Hello and happy Saturday! I had a great day yesterday and today shopping, despite the dreary weather. I find it hard to get in a shopping mood when it's rainy out, but the prospect of going to H&M got me out of that.

Here's what I bought yesterday when I went to West Edmonton Mall with Nicole. I didn't happen to get anything on my list. I did try on the dress but found it just wasn't quite the right shape. :( Instead I found a top, a dress and two hair flowers!

Dress: $20 (H&M).  I'm going to wear it with a red belt that came with another dress. I think it'll look fab.

Top: $20 (H&M). This is really breathable cotton and will be great for summer.

Flower: $5 (H&M)

Flower: $5 (H&M)

I also didn't find those shoes from Spring. They had them in the store, just not in the right size, and they said that they were sold out in my size across the city. It's weird - at every other shoe store I'm an 8 or 8.5, but at Spring I'm a 9. They don't have any 9s online either, boo!

So today G and I decided to explore the 54th Jaywalker's Jamboree in Camrose. It's a street fair and sale blitz in downtown Camrose, but it was rainy and I don't like rides, so we didn't stay long. I was too tired last night to curl my hair, so I shoved it all up in a scarf and did a pouf, ala Casey's tutorial. I wasn't wearing anything too fancy, just jeans and Converse, so I wanted my hair to be a statement piece.

Photo by G.

Note the large amount of bobby pins keeping all that hair in place.

My hair lasted through a breezy day, trying on clothes and grocery shopping. I'd call that a success!

We went to the vintage shop just off main street. I tried on lots of stuff but only came home with this - my first real vintage piece of day-to-day clothing.

1960s Dress: $35 (Imagine Vintage)

It doesn't look like much on the hanger, but it fits very well and is in great condition. It's also a very pretty colour and will become my go-to formal dress, I'm sure.

Happy Friday! Today is rainy and cool, but can't dampen my spirits. In a hour or so I'm heading off to Edmonton to see my friends who I haven't visited with in ages (I tried to find a photo of all of us where we weren't drunk out of our gourds, but clearly that didn't happen).
I'm also hoping to get in a little shopping and talk time along with dinner.

Dress: $40 (Rowena) | Mosquito bites: Free (Mother Nature)

I haven't worn this dress in a long time. Generally I have so many colourful dresses that I stay away from dark ones in the summer, but since today is dreary I figured I could swing it, especially with the light stripes and the flower.



Flower hiding the lank pieces of hair, courtesy of the rain.

This weekend in Jaywalkers Jamboree in Camrose, which means lots of street fair food! The vintage shop is also having a great sale by the looks of it, but it was closed today when I went. :(
Maybe it's because the ride outside was pumping loud, obnoxious Top 40 music!

It's also Augustana's centenary weekend. 100 years ago, some Norwegian-Canadians established Camrose Lutheran College, with a vision to provide education to the young town of Camrose. Now, after a few name changes, it's the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta - a small liberal arts institution with a rural focus and a big name attached.

Happy June! Now that it's inching its way towards summer, it's time for me to start building my summer wardrobe. I have a girl's dinner and shopping date tomorrow with my best friends from college who are now scattered everywhichway, and I want to be prepared with a list!

Hat: ~$10 (Joe Fresh)

Shoes: ~$30 (Spring)

Swimsuit: ~$40 (H&M)

Dress: ~$40 (H&M)

If I could only spend $40, the hat and the shoes are at the top of my list. I don't know how much beach bumming I'll get in this summer, but it'd still be nice to have a leopard print bathing suit!

One of my favorite vintage blogs is Lottie Loves, run by Brit-turned-California super-mom Lottie. One regular feature of her blog is Finishing School, where she alphabetically runs through goals and post challenges for her followers to complete. Since I'm late to the game, I am going to start posting backwards from the latest, starting with O and then try to catch up. She posts them one a month so if I'm on the ball I will catch up in no time!

