In a general state of "Blah".

Here's a great idea for a fun thing to do: Have a fight with the man you love, then go take pictures of yourself. They will turn out amazing. Or they might turn out something like this:

And it wasn't even a big fight - he told me to hurry up and boil the carrot I was having with my dinner, I snapped at him because I'd been busy hanging up laundry. That, in a nutshell, was the fight. But it still sucked.

We're cool now, though. We chilled out with some grilled salmon and the last two episodes of the Wolverine anime (his Japanese enemies all call him "VULVARINE!" - which never fails to make me grin). And now we're listening to the new Eurovision entries, while I look at these pictures and wish I'd worn a paper bag over my face. I could've just drawn a smiley-face on it, that would've been perfect. Oh well...

When polkadots are the lesser evil...

For reasons of hygiene, I have bought a new tablecloth. Because our flat is so small that you can't fit a table in the kitchen, we have all our meals + put our laptops, and sometimes my sewing-machine, on the table in the living room. So unsurprisingly, our tablecloths were getting increasingly gross, and it was such a pain to keep changing them every time there was one stain... so yeah, last night I looked at it, and really looked, and my soul just curled up in a little shuddering ball. "Bacteria," I thought. Then, "Oilcloth! Wipe-clean!" Ingenious. 

So that's our new tablecloth. I figured, since I was investing in oilcloth anyway, I might as well get it from Cath Kidston. (Yes, there is a logical leap there. But a very short one, if you're me.) And the only pattern they had that wouldn't clash horribly with our crazy sliding door wallpaper (left over from the last tenant, we didn't put it up, we need to be clear on that) was, well, the pink polkadots one. I was so sure Victor was going to go spare, but he actually liked it! I bet he was just happy it wasn't floral. That's his happy face, right there.

Also, I wore clothes today, as you do. It was warm enough for me to actually dig out my shorts, and my (fake) leather jacket. (Forgot to take pictures with that on. Oh well.) 

 I used to be afraid of showing my legs in shorts, but 2011 is the year of doing all sorts of scary things. What would be really cool would be if I could find a cheap jacket in exactly the same tweedy fabric. That would rock my socks. 

When I went past some builders wearing this, I got - well, not exactly wolf-whistled, more like... monkey-grunted. But they were definitely grunts of approval. Go me, I've still got it...  

Subversive action.

Late last year, my friend Aashild invited me to, ahem, "go shopping in her closet". One of the things she gave me was this military jacket. And since I'm not really a very militant person, but love the cut and colour, I decided to subvert it a little. Hence this.

Let's pretend some army dude was wearing this while he got drunk. Eventually, he would pass out, reeking of alcohol. And a hippie dude, smelling of interesting herbs, would sneak up to him, "liberating" him of the jacket. He'd talk to it as he carried it away to his trailer, which he'd painted with daisies and slogans, saying things like, "I can see the true potential in you jacket - and I will set the real you free!" So I put peace flag buttons on an army jacket. They only had three in the shop, but that means I can finally close the thing (top button was missing) so that's okay with me. I can wait two weeks for them to restock. I'm just happy the jacket looks that bit closer to what it looked like in my head when I first pictured this.

Also, I wore this dress with my brand new yellow tights that I bought for it. That's right, the dress told me it needed yellow tights, and I listened. It's also told me to kill everyone, but I'm holding off on that.

Now, while I was wearing this, and looking like I ran away from the set of some 40's wartime drama, I spotted a girl who was dressed exactly like my friend Ruby would dress. And I always thought my friend's style was really unique, but this girl... this girl wore an oversized jacket over a short dress, similar style jewellery, chunky boots, damn near identical watch, she even had similar colour hair - though her hair was a more orangey red. "Fake Ruby," I thought, and I may have glared at her menacingly. The nerve of some people, eh?

Finally, here's an accidental self portrait from this afternoon - this is me wearing my Asia lipstick and a necklace Maike gave me for Christmas. The necklace was the final drop in making this outfit wannabe 40's. It's one long, long chain, so I have to loop it or risk smacking myself in the face with it when I run for the bus. I just need to make a petticoat to wear under this dress, and then the time-warp will be complete. I've never made a petticoat before, though, so that could take a while. 

I had my CAKE and ate it all.

Friday night was a big night for me - wearing my old CAKE T-shirt and yellow nail polish to match the writing on the shirt - because no, I'm not a psychotic dorky fan at all - I watched one of my all-time favourite bands play at the Troxy in London. It was so. Damn. AWESOME! Fifty-two flavours of awesome, to be exact. They sang so many of my favourites, they gave away a cherry tree to a member of the audience (you had to a) have a garden and b) correctly guess which kind of tree it was), and I think they did like four encores. Sure there were some pretty iffy audience members making idiots of themselves, but even the little curly-haired hobbit-guy who put our lives at risk by doing arm-wavy dancing right in front of us (not to mention that this blocked my view) couldn't ruin such a good night out.

