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!

Etsy Christmas Wants

I'm in such a rut! I feel like this whole blog is "Here is a pretty outfit, here is what I want to buy, here is my dirty house." I need to do things, I need to seeee people. The good news is I am currently at my mom's house doing some visiting here (even watched one of my favourite Christmas movies of all time, Mickey's Christmas Carol, with my niece today, woot!) but I just need to do more. In general. It seems I only leave the house to come to my parents'. I'm seriously stalling on that goal! (And the rest of them for that fact! Oops! Should probably re-read them to refresh my memory.)

So until I manage to go somewhere interesting enough to take pictures (does the bank count?) we'll go the usual route with "What does Suzy want to buy?" This time, I'm choosing some Etsy Christmas picks. I noticed while going through some of the vintage Christmas items on Etsy, they just don't have the same appeal that my parents own Christmas ornaments do. I thought I would fall in love with everything I saw on Etsy, but I just didn't. I think part of the reason I love my parents stuff so much is the nostalgia of having them while growing up, of only being able to take them out once a year during such a fun and special time. The majority of my family's Christmas ornaments were handmade by my Grandma Amlin and many have personal touches like embroidered names or incorporate my grandma's love for quilting. Plus, even if I did fall in love with any items on Etsy, there is no way I'd be purchasing any - many of the vintage ornaments ran about $60-90! Eep! I ended up picking all modern items, but today's modern is tomorrow's vintage!

Clockwise from left
Candy Fascinator - ChatterBlossom - $54
Grumpy Cat Christmas Card - KintysCards - $5
Holiday Holly Hair Clip - thehoneycomb - $55
Jumping Cats Ugly Christmas Sweater - skipnwhistle - $29
Modern Christmas Stockings - yespleasestudio - $65
Victorian Inspired Cat Ornaments - oldworldprimitives - $15
Reindeer Kissing Pillow - panpanhome - $15

What are your holiday favourites? Vintage? Homemade? Something you recently picked out from Michael's or Hallmark? I really love hearing about what Christmas items people just "connect" with! Talk soon!

Head Start on New Year's Resolutions

Another feature I want to start doing regularly is posting my monthly goals on the first of the month (and checking in on how I did on last month's!) Unfortunately, I didn't do so good but hey, that's the purpose of accountability right? I have to fess up!

Okay, so let's re-cap last month's goals (although to be honest, I didn't post that frequently this month. You could scroll down a little bit and see for yourself. But I will address that in my goals later!)

1) Whiten my teeth with at-home whitening solution. This sounds terrible, but they are so stained from drinking diet Coke, I've been using some PicMonkey magic in my pics so they don't look as bad. If all works out okay, I will have some real before and after shots for you.

Result - Not sure how to call this one. The instructions said to do it weekly and I did it probably every 4 days at first (because I kept losing track of when I did it so I kept doing it whenever my teeth felt gritty. The baking soda would scrub them clean. Then the last 2 weeks, I hardly did it at all.) I do think I saw some improvement (you can check out the before and after pics for yourself, although I think the lighting had some effect on how yellow they look) but my teeth feel weird, like they are somehow weaker after this experiment. Probably going to consult with my dentist before continuing!

2) Take the stairs at my apartment whenever I'm not carrying a load of bags (I often have groceries or overnight bags.) I figure if I do this, I may not need any other exercise - I live on the 16th floor of my building!
Result - not the greatest. I had my dog at the apartment about 10 days out of the month and taking the stairs was absolutely not an option. Other than that, I hardly left my apartment (full hibernation mode!) and when I did, I often  had bags (as earlier mentioned.) I took the stairs probably 5 times total.

3) Clean my house. Maybe I'll update later with some pics. Because it's so scary, it's worth documenting.
Result - sort of? I technically did clean my house. I'm not one of those people who clean day to day. I do it in one fell swoop. It was so bad, I enlisted my mom's help. We cleaned for 6 hours and we still weren't able to finish. When she left, I kept plugging away at it for about an hour a day for the next 3 days. It still was never finished and I was never able to take "after" pics. I took some "before" pics though. Sad thing is, it's probably even dirtier right now.

4) Buy one thing from Etsy, one really unique thing instead of always running to Modcloth as my go-to.
Result - ha! I did this one. Quite easily. Probably because it had to do with shopping. I bought that Lolita necklace I posted about, plus these Grumpy Cat and  Nyan Cat earrings, and this custom engraved business card holder (which was actually in my gift picks on Scathingly Brilliant's blog!)

5) Visit actual vintage and thrift shops for Treasure Tuesday to take pics!
Result - success! But only once. And I hardly took any pics because it was so busy. You can see some of what I purchased in this post.

6) Carry camera in purse to photograph life's little adventures. I do have the camera in my purse all the time, but it never comes out, haha.
Result - meh... fail. Hardly any pics taken. Although the camera is always with me.

7) Start cooking things using my oven and my stove. I'm terrified of fire/heat and this will be a big one if I accomplish this goal!
Result - technically at the beginning of the month, my mom did have me cook some garlic shrimp at her house and made me use the oven. Since then, I've reverted back to being utterly afraid and eating pudding and cereal if my boyfriend isn't around to cook for me.

8) Eat less pizza. I literally ate it 4 times this week. I ate it right before composing this entry.
Result - fail, fail, fail. I think I ate it even more.

9) Keep applying in banner swaps, but invest in one big time ad-space that will hopefully drive traffic to the site!
Result - pretty successful! I invested in ad space on Kate Gabrielle's blog over at Scathingly Brilliant and I'm enjoying the traffic it's bringing my way.