Your Challenge:

1. Write down three words you think describe your image now. 

2. Now write down three words you would like to use to describe your image. 

3. Now write down three things you love about the way you present yourself be it in terms of what you wear, how you act or what you do. If you can’t find three things then you have some work to do. 

4. Write down five things you can do to change your image to how you want it to be or further enhance those good bits of your present image. This bit is simple. It need only be a five point list. Make sure your aims are realistic and achievable in the next two weeks. Your list could look something like this:
A good manicure and pedicure
Style my hair daily
Wear more/some make up
Find and use that gorgeous handbag I’ve got stored somewhere.
Buy a beautiful winter coat (regardless of whether this is on your list or not I highly recommend a good winter coat. It is the staple of any winter wardrobe as it can cover a multitude of sins effortlessly and with style. Do aim to buy a coloured coat rather than a black one. Black is so oppresive and does nothing to lift your mood or confidence during these darker months) 

If you feel you’ve already covered the basics of your image over the course of the last few weeks think about what you need to do to step it up. Perhaps you need to introduce a regular exercise routine (image incorporates fitness too, a lazy or unhealthy person is always lower achieving), practise a hair tutorial, indulge in better make up, find a college course (stimulating the brain ALWAYS helps with image and identity, it’s part of how we percieve ourselves), there are many steps you can take towards self improvement from the simple to the more challenging that will improve your image.

First of all - so so so sorry for the delay! I've had a massively busy week that only promises to get busier *sigh* so my blogging has fallen a wee bit by the wayside.
On to today's challenge! I'm quite happy with my image and how I'm percieved, but there's always room for improvement.

Three words you think describe you now:
Erm, I'm bad at things like this. I like to think I'm well-put together, friendly & approachable and - most importantly - that I look like a real person!

Three words you would like to describe you:
I want to be seen as more involved and engaged with the world - particularly with politics - because I feel like I don't know as much as I should as a journalist. Overall I'd just like to seem smarter. I don't know if people perceive me as dumb, I'd just like to always continue learning.
I'd also like to be more environmentally friendly. I've started being really conscious of my excess wasting and am trying to curb that, but I'd like to get more into alternate modes of transportation, but it's hard to do in a spread-out, car-tailored city like Camrose.
I'd also like to be more fit and healthier. It's not like I'm always on my deathbed but a little exercise wouldn't kill me. I have started eating better, taking vitamins and drinking more water, so that's a start!


Three things you love about the way you present yourself:
I love that I can do my hair in vintage styles. I was never much of a hair-styler in high school (which is why I kept it pretty short) so I'm amazed that I've figured out how to curl it and put it up into victory rolls and other 'dos.

My first victory roll, huzzah!

I love the way I do my make-up - it isn't too much or too little. I find it to be subtle and suitable for all occasions.

My daily staples: tinted moisturizer, black liquid eyeliner and red lipstick!

 I also love how I dress.  I find that no matter the occasion, I always feel appropriately dressed and ready (image-wise) for whatever gets thrown my way. 

Hurrah for dresses! This one passed the photo-squat test.

Five things you can do to change your image:
Oh geeze I don't know if I can keep it just to five!
I'd like to wear more vintage clothing. Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting my style right and that it would be so much more authentic with a 40s skirt or blouse, even if it's paired with modern things. That said, I'm scared of buying vintage because if I wrecked it I'd never be able to forgive myself.

I'd also like to take better care of my nails. I'm always moisturizing my hands, but my cuticles are always cracked and my nails are always horribly short. I actually haven't painted my nails since I did the Finishing School: Nails post. Oops.


This isn't really anything major but I do need to get a haircut. My hair isn't super long, but is getting really thick and could use a little bit of shaping. There's one section that no matter how thin I make it seems to never curl properly. *pout*


My posture is still pretty bad, so I'd like to keep on trying to fix that. Damn you computers!

I'd like to learn more about local history and about vintage style in general. If I could spend all day every day reading our archives at the Canadian, I would. There's only 103 years to read, how long could it take?

