Well folks, I finally did it.

My husband is notoriously very hard to shop for. He has a very particular taste and he shops all the time. Usually he's "been there, done that" and after being with him for many years I have basically given up trying to buy him gifts.

But this Father's Day I did it!

Yup, I finally found a gift that he didn't have, nor did he even think of (thanks CityLine -Fashion Friday)

This is  the  ultimate luxury my friends - check out these shoe laces!

This is a collection of 3 sets of coloured laces, one pocket square and one flower label pin. I went conservative and picked the "Wall Street" collection - but you can go wild with the hipster collection.

Since Jp has a beautiful collection of dress socks filled with fabulous colours and designs -  I thought "what is better than to dressing up his shoes?" The company is called Stolen Riches (love the name too) - and I recommend the next time you're looking for a gift for the guy who has everything - this might be your solution.

White girl's hats...

I was just talking with a friend of mine from Texas. He was telling me about his Tilly hat that he got for Father's Day - a "Made in Canada" hat - which is interesting as I thought Texan's would've had lots of hat choices.

Anyway, he said he would wear it for gardening.

I told him I wear a "white girl's baseball hat" in the garden.

I meant a baseball hat that was white and made for women.

He thought I meant a hat for "white girls" and was most curious what that looked like.

I think he's been in the south too long... wouldn't you say?

How old are your clothes?

How old are the items in your closet? About every three years I tend to go through every single item in my clothes closet and in my dresser drawers, try everything on and with the help of Jp, I will either keep or donate the items. Sometimes the item was never good in the first place (an impulse buy or something I didn't try on in the store-I'm bad for that), and sometimes it just no longer fits in my life now. 

The other day it was a wee bit cold for my daily dog walk and so I pulled out my trusty ear muffs -which I later realized I've had since Junior High. Wow, that's a long time. But since they're still in good shape and not some crazy kid colour and of course they're functional, I will keep wearing them.

 

My SIL who is a Fashion Queen Extraordinaire and fashionably slender has a very extensive clothing collection and I don't think there is much she has discarded - and I know of at least one item that she's had since high school - an orange pair of pants. Knowing her wardrobe, I'm sure there are more items she's had almost as long - or just as long as those pants. It's been said many times that items come back in style especially  if you have really good quality pieces.

What's the oldest thing in your closet? And why do you keep it. 

We've had a rough couple of weeks around here topped off with a cold for both of us. For me it was strange - the first 4 days it was without the sinus-y stuff. Then I felt better for two days, then WHAM-O head cold! Yuck! I won't go into all the details but it was definitely energy draining. In fact on Tuesday I was so very tired that I wanted to just go to bed but I had to go to dance class as it was our last group rehearsal before our show on the weekend.

Oh didn't I mention I was in a show? Yes, me. I will be on stage. It's freaky scary. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Look fear in the face and do things that scare you? Well I did just that. I agreed to perform. I have never performed in my whole life. I was always so painfully shy that I was the kid that moved the curtains or looked after the lighting in all the elementary school plays or the one that did the research so someone else could present the information in all the business courses I took. Oh sure I can sit at the boardroom table and talk, but I'm not at the front of the room with a PowerPoint presentation. 

Anyway, I went to that class. I figured I'd have to sit down when I got too tired. I figured I'd be too tired to drive home. But I made it. I gave it my all and I made it through the class. Today, I still have a cold but I'm feeling much better. I'm sure it will be all gone for the show this weekend.

There were a couple days when I was too tired to move my hands but I have been working on several projects - I am doing some hand quilting, I have an embroidery project on the go and I just finished knitting two hats for my Etsy shop - which may be going to the baby photographer soon.

Here's a cute little grape hat for summer: 

And here's one for fall - a pumpkin hat:

Sewing

My parents did a stellar job providing for us and my mom provide healthy home cooked meals, baked goods, awesome Halloween costumes, clean house, clean clothes etc. But there was one thing she let pile up a bit and that was mending clothes (and in the early years - darning socks too). And I fully understand why she didn't like this task, especially with kids clothes because the pant legs are so small - and she didn't have a free-arm** sewing machine.

So when 'the kid' hands me a pair of his skinny jeans with duct tape on a knee tear and asks me to attach a patch I wasn't so sure I could do it. Especially when kids sometimes have unreal expectations of how things look. Jp and I asked him a couple of times to get an idea of what he envisioned  - a rectangular patch on the top made out of plaid.

