baking break: halloween cupcakes

a mother's love + a michael's craft store within walking distance + martha stewart's lemon cake recipe + a basic buttercream icing recipe= one really happy fifth grader on halloween day.

Read more »

swapping: part two. 5 reasons to swap before you shop (a recap)

for the last two years, i've had the honour of emceeing a large, public, clothing swap, hosted by the swap team (more on that in the next post). partly because of that role and partly because of the clothing exchanges i host at my home, i was asked by cult mtl to create a top 5 list on why you should swap before you shop. i wish a different photo had been chosen from the selection offered (the photo used was taken right after the great gazebo collapse of 2009 and when my yard had yet to become the lush, green haven that it is now) and that the comment about "crowding a bitch" had been left out (it was sent as a funny text message between friends and not as part of the piece but ended up generating a few laughs so fine...). aside from these two elements, which i got over relatively fast, i am pleased with the message, in general, and i stick to what i wrote. 

...given it's relevance to this mini series, i risked redundancy and added it to the mix. 

photo source: loyushaus.typead.com (h & m has been known to destroy their overstock, rather than donate it).

Read more »

swapping: part one. host an exchange!

anyone who knows me knows that i am more or less a ninja when it comes to acquiring great clothing for pennies or less. as with most skills associated with frugality, this was born from necessity,  as i had my first child when i was 20, my second one soon after, blinked and found myself raising them alone. we didn't have very much money when i was growing up and so i wore clothing bought at k-mart and zellers... and my brother often wore his big sister's hand-me-downs. i must point out that we did live in suburbia, on the ontario/quebec border and didn't have the resources we have here, in montreal but, either way, it was horrible and i didn't want my kids getting laughed at, the way my brother and i had. 

growing up, i'd often visit my grandmother, in montreal, and she would take me to these magical places, these church basements and little holes in the wall filled with feathered hats, crocheted gloves, velvet smoking jackets and vintage mary janes. i knew these places existed and, when i moved back to montreal at 19, to raise my daughter, i was determined to rediscover these caves of wonders and find more! boy, have i ever succeeded. i'll get to that soon enough, though. 

a few years ago, while talking to my grandmother, i brought up the idea of hosting a clothing exchange and was surprised to find out that she had hosted some of her own, in the 50s. they had called them "clothesline parties" because they strung rope everywhere in the house and hung up all the clothing to be swapped on these. this motivated me even more and so i hosted my very first clothing exchange, in 2009. we had such a blast and, due to a lot of us being grown-up goths, there were some pretty interesting pieces up for trade! 

 

we even sent my gazebo frame crashing down:

i must admit that the first event was also a sale but, due to the immense variance in pricing and to everyone's willingness to simply trade, we've since stuck to exchanging. 

here is my loot from that very first swap, including a perfecto/motorcycle jacket, a pair of steve madden high-heel sandals and a cute pair of patent leather heels by torrid.  

i sifted through the leftover clothing, kept a few pieces to reconstruct or revamp and the rest went to charity so everyone won. 

the important tips to follow when hosting a clothing exchange are rather simple:

-whether you make it a pot luck or prepare food yourself, make sure there is food and that it is finger food. we're talking no mess, no stains, less clean up afterward.
-alcohol. not a must but it helps. women often have hang-ups and, after a glass of wine or two, people relax and are more likely to try clothing on and get into the general spirit of it all
-have a full-length mirror close to where the clothing is
-have a place where people can change in private. not everyone is comfortable with whipping their top off in front of friends, even after drinking wine
-keep it flowing. if this is not one of your skills, appoint one of your friends as emcee. we're talking women, clothing and wine, here. ;-)

how it works:

depending on how many women show up, you may need to have some sort of system in place. when i have over 10 women, i use the ticket system. for every piece someone brings, she gets a ticket or point or whatever other marker you want to use and each one of these can be cashed in for one item. one for one. simple. 

when we're a smaller group, it works a bit differently. each piece brought is held up for a few seconds and if only one woman wants it, it's hers. if more than one woman wants it, it gets placed in a pile (usually referred to as the "try-on pile" at first but it goes downhill from there and becomes the "kill pile" after about 20 minutes). at the end, everyone sorts through the pile and tries on whatever they wanted. i must say that i am really proud of my homegirls. aside from one tigress (she's really awesome and we love her so we joke about it but it's all good), everyone is pretty cool with letting other people get a shot at something and i must say it's really great to see a group of women encouraging each other, complimenting each other and boosting each other's egos. all of the cattiness we all know we possess is left outside for this. i love it. the last time we swapped, i was asked to present all of the pieces so that it would go faster and i daresay we'll keeping doing it that way because we were all a little stunned at how quickly we had managed to wrap it up.

since that first exchange, i've hosted these at least twice a year and we've always had a tremendous amount of fun. women have attended, left and sometimes rejoined the group (in fact, of the original crew, only my daughter and i were at the last one) and we've been able to keep it fresh and exciting, over the years. i'll be hosting another one at the end of november and will be sure to post about it afterward.

