Inspired By: Johnny Cash

The (wo)Man in Black



Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.



I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.



I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.



Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.



I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.



Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.


Shirt(under dress): Banana Republic; Halter lace dress: Forever 21; Boots, belt, dice necklace and earrings and wood ring: ASOS; Amber Bracelets from Estonia; Cape: Vintage

Summer sandals

These Cocobelle sandals just arrived today from Shopbop.com and I had to try them ASAP, even though it's not exactly Summer yet :P I rolled up my pantlegs, ran out of the office for a few minutes and enjoyed the summery feeling. Then I felt the pain - you know the pain of the first thong sandals of the year, how that delicate skin in between your toes just isn't used to it? There's also plastic covering that part (attached to the shoe) so I'm not too sure how well the break-in process is going to go.

That aside, I love these sandals. The colour is fab and the ankle cuffs not only take the edge off of my scars but they don't chop my feet off either - they are the kinda sandals you'd see worn with a golden maxi dress on the islands off of Turkey.

I also got a House of Harlow gladiator cuff which is gorgeous! Only problem is that it can easily slip off my wrist, which is odd cuz Nicole Richie made this bracelet and her wrists are TINY so I kinda thought it would be otherwise. No matter, I'm just shoving it up my arm this time.



Of course as these additions arrived at my work mid-day, this is what I looked like before work - finally taking advantage of casual Friday!



Jeans: Mavie; Tunic shirt: Forever 21; Belt: ASOS; Huge bag: Chinese Laundry; Shoes: Tory Burch Reva Flats; Huge aviators: Forever 21

But that wasn't all that arrived! I finally got my package from Beautyticket.com, which Budget Babe turned me on to. Fabulous make-up at heavily discounted prices, such as:



Sue Devit Starlights clear water eyeshadow - been wanting to try this for YEARS! Looks a lot more subtle on the eye than it does in the bottle though.



Deluxe Beauty Elastic Gloss in Dean - love this colour!


And the Joey NY SoBe Sunkissed Bronzing Makeup pallette. I got more Deluxe gloss and Smashbox cream liner and eyebrow powder as well (they were like $6 each or something) :)

Anyhoo, productive day, girly stuff wise. I'm looking forward to going home and having a BIG glass of red wine. Oh, and then go see The Killers after that - should be a nice way to spend a Friday evening, even though part of me wants to nap instead :P

Alas, question time before I leave....

Reader Question: What is the oldest piece of clothing in your closet? Do you still wear it and why haven't you thrown it out? My Mavi jeans pictured above are 5 years old and still kicking, however I have a denim shirt I've had for well over ten years (bought in a mall in Sherman Oaks, California when I was 15 or 16 - though the pic below is from 2006, in Sognefjord, Norway):



Happy Weekend :)

Moody Blues (and greys)

Yesterday was my boyfriend's sister's bday (busy bday month for that family!) and we were whisked off to another dinner by their generous parents, this time to an exquisite beachside restaurant called Giraffes, in White Rock (a hilly, affluent beachside city right beside the border). Boy, was it ever windy!

I felt like rocking my bargainriffic leather jacket again (I just love it so - can't believe that it was marked down from $1080 to $19, just because it looks a bit worn and battered - I feel like a rescued the best pup ever from the pound!) so I put it together with some grounding greys - and outfit that went straight from work to dinner.











Nappa leather jacket: LILIU; Boots: CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN; Bag: RAFE; Skirt, tank, belt, watch and sunglasses: FOREVER 21



The food was absolutely amazing, my boyfriend had this dungeness crab cake and scallop thing atop mashed potatoes - too yum.



I had chicken breasts stuffed with mango and wrapped with Westphalian Ham in a balsalmic maple glaze. Even the beets were good! Beets are the last vegetable I have yet to conquer because I think they unrefutabley taste like dirt but these at least tasted like clean dirt. I cleaned my plate.







Anyway, I still can't get over the bargain on that jacket, which makes me want to ask some questions relating to bargain and getting the most out of your clothes (Answer both or either one - yes even YOU who never comments, I know you're out there, I have Sitemeter, lol)...

Question for my readers: #1

What is the best bargain/deal/find that YOU ever had?

Question for my readers: #2

What is the one thing in your closet that you wear the most and why? Do you try to remix it and make it look new by wearing it in different ways?

And the winner is...

First prize for being awesome (and lucky) and scoring this amazing ASOS dress is:

Yay! Hope it won't be too big for you though - fingers crossed.

There is a suprise second prize too, for a used but great condition Arden B dress (worn once or twice, once in an upcoming "special" post! - is knee length, has long sleeves, a sweetheart neckline with circle ring cutout and a back cutout as well - dont worry, you can still wear a bra), and that winner is:


Again, hope it's not too big - both these dresses are medium-sized and from your blogs you ladies look small :)

CONGRATS! Be sure to email me your address and I'll try and send them out within a week! This contest was so much fun and so is giving away my clothes, so I'm going to make this a once a month thing :) btw - those purple marks are me blotting out my company info ;)


I've also decided to ban online shopping for the month of May. Note I didn't say shopping in general because that is more or less impossible for me, but I think online shopping takes up too much of my work time, drains my wallet and makes me lazy (and can be risky too).