I also bought a new CAKE shirt - the old one is navy blue and has the crown logo thing from one of their old albums, and is now curled up in the laundry bin, smelling of sweat and beer and other peoples' cigarettes. I actually had that "shop for your closet" thing running in my head when I picked this shirt (they had two other designs) - and even as I bought it, I was planning to wear it with my orange cardigan. That's either very clever or very sad. I love brown and orange together, it's so 70's.

The skirt and the blue belt were both post-30 for 30 purchases that I'd spent most of my non-shopping month lusting after. That skirt is definitely what you'd call an investment piece, i.e. I probably paid too much for it. It's so versatile though, it seems to go with absolutely any colour I pair it with, and I just love it. (In case you're wondering, the belt was from UniQlo, and is also fantastic. It even matches my blue flats.) Anyway, it's been two days and my brain is still playing "Opera Singer" on repeat while I grin like an idiot. It's like Last.fm inside my head!  

  

No woman, no blog

I really did do five days of dresses in a row, and I even took pictures of the last outfit. Here it is:

This dress is a weird one to photograph because of the pattern. It looks scrunched up and nasty when the picture's small, but click on it and you'll see what a pretty pattern it is. I keep trying to come up with different things to pair this dress with, here I am recycling my shoes and tights combo that I wore with my triangle dress. Works better with this one,  I think.

The reason I forgot to post was of course the tsunami and earth quakes in Japan, which I found out about later that same day (pics were taken in the morning). We know a couple who live in Tokyo, so I was really worried for a while - I sent an email to the girl, Mariko, and went weak in the knees with relief when she responded two days later to tell me they were unhurt. But I just couldn't make myself write about cute clothes and fluffy stuff for a while because my brain was just reeling from all the terrible things that were happening. One thing that amazes me, though, is how well the people of Japan are co-operating to save lives. Unlike New Orleans, where it was just mayhem and every man for himself, the prime minister goes, "Here, have half the army!" and ordinary people also band together to look for survivors. That just gives you hope for the future of mankind right there.

Safety-pins: they come in handy

It's so late. I'm so tired. But I took photos of my outfit, and I'm going to post them before I keel over and fall asleep, so here I am in a wool dress that I inherited from my friend:

Do you think brown and purple is a weird combination? Yeah? You wanna come to London and say it to my face? Hehe. I thought those colours actually looked okay, the purple brightened the brown up nicely. I randomly put this scarf on before going out, since it's still not exactly spring here and my jacket has to be closed with a safety-pin on top. Yes, that's pretty ghetto of me, but I don't want pneumonia - who does? - so safety pin it is. And scarf. Which I too off for the photos because it clashes so badly with the jacket.

It seems I have developed a liking for triangles. Which I just spelled triankles, which should give you an idea of just how tired I am. Maybe trianklets is what happens when you grow a second ankle out of a person's ankle, the way they grew that ear on the back of that poor mouse? Anyways, you can just see my pretty necklace, bought in the airport in Montreal when we went there for a wedding last year. Made by Native Americans at a Native American owned factory, and the proceeds went to a worthy cause that I can't remember right now because I'm so tired. But it was worthy enough that I felt extra smug when I'd bought this. And yeah, this is the jacket without the safety-pin - see why I had to d.i.y. it? I'd catch my death otherwise. And on that cheerful note, good night.

Bright spark

What do you do when the day is grey and overcast? Today, my counter-measure was wearing the brightest combo I could think of. Victor actually picked that dress out for me sometime last year - as in, he grabbed it, went "This is really nice!", held it up in front of me and made happy man noises. Then he saw the price tag, swore, and put it back. So when I found it on sale a few months later, I couldn't not buy it, right?

I felt a bit like a character from Sarah of Avonlea wearing this. Which was a Canadian show that somehow made it to Norwegian television, so there's a high chance you don't even know what I'm talking about here. But those characters wore aprons over everything, and every time Sarah's cousin Felicity was being bitchy about rich girl Sarah wearing yet another expensive super-special dress, I'd be like, "But you can't even see the damn thing under that apron!" I'm sure there was a funeral episode where they all showed up with white aprons over their mourning clothes.

I've got to add that I actually got a compliment from a co-worker for this outfit! She said, *ahem*, "I love your 70's chic!" I also got given a free Krispy Kreme doughnut, so all in all, today was a good day.   

A dress with any other pair of tights...

And the Rabato award goes to...

I was going to post my these guys yesterday, since that was the day I finally got round to stuffing them and sewing them shut. Aren't they cute?

