Side Dish

I can't just do one thing. Maybe I've finally made peace with the fact that I'm not going to be the kind of girl with a "5-year plan" or a "career path". I've been pretty lucky to have jobs (like my current one) that let me do a million different things and appease all of my conflicting interests. It's not that I don't have dreams or goals, it's just that there are a lot of them and I might be shooting around wildly hoping to hit a few.

Imma just gonna do stuff I like.

I guess I'm afraid to not indulge my every whim for fear that my true calling will get missed. It's why I can't say no. It's why I have 5,674,936 hobbies. It's why I come off as flighty, directionless. Maybe, though, my true calling is "DOING AWESOME THINGS". I agonized forevs about choosing one career over another (Should I have pursued journalism? Is corporate retail where I belong?), about what I should have studied in school  (I had the math grades for Engineering but I wanted to design clothes), about how I saw my life in 5, 10, 20 years (panic!).

 { grade 8 // this is clearly not a new problem }

Can't I just dabble in everything? Why isn't that allowed? So, as it turns out: it is. It's a little frowned-upon, but in a city is rife with floaters and dreamers and slashies, I fit in. I romanticize living in the sticks, but I'm pretty at home here with aimless weirdos like me.

On top of being insanely busy at work (but I'm getting an intern! yay!), I've also signed myself up for some pretty big side gigs leading into the holidays. I have to sew my face off for a City of Craft – it's coming up in less than a month. But I haven't even started because of another project that just wrapped up on Sunday.

Thanks to some work I did on some videos for my day job, I made some friends in the movie biz. Heh. Dan was our DOP on a few GelaSkins vids (and he directed my directing, too!). When a personal project came his way – a music vid for his hip-hop artist friend, Muneshine – something possessed him to hire me. As a stylist! Oh boy. I was totally in over my head but I wanted to do an awesome job because getting paid to shop is pretty much my dream (OK, one of seven billion dreams).

I was excited but nervous about the role. My challenge: to outfit 5 girls in the style of 60s-esque stewardesses. On basically no budget. Hey: my look-expensive-while-being-broke superpower is paying off outside of my own closet!

I was also somehow smooth-talked into being "talent". Totally against my will. If you know of my not-so-secret and completely unattainable Broadway aspirations, you are rolling your eyes. But honest: I didn't want to be in the vid. Mostly because I hired 4 mega-babes who completely out-babe me. Seriously, you wanna juxtapose me against teeny dancer bodies and high cheekbones. Crap.

 { sneak peek! photos: shlomi amiga }

Once I have a chance to wade through the photo-aftermath, I'll post some behind-the-scenes eye-candy and my thoughts on make-believe career #5,674,937. Let's manage expectations here, though: it won't be anytime soon. I'm diving straight into sewing while attempting to dodge holiday-ish invites with minimal FOMO and working longer-than-normal hours at my uber-busy day job. Blog neglected again.

See? I have so many side dishes that I don't even have time for my very favourite among them! I would like you to know that I currently have NINE draft posts sitting in the wings. All becoming less relevant and timely the longer I wait. 

I am well-meaning. 

"The road to hell...", yeah?

Playing Dress-Up: Suzy Bishop

1. Vintage binoculars on Etsy $25-$250 // 2.Tara Jarmon peter-pan collar dress $460 // 3. Cicada earrings on Etsy $25 // 4. MAC eyeshadow in Aquadisiac $15 // 5. Vintage tackle basket on Etsy $50 // 6. Portable record player on Etsy $70-$300 // 7. Jeffrey Campbell saddle shoes $115 // 8. Falke London knee socks $24 // 9. Vintage books and handwritten love letters on Etsy $5-$35

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This is probably going to be my Halloween costume this year! Not surprising, right? I'm just so thrilled to have another Wes Anderson female character to emulate. I've wanted to re-do Margot since I embodied her several years ago, but recycling ideas seemed cheap, especially for a Halloween über-enthusiast like me. 

So yea, Suzy! 

 

{ scene from Moonrise Kingdom }

Of course, I will find a way to MacGyver most of it and keep my budget to a minimum. I'll scour Value Village over the next couple of weeks, and maybe pick up the odd Etsy item to round it out. 

Hubby is obvi going as my pre-teen love-interest, Sam Shakusky. It will involve a hearty face-shave (i'm nervous). We both get to pretend to be 13 again. Pretty cute, since we were 13 when we first met on a yellow school bus.

Photos coming soon!

p.s. I even curated a little Etsy treasury for more great Wes Anderson costume inspiration!

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Additional image credits: Collage by me, Portable record player via Ubiquity Records, Cicada Earrings via The Village Idiot, Binoculars via Bruneau vs Bennett

colour-lust: red + mint

I'm "colourful". OK, that's a euphemism for "criminally insane" (borderline, yeah?). But I'm OK with it. I wear it on the outside with irrational pattern combos and upwards of five accent colours in one outfit. If I had my way, our apartment would be saturated in tangerine and fuchsia and shots of turquoise and crazy conflicting pattern-on-pattern (that's what my insides look like, or so I imagine). But I'm sharing Lead Decorator role with a decidedly more stubborn conservative human.

