Friday 31 August 2012

Bunny Shirt






What I Wore:
Shirt: Pacific Mall
Shorts: Old Navy

I spent today just doing chores around the house (again) and doing some more job hunting. I didn't leave the house and I didn't feel like putting on shoes to take these pictures so there you go. These are the third and final pair of shorts that I own. They're a little shorter than the other ones, but they are super comfy and I think they look pretty good. I love this shirt. I got it from this crazy place called Pacific Mall (apparently the largest Chinese indoor mall in North America according to their website) in the outskirts of Toronto. I visited it last summer with a friend. They have tons of shops with clothes, electronics, and a great food court. They also have a few bubble tea places scattered about, which is great since I looooove bubble tea. The only downside is it is in the middle of nowhere. Unless you have a car it is nearly impossible to get to it, which is why I have only been once. I definitely plan on going again sometime in the future.

To be honest there is not much going on with my life right now. Most days have been spent dealing with unpacking our stuff from Halifax and looking for jobs. It has been pretty slow going around here. As I mentioned before I really want to get started on some new sewing projects since I have the time now, but I am finding it a little hard to get motivated. I am going to attempt to work on that because I have some fun ideas cooked up in my head.

I have been successfully blogging for three months now, yay me! Looking at my blog stats I am excited to see that people actually seem to be reading my posts. I even get some comments from time to time, which is nice to see. As of right now I only have two followers (sad face), but I hope that that will pick as time goes on. I will continue to post as regularly as possible and try to plan some fun content. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this!

Wednesday 29 August 2012

The Dread Pirate Wesley








What I Wore:
Shirt: H&M
Skirt: Smart Set
Belt: ???
Shoes: Spring
Necklace: A gift from monsieur Colin
Purse (on the railing): Spring
Size: 14

My sister's cat The Dread Pirate Wesley (or Wesley, or Welley as we call him) wanted in on the blog action today. He is always demanding attention and cries if he is not being petted 24/7. I decided to humour him and take a few pictures, I can't resist a cute cat. Of course Luna was jealous and wanted in too so Colin took this picture of her:


I swear she just looks evil and is actually cute in real life. She is much happier to be home and in her larger cage, and have more space to run around. She also loves harrassing the cat, and even though he is twice as big as she is (and she is a big  rabbit) he is terrified of her. Correction, he used to be terrified. Now he just kind of inspects her and then runs away if she hops suddenly. It must be the sudden movement that scares him. 

I totally forgot to detail the Shakespeare By The Sea play we saw our second last day in Halifax. We went to see Alice in Wonderland in Point Pleasant Park, and it was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance (understandable) so I didn't get any good ones, but it was totally worth it for the show alone. I think my favourite part was the rap with the Mad Hatter, so good. It's too bad we didn't get a chance to see all the shows, I also wanted to see The Merry Wives of Windsor, but we were so pressed for time it didn't work out. If anyone is in Halifax this fall, or next summer I highly recommend that you catch a performance.

On a more serious note, sometimes it is hard being positive about my size when I am in the presence of certain people. I know their comments mean well, and are not intentionally hurtful, but they still sting. I have been trying to take these comments with a grain of salt though because I know these people do not have an entirely healthy/realistic sense of self. I think being around people in this mindset caused a lot of my self esteem issues when I was younger. They have been deeply rooted. Participating in the I Am Proud Of My Size link up has done wonders for my self esteem, I definitely still have some down days, but they are fewer and farther between. I have learned that not everyone has to, or wants to look like a fashion model, and just because you don't doesn't mean you have to be down on yourself all the time. I can still want to change things about my self, but I don't have to hate myself for having some flaws. In fact I should embrace those flaws because they make me me. I can be happy with how am now, and I fully intend on doing so. So thank you Rachele and all the other lovely participants because you are helping me to be proud of my size.

Monday 27 August 2012

FanExpo


What I Wore:
Jacket: Made by moi
Skirt: Also made by moi
Tights: I have no idea
Boots: Thrifted
Necklace: From a HalCon vendor
Travel Case:  A gift from Colin
Parasol: FanExpo last year 