I made these from instructions in this book, one of my first post-30 for 30 purchases that I'd been dying to get, and finally got round to buying on Saturday. Yeah, I bought it straight from the shop at the back of the Japan centre because I wanted it instantly, (MTV generation, anyone?) but it's actually cheaper online (big surprise). If you're reading this, and your name starts with, uh, Grace, then guess what might be coming your way in the post soon...

So anyway, day two of my self-imposed week of wearing only dresses, I thought I'd remix my customised Anthro dress with different tights, cardie and shoes. And it looks so different! (I mean, duh. But still!) I also look like I'm deeply afraid of the world in general, but don't we all have days like that?

See how different it looked last Thursday, with brighter tights and shoes? Ah, check out those sleeves, I spent a few hours a) fretting about altering those and b) actually altering them. The sleeves make me proud.

Yeah, I'm using two of my 30 for 30 items - I added them because I default to them a lot. I guess this tells you that I could do with buying some new work shoes, but after I got the dental bill of the century last week, shoes aren't the highest thing on my priority list. If I buy any footwear though, it'll be boots. Because frankly, my repair project is not so much going slowly as gently stagnating. It's one of those, "I'll get around to it" kind of things that I never actually get around to. I'd much rather make little felt froggies or penguins. And I miss having girly boots.

How green was my outfit? + Meet President Rabato

Victor is the awesomest husband ever. We just put on face-masks together in front of the bedroom mirror, what a metro-sexual couple we are! And he bought me this cookie yesterday, which we quickly decided was what The Order of Rabato would look like if our cute little hand puppet - President Rabato - could hand out medals:

President Rabato was a Christmas present from Victor. He is the dictator of a small carrot republic (same as a banana republic really, except guess what they grow). His people could probably depose him in a second, but he's just too darn cute! His election campaign slogans include "Carrots for the people!" and "A water-spout in every cage!"  

Anyway, this is what I wore today. I have decided that since I now have the full use of my closet again *pause for a little happy dance* I can try to follow my new years resolution of wearing dresses more often by having a Dressy Week - and wearing a dress every day. Of the working week, anyway. We'll see about the weekend. This is partially a survival measure because the office where I'm working right now is so hot! We're on the twelfth floor with a lot of big windows and the heating set to fry. 

Of course, outside it's still as cold as ever, so I wore trousers underneath this dress while actually getting to work, then got changed in the lift - just like Superman! This may sound incredibly dorky, but my mum picked out that dress for me. We went to Anthro, she saw it, grabbed it and shoved it into my arms, saying: "Try that on! If it fits, I'm buying it for you!" Yes, my mum is pretty awesome too. (Again, I feel like I should add that every single Anthro item in my closet - bar one very special one - was bought on sale. Just to make sure you understand that I'm no rich bitch.)

Finally, this is one of the things Victor and I went to see this weekend - a giant pig with revolving eyes and steampunk teats that were taken off to reveal viewing holes. They put on panto shows inside the pig, and little children could watch through the holes - and looked exactly like little piglets feeding. And it was free! The London art scene is weird and wonderful. 

 

Blue Moon Rising

I fell on my ass at work today. Or rather, landed with most of my bodyweight on my left wrist. Which is not broken or sprained, or even the slightest bit swollen, praise be to everyone from Buddha to Santa Claus. It's not even bruised - but it is a bit sore. Way to impress your colleagues on day one of a new temp assignment though.

Like Piccasso, I seem to be going through a blue period. I also seem to have gone insane - because isn't that top one of my remix items? And aren't those the same cardie and shoes I wore yesterday? Well, it seems like this is how my mind works. I wear an item, and while I'm wearing it, I think of what else I've got that it might look good with. Also, this skirt and cardie were two of the items I missed the most during my 30 for 30, and the shoes were my first post shopping ban purchase, on the way home from the dentist's, no less. (£15, baby!) So I love all these items rather intensely right now.

Oh, and I do know one person who's more accident prone than me. We were never really friends in school after she pulled my hair for saying I had green eyes (yeah, she wanted to be the only green-eyed vixen in our class, and thus had me doing a pretty fair impression of a Catherine Wheel until I told her my eyes were brown) but we're friends on facebook now. Isn't facebook wonderful. This girl did truly amazing things like put the axe through her shoe - and her big toe - while chopping wood on a school trip, so if we'd actually been friends, we'd probably both be dead by now.

Some people never learn...

So I guess I'll keep posting outfit pics for a little while, since part of me finds it weirdly fun - and hey, Polina isn't even halfway through her remix, so we might as well keep on doing this outfit thing together, right? That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. I would've even posted this yesterday, if the husband hadn't been all needy and wanting me to curl up and watch Iron Man with him. Which was fun, but kept us both up way beyond our bedtime - bad idea when you've both got to work the next day! So I blame Victor for me leaving the house in such a rush that I brought all my sandwich toppings but no actual bread. Although Nikki the Intern just bought me a breadroll from the local coffee shop, so I can stop chewing the edge of my desk now.

