My Girl Crush #2

images from here and here

About a week ago, when I was writing about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I admitted to having a major she-crush on Lily Cole. Well, since then I've come to the realization that I think I have far more "girl crushes" than I do male ones! Tennessee Thomas is right up there at the top of my list of favourite females to stalk on street style blogs. Really it all comes down to my wondering what it must be like to be so effortlessly stylish and to be friends with all the other effortlessly stylish girls out there! To do fun things like make short films for Lula with my gal pals, and to show up on street style blogs looking all adorable with a little basket purse...Plus I think I have to think it's awesome that she's a drummer since Mike is a drummer and he goes crazy for girl drummers!

images from here and here

I'm just so in awe of these girls who all pose for pictures together at these fantastic events and do really creative things with their lives and seem to have so much fun all the time! Mind you, I have loads of fun doing the things I do, and to be honest I'd be awful at being one of them because I have a tendency to fall asleep around 11pm every night and to shy away from parties because I just get really awkward around people I don't know very well. But it could be fun to fill Tennessee's wonderful little saddle shoes just for a day!

image from here

I've actually been doing a whole lot more online shopping than I should be doing recently, but most of the things I'm buying are in preparation for Spring time and two very exciting trips I have planned! One to visit a friend I made this Summer, and another to check out the University of British Columbia campus in case (fingers crossed) I get in and would be moving there in the Fall! It's going to be tough not to post about my new finds before then, but I really do wanna try to save them until then since I won't be able to do much more shopping until then, and having new outfits to wear on a trip makes it that much more exciting! Plus I'm sure that me and mystery friend will be taking LOADS of blog photos together when I visit, so I'll need some fresh wardrobe changes for sure!

Images from here and here

Back to homework distractions, it's probably the first time since I started school that I'm ahead on school work and I'd like to try to keep it that way. I do have a pretty exciting interview planned with a really wonderful Etsy seller later this week so at least I have something exciting to post about!

image from here

Kavanagh & Quincy

This post is long overdue in a few different ways. For one thing, these pictures were taken the same day as the Westmount Park pictures, so they've sort of just been sitting around my computer for a while, and secondly, the outfit I'm wearing is one I've been meaning to post here since about November! The problem is it's been too cold to show it properly outdoors, and the couple of times it was warm enough, we weren't around the house an I didn't have it ready. Anyway, I do intend on posting it again with better lighting and in a worthier setting, but I was just so excited to have an indoor place to take pictures, that I jumped on the opportunity!

So the dress and sweater that you see in these photos are from the lovely, wonderful, friendly, generous and always stylish Quincy from Q's Daydream, and she sent them to me for my birthday in November!!!! I've worn this outfit about a hundred times since then, but really just hadn't gotten around to picture taking, what with Mike being gone, then the holidays and then school starting plus the rotten Winter weather...the dress is actually a wrap around number in big blue and black gingham print and the little crocheted sweater is a dream! I wear it with just about everything! She also sent me a magnificent pair of brown backless pumps and I love them just to death, but it really isn't the right weather to be wearing them right now, so I'll have to debut those in Spring.

As for the shop I'm in in these photos, well it's one that opened not too long ago on Sherbrooke street in NDG, which is the neighborhood Mike lives in! The owner, Beau and his Father greeted us as we walked in and Mike got into a long conversation with him about vintage drums and music and bands and they seemed to hit it off almost right away! The whole time they talked, I walked around with googly eyes suffering from sensory overload and admiring all the pretty things contained in one place! I ended up leaving with a perfect knit 1960's mini dress with brown embroidered flowers on the pockets, as well as a white accordion from Italy that has got to be about 75 years old! It's currently at Steve's Music getting all fixed up so I can learn to play it and eventually form that band Jessica and Rhiannon and I have been talking about putting together when we eventually all get together and meet up!

Anyway, the shop is a total beauty and dusty and dimly lit in a good way, so you feel like you're in a little Southern thrift store. Or at least I did. And they serve you coffee from a gigantic old espresso machine and Beau reminded me of Jack White sort of with his leather jacket and jeans and scraggly hair and paleness..and the way he would sit in the back playing blues guitar.
I don't know how many Montreal readers I actually have, but if any of you are out there, and you haven't already checked it out it really is worth it. And if you aren't from here, but you're coming to visit, e-mail me and I'll give you more details! It isn't like the city is lacking in good vintage, but Kavanagh really did bring something new to the mix, and I have to admit that just going in to hang out is a wonderful time!

Beaver Lake

outfit detais:
cardigan & dress: H&M
tights: HUE
skates: thrifted
headband: Ardene (embarassing?)

For the past couple of weeks, Mike and I have both had our Wednesdays off from work and school and we've been so good at taking advantage of those days to get some good adventuring around Montreal in! One of our New Years resolutions this year as a couple was to conquer our usual Wintertime blues by doing fun outdoorsy stuff so it didn't seem to dreadfully long. Well yesterday was the first time we stuck to that resolution and I have to admit it sort of made Winter feel warmer and less awful! And suddenly I thought I might not be as excited for Spring as I said in my last post!

