in Vacation Mode because a busy school and work schedule were just about making me crazy! Your flood of really sweet comments and emails meant so much to me, and I have to admit I've been missing it all so much!
The semester is finally winding down and I decided I would re open in time for the holidays because I've been collecting a few items here and there that I think you all might like!
I'll be adding them all to the shop at the end of this week; there are hats and coats and dresses and shoes and some really great accessories too....
It should be a pretty exciting update. In the meantime, the items that were there when I shut the store down are still in there and up for grabs.

I also have some not-so-vintage items that I'm thinking of selling on the blog, but I'm not really sure how well that would work...have any of you tried it before? Has it worked well?

Thanks for your patience and sweet words all semester! I am going to be such a better blogger and be able to comment on all my favourites again!

Imaginary Shopping

It's the very end of the semester and I'm in my final crunch! I'm so excited and motivated to do my work right now because I know that by the end of next week it'll be all over!
In the mean time, in the very little spare time I'm allowing myself, I've been over at my Grandmother's house sewing Christmas presents for people and eating really delicious food while we listen to Frank Sinatra Christmas albums. Today when I got home I was wishing I could afford to go online shopping for some Christmas and New Years eve outfits, and some general winter wear, so I headed over to Top Shop! I'm not sure if I'll end up actually buying any of these. Part of me would rather go thrift some outfits in real life. There's just something more satisfying about it to me. But we all know how fun imaginary shopping can be, and so I filled my cart up to the brim and gave myself a 1000 pound budget! Here are some of the things that found their way into my basket!

I'd kill for that velvet playsuit, though I'm not sure if I'd pull it off the way I'm imagining it in my head...and the little gray sailor coat is so, so cute! The sequin beret will probably never actually land on my head, but I like how it looks on other girls! And while I will probably hold out for a really pretty, well fitted vintage one, I'm really hoping to get my hands on a nice fur coat this winter. I sometimes feel silly in them, and I know how controversial the whole thing can be, but there is just something about them that is so sophisticated and grown up. That's probably why I feel so silly whenever I try one on....because I really don't feel like I'm grown up, or sophisticated. But maybe if I find the perfect one, I can save it for when I am! The wonderful heaven I found a few weeks ago has a whole basement full of them, so maybe I'll spend a few hours trying each and every single one on this week.....
I hope all you lucky American girls enjoy your Thanksgiving festivities this weekend! My sister and I made apple cider tonight and watched Home Alone. That's about as much celebrating as I'll be doing, so do lots for me and post about it so I can live vicariously through all of you!!!!

Winter in Detroit, 1966

This past week has been sort of hard and filled with things I didn't really want to have to deal with, and made me sort of sad, and I decided to head back to my parents house for the weekend and indulge in really homey comforts, like my Mom, and Dad and kitty cat, Whiskers, and homecooked meals.

One of my very favourite things to do when I go home to my Mom & Dad's is looking through old photo albums of theirs. I do the same thing when I go to my Grandma's apartment, she always thinks I must be getting tired of looking at the same old pictures, and she says they're faded and you can't see well anyway, but I think that's what I love most about them.

This set of pictures of my Mom is one of my absolute favourites! They are all from the Winter of 1966, when she was about 13 or 14 and living in Detroit. I think it's funny to look at them, because I can actually see resemblances between her at that age, and what I looked like at 13. Although, I would never dare to compare myself to her, she was such a beautiful, well dressed young girl, and at 13 I can safely say I was sort of round and awkward with hair that I didn't understand and a really, really unfortunate sense of style. But her face, I see myself a little bit in her face!

Anyway, I spent such a wonderful weekend with my Mommy, that I really wanted to share her with you guys, so you could all see how pretty and stylish and wonderful she was (and is!). Her first reaction, when I asked her if I could post these was "they say you have to be careful what you put on the internet these days"...and "they're all faded...I don't know why you'd want to" but finally .. "you can post them if you'd like to!" I told her she'd have to read the comments on this post, because I know how much some of you will appreciate how pretty and nostalgic some of these old faded photographs are! So I hope you enjoy them, and be sure to let me know what you think of them, I want to show my Mom after!!

Toast

I found Toast via Dear Golden's sweet sweet blog, and am quite sure I'm probably one of the last people on earth who knows about it. That's usually how it is with collections such as these. None the less, I couldn't stop myself from posting these, considering how inspired I am by the wonderful layer=ability of all these pieces, especially in light of the super duper cold weather we're already dealing with here! And with snow just around the corner, those boots couldn't look any more tempting to me right now!