***is it sexist that i only invite women to my home swaps? it is if you say so but i do it so that everyone is comfortable and feels completely at ease. i even ship my son out for the say. i wholeheartedly encourage co-ed exchanges, if you have the space, which i don't.


stay tuned for more in this series!

Read more »

military jacket score

in keeping up with my challenge and given the gradually cooler days, i've started going through all the jackets i own to decide what should stay and what should go. whatever i do get rid of will end up in the next clothing swap i host but i need to want to wear what i do keep. this post is about one of the jackets i am thrilled to own, the mens us marine corps parade jacket. 

last june, i ended up at modraphelia, a small mod and rude boy shop, located at the black market, on queen street west, in toronto. i got all googly-eyed over the aforementioned jacket but not at it's then-$185 price tag. i stared at it longingly for a while and imagined wearing it with a nice pair of leggings, a mini skirt and chelsea boots. and then life went on...

a month later i was emceeing a large, annual clothing swap, here in montreal (my next post will be about swaps) and guess what my two prized scores of the event were?

yup. the two key items in the adorable outfit i'd imagined myself wearing, just a month prior to the swap! the boots are baxter chelseas and i've seen them retailed between $150 and $220 CAD. these are brand new and in mint condition ...please excuse the fluff on the right sleeve. i just noticed it but i'm on a roll. 

going back to the modraphelia site, i saw that the jacket is now $129.99 CAD. i remembered all of the cool gear i had managed to find in army surplus stores when i was a teenager and thought i could surely scout this jacket out at a better price. 

and i could not. 

ebay sellers are listing it at anywhere from $90 USD plus $40 shipping to a whopping $260 USD plus shipping. i found none on etsy. i called eight different army surplus stores in the greater montreal region and this guy has a few sized small ones left at $75 CAD. half of the people who answered the phone either wished me good luck in that sing-song way that makes you feel like you're screwed or flat out told me that i was going to have a rough time finding one. 

so, in conclusion, this really was a fantastic score! if you live in montreal or toronto and you want a brand new one of these, you're best bet is to go with modraphelia. if you're a size small and you don't mind getting it secondhand, there is that one surplus store, mentioned above. 

Read more »

the skinny on jeans for the curvy woman

my photo shoot was cancelled, today, due to my model being sick. the poor thing sounded like hell and i hope she feels better soon! i had planned on sharing a little look at the results but, with that on the back burner, i'll turn to another topic. this one ties into my current challenge, as it has to do with curvy women and jeans. before you roll your eyes, thinking, 'here we go. yet another rant about how ample women should not wear skinny jeans', read on...

firstly, let me tell you that i am a feminist and i believe that every woman should wear whatever the hell she wants, whenever and wherever she wants and high five to her! that said, you can wear whatever you want but it doesn't mean that what you chose is stylish and that you're going to look fashionable. there tends to be more leeway when it comes to fashion sub-genres but we'll get to that later. 

i have a few rules for myself. do i think other people should adhere to these? no. but you might want to. ;-)

rule number one: make sure you're wearing clothing that fits you. this applies to everything you could possibly yank off a hanger, pull out of a drawer or pick up from a shoe rack. one ill-fitting piece will ruin the entire effect. this is rarely truer than in the case of the skinny jean. 

before deciding to write about my list of don'ts, i had a look around to see what everyone else is saying. i have yet to come across a fashion blog that says it's okay for a curvy woman to wear skinny jeans. more than that, i've found countless sites preaching about how only thin women should wear them. i wholeheartedly disagree. 

the key is how you wear them and how you accessorize. let us first talk about the psychobilly girl or the punk rocker. while she has more of a chance of looking great in a pair of skinny jeans, no matter what her size because, let's face it, add a studded belt, a hooded vest with patches and a pair of chucks to those suckers and you've got a complete (and bad-ass) look, i believe that there are two basic rules to follow:

1. it's not because they're skinny jeans that you need to buy them in a size so small that you require pliers to zip them up (i've watched my mother and aunt lay down on my parents' waterbed and do up their jeans this way in the 80s so that shit is for real) and you end your day with very little feeling left in your legs. they're made skinny so don't overshoot it. buy clothing that fits. 