Because it was the knee and so much material was missing, I first had to apply some iron-on interfacing on the inside so I had something to patch to, and then I finished the patch.

He was ecstatic and said it was awesome - and then handed me a pair of black jeans that he also wanted fixed.

Ack!!!

Well since machine sewing isn't something I enjoy too much (mainly because I'm trying to work off the kitchen table and my foot pedal slides all over the floor - I miss my sewing table which has been put away due to space limitations) and I would have liked to do them both at the same time,  I told him I'd do it when he's here next weekend.

I did the same kind of stuff to my parents  - I just had no idea how much work went into fixing things and how difficult it might have been  for my parents to fix something (I never even considered that they couldn't) or thought about  how much time it took. When I was a kid, I just never thought about my parents having time for themselves, that's what Friday night and Saturday nights were for - the rest of the time I think I assumed that their 'chores' filled their days and there wasn't anything wrong with asking dad to fix my bike or mom to fix my clothes or sew me something.

It's kinda like when kids see a teacher in a store for the first time and they realize that teachers have a life outside of school, don't-cha think?


** Most sewing today machines have this attachment. It can be removed from the machine to convert from a flat bed to free arm. The free arm can be used for any difficult to sew areas, in particular, sleeves and trouser hems.

5 Bags Full

With all the talk of clutter clearing these days, many people admit that they feel so much better once it's all done and over with, and I have to agree. With the help of Jp, I went through everything in my closet, tried everything on, showed it to him and looked at in a full length mirror and did our own version of "What Not to Wear"  discarding FIVE  bags of clothes!

Here they are:

I wanted to quit when I finished my shirts/blouses, he encouraged me to continue.
I wanted to quite when I finished pants/skirts, but he encouraged me to continue.
He helped me bag them up and I took them to the thrift store the next day so there was no going back.  I couldn't have done it alone. If you have to do this type of project - I encourage you to get a helper. You've seen all those shows, many of us need someone to support us in our end goal as it's easy to want to change the rules part way through.

My clothes are no longer crammed together making everything wrinkly. And now I can find everything and know that everything fits and looks decent on me. I truly am happy with less choices but I still have lots of clothes!

And we've learned a lesson  - most of the clothes came from three stores (!) and I bought many without trying them on, or too quickly. So when it's time to buy I must try it on and I must really, really, really like it - no more "it's all right" clothes.

Jeans Day

I guess my husband got tired of looking at my ass in saggy-ass jeans, so we when we ended up in a store selling them - guess what happened? Oh, you don't know? Okay I'll tell you - I tried on about 30 pairs of jeans and ended up buying 8. I know 8 pairs of jeans - but darn it if I'm going to go through all that work putting them on and taking them off, then I might as well just buy them! The good news was that I'm down a size - that's why so many of my jeans looked baggy! Yay! The bad news is the chunk-o-dough I spent. I'm going to try to forget about that and just enjoy not having frumpy jeans! Yay me!

Nothing is something

I got nothing. Yup, I got nothing interesting to say.

This weekend we: bought a new composter, put it together and transferred all the old compost into the new, put out the solar lights in the garden, painted  some garden ornaments, took down last year's 'false bamboo' and other miscellaneous garden activities. I also did some knitting and laundry, took the dog for a couple of walks and cooked a really good brisket.

With the help of Jp, we cleaned out my closet, this time tackling shoes and removing about 40 pair (?). I still have lots left, and now I can get to the ones I wanted to wear. I also got rid of some suits and blazers and other outdated ensembles that I haven't worn for a long time. And, we already dropped it all off at the charity - less chance to change my mind.

Lots of busy work, no time for real crafting and nothing interesting, but hey look at that - I did find something to say. Thanks for reading!

A Story About Jumpers

And now I love Scotland even more:



Found on the Meet Me at Mikes site.

3 bags full

On Saturday, I purged.
Oh no, not like that!

I got rid of four bags of magazines(one bag isn't in the photo, I know), and three full bags of clothes - just in case you want photos.... I must say I won't miss those magazines, and I'm so happy I can find more of my clothes and access my closet better. I'm sure I won't miss those clothes either. Some I had kept too long, like the office clothes from when I was thin and had an "important" job. There was a time when I couldn't get rid of them, hoping I get back into an office. But after 10 years in this job, I've accepted that times have changed, I have changed, I will probably never wear that size again, those clothes won't look good on my older body, and styles have changed. Some clothes were looking a little tired and I can move on a bit easier.