Toast is only in the UK from what I can tell, and all of their items online are listed in British Pounds, which unfortunately for me means that their reasonable prices become slightly less reasonable when converted. But wow oh wow those photos on the rocky beaches and in those beautiful old mansions! And it's really worthwhile checking out the videos they have in their video & podcasts section of the website! They're totally creepy in a strange Lula-Dark-Spell way, and make me wish more than ever I was somewhere in the English countryside, or roaming around Ireland, rowing little boats on lakes, and exploring big green hills with little bouquets of handpicked flowers!

The whole set is probably the second most inspiring Winter collection I've come across since the Sally Scott images I posted here not long ago. I get so unmotivated this time of year by all the cold weather. It isn't pretty and snowy yet, but it's bitter and cold and dark in the mornings, and while it isn't quite winter coat and winter boots weather yet, it's too cold for all my Fall jackets, and inspiration like this is exactly what I needed to break me out of my November blahs!

Montebello Pt. 2

outfit details:
red dress & sparkly bow shoe clips: H&M
tights: HUE
Black Wedges: Browns
Glasses: Brooks Brothers

Well there isn't much left to tell about the fantabulous weekend Mike planned for me, but I thought I'd post the evening pictures we took inside the hotel! The Cheateau Montebello would be best described as a gigantic log cabin castle! It was built in 1930 to attract tourists to Montebello, and a year later a matching log cabin style train station popped up too! The train station has since been turned into an information kiosk and the teenage boy who works there is going through just about the worst awkward phase I've seen! Poor boy.
Anyhow, after supper, Mike and I snuck in some hotel pool time, and then we did my favourite thing to do in a hotel ... sneak around barefoot looking for secret rooms! We didn't find any secret rooms, but there was an exciting chimney fire in the fancy lobby, and I kicked Mike's ass at Battleship before we followed some Hall & Oates music down some stairs and stumbled upon a room full of middle aged men and women dancing in their socks to the sounds of the bell hop belting "Your Kiss is on my List" at the top of his lungs! We contemplated joining, but instead we opted for more fireside chats and exploring random corridors, to no avail.
I'm already planning our next trip to a little small town, though it'll have to wait until December, since Mike leaves on tour this week until December 8th! Oh how lonely I will be!

Montebello

Mike seems to have outdone himself yet again by planning me the very best birthday I've ever, ever had! Last year we were on vacation in France for my birthday, and I was going through a bit of a Marie-Antoinette phase, so Mike woke up extra early, bought me strawberries, macarons and delicious French pastries and took me to Versailles for the day! I was having trouble coming up with ideas for this year, but I knew I wanted it to be just me and Mike, and maybe some family too. He took matters into his own hands, knowing full well that, left up to me, we wouldn't do much of anything at all, and he really did plan the best weekend ever!

We drove about two hours out of Montreal to a town called Montebello, which was made extra interesting for me when we stumbled across Louis Josephe Papineau's manor, and learned that the whole town was built up by him in the 1850s! One of my classes this semester is on the history of Quebec before the confederation, and this little historic site couldn't have been better suited to the subject we're studying right now! The manor itself is only open for visits in the Summer months, but Mike and I were quite content just wandering around the grounds, as usual!

After spending the morning exploring our hotel grounds, we headed out to Omega Park, where we befriended lots of different types of critters! Bison and deer and wild boar and even some little baby black bears came right up to our car to munch on carrots. One of the bigger deer actually tried to steal our entire bag! But Mike fought him for it and we salvaged most of it! Though I think he wound up with a mouthful of plastic!

This little pink dress is my new very favourite thing. I really have had trouble taking it off these past few days! I found it at The Little Shoppe, which deserves a post all of it's own! It fit me so perfect I really couldnt have left it behind. Unfortunately I never even thought of taking my sweater off to photograph the whole thing, but I'm sure it will be showing up here again....and again....! The little gray, wool set were a gift from Mike's Grandmother, who wore them on her wedding day when she was about my age! I love the set so much and I think I'll keep it until I have grandkids of my own to hand it down to!

The icing on the cake definitely had to be coming home to my parents' house though! After all the wonderful things Mike put together for me already, he also snuck in an awesome surprise party for me with all my cousins and aunts and uncles! My Mom and Dad made the house look perfect, and cooked the most delicious selection of foods for everyone and some of my cousins drove in all the way from Ottawa!!! It really was one of the most wonderful birthdays I've ever, ever had!

Packed my bags.

I'm so, so excited about this weekend! It sort of feels like its been ages since Mike and I managed a full blown escape from the city, and it couldn't have come at a better time!

I have no doubt that this place will be a treasure trove of blog-worthy photo spots so I'm packing three whole outfits for 1.5 days! Some will argue I'm over packing, but here is how I defend it:

- It all fits in one bag

- I need a practical outfit for the hiking and petting zoo portion of the trip

- A girl's gotta have some choice

- I love that new dress of mine too much and refuse to leave without it. In fact I think I will wear it every day for the rest of my life!