I won't stop dreaming in full colour, though. Dorothy is my homegirl.

Maybe it's because I leafed through a book on cars of the 60s yesterday, or because Pinterest is swimming in S/S 2013 runway looks, but I'm daydreaming in a seriously unseasonable colour palette. It happens to be one of my most loved combos of all time, actually. I grew up in a 1950s time-capsule, so it's no surprise that my tastes err on the side of retro. 

Mint + apple-red + vanilla!

It's sounds like a very yummy cocktail, n'est ce pas? Wanna meet me at the diner and sip one? Two straws. Batting eyelashes. Footsies. 

Just for funsies (and to set the mood for this post), let's pretend we can experience colour with all of our senses. Yes, I am eight.

Smell: "In the Summer Kitchen" by CB I Hate Perfume

Taste: milkshakes

Hear: One Fine Day by The Chiffons

Touch: melamine + taffeta

Maybe this snapshot of my little kitchen studio will illustrate my love for this combo:

{ photo by: Jessica Blaine Smith, 2011 // dorky hair + awkward smile: my own handiwork } 

 More delicious examples of this gorgeous union of colour are everywhere in life (and all over the internetz)!

 {ia's Vintage lunch box // AM Radio tackle box }

 

{ interiors // photos via: shelterness.com }

{ custom handmade oxfords by goodbyefolk }

{ awesome street style // pics by selectivepotential.com & laviepetite.blogspot.com }

{ wood chevron necklace on Etsy }

{ photo by ANDREKART // photo by me! }

{ berry bowl by Claylicious on Etsy }

 { vintage fan // AM Radio vintage desk lamp }

p.s. in case you thought I was joking about that 1950s time capsule stuff. This is my parents' basement:

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Header photo, right panel: Ruby Belle Dress

Fall, head first.

I'm kinda resisting the change of seasons. Which is crazy because I LOVE fall. The season of layering and multi-coloured tights and crunchy leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. Oh, and Halloween! Seriously? The best.

But I've been purposely wearing sandals and leaving my coat at home and wearing white after Labour Day (gasp). The weather is making it too easy. Do I just have a rebellion-lust this year? Am I  stumbling upon uncharacteristic pessimism? "All good things must come to an end"? 

I don't really believe that. But this summer was pretty magical and also highly indulgent (read: unsustainable). It's OK, the new budget and food restrictions have been good for a girl like me who gets caught up so easily. Healthy. But I guess it's making me associate fall with the end of a good ride. The optimist's perspective: it's still a ride, but we're rolling up the windows. Just a little.

Truthfully, renewal (September is the new January) is exactly what I need. And in the way that you'll crave Hot Rods (yes, even as a vegetarian) when your body really just needs protein, my subconscious is already jumping in piles of leaves and sprinkling nutmeg with fervor. It's trying to tell me something. How do I know? My Etsy faves are suspiciously seasonal. 

 { a surprisingly subdued colour palette for this gal: soft black, goldenrod, slate blue... and sometimes a dash of cinnamon }

Of course, because of my ongoing shopping ban, I can't actually purchase any of these Etsy covets. Minor detail.

When I'm allowed to spend again at the end of this month, the weather will be less forgiving. Sandals are out of the question. It will be a great time to finally embrace the fact that time charges forward. My summer of excess will be but a sweet memory and cluster of Instagram captures. I will buy some pretty cardis (3/4-sleeved to show off my new tattoo!) and tall boots and maybe even give up being a quasi-blonde. 

Oh, look. All this talk is getting me excited. Finally. 

My dream fall, in things, inspired by Etsy:

I referred to something as "half Mad Men, half Girls Gone Wild" yesterday and my friend Dawn said it totally described me "200%". Oh boy. Probably I should lean towards the Mad Men side a little more, yeah? These should do just the trick. Vintage barware $23

I'm a bells-and-whistles kinda girl (tassels! snaps! fringe!) but occasionally, I find awesomeness in simplicity. This bag is perfection. Leather tote by Rib & Hull  $290

I'm kind of obsessed with burlap. Like the way it makes you cough a little when you breathe it in. I just made pillows for our living room out of some old coffee sacks we picked up in Perth last summer. This Etsy shop makes darling things out of the scratchy stuff. Burlap pillows $45

Simple, graphic, lovely.  Chevron print, $36

 

I had a long-term love-thing with peppermint. It was monogamous. Peppermint everything. But a little lip balm I picked up in Montreal turned me onto cinnamon again (in my post-candy-hearts adult life), and maybe I have two loves now. Scandal. Cinnamon soap $6.50

 

 I have great underthings. Surely they deserve a little show & tell. Kidding? But please, tell me this isn't the greatest dress you've ever seen. Stunning. I'd do fantastic things in this dress, I'm sure. Vintage sheer dress $145

In my fantasy life, as a Parisian boutique owner (slash model, slash journaliste), my baking needs would be stored in vintage enamel canisters in the kitchen of my petit loft apartment. Trés chic, n'est pas? $145

This hat! $40

Not gonna lie: as soon as this shopping ban is lifted, these are the very first things I'm buying. High-waisted? Metallic? Animal print? You're speaking my language. Snake print leggings $45

OK, maybe there is actually something wrong with me. I just really, really want you to look at my underwear, obvi. Lace racerback $95

My childhood typewriter is still in the possession of my parents. I tried to reclaim it when they forced me to absorb the rest of my junk trying to exercise squatters' rights in their storage closet. But apparently dad uses it to type up the labels for their juke box. Dedication to authenticity? I just want to look at it because it's pretty? OK, I guess he wins. Typewriter $80

Spring-y

I've decided it's Spring. I decided it the day before we got that huge (now gone) dump of snow. And before it started snowing again today. So, you can thank me for that. I didn't knock on wood because I'm a daredevil.

