WHOA lansi

francophile, oenophile, logophile, turophile

Category: Fashion

Weekend Wears

It’s been ages since I did one of these Weekend Wear posts. I just can’t seem to motivate myself (or my fiancé) to take pictures of my outfits when it’s snowing. Luckily, spring is slowly arriving so I convinced him to snap a few for me. It was raining the weekend that we took these, giving me the opportunity to test out my new rain boots. 

It’s been years since I owned a pair of rainboots and although Calgary doesn’t get much rain, I’ve walked to & from work often enough to feel like they’re a necessary addition to my life. I can’t justify dropping over $100 on a pair of rainboots, so I spent a while searching online for these. They’re a brand called Kamik, made in Canada. I bought them on shoeme.ca, which I’ve fallen in love with a little bit – their customer service is great & I love not paying for shipping or worrying about customs (#canadianproblems).

This outfit really isn’t terribly exciting, especially if you see me on a semi-regular basis. I’m pretty obsessed with this sweater (probably not all that surprising since I wore it for our engagement shoot) as well as with my Marc by Marc Jacobs cross-body bag. If I had a uniform, this would probably be it. I throw some variation of this outfit on weekly. For work, I switch out the leggings (tights for pants!) for skinny dress pants & the rain boots for heels or my Frye boots. I’m not a big fan of pants for work, but when I do wear them, it’s generally some form of this outfit.

Creature of habit I guess? N wasn’t too into taking these photos for me. We were on our way to the Bay to try & find him a suit for the wedding & it was raining. Shopping puts that guy in the best of moods. (He was pretty patient on this trip though & we managed to find him a great suit!)

Afterwards, we stopped by Analog Cafe for a fresh bag of Fratello beans & a couple drinks – coffee for me & hot chocolate for this guy. Wait…IS this our engagement session? (We did essentially the same thing in that session.) Coffee (& hot chocolate) is actually a pretty regular occurrence for us (almost always at my insistence.)

Can you really blame me though? This cafe is gorgeous & the coffee is my favourite in this city. I’ve talked about Fratello many times, so if you live in Calgary & haven’t checked them out yet, get on that already. They’re really busy on the weekend so if you’re not into crowds, check them out midweek. You can also find them at the Calgary Farmer’s Market. 

We’re off to Kelowna for the long weekend to do some wedding planning stuff. Have a great long weekend!

Random Rants \ Tights for pants

I used to be part of a Facebook group called Random Rants, back when groups were a thing. Whenever something or someone pissed us off we’d post to the wall and share with the rest of the group. In some ways it was kind of nice, therapeutic even, but mostly it was just hilarious. People are funny when they’re angry. Truth. Well blog friends, I’m bringing it back! (although I’m sure it won’t make me many friends.) Sometimes you just gotta get it off your chest.

“Tights for pants” is an ongoing joke with a few friends. We all work in business casual or business professional environments and seem to be constantly surrounded by girls wearing tights for pants. It’s everywhere and somehow it’s become office appropriate.

Not only that, but I’ve come to realize that what I consider tights isn’t what other people consider to be tights. I really thought it was obvious that wearing actual tights – as in pantyhose, nylons, whatever they called them in the 60s – are inappropriate as pants, opaque or not. I am apparently wrong. When people are making fun of others for wearing tights as pants are they seriously making fun of them for nylons? I can’t even begin to comment on that…

What I’m talking about when I say tights-for-pants are leggings. Yeah, I know, I’m like a prude or something, but come on, you’re at work. I don’t care how rocking your body is or how casual your office is, put on some real pants. Maybe it’s because I was taught to always dress for the job I want and not the job I have, but I just can’t get behind tights for pants in the office. Unless you work in a fitness facility, yoga studio, or a fitness apparel store, I just don’t see how they fit into a work setting.

Sure, I wear them on the weekends with a t-shirt that doesn’t quite cover my bum, but that is me time. That is lazy time. That is not work time. If you wanna rock a crop top with a sick pair of leggings on your own time, go for it. Rock it, sister. Monday morning –  put on some real pants.

I think of leggings like sweatpants. Except with sweatpants there’s no chance someone might catch a peak of your goods when you bend over.

Now I know, we live in a frozen tundra and we’re trecking to work in giant sorels and canada goose down jackets; it’s just so easy to tuck a pair of leggings into your boots and throw on a sweater. I get it. And I’m mostly ok with this. That is, as long as this sweater covers your bum. You see, more often than not, those comfy leggings aren’t nearly as opaque and you think and when you bend over to pick up the pen you dropped, your coworkers probably don’t want to see your everything (or maybe they do…but in that case, do you really want them to?).

