Birthday pretties

Hello!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! I'm celebrating by bleaching my hair :) I got a new job so I'm starting with a fresh hair colour. My original plan was to do a blue/turquoise/yellow colouring, but my pink did not go away, so I'm opting for purple and possibly blue. Stay tuned for the results!

My birthday was great, and it's felt like a week-long happy fest since I was blessed with getting a new job and being sent off very well from my other one (such as a wonderful lunch and a cake) Plus I still have to go see Footloose! I thought I'd show you some of the gifts and sweets I got for my birthday.

 A beautiful scarf in turquoise, yellow and tan.

I bought a box of tiny pastries- the back is a latte macchiato square, the white is a Napoleon, the front is a mini eclair and the other is a chocolate dipped strawberry cream puff. Mmmmmm...

 A cute little beaded coin purse with a sundae!

 

A cute card from my friend Kat

The sweetest little bunny salt and pepper shakers, again from Kat. They are super glossy, so very hard to photograph!

Tomorrow is the beginning of November, and I wanted to start a challenge for the month. Years ago I tried to complete the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) but failed miserably. I wanted to try again, but also add something that is in keeping with a style blog. I saw that Sonia over at Anomalous Allure was doing the 30 for 30 challenge. If you've not heard of it, essentially you wear only 30 pieces of clothing for 30 days. So, I decided to combine the two and do 30 OOTD with 30 pieces of clothing in 30 days. I've photographed 6 of the outfits so far, so as long as I have the time to post every day, I'm already 1/5 there! I'll go into more detail tomorrow.

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by!

Organization FTW!

Hello!

Tomorrow's my birthday! I went out for lunch with the in laws yesterday at Himachi Steakhouse. It was an excellent food experience. I had the Udon Chicken stir fry (which I tried eating with chopsticks, but my abysmal skills made me switch to a fork halfway through), my mother-in-law had a Bento box (much bigger and more beautiful than those supermarket ones), and my husband and his father had the Teriyaki steaks. We all enjoyed our meal and were too full for dessert! The weather was gorgeous at the waterfront. We saw the most beautiful wild roses still in bloom in front of the restaurant- winter is going to hit us like a tonne of bricks this year, I think! This evening my parents will be taking us out to Darrell's Restaurant for some completely different food- burgers and fries and milkshakes. I can't decide if I'll go with my usual strawberry milkshake or try their Creamsicle or Chocolate Peanut Butter one! It's gonna be a tough decision!

A little while ago I decided to organize my jewelry and makeup. I could never find anything, and as a result I wasn't wearing my great jewelry pieces. So I went to Dollarama and Claire's and picked up a few organizers and away I went!

Before:

 I had organized things into these little plastic boxes, an Easter mug, a silver container, clear bags, but it was all getting jumbled up and just NOT working. A bad scene all around.

My makeup was half in the metal case and half in a Body Shoppe bag (the purple blob on top) my friend had brought me back from England. And it was just generally a mess. The mirror behind it is a full length one that had been sitting on this little table since we moved in.

After:

Now it's organized! I went into Claire's because I knew they had jewelry organizers, but I really didn't want to pay $20 a piece. So as I was leaving I saw a display with some of the organizers for $3-4! The two black metal organizers are from Claire's, and the white frame is my own creation.I kept a few of the plastic boxes I originally had, but only the blue ones. The pink and purple are in the linen closet! The light blue boxes with the large white tube sticking out holds all my lotions, body sprays and perfumes (the big one is Vanilla Cupcake by bodycology- my absolute favorite and running scarily low). The blue box next to it holds all my big hairclips. In front of that are my teeny tiny ouchless elastics and my sponge rollers. The three small navy boxes hold my little clips and elastics.

 I bought a cheap plastic picture frame from Dollarama and some self adhesive hooks. I popped out the glass and covered the piece of paper from the frame with old advertisements I had collected. They're from a 1939 newspaper from Toronto and include a bathing suit sale and a fur preservationist.Then I stuck on the hooks and voila! Necklace hanger!

The mirror is now safely screwed to the wall, and I've moved my jewelry out of the little flowered box and put my everyday makeup in it. The top left drawer holds my stuff for holding my hair back while I apply makeup, the right top one holds my foundation, primer, concealer and powder, the middle left holds my blush and highlighter, the middle right holds my mascaras and eyeliners, the bottom left holds my lip liners, lipsticks and lip glosses, and the bottom right has my eyeshadows. There is still a lot of makeup stowed in my linen closet, but these are the "essentials". The skull chest is my husband's- I bought it for him about 5 or 6 years ago a South of the Border, a store I loved and sadly miss since it closed down. And of course my little spray bottle of water for my hair and my very dirty magnified makeup mirror are also on the table.