Being able to wear anything I wanted was pretty rad. I'd had this outfit planned in my head for a couple of days beforehand, and since I was walking to work I didn't actually wear all the items together until I got changed in the bathroom there - and then I realised that my enthusiasm may have gotten the better of me. Because well, while the tights and dress look okay together and the tights and shoes also look good, the dress and the shoes don't actually like each other very much. I could hear them hissing insults to eachother all day. Just as well I spent most of the workday with my feet under my desk!


This is the least horrible of my photos yesterday, which should give you some idea of how bad the others were. I'm definitely retaking this as soon as the dress and tights have been in the wash. I mean, you can't even see what shape the dress is, and it was too cold to take a picture without the cardie on. And that's an important little detail for me, because I've spent some time altering the sleeves on this dress (or rather, figuring out how to alter them), with my mum helping out over the phone! It was such a joint effort, I swear -it even involved me emailing her photos of the dress, so she could see the cut etc.

This was one of those dresses that don't actually fit human beings straight off the hanger. Well, it would I suppose if you were a woman shaped like a carrot, i.e. massive biceps but no hips whatsoever. I bought it fully intending to alter it, but you know, procrastination... Still, once I actually got round to doing the alteration, the operation was a success, and I'm much less nervous about altering Anthro items than I was, say, last year. If my mum was actually here we could high-five, or at least have a celebratory cup of coffee.

Final 30 for 30 day!

So I had to spend the day at the dentist's today, and by spend the day I mean that literally. He had to work on me for a while, then I had to sit in the waiting room while he worked on another patient, and then I got to come back in and sit in the chair again. For someone with my level of rabid, irrational fear of the dentist, this was not a good day. Added fun fact? The price of this torture meant that any money I saved by doing the 30 for 30 just disappeared. So yeah, the less said about today the better, really.

Looking on the bright side though, at least I had a cute outfit on! I really liked these two items together, so I was saving this one for last. Because today was my last day of the 30 for 30, and tomorrow I get to wear other clothes!! I've already packed my outfit for work tomorrow, shoes and all. I'll probably dance my way there, singing show tunes on the way like some mad escapee from the set of Glee.

Also, Angela and I put together the card for Minekura today, to go with the scarf I knitted for her and the picture Angela drew her, gluing the Japanese translation of my message into the card, stamping a ladybug on it and drawing lots of little footprints across the paper. And Angela kindly agreed to take my picture while wearing the Sutra, so here it is!

New Facebook photo, perhaps? Hmm... I kind of like that my eyes came out red here, they match the scarf!

This baby goes in the post to Japan tomorrow (hopefully), and we've taped the address of Minekura's publishers on the front in English and Japanese, so it can't possibly not arrive in one piece!

Wind-blown count-down day

This was one of those outfit ideas I'd been saving (for what, Christmas?) because I'd worn these items together before and thought they worked. It's more date night than daytime, but since I wore something really boring for my last date with Victor I might as well wear it on a Tuesday.

Today's balcony photography session was a quick one - I was almost afraid I'd be blown off, it was that windy! As you can see...

Unless I am kidding myself here I only have one day left! I'll have to count over my outfits tomorrow to make extra sure. And then I'll have to do a celebration dance. Not on the balcony though, that wouldn't be safe.

Icebox studio day

So today was spent working with Angela and Kaz in Kaz's studio. It's an awesome firetrap of a building full of cats and strange artwork, including sculptures made from shop dummies and bird cages and a pram with flames painted on the side - wheels of fire! This is what I initially wore...

And then I realised I was about to freeze to death, and put on the jumper that I'd brought along just in case - and no, I'm not going to claim this was a different outfit, I won't push my luck that far! At least the pretty green pendant (a present from Poli!) brightened things up a bit.

 Got a lot of work done there, wrapped in a paint-stained lab coat for extra warmth. And it's fun making comics together, instead of being all alone and feeling isolated. We humans are pack animals, I suppose. Afterwards, I tagged along with Kaz to Ladeez do Comics, and that was pretty neat!

I got home at a rather ungodly hour, so the photos were all taken today. It was so dark last night that even the inside of our apartment didn't work for taking pictures in. "How am I supposed to work under these conditions," I howled, and went to bed instead.

Kaz also got some copies of her new comic, Blood Magic, off her boyfriend. And I got a free copy! It's really cool, and so pretty, printed with gold on the cover and red for the blood in the middle of all the black and white art. Having sat next to her while she drew the first page, discussing the plot with her and seeing the comic in several different stages, it's pretty cool to actually own the finished product.