Winter is coming!

I love fruitcake

Today was super chilly, and while we’ve been super lucky in terms of the weather this fall, I think it’s time to face the fact that winter is almost here. It’s even supposed to snow tonight! We’ll be putting our thick comforter on the bed this weekend, and I’ll probably make a fruitcake in the next couple of weeks (the best way to make fruitcake is to do it months in advance, and then keep it in the freezer and pour booze on it constantly until christmas).

It always makes me laugh when American style blogs feature “winter looks” that consist of little fall coats and cute leather gloves, and then talk about how “cosy and warm” the outfit would be. Since moving to Ottawa, I’ve really embraced the fact that if I want to be warm, I will be wearing several layers of clothing. I like to think of myself as a winter onion – if you peel away enough layers, you might find a nice outfit! Or sweatpants, depending on just how cold it is.

With that in mind, I would like to point out that winter gear is finally getting some attention from the design world, and that the Colombia bugaboo parka is no longer the pinnacle of cold-weather fashion.

We drove to the museum, which is why we're not dressed that warm here

I got my Soia and Kyo wool coat two years ago (at half price!) after drooling over them for ages, and it’s been my best friend. Unlike every other wool coat I’ve owned, this one is actually able to see me through the entire winter – they’re designed in Montreal, so obviously they knew what they were doing! If I were to pick one out this year though, I’d definitely go for this one with a hood!

Of course the now-ubiquitous Canada Goose parkas are super warm, but I do have to please ask that people stop wearing them when it’s still above freezing. Those things are actually designed for the Arctic, so you must be sweating under there. Plus, if you’re going to get a heavy-duty down parka, get a Moose Knuckles – they’re way better looking (nobody’s paying me to say this, but I will totally accept a free parka).

That was my WINTER coat in Waterloo, which tells you how tough I am

Boots are another story with my feet, but there are lots of options if you’re in a size range that manufacturers actually care about. I’m thinking of just getting the fleece liners for my Hunter boots and trying to tough it out, because my super-old Merrells are starting to leak and I hate boot shopping so much, but we’ll see how long I last.

So, if you live in Canada and get real winter (not you, Vancouver), don’t worry. You won’t be able to dress like anything the Sartorialist calls a winter look, but you won’t have to look like you’ve stepped out of a Robert Munsch book or an Arctic research station. Although let’s face it, we’re all still trying to figure out how we can legitimately hibernate, or develop a city-wide system of heated tunnels. Because let’s face it, if the beaver-pelt hat hadn’t been in style when the Europeans discovered Canada, there’s no way in hell that they would have decided to stay here.

I want to dress like this at the dog park

In which I bemoan the first-world problem of my christmas list

So, I would love to blog about how my family doesn’t do gifts for christmas, because we value the time we share together in lieu of material goods. That, however, would be a flat-out lie. My mom LOVES giving gifts. Not just any gifts – it should be something you want, but don’t need. Extra points are awarded if it’s frivolous, but it shouldn’t necessarily be crazy expensive. If you do ask for something expensive, you can bet on a cheaper look-a-like. And you will NEVER get a gift card, because it is against the Spirit Of Christmas.

Because I’m neurotic, this stresses me out far more than it should. A normal person would tell me to relax, give her a list of stuff I want, and let the presents roll in. But I have a lot of guilt about stuff in general, as well as a slight leaning towards minimalism, a tendency to buy for quality and durability (and therefore expensive taste, at times) and the looming fact that all of my belongings will spend many years either in storage or being shipped ON SHIPS to far, dusty, bug-infested corners of the earth. All of this makes for a lot of yearly anxiety about what I should put on my list.

It’s this “corners of the earth” part that’s getting to me this year, specifically my upcoming trip to the Philippines. While we were in Ecuador, I read 6 books in 3 weeks, 2 of which were over 1000 pages. My flights are 25 hours plus stopovers, and I’m there for a month. I could easily go overweight on my luggage for reading material alone. The obvious solution would be to ask for an e-reader, but I’m hesitant. I LOVE books. I love paper, I love typesets, I love book covers (fact: our books are organized by colour because that’s how I see them in my mind. Ask me what the cover of any book I own looks like, and I’ll tell you. It’s my only talent).

Plus, the e-readers that appeal most to me (the Kindle Touch or the Nook) aren’t available in the land of ice and snow, because there are literally only 34 or so of us. MILLION, that is. So, not a worthwhile market at all, according to Amazon. So I’d have to choose between the Kobo, which has terrible reviews, or the regular Kindle, which looks really annoying – the pages flash black every time you turn them, which I think would drive me totally nuts.

So, I turn to you, casual reader(s? Is there more than one of you?). Do you have an e-reader? Which one? Do you like it? Does the convenience of carrying around 584373385 books at a time outweigh the weird page turning stuff? SHOULD I GIVE UP AND GET AN IPAD?!

Lunettes de soleil

I love my Warby Parker glasses, but I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of their prescription shades!  I think that I’m going to go with the Everett frame, because I love it’s classic style and the tortoise shell is gorgeous.

Free Marketing Advice

After an excursion to the mall yesterday in a vain attempt to find some sort of summer shoes (I was wearing flipflops that were literally falling apart), I have some general advice for the fashion world.

