Seduction jacket (last seen here), Joe Fresh cardigan, La Senza top, 
Zara jeans (thrifted), Aldo wedges (last seen here) & unknown bangle

Hubs and I decorated our Christmas tree last night, and while I can't wait to show you all the tree and festive decor, it will have to wait because by the time we were done I was exhausted and in no state to take photos, edit said photos and post them.  Soon, very soon, so for now you get an outfit post.

So being unable to rely on hubs to take my outfit photos is getting a little bit frustrating.  My sister is good, but she's hit or miss and bailed on me the last two days in a row.  Last night, hubs wasn't in the most festive of moods for taking photos, and ultimately, not owning a tripod is becoming an issue.  Why an issue now and now month ago?  Well my lovely readers, I'll tell you why.  Why, because the weather is turning cold, hell-o, it's December (can't believe it!) and while I can always find something to prop the camera on outside, indoors is much different.  A good chunk of our place is carpet, and I refuse to walk on it with my shoes (clean freak coming through) and there are only so many places that warrant an 'acceptable' background.  However, like my sister said, she doesn't want to get me a tripod if I'm just going to purchase a SLR in the very soon future (fingers crossed) and then need a new tripod to fit the new camera.  Le sigh.  What's the solution?  Complaining a bit more might help... 


BTW, we've had about two inches of rainfall (or at least that's what's expected by this morning) and it's melted all the snow!  YES!  Love it.  While I obviously love snow at Christmas, it can hold off till a few days before ... but, in all honesty, that's not going to happen (it's suppose to snow tonight - ugh).  Which reminds me, the last time I wore this jacket, it was so warm, and the photos turned out so good too.  Damn gloomy winter weather.
 Costa Blanca coat, unknown fur stole, Gap dress (thrifted & last seen here), Smart Set turtleneck, 
unknown tights, Promise heels, Urban Og belt (last seen here)

I bought this dress in the early summer, from a thrift store, and was ecstatic to find it.  I remember when Gap was selling this dress, several years ago, and while back then I passed it up, I didn't make that mistake twice (mind you, had I not passed it up then, I wouldn't have scored it many months ago for $7!).  I absolutely love this dress and was itching to winterize it, but really wanted some navy tights to pair with it.  Enter my new navy tights (from Winners), purrrfect.

So less than funny story: when I went to shoot these photos my necklace was being temperamental, and by temperamental, I mean it kept falling off (it's this necklace, which is long, but I double it up and hook it together with a similar sized silver hoop earring - genius, right?  Not so much...).  I knew I'd get some shots in my jacket first, so I put the necklace in my pocket for when I got down to the main attraction, I mean outfit.  Sure enough, I completely forgot the necklace in my pocket and didn't realize until I was editing these photos.  Clearly that necklace was the one element that made this outfit, sheesh.



My mom always told me, 'Blue and green shouldn't be seen unless there's 
something in between (or in the washing machine)' - do you agree?
 { a vintage blue suede coat I recently picked up }

With November coming to a close, and the cold weather rolling in, I've decided to make the best of it and capture a few of my favourite things.

 { decorating for Christmas and burning my favourite spicy candles }

{ cinnamon & sugar chips, tastes just like a BeaverTail }

 { a re-discovered studded bra top, still yet to be worn, holiday season here I come }
 
{ festive decor involving feathers = my fave }

 Old Navy coat, Unknown jacket (thrifted & last seen here), H&M dress (last seen here),
Garage skirt, Aldo wedges, Givenchy tights & H&M cuff

Confession:  I bought these shoes in black, as you can see.  I initially tried to get them in black, during my trip to Toronto but they didn't have the black in my size.  I ended up loving the brown equally as much as soon as I slid them on.  However, I still wanted the black... especially after how much I was rocking the brown.  I checked online and sure enough they still had my size (rare). 

So this dress is one of the items I purchased in Toronto and I'd been dying to wear it.  It's a little on the short side in the front so I was unsure about wearing it to work, especially with a nude coloured tight.  However, using my skirt-under-a-dress-trick it worked out perfectly.  And good thing too as when I left on my lunch break it was quite windy and my dress was gusted up, up and away a la Marilyn and had I not been wearing the skirt I would have flashed several middle-aged men out for their smoke break.  Close call.
  


Saw this skirt about a month ago and immediately sent it to my sister as a Christmas gift hint.  I don't think she's getting it for me. Regardless, I love it.  I'm a sucker for pencil skirts and this one provides such a unique look.
 Forever 21 sweater (last seen here), H&M tank, Bongo pants (last seen here), 
Le Chateau booties, Bijoux Terner necklace & Aldo bangle

The other day I went Christmas shopping on my lunch break, and by Christmas shopping I mean I went shopping for myself.  Not intentionally, it just happened.  It didn't mean anything.  Well, it sort of did, because hello, I got these amazing boots out of the deal.  

Back to what I was saying: Christmas shopping on my lunch hour the other day.  It started out well, with my full plan of being to purchase for other, even with some ideas in mind.  Well, that all changed when I saw these boots.  You see, these are no ordinary boots, no, these are boots I saw last year and totally coveted.  However, since the snow had already flown and it was icky out, I talked myself out of spending the $130 on a pair of suede (aka I-cannot-wear-these-until-the-spring-and-in-that-case-who-wants-to-wear-boots-when-it's-finally-spring-and-you-can-wear-sandals) boots.  Almost a year has passed and I found myself actually reminiscing about these boots about three weeks ago,  kicking myself for not pulling the trigger.  So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into Le Chateau the other day and they still had them (irony or a sign?).  That in itself is amazing.  The next amazing thing that happened (because I had to check) was that they were now on sale, and had been marked down twice, to a cool $59.99.  My eyes quickly darted over all the various types of boot boxes until landing on the stack that contained these boots.  Only four pairs remained, surely there would be no size 10... and then there it was, the second box from the top, a big, shiny '10' on the side of it (okay, so it wasn't shiny, just go with it).  I could have jumped and squealed at that very moment if it wasn't for the woman I practically climbed over to get to the stack of boxes.  I grabbed the box, descended it from it's pile and briskly walked over to the bench.  Whipped off my heels and slid my feet into the boots I'd coveted for a year.  They fit!  There were no second guessing, no questions, just a quick lap around the store and I knew I had to have them.  And I did, and here they are a mere two days later in all their glory.  True story.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