Case in point: I went to Winners for the first time in a long time and spent a good 90 minutes looking at shoes - and the shoe collection wasn't even that big! Either way, if I was doing it online, I would have snapped half the stuff up in a second, but since I was trying them on, comparing, hemming and hawing and in the end, forking over cash, there was zero impulse from me. In fact, i ALMOST walked away empty-handed except I kept eyeing these Harajuka Girls sailor wedges. They were cute but for some reason I didn't think I could walk in them and because there were so many, I didn't want to look like everyone else.


That said, I tried them on just as I was ready to leave and TA DA!

Super comfy, SO cute and a perfect fit!! If I can just get past my feet phobia, I will proudly wear these all summer long :)

Meanwhile, I am trolling my favourite eBay seller and the US Forever 21 site, hoping to score some last minute deals before my online shutdown and I can't help but keep going over what I have already in my closet. I don't NEED anything to be honest, but the urge to buy new stuff is still there. Therefore I am trying to think about what things I really lack and not buy more of the same thing.


For example: I want a purple dress. I want black capris or silky shorts (don't own a single pair of capris or shorts, again due to feet phobia - but I am trying to break out of that this year). I want stripes because they make me feel sophisticated and cute at the same time. I want to cut down on babydoll tops because I plan on getting past my "bloated tummy" phobia and start looking for straight cut styles (which is nearly impossible at f21). I need more plain tanks and tees that I can mix with everything and over-accessorize. I want new sandals to replace my favourite ones. They are so beat-up and old and kinda ugly, but I love just slipping them on my feet and heading out the door so I want something very similar.

Anyhoo, today I was going to wear my new shoes with bare legs to work but the truth is this: no one at work has seen my feet and I just wasn't ready to deal with it.

I know it may not seem like a big deal, and yes you may notice that at the wedding I had my feet out in all their Marc Jacob wedged glory, not hidden by boots or tights.

But I also had to deal with a lot of questions about my feet - I should point out it was questions my friends had, not random strangers, and they were all innocent and understanding. That's fine...but it does get tiring having to explain why my darn feet are the way they are. I just know that at work I'll be subjected to the same questions and stares, since I get questioned about the way I walk, what I'm wearing, etc.

But I'll have to go and get it over with at some point - it's obvious, I guess, that I'm different even when I wear tights - after all it's actually not so much the scarring that I care about but that my ankles are, um, not right. Basically looks like someone took off my feet and put them back on at a crazy angle. So yeah, you can see that with tights too. But still, I just hate being reminded that I am different and everyone else notices.

Maybe some people say I have nothing to complain about but let me tell you, people do ask me about my feet (when I'm showing them) on a daily basis and yes people do stare and no it's not because of other reasons (ie what I'm wearing - unless I am wearing crazy tights). I wish in my heart of hearts that I could just put on a skirt and flip flops and be done with it. Sometimes I can, but it can be SO hard because I know my feet ruin my look. I'll look cute till someone sees my feet and then their whole opinion of me changes. They start wondering what's wrong with me, perhaps they pity me (she would look so pretty if it wasn't for her feet, what a shame, I wonder what happened to her, etc) I hate that, that's why I wore boots in summer and ankle length skirts for like 25 years. Of course, that alone made people stare - but for different reasons!

Anyway, I know I have to get used to this, I kind of go through this every Summer. This is why I am delighted that gladiator sandals are aplenty. I bought myself glads a couple of years ago

Pic taken in Nov 2006 - that's my mom and I in La Cruz, Mexico, which I just posted about in my travel blog
- before they were in and I remember that they were so hard to find. But they make the perfect ankle-covering shoes. Unfortunately, they aren't the most flattering...

It's a minor dillema. Either I wear wedges, which are super flattering to my legs but show my scars, or I hide my scars with gladiators and have short, fat stumpy looking legs. Catch -22.

Enough about my feet phobia though - things could be worse. At least they work and allowed me to finish my first 10K - that is something I never thought I could do! I just need to toughen up some more and accept that this is the one thing about myself that I can never EVER change. Oh dear, I'm tearing up as I write this. Poor footsies.

So today I chickened out and wore tights with my Vic Matie metallic blue mary-janes. The was snowing with Sakura, as I asked a cute nerd from IBM to take my photo.

Dress: Laura Lees; Lacy tank: Express; Ostrich leather + canvas bag: Rafe Totengco; Necklace: DaisyChain Dreams; Patent Mary-Janes: Vic Matie

Once again, congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone for your lovely comments. Personally, I like the Dire Straights look best - but maybe because I love their music most of all :)

I survived!

The Vancouver Sun Run, the world's largest (or 2nd largest) timed 10K race, was yesterday and I am proud to say that not only did I do it, but I did in a better time than I thought I would.

It was tricky though - having a flu all last week, meant I wasn't exactly 100% yet and I hadn't trained or run for a week before the race. Also factor in my disability, my physiotherapist's warnings and the fact that I have really short legs - Oh and the most that I had run before was 6K.

