Ella from Paper Umbrella tagged me last week in a "Confessions of a Blogger" post so I thought I would answer some of the questions for you. I don't really have a day of the week that's for personal posts so I thought I would stick it under the Shenanigans section. Close enough, right?

1. When did you first start blogging and why?

I started this blog in the middle of August this year. I started it for a few reasons. One reason was that I felt I wasn't well rounded enough - I spent all my time online on Modcloth and eBay. As much as I loved doing that, I wanted some motivation to do other things. I felt if I had a place to document my adventures, if I had something to hold me accountable to going out thrifting, going out with friends, watching and reviewing movies, then I would be a more rounded person. Also, in contrast, I kind of wanted it as a justification for my shopping (admittedly, a total shopaholic here!) I used to DJ once a week and had a good excuse for a new dress all the time. Now that I wasn't going out as much, having new fancy dresses seemed kind of pointless. If I was photographing them for a blog, at least they would be getting some mileage.

2. Have you had any past online presence?

I have accounts on just about every platform there is! Of course, the usual suspects like Facebook and Pinterest but I used to have a pretty lengthy journal that I wrote daily on a FitDay account when I was 16-18 years old and another daily journal written on MySpace when I was 20-21.

3. When did you become serious about your blog?

I tried to take it seriously from the beginning. I paid for blog design after the first week (after about 3 entries) and read tons of other blogs to see what I could learn from them. I tried to treat it like a job, although it's nice because when I lose my motivation, I can take breaks or days off whenever I please.

4. What was your first blog post?

It was a very, very short blog post just explaining where the name of the blog came from. I wrote a Factoid Friday post shortly after but deleted it because it was absolutely terrible, mostly because there were too many downer facts about death and spiders.

5. What have been your biggest challenges blogging?

Getting out to take pictures! I wake up really late (total night owl here) and by the time I get up, it's dark out. On days I do get up early enough, it's often too cold. Canada is not the greatest place for blogging.

6. What is the most rewarding thing about blogging?

I love the networking and socializing aspect. I love when I comment on people's blogs and they comment back (although I'm admittedly bad at doing that, oops!) But I also love when I'm not sure how to do something (usually certain HTML type things) and I google it and then follow it step by step. And it works. I know it's laid out for me, plain and simple but seeing it work and doing it for myself just feels magical.

7. What is the most discouraging thing about blogging?

Most people I know don't take it seriously. They think it's no work at all. I try to emphasize that it's a lot of work, hours and hours a day, but they just think I laze around. It's hard to change people's opinions of me, but c'est la vie.

8. What is your lasting inspiration or motivation?

I take motivation from so many people! The blogs I find most inspirational are Scathingly Brilliant, mermaidens, Ahoy Miss,  Keiko Lynn and The Clothes Horse. I take a little bit of inspiration from all the blogs on my blog roll though. They all have such great fashion, photography, writing and blog layouts.

9. What is your blogging dirty secret?

I don't really have blogging dirty secrets! I'm still learning from everybody else. However, if you are into Etsy and have Etsy weekly or monthly favourite picks, whenever you come across an Etsy store that a blogger owns, look at their items, plus their favourites (items and stores.) Seeing picks from other fashionable ladies is a good way to add to your own favourites. I do this all the time and my "likes" on Etsy have grown substantially!

10. What is your current goal as a blogger?

I'm kind of vague on the goals right now. I'd like to reach 100 posts to show that I can commit to something (I'm really bad to sticking to anything.) I also would like to reach 1000 monthly views through banner swaps and advertising on social media.

11. Have you learned or become passionate about anything through blogging that caught you by surprise?

I'm interested in HTML and want to learn it for real. Also surprisingly have become interested in stationery (must be all that browsing on Etsy!)

I'm tagging

Camille of The Corner Sweetheart
Pamada of just.pandippo
Christine and Jenna of 2 Girls 1 Outfit
Elana of Room 334

That's all for me! Talk soon!