OK I have a lot of work to do today and tomorrow so if I don't want to work overtime I better get cracking!

Toodles! xo

I have a ridiculously busy day today, so I started it off with a fairly balanced breakfast.
I get so hungry by mid-morning if I don't eat breakfast, but sometimes I forget (yes, forget!) to make time for it. Lately my favourite quick breakfast is strawberries, granola and a dash of vanilla yogurt, but this morning I had a little more time so I decided to make some waffles with a smattering of strawberries on top. And by make waffles, I mean take them out of the freezer and into the oven.





I have a jack-packed schedule today of things I need to cover so I need to make sure my energy is up. G had to leave early to go to Edmonton, so I'm actually going to have to buy a coffee instead of him making me a cup. The nerve! (kidding, of course)

Here's today's to do list. Pretty sure I won't squeeze that lane swim in * guilty*

Everything is pretty much a photo, so it will be fairly come and go, luckily.

Anyway, I am trying to decide what to wear. I need something that will provide decent coverage from the mosquitos without being too warm but still being retro enough for my look.

I learned yesterday that pantyhose doesn't act as mosquito netting. In fact, if it's black pantyhose, they will more likely be drawn to it. Proof:





The really bad thing about all these bites is that I'm a scratcher. Mosquitoes love to bite me and I appear super-sensitive to bites, so by the end of summer I usually end up looking like one giant scab. Gross.
So this year I'm pledging not to be a scratcher! It's going to be really hard, but I'll just have to remind myself that Audrey Hepburn probably didn't scratch her legs until they bled. If I'm distracted enough I don't notice them (blogging about them, however, only aggravates the situation) and they don't look that bad if they are left alone. Exhibit A: The bites I got last week are now just tiny little pin-pricks.

Happy Thursday! I've spent most of the day running around the house and getting it back into tip-top shape after it was neglected for far too long. Now I've got a bit of time to myself (what to do!) before heading to Rotaract. Rotaract is the younger brother of Rotary, an international organization that basically gets together, raises a bunch of money and gives it away this year. Members of Rotaract are between 18 and 30.

I ended up going to a Rotaract meeting for an assignment and kept coming back. It was actually a good way to meet people that are my age and how I met my friend Ryan outside of Twitter.
This year, our club is raising money for a local young mothers program called Learning Together. To do this, we're having a duck race on Canada Day.

Designed by Right Mind Creative aka Ryan.

At Rotaract we're always trying to bring new members in and one way we hope to do that is through some guest speaking. I volunteered to be the first guest speaker and talk about how to create a story idea and pitch it to a newspaper. I found 99.99% of people in Camrose don't really know how to let the newspaper know they have a story idea, so I thought it would be really helpful for people (and me as well, really).

So here is what I'm wearing. It's been a weird "cloudy yet +19 degrees" day out so I went with my new dress from Calgary.

Dress: $42 - Dick and Janes (Calgary) | Shoes: Payless

I won't lie, I am a bit nervous about my public speaking. I mean, I barely talk in Rotaract meetings anyway, so this will really be me coming out of my shell. All I hope is people find it interesting and hopefully will take something out of it. I'm been spreading the word about it on Twitter and Facebook but I'm not sure anyone other than club members will be there.

Wish me luck!

If you know anything about me, you know that I love to have things nicely organized and clean.
This extends farther than my cupboards and closets. It extends all the way out to my balcony where the recycling is kept.

Recycling is fun!

Yup, that's the recycling pile. Here in Camrose there is a company (soon to be a co-op) that does curbside recycling once a week. For less than $80 a year, they come pick up your stuff and take it to the recycling depot. Yes, you have to sort it (which is a big bone of contention with some Camrosians) but really, it's not that hard if you sort it as you go instead of doing it all at once (this is also my laundry sorting method).

I just signed up today and to remind myself what goes where I made this handy dandy cheat sheet. Enjoy!

TK Recycling guide