And what’s wrong with dressing up anyway? What is so terrible about putting on a cute dress, some tights (nylons!), and a nice pair of shoes? If you’re like me, you could even hoard all your work shoes under your desk for easy access. Slip off your sorels when you get to work, slip on some pumps. Dresses have to be the most comfortable clothing ever. Seriously. If dresses just aren’t your thing (it’s cool, pants aren’t my thing. We’re all a little weird sometimes.), what about skinny dress pants? They’re thicker, warmer, and you never have to try and awkwardly bend over. Genius.

Alright, I’ve said my piece and it wasn’t particularly funny, but man do I feel better. Let’s step things up, ladies. We can do better than cotton, see-through tights for pants.

Weekend Wears

Canadian Thanksgiving was last weekend so N and I drove out to the lake to spend it with my parents and nana, who was out visiting for the holiday. This time of year is so gorgeous out there. (Who am I kidding. All times of year are! I love the valley.) We spent most of our time eating, drinking, hot tubbing, and enjoying time with my family.

I always think life is going to slow down so much once fall hits, but it honestly hasn’t. Even taking an extra half day over the Thanksgiving weekend, I came back to work exhausted. It was the longest three and a half day workweek! We need to try and be hermits a bit more – maybe renew our gym and running commitments.

 
We left the lake Monday morning for Calgary. We’d scheduled some engagement photos with an awesome husband and wife team for that afternoon so we had to be back for that and then dinner with N’s family.
 
We had an amazing time hanging out with Carly and Boe. They made both of us completely comfortable and we took lots of great photos in some great locations. We’ve seen a couple teasers and I totally love them! I can’t wait to see the rest. 

 
The Jeffery Cambell shoes I’m wearing in these photos are some of my favourites. I bought them last year and always get comments on them. Mostly because I’m 6’2″ when I wear them and people don’t seem to know what to do with that. My mom calls them my Mr Munster shoes. Almost everyone has some kind of reaction to them. They are honestly the most comfortable pair of heels I own, though. Seriously. They’re super high, but just amazing.
 
I splurged in Seattle and bought these waxed green jeans. They’re Madewell and I’m considering only buying their pants from here on out. They are so comfortable and fit so perfectly. You don’t argue with jeans that make your butt look good. It should probably be a rule. 

What you should probably take away from this outfit post is that I am wearing the classy version of pyjamas. Everything is comfortable, stretchy, and perfect for this time of year. Pyjama comfort without looking like a bum? You’re welcome.

Weekend Wears

 Fall is officially here! As much as I love this season for fashion, I find myself hanging on to the last bits of summer: continuing to bike to work and refusing to give up on bare legs. Don’t get me wrong, I get the obsession with fall. I love pumpkin flavoured things (although my three-year stint at Starbucks has killed any desire to consume a Pumpkin Spice Latte) and I’ve spent most of today on my couch with a great cup of coffee, a book, and records playing in the background. It’s a wonderful time of year.

Unfortunately, Fall lasts only a short time in Alberta. Every year, it’s a reminder that #winteriscoming. (Yeah, I used a hashtag in my blog. I went there.) Winter will inevitably arrive well before I’m ready for it. Probably just as I’m really getting into the swing of all things fall, as it usually does. And then I’ll be all winter boots, tights with dresses, and pants. (Everyone who knows me probably also knows my disdain for pants. Maybe I’ll blog about it some day.) We’ll start fantasizing about when there’ll be enough snow to hit the mountains and praying for Chinooks.

So, Fall, as much as I do love you, I know you’re really just that super short season before winter. And, dammit, I’m just not ready for winter yet. I’m not ready to wake up in the morning and have to decide between Sorels or hiking boots for my walk to work. I’m not ready to have to remember to get up a bit earlier so I have time to put on tights and bundle up for my walk. I’m not ready for how short the days are going to get!

Did I really just essentially write three whole paragraphs about the weather? I’m sorry, bored blog readers!

I’m sure I’ve already done an outfit post where I wore some elements of this outfit. I suppose that speaks to how fashionable I am. Sorry guys, I do re-wear my clothes as I’m sure most people in the real world do. Is it just me or does it seem like bloggers never wear their clothes more than once? Maybe they’re just better at restyling things. Or maybe they pay more attention to what they’ve done in the past. Either way, that’s not really my reality.

My reality involves asking N as sweetly as I can muster if he minds taking a few photos of me for my blog as we’re heading out the door. He is most definitely not into photography but he’s a pretty good sport about it. So thanks once again for putting up with a mini photo shoot before going to the market, N.

Funny story about these photos. When I uploaded them to my computer, iPhoto tried to tag the faces in them (namely my face) and decided that I was a guy friend of ours, KG. I don’t know how I should feel about the fact that my iPhoto thinks my face is a male friend’s face. Probably not great. Also probably not something most people would post on their blog. You’re welcome, guys.