Our yard looks spring-y again. Not good-spring. Bad-spring. Like this: mud and evidence of dogs and brown, brown, brown. But I'm longing for bare legs and wellies and jewel-toned trenches. I don't want to buy anything unless it's mint or citron or cantaloupe in colour. I want to drink mojitos and white sangria.

I almost bought a bright purple silk maxi skirt last week because it would look so fetch with my Zara sandals from last summer. It kind of inspired a new wardrobe direction for me: Zoltar meets Pirate-babe meets Across the Universe. Kind of a less-blingy, more floral fortune teller. Put more simply: Stevie Nicks circa... always. You like? I should buy the skirt, yeah?

 across the universe // stevie nicks

Despite the tricky weather, though, I have to remember that it's February. We're not safe from snow squalls and ice-rain and deep freeze. Yet.

A girl can dream.

I'm heading into the woods in 3 weeks for a craft weekend and I'm definitely whipping up something fantastic in preparation for puddle-jumping.

Of course I needed to be inspired...

Here are my latest Etsy picks, lovingly handmade (or gleaned) by folks after my own summer-lovin'-heart:

Let's picnic, y'all! Aedriel Originals - chevron salad plates (2) $36

 Norwegian Wood - faux thigh-high leggings $70

 my kids will live in neverland. and i will live vicariously. The Butter Flying - rain mobile $50

 ISWASANDWILLBE - enamoured necklace $40

confetti rain! Aeropagita Prints - 'The Rain' print $20

i would live in this. over and under EVERYTHING. Norwegian Wood - sheer lace maxi $120

 let's just lie around all day and read and watch the rain, kay? Big Birds Boutique - large floor cushion $250

 oooh, surprises! Handsome and Lace - silk necktie $70 (LOCAL!)

 spring's just right for falling in love, yeah? Dariami - Mint heart studs $18

 let's get hitched. Sweet and Savvy Designs - tissue pom poms $30

like pyjamas, but hot. Leilanni - jersey maxi skirt $70 (LOCAL!)

step into my office, baby. Hopper and Space - vintage wingback sofa $1800

*prices are converted to CAD and are approximate

a fairy tale.

Once upon a time (oh, about two weeks ago) one girl sewed and cut and bled her heart out to get ready for an Etsy holiday sale. Now, that sale has sailed. It wasn't quite the success she had hoped, but she shared good cheer with friends and fellow crafty folk. So, what of the oodles of crafted wonders leftover from the show, hauled lovingly by her Prince back to their shared castle in the kingdom of the Annex? Well, a good fairy swooped in and bought the whole lot for her little shop in wee Roncesvalles Village. Need I mention that they all lived happily ever after?

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Yeah, that was my Etsy/West Elm sale experience. Maybe a little sour but mostly sweet. I am SUPER happy to have been included, and am overwhelmed by the love and support from friends, even if I didn't have a heap of sales.

 [ my little nook ]

[ dudley & bea - squeaky bones and jingle mice! ]

My fairy is Nadia, the lovely owner of Fetch, a cute little pet boutique in the west end. It's my first foray into the wholesale world (at least since I became Dudley & Bea) and it's just the right fit for a girl who's also holding down a full-time job. Who knows, maybe I'll branch out in the springtime. But for now, I'm pretty happy to have a little brick-n'-mortar action, especially in the 'hood which may soon become our new home. OK, that's premature, but my sights are set westward! It's all a part of my master plan: Project Babymaker. In good time, my pets.

[  367 Roncesvalles Ave in Toronto ]

 

In other craft news, I lament my tardiness in getting my City of Craft application done in time. 

It was darn good this year, at least traffic-wise. As a customer, elbowing my way through the shopping process was less than pleasant. But those crafty sellers had dolla-dolla-billz-y'all in place of pupils. Darn, I could have used some of that action. Ah, well. I did OK, though: I sold Lindsay two of my squishy pet bowls bootleg-style in the middle of the aisle. Illegal soliciting. One step away from a meth lab, right? Also, I snagged some stocking stuffables for Alex and some yummers cinnamon lip-balm. 

Other highlights were Bespoke Uprising (burlesque tea-towels!), Julie Moon (ceramic poppy earrings!) and homemade curries. 

I'm still a far cry from Christmas completeness, but mom passed down her superior shopping gene so I'll be allllright.

[ happily ever after image by type posters on Etsy ]