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What I Wore This Week

September 26, 2016Sara 2 Comments

Every year at this time the moms in my Facebook groups get on to the topic of “what are you buying your kids for Christmas”. Sometimes it’s hard not to get sucked in with the comparison and ideas from others so you feel like need to buy your kids more because others are buying their kids a lot or “better” things. So bear with me. This post has all of my Christmas present thoughts and ideas as I am trying to avoid the Facebook discussions. I have some notes but If I don’t get them down in a more coherent way I will probably forget them.

It’s Saturday night (as I am typing this) and I have one kid in the bath and one cleaning her room and I am trying to covertly browse/shop for Christmas presents. It’s really hard to buy anything in secret when we go out because there is at least one child always with me. I remember last year we were at the mall in the Disney Store and somehow I was able to smuggle a Cheshire Cat stuffy into the view of the cashier. He saw what I was trying to do and gestured for me to throw it to him when Merle wasn’t looking and stuffed it in a bag for me. It was pretty funny and helped me out that day. My oldest will stay home with Tom, but Merle has a stroke if I leave without her. She has been that way since she was a baby and it is very exhausting. Anyway, because of this I buy 99% of the gifts online now but even that is hard since I can literally see in to each bedroom while I am sitting at my computer and whoever is in them can see me and what I have pulled up on the screen. I have become the master of minimizing windows and having 9 million tabs open. I have also been staying up extra late just so I can shop in peace.

I am glad that I started way back in June and I actually think that I am really close to being done with. The girl birthdays are November 24th, and December 14th so this time of year is quite expensive (hence the super early shopping). This year I have had an easier time buying for Roo than for Merle though. She has a lot of very specific hobbies, likes, and passions now so it’s easy to stick with those and find a lot of cool things. A couple of my favourite gifts I bought her are a Coraline collectible doll by NECA, and a replica Potions textbook from magicworldHP on Etsy. It has 10 reproduction pages with hand written notes from Snape in the margins to make it seem realistic. She is going to love it. I’m stumped for Merle though. She wanted a Kitty Surprise but for some reason they aren’t easy to find in Canada and buying from the U.S. is so expensive. Plus, she doesn’t like the pink one which makes it even harder since that is the easiest one to find. I have been buying her random things like a fake fur blanket, a cat matryoshka doll, a snow globe, weeping angel string lights, an Avada Kedavra shirt (her favourite spell) a Voldermort wand, and a beautiful Wizard of Oz pop up book. This probably seems like enough and it most likely is and she will be happy as shit but I am a good bargain hunter and dollar wise I have spent about $115 (the pop up book cost me $0.01 on Amazon used even though it looked brand new. Everything else I bought when on sale or had discount codes for) and I like to keep them fairly even in dollar value. I think a pair of pyjamas, a few books, and a board game may round us out if I can’t find the kitty surprise.

I’m not sure what I am getting for Tom. I saw a collection of Kiss records for a great price that I know he would appreciate and would love for his collection. My next problem to figure out is to find a spot to put our Christmas tree because there is a bookshelf in the spot we put it last year and there really isn’t many other options. I may actually have to move the entire room around to find a spot.

Where do you hide your Christmas presents?

Previous years it has been easy but as they get older they get sneakier. I have them all in random different areas since there is not much storage space. I literally have a little hand sketched map and notes of where I put each one so I don’t forget.

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Some Shopping Honesty

September 20, 2016Sara 4 Comments

No. 1 – Brown Sweater • Zara | No. 2 – Grey Sweater • Mango | No. 3 – Tie waist Sweatshirt • Zara | No. 4 Strappy Flats • Zara | No. 5 – Jeans • H&M* | No. 6 – Peasant Shirt • Zara | No. 7 – Adidas Gazelles • Urban Outfitters
*I Included these jeans because they are quickly becoming my favourites even though I bought them in June.

I’m going to be honest. I have bought a few wardrobe items lately. Last month you know that I bought two sweaters. One to replace a worn one, and the other because I realized last winter that I didn’t have enough sweaters. I may actually get another oversized cowl neck or a cardigan for winter as well to round out the selection. I just haven’t really looked. In June I bought what are now one of my favourite pairs of jeans, and I recently bought a peasant shirt and a black tie waist sweatshirt as well. I spread it out somewhat so it doesn’t seem that bad, and I am sure to many that it isn’t because in the grand scheme of things I have seen people drop 5x that amount in one shopping trip. Although I still feel a little guilty since I am trying to cut it down as much as possible.

Over the weekend I cleaned my closet and did a shoe inventory while the girls attempted to clean theirs. I decided that a few shoe wardrobe holes I would like to fill are ballet flats and sneakers (I have converse but I want a more sneaker style). Tom forgot to buy me my birthday sneakers until I kindly remind him on Friday, so they should arrive in the mail soon. He said, “whoops, you should have reminded me”, and I responded that, “It was no biggie and I was just going to buy them myself.” which prompted him to order them. Passive aggressive? Yes, but sometimes he needs a little nudge or reminder. If I didn’t make sure to buy everything then the kids would have nothing on any holidays or birthday’s so I am not ashamed 😉

I had some black flats that I bought three years ago but I didn’t love the way they looked so I recently donated them since they didn’t get any wear. I’m sure someone will get a lot of use out of them. They were the d’orsay style and although I love the look of d’orsay they seemed emphasize how narrow my feet are and make my ankles look skinnier.