2. my weight has fluctuated over the years and, for me, any time i've weighed over 160 lbs (and i'm lucky enough to look ten pounds lighter than i weigh, thanks to proportion and to my dad's genes), this rule applies: wear a shirt that is long enough to cover half of your bottom when your arms are down. this way, even if you lift your arms up, your muffin top (which is going to be less pronounced if you follow rule number one) will stay in your clothing, where i think mine belongs. 

not adhering to either of these can and most likely will result in a situation similar to this one:

or, god forbid, this one:

and i don't care how much or how little you weigh, this is not flattering in any universe. 

punk rock and psychobilly fashion aside, i don't see any reason that a woman of any size can't wear a nice pair of skinny jeans (that fit), with a nice top (that also fits), maybe a wide belt to accentuate her waist, if she has an hourglass figure and a nice pair of autumn, ankle boots, topped with a cute, cropped jacket. (the way you layer your pieces is also key but we'll touch upon that in another post). 

want to give it a go but you don't want to splurge? a facebook friend of mine recommended the rock star jean, at old navy. i looked it up and it's getting pretty good reviews. it's major selling point, when it comes to curvy women? these guys actually thought to add height to the butt and crotch seams, as the overall size of the jean increases, so you have an even better shot at avoiding exposed muffin top. 

extra bonus: these jeans come in a plethora of colours. here are a few that i think are great for the fall:

and, if anyone is thinking, "yeah. these look great. on these models. who are skinny', i came across a blogger with curves who, if you ask me, rocked the shit out of these pants (and has amazing fashion sense and a great blog so go and check her out):

i'll leave you with one last bit of advice. you want your skinny jeans to have some elasticity to them but don't pay too much for stretchy, skinny jeans. they will bounce back fairly well after you put them in the dryer but will eventually slacken. 

photo sources: 1-englishforum.ch 2-b-adore.com 3-bunnyanddolly.com 4-kirstinmarie.com

Read more »

"la robe à trois trous"

i have decided to start with "la robe à trois trous" in the grey plaid. translated from french, this means "the dress with three holes". i first heard this term when i watched my grandmother sew one for my aunt, when i was a child. my sewing teacher then used it, half a decade ago, when i attended lasalle college. i'm not sure about anywhere else but it seems to be a term generally used for this sleeveless, straight dress, in québec. 

i believe that, because of it's simplicity, this dress can look great on just about anyone. while it does nothing to distract the eye, it does nothing to direct itto potentially unwated zones, either. it can become anything you want it to, as it can be accessorized in so many ways. i'm not sure that i'll wear it with the jacket seen on the pattern envelope to work but i'll definitely bring it along if i have a dinner to attend, afterward. i'll delve deeper into the ways this dress can be styled and why i think it should be found in every woman's wardrobe once i've completed it. 

i would usually finish this dress in an afternoon but today is my last day to prepare for a photo shoot i have tomorrow so my priorities lay elsewhere. that said everything, including the lining has been cut and is ready for assembly. 

Read more »

Fall/Winter Wardrobe Challenge

part of the reason i haven't liked my office jobs over the years is because i feel anything but stylish in business attire. i believe this problem goes deeper than that, though. i think my issue stems from the fact that, ever since i put on my thyroid weight, i've managed to inject style into every type of outfit i wear, except for the business one. first of all, i find most affordable, business casual clothing out there to be made for anyone but the short, curvy woman. wide-legged pants are one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to this but i'll be sure to dedicate an entire post to pants in the very near future. 

i'll be returning to the office sometime in the next two months and, this time, i refuse to wear clothing that, make me feel dumpy, are dated, ill-fitting or even banal. i can sew, i host clothing swaps, i'm pretty stealth when it comes to finding great pieces online and i have a great selection of thrift stores in my neighbourhood. 

as much as i like to do all kinds of crafts and will surely keep that up, the next few months are going to dedicated to creating the perfect wardrobe for the short, curvy woman who works in an office and wants to look great while at it. i'm sure a lot of these styles will also work for taller women and i will touch upon that as i go along. 

to start, i have these two plaids i want to make something out of and i dug up these three patterns to pair them up with. i chose these not only because they are appropriate in this case but because they are simple enough and i don't have to perform much grading (a time and energy gobber, for sure!). 

i especially love this blue, grey and red plaid. it's light and soft and will look great sewn into almost anything business casual. 

Read more »