I have to admit I couldn't have done this chore by myself. Jp is a very good helper when it comes to assessing clothes. And I find it's good to get support when trying to clean out clothes closets, don't you?

So my New Year's resolution to reduce my purchases of clothes and magazines, should help keep my closet this way for a while. (At least until I bring in my spring/summer wardrobe, and then I'll have to purge again!)

In the mean time, look at all the extra hangers I have! Decluttering guru Peter Walsh would have been happy.
Oh, and did you know that it's National Clean Out Your Closets Month? (I found this out after I cleaned out my closet)

Back to school clothes

This weekend, in what started out to be a shopping quest for shirts for JP, actually turned out to be a shopping trip for me! And I got some great deals - three pairs of "dress/casual" pants - for $9 each! Yup! That's right. And yoga pants for $15! Whee!! Bargoons for me! Yay!

I also got a pair of funky rain boots - they'll make splashing in puddle so much more fun!
(They weren't a bargain, but they were
on sale and they were so
cute I couldn't resist!)

And even though I'm not going to school, it sure would be fun to pick up some new pencils and binders and.... I always feel September is more of a new year than January, and I'm apt to start new things and make promises to my self in September rather than in January.

And one more thing I did - or rather, didn't do - was I didn't turn my computer on all day yesterday - no internet, no email. I took a break. It wasn't actually "a thing", it just happened that way. And when I realized about 8pm last night that I hadn't been near the computer I started to think that I should, just in case something happened, but then I realized I'd made it through the whole day-surely anything could wait until the morning and if there was any earth shattering news I'm sure I would have heard about it some how. And there wasn't - and now I'm glad I had a one day break - maybe I should try that every Sunday. What do you think?

Run for the Border

Yesterday after work Jp and I took a trip "across the line" to Bellingham, Washington for a cruise through Bellis Fair Mall. First stop, Auntie Anne's for some pretzel dogs - oh so yummy and buttery (oh and fatty and bad for you, but still yum!) And then once our energy was revved up - on to some clothes shopping - a peak at shoes and dresses for me, and shoes, pants, sweaters for him.

I picked up a couple scoop neck tees in black, white and brown - always a good staple for the wardrobe. And then I spied the cutest dresses; the photo doesn't do it justice but it's got pin tucks down the front and a flouncy hem. I bought one in navy and one in brown with wasabi coloured polka dots and matching ribbon:

Detail of the pattern:

I'm very excited about wearing this dress this spring and have been dreaming of the perfect shoes and cardigan to go with it. On my way to pay for my finds, I spotted a short, double breasted red wool/cashmere winter coat. I tried it on and it fit very nicely, so I added that to my collection. Jp found some pants at a great sale price too.

Many of the stores seemed to be cleaned out of stock, I guess there was some heavy after-Christmas sales - but that's probably a good thing for our wallets. Still there were some amazing prizes.

Next we hit Wal-mart for some of those items like laundry soap and other household things (including embroidery needles and yarn) and there I found these cute little note pads, oh and some heart shaped paperclips - just in time for Valentines:


And then we picked up some groceries - you know the things most Canadians cross the border for - milk, cheese and things we can't get - like this jar of cheese (?) I haven't tried it yet, but I will very soon. We found a very interesting grape juice/white tea combination - First Blush Juice, no alcohol but all the flavours were named after the grapes used - chardonnay, merlot, syrah, cabernet, etc. Oh it's very yummy - I feel all yogalishis! If you're a cold tea drinker, I'm sure you will love it.
We always try something interesting including many of the Mexican/Hispanic foods - so many are so yummy, our family favourite - La Lechera - the squeeze product as well as the cereal - La Lechera Flakes. Although we haven't seen the cereal for several months - if you know where to find it, please let me know. Read this blogger's comments here.

We did have to pay duty(on the clothes) and taxes (on just about everything else) at the border, but really even adding that cost, we still came out ahead.

On the way home, Jp stopped for gas and came back to the car with this little treat for me, isn't it cute? Even the company it came from is cute - AmuseMints - cute name and check out their website for all the adorable tins.

We got home later so we're a bit tired but everything went smoothly and it was great to get out and have some fun. And that's how we take our minds off the fog and the cold, now back to life as we know it - work, laundry, cleaning, cooking.....

