Thrifting Queen

Disclaimer: Please stop reading this now and go to another thread if you find eternal optimism and perkiness nauseating.

It is an absolutely gorgeous fall day here today. It's warm (around +24C), sunny and the trees are golden and beautiful. I decided to heck with my housecleaning as there won't be too many of these days left, changed into my running gear, grabbed my iPod and off I went.

I ran 8km today and my knee didn't bother me one darned bit. My toenail is growing back nicely and it didn't hurt either. Got into a groove and felt like I could have run forever.

Pic 1 is my street and pic 2 is the tree on my boulevard. Aren't the colours gorgeous? Pic 3 is me just back from my run (umm....sorry about whatever's going on with my crotch there...just look away).

I'll leave you with the YouTube link to my current favourite song for running, Sola Rosa's "Turn Around" - gotta love a fantastic horn section, don't you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrIYIdQylSk

As you know, I attended my friend Kristin's wedding on August 17th. She and I have a unique relationship - she is exactly 20 years younger than I am and yet we are so similar. We work together but also have a friendship outside of work. She is very near and dear to me.

I asked Kristin if I could have a couple of pictures to post of her in her gorgeous dress for you to see and she has kindly agreed. The funny thing about this stunning dress is I found it for her on our local Kijiji site. Kristin and her hubby paid for their entire wedding celebration themselves so were being very frugal. She asked me to help her find a dress at a reasonable price and so I began the search. I found this dress on the site and it had never been worn (the wedding it was purchased for was cancelled). She loved the dress and went to check it out - it fit PERFECTLY. Absolutely no alterations required - it was meant to be.

I think she looks absolutely STUNNING. Enjoy...

We had a FANTASTIC time at my friend Kristin's wedding last night. It was without a doubt the nicest wedding/reception I've ever been to. All of Kristin's planning paid off and everything went so smoothly. It was also very much KRISTIN & RYAN - there were many individualized details that set it apart from anyone else's wedding. I'll have pictures of Kristin later to post but nothing right now. Needless to say, she looked stunning and radiant.

I did indeed go with the blue lace dress, red shoes and red clutch and felt comfortable. stylish and appropriate all night. Sorry for no pictures - wasn't able to take my camera. However my red clutch met an early death when a young lady at the reception in at least 6 inch stilettos and full of WAY too much liquor, bumped into me on my way to the washroom, knocking my clutch out of my hand and then promptly stepped on it with her weapon-like heels putting a gigantic hole right through my handbag. While saying to her "excuse me you're on my purse" and bending down to get it, didn't she step on the clasp with the other foot and break it right off. I was not amused but what are you going to do?

However, I have secret revenge today knowing she's nursing one gigantic hangover!

It’s no secret on YLF that I love vintage items – clothing, handbags, and jewelry. My sister-in-law popped by last night and we got chatting about vintage and the new vintage handbag on its way to me (thanks to MIL) and she asked if I was going to use it. To me this seemed like such a silly question – well of course I’m going to use it, just like I use all my vintage items.

She then explained that in her mind, a vintage item is something you collect, display and enjoy looking at. Using it decreases its value and adds wear and tear to the item. She asked what I will do if I use it and it eventually falls apart – won’t I feel bad? I replied that I would have enjoyed the item while using it and that was the main thing.

But it got me thinking and now I’m curious what other vintage collectors/buyers do – do you use your vintage pieces or do you “save” them?

I'm off work this week so may not be posting much in the way of WIW threads. Thought I'd show you my two new handbags at home in their spots - the Elliot Lucca snakeskin and the two-tone vintage reissued Fossil. Don't they look happy there???

I also have a small shelf above the clothes rod in my closet for other handbags that don't fit on my door system.

Bonus pics of "my boys" (human and fur). This is what a 17-year-old looks like the day after his b-day party with friends (they went to bed when I got up!)

As you may recall, I had posted about my MIL moving in with us at the end of July (http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....-the-forum). In the last month, we have sold my MIL's house, had my father come to visit from the coast, built a bedroom downstairs for our teenage son and got him set up, renovated my son's previous bedroom to be comfortable for my MIL, made safety changes in our bathroom to accommodate an elderly person, and cleaned out my MIL's old three-story house of its 52 years worth of stuff. Oh....and shopped NAS!

Today was the yard sale of that 52 years worth of stuff and it was a tough day, particularly for my MIL and my husband. It's very emotional to have complete strangers rifle through your possessions, haggle your price down, and then take it away with them. Yes, they are just things but many of those things had memories attached to them and the sad reality is that you can't keep all of them. My husband watched his childhood and teenage years slip away with each item sold and you could visibly see the pain on his face when many of his recently deceased father's items were purchased.

When it was all done, we all walked through the now empty 102 year-old house, with its creaky floors and leaded glass windows. It echoed with emptiness. It still smells like my in-laws. We found underneath the basement stairs a small portion of the wood wall where all 5 kids had carved their initials at different points in time. My hubby took a picture of that wall to take with him.

My MIL is staying with her daughter tonight and moving in with us tomorrow. We're all relieved and pleased that she's coming to be with us. But it sure was a tough day today.

Why am I sharing this? Just a reminder to love your family with all that you have in you. They are truly the most important thing in your life.

1. Got the coffee stain out of the turquoise pencil skirt. Can’t even tell.
2. Remember the cobalt/cerulean blue puffy sleeved jacket I thrifted a while back? I’ve only worn it once since I got it. I find it difficult to style and can really only think of one way to make the sleeves work. Plus it does NOT fit under any type of jacket thanks to those big ol’ sleeves….so I re-thrifted it last week (sorry Angie – I know you liked it)
3. Have figured out that the only two things I’m still on the hunt for for summer are a casual black sleeveless jersey dress (as per Angie’s recent blog post) and a sleeveless faded denim vest. Any ideas anyone?
4. Canadian delivery stinks – the order I placed with Nordie’s May 30th for my “back up” pair of Wit & Wisdom skinnies and the yellow/blue snakeskin leather clutch is still in transit. Don’t they know I’m an impatient person?

Oh….one more thing… I LOVE YLF AND ALL OF YOU!!!

P.S. I just had to share and brag a little. My hubby is a writer and amateur photographer. He laid in a ditch for over an hour watching this dragonfly until he could get the perfect shot of the wings spread so you could see the intricate lace-like details. I love this picture.

I just had a very interesting conversation with one of our O.R. nurses. I see her everyday and we often stop and chat. She's a lovely lady. This morning she stopped me in the stairwell and proceeded to tell me that she loves my style, that she looks forward to seeing what I'm wearing every day and that most importantly, she loves that I don't look like everyone else and that my style is "different".

Needless to say, I was quite overwhelmed with her generous comments and obvious sincerity and of course, told her how much her comments meant and how appreciative I am that she would take the time to tell me this.

What really struck me after I took this all in is that a few months ago, I would have taken the word "different" as an insult, like somehow I stick out in a negative way and that I should tone things down to look more like the environmental norm. But YLF (through Angie and all of you) has given me more confidence and now I'm taking that word "different" as a compliment - it's nice to be honing a style that not only speaks to me but appears visually interesting to others.

So Angie and YLF - thank you. Thank you for helping me learn to dress myself and express myself in ways that make me feel good. I still have off days but I think have more hits than misses and I'm constantly learning through your valuable feedback.

Ladies - embrace your individuality! "Different" isn't a dirty word!!!