Movie of the Week - Addams Family Values

When thinking up movies for Movie Monday, I've been trying to think of movies where I can re-create some sort of outfit from my closet that is inspired by a character in the movie. I feel like my Sound of Music outfit set some sort of precedent and I have to keep doing that. I doubt I'll be able to, but it's going to be fun to try! But with Hallowe'en coming up and having a dress in my closet that I got a few years back from a consignment store in Toronto, I was all set. Unfortunatetly, I've gained 17 pounds since I bought it, and it was actually too small to begin with (remember I have a bad habit of buying things that aren't my size?) There is an un-Godly amount of shapewear and fashion tape going on in this outfit. I took a pic of my underthings (not NFSW) because I look like a circus performer. Oh, the things girls go through!

Outfit Details

Dress - Zara bought second hand

Shoes - vintage Ferragamos

Tights - Ardenes

Make-up - all Besame

Purse (in background) - Ardenes

Photo Credit 

It would have been better if I had braids, but alas, I can't afford wigs that aren't for my Hallowe'en costume.

 Photo Credit

As for the movie, the premise is pretty simple. The Addams welcome a new addition to the family, a baby named Pubert. Wednesday and Pugsley feel some sibling rivalry towards their new brother and go to great lengths to harm him (my favourite is shown in the clip below!)

Their parents, Gomez and Morticia, feeling the strain, decide to get a nanny and bring in a woman named Debbie. Awkward Uncle Fester is immediately smitten with her, but unbeknownst to him, she is actually the The Black Widow, a serial killer that marries and kills rich men. Savvy Wednesday is onto her scheme so Debbie urges Gomez and Morticia to send the kids to summer camp. 

I actually watched this movie a lot as a kid, but I didn't remember the majority of it. However the scene that stood out to me most was the Thanksgiving scene with the fire. Mostly, because I was super afraid of fire. There are a lot of morbid scenes and lines in this movie but this was definitely the most terrifying to me.

Photo Credit

   Gif Credit

It was really fun to re-watch this movie as an adult. So many one-liners I didn't understand as a child. Like this gem below

And another one about Fester never experiencing love and then Gomez saying something about him having Thing? Hahah, oh gosh, that's something you only catch when you're older! Wednesday is definitely the darkest character but Gomez is a hoot. I think I have to declare that he's my favourite.

Photo Credit

If you too would like a Wednesday Addams' look, try this dress from ASOS. It says it's a maternity dress, but whatevs! It's so cute and has the perfect look.

Well, that's all for me! What movies have you been watching this week in preparation for Hallowe'en? Have you been taking any fashion cues from them?

Polka Dot Playtime

Hi there! It's just been a weird sort of week so far! I had parts of an entry ready to go for Sunday but then my blog schedule was interrupted when there was a fire in my building and we were evacuated. I read AFTERWARD that since my building is so large it wasn't actually necessary for all of us to leave, but when I heard constant footsteps pounding in the stairwell, and my boyfriend looked out on the balcony and alerted me to the black smoke, I decided it was a good call to leave (if I had known I couldn't come back to my building for almost 3 hours, I might have taken my chances and stayed!) Of course, since all my blogs are different themes for each day, I had to scrap that entry. What was I thinking setting it up that way?

But onto my scores this week!

Outfit Details

Dress - Urban Planet 

Crinoline - Value Village

Shoes - Vintage

Necklace - Core Values Necklace - Modcloth -  $12

Hat - Keep Your Friends Cloche Hat - Modcloth (discontinued but still available in another colour) - $22

Lipstick - Coming Up Rosy-Cheeked Rouge by Besame - Modcloth - $22

I got these shoes from the Vintage Witch Shoppe for $15. I can't tell much about them except they are Coasters brand and I found the same pair on ebay for $40 starting bid (BIN $90.) Here are some similar shoes.

Who Could Be Saddle? Shoes - Modcloth - $38

 

Saddle Shoes bluebutterflyvintage via Etsy - $31

If you are more into the polka dot look of the dress, try these!

 

1) Runway Ticket Dress - Modcloth - 38

2) Hell Bunny April in Paris Dress - Hot Topic - $52

3) Red Polka Dot Flirty Cotton Mini Swing Dress - Unique Vintage - $68

4) Red & White Polka Dot Cotton Dress - Unique Vintage - $42

5) Red & White Polka Dot Halter Dress - Unique Vintage - $42

The other fun thing I purchased at the shop was this amazing nail kit

I've never been one to do my nails but maybe it's because all the manicure kits of today are totally boring. Maybe I just needed something like this to spark my interest! Well, hope you all find your own treasures this week! 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!