1. Crop tops need to die.  Seriously.  I don’t say this from a place of jealousy or anything, because I humbly think that my body (which shape-wise is very similar to that of a 14 year old boy) wouldn’t look absolutely atrocious if you could see my tummy, I say this from a place of not wanting to see your stomach when we’re not at the beach.
2. I know that my feet are big, but they aren’t THAT big.  And so even if you don’t carry my size, the correct response to my query is, “I’m terribly sorry, but we don’t stock size 11,” not “God no!”
3. Also on the topic of shoes – when I ask for a 41 or 42, don’t bring me a 39.
4. Urban Outfitters staff must be trained to look condescending.
5. Customers can tell when you make your employees memorize a script, especially when they tell me that I can “shop with……….[three second pause staring off into the distance]…… confidence online.”

Springtime Weekends

I know this is coming a bit late, but I wanted to share a bit about my amazing weekend.  The weather was so beautiful, and Eric and I felt so energized, so we accomplished a lot of fun little things while not worrying about schedules or feeling busy.

 

undercuts are fun!

Friday I got my hair cut again.  This time, we shaved some fun lines into my undercut.  I’m trying to grow my hair out, so I’m trying to go more frequently so I don’t end up having two inches of split ends chopped off.

Saturday, we went to get Eric some new jeans, because his one pair officially bit the dust this past week (as in, giant hole in the crotch).  He got some nice Levi’s, and we were able to support a fun local shop, Roadtrip.

at least I got to wear cool shoes

That evening we ate too much homemade pizza, and went bowling.  Eric was a 5-pin bowling champion when he was a kid (okay, I don’t know the details, but he has trophies!) and he smoked me all three games.  I put up a good show during my second one, but I’m definitely not the athletic one in the relationship.

look at that professional form!

Sunday, we went on an epic walk around the neighbourhood, and finally remembered to check out Orange Gallery, which is just up the street from us.  I totally fell in love with the work of Stephen Frew, a Canadian artist whose portraits just blew my mind.

 

Beautifully Still by Stephen Frew

I also finally found a skirt that fits me at Victoire, another local gem, from Birds of North America, so I jumped on it – I’ve literally been searching for months for something that doesn’t look like it could be mistaken for a belt.

Mine is grey, because I'm secretly a rain cloud

 

After that, we came back home and took Gatsby to the park, which had been turned into a giant mud puddle over the weekend.  He had a blast, and then we had fun as a family giving him his first (long-overdue) bath.  He was kind of scared, but by the end of it he seemed to understand that we weren’t trying to drown him.

Of course, since it’s Ottawa, this was all a very short-lived springtime preview.  Monday, we woke up to a day full of snow, then rain, then more snow, and it’s been cold and gross since then.  Maybe April will be nice!

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Put it all on me

I went to go buy a binder yesterday, and ended up trying on some clothes at Aritzia.  Big mistake.  I love some of the things they carry, but I really need to learn that clothes designed for teenaged girls are not generally meant to fit someone that’s 6′ tall and built like a rake wearing shoulder pads.

Especially skirts.  I’m very mad right now at whoever decided bandage skirts would be a good trend to market to the masses.  I cringe when I see heavier girls wearing them, but I’m scrawny and they don’t look good on me either.  Maybe some people think hip bones are sexy, but when they’re jutting out of black spandex at a frightening angle… not so much.

Fashion drives me nuts.  I hate that I can spend years searching for something (straight-legged jeans, oxford shoes, desert boots) with no success and then as soon as it’s trendy, I end up wearing the same thing as everyone else.  I love the idea of expressing myself through clothes, but the environmentalist part of me goes berserk every time I step into a store – really, Meaghan?  You’re going to buy this because it’s cute?  It’s a $70 shirt made from panda bear tears and woven by 5 year olds.  You are a monster.

Then there’s the size issue.  I’m six feet tall and 145 lbs.  Sure, those sound like enviable measurements, but try finding a pair of jeans with a 26 waist and a 36 inseam.  Go ahead.   I’ll wait.  And not from Tall Girl (shudder).

Oh, you’re back.  Oh, everything you could find is $200 or more?  That’s what I thought.

The AA cups don’t help matters either.  Sure, I can run comfortably.  But I also look like a drag queen who forgot her padding in anything low-cut.

I mean, I shouldn’t complain.  When I find things that fit, I admit that I generally look pretty good by today’s standards – let’s face it, we’re all agreed that tall and skinny is desirable.  But regardless of who the fashion industry uses in terms of advertising and runway shows, they’re much more pragmatic in terms of sizes in stores, because that stuff is all made for shorter, shaplier women (who fill out tops and bandage skirts beautifully!  Jealous!).  I think I need to go lurk backstage at a fashion week somewhere and steal everything I can find.

I’d like to start building a nicer, more adult wardrobe.  As much as I love my band shirts, I feel out of place in a lot of situations because I don’t dress at all the way other people my age do.  I don’t even dress the way teenagers today do.  I dress like I do when I was a teenager, which is weird and sad.

I’ve identified some things I love in my wardrobe – my cute bib tank top from Club Monaco, my slouchy TNA sweaters from Aritzia, my Wilfred draped cardigan (which has a hole… sniff!), my dove grey tuxedo pants from Banana Republic (probably my best find ever – one pair in the entire store, half price, and the salesgirl didn’t even recognize them).  I’m going to try and find more things that go with those pieces, and build a wardrobe around that look.

I just realized that every piece of clothing that I love (except my jeans and leather jacket) is grey.  Awesome.