Note: This isn’t a woe is me post, but it is my own personal issue that has carried over from my teenage years. I wore a uniform in high school and people always, always made derogatory comments on how skinny my legs and ankles were. They would even say I had an eating disorder and nicknamed me ATV (anorexic tapeworm virus). Nice huh? It got to the point that I would wear several pairs of tights at a time trying to make my legs look fuller. That stupid mental shit stuck with me and I am still super conscious of legs and ankles and never fully comfortable baring them. Long story short, I donated my flats that I wasn’t comfortable in to make room for something that I was, and after about 9 months I found the above ones at Zara on the weekend. I like them a lot. A strappy flat with a twist. They seem quite comfortable even with a sore toe.

So the moral of this story is don’t keep what doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and sometimes you need a seasonal closet refresher even though you are trying to be a minimalist 😉

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What I Wore This Week

September 19, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

I know you have all been waiting on baited breath for my search for a white blazer for the Halloween costume dilemma but I found one 😉 Not only did I find one but I also found white pants, a white button down, and a tie. I think that someone either donated their child’s wedding party outfit or it was for a religious ceremony. Either way it was a good score for under $20. Now I just need to figure out how to paint the stripes on it without ruining it. I’m definitely not a super crafty person so I do best with step-by-step instructions like this one. This picture makes me laugh so hard. Not only does she have severe hat head, it also so painfully obvious I need to remove the shoulder pads and the pants are too skinny. I’m going to look for a less tight option (and I totally which emojis worked on here because this is where I would put the laugh till you cry face. This is so funny to me).

My girls room is a complete shit-pit. It is a combination of them having way too much stuff (if I had a do over I would totally have a minimalist attitude towards their toys from day one) and not sticking to my guns when it came to making them keep things tidy and put away after every use. I am going to blame that one on past depression and not having enough energy to make it even worth my while at that time. But those are excuses and shit has to change so I pulled out a large bin that is full of Barbies, Barbie equivalents (i.e. Monster High) and Barbie paraphernalia and dumped it in the middle of their floor. They now have to go through everything and keep what will only fill to small bins. Everything else goes back in to the large bin along with whatever else I think needs to go (because if it is left up to them they would keep it all) “this broken piece from a toy I can’t find? Oh I need to keep that.” They inherited the hoarder mentality from their dad. I am pretty sure it is a gene that passes on. I swear it.

Shit is about to get real in this house because I am TIRED of all this crap. Any tips aside form Marie Kondo. I have read both her books and want to hire her.? 😉

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What I Wore This Week

September 12, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

This past week was pretty low-key since we started our back to school with two kids this year instead of one and my toe is still effed up so my mobility is slightly limited. Well, not limited so much as I am super slow 😉 While we did some school work with Merle last year it was only for about 15 minute intervals on most subjects unless she asked to go longer. This year has amped up for her so juggling between two kids is taking some time to find a good groove for us.

I try not to set a time schedule because it just gets frustrating when that doesn’t go as planned so I just use my weekly planner to give a basic outline of what I would like accomplished each day. This one is perfect for what I need and I have it in hot pink, although it took forever to find it. I am still a stickler for pen and paper. Whatever doesn’t get done gets bumped forward. Some days you get everything plus more done and other days you find you have gone off on rabbit trails for subjects that they have shown interest in and that is okay too. I’m still trying to get their bedtime going at a more reasonable hour which isn’t going well. Both have always been night hawks who were nightmares to put to bed as babies, but once they fell asleep they were out for the entire night until late morning. That has stuck and it makes for a slow start each day. Here is to finding our groove this week.

Sunday we went to Value Village so I could try to find pieces for the girls Halloween costumes. Merle wants to be Beetlejuice and Roo wants to be Coraline. We managed to find a yellow jacket for Roo, and a burgundy cross body. We found the blue wig last week and she already has rain boots, so aside from a star sweater and striped tights she is good to go. Merle’s I am having issues with. I gave up trying got find a striped blazer so I opted for a white one instead that I could paint some stripes on. I thought I would easily find one but the white blazer is becoming extremely elusive. I saw a few on ebay from China that are inexpensive but I can’t guarantee they will arrive on time 🙁 If you have seen a child size white blazer or a woman’s xxs (I don’t mind a little oversize) that doesn’t cost a fortune can you send me a link? I would be grateful.

If you have kids have they picked their Halloween costumes yet?