Factoid Friday Version 1.1

Happy Friday! I hope your weekend is off to a good start! This particular entry is called Factoid Friday Version 1.1 because this is actually my second go at Factoid Friday. I had an earlier entry that I wrote, posted and then later deleted because I wasn't happy with how it turned out. It was short on facts and had some scary pics in it (of spiders! What was I thinking posting that? Who would want to read this blog afterwards?) so I thought I would start fresh and take a second crack at it.

I adore reading books about trivia. I try to fit in some fiction, because it's a nice getaway from my real life (although, I'm re-reading the Shopaholic series at the moment. I'm pretty sure that's just my bio.) I like to read trivia and random fact books because I love things that just make me go "Wow! That's really cool!" and then I can mis-quote all the random tidbits I learned while I'm out at parties (so I sound really smart even though I'm little off on my stats, oopsie!)

One that I finished recently that I highly recommend is called "The First Book of Seconds" by a father/son team named Matthew and Steve Murrie.

 

Things I Learned From This Book

When they say "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" it basically is referring to how close you got to the alien(s.) For some reason, I always thought the "third kind" always referred to the aliens being something not of this planet. Like, there are animals on this planet (they could be the first kind) then there are plants (they could be the second kind) and I thought aliens were the third kind because they were other worldly. However, it basically refers to how much alien action you got. Close Encounters of the first kind is a sighting of a UFO within 500 feet. Second kind requires a UFO spotting, plus some zapping or radiation of land, animals or humans. Crop circles count in this category too. Close encounters of the third kind means you've had first hand contact or been abducted (or lost your mind.) Close encounters of the fourth kind (that exists!) means they've had sexual relations with you. So glad I got this straight!

Every 26 seconds, a car is stolen in America. In my circles, I don't know anyone with cars getting stolen, but everyday someone's bike is getting stolen. I'm very happy my legs are my only mode of transportation! Try to take these from me, people!

Wondering why so much of your jewelry is just gold-plated rather than solid gold? If all the gold ever mined were gathered together, it would fill only 2 Olympic size swimming pools! (And I would dive right in, muhahaha.)

And now my favourite - some word trivia (some of these will make your head spin. How did they even figure some of these out or even come across them?)

The longest word with all the vowels in order - pancreaticoduodenostomy

The longest word where all the letters appear twice - esophagographers
The word with the longest run of vowels - queuing
The word with the longest run of consonants - latchstring
The longest word with just one vowel - strengths
The longest word to alternate consonants and vowels honorificabilitudinitatibus
The longest word in alphabetical order - aegilops
The longest word without repeating letter - uncopyrightable and dermatoglyphics

Fun fact - my spell check thought most of these were spelt wrong.

It Happened This Day

In 1522, the Victoria, the only surviving ship of it's fleet (from Ferdinand Magellan's expedition) returns to port in Spain and becomes the first ship to circumnavigate the globe. I find it so interesting that it used to take months to travel the world, with such danger, and now we just hop on a plane (and complain the entire time about the boredom we suffer with tons of technology at our disposal.) Crazy what explorers of the past had to endure!
In 1944 at the tail end of World War II, the city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by allied forces.
Canada gets it's first television station in 1952 (compared to the US in 1941.)
In 1991, the name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924. (I find this interesting because I bet this will be a Jeopardy answer one day.)
The funeral of Princess Diana takes place in London in 1997. Over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television. I didn't personally watch the funeral (although I'm sure my mom did. She's been a follower of the royal family for some time.) Does anyone else clearly remember when Princess Di died? I remember I was online, chatting on some crappy internet site where you talk to total strangers. I remember the background was black and the text was in red. I found out from some obnoxious 12 year old boy that she had died and I didn't believe him.

On a brighter note (and also on a royal note!) it's Pippa Middleton's birthday today! In honor of her 29th birthday, I've made a board of Pippa style items.