Another FO and one in progress

This is what I did on Saturday:

1. Hippo Kleenex Holder: I had some green vinyl I inherited from my mum's craft room and I've been thinking about what I could do with the scraps. The first thing that came to mind was a hippo (one of my favourite animals-but not in real life because they are MEAN!). I made an overlapping back flap as I was going to make a coin purse and add a snap closure. But after I embroidered the face details and sewed the edges by hand (I couldn't do it neat enough on the machine), it suddenly hit me - it would be perfect to carry those pocket tissues!

Front

Back w/tissues

2. The second project is a purse I made out of a felted sweater which I bought at the thrift store. The pattern is from Altered Knits by Leigh Radford. I find the purse too plain, so I won't use it until I can embroider on it. I'm thinking about adding some flowers in burgundy. I may also try adding some knitted flowers but I haven't come across the materials yet in my knitting stash.

Then I read 1/2 of Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jenn Lancaster. You might like her blog.

Today, I went through my clothes closet and swapped out my summer and winter clothes. Summer gets stored in those shrinking vaccum storage bags in the back of the closet. Except I think I have more winter clothes, it's hard to tell because it's so much more bulkier. It would be nice to be able to get better access to them, they're stacked in plastic boxes in the front of my cupboard - not the best way to have clothes... but I'm not complaining. Oh no I am not.

I was also picking out outfits because I have to go on a business trip this week and needed some corporate looking clothes - I have to try everything on because I work from a home office and don't usually wear heels and skirts there - usually I wear things like yoga pants or jeans and my awesomely comfy Puma runners). I think I've got all the outfits planned. Now I just have to pack. And remember to give my fish a feeder block so they'll be okay while I'm gone. The dogs will go to my neighbour who is nice enough to add my 2 dogs to her 2 dogs and have all 4 of them run around the house togther and sleep in all the people beds!

Have you ever.....?

spent hours rearranging and organizing something, only to have it look worse than it was before?

Well I just did. Normally, I'm pretty good at organizing but somehow my clothes closet is looking messier than it was. I even got rid of a garbage bag of clothes.

The one thing I thought would be good was if I put all my shoes on the top and my sweaters etc on the bottom in storage bags. That way I could see and access my shoes so I could wear more of them. As well, I wanted to use the storage bags that you vacuum out the air, but the store didn't have any - so maybe if I try again for those bags I'll be able to compress my winter sweaters and my plan will work.

So, for now, I've sort of put it back, with a big pile on a chair just so I can take a break and think about it. I don't think I can get rid of too much more, so I'll have to figure out a better organizing style. Maybe the shoes all have to return to the bottom of the closet and things can be put back the way they were - there is always that I suppose.

I'm so frustrated I could cry! waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Yesterday I went through my closet to pick out clothes for my trip. It's hard to remember what I wear in 22 + degree weather, but I tried on lots of stuff and think I have everything set for next weekend. I went into a couple of stores to see if I could add anything to my wardrobe, but I was surprised to find lots of muted tones for spring. Not our usual pinks and blues, but olives and mulberry colours. I'll wait to buy stuff there. I've got a pile of clothes that I can look at and think about before I pack them in my suitcase and perhaps I won't have one of those travel moments where I wished I brought something else, or have a "why did I think this would look good?" moment. Although I find out some of my mistakes after I've seen myself in a photo.

Last night we went to a corporate even at the Kerrisdale Arena. I was really impressed, they did a really good job with the food and the drinks and decorations and entertainment which was all put together by the wife of the owner. Except the only thing was this: total driving time = 4 hours, party = 3.5 hours. Well I can't complain too much because I slept for the last 1/2 an hour of the trip, so I guess it was equal after all.

I had planned a pretty outfit including my ruby suede shoes, but then JP asked me if I was going to be comfortable and since I couldn't guarantee that I would be okay standing in heels for a long time (I"m so out of practice) that I switched to my Blundstone boots, which meant changing my dressier top as well. At first I was a little sad that I couldn't dress up more, and a bit grumpy with JP. But we ended up standing (on a cold concrete floor) through the whole event and at the very end one over exuberant drunk girl was sloshing beer all over me, which wasn't so bad with my leather boots but would have been a freak out if they were my suede shoes. So glad I had on comfy shoes. I'm not ready to clean out my closet of heels just yet though. I guess I'm still in denial and hope that I can still wear them sometime.

Well it's a sunny afternoon so JP and I are off, heading out the door. It's a mystery to me. He likes to create adventures. I'll let you know where we ended up. No calls for my bike yet, and we're not going to stay home waiting.