This may be the most random blog post I’ve written since I was about 16. Just to further the randomosity, here’s a ring photo. I’m kind of in love with it.

Ombré

It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with my hair besides the occasional trim. I used to colour it a lot, going from blonde highlights in the summer to dark brown in the winter. When I moved back to Calgary, I decided it was too much to maintain and went back to my natural colour for a while. 

Let’s be honest though, sometimes natural is kind of boring and I was definitely feeling bored. Usually when this happens I just chop it all off. I’m not afraid of short hair, but I know I’d regret it right now. 
Colouring it seemed like a better option, but blonde highlights are a lot of maintenance and dark brown is too close to my natural colour to cure my boredom. Ombré was something new though. I’d been considering it for a while so I emailed my stylist and asked him what he thought. 

It turned out he couldn’t have been more excited and called me right away to discuss. It didn’t take me long to decide I was going for it. We rescheduled my trim for a time when he could do both cut and colour and I started finding some photos of what I wanted. 

I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s quite subtle right now, but will lighten up as I’m out in the sun more. In some lights it looks incredibly blonde, but in some it seems barely noticeable. I like the idea that it will just grow out and there isn’t really any maintenance to it. I no longer want to be dropping a lot of money on my hair every three months. If it gets too blonde for me, I can easily tone it down for relatively cheap. It sounds pretty perfect! 

I took these photos by myself using my tripod and a prime lens. It was fun to play around with my camera since I’ve been slacking in that department but I definitely struggled with getting the focus right. I’m not a fan of auto focus at the best of times and I couldn’t get it to cooperate how I wanted. I also wasn’t having a lot of luck with manual focus since the subject (myself) was behind the camera when I tried to focus. 

Oh well, it was fun to play a bit and made me realize it’s something I need to work on more. Hopefully I find some time to play more before we go on holiday. I’d love to get some great shots in Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle! 

Weekend Wears

I want to wear dresses all the time. Rain or shine, I’d prefer a dress to pants any day. I was pretty excited to find this one online. A coworker introduced me to Tobi (the website I bought it from) and it’s full of cute, dangerously cheap clothes. This is one of those perfect summer dresses. Easy to slip on for a casual date or for work. The back is open, but I can throw a blazer or sweater over top and since it’s such a great length it works.

At five foot nine, length is a big thing for me. For the longest time, the trend was super short dresses and I could never find anything appropriate for work. I actually had a hard time finding dresses that I felt comfortable wearing at all. Luckily the trend has moved back towards longer dresses and skirts now. I still get pretty excited when I find something that comes to just above my knees.

The weather lately has been so sunny and warm. It’s been lovely. I’ve been wanting to spend as much time as possible outside, which has been great. The only downside is that we haven’t done any spring cleaning yet and our condo desperately needs it. We haven’t even lived here a year yet and somehow it feels like we’ve accumulated so much stuff. I’m really feeling the need to de-clutter and reorganize some things. I haven’t really lived in one place for a year for a while so I haven’t really done the spring cleaning thing in a while. Moving tends to accomplish that to a certain extent.

It’s supposed to get pretty dreary tomorrow and continue for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll have much time to get any of the things on my To Do list done. We seemed to have made plans for every minute of the weekend. This is something I have a knack for doing. I’m not saying I don’t like it, but I know I’m going to need a few days before summer hits.

We’ll be making plans and trying to get outside as much as possible the minute summer hits. I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.

Weekend Wears

Even though I am more than tall enough and most of my friends are on the shorter side, I love heels. I feel so much more put together when I wear heels so I tend to wear them almost every day at work. So when it comes time to hit the Farmer’s Market on the weekend, I’m all about the comfy flats. Moccasins are currently my favourite. Not only are they the comfiest shoes I own, but they are adorable too! Thank you for being so awesome, Minnetonka.

I linked to that website and now I really want another pair of moccasins. Maybe in white for summer?

Life has been busy lately despite our lack of drinking and partying. Our office is undergoing renovations and I’m working on getting new manuals ready for when they are finished. It’s going to be a pretty busy couple months. I also have the opportunity to attend more events in my new role. It’s exciting to be able to put names to the faces of so many of the clients I’d spoken to on the Help Desk. 

N’s mom brought me back this awesome yellow coach purse from the States and I’ve been wearing it at every chance I get. I just love it. It seems totally perfect for spring and is a nice change from my usual black, brown, or blue.

I’m pretty excited for the coming weekend. Cirque de Soleil’s Amaluna is in Calgary right now and N and I are going with my family on Saturday night. I’ve heard it’s incredible! We also plan to grab dinner all together before the show. Everyone knows how much I love going for dinner, so it should be a pretty great weekend!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weekend Wears

Last weekend was full of food: farmer’s market, baking, cooking, and eating. It snowed on Sunday so we when we weren’t wrapped in a blanket, watching Prison Break on Netflix, we were cooking. Well, mostly I was cooking. Our kitchen isn’t really made for two.