1) Steel My Kisses Dress - Modcloth - $50
2) Full Course Load Bag in Yellow - Modcloth - $75
3) Plentiful Paths Dress - Modcloth - $70
4) Foggy Marina Double Breasted Trench - Tulle Clothing - $98
5) Single Breasted Blazer - Tulle Clothing - $55
6) Full Course Load Bag in Charcoal - Modcloth - $75
7) Stroke of Genius Dress in Birds - Modcloth - $77

And here are some of the images that inspired them:

One last piece of interesting trivia. One day and 315 years ago, Russian Tsar, Peter the Great (who founded St. Petersburg) decided Western fashion was favourable after taking a grand tour of Europe, where men were typically clean shaven. Upon returning home to Russia, he took scissors to the beards of all the men in his court, and imposed a tax of 100 roubles annually (a small fortune at the time.) Those who opted to pay the fee had to keep a copper token with an image of a mustache and beard on it as proof of their payment. The tax was overturn in 1772. If only everybody who participated in Movember actually raised money towards prostrate cancer! Maybe that would be the equivalent?

Hope the rest of your weekend is amazing folks! Talk soon!

Must Have Mint!

Hi folks! Guess what day it is? It's Wardrobe Wednesday! When I made the title up for this day, I wasn't really thinking. I just didn't want it to be another "Wishlist Wednesday" but now I'm not quite sure WHAT to do with a day called Wardrobe Wednesday. I'm not even exactly sure what it's premise should BE, but what I've kind of narrowed it down to is taking inventory of my closet, seeing what I'm lacking and making a wishlist based on that. And perhaps throw in an outfit photo. It's essentially a Wishlist Wednesday by another name. Sneaky sneaky!

While going through my closet, I decided that not only am I loving mint, but that I need more of it. I have a few items (two of which are dresses that look nearly identical. See below) but could always use more. My tally for mint items are those 2 dresses, a mint collar necklace and little mint heart earrings. Deprived much? MOAR! So here is my must have mint items that I hope one day will find their way to my closet:

1) TFNC Bea Mint Green Beaded Dress - Lulu*s - $115

2) The Fine Mint Dress - Modcloth - $50

3) Blaque Label See You Around Cutout Mint Maxi Dress - Lulu*s - $135

4) Mint For Each Dress - Modcloth - $90

5) TFNC Abria Sage Green Sequin Dress - Lulu*s - $114

6) Elise Ryan Skater Dress with Jewelled Waist - ASOS - $37

1) City By the Sea Collared Bow Blouse - Ruche - $44

2) Trixie Chambray Accent Blouse in Mint - Ruche - $33

3) Justina Polka Dot Skinny Pants - Ruche - $43

4) Barista in the City Top in Jade - Modcloth - $38

5) Outta This World Bustier Top - Modcloth - $48

6) Pearly-Cue Top - Modcloth - $33

1) Cambridge Satchel Upwardly Mobile Satchel in Mint - Modcloth - $175

2) Dainty Dramatist Heel in Mint - Modcloth - $80

3) Scallop Detail Satchel Bag - ASOS - $47

4) B.A.I.T. Emma T-Strap Wingtip Skimmer - Urban Outfitters - $55

5) You Bow What I Mint Earrings - Modcloth - $10

6) Florence Leather Flat Sandals - ASOS - $37

7) Bag to Differ Mint Green Handbag - Lulu*s - $45

8) Marielle Jeweled Necklace - Ruche - $24

9) Melie Bianco Cobblestone Village Clutch - Modcloth - $48

10) Seychelles Cone Heel T-Strap Sandals - Urban Outfitters - $90

Here is me modelling my pretty mint dress in pretty much the same pose every picture. I'm still a little camera shy. I use to love being in front of a camera when I was a teenager but now I feel silly. I felt comfortable in that little pose, so while Sarah, my boss at the vintage shop was snapping pics, I kind of just stayed there even though she kept getting different angles. 

And here is it's near twin.

I took these photos for a review contest that Modcloth had where you take one item and style it 2 different ways. I bought the strapless dress afterwards without realizing that I already had a mint dress with white polka dots. I felt silly looking at the ground in the second pic, but it does look nice in pictures. If you are interested in the original product pages, they can be found here and here.

Speaking of breaking out of comfort zones, since I've been at Full Circle Vintage, I've been asked to do some modeling for their Facebook page. The photographer, Sal Rahman takes some really good shots and knows what he's doing with Photoshop (unlike me! I just play with it until it's all effed up but then keep it since I spent so long on it) and I'm excited by how great his shots have turned out. Check them out!

For the last bit of news, my boyfriend pretended to be hurt that I didn't hire him to do my blog design. He showed me what his header would have been. I thought I'd share it with you all because it made me laugh.

Talk soon my friends!