Why didn't anyone tell me you could accessorize with a bike?

As the weather continues to get nicer and the days longer, I slowly start my journey back from Hibernation. The urge to get outside and enjoy the sunshine grows. Due to lack of motivation I've never quite gotten around to getting a drivers licence, so trying to get around town is quite a pain. So, on Sunday I decided to invest in some wheels. The last time I rode a bike I think I was in the neighbourhood of about 15 years ago. My last bike quite possibly had pink hearts on it. Needless to say the first ride was a bit painful. (doesn't help that I live at the top of a rather large hill) But it was still really enjoyable (especially the downhill part) Knowing nothing about bikes I chose the prettiest one in my price range and then asked the guy at the store if it was decent. My friend at work me asked which type of bike I bought, my reply "a blue one." Fortunately he's a little more knowledgeable then I am, so he helped me out and made a bunch of suggestions about how to care for my bike and more importantly tips about how to make the seat be not such a pain in the arse. Literally. So now I'm looking forward to leisurely rides through the city and accessorizing my bike. First on my list: a pretty basket. Then a bell. And to top it off, streamers for the handlebars!

Bling of the Day 03/31/2010

The picture of me above is from my trip to New York a couple years ago. (taken in Washington Square Park) My best friend and I spent about 5 days in the city that never sleeps (and as we couldn't figure out how to turn down the heat in our crappy hotel room, we really didn't sleep much either) We had an amazing time. We started out every morning at this European style cafe ( I ate cheesecake for breakfast every morning! Soooo delicious!) and then spent everyday walking around the city until we thought our feet would fall off. Among other things we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, took a horse carriage ride through Central Park, saw a Broadway musical and did a heck of a lot of shopping. Where'd I score the best stuff? The Hells Kitchen Flea Market. The flea market was full of vintage, second hand and antique goodies. One of my finds were these earrings. They remind me of Edwardian style jewelery. I'm not quite sure how old they are. I love them and wear them all the time. Shopping at the flea market is one of my favourite memories from my trip. Everyone was so friendly and one of the vendors even serenaded us with "O Canada" when he found out that's where we were from. I'm sure there's probably some rude New Yorkers, but we were left wondering where the stereotype came from because everyone was so nice to us. If you're in New York, I'd highly recommend checking out the market.
http://www.hellskitchenfleamarket.com/fleamarket/index.php

D.I.M. shoe makeover

I bought these shoes Black Friday a few years ago. (ok, I bought them and about 7 other pairs at the same time) They were originally a pair of plain black pumps. I thought I should have a pair of basic black shoes. Problem was, I never wore them, they were too dull. So, after sitting on a shelf for a couple years I decided to give them a makeover. I pimped them out. I painted them a bronze colour using nail polish and then used a Q-tip and nail polish remover to remove patches of the colour to create a kinda leopard print effect. I then raided the Grumpy Danish's tackle box and used some feathers from his fly making kit and glued them on. I finished them off with some jewels from the fabric store. Boring no more! lol, as you can see I toned them down by pairing them with black & gold sparkly tights.

My Latin Love

Everyday as it gets a little bit warmer, I become a little more tempted to throw caution to the wind and break out my finest in Carmen Miranda inspired fashions. If I could get away with it, I'd wear a full fruit headdress like she did. It would be so fun (and handy if you needed a snack!) But alas, most people would find that a bit much for everyday wear, so I'll take my cues from her bright hues and fruity & floral patters.
Earrings: Forever 21
Floral Black Dress: Ricki's
(Little) Red Dress: eShakti
Shoes: Naughty Monkey
Bangle: Forever 21

Bling of the day 03/30/2010

Ok, so the plan is to try and showcase one piece of my jewelery per day. I tend to gravitate toward my favourites over and over again, so this will hopefully encourage me to go through my collection and mix things up a bit. This AMAZING necklace was from my best friend for Christmas. I figured I might as well start things off with a bang. It's from Aldo's and it's one of my favourites. The picture of me isn't the best, but it showcases the necklace really well.

She's my cherry pie

Just got this new perfume from the Body Shop. For some reason I hadn't been in a Body Shop in years, but I've found a couple products I've liked lately. While cherry blossoms probably remind most people of Japan, they remind me of South Carolina. I remember visiting my aunt in the spring and seeing all the trees in bloom. There's a picture of me around somewhere in a cherry blossom tree when I was about seven. I think I'd like to live in a Cherry Blossom tree, I can't imagine anything else as lovely.

Put on my best Sunday dress

Ever feel like you just need a day to yourself? I took one last week and went to the mall by myself. Found this dress from Ricki's. I love it, it's so comfy and it has pockets :) I think I'll be getting a lot of wear out of it.

D.I.M.

I'm going to try and start posting more pictures of my own accessories. Most of it will be stuff I've picked up either new of vintage, but some pieces I've either re-worked or made myself. The big dammed butterfly necklace above was a Did It Myself piece. The butterfly was actually a Christmas ornament I found at Homesense on sale one January, I used the chain from another necklace I no longer wore.