Tomorrow morning we're both going into work really early in the morning and then we'll be leaving mid day for our log cabin adventure! I hope we get spooked by angry Friday the 13th ghosts at the abandoned train station in town, or that something exciting happens like a Moose charging at something (so long as it isn't me) or we spot a sasquatch in the woods!

I have packed two dresses, and one practical outfit. The purple dress was on mega sale at UO, but I'm kind of upset by how much it shrank in the wash. The pink one is from the magical piece of heaven I discovered recently thanks to Yana (who is going to be my neighbour oh-so-soon!) which I plan on going back to on a weekly basis until I am poor and forced to sell my unborn children to acquire more of this lady's old junk! The pants are something I found at Salvation Army a couple years back and have only had the guts to wear once. I still don't know if I like them or not, but was inspired by this picture of Marie Prevost to give them another chance. This time I'll make Mike take an outfit photo so you can judge for yourselves whether they were a sweet find, or something I should immediately donate back to Salvation Army!

The sweet little floral sandals are completely impractical and I simply don't care, they are a pair of never-worn thrifted Seychelles sandals that nearly broke my heart! And the billy boots, well that's the practical side of my brain...As for the book, well I don't know if I'll end up bringing it. I've been dying to dig into this Ginger Rogers auto biography, but I have so much reading left to do for school that it seems silly to get into a book that I won't be able to get even a quarter inch through before having to put it down and pick Chaucer and Browning back up...we'll see. Maybe I'll bring one of Nancy Mitford's teeny tiny little light reads and satisfy myself with that for the weekend. Or maybe I will just bring my Christmas knitting projects and forget about reading all together!

Birthday Wishlist

This Friday, I'll be celebrating my 24th birthday with Mike at a really cool log cabin themed inn way out in the country. I've already packed my favourite weekender bag with one perfect outdoorsy outfit, and a special birthday dress which I bought myself last week. In the meantime, as a means of procrastinating on this term paper, I've been browsing my favourite sites looking for things I could buy myself with my birthday money...Here is the wishlist I've put together for myself so far...

Modcloth is always one of the first spots I check when I'm putting together wishlists, and this yellow coat has been on it since they listed it last week! The sandals and dress probably won't make it into my closet, but that coat! That one has good chances of finding it's way into my mailbox!

I've been completely obsessed with T-Rex ever since I met Rhiannon and she told me how much she loved them. I still don't have any of their albums though, and am forced to listen to them on youtube all the time! I'd really love to get my hands on their earlier stuff too, from before they shortened their name. And maybe a Marc Bolan biography while I'm at it....

This is a bit of a mishmash. The top is from Urban Outfitters,and just seems like it would go perfectly with a little jumper or a black skirt....the Dead Weather album is something I've been meaning to get my hands on for some time now, and my friend Josh has promised to make me a copy! Hurray! I actually can't remember where I found these polka dot tights specifically, possibly also Urban Outfitters..I saved them to my inspiration folder a while back on one of my imaginary online shopping sprees..if anyone knows, feel free to tell me!

Finally, these TCM box sets are constantly reappearing on my birthday and Christmas wishlists! I would especially love to have the Forbidden Hollywood collections, but Buster Keaton and Greta Garbo silents seem pretty dreamy too! There was also a Film Noir box set I saw for sale at a video store near my place, which I might see about getting for myself too...Honestly I have a tendency to spend all my money on things like clothes, coffees and trinkets for my house and I barely ever spend my money on things like albums and movies, but I think it's time to start....


So there you have it, my 2009 birthday wishlist! We'll see in a few weeks which items I end up buying myself, if any. Although I really think that mustard yellow jacket is at the top of my list. And really, with the winters we have in Montreal, it's hard to ever feel guilty about spending money on a coat, seeing as I'll wear it nearly every day for about six months!
I'll definitely be posting about our weekend getaway after this weekend! I have no doubt there will be beautiful picture taking spots where we're headed!

A silly post about silly dreams

This post is sort of silly really. Sort of an escapist one, in response to how overwhelmed I am by this semester in school. I've had this long time fantasy of moving away from Montreal. I love this city so much, but I really am someone who likes to make changes a lot, and I've made just about all the changes I can think of within my hometown, and now I'm sort of looking to try something new.
The problem is, simply put, I'm darn lazy! I look for apartments every day in different cities around the US and Canada on Craigslist or MLS, and lots of times I find things that I could totally afford, especially if I could convince Mike to come along, but a coupled fear of being far away from my family, and of the process of moving to a different place, has kept my feet firmly planted in the icy cold Montreal ground.
Well last night I was trolling the Athens, GA Craigslist page for apartments, and stumbled upon this dream house right here. It sort of got me thinking, lots of other people do it! Move to different cities, provinces, states or even countries, and I want to do it too! But I really am the worst with all things paper work, and I'm wondering if any of you have any advice as to the process behind moving between the US and Canada. You wouldn't think it would be very complicated, seeing as we're neighbours, but something tells me there will be lots of beaurocratic obstacles that will discourage me really early on, and I'd love to hear from some people who have done it!
While I don't think I'll be moving soon enough to snatch this beauty of a barn up, I could totally see myself in the next couple of years, somewhere in the South enjoying longer Summers, milder Winters and all the charm I felt when I was there this Summer. Not to mention I'd be closer to some pretty wonderful ladies who I've come to consider good friends of mine!
Advice? Please!