Saturday we went to FanExpo in Toronto which was awesome! In case anyone had any doubts about me being a nerd I think this post has just assuaged the doubts. My outfit was supposed to be steampunk inspired with a more modern twist. I made it a couple years ago while I was still in university. I really enjoy steampunk and am glad that it is becoming more popular because I enjoy looking at the outfits and weaponry. I am not so much into the weapon building part myself, but I like looking at ones other people have made. I should have taken a back shot, but I didn't think about it until after I took it off. The back kind of swoops down like a tailcoat (but one piece instead of two) and has eyelets and ribbon in the middle to cinch it in a bit. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and it is actually one of my favourite things that I have made. At the convention I got to drool over John Barrowman and went to a Q&A session with Alan Tudyk <3 He announced at the beginning of the session that he is single, which of course led to a lot of swooning and proclamations of love from the audience and question askers. He seems pretty down to earth and genuinely a cool guy. We spent most of the day just wandering around and looking at all the vendor and artist booths. This is the fourth year that I have attended and I think the novelty is wearing off a little. There were a lot of people which made it hard to maneuver the crowds. Not as many people were dressed up, and it was hard to ask the ones who were for pictures because everyone was moving so quickly. It's always the same vendors too, with the same stuff for sale. I went a little crazy buying stuff the first few times, but ended up buying nothing this time. This year it was definitely the guests that attracted me to attend, I think I may reconsider going next year, or I might go on Friday which tends to be less busy. Don't get me wrong, I still had a blast and got some great pictures, but it might be time for a break. 

Here are some more pictures from that day:



Who else is excited for Lego Lord of the Rings?! There was a lifesize lego Gandalf and Bilbo at FanExpo!

Reboot

Hulk SMASH!

Best Costume!

The robots actually were robots!
  
Getting into the groove of writing posts here is difficult. Friday was very busy as I had an appointment and then went job hunting for the rest of the day. By the time I got home I was really warm and sweaty (yuck) because it has been super humid here. I did not feel like taking any outfit pictures and writing an update. And Saturday of course we were at the convention all day. To be honest I haven't left the house today so thank goodness I had pictures to post from the weekend. I need to step it up a notch and be more motivated to post in the future. I really want to do more sewing and stuff now that I am home too, so expect more posts about that int he future.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Bitter Sweet



What I Wore:
Shirt: Random store in Jackson Square Mall
Tank: Suzy Shier
Pants: Thrifted
Shoes: Spring
Size: 14

It will be I Am Proud Of My Size link up time again tomorrow so I am adding in a link at the bottom of this post to the lovely Rachele's blog. I am so happy to be a part of this link up still and hope that it continues for a long time. I am excited to have a new venue for outfit pictures, I love these stairs. This shirt used to have sparkles on it (on the bow) and is now looking a little sad without them, but I still love it. I am totally rambling now, so onto the meat and potatoes of this post.    

After a 33 hour trip Colin and I made it "home" (to my parent's house) last night. Generally speaking the trip went pretty well. We had a bit of a rocky start when the taxi we called refused to take us to the train station because of the rabbit. It was a very weird dismissal, he didn't say he was allergic or that he didn't want pets in his car (which are both understandable things), he just said no. We asked if he could call us another taxi since we were on a schedule but he refused and drove away. It was really weird. Luckily we had allowed extra time for incidents like that and made it to the station with plenty of time to spare. For once our luggage was not overweight and we did not have to do the embarrassing clothing shuffling (it is always my clothes bag that is over). We got our bags all organised and the rabbit shipped off onto the train and then hung around until boarding time. The trip went smoothly until we transferred trains in Montreal and this woman got on board with her two small children. She spent the entire trip from Montreal to just outside of Toronto on the phone. Her children kept wanting to ask her questions and she would yell at them and tell them to shut up. It was really upsetting. The attendant came by to check their tickets and she hadn't paid for her kids. They are free under a certain age, but it is debatable whether they should have been free or not. The attendant seemed uncertain, but the woman was still on her phone and being irritable so the attendant just let it be. Then as they were disembarking this older gentleman was waiting for the train to come to a full stop before moving towards the exit. The woman got really mad and yelled at him for being in the way of them getting off. It was so rude. People like that should not have kids, everyone on our car was really upset by it and someone mentioned the whole situation to the attendant afterwards. Not sure what could be done about it, but it was hard to watch that and not say something. Those poor kids. Transferring our luggage from the train to the bus in Toronto was also an ordeal. They don't have luggage trollies and it took 6 trips in total, with a kind attendant watching our bags at the ticket counter. I am just so glad it is over. 

It feels a little surreal to be home, like we never really left. There are definitely pros and cons to living in either Halifax of Hamilton. Halifax is so clean and fresh, and really a beautiful city. We have a lot of friends there and there is always something to do. Unfortunately there are no jobs there right now and it is really expensive to live there. I am going to miss all our peeps in Halifax but moving home was the only option right now. In Hamilton we can live my parents rent free and of course we have family and friends here. Sadly there aren't really any jobs here either, and it would be nice to have our own apartment. I just hope that we find work soon and can relax a little.  

