My friend John, over at The Wide Wale, loves to do drawings of preppy girls. For years I have said he should draw his friends and one day...I found this is my email. How cute! I am sure it was inspired by this outfit...
I am always posting photos of my outfits and John must've been further inspired because a few days later I opened my email to find this one waiting for me! Adorable!
Thank you John! I love your artist's interpretation of me!
Comments keep bloggers inspired...please take the time to say hello!
I've become very unimaginative in my dressing these days. It's too cold to think much about what to wear, thank goodness I have the same pieces in every colour. The jeans, shirt and cardi are repeated in my closet about 10 times each, all in different hues and patterns. It's like Garanimals for harried mommies.
Nothing beats some cognac neutrals - they go with everything. No thinking, no stressing.
Pearls carry me from yoga class to rubbing elbows with the muckymucks.
I wore this to a lunch meeting with someone who works with the homeless. He told me he isn't used to such well dressed people sitting down to hear what he has to say. Our fundraiser is tomorrow night. Obviously he had something powerful to say.
Comments keep bloggers inspired...please take the time to say hello!
Have a fabulous day!
A week before Christmas I spent the afternoon at the liquor store ringing the bell for the Salvation army. This is the third year I have done it and I am always impressed at the array of characters who will stop to chat before heading in to get their 'message'. December in Canada can be a bit hit or miss so I decided to wear warm clothes and take a lighter jacket. It worked well and I managed to stay warm enough for a couple of hours before moving the kettle inside for the last part of my shift.
Embroidered cords, Christmas turtleneck, Birdseye sweater, and accessories. The leather bracelet was a present from Adrienne of The Rich Life and I wear it allllll the time. Pearls, natch. I always feel like a big preppy whale when I wear this sweater, it's not figure flattering at all, but a handsome businessman in town saw me wearing it and told me I look just like his first girlfriend. The sweater will be staying.
How it translated in the cold December sunshine! By this point I had a pocket full of miniatures - someone stopped to help a liquor store employee clean up a dropped case of booze, each bottle had a miniature attached to it so the employee gave them to the helpful passerby...who stopped to share them with me!
My mittens were custom knit locally.
The local chocolatier was having their machine serviced when I stopped by so he came an hour later to deliver me a spicy hot chocolate! Yum! Small town life is great!
A huge thank you to everyone for the birthday messages! I read and cherish each and every one of them!
I had a great birthday and took so many photos I need to do separate posts for each section of the big day! Today is all about the presents!
The Suburban Prince gave me this fabulous tote!
It's the spring 2011 limited edition!
The Little Prince gave me these delicious chocolates!
My inlaws gave me $$ (the international language of love) to pay for the riding jacket I ordered a few weeks ago!
My neighbour left chocolates and...
Prosecco on my doorstep!
A big box arrived from Adrienne of Rich Life (on a budget) and I couldnt wait to open it! How pretty is the wrapping!?
The trick to perfect wrapping...start by taping down the first end of the paper.
I was shivering with the antic-i-pa....tion!
A gorgeous ruffle scarf in pink! It is so pretty - I wore it for two days! It will go with just about everything in my wardrobe too! Thank you so much Adrienne! A proper TY is in the mail :O)
On my birthday we went to T&Co because the Little Prince wanted me to have this mug but unfortunately it is sold out in Canada :O( So it's on promise for when it is finally back in stock. Thanks the The Preppy Princess for giving me the great idea!
The winner of my birthday giveaway is TravelbugMom! Congratulations! Please email me by Wednesday night so I can get your prize out to you this week!
Recently, lot of things have been reminding me of my life when I was 14...
I think it all started when I opened the Autumn LLBean catologue. There it was...in all it's woolly glory. The Birdseye sweater.
Oh how I wanted this sweater! The year was 1985 and I may or may not have cut these out of the LLBean catologue and glued them on photos of myself so I could imagine I owned one. They resurfaced this past Autumn and you know I did not waste any time placing my order. As Joan Rivers once said..."money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made". This sweater makes me very happy. It represents so much. The life I wanted when I was younger. This sweater was so out of reach when I wanted it the most, owning it now is a symbol of how far I have come. It is the uniform of the club I always wanted to be invited to join. I think I was recently appointed vice-president.
Then came the Tretorns. My heart races a little when I see them! I spent so much time at the public tennis courts (there were no country clubs in my youth) I really did wear a hole in the toe of mine! I saved up money from my after school job and bought my first pair in a shoe store in the Niagara Falls factory outlet mall.