Beaver Lake is a pretty little lake in the middle of a forest in the middle of Mount Royal, which is the teensy little mountain which Montreal is built up on! It's really a pretty wonderful little escape from the city, right in the middle of the city itself! And in the wintertime they have a pretty little skating rink and a not-so-rustic glass cabin, which serves delicious hot chocolate, even if it is out of a machine and way over priced (next time we're bringing our own!).

Anyway we spent part of our afternoon skating there and sipping hot chocolate together inside to warm up, and then we drove to my favourite (highly secret) vintage heaven in Montreal (thanks Yana - it's the greatest!). Mike was looking for a key to wind up the old mantle clock I bought him for Christmas, which he wasn't able to find this time, but I did manage to come home with two beautiful pink floral 1920's bathmats/rugs. I have to do a post soon showing off the wonderful new/old things I've acquired in the past couple of months! It's on my list, along with the post I already have put together about a great new vintage shop in NDG which also features an outfit a dear friend of mine sent me on my birthday which is wayyyy overdue to be featured. But I was so excited about these wintery photos today I thought I'd post them while I was still feeling so fond of the frigid season (holy alliteration!).

I just couldn't help myself

I'm jumping right on the bandwagon with every other blogger who has already posted these, because I really think UO's Spring 2010 catalog is just too pretty. Chances are I won't buy a single item because I just can't bring myself to spend money there sometimes, but I'll definitely look at it daily and imagine that the weather here is even half way as wonderful as it looks to be in these photos! I just can't wait to be able to wear little silk dresses with straw hats and socks with little delicate t-strap sandals...or maybe i'll dare to get myself those sky-high platform sandals that are popping up all over the place! Being 5" taller really would be wonderful, even if it is only for a couple months a year! It just wouldn't be responsible to buy them and wear them in Montreal snow...I'd just topple over into a snowbank and freeze to death!
Anyhow, I'll leave you with these images to warm you up, even though I'm sure you've all already seen them about a hundred times!

Westmount Park

Yesterday ended up being one of the most wonderful, spontaneous, perfect Saturdays in a long, long time! Between last semester ending, and then the holidays, it had been a while since Mike and I were able to spend a day entirely on our own doing whatever we wanted, and despite being brutally cold outside, the sun was shining and it all just fit together perfectly!
We started the day out on the laziest possible foot, just lying around in bed for ages reading books and talking (I've been escaping Winter with the Pinckney novel Rhiannon sent me in the mail, and Mike is reading 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea!). When we did eventually decide to get out of bed, we meandered over to St-Viateur bagel for the best Montreal breakfast we could think of, and then since we were in NDG anyway, we decided just to brave the cold and walk around the Monkland Village for a while.

We visited our favourite used book shop and got coffees and then ended up at a new vintage shop that opened up not too long ago on Sherbrooke street called Kavanagh (which I will elaborate on later this week!), where I bought my very own accordion!!!!!!! As well as a perfect 60's knitted cream color dress with brown embroidered flowers on the pockets, which I will surely be debuting on the blog soon!
Anyway, we ended up at Steve's Music store because Mike had to replace some broken drum skins and then drove around looking at different neighbourhoods we'd like to live in someday. As the sun was starting to set we couldn't help stopping in Westmount park, which is just down the road from where my first apartment was, to take some blog photos of the Pink Martini coat I bought in Ottawa when I was there for New Years. (The coat was on mega sale and it's so cozy and warm and I love it so much. Although I still think the Dear Creatures one I bought on Modcloth is my favourite coat ever, just because of how soft it is and because of the cute little plaid pattern inside.) We ended the night on a high note at my friend Mel's apartment with a heated game of Pictionary and a round or two of Balderdash.

We were supposed to go for tacos tonight with some friends of Mike's but I think we might be staying in after all. I can't even imagine layering on tights and scarves and coats and boots right now to face the outside world. I think I'll stay curled up happily on the couch watching old Arrested Development episodes and finishing up that Pinckney novel I was talking about earlier! It's easier to pretend I'm in Charleston with Judith than to admit that I'm in Montreal in the middle of January!

My little review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I have to confess to being one of those people who falls completely in love with characters in movies. Other people can be so casual about their favourite models, singers, actors, etc. but I still get all coocoo at the thought of Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands, or James Cagney in Public Enemy! Mike thinks I'm still thirteen at heart because left to my own devices for too long, I might wind up covering my walls in posters of my movie crushes like I used to with that blonde haired Sawa kid!

It happens with men and women alike, I think it's got a lot to do with the types of characters these people play. But in other cases, it really is just something about the person's face that gets me.