Today was devoted to running errands, we had to get some groceries and food for Luna. The rest of the week will be spent job hunting. At least now that we are in the city it will be easier to go into places like the mall and elsewhere to apply for jobs in person. I always preferred that to online applications. Anyone who has been reading this regularly probably guessed that I did not get that job I had the phone interview for. Some other classmates of mine did though, and I am really pleased for them. It is looking like I will not be getting a heritage job right out of school, which is unfortunately to be expected in the market right now. Luckily I have some other skills and will be mostly looking for sewing or retail jobs to start out with. 

As promised here is the link to the farewell blog I wrote for work. If you are at all interested in seeing some of the stuff I photographed over the summer I would recommend you check it out. That concludes this ridiculously long post.  


Saturday 18 August 2012

C'est Fini






What I Wore:
Cardi ~ thrifted
Dress ~ Zellers
Belt ~ from a shirt
Shoes ~ Spring 
Necklace ~ Zellers

First can I just say how nice it was to be able to wear a cardigan for some of the day yesterday, the heat is finally breaking!

It was the last day of my internship yesterday. It still feels a little surreal to be done and getting ready to head back home on Monday isn't helping. It was a good last day though. I finalized some of the work that I have been doing there, printed out my research report for the site to have a copy of, wrote a goodbye blog post for my supervisor (which I will link to on here once it is up), and had a lovely lunch at Gingergrass on Barrington. The ladies got me this lovely broach:




I particularly enjoy the instructions on how to wear it on the back. It's super weird to be done, it feels like I have been working up to this moment for a really long time. I have wanted to do this program since my third year of university and now I have and it's over. Back then I was really looking forward to doing my internship at the Fashion Museum  in Bath. Obviously that didn't work out for a number of reasons. To be honest I am glad that I ended up back in Nova Scotia instead. My placement was really amazing, and I still got to work with textile pieces which is my dream. I think it worked out for the best and maybe at some point in the future I can move to Bath and work at the museum there. 

After work Colin and I headed over to the Museum of Natural History for a special screening of Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and Serenity. It was put on by the Halifax chapter of Can't Stop the Serenity , and most of the proceeds go to this great charity called Equality now. There was popcorn, a silent auction, an evil laugh contest, and good times to be had by all. It was really fun and I even won some free swag (I also won some chocolate which is not pictured, I forgot to include it). 


The Guild comic also has a Buffy one in it. Overall it was a great last day of work and last Friday in Halifax. 

Colin and I are leaving on Monday, so I may be on a bit of a hiatus until we get home and get organised. We are planning on going to see Shakespeare By The Sea tonight, so if it doesn't get rained out I might have one more post this weekend and then none for a little while. 
  


Wednesday 15 August 2012

Alex's Birthday Bash

Today was my good friend Alex's birthday, you can check out her blog here . I met her in my first year of Costume Studies at Dalhousie and we have been friends ever since. She ended up going to NSCAD after first year, but we stayed close throughout all of school. It was really nice to be able to hang out with her again this summer. A few of us headed over to her house for a potluck/buffet style dinner. There were some restrictions on what we could bring so I decided to make the first corn on the cob recipe from Elsie's blog.

Prepping the limes

Into the oven 

Finished product, including garnish

It turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it, I definitely want to try out the other two recipes. 
there was lots of delicious food and fun times to be had by all.





Also, there was this weird spoon. If you can't read it it says "You're Pregnant." Apparently it was left on my friend's porch (before she lived there) with three lifesavers sitting in it. No one knows where it came from, so weird! 

Me and the birthday girl! 
(please excuse the tensor bandage)

What I Wore:
Dress: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Broach: Dealer booth at FanExpo
Shoes: ???
Size: 14

Time for another I Am Proud of My Size link-up. Follow the link below for more information about the project and the lovely Rachele over at The Nearsighted Owl.





Tuesday 14 August 2012

Patches and Button Flies



I'm wearing shorts again!


Peephole back, love it. 

What I Wore:
Shirt: Suzy Shier
Tank: Suzy Shier
Shorts: The Gap
Shoes: Spring 

I need to stop listening to the weather station. Yesterday it said it was going to be nice and cool so I wore pants and a medium weight shirt. Of course it was disgustingly warm and humid. I was too hot to take outfit pictures and changed as soon as I got home. Today it said it was going to be warm so I decided to take precautionary measures and wear shorts and a lightweight shirt. It was relatively cool and I was actually a little chilly at work. It warmed up by the time I got home, but if I could have switched what I wore today with yesterday's clothes it would have been so much better! Stupid weather. Anyway, I am still glad I wore these shorts because I haven't worn them on here yet. I never usually shop at the Gap, but I needed shorts a few years ago and these were on sale. They also have a button fly, and I love the patches (I am a sucker for stripes). It's all about the little details for me.

