It's been a weird month. What happened initially was that I was feeling a little down and lacking energy and just could not bring myself to write an entry. That's (one) of the unfortunate parts of being bi-polar - you start all these endeavors when you're super manic and then abandon them when you're starting to feel low. I was pretty bummed, especially since I had just shelled out some money on advertising (oh no, I'm luring people to an inactive page!) but what can ya do.

I'm still not out of my slump, but now there's more stuff going on. My parents just finished helping my grandma move to Canada from Florida so it's a bit hectic with that and my grandpa was just released from the hospital, maybe a little earlier than he should have been, considering he's on an IV and on oxygen. I've practically moved back in with my parents in the meantime to lend a helping hand and give my gramps some companionship.

However, not everything is bad! I got paid some money for house sitting while my parents were away in Florida, packing up my gram's house, I got to go in for work at an ad agency that I get to work at sporadically throughout the year and I got my first Share-a-Sale cheque. Can you say rolling in money? For me anyways!

In other exciting news, I was featured on the Modcloth blog (my fourth time!) It was a total surprise and I didn't even know until some friends on Facebook had tagged me. It really brightened my day and I was so happy to be featured alongside my friends, Elana and Pamada.

As for the other reason I'm here, I'm announcing a really cool opportunity from Modcloth! I myself can't participate because it's for US citizens only, but you creative ladies Stateside better get on this STAT!

 

The dresses from the swatches (as far as I can tell) are as follows:

Cartoon Deer - Cheeriest and Dearest Dress - $94.99

Dogs on Red - Graceful Greenery Dress in Dog Park  - $155.99

Yellow and White Stripes - Difference Between White and Saffron Dress $47.99

Rainbow Dots - Chipper and Cheery Dress - $87.99

Bowling Pins - Rock and Bowl Dress - $87.99

Colourful Food - Good Enough to Eat Dress - $69.99

Blue Toile - Be Outside Dress in Delft - $74.99

Blue/Red Chevron - Lauren Moffatt Over and Overlook Dress - $409.99

Leaves - Paint a Picturesque Dress in Leaves - $124.99

Mint Floral - Day Off the Grid Dress in Mint - Plus Size - $49.99

There were a few couldn't find that I can only assume have been discontinued. I was too afraid to look in the abyss that is Pinterest/Google.

A few of the key details are as follows -

Submissions are accepted until 9:01am PST this Valentine's Day, 2/14. So sorry for the lack of advance notice! Like I said, a little hectic around here!

Fabric designs are to be designed using the "Air of Adorable Dress" template. This dress has been made in loads of other cute styles. Whatever choice they end up going with will be in good company!

1/ 2/ 3/ 4/

Special guest judge, Amanda Needham, the costume designer of Portlandia will help determine the finalists! After that, the Modcloth community will vote on the Be the Buyer page. I think this is so rad. She has such a good eye for fashion. There are so many characters on Portlandia (mostly portrayed by Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen) and they have such unique quirks and different fashion personalities. She is able to transform the actors into totally different people! Yet at the same time, while watching the show, I ALWAYS want to own what they are wearing, even if they are supposed to be a dowdy person.

Sounds really cool right? I'd love for her to take a look at something I had whipped up!

If this sounds like your cup of tea, head over to the Modcloth blog and read the full contest rules. They were a little lengthy so I decided to spare you on here.

As for other things, I've spent way, way too much money recently. Mostly because I had more than usual. I'm going to try some of the things I read in this blog post about ways to distract yourself from shopping. A little too late for this month, but definitely going to use it in the future!

Hope you all are doing well! That's all for me! Talk soon!

Meanwhile on Instagram - December + Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello readers! Now that we are wrapping up the holiday season, I thought I would wrap up the month with my monthly Instagram feature. I considered doing a yearly wrap-up Instagram feature, but I've only been using Instagram since August (when I started my blog) and it still hasn't become a natural part of my day to be posting on there. I'm just not naturally a shutterbug. Some people take out their camera to document everything (and then have an internet data plan to post photos on the run.) I just take photos randomly sometimes and then forget to upload them. Then later I look at the photos and am like, "Why did I take this picture?" So much of it seems dumb in retrospect. It's almost like you need that element of spontaneity for Instagram to be magical. Other people on my feed are anything but spontaneous - their feed is a carefully thought out portfolio and that's okay too. Their's are really pretty to look at.