I have all of my necklaces on these organizers, and most of my bracelets and earrings. My rings and brooches are in the jewelry box in the corner, and the rest of my bracelets are in front of that. The clear plastic box with the squares on it holds all of my hair tools- brushes, combs, sprays, etc.

It feels so good to be able to see everything now! It makes planning an outfit easier when you can see all your accessories in plain sight!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Excited!

Hello!

Holy Goldfish Batman I am excited today! I have a lot to be excited about!

1. I dyed my hair Raspberry!

I thought I had more red than I actually did. I mixed about 2 tablespoons in with about a 1/2 cup of Raspberry Kamikaze over faded red hair (looked like ugly puce!). It's Breast Cancer Awareness month so I don't really mind having pink hair! The turquoise I used about a month ago still lingers in a patch you can see in the second picture.

2. I got Rainbow Connection!

Sorry about the horrible state of my nails. I kinda slapped the polish on so I could get pictures. I was in the mall picking up a couple things when I walked by the head shoppe (a hair salon, not a pot seller!) and saw The Muppets Holiday 2011 Collection! I had heard they were coming out early November, so I was suprised to see them, and knew that I had to scoop up Rainbow Connection NOW! I got the last bottle. It's a lot more pricey than what I normally pay for polish (I buy LA Color or Sinful Colors most of the time) but it was a lemming for me. That's never happened with a polish. It's just so glittery and happy!

3. ♥elycia has an awesome contest going on!

I love the stuff at Mungo Crafts! The hoodies are just adorable. Click here to see the giveaway. My birthday is the day she announces the winner, so hopefully that will give me some luck!

4. My birthday is a week from today!

That's me! I wore a lot of pink but I still got mistaken for a boy (I was pretty much bald until I was 2). I really want to go to Darrell's Restaurant for a peanut butter burger and the best milkshakes in Halifax! I'll also go see the remake of Footloose. I'm very wary as the original is my favorite movie OF ALL TIME. It came out the year I was born, so I've watched it hundreds if not thousands of times. John Lithgow is awesome in it and Kevin Bacon is a total fox. I know it will never live up to the movie I could quote in my sleep, but I will go for a birthday bit of nostalgia.

5. My husband's birthday is on Hallowe'en!

Yep, our birthdays are a week apart. He is 51 weeks older than me. He loves horror movies (wonder why?) so his plan is to see the remake of The Thing. It's his favorite movie, made the year before he was born (it's really eerie, dontcha think?). I watched it for the first time last weekend and all I gotta say is- disgusting. Not scary, yucky. I'm not too keen on puppets and animatronics (might be from growing up in the 80s when EVERYTHING was puppets and stop motion and animatronics), and this is some of the grossest sampling of imagined creatures I have ever seen. I think the new one might scare me more.

I'm off to cook some chicken tornadoes (chicken wrapped in bacon) and maybe rice? Veggies? I got as far as SOMETHING WRAPPED IN BACON! I eat a lot of vegetarian and vegan meals, but chicken and bacon are two foods I feel I will never be able to give up!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!

NOTD: Teal Nail Project

Hello!

Today is National Feral Cat Day! Hundreds of thousands of cats are euthanized simply because animal shelters don't have room for them. I watched a documentary last night called Cat City, and they featured a Toronto animal control centre where every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning 60 cats are euthanized. 180 cats murdered every week just because they were picked up by animal control. Luckily in Nova Scotia, our SPCA is 100% no-kill. We also have several independent rescue groups like Bide Awhile who keep cats safe. And my favorite cat group is Pierre's Alley Cat Society. They have worked with the cats living at the dockyards in Halifax by feeding them, providing them shelter and trapping, neutering and releasing. TNR is the most humane way of dealing with our exploding cat population. If every cat could be spayed or neutered, feral cat populations would die out from natural causes, not euthanasia.

So why am I doing a NOTD? The Teal Cat Project decided to raise awareness about National Feral Cat Day by doing the Teal Nail Project. Participants are asked to paint their nails teal and when someone comments on their nails, tell them about National Feral Cat Day! So get out your prettiest teal polish and join me!

My nails are tipped with Rimmel 60 second in 819 Green with Envy, the middle is painted with Del Sol Color-Changing Nail polish in Electrick! (starts pale teal and in sun turns lime green) and the bottom is NYC Long-Wear Nail Enamel in 104 A, a very sheer teal.  All have a shimmery finish. Huzzah for gradient nails! Hopefully I'll get lots of compliments as I work today!

That's all for now. Please support your local no kill shelter! If you're in the market for a cat, never buy from a pet store, always go to your local shelter! Thanks for stopping by!

Carlos the Model

Hello!

