Little Note

During the time that I was not writing, I was of course still reading all the other superb fashion blogs, and I have now updated my blogroll links so check them out!

YFF Blogger Conference!

I can't beleive that I will not be around for this. Despite being new the blogging world, I would have really loved to attend this. Not to mention, Toronto isn't very far from New York, but alas I will be in Paris. I guess I can't complain! ha!



For details  click here!

I am really looking forward to seeing pictures and reading all about it though - have a fabulous time ladies!

I'm back!

Hey everyone!

First off, I have to apologize for the major hiatus that I took unannounced. I was moving from Halifax back to Toronto before I head to France next week. So I finally have my real closet back with all of my beloved shoes and accessories that I missed so dearly. I was really feeling deprived of them in my little tiny room in Halifax. At the moment my good old bedroom in Toronto is a mess of suitcases and clothing strewn about everywhere and I don't know where to begin.

I was fortunate enough to also make a day trip to Buffalo to check out what Torrid had in stock. Granted the Torrid store in Buffalo is small and usually under-stocked, I did find a couple of nice things. I picked up a Denim Bow bust dress (that feels a lot softer than it looks and looks very different on me than on the model on the website.) On my shape it really fits more like an Alice in Wonderland inspired dress looking poofier on the bottom, although I am considerably shorter than the model and have a bigger bust. Either way, it looks great!

I also snagged two pairs of jeans, one being a pair of their Ultra Stretch (almost Jeggings) flare jeans. I was skeptical about how the ultra stretch would look thinking it might be too thin a fabric and not look enough like jeans but I was completely wrong. They are so comfortable and look like a good pair of dark jeans rather than a stretchy pair of Jeggings. The only downside is no front pockets, but a girl has to make sacrifices once in a while. The other bonus to these jeans is that they are available in short, regular and tall - and for once the short fits me perfectly, as I am only 5'5"  and usually have to have all of my pants taken up.

I am still in search of a couple of other pairs of sandals but I rather liked these so I got them as a starter pair:

I will be taking photos of all of my new things this week as I have my dearest best friend /stylist Sarah with me to help prepare my suitcase for my big departure. She will also be helping me make a dress out of a really neat Threadless tshirt that we ordered. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out for me, as in the past I haven't been so good with these kinds of projects. This week will be a busy one on here so stay tuned, as I am back to writing regularly!

Katie

What can Brown do for you?

Our road trip went by so fast that I didn't even have time to squeeze in another blog post before I arrived home today. Regardless, this doesn't mean I can't just tell you about all the awesome things we did now.

Monday was our big day trip to Providence, Rhode Island to visit Fred at Brown University. We left the house at around 10 because we had to meet Fred at noon at her residence. Our evil GPS lady, Minoris tried to get us killed by suggesting that we cross 4 lanes of heavy highway traffic to get off at our exit - but I knew better and ignored her evil directions. We made her redirect us and eventually made it to Fred's residence.

The campus is really big and beautiful and the residences are intertwined into this lovely neighbourhood of big colourful homes. Fred's residence is very sixties, made mostly of concrete, a bit like the LSC for those of you who know Dalhousie. We were informed by our lovely guide, that the building has no common rooms because it had to be riot proof. So no living rooms - I guess potlucks are out of the question then!?



Fred had her room all done up with pink curtains and a nice purple rug. It was very Fred and very homey as well, a most impressive feat for the kind of room it was. We went for a quick bite to eat at this little lunch spot not far from campus, where we finally found our first American veggie burgers. Adam and I hadn't had much luck with this yet so it was kind of exciting. Simon, Fred's boyfriend joined us as well and he is really very cool, not that I expected anything different!

After lunch Fred had a 1 hour class called Love - so naturally we had to attend. I had trouble focusing on the prof because the class was so comfortable and sunny and new. It was just such a nice intelligent atmosphere, with the exception of the prof's pronunciation of Montagne, which was more like Montagna as Fred pointed out.

After class, we walked a bit more around the campus and sat on one of the well manicured lawns in the sun and discussed important things like gossip and travel plans... my favourite!

Next, we walked downtown, passing by RISD (Road Island School of Design), also amazing and then shopped for a little while in all the cool funky shops. I really didn't know what to expect of Providence, but it was a lot bigger than I thought.