But anyhoo, I pulled it off somehow and my bf and I ran under the finish line in 69 minutes - and we didn't stop running ONCE.

There were times when I definitely wanted to stop and rest, or stretch, or walk for a bit but my bf wasn't having any of that. I remember at the 4K mark, looking up (yep had to go up) at the Burrard St bridge and thinking about how far away it was and then being even more alarmed that the Cambie St bridge (the way to the finish line) was so far beyond that you couldn't even see it. And the slopes going up to the bridge were killer!

It took an hour though of waiting for the race to start because we had 55,000 people and you don't all just run at once - you run in waves. And once you start running, you have to avoid running over people who are walking. It's the Sun RUN people, not walk and if you do walk you are supposed to do it on the left but barely anyone was doing that. So you really had to negotiate the crowds carefully - many a people got bowled over. Also, some people were running with strollers and ramming them into people. So annoying!

Anyhoo, we finished the race and were immediately sore, and then had to WALK 5K back to my apartment! Arg! I was so exhausted when I got home that I plopped down on the couch and didn't move all night - hurt too much!

Is laziness a medical condition?


Wasn't too thrilled I had to get up at 7AM on a Sunday but BOOYA!


Lines for the porta potties at the start were long


The line to race was even longer!


After an hour we finally get to the start line lol


Chariots of Fire played from the speakers for that first 1K


Heading over the Burrard St Bridge - 5K down, 5 to go!


Putting on a brave (red/sweaty) face


Huzzah! Done! A very proud and exhausted moment

Walking home past this cool mural I always drive by - cool place for a photo shoot

Today I am super sore and can barely walk, so I sought out comfy flat boots and paired them with a Missoni cardigan and my leather jacket (again, leather and Missoni go so well together!):






Leather jacket: Vintage; Cardigan: Missoni; Tank and scarf: Forever 21; Skirt: Twelve by Twelve; Boots: Vintage - Oh and LOL at the Blogger display

Anyways, SO glad that is over with but I will still keep with running at least once a week (maybe not this week) and do another 5 or 10K sometime in the future.

Don't forget to vote for your favourite outfit (see previous post BELOW) and you can win a FREE ASOS dress - I will draw names at random tomorrow afternoon so get in there!!! There might even be a special second place prize, depending on how many people enter :)

Hockey (and Dress Giveaway!)

I'm sure the hockey headline alone would have caused most of you to click "next blog" right away, but bear with me here(because there is a fab ASOS dress I am giving away in this post!)

Last night Mike and I went to see our beloved underdog hockey team, The Vancouver Canucks, in Round 1, Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As any Vancouverite will tell you, the Canucks are a special team helmed by the world's best goalie (well, the best along with Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils), Roberto Luongo. They also possess outstanding players such as Alex Burrows, Ryan Kessler and I'm boring you now.

Anyway, I'll shut up - I'll admit I don't know THAT much about hockey but I can tell you that you won't find anymore loyally devoted fans than Canuck fans. We stick with them through thick and thin, depsite the fact we have never won the Stanley Cup (though we almost did and famously lost in the finals to NY Rangers in 1994 and then had an angry riot in Vancouver which involved cop cars on fire).

So we went to the game last night and being Jersey-less, I wore the Canuck colors - my Rachel Pally skirt was a perfect match (Navy and Green) along with a blue F21 top I've had forever but never worn and my new La Rok white moto jacket (I'll have to do more pics about this jacket later because it is awesome).







We ended up winning against St. Louis, a shutout no less!!! Luongo has only let in two goals in the last five games and hopefully we can keep this momentum going when we go to St. Louis to beat the Blues again (we are leading the series 2-0). Of course, we had to end the game with a huge brawl ;P





The atmosphere in GM Place was amazing, cathartic - punctuated by furiously waved white towels!



The streets of downtown were rampant with crazed/drunk canuck fans, people were cheering and hugging and yelling and honking their horns for hours! You would think we had won the cup, not just game 2 of round 1, but that's the underdog spirit for you!



ANYWAY - On to the DRESS GIVEAWAY!

Over the last few months I have had my "Inspired By" music outfits and I plan to continue them for the next while as I have a lot of music to share, and will probably branch out into movies as well (oh I have some GREAT outfits up my sleeve!)

Take a look at the outfits below, vote for your favourite in the comments and you will be entered in a random draw to win the dress I wore in the Coldplay shoot! It's by ASOS, size UK 10 but can fit a small or medium (might not be as tight on the waist as you would want if you are size small), pure gorgeous silk with a button-through front and lace trim - also, it's new, worn only for the photoshoot and retailed for like $60 or something. I will do the draw on Tuesday so remember to get your votes in before then!

The Beatles




Dire Straights




Radiohead




Led Zepplin




The Who




Coldplay


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This is the dress you will be winning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Eagles




Simon and Garfunkel




Muse




Nine Inch Nails




Remember to vote for your fav and I will select a name at random on Tuesday to win the fabulous dress!

~Have a great weekend!~

PS My 10K race is tomorrow - eek!!