This began as a typical OOTD post. I put on an outfit, got out the camera, and began shooting.

I quickly had an audience, a loud and yowly one. He would not give up. Just went on and on.

 

This is me looking over at him.

He finally plopped himself on one of our footstool/coffee tables and would not move.

So, without further ado, I give you Carlos, my guest model.

 I still managed to shoot my outfit...including the earrings.

 The bracelets,

 The nail polish and the rings. I got this beautiful shade on the weekend. It's called Cherry Sin, and it's the exact shade of ripe shiny cherries. It's probably discontinued since I got it in a clearance bin, but it's Maybelline Salon Expert. The turquoise ring is one my friend bought me while we were shopping for her bridesmaid dress for my wedding. And the two other rings are opals- my birthstone.

 And the shoes. I bought them from a thrift store and researched the original price, since they are marc by marc jacobs. These cute little shoes were in the $200-400 range when they were bought new! I love finding crazy good thrift deals. And, yes, I'm wearing socks with them, only because last time I wore them I was left with huge blisters on my heels!

He's a pretty cute model, wouldn't you say?

 

He was in love with my new lipstick. It's Maybelline Superstay 16-hour lipstick in Flame. The stuff lives up to its name, but you will need to reapply the balm lots of times. It also smells really good, as Carlos can tell you. The red is just the right shade- not too bright.

This is the kitty version of Blue Steel, trust me.

Shirt- Walmart

Tank Top- Thrifted (Eddie Bauer)

Pants- Suzy Shier

Shoes- Thrifted (marc by marc jacobs)

Necklace- Suzy Shier

Bracelets- Ardene's

Drop Earrings-Ardene's

Bow Earrings- vintage from my aunt

Turquoise Ring- Gift from my friend

White Opal Ring- Gift from my husband

Blue Opal Ring- Gift from my mom

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by!

Shop Love: Oddjects

Hello!

Today I went to the Halifax Shopping Centre to pick up some new jewelry organizers (more about that in another post), and I saw a new store I fell in love with. Oddjects is mainly a home decor store that also carries toys, jewelry and accessories. Everything is funky and unique, like laser cut wool rugs, patchwork horse plushies, and rolled paper jewelry. They also support local artists, like Wind Bag Company of Nova Scotia who make bags out of recycled sails. I have a feeling I'll be buying more than a few Christmas gifts from there!

I also wanted to show you my new haircut. I got it cut three weeks ago, so you can tell I'm way behind on my posts! I have a backlog of photos I need to share, so be patient with me. Anyways, here it is!

As I mentioned before, I had my hair cut at Concepts School of Cosmetology. I love it! My hair dresser was awesome, she only needed a little advice from the instructor. I love how the colours look, too. Very cool blending.

Any hoo, I'm off to watch Boardwalk Empire, then Dexter. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, even if you're not Canadian!

Sunshiney Day!

Hello!

It's been rainy and stormy for the past several days here in Halifax. Miserable! The sun came out today so I couldn't help wearing something bright. So what if it only got up to 5 Celsius (about 40 Fahrenheit) today? I froze on the way to work, but it was nothing that apple cider and a cafe mocha couldn't fix. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be even colder. I'll be digging out a hat and mitts for tomorrow's commute.

First, the shoes! Aren't they cute? None of this "no white after Labor Day" nonsense. Very comfortable!

With such a bright look, I went with a natural look and just some super bright orange earrings.

A bit better picture of the flowers...shooting in full sunlight is even harder than a rainy day!

Tank top- Old Navy

Shirt- Thrifted (Gap)

Corduroys- Old Navy

Earrings- Ardene's

Shoes- Thrifted (l.e.i)

That's all for now. I'll try to get a shot of my costume I'm wearing this weekend for my brother's Potluck/Costume Party/ Games Night. I hope for it to be epic! Thanks for stopping by!

Born to be Wild

Hello!

Finally, another OOTD! It 's also a look at my new red hair! I put the mandarin dye all over my hair, expecting it to be a lot oranger, but it turned a lovely deep bright red. Being a natural red head, I didn't know if I'd like the obviously fake colouring, but I do! It works really well with my pale skin. The blue stuck around, but hey, I like turquoise!

I've wanted a leather jacket for ages. Mostly because Gwen Cooper on Torchwood looks so badass in one. I saw a great one at Walmart around the middle of August, but couldn't afford it that day. By the time I came back, they were sold out. Weeks later I found it at another store! So of course I needed to complete the look- black jeans, black boots, black tank top. Badass.

Jacket- Walmart

Tank Top- Given to me by Mom

Jeans- Joe Fresh

Belt- Ardene's

Boots- Walmart

That's all for today, thanks for stopping by!