(Looking at this collage, a lot of pictures from past Hallowe'ens and a zombie picture made it in. Umm... where's my Christmas spirit? Haha, oh well.) If you'd like to follow, I can be on Instagram @coinforthewell.

Top Row L-R

1) Giving kisses to zombies at an exhibit at the Monroeville Mall (the location where Dawn of the Dead was filmed.)

2) Doing some mad promotion for Blogger Fashion Week (I was a featured blogger) for Canadian consignment brand Trend Trunk

3) My "craft" center (mostly untouched items. Oh well, it looks cute at least! And my niece appreciates the fashion plates.) Featuring Fiona Hewitt products, a "What to Wear" nopepad by Knock Knock (which I had forever but didn't actually begin to use until I started blogging. It's the perfect way to plan outfits!) Also, a copy of The Button Factory. I haven't opened it in 2+ years, but I'm considering it. My purse is covered in Modcloth buttons. What's a few more?
Second Row L-R
4) Used a Hallowe'en picture from 2008 (so I'm 23 there!) to advertise for flapper week on my Instagram. Tried to make it Art Deco-ey by making it triangular, black and white and crackly. This was when I was deep in my Hello Kitty phase. It's actually a Hello Kitty flapper dress. It came with kitty ears headband and had a Hello Kitty patch on the skirt.
5) My parents took this picture of a cat on their fence. My parents like to take pictures of all the critters who live in their yard.
6) I hosted my first giveaway and I'm so happy with how it turned it! Congrats to winner, Brittany Epifane on snagging the $25 gift card!
Third Row L-R
7) I've been sleeping a lot this winter so I used this old photo of me and my cat, Merlin to demonstrate my feelings on things.
8) Received this postcard from Modcloth and it made me happy!
9) Got my mom a Modcloth dress for Christmas! So happy that I'm turning on the entire family to Modcloth. My mom now owns 2 dresses (the one above and this one) and a pair of boots. My grandma has this purse. I don't know if my sister has anything personally but she bought her hubby this t-shirt, after she fell in love with mine. Woot! Converting everyone.
Last Row L-R
10) A picture of my dog with a lady dressed as Santa at PetSmart a few years ago. This was the good photo. The other one, he wasn't having it.
11) A photo of what I thought was the Stanley Cup, at a Costco. Except it wasn't. The cashier had to dash my hopes and tell me it was just a replica. I should have known the Stanley Cup would never be in Windsor! Especially in a Costco of all places.
12) I posted this old Hallowe'en picture of me being Slave Leia (hanging myself by my chain) on an especially exasperated day. I'm feeling much better!

I celebrated my birthday with all the ladies of my fam last night. We went to The Keg. They weren't too impressed with me because I headed out there in sweat pants, sans make-up and without combing my hair. My sister put some jeans on me but I still wouldn't put on make-up or comb my hair. My birthday, my way! I just wanted to be comfy. Plus we were already running almost 30 minutes late for our reservation. Imagine if I had gotten prettied up?

Yes, I realize I'm a total goof. But I really like food. Then I proceeded to go home and eat doughnuts with my friends. Overall a good birthday!

Well, that's all for me! Talk to you soon!

Holiday Giveaway via Sincerely, Cam!

I love a good contest. The other day, I actually googled "Modcloth giveaway" and then just "giveaway" to see what contests I could enter (sadly it seems, I had just missed the deadline on most of them, drats!) While doing some blog hopping, I saw that Cam over at Sincerely, Cam was hosting a giveaway... and I actually LOVE all the prizes! (Well I can't say for sure that I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower but I hear great things about it.)

The prize pack includes The Perks of Being a Wallflower on DVD, a 3 pack of Rifle Paper Co notebooks, a stationery set, Burt's Bees lip balm and hand salve set, OPI red nail polish and a giant peppermint lollipop.

Sound good? Head over to Sincerely, Cam to enter now! I know I am!