Lately Colin and I have been really into watching The IT Crowd. If you are even a tiny bit nerdy I guarantee you will love this show, it is a riot! The premise is a woman named Jen somehow lies her way into being the head of an IT department, and she actually knows nothing about computers. She becomes the boss of two nerdy guys named Roy and Moss (or Maurice) and hilarity ensues. The head of the company is also ridiculous and he reminds me of Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld. I really want this shirt from one of the episodes, but I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internets: 

If someone finds it please let me know! 

Anyone else watching anything good lately? 

Saturday 11 August 2012

Boatin' Around


What I Wore:
Shirt: Suzy Shier
Skirt: Smart Set
Shoes: ??

I intended on posting this yesterday, but I crashed when we got home. That's because last night the friend we were cat sitting for took us out to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants Star Anise. It turns out that she had also planned to take us out for a cruise around the harbour on the tall ship Silva! She had a friend that worked on the boat so we got on for free with crew passes. It was pretty packed, there was a live band and people dancing and drinking, but we had a good time. This is the first real time I have used my camera at night, and the pictures turned out really well. Would have been better with a tripod, but hey. Here are some pictured from our trip around the harbour:







Ship before it was full of people 







Macdonald Bridge 


Wednesday 8 August 2012

Shorts!








What I Wore:
Shirt: Zellers
Shorts: Thrifted
Shoes: Zellers
Necklace: Random mall store
Size: 14

It is link-up time again! For anyone who hasn't been following this series you should trot on over to the lovely Rachel's blog at The Nearsighted Owl. This has been a great way for me to enter into the world of blogging and I really look forward to participating in this every week. I will be sad to see the end of it. 

You heard and saw it right people, I was wearing shorts today. I actually own three pairs of shorts, but somehow they have not made it on to the blog until now. I guess I usually reserve them for the weekend, and I hardly ever do posts on the weekend. The other pairs are actually a little shorter than these ones, how risque. They may or may not make an appearance on here before the summer is out.

We did our last site visit for work today, I cannot believe how quickly this summer has gone. Only one full week left! I have really enjoyed being back in Halifax, working with great people and artifacts, and seeing old friends. I don't really want to move back to Ontario, but there is no work out here right now. There are pros and cons to living in both places really, it isn't so bad, I just love the atmosphere out here. The next few weeks will be full of making travel arrangements, packing, and having some final (for now) hang outs. I hope to come back to the East Coast as often as possible in the future, who knows I may call it home for reals one day. 






Tuesday 7 August 2012

Mix It Up

I have been a bad blogger lately but I was just feeling no motivation over the weekend to take outfit pictures. I had Monday off and instead of getting dressed and leaving the house I got some chores done that I have been meaning to do for a while. So instead of being blog productive at least I was life productive. Our roommate was moving out her stuff today and we had to re-arrange the living room so I decided to take some silly pictures during the process.


Hiding behind the couch since it has been moved out from the wall


I wanted to have the rabbit beside me but she wouldn't co-operate


Sitting on the couch


Beside the window where the other couch was





What I Wore:
Shirt: H&M
Skirt: Smart Set
Shoes: Blowfish
Neckalce: Black Market

Warning! *SPOLIER ALERT* for those of you who are late in seeing  the Dark Knight Rises (like I was) this post will contain some coverage of the movie. If you do not wish to know about it please skip to the next paragraph. If you wish to learn more, read on. I just want to say first that I really enjoyed the movie, despite the row of teenagers who were constantly checking their phones, talking, singing along to the American national anthem (a kid sings it in the movie), and frequently going up and down the stairs. We also discovered afterwards that someone had brought a one litre carton of milk into the theatre, who does that? Even with all of that it was very enjoyable. I must admit that I saw the plot twist of Marillon Cottiliard's character being Ra's Al Ghul's daughter. I think they built it up a little too much and then killed it and her off to quickly at the end. The ending totally made up for that though. I did not see the Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robin twist coming, and I really hope they go somewhere with that one. Colin (who is a bit more of an expert on this than I) and I both agree that he would make a really good Robin or Night Wing. Colin thinks they should have made him Dick Grayson, but that would have been a bit too obvious in my opinion. I also loved the tie in with Michael Caine at the cafe and then he sees  Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, that was good. I just wonder how the heck he got out of that plane especially since there was no auto-pilot as they kept repeating incessantly. I think it was a good wrap-up for the trilogy and I hope they go somewhere with the Robin sotryline in the future.

I am going to admit that I really have problems mixing and matching my clothing. I always go back to the same staples, or if I wear something that I really like I will re-wear those pieces together every time. Reading other people's blogs, and starting this one has really helped me branch out a bit, but I still have problems seeing the potential in my clothing pieces. It is something that I need to work on more if I want to keep posting new outfits on here. I find it easier to mix it up in the fall what with layers and everything, but in the summer it is really difficult. If anyone has any tips about how they do it they would be much appreciated!