We had ice cream and then continued out walk and window shop. Fred is really knowledgeable about the school and city so we picked up a lot of interesting tidbits along the way. We also got to see Fred's soon to be first apartment just off the main strip, and visit the Brown bookstore!

It was just so exciting. We reluctantly had to end our evening, but we had a little hang out time and a quick sushi dinner before we hopped back in the car and ignored Minoris' directions all the way back to our bed in the attic.

We of course played a late night game of scrabble and watched a bad movie before sleeping. On Tuesday morning we woke up at a reasonable hour, got ready and headed to downtown Boston to take in the sights and more or less the shopping. We had the most delicious crepes for breakfast at Mr Crepe and I would say be sure to check it out if you are near Davis square in Boston. ( I had the Super Pear - Spiced pears with crumbled blue cheese and arugula... mmmm)

We spent the day wandering up Newberry Street where we saw so many cool stores and people. We had a hand treatment done at Lush and went to the most gigantic Apple store I have ever seen too. We had a big dinner before getting back on the T (subway) and heading home so that we could get on the road to Bangor before we were too tired.

After many goodbyes to baby Noel, Kerry and Marc we set off down the highway to Bangor. We had only one stop to make and that was at a Target for trail mix. We hit up the Target at about 9:30 - leaving 20 minutes later with trail mix, 2 wild print snuggies and energy drinks. It was epic.

We stayed the night at a lovely hotel in Bangor where we frolicked around in our Snuggies - mine leopard and Adam's, zebra print.

We slept like logs after driving and singing to Aqua too loudly. The next morning, Wednesday morning we awoke, got ready and dashed out the door as we had to be back in Halifax for 6pm because I had my final ESL class. We drove straight all day, stopping only to refuel on Subway for lunch. We arrived back in Halifax only a couple of minutes late and I ended up presenting my big final project to my class very successfully.

I had so much fun traveling with Adam and Boston was just so cool! I would definitely go back any time. You should all go now that I think about it.

Thanks so much for reading about our adventures!

The next couple of weeks may be a bit sparse in terms of posting as I will be prepping for my move to France and also organizing myself in Toronto, but I will do my best to keep you updated anyways.

Love you all

Spec.

The road-trip continues...

I can't believe it is Tuesday already, where has the time gone. We have been so busy in the last couple of days, but it has been so fun. We arrived in Boston in the afternoon on Saturday and spent a bit of time hanging out with Adam's sister Kerry, helping her shop and get things done as she has an adorable little 4 month old boy, Noel who needed to be watched and distracted. Later in the evening we made a quick trip out to Target, because you can't go to the states and not go to Target, that would be a sin. We browsed the aisles looking at all the weird junk food they sell in the states and I hit up the clothes and makeup as well (eeeep! so exciting).



On Sunday, we had been recruited as the official Noel Care team for most of the day. We had lots of fun coming up with ways to keep him happy. As we found very quickly he really enjoys if I hold him and Adam does his best rendition of any Lady Gaga song with a dance included. It was really a sight to see. We are thinking of maybe taking the show on the road for other worldly babies to see. Once Kerry arrived home we all got dressed up to go and see David Sedaris live at Symphony Hall.  For those of you who don't know, he is an extremely funny and charming author who does shows where he reads his short stories and diary entries aloud  all over the world.

The show was short but so good. It was funny and he even had time for a little Q and A after where people asked him  questions which almost always prompted another story. I haven't read many of his books but as soon as I arrive back in Toronto I'm adding them my pile to read while I travel. It was really nice to have a good laugh at something intelligent and witty and was just an all around enjoyable experience.

We headed home that night and went out for late bite to eat and then settled into bed for another game of Scrabble on Adam's Ipad. We joke that we are becoming like an old married couple.

Sunday was a delightful day as I'm sure you can see, and Monday was our big day trip to Providence, RI to see Fred at Brown. I'm a little strapped for time right now so I will be writing about that a little later.

Take care everyone!

Spec.

The Road-trip begins...