Mmmm... Marmalade

Hallowe'en was kind of meh this year. It's one of my favourite holidays (not because of all the scariness - I could honestly skip that part. It's the dressing up and the candy that I love) but this year it didn't live up to my expectations. I think it honestly had more to do with me than Hallowe'en itself. I went out to my favourite bar as usual and there were a ton of great costumes (my friend Sergio has some photos here and here) but I think part of the reason I didn't have a good time is because I was taking things too seriously. I felt so overwhelmed by how many good costumes there were and this new role I put myself in that felt I needed to document things for my blog. It felt like too big a task to take pics of every good costume (because there were literally a hundred more awesome costumes than those pictured) so I figured if I couldn't take them all, then I wasn't going to take any. I ended up calling it a night before 12 because I'm cool like that. I hardly even got any pics of my burger costume! And I was so excited! I only took one at home before leaving.

No amount of cropping can hide how disgusting my house is.

I don't know why I didn't just have fun, take a few pics and not be so serious about the whole thing. I'm very all or nothing about many things in life but I gotta learn halfway good can still be okay!

Which brings me to today. Today is a little busy because we are celebrating my niece's 3rd birthday. Isn't she cute?

Photo Credit - Grinvilla / Grinvilla Facebook Page

I didn't know whether to scrap this whole blog post and just put it off another week (because it was intended for Splurgy Sunday) or just be like, whatevs! I can write a so-so sort of post. I figured I shouldn't wait too long though. There's Hallowe'en decorations in the background of this photoshoot. Talk about being busted!

I scored this really cute dress from Modcloth when it randomly went from $179.99 to $51.99 in the middle of the night. I ordered a large and altered it down to my size... which is turning into a cruel joke because I could probably use the pre-altered large size now that I've put on some weight. Blast!

Outfit Details

Dress - Marmalade - via Modcloth

Shoes - vintage Ferragamos

Tights - Icings

Earrings - eBay

Headband - Ardenes

I was also inspired to make an outfit featuring items from Modcloth where each individual item is a splurge. Because that's how I roll.

1) Gale Next Door Cardigan - $58

2) Phoning in Sweater in Sage - $53

3) Mercator to Your Tasters Scarf - $65

4) Bow My Darling Heel - $210

5) In the Distance Necklace - $32

6) Working Lunch Pants - $65

7) Take a Dipper Necklace - $75

8) Forest Dream Bag - $148

Tis all for me! Back downstairs to eat cake with the fam. I squeezed this entry in little breaks between the opening of the gifts, eating dinner and eating of dessert. Time to stop being anti-social! Talk soon!

If you'd like to see all my best looks from the season, check out my wardrobe wrap up post!

Scoring Authentic Vintage at Hallowe'en = Priceless

Hi there! So sorry for the lack of blog entries. My number one, go-to photographer (my boyfriend, Logan) has been busy helping out with his parents who have both recently had surgery. My mom was kind enough to let me purchase my Christmas gift early today (a tripod, woot!) but being pressed for time and not sure how it was going to work out setting up each shot and waiting 10 seconds with the sun quickly setting, my mom took these photos. I'm going to have to invest in one of those clickers that take photos too! My mom did pretty good, except she's reflected in the window in a few and I had a hard time convincing her she didn't have to frame me perfectly, as long as she stood back far enough for me crop it. There's a few tops of heads cut off and shoes cut off, but whatevs! We'll make do.

Even so, yesterday's theme was "Treasure Tuesday." I haven't had many treasures in my life! Mostly because I haven't been thrifting lately. The treasures I've mostly been coming across lately is finding money. I swear, I find more money than I earn. I found two $20 bills this week alone! It's because I'm always looking at the ground and always closely inspecting little bits of trash that most people would ignore. Last summer, I found $60 outside the pizza place I worked at when there were dozens of people around. It was right by a trash can with lots of gross pizza crust around it and everyone was ignoring it. But not me! I'm always searching for that stuff. People say I'm lucky but not really. It's the same with the lottery. You can't just wake up and win one day. You have to buy a ticket!

I got this super cute vintage dress from Value Village around Hallowe'en a few years ago. For $6! Hallowe'en is the best time to raid thrift stores for amazing vintage deals. People questioned me if this was actually a vintage piece and not just a modern reproduction. Number one, the tag is barely readable, it's so worn out. However, I just was able to make it out now and it says "Georgia Griffin" which pulls up all circa 1960s results on Etsy (which fits in nicely with this style as well.) Also, it's  labelled a size 12. I'm a size 6. I have a few other vintage items that use vintage sizes and they are all size 10 (but too small for me, ha) so that would be right on too. Either way, authentic or not, $6 for an adorable dress is fine by me!