Wishlist

Awesome statement jewelery that I can't afford in this or the next lifetime.
Top to bottom:
Oscar De La Renta bib necklace
Vera Wang Chain-web necklace
Lanvin earrings
Lanvin crystal necklace
Vera Wang Moonstone necklace

Trashion

Yours truly will be designing a dress to compete at the Trash Fusion Contest at Eco-Fest in Barrie.
The contest to to promote Green living, so the dress has to be made entirely of recycled materials.
I'll be working with a crack team of some of my peeps from work to assemble it and I'm really excited. I have the basic design figured out, so I'll post some pictures once I get some proper sketches done. For now, here's some Trash-Fashion projects I found online for inspiration.

Who knew?

When I hear "Home Shopping Network" I think slicers & dicers, Sham-wows and Chia Pets. After my last posting I did some browsing on their site and was pleased to discover that they actually have an awesome array of jewellery. Some of it's priced a little higher then my budget, but they have some pretty reasonable deals. lol, you can also always split your cost into two easy payments. You can find stuff starting from about $20, especially if you look in the clearance section. Above are a few of my faves.

I think Iman's who I want to be when I grow up

Iman has always been one of my favourite models. She's galmourous, beautiful, intelligent and married to David Bowie. Just when I thought she couldn't get any cooler, I discovered she's designing jewellery. I stumbled upon some her pieces at The Bay when I was at the mall today. She has some really cool stuff. Her collection is called Global Chic, and that's the perfect way to describe it. Her pieces take inspiration from all over the world and a lot of them have a kind of antiquey feel to them. The yellow earrings above came home with me, I may be back for the ring. When I searched for pictures of her collection online I discovered it's for sale on HSN, check it out at http://www.hsn.com/

Props to 'Girl Props'

I first discovered Girl Props when planning a trip to New York about 5 years ago. My friend and I scouted out shopping locations ahead of time, and I read about Girl Props location in Soho. We had a heck of a time finding it, but at long last we did. Inside we found a plethora of fun and funky jewelery. You're not going to find glamorous classic pieces, but they have plenty of fantastic plastic creations. Above are some of my favourite pieces currently on their website http://www.girlprops.com/

Recent addition to the family

Just a quick post to show off my latest bling, got this broach today from Aldo's Accessories. It's kinda vintagey looking and perfect for Spring.

What dreams may come

Within the next couple months I'll be moving to a bigger place. The Grumpy Danish* and I have been holed up in a basement apartment for far too long. We'll be getting either a two or three bedroom apartment, and as we have no ankle biters to take up the second room, I will be turning it into my personal dressing room. Yup, it's going to be one big dammed closet. So, for the next couple months I'll be dreaming about the possibilities. My biggest task will be figuring out how to display my jewelery without it turning into complete and utter chaos. As well there's my 60 or so purses, and dozens of shoes (not sure how many dozen, I haven't counted them all) plus all my clothing.
I think I want to go for a bright, girly, vintage shop feel. I have pretty much no furniture at the moment, so will be on the hunt for cute, cheap options. The one piece I've found that I plan to get so far is the day bed pictured above. It's from Ikea and I think paired with some funky cushions it would make a nifty couch. It unfolds into a full double bed and has 3 drawers for storage on the bottom (yay!) Plus, in daybed mode it would take up very little room, allowing more room for all my stuff. Anyone have any tips for storing/displaying accessories?

*The grumpy Danish is my husband of 6 years

A whiter shade of pale

Maybe some day in the distant future we'll all be the same shade of oompa-loompa, but until then every woman at some point in her life wishes for a different shade of skin. For me I always wanted to be darker. Since I first started wearing foundation I've always been the palest shade. Growing up I'd spend the summer trying to soak in the sun in an attempt to develop a tan. Whenever I thought I was nicely glowing, my best friend used to put her arm up next to mine and put me to shame. (being half Haitian she'd always win)
Up until the 1920's, being pale was the shit. It showed that you could afford not to work outdoors. Women would drink vinegar, avoid fresh air, and apply all sorts of crazy concoctions (including some that included lead and arsenic) to gain a ghostly pallor. Fine blue veins were even painted on sometimes, to give the appearance of delicate translucent skin. Coco Chanel changed all that after she was seen with a post vacation tan from sunning herself on a yacht. The jazz age ushered in many changes. Rebelling against the rigid society of their parents, flappers bobbed their hair and shortened their skirts. Gone was the delicate feminine ideal and in came the new beauty standards of being fit and tanned. Also, though still far from mainstream, more exotic women began to be seen as beautiful such as Josephine Baker and Sophia Loren. (and by exotic, I use the white person's translation meaning: anything other then Anglo Saxon and blonde)
By the time I came into being in the 80's, tanned was the new ideal. Still today, being bronzed is preferred to my natural albino-esque hue. White girls everywhere bake and bronze themselves on a regular basis. Despite a knowledge that it's horrible for you, I myself have spent many hours cooking under the bulbs of a tanning bed. Again, things seem to be changing though. After an overabundance of tanorexic starlets like Lyndsay Lohan and Snooki the pendulum seems to be swinging back the other way. I hope this time it will land in the middle and allow the natural rainbow of skin tones to show. From pale beauties like Dita Von Tesse to stunning dark skinned women like Alex Wek each colour is beautiful and should be celebrated.