Etsy Inspiration: Q's Daydream

Top Left: Yellow "Fisherman Sweater"; Bottom Left: 1960s shorts; Right: Quincy herself!

I spent most of my day holed away in a coffee shop corner with my laptop and books writing discombobulated thoughts about Frank Capra's political message in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Now that it's in, I'd like to say I feel relieved, but unfortunately, all of the coffee I drank to keep my brain working, combined with that loopy feeling that comes from staring at a computer screen all day has got me more jittery than relaxed! So I'm passing my time doing anything I can which doesn't involve my brain, and one of my favourite ways to unwind when I can sense I won't be falling asleep anytime soon, is to imaginary online shop! I've done posts like these before and people seem to like them, so I'm going for it again, except this time I'm imaginary shopping in one, very special to me Etsy shop, owned and run by a very wonderful girl, and dear friend of mine, Quincy!

On the Left: 1960's mini dress SOLD; On the Right: 1950s buttercup coat

I'm sure most of you are more than familiar with her blog and her shop, but just in case you weren't already, I thought I'd get you hooked! I've been following this girl's blog for ages, and when she opened her shop I was so excited! Well, I was afforded the lucky opportunity to meet her and her hubby this Summer on my trip across part of the USA, and she didn't disappoint! All the girls I met along the way were as wonderful and quirky and hilarious as they seem in the online realm and more, and Quincy was no exception! She's a down to earth, super silly in a good way, charming sweetheart of a girl and her husband is so great too!

On the Left: 1930s/40s blue sweater SOLD; On the Right: vintage Pendleton plaid skirt

She recently decided to make selling online her full time job, and I happen to know just how busy she's been updating it regularly and with some of the most fantastic items!!! She works really hard to make her shop great, and the result is incredible, and if you're as addicted to buying on Etsy as I am, then you'll be making weekly, if not twice weekly trips to her shop to see what new things she's posted! I took the liberty of including some of her sold items in this wishlist because it's an imaginary shopping spree, and therefore I can do whatever I want, but any items that are currently for sale in her shop are linked below the picture. You can follow her on Twitter too if you want to know when she updates!

Old Montreal

outfit details:
dress: vintage and altered by me
coat: urban behaviour
bag and boots: urban outfitters

I wish I could provide you guys with a pretty, vintage inspired, girly-yet-spooky Halloween post like so many other bloggers, but the truth is, this was Mike and my first Halloween together (he's been on tour with his band every other year) and we went ahead with our silly homemade Marge and Homer costumes! There is a picture up of us on my facebook for anyone who wants to see it, I only had one picture, and I sort of felt like it didn't make for a good blogpost, so instead I'm posting about me and Mike's adventures in Old Montreal from last Friday! We've both been so busy lately with job related stuff, school work and his band leaving on tour tomorrow, that we've had trouble finding time for our usual urban adventures...So on Friday, we both played hooky and spent the afternoon wandering around the historic district of Montreal. Armed with extra large coffees, we walked up and down all the cobble stone streets mostly people watching and stopping to read all the historical plaques we came across....It felt really great to be able to walk around being nerdy like we love to do. Simple things like that take the back burner to busy schedules so easily, and it can be so comforting to get back to them, even if they're just silly habits like coffee and walking around the city.

Anyhow, it's back to reality for both of us! Mike leaves on tour tomorrow for a week, then he's back for a week (just in time for my birthday) before he leaves again for another three weeks! His band (Trigger Effect) will be travelling across Canada with Priestess, and if any of you are along their path, you should go check out the show! Spot the drummer and let him know you know me, and I'm sure you'll make his day! (Drummers never do get the credit they deserve!)
In the mean time, I'll be canning, pickling, baking, sewing and knitting in preparation for my homemade Christmas! I've got all my weekends till the big day booked with crafting and cooking plans which should (hopefully) provide me with acceptable gifts to give out! Wouldn't it be fun if we all organized a big vintage clothing swap? Pick names out of a virtual hat and pick something out for the person we picked? Does anyone else want to organize that? I'm just too busy!!!