 


Want more?  Check out the photos that didn't make the cut here.
 Old Navy jacket, American Apparel vest, A.Co Designs top, Forever 21 skirt, unknown tights, 
Aldo wedges (last seen here), Joe Fresh necklace & Dynamite belt 

I wasn't kidding when I said these wedges might take precedent over my current faves - they've been getting a ton of play lately.  I've only had them for a week and a half and already worn them four times.  If you've seen my shoe room, that's playing favourites for sure.  This was the first time wearing them with the ankle strap and I have to say, quite impressive.  I could run all over the office, up and down stairs, all day long without any slippage.  Perfect! 

In other news, this might just be the world's tiniest umbrella that-actually-covers-a-full-grown-working-woman.  I love the look of it, it's adorable with it's lace trim and the sunny yellow colour is peppy... however, I never understood people's comments when I'd be using this umbrella.  Asking me if I got it in the child's department, or if my umbrella was, 'big enough?'  After seeing these photos, I might just have to get rid of this thing stat.  I look like some sort of wanna-be-child freak.  Look how small the shaft (shaft? stick? handle?) is!  I guess I'm channeling my inner-child.  Yes, that's it, my inner-child.  From now on I need to start using this umbrella instead... which I DIY'ed myself.


BCBG sweater (last seen here), A.Co Designs shredded scarf (worn as a top, last seen here), H&M tank, Almost Famous jeans (last seen here), Bamboo boots, Club Monaco scarf, Armani sunnies, husband's watch & A.Co Designs key necklace

It's almost the end of November and, (am I about the jinx this?) there is no snow yet!  I'm in absolute heaven.  It's so nice to be able to still wear suede boots, heels, open-toe shoes and light-weight jackets (mind you, on Saturday night I did break out the faux fur jacket, it was pretty nippy).  I love the look of bare pavement and it's so rare for us to have visible grass at this time of the year.  I'm lapping it up.  While it is quite brisk, I don't care.  I don't have to deal with ruining my shoes, black ice, shoveling snow.... the list goes on.  I think the forecast is calling for snow later this week, but until then, I'm going to live it up!

 



I have been blogging for close to one year and absolutely love it. It has become a fantastic hobby for me, something that I really enjoy and take great pride in.  Something that frustrates me, though, is learning HTML.  I know some basics (I am self-taught) however, this isn't something that seems to come too naturally to me... or perhaps I'm just not putting in enough time.  

When I see other girls' blogs, I can't help but wonder how they got their pictures positioned like that, how did they create such a cool collage or where on earth can I learn to do that.  I feel that since starting my blog, it has come a long way, and my layout is better than ever, I find it pleasing to the eye, etc.  However, there are certain things I want to do, things I want to learn, but it all seems so difficult.  I google HTML learning sites frequently, use other bloggers' 'Source' to try and teach myself how to do certain things, but it just doesn't always work out... or at least, it isn't as easy as I wish it was.

Like anything, a beautiful end result takes work, and effort, and that's something I'm willing to do but I'm somewhat at a loss of where to start, and how to get there.  So my fellow blogging friends, where did you learn your HTML?  Are you still learning?  Do you wish your skills were better or are you quite satisfied with what you know?  

Lastly, I'd love to hear your suggestions for my blog.  What could I do to make it more pleasing to the eye?  How can I make it easier to navigate?  And what do you personally like to see on a blog?



PS - Does anyone know sign language?  (hehe)
 
We went out last night to a club in town where hubs' Best Man was DJ'ing.  I was able to get one lonely shot from the entire evening, and here it is.  Share-worthy, I thought.  The high-light of the night was probably hearing this song, which we'd never heard before (is that weird?) and hubs and I burst out laughing.  It was great.

Tandoori grilled chicken & avocado stuffed flax pita

Ever have those days where you don't have much on hand to cook with, but are feeling something healthy, satisfying and good?  Me too.  All the time.  Tonight I was cooking for one and really didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store.  I had a few things on hand that I wanted to incorporate (chicken, avocado, cauliflower and sweet potato), but didn't want the standard, 'Chicken and veggies' meal.  Hmmm, after perusing online and finding nothing that used all four ingredients, I decided to make something up.  I ended up with this tandoori grilled chicken and avocado stuffed flax pita.  It was good, too (and easy - has to be easy, especially for nights like these)!  Here's how to make it:

You will need:
Chicken breast
Avocado
Cheese (any kind, get creative!)
Tandoori sauce (you could use honey-garlic, teryiaki, whatever your lil' heart desires)
Pita bread (I like the healthy stuff and got a thicker, flax pita)

How to:
1.  Get out the panini press or BBQ.  Brush your chicken with your (tandoori) sauce and place on the grill.
2.  Cut up some fresh avocado and slice some cheese.
3.  Cut open one end of the pita so it's ready to be stuffed.
4.  Prepare any side dishes (I made a baked sweet potato and grilled up some cauliflower and carrots, however, the pita is pretty filling so you might not need this)
5. When the chicken is ready, put a couple slices of your cheese on and grill for 30 seconds (to melt).
6.  Stuff pita with chicken and avocado & enjoy.

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