This is not my foot...image courtesy of google.
I recently bought a pair of Tretorns and they make me even happier than my first pair! Ignore the fine lines, reading glasses and mild heartburn and I really could be 14 again when I am wearing them. Okay squint a little!
Then came this post by Snooty Primadonna reminding me of my love for Mikhail Baryshnikov and a movie I was obsessed with! White Nights. I saw it every weekend while it was in the theatres. I got the soundtrack on cassette for Christmas in 1985 and I actually wore it out. We watched it again a few weeks ago and the Suburban Prince, who had never seen it, said it is a really good movie. He actually knows a guy who defected - he was on the national ski team and while the team went one way down the mountain, he went the other!
Since I have been reliving my teenage years recently it was no surprise that I would go off looking for the White Nights soundtrack. It wasnt easy but I did manage to find, for download, a few of the songs. The sound of Phil Collins voice actually stopped me in my tracks! The middle of the 80's was enhanced by those drums and poignant love songs - would a school dance have been the same without Against All Odds?
After listening to Separate Lives a few times I downloaded Phil Collins album Face Value. This is the one with In the Air Tonight so along with Bohemian Rhapsody it is the perfect 'singing and drumming in the car' song. The Little Prince has been working on his drum solos.
(I swear I am getting to my point! Dont blame me, blame my gender...women think in a word association sort of way so one concept makes me think of another and so on...)
Face Value was released in 1981 so who knows why I was still listening to it in high school. Maybe it was just a part of my Phil Collins collection. Last month I downloaded it, put it on my ipod and got on with my life. A few days later I was sitting at a red light and You Know What I Mean came up in the shuffle. It was like my car was a time machine taking me back to a very specific time...the Birdseye sweater, Tretorns, grade 9...I think I could actually smell Wind Drift....the friends I had, the boys I liked, passing notes in class, tennis lessons...The Official Preppy Handbook found it's way into my hands in 1985...those moments spent teetering between being a child (because 14 was a child back then) and being more than a child...
I wore this when I was a teenager...I have no idea why but I just loved the way it smelled!
The car behind me honked and bought me back to 2010 and I carried on with my errands but I was left with a strange feeling. It amazed me how easily one forgotten song could conjure so many feelings and memories.
I used to listen to this over and over...even at 14 I knew I was destined for an epic life! Of course along with an epic life comes epic breakups and I spent hours and hours imagine how fabulous 30 would be and how meaningful my relationship ending moments would be. Go ahead...laugh...I am!
So here it is...the song that brought me to this post....
Over the next few days I will be writing to my 14 year old self. I thought I might have a few tidbits of advice but once I got started I realised how much I have learned in the last 25 years so instead of one huge post, there will be several smaller posts. It is amazing how much I had to learn and how much I had to go through to learn it. Life, love, people, places...none of them come with a manual even though at 14 I thought I knew it all. In the words of Bob Dylan, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
It is always an exciting day when the LLBean catologue arrives in my mailbox. I have been in love with this company since I was 14 years old and read TOPH for the very first time.
I was giddy when I pulled the new catologue out of the mail box and mentally made plans to curl up on the couch while the Little Prince napped and go through it with a stack of post-its and the Suburban Prince's credit card.
Then I remembered.
The shopping ban.
The shopping ban I imposed upon myself.
I could hear the Suburban Prince snickering in the other room.
That did not stop me from going through the catalogue and deciding what I will buy when I lift the ban in May!
When I spotted this I was reaching for the smelling salts! It comes in a cardi too! TDF!
Sometimes a dress makes me feel like I must be prim and proper and that just isn't always possible. A polo dress is the best of both worlds! A dress I can play in! This orange one will look so good with my summer tan!
This shirt makes me think of saltwater taffy! I love the polka dot details at the cuffs and collar!
Perfection! I love seeing embroidered shorts and pants everywhere!
I better buy two of these! How adorable will this be under a jacket or shirt!
I do realise I chose mostly pink and green but most of these items do come in other colours!
Have a fabulous day!
PS...Birthday details will be in my next post - Thank you to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes!
Please check to see if you are the winner of the monogrammed golf glove!
Yesterday I had a surprise trip into the city - we were supposed to be going today but the Little Prince is sick and the Suburban Prince has to work tonight so the Bestie and I decided to go alone yesterday rather than take the Little Prince today. We leapt into action, got showered, dressed and in the car within 45 minutes and sped down the highway! It was such a gorgeous day and it felt so good to go out without coats!
