Eat, drink, shop, & be merry ;)

I can't believe 2011 is almost over, and with that the last few days of my holidays. So far I've spent most of the time watching movies, catching up with friends, eating and shopping.

First I met up with Rasilla and Babybubblz at Aroma Espresso Bar, and tried the white hot chocolate for the first time which was awesome!




On Christmas Eve, I also had an dinner with friends, we kept it simple with store bought rotisserie chicken, spinach & berry salad, roast potatoes, cinnamon raisin bread and apple pie for dessert.



The holidays wouldn't be complete without some wines to accompany the food.




On Christmas Day, I ended up cooking a full dinner for the boyfriend's family...turkey, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, avocado salad...but ended up not taking pics, lol. Mostly because by the time I was done cooking I was too tired to remember and only thought about it after the turkey was already carved.


I also treated myself to a few things for Christmas ;)

First I had spotted these Cookie Monster mitts online and finally found them at Chapters. Granted these are the kids size not adults size, but from the measurements I found it looked like the kids definitely suited my hands better.



The material is surprisingly of good quality - 80% wool. The mitts have a lining which probably accounts for the 20% lining, which helps keep my hands warm and prevents the wool from feeling scratchy.




Esprit had a 50% sale off outerwear the week before Christmas (still on-going) so I picked up down jacket. The only jacket I had previously was the North Face Greenland Parka (see below) which tended to make me look like a shapeless blob that was 100lbs heavier...




I decided to get the Esprit jacket because it had a fitted belt and was nicely tailored so it gave some shape and less bulk. The jackets came in only 3 colours: black, blue, green. I ended up going with the green as black seemed nice but too generic and blue looked like it washed me out.



Stock picture (only black online)



Material is 50% down and 50% feather, so not as high quality as the North Face (100% down), but it is still quite warm.




They also had 40% off the entire store (now 50% for Boxing Week), so I picked up 2 dresses as well which were already discounted so the 40% was additional :)






How did you spend your holidays? If you scored any good shopping deals, do share!

Building a work wardrobe: A simple, elegant purse

One of the things that I've had on my to-buy list for a while was a simple elegant purse for interviews. I don't want something that screams a particular brand name all over it in such situations, but looks classy yet not too distracting from the rest of me.

While in NYC, I came across this Kate Spade bag in Century 21, and fell in love. From afar it seems like just any ordinary plain black leather purse, but I liked the simple design with the black bow in front.

The handles are also just right for carrying on my shoulder or arm, and the size is perfect for putting a portfolio or notepad in. There is also enough space to contain a water bottle, and a spare pair of flats if you have a long commute to the interview location.

I liked that rather than the typical purse where there are only 2-3 pockets on the side, while the rest of the contents of your purse are tossed around in the main cavity, there is an extra zippered pocket in the centre that divides up the main body into two sections. This allows me to store more valuable documents in the zippered areas while leaving the more accessed items in the open parts. And of course, the signature Kate Spade polka dot lining also adds a fun touch.

Here it is packed and I also included a folder for taking notes as well:

If there was anything I didn't like about this bag, its that the handles do not fold down but are fixed and stiff. This makes it harder to store the bag or pack it for a trip.

I also added a keychain - a mini schnauzer charm from Coach to 'guard' my bag :) Reminds me of Snowy from Tintin...was anyone a fan?

Unfortunately I didn't get take any pictures of how the bag looks in proportion to me but will do in a future post...possibly an outfit post.

Building a work wardrobe: Loft & Ann Taylor

Over the past year, I've been building up the professional side of my wardrobe, as some presentations and events require business formal / business casual clothing. Full time recruitment also starts this month until the end of my program next May, so having outfits on hand is quite important. Usually, for business clothing I hit up Banana Republic when they have their 40% off sales online/in-store. However BR stocks a pretty mediocre selection of summer tops, so what I get from them are mostly the button down shirts and tailored pants.

Due to my petite stature (I'm almost but not quite 5 ft), I've been frequenting petite fashion blogs, and as a lot of them frequently mentioned Ann Taylor and Loft clothing in their posts my interest was piqued. These brands unfortunately do not have stores in Canada, but I visited their stores 2 weeks ago during my trip to NYC. At full price, the clothes are pretty expensive, so its too bad my trip wasn't long enough (or timed adequately) to make use of online coupon codes. However I was able to visit the Niagara Falls outlets in Buffalo when driving back to Toronto, and discovered some great finds at the Loft Factory Store and Ann Taylor Factory Store.

Loft had a wide selection of things that were 25% to 40% off. At this time my selection of professional looking tops consists of mostly boring button down shirts so I wanted to get some nice tanks for a change. I ended up picking up two tanks, both 25% off, with some interesting crease detailing around the neckline.

Grey and red floral tank in their petites sizing.





Purple tank, regular sizing. You can see above that it is slightly wider and about 1-1.5 inches longer than the petite version, but since I plan to tuck these blouses in anyway the longer length is almost a bonus, as it will stay tucked in better. Some XS tops tend to have armholes that are too big but these were still almost like the XSP so no issues there.





At Ann Taylor they had 40% off on many items, which was great since their prices were a bit higher than Loft's. This time I picked a burgundy tank with chiffon flower details, and navy blue butterfly sleeve top. Both are darker colours but they seemed fitting for fall.









As Loft is also made by Ann Taylor, there is minimal differences in sizing. When comparing the same size tanks (regular, not petites) both are almost the same, with maybe <1cm longer length on the Ann Taylor top.



Hopefully Loft and Ann Taylor will eventually make their way to Canada, or at least their factory stores, because I really like the style and quality of these tops!

Shoe shopping: Luxury Rebel gladiator style heels

I've never been one to always wear heels daily. Other than occasional events such as wedding dinners I'm more of a runners and flip flops girls in a regular basis. However, the past few months I've been wanting to inject more grown up elements into my style, ie swapping hoodies and sneakers for blazers/cardigans instead.

So last month I was wandering the shoe racks at Winners while waiting for a table to free up at Cora's for brunch. The bf picked these out and they looked pretty good when I tried them on, so home they went with me! I've always been wary of shoes that cut off at the ankles as I don't want my already short legs to look shorter but these don't really have that problem.







You might notice I've already added insoles to cushion them. I have pretty lousy feet in that they are wide, and somewhat flat so they hurt in heels after several hours, but these heels have felt comfortable so far. I still wouldn't wear them for more than several hours at a time, and most likely only on weekends when the activities involve less walking.

Also, I found these shoes to be slippery as there was no real traction on the sole, so I added adhesive sole grips (Sole Stopperz) which did the trick.



Before I read about stick-on sole grips I always thought my only option for slippery shoes was to get a resole, but that can add to the cost of the shoe. I still don't understand why shoe designers make shoes without proper treads on the sole though - are they being cheap, or simply sadistic?