Wishful Dressing and Childhoods Spent on Mountain Tops

I wish it was warm enough out to wear this...


Sandals: Aquatalia, Dress: Winners, Beret: Urban Outfitters

However, it is cold and windy and I'm staying inside to write my final paper, the final paper that is so late that my prof called me on my cell to ask where my essay is. Not my finest moment, and I am now petrified of this woman. I'm so close to being done this blasted degree, it almost itches. I guess I'm suffering from 'major burn out,' as the young academics say these days. Anyways, because the weather is nasty, this is what I'm actually wearing today:


Sandals: Aquatalia, Sweater: deeply discounted Aritzia

And yes, I realize I've committed the heinous atrocity known as 'Socks and Sandals' but in my defense a) it is freaking cold in my apartment and b) sometimes I'm really drawn to ugly chic. But you can't blame me, because I grew up in the forest on top of a mountain. It's not my fault. I come by it honestly. Et pour toi, a close-up of the atrocity:

Alice in Wonderland

Apologies for the boob-shot. Fortunately, at this point I'm pretty sure my only reader is my boyfriend, so they're no news to him. Anyways, as you can imagine, my outfit is sort of my version of Alice in Wonderland if Alice was half-Chinese and horrifyingly busty on film. I wore an old fashioned undershirt (I refuse to call them 'beaters' for political reasons) under my creamy polka dot dress from Edun, a Zara cardigan and thrifted red platforms.

Usually when I'm in feverish paper-writing mode, I go to my local adorable French cafe Coco et Olive (owned and operated by real French people, no less!) and sit with my notebook and write up a storm before going home to type it all out. However, today I was not very productive so I must end this post and cease procrastinating!

When writing papers that are already late...

...always dress your best. I've found over the last five years in university that the main thing I've learned is how to be a terrible student. In first year, I began writing my essays a month before they were due. Now? I don't start them until after the due date. My two main strategies of procrastination are: taking forever to get dressed and making overly complicated and yummy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Both strategies were implemented today. First, the cute outfit comprised of sky-high heels, comfy-cute dress and warm grandpa style cardigan all cinched in with my favourite belt.

Next step: prepare elaborate and delicious meal. My lunch today was a salad with grilled pumpkin seed-encrusted goat cheese medallions and grilled artichoke hearts. It was accompanied by this crazy Korean 'yoghurt flavoured' drink that I used to love as a child.

Yum! Incidentally, I was actually able to get work done, just not as much as I should have. The funny thing is, I don't care! I had a great day!

Detail

Here is a detail shot of what I wore the other day. The outfit consisted of a zip-up mini-dress from Zara, a Cowichan-style sweater from Aritzia and my army jacket from Soia and Kyo, plus tights and boots. I really liked this picture because my ring figures so prominently and I love my ring. It was given to me by my wonderful boyfriend who has great taste in jewelry as well as girlfriends. Har-har.

He's also a super-smarty pants, as evidenced by his blog.

New shoes and inspiration

I had the best luck at the thrift store the other day. I think my best find was these vintage sandals. In the picture they look black, but in real life they are really more navy blue and I think navy is a little more unexpected and interesting. I especially like the different colours of wood in the little heel. So lovely!

I also got a long skirt which I plan on making into a bubble mini and a lovely corset with a delicate pattern of elephants on it. That sounds very strange but it's subtle and sweet. More pictures to follow.

I've been trying to figure out the best way to do outfit shots. I'm often very pleased with an outfit and I get some compliments from my friends and I'd love the share a picture of my outfit on my blog but I just don't have anywhere in my apartment that makes a good background, not to mention setting up the camera and using the timer without my roommate coming out of her room and catching me and thinking I'm strange. I'll figure it out...

Oh, to be a hermit on a tropical island...

This morning dawned grey and stormy. I underdressed and got soaked, necessitating a quick-change. My umbrella broke. The bus on the way to school was an overcrowded caterpillar of airborne disease. People snorted very close to my ears. It was..... urk.

As final essay due dates loom, I'm beginning to get battier and battier. Hence the lack of posts and the fervent wish to be somewhere else in some other life. A life that is quiet. Maybe as a hermit in a cave in the forest. It would be a homey cave. I would stoke the fire (of course, there would be a chimney for proper ventilation), make a cup of tea and sit back with a book. But no, I'm too much of a sun-worshipper to stay cooped up in a cave in the woods. Perhaps a sweet but sturdy treehouse I built with my own hands, perched in the crook of a huge banyen tree on a tropical isle far, far away. Yes, this suits me much better. I would learn to scale the coconut trees to procure young fruit to crack open with my machete (I'm a practical girl, of course I'd remember to pack my machete). Ah, solitude. No obnoxious transit-riders, no intrusive ring-tones, no loud-talkers, nor slow-walkers. Heaven. Sure, the blood-sucking jungle leeches would cramp my style, but compared to the scourge of a crowded busride at rush hour... I'll take the leeches.

littlebird, make a nest of my heart

Surely my title could not have been more sentimental, but I've always had a place in my heart for birds. My grandmother was an avid birdwatcher and to this day if you ask my father what that little bird is, he'll tell you without a blink. While other children in his small town in upstate New York were playing baseball or buying candies at the local store, my father was photographing rare birds in the forest around his home. Some nerd, eh? Well, a little of that has carried over to me - I can name quite a few bird species and trees, too. So when I followed a link from Agathe's site to the website of an online jewellery store called Paraphernalia, I was so pleased I could sing. Like a lark... Haha, silly girl. I picked mine out right away and ordered it without a second thought as I'd been looking for a statement necklace for a while. Moments later, I had a sweet email thanking me for my order! How nice!

Yesterday, my necklace arrived. Since the retailer is literally on the other side of the world, it took a full month but it was so worth it!

A lovely little package

And on the back of the card was a handwritten note thanking me again! I love when strangers are so nice.

I will likely be wearing this little beauty with... everything. Plain t-shirt, other necklaces... oh, the possiblities!

Beautiful

photo from Margaret Cho's website

Last Friday, I finally got to see my favourite comedian perform live. Margaret Cho is... controversial to say the least, but she never insults me so I looooooove her! She is a Korean-American queer feminist comedian. What more could I ask for?

I've been a fan of Madame Cho for years now and I've noticed a change in her style and also in her persona. She used to be mad. She used to be fucking angry... and she still is, but it's such a more constructive anger these days. And of course, I (and she) credit belly dance for this positive transformation. I'll go into more detail about all the wonderful aspects of belly dance in a future post but without question, belly dance - if you really get into it and respect the history and true context of it - can heal you. Any body woes are dissipated because when your muscles are working in sync and you're undulating your stomach and shaking your hips, you are beautiful. Radiant. Gorgeous. There's no getting around it.

So yes, Margaret Cho has calmed a little but she's still raunchy as hell - just the way I like her. She plays with stereotypes, she lampoons political figures and she waxes poetic about sex in all its forms, positions, and orientations. She is, undoubtedly, a woman after my own heart.