Allow me to segway into the point of this post...
Tuesday night, Mike took me to see the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I've never actually seen any of Terry Gilliam's movies, except Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - which I thought was just too strange to even sit through. I've never been a fan of Monty Python, but was sort of forced to let it grow on me because my sister and my Dad and Mike all love it so, so much. So it's sort of weird that I was so obsessed with the idea of seeing this film, but something in the previews made me think of old 1930's travelling circuses and of Jessica from The Cats Pajama's favourite old film "Freaks". Plus Lily Cole has been a serious she-crush of mine ever since I saw her in this editorial alongside Marilyn Manson. She has such a Lula girl look to her and I think her huge eyes, big red hair, tiny little mouth and paler than pale skin make her look just like a procelain doll. (Do I sound creepy yet?).

Anyway, the movie was pretty great. It has some holes, and it doesn't make all that much sense, but visually it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, Freaks, Harry Potter and Hunter S Thompson's brain all mashed together. And Tom Waits playing the devil really made Mike and I happy too! Plus Lily's gypsy-esque wardrobe made me want to stack layers of paisley print shawls and skirts on myself and tie bells around my ankles! The head of hair on that girl just isn't fair. I'm gonna keep working on growing out the messy mop on my head and see about going red by the end of 2010!

Suffices to say, if you don't mind sitting through a few acid trippy moments, this movie is worth checking out, if only for it's visual appeal and the raspy sound of Tom Wait's wonderful voice! And an all star male cast including Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell (who I sort of don't like, but was okay in this movie) aren't too hard on the eyes either...

A Year in Review (and some Blogger Resolutions)

New Years Eve Day along the side of the highway to Ottawa
Coat: Dear Creatures via ModCloth
tights: HUE
shoes: Thrifted
Glasses: Brooks Brothers
Scarf: H&M

True to tradition, I'm doing this post a week behind all the other fashion blogger ladies, but here is my "2009-a-year-in-review" blogpost, a few days late, but better late than never!
I think I'll devote this review-and-resolutions-post mostly to my blogging year, since my personal year was mediocre at best. As far as this blog is concerned though, the past 12 months have taken me all kinds of places I never thought I'd go (both literally and figuratively)!
Honestly, this blog has introduced me to some of the friendliest most positive people I've ever encountered, and meeting a select few of them in person this Summer only solidified the friendships I've made online and made me all the more attached to this wonderful little world we've all created.

From Top Left to Bottom Right:
1. My newest friend and obsession Hank, the Ukulele; 2. Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, TN had to be one of the prettiest spots to take blog photos that I've ever been!; 3. Mike and I have never taken much time to explore Montreal, but my blog lead us to different places we read about for blog taking photos and in the process we fell in love with certain areas, in this case Old Montreal. ; 4. This is from the Fall when I went through a phase where I only wore white dresses with black tights. I'm still working on getting out of that phase....it's just so easy!; 5. Last Spring, Mike and I visited the Felix House where his step dad raised his two boys. Unfortunately it became a historical home and was taken over by the local government and Mike's family wasn't allowed to live there anymore, but it was the prettiest place to sneak around taking pictures at!; 6. Another favourite spot I discovered because of wanting blog photos was Angringon Park, I already know once the weather gets warmer that I'll be spending lots of time there.

So since my year was consumed with massive amounts of school work and job hunts and moving twice and falling outs with sort-of-friends, I'd like to dedicate my New Years post to all of you who really are the some of the most positive influences in my life! So here are some pictures of my favourite blogging moments from these past 12 months.

BLOGGER MEETUPS!

From Top Left to Bottom Right
1. Rhiannon from LiebeMarlene in Atlanta, GA; 2. Lauren from Blooming Leopold in Nashville, TN; 3. Aya from Strawberry Koi in Chicago, IL; 4. Quincy from Q's Daydream in Baltimore, MD

My meetups this Summer were the highlight of my year by far. I was equally nervous every time I showed up to the meeting points, but each and every one of the girls I met was as unique and wonderful and quirky and fun as they come across to be in their blogs and they put me right at ease every time! It's such a strange feeling to be meeting someone you feel like you're friends with already, but you've never heard their voice, or how seen their mannerisms...it definitely made me appreciate these new friends of mine as more than just faces on a screen! And to be honest I think meeting such creative spirits sort of got me motivated to work on my blog and I can honestly say it's grown in leaps and bounds since the Summer!

So on that note, I'd like to welcome the new year with open arms and share with you a few online resolutions I've made for the brand new decade we're entering! I can only hope this year will bring even more wonderful new friendships, and strengthen others!

MY 2010 NEW YEARS BLOGGER RESOLUTIONS

• Post weekly items to my Etsy Shop
• Read up on and visit lots of historical spots within driving distance (and remember to take blog photos!)
  
• Come up with original topics to write about both here and for my monthly WORN contribution.
• Meet even more blogger girls!
• Try to stay up to date in responding to all your wonderful comments!