It was a typical snowy spring day when we took these pictures – the beginning of the weekend snow storm. I bundled up in my favourite boots, a comfy sweater, leggings, and my leather jacket. Uncharacteristically monochromatic of me. 
Our next few weekends will probably look a lot this this: cooking, baking, eating, and hanging out at the Farmer’s Market. I’m sure I’ll add in some CrossFit, running, and time with family and friends as well. Sometimes it’s nice to have a low key weekend. 
I got N a nice new winter jacket for his birthday and it arrived really early. I just couldn’t wait to give it to him though so I did last week. I ordered it from Bridge and Burn and it’s even more beautiful than I expected it to be. Of course, I had to snap a photo too. 

Doesn’t he look nice? Yeah, I thought so too!

Weekend Wears

Last weekend it finally got warm enough not to have to wear tights, so of course I took advantage of this. Since it was Good Friday and we couldn’t eat meat, we decided to go for sushi. It had been so long since we’d last gone, so it was a nice treat. We tried a place downtown that we’d never been to and it definitely passed my salmon sashimi test so we’ll be back. (I rank all my sushi experiences by how good their salmon sashimi is. It’s my absolute favourite Japanese food!)

We grabbed a car2go downtown but afterwards it was so warm that we decided to walk to a bar for a couple drinks. It felt very much like spring. I probably should have known it wouldn’t last for long. We got snow yesterday morning so it’s been back to tights or pants. 
I haven’t worn this dress since the fall, but I just love it! It’s so comfortable and easy to wear. We did a lot of walking this evening and I found my new booties totally comfortable. I think they’ll be perfect for Stampede week. It’s nice to have a shorter option when it gets really hot that week. 
Looking back at these photos has gotten me even more excited for Spring and sadly I’m going to have to bundle up a bit for work tomorrow. Come on weather! I’m tired of tights and pants! Bring on the dresses! 
Thanks to N for being such a good sport and taking these photos when he was hungry! 

Café

It’s no secret that I love coffee. A good cup of coffee is my favourite way to start the day. I have a stove top espresso maker and I love having time to make delicious coffee on the weekends. Even better though, is heading to a local coffee shop for a cappuccino or an americano. I’ve been drinking Fratello Coffee for a while at the Calgary Farmer’s Market and it’s what goes in our stove top espresso maker. Now they also have a great shop on 17th avenue called Analog Coffee and it is fast becoming my favourite.

When we did strict paleo, I made an effort to drink my coffee black more often and Fratello made this significantly easier. N has always drank his black, but I was a milk and raw sugar girl myself. Mostly, this is just a necessity due to the terrible coffee at work. I’ve come to enjoy my weekend coffee without any sugar, but I still love a delicious cappuccino from time to time.

Some days there’s nothing better than a delicious cappuccino, a pain au chocolat, and some blank journal pages. Fratello is such a great place to enjoy these simple joys. It takes me back to living in France. Journals are such a great way to keep track of travel, but I often forget how great it can be to do the same back home, when life is far more average.

Not only does Fratello have delicious coffee, but the cafe itself is really beautiful as well. My photos of it aren’t the greatest, sadly. (I was feeling a little self conscious trying to get them. I should work on that.) I guess you’ll all just have to check out for yourselves.

N and I were running low on coffee so we had to stop by again last weekend. Sometimes life is really tough.

I also convinced N to take some outfit photos after the pumpkin pancakes recipe photos. It was a gorgeous day; leather jacket weather is finally here! Most of the photos turned out pretty funny, but I got a couple that I like so here goes: first real outfit photos.

I’ve been wearing these little booties a lot since I got them. It wasn’t quite warm enough for bare legs last weekend, but I’ve worn them a few times since without tights. So exciting!

I find myself getting really excited for spring fashion every year around now. It’s probably the same with the start of other seasons, but all I’m thinking about is how satisfying it is to pull my leather jacket out of the back of my closet.

I already mentioned how much I love the inside of Analog Coffee but the exterior is just as great. I love this large, graphic A on the side as well as the A in the concrete at the threshold, the doors, and the large front windows. 

 I love slow-paced weekends sometimes. It’s so nice to sleep in, grab coffee together, and enjoy the gorgeous weather. We’re usually running from one thing to the next and before I know it it’s Monday already.

Coming out of the long weekend, I’m already wishing I could have one more day to relax. We had a great Easter weekend that seemed to last for much longer than three days, but I’m still not ready for work tomorrow morning. I guess that’s what happens after a great long weekend!

Happy Easter Everyone!

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