The glasses are Hello Kitty and the necklace is a working Rubik's cube. How snazzy am I? (Details of the glasses can be seen in this earlier blog entry.) The shoes are in near mint condition because they aren't that comfortable. They kind of rub me the wrong way. My absolute FAVOURITE shoes from Stitches (which were only $5 and would have fit in perfectly with Thrifty Thursday) have been worn to shreds. Literally. All the fake leather has worn off and there is only mesh in some parts. I have 3 black pairs, a nude pair, a purple and a blue pair and they are all destroyed. I bought this black pair from H&M hoping to re-create the magic, but alas, no dice.

Outfit Details

Dress - Value Village - $6

Shoes - H&M - $15

Necklace - Penny Jane's Vintage - $10

Sunglasses - Sanrio - $25

Earrings - eBay - $6 for 10 pack

Headband - Ardenes - $2 for 3 pack

I tried to find a modern day equivalent of this dress, but it was pretty tricky! This dress from Ruche was the closest I was able to find. However, Etsy is a treasure trove of yellow, polka dot goodies.

Clockwise - perniejaynevintage - $24/AlienDaze - $30/scdvintage - $22

Also, this is unrelated to being thrifty but Modcloth is running a contest where you can go to their offices! I actually had the chance to visit their offices before (I simply asked and they said yes. How cool is that? It helps that I'm super obsessed and I think they are aware of that, hahaha.) Check out the contest details if this sounds like a dream come true to you too! I would enter, but it's not open for international (which is understandable given that the flight is paid for and the US has different policies on taxing prizes.) I will live vicariously through one of you!

In Modcloth thriftiness news (that's what this is all about!) they are having 25% off outwear with code BRRR25 at check out (ends 11:59PST 10/25.) Go shop and warm up!

If you'd like to see all my best looks from the season, check out my wardrobe wrap up post!

That's all for me! Talk soon!

Silly Rabbit, Shenanigans Are for Suzy!

I never know what to name the titles of my blog post. How do people name these things regularly? Since it is Shenanigans Saturday and since I have a dummy account for Pinterest named "Silly Rabbit," I decided that this was the only natural thing to name this post. I don't know what I'm going to do for next Saturday though!

Anyways, onto the shenanigans! The shenanigans are actually from last Saturday. I took the pics on Saturday night and unless I wanted it to be Shenanigans Sunday, I had to wait until now to post them. My friend, Emily had a going away shindig at my favourite bar, the Loop. She is moving away to British Columbia so we had one last hurrah before she left. Here are some pics I took to commemorate the occasion.

Also, rather than dancing, I took some super creepy pics of my friend, Elly dancing, insisting they were for the blog. Oh, my poor friends. I'm so annoying.

 

The dress is from Forever 21 that I picked up in a lot of 6 items for $25 on ebay (score!) but you can pick up the same one on Poshmark. If the item has sold or not your size and you would prefer to just get an inspired version of this dress, try one of the ones below (note, I wasn't kidding when I said I've been on a mint kick! Although this dress is more of a teal/turquoise, I felt like I was looking at all the same items while making the Polyvore board for it.)

1) Come What May Dress in Jade - Ruche - $48
2) Peppermint Iced Tea Dress - Modcloth - $48
3) Vanilla Mint Tea Dress - Modcloth - $120
4) Shore Enough Dress - Modcloth - $73
5) Sparkling Water Dress - Modcloth $80

In other fashion related news, Modcloth is having a Pinterest contest! In honour of Homecoming Season, they are giving away $250 to 2 winners for pinning their party looks. Find out more on the Modcloth blog - blog.modcloth.com/2013/09/05/party-dress-pinning-party/  If you are interested in my picks for the contest, you can check them out here. Unfortunately I read about the "Homecoming" part too late and all my picks are just dresses I would wear to casual party affairs. Ah well!

I've had this song called "Natural" by Germany Germany in my head all week. I discovered it randomly on my iTunes after my friend and former co-DJ lent some tunes to me after my old laptop fried and I was left without any music. It's a decent enough song but gets really annoying when it's all that plays in your head. I'm hoping it will be like this Portlandia skit, where if you watch it, you will be cursed with it in your head instead of me. I will leave you with both videos.

 

And now the Portlandia skit! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!