We hit Starbucks the second we got the car parked then spent a few hours wandering around the Eaton Centre shopping our little hearts out! Lunch was a shared jerk chicken salad and a side of coconut shrimp! YUM!
It was such a fun day we didn't want it to end but our families need us so we started making our way back out of the city - but not without a stop in Michaels on the way home!
When I left in the morning I thought the Little Prince just had a cold but by bedtime last night he was throwing up, feverish and well...a hot mess! Fortunately the Suburban Prince is used to night shifts so he slept sitting up in a chair so the Little Prince could sleep upright. We think he was throwing up because of all the snotties he was swallowing. I cant assure you...all the fantasies of having a child never include this part!
I wore this ensemble the other day when I went out for lunch! This scarf was made by LWhelan over on etsy. I asked her to include lots of the Mommy and Me fabric since it is one of my favourite Lilly prints! The sweater is the green cotton cableknit from LLBean.
I decided to put a pink vest over it because even though the weather has been mild here, I live by the lake and sometimes there is a sharp breeze coming off it that can be unpleasant!
I learned two things when I saw this photo. 1. Clean the mirror before taking photos. 2. Turn off the flash. I would've taken more photos but I was in a rush and needed to get out the door! I will work on my technique and see if I can figure out the best setting for this sort of thing!
Last year I tried to buy a new tote with pink handles/bottom. I tried to order it online but I couldn't select the pink I wanted. I ended up calling LLBean and spoke to a lovely customer service rep (actually they are all always lovely!) who told me the pink (Fuschia) had been discontinued. Okay...I tried to then order it in the green called Foliage but that colour had also been discontinued. Anyone who ordered totes as Christmas gifts would've noticed their colour options we a bit lacking this year.
The new colours have been made available and among them are a new pink and a new green. I have to admit I'm not in love with either of these shades. The pink isn't a shade of pink I would choose to wear or accessorize with and the green is just a little bit too green. It makes me think of Clorets!
I can finally relive my high school days! This sweater just arrived and I cant wait to wear it! LL Bean brought the Birdseye Norwegian sweater back this season and memories of carefree days of Tretorns, friendship bracelettes, Finesse shampoo, tennis lessons, first kisses, Wind Drift and TOPH came flooding back! The best part is this time around I don't have homework!
Today my housekeeper is coming - thank goodness! The house always gets so messy during the summer so I love getting it all cleaned up! I swear if I had to choose between her and the Suburban Prince....well...let's not even go there!
This afternoon the Little Prince has a playdate in town so we will no doubt go to the park for a bit then hang out while the little ones watch Baby Einstein for a little while. The other mommy is a good friend but sooooo very different from me. She is essentially 'the anti-princess' so I have to fight the urge to make her over and get her to embrace the princess lifestyle!
Then home for dinner of some sort - I really need to start planning meals! I see a lot of people doing this but I always wonder how do I know today what I will want to eat next Thursday?
Tomorrow I think we will hang out in the back yard and do some swimming! The weather has been so nice this week and we haven't been in the pool once! We have just been so busy with so many other things! Tomorrow for sure!
On Sunday we are having a 'Last Swim of the Season' party. We invited all of our friends and their kids to come and hang out in the pool for a couple of hours before we close it this coming week. I sense another annual event coming out of this lol! I am armed with cases of pop, big bags of chips and boxes of popcicles! Thank goodness for Costco!
In the middle of all of this I hope the Suburban Prince will get the shelves put up in my craft room. It has turned into the dumping ground of the house since I don't have a lot of time to do anything besides look after the Little Prince and keep the house running but I am determined to get my craft room up and running! First things first...shelves! As soon as they are up I can get all of my scrapbooking gear up on them and clear some space. I never met a craft I didn't like so my supplies are really overflowing. I recently made the decision to purge a lot of it so once I get things organized I will be listing a lot of my excess supplies on etsy.com. I am going to keep my crafty hobbies only to scrapbooking/cardmaking, knitting and sewing. Everything else can go! If you are looking for something let me know...I might just have it!
And on a sad note....I tried to order a new LLBean tote yesterday. I got some terrible news!! They are no longer carrying totes in Fuscia or Foliage!!! I ended up not buying one because I couldn't wrap my head around this. My two favourite colours no longer available! I was told they are coming out with new colours in January but that didn't really help me right now when I need a new tote!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I am looking forward to everyone blogging about it on Tuesday!
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