10) Renew library card so I can have books for Factoid Friday FOR FREE!!!!
Result - success! I took a huge stack of books out (plus bought 7 magazines for a quarter each) so that was a great trip I made. Only problem is that I've read all the books and need to return them... but I haven't made Factoid Fridays about each book yet. So basically I have to make a fact summary about each book before I can bring them back. Yay, it's like homework!

For December, I'd like to continue with these goals (except maybe minus the Etsy one! Need to lay off the shopping) but I also added a few goals.

1) Type up facts from those library books like I mentioned
2) Finish sorting through and uploading items to my Trend Trunk profile (yay money!)
3) Start using apple cider vinegar for all my health and beauty needs (I have a bottle in my fridge just waiting to be used!)
4) Start going to the bar more frequently. I know that sounds bad, but I don't drink. It's a social thing and I've been incredibly anti-social and isolating myself. I've been a total recluse lately. The difference between my blog and others is that other people go out and do things. For instance, there was a local fashion show that I could have gone to, taken photos to show what was going on in the local fashion scene and networked with people but I didn't bother. Also, this isn't related to the bar, but the Santa Clause parade was just outside my building the other day. I could hear the music, and I just stayed huddled inside. I need to get out! See people! I dragged my butt out last night so I'm hoping I can keep the momentum going.
5) Write blog posts more frequently, ideally 3 times a week or more. No more of this "10 posts a month" stuff!

If you're anything like me, having pretty journals, agendas and other stationery makes getting organized and motivated easier. Here are my top picks (more on the expensive side since it is Splurgy Sunday.)

Clockwise from left
2014 Medium Agenda Calendar - Etsy - GirlinGirlStudio - $38.50
Campo Marzio Filigree Fountain Pen - Kate's Paperie - $27.50
Hidden Pencil Notebooks - MoMa Store - $14.95
Knock Knock Sticky Notepads - Amazon - $11.75
Calligraphy Set - Victorian Trading Co - $29.95
Listography 2014 Weekly Calendar - Urban Outfitters - $15.99 (P.S. I love the Listography books! I have nearly all of them. OCD list maker here!)
Vintage Ruler Folders - Indigo - $16.00
2014 Planner - Etsy -StephanieCreekmur - $50.00

Here's to a great month! 

Retro Wedding Fun Time

This past weekend, I attended an out of town wedding (okay, slightly out of town, it was about 45 minutes away from me in Chatham, Ontario) with my boyfriend Logan. It was the first time I met his extended family and it was quite a hoot! I didn't take pictures of them (because that would be weird) but they are a bunch of pranksters. I see where Logan gets it from. They spent most of the night pulling my leg and laughing at how gullible I am.

Later in the night, we retreated back to where we were staying, the bride, Stacy's house (or was it her husband to be Donnie's house? I wasn't sure. Either way it doesn't matter.) The ladies stayed inside and drank copious amounts of wine (and juiceboxes for me) and the men partied outside in the shed. However, the one bridesmaid, Melinda is in my camp and is not a frequent drinker. She uh... got tanked and went outside to try to party with the gentlemen. My boyfriend, a bouncer, tried to throw her over his shoulder bouncer style, and being too drunk himself, dropped her into a bunch of tools. So the matron of honor had a black eye for the big day. Oh, and my boyfriend also fell asleep completely naked (being drunk, he lost his clothing piece by piece throughout the night. I urged him to at least sleep in his boxers but he didn't seem concerned.) Sleeping on the basement floor in an open area with 3 teenage children, girlfriends sleeping over, and bridesmaids crashing for the night made for lots of laughs in the morning... because I'm a total covers hog.

Now for the wedding itself, I was in LOVE with the location. It was at the Retro Suites and the place is totally up my alley. I took a few pics but realized mine are really crappy compared to what the Retro Suites has posted on their Facebook and business page so I decided to borrow some of their's. Check this place out!

We actually never saw the front (that's the back pictured above) but it looks pretty cool.

My boyfriend and I are thinking maybe for our anniversary next year we'll go here. They have a bunch of different themed rooms and it seems really fun. Who would think that someone would intentionally travel to Chatham?

Outfit Details

Dress - Prettiest of All Dress - Modcloth

Shoes - Mel Shoes
Necklace - vintage
Coat (further down) - Miss Patina
Jeans - Stitches
Purse - vintage

I don't know about you, but at weddings I take tons of selfies. I just don't know what to do while I'm sitting there. I look like crap in these. I didn't even try to edit them to make myself look good. I wanted to show how tired I was. I had my dog earlier in the week and he's a pro at keeping me up. So no sleep while he was visiting.  I didn't get much sleep with the drunken shenanigans (my boyfriend crawled into bed at about 5am and then the ladies were up at 7am to start getting their hair done.) I was so, so tired. But I'm pretty sure I always am at wedding. Most weddings, I sneak out and nap in the car.

I amused myself for awhile with the jelly beads from the centerpieces (what IS this?) and then looked terrified when my boyfriend caught me. Haha. I think this should be my Facebook profile picture. I still have my Wednesday Addam's look posted as an homage to Hallowe'en.

We didn't take many photos of the bride and groom (seriously, most of the camera were of my boobs.) I am narcassistic. And Logan's a pervert.

Photo Credit - Retro Suites

Photo Credit Retro Suites

Photo Credit Retro Suites

Right before leaving, I snapped some shots of the lobby. They have so many cool things! The red thing in the Retro Suites photo was this really old flip book type thing. It looked pre-1900s. You cranked it and it would flip images of a girl dancing. So cool!

That's all for me! Talk soon!

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!