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What I Wore This Week

September 5, 2016Sara 2 Comments

Outfit 1 – T-shirt/dress • Asos (similar) | Jeans • Gap | Converse |
Purse • Urban Outfitters
Outfit 2 – Blouse • H&M (similar) | Jeans • Gap | Jean Jacket • Le Chateau (similar) |
Purse • Urban Outfitters |
Outfit 3 – Sweater • Zara | Jeans • H&M |
Outfit 4 – Military Jacket • Second-hand (similar)*
Outfit 5 – Striped Top • Zara | Jeans • Gap | Shoes • Vans | Purse • Urban Outfitters
*Tom works in film/tv and after the end of a season pr shoot they often have set sales to get rid of clothing and furniture. He picked this military jacket up for me from the Rookie Blue Set sale. So the fun story is that the star from Rookie Blue wore this on tv… even though I have never watched it 😉

Labour Day Weekend, the official last hurrah of summer. At least it is in this neck of the woods. I know that many kids have started back to school weeks ago, but as long as I can remember the official first day of school has always been the day after Labor Day. So what did we do? We went to FanExpo (like Comicon). This years guest list was insane (one being Stan Lee’s last Canadian show) so there were 900 million people there. I’m an introvert and bouncing off people all day long takes a lot out on me so I am kind of quietly trying to recoup from that. Tom also took a Benadryl for his allergies and accidentally took the night-time version so he was walking around in a daze as well.

My favourite part of these events are finding those one of a kind handcrafted items that are just so awesome you must buy it. Every time we go we seem to hit up the Modulicious table because they sell incredible character Buddha’s. We can now add Yoda Buddha to our Storm Trooper and C3po. You can’t have too many Buddha’s right?

The girls picked out some signed cat art prints, one Harry Potter, and one Darth Vader Cat. I was rooting for the Wednesday Adams cat but got outvoted. The last things we picked up were a weird handmade furry cat-snake, and some fox ears on a headband. For some reason my kids really like cats, and/or dressing like animals. I’m not too sure where they got that from.

When we walked out the front doors I realized we had missed a whole entire section of the FanExpo that was located in a different wing. It was the really cool section with the horror tables and now I am a little disappointed, but we spent hours walking the other vendors and I really didn’t feel like spending anymore money. So we didn’t go back in, especially just after waiting 30 minutes in line for a slice of $10 pizza then another 20 minutes for the escalator queue to move. It pays to eat beforehand.

It’s always a super fun way to spend the day. The girls get to dress up and be around people of all ages who are also dressed up enjoying the same things they do. FanExpo, bringing people closer together 😉

She wiped half her makeup off before we even arrived just from fidgeting, her dress is too short, shoelaces untied, the wings needed to be adjusted and the cat ripped off some feathers, but all in all it turned out not too bad 😉 #dontblink

Have you ever been to a Fanexpo or ComiCon?

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What I Wore This Week

August 29, 2016Sara 1 Comment

What a weekend. I swear to god I was ready to run out the door and down to the closest pub and drink myself into an oblivion. This is a quick summary:

My kids can’t keep their room clean for shit. It is always a complete disaster and I have no idea how it gets that way one day after being cleaned top to bottom. I asked them to get in there 50 times this weekend and I am about to box every thing up and throw it down the garbage chute. Do you think that would get a good reaction?
Tom threw a pair of gross, dirty dark coloured running shoes into my load of white laundry I was washing. I got pissed and removed the water-logged shoes and tossed them in the tub to drain telling him they can go in with the darks. He took them out of the tub and put them in the dryer while still saturated. Seriously dude? What are you, new?
I went grocery shopping, bought a bunch of stuff, bananas being one of them. They have somehow disappeared along the way from paying for them and home. They are on the receipt but not in any bag. I have tried to drink a green smoothie everyday for the last few weeks to up my healthy food intake and bananas are important to add a sweeter flavour. Now I have to walk over tomorrow and get some more which is a pain in the ass.
We went to Ikea today because I was on a mission for a new mirror. I saw one in Kijiji to buy second-hand but that didn’t pan out. Ikea offered some nice large ones for a really good price but it was chaos in there today so I wanted to get in and get out as fast as possible (which isn’t very fast when you are stuck in a mob of people). I presume it was so busy because school starts next week and they were all buying things to outfit their new apartments or dorms. When I worked retail the week before Labour Day and back-to-school was our busiest time. I was also the time that our computer systems crapped out and we had to do all transactions on handbills and calculators (this happened two years in a row). Talk about stressful 😉 Anyway, Merle was being so bad in there that I wished I owned Dorothy’s shoes so I could click myself home.
I have kept forgetting to buy some paint for Merle’s wings for her Weeping Angel costume for Comicon/Fanexpo which is next weekend. I asked Tom to bring home some grey spray paint because he works next to a hardware store and he brings me home silver costume hairspray :/ So I sprayed the wings to give it a lighter base and have to try to find some tomorrow when I picked up bananas. Why can’t people follow simple requests/directions?
Tom just cut his hand with a knife. He is currently in the hospital getting stitches. Edit to add: He got 15 stitches and groaned and moaned all night. He asked me why they didn’t give him anything for the pain and I was like, “I had a caesarean and all I got was Tylenol and Ibuprofen to deal with the pain at home. They don’t just hand them out like that.”

I know that these are all “First World Problems” but crammed in to two days is annoying. At least have the courtesy to spread it over the space of a week 😉

How was your weekend?

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