handmade heaven

I'm all aflutter. 

I was handpicked by Etsy to be one of five Toronto designers to showcase wares at a holiday sale at West Elm next month. Wow. I wasn't actually ready to do any shows this year, but for this, I can make miracles happen. My definition of "miracles": all-nighters, bribing hubby to pull crafting duty and sustaining stress-related injuries/ulcers while I bite off more than I can chew. This ain't 34th Street. Magical, yeah? Depending on my success at the show, I may end up with heaps of stock... which could actually mean that I might (just barely) squeeze in a wholesale deal before Christmas. See? Deadlines are good for me (aside from the ulcer part).

Yet still, here I am: blogging instead of sewing.

In the spirit of handmade (a spirit I'm summoning a lot these days), I'm sharing some of my recent Etsy faves - handmade and vintage wonders from little vendors (like me!) all over the globe.

While my last picks revolved around mustard hues and cozy textiles, I'm getting a little darker this time: It must be the weather. And the early-setting sun. I'm nestling in for hibernation (ahhh, if only!) and this is my gear.

• rust, wool, capes, dreams, woodlands, photographic memories •

 just for show. too hipster or what? (brando's funky finds $30)

 i believe in fancy panties. (hopeless $65)

travel itch. (hunt and found $58)

 dog obsession. always. (photo by Lucy Snowe $20)

 oh beautiful tweed camera bag, where WERE you when I needed you. see what you've put me through? (Mari Forssell/Stash $189)

 dreamy, nostalgic fear. (protostar prints $11)

 mmmm, man-smell. (Roots Soap Co. $25)

 i could live in the woods forever. if only i had this uniform. (Cape, Stray Cat Studio - $65)

 whimsy. (silk purse, sow's ear $15)

baby-fever seeps into blog-land again. my kids will obviously wear orange plaid hooded capes. they will be peculiar. inevitably. (by April Scott - $55)

My future. (Photo by Amanda Keaton $30)

stomp. (Ann Marino booties - Mountain Meadow Vintage $65)

---

Oh, and come see me, won't you? At my show in December, remember? West Elm, Liberty Village, Toronto - December 1st, 6pm.

Crunchy leaves & cardis... it's Fall!

My must-haves for fall? Sadly, basics. It's not super exciting, of course, that my wish list is stacked with practical staples and classic/basic silhouettes. It's all about stretching my very limited wardrobe budget, though. My real wish list in the true sense of the term (read: unattainable/only- in-dreams) would be far more daring, bold and fun.  And yes dispensable and expensive. But to even dream about it would be torture. So let's pretend we didn't even go there.

It's kind of fun to have style with no money - you work harder, but the pay off is awesome ("Guess... just GUESS how much I paid for this!"). Reverse snobbery.

I just want to recreate these. With no budget.

[ Am I too old? Can I pull this off? I'll surely try. ]

 

It's no secret that half my outfits are composed (artfully) with a mish-mash of vintage, hand-me-downs, clothing swap gleans, rejigged last-season pieces, Etsy finds, and a good dash of scores from the sale racks at Zara and FCUK. Eclectic is a bloody cliché term, but I guess it's appropriate in my case.

Anywaaayyyy, I'm stuck with seriously little to spend as the weather cools and I gear up for my favourite fashion season. But Dayna, don't you have a real job now? Yep. But I also have a real musician for a husband. I also have real debt from a year of being between jobs (or as I put it at the time: "freelance"). So yeah, I have to be smart these days. Remember when 100% of your income went to fun stuff? Man, those were the days. The effin DAYS, man.

I'm determined to still have fun with this exercise: stretching my bucks and making practical purchases doesn't have to be as ho-hum as it sounds.

Here's the plan.

My Top Picks for Fall:

1. I'm super set in the leggings department. I happen to own the rainbow. THE rainbow. But I'm kind of dying to make the above-the-knee socks thing work. OK, I don't have the legs for it (anymore) but if I can take just ONE fashion tip from the Hooters gals: double-up on the nylons. I might, just might, be able to pull this off with some serious nylon action to help with the danger zone between the top of the socks and the bottom of the shorts. We'll see.

 asos.com

2. Winter shorts. Cuffed, high-waisted, woolly. An alternative to skirts and dresses and part of my plan to rock the school-girl socks (tastefully).

 asos.com

 phillip lim $445

 top shop $75

3. Easy dresses. Shirt dresses, tent dresses, sweater dresses. Short-ish and perfect for pairing with leggings and boots OR tights and flats.

 stella mccartney $935

 michael kors $135

 river island $70

4. Cardis that pop. Fun prints to break up the neutrals and solids. Ahhh, layering! It's just the loveliest part of dressing. I could go for wide strips or pin dots. Or just wow-colours!

 J.Crew $49

 Madewell $85

5. Chunky knit/wool accessories. Again, practical. 

 asos.com

6. Sensible shoes. In my world that just means "NOT lime green animal print". Simple, neutral (and ideally comfy) leather wedge pumps. Grey, maybe? Also, Simple black ballet flats. But wait. Easier said than done. This style is of the dime-a-dozen variety, but do you know how HARD it is to find the perfect pair?! Hard, OK. Hard. I have slim feet, so I need 'em narrow. I like the vamp to be shallow (i.e. toe cleavage is awesome) and the toe to be that perfect shape between round and almond. Also, structured - not slipper-y. A little bow would be OK. Loving these, but not the price. Then again, it could be an investment, right?

Locale $135

 french sole $155

7. Leg warmers. I'm a TTC-er come November (bye, bye sweet bike) and my above plan to pretty much never wear pants has flaws: I live in Canada. So, leg warmers are on my list. But, yeah, super hard to track down lws that are non-bulky and non-tacky. My personal shopping guru (who last week lamented "Ugh, there's nothing out there!" for the third season in a row) suggested dance wear stores. Maybe I just wanna be a ballerina.

8. Pendant necklaces. I wanna double and triple them up! Scouring the antique markets for some vintage to mix with cheap-o Forever 21 versions. (Just bought these two lockets on Etsy!)

 etsy.com

I have already made a couple tidy little online purchases and will post outfit pics once my packages arrive (Yay, snail mail). Today calls for some actual mall shopping, too (egads! malls!).

In the end, I need big impact for small bucks. Here I go!

Photos via: asos.com, polyvore.com, etsy.com, French Sole, Locale, Madewell, J.Crew.com

Cougar Pillow Boots!

OMG.

They're back, babies!

Oh how I coveted my mother's lovely pair from the 80s. Just TRY to find a vintage pair. I dare you. C'est impossible. But those smart dudes over at Cougar decided to bring them back, with a modern twist, obvs.

I was fortunate enough to try them as soon as they launched, thanks to my new friends at Matchstick.

And, since Labour Day is a perfect time to retire my whites, I dug out some of my best fall pieces and set to work building outfits around my new footwear. Plus it actually FEELS like fall today, so I guess the wheels are in motion: winter is imminent. Luckily, I'm prepared.

 
I dug into my immaculately-packaged new Pillow Boots with fervor this morn, and plodded around the house in them, clad otherwise only in underwear and an over-sized tee. Not my best look. (But they feel like slippers, so why not?)

For a pretty serious pair of winter boots, these lovelies are actually still pretty sweet with skirts. It's the challenge I faced when, after avoiding proper cold-weather footwear since high school, I finally caved about 3 years ago. But finding boots that are warm AND still look pretty? Not easy, friends. I sprung for a pair of Pajars but I'm sure after three seasons of salt and dog-walking, they could use some back-up.

Am I actually excited for winter? No. But maybe I'm not as sad to say goodbye to summer and hello to the rapid decline into iciness.

What's your favourite look?
  

1. Cougar Pillow Boots with... Cropped jacket from Anthropologie, Dress by Leanimal, Leggings by J.Crew, Hat by H&M, Cardigan from Winners, Kaleidoscope necklace by Biko, Leg Warmers made by me!

2. Cougar Pillow Boots with... Skirt from Club Monaco, Coat by J.Crew, tights by FCUK, Sweater by Forever 21, Vintage Wayfarers by Ray Ban, Vintage Necklace.

Oh, and just in case you haven't had your fill of photos of yours truly...

 

 

 

Doorbells and Sleigh Bells and Schnitzel With Noodles.

These are a few of my favourite things.

-The Sound of Music

(Let's just get real sad-like and talk about all of the things I can't afford, shall we? Sigh.)


ONE • 
I intended this post to have a cold weather theme, but then I saw these Jeffrey Campbell peep-toe platform wedges and I really just had to talk about them NOW. (Yeah, peep-toes aren't quite so practical this time of year.) I pretty much love wedges forever, and will continue to wear them even if they go horribly out of style. It hasn't happened yet, luckily. This year they've gone all platform on me though, adding yet more unnecessary inches to my hulking 5'10 frame. Whatever. My Mister is secure enough in his manhood to have me on his arm anyway, even when I'm towering over him. (ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN!!! rawr.) Also, the cutest-of-the-cute singer from San Sebastian has an adorable GF who has a good head on him, I'm sure. 


Anyway, the second pair in this series could be doable in December, as long as I'm not dog walking or tobogganing. Loooooove.

TWO••

A technicolour dreamcoat! I did a stupid thing. I fell in love with a light grey Soia & Kyo winter pea coat two years ago and bought it, forgetting that my super-warm TNA parka was also grey. In terms of outerwear this season, I'm stuck with D-R-A-B. All grey against dirty snow? Horribly depressing. I love both coats, but wouldn't it just be so uplifting to walk around in yellow? Or purple? Or cobalt blue? Oh, I miss colour in the winter. I am totally digging this Spanner jacket. I was inspired to find a yellow swing coat after seeing a girl on the subway in a similar version. Too bad I'm stuck with grey, at least for this year.

 Spanner swing coat $400

 

MALENE BIRGER Justinas Jacket $698

 Phase Eight Tweed Swing Coat $220 (OK, yes, it's grey. But just imagine it in ORANGE!)

Allison Wonderland L'Hiver Coat $298

 Soia & Kyo Snood (are colourful accessories my answer?)

Soia & Kyo down jacket $220

THREE•••

Bed. Ahhhh, I loooove our bed. Back when I had money, I bought a wicked-expensive pillow-top mattress and boxspring. Then, mom bought us a memory foam topper and we picked up memory foam pillows with wedding money. Add a duvet, a coverlet, a mess of throw pillows, two dogs and a fuzzy man and my bed is perfection. It's really hard to ever leave. We redeco'd our entire apartment on a dime and our bedroom is almost finished. The one missing piece is a quilted headboard. I'm fairly crafty and I know I could make one, but right now we're getting by on "essential purchases", and it's tough to justify the $60-or-so that it would cost for some plywood and foam.


In the meantime, I'll just dream. Zzzzz.

(bed images via: esquire.com, SquintLimited.com, homesav.com, decorpad.com, shabbiness2fabulous.com)