Two days ago, Adam and I left Halifax at about 6:30pm to start out big adventure to Boston. On Thursday night we drove to Saint John in New Brunswick to stay at Adam's mom's house. The drive wasn't too bad but it did get dark pretty quickly, or at least it felt like it did. I once drove through New Brunswick a couple of years ago when I was on my way to Dalhousie but we didn't stay the night, so I never really counted it as a place I had been. This has now changed - Adam's mom's place was really nice and I slept so well to be prepared for the big trip the next day.

We got an early start on Friday morning, went to Cora's for breakfast, which always makes for a good start, and then started driving. Our first stop was Portland, Maine where we were staying the night. We arrived in Portland around 3:30 and our first order of business was to get to the Maine Mall and get an Ipad for Adam.

For those of you who are wondering - it is really super cool. Last night he loaded all the apps onto it and we played scrabble and he even found a Tenori app (which turns it into one of these music makers that I have always wanted.)  So this proved to be a worthy purchase.

It rained all day yesterday, and was sort of misty and foggy everywhere. Coming into Portland wasn't incredibly picturesque because f the weather but last night we had a little taste of the city when we went to One Longfellow Square to see one of Adam's favourite artist's play, Kris Delmhorst. The venue was this great little building in the shape of a triangle at the peak of an intersection. Everything around it in the intersection looked very cool and classy, restaurants and bars included.

The show was opened by guitarist, singer and illustrator, Andy Friedman. I really enjoyed his set as he reminded me a bit of a modern day Johnny Cash. His style was quirky and deep and all around really enjoyable. He also had illustrations for sale at the swag table and they were really great as well. His work has been featured numerous times in The New York Times which is also very cool.

Kris Delmhorst came on after and played a really awesome set. She was funny and interactive and her voice is beautiful. It really reminded me of how little folk music I have listened to lately, and how I should really start again. She also had her following of fans there who called out for her to play songs from 10 or 15 years ago - forcing her to recall the words. It was a great show and some good laughs as well. (Now if I could only forgive the obnoxious semi drunk lady in front of us who wouldn't stop pretending to whisper to her boyfriend throughout the entire show.)

After the show we walked back to our hotel about 15 minutes away and settled down to explore the Ipad's infinite capabilities. I am currently winning at a game of Scrabble.  We also watched Pirate Radio, a movie about a rock radio station in the 60s/70s that broadcasted from a boat, as it was the only way to play rock music legally  in a time of uptight crooner infested music.

So yesterday was a great time. We sang all day in the car, and imitated our Iphone GPS lady more than you can imagine. "Please turn left in 300 km" which should have been followed by "Please stop singing."

Today we are off to Boston where we will see David Sedaris live!!! I will keep you updated as I go. Stay tuned!

Spec

Ps if you are planning on being in the Boston area any time soon you should check this out as it sounds like it's going to be amazing. A folk opera.. oh yes!

Big Beauty's Big Day!

Today is the official first day that fashion blogger, Stephanie over at Le Blog de Big Beauty has her line released with La Redoute France! the clothes are phenomenal - and they are not available online as of yet but should be pretty soon I'm guessing. In case anyone is interested here is the link to the style view page - click here. As far as I can see, we can't order these things to Canada but as soon as I get to France and have an address I am going to try and get my hands on one of the amazing robe de marinere. (Nautical dress) Keep an eye out ladies, this is so exciting!

Curvy Katie

Pictures at last!!!

So I finally was able to get a few photos of some of the new things I have received! I promise this is only the beginning, as this week I should be receiving many more exciting purchases. You'll have to excuse my silly grin again, my dear photographer was making me laugh and it made me all scrunchy-nosed. So let me tell you about my outfit:



The shirt/dress is actually a black oversized boyfriend tshirt with rolled cuffs (that you can't see because of my sweater) from ASOS Curve. It is so soft and comfortable - As a dress it is obviously a tad short so I wear a sweater with it, but it's very roomy and would look fantastic with a belt and skinny jeans or something to that effect.

I am also sporting a new long black cardigan from Urban Behaviour. This sweater is also very soft and has nice casual deep pockets to put things in. I like things. On a side note, Urban Behaviour is by no means a store that I can usually shop in but right now they have plenty of oversized and baggy sized clothing making it a little more accessible to us curvy chicks and the sales are pretty great as well!

I am also wearing MXM leggings, and while I don't buy much else from them, the leggings are incredible. They have a nice flat waste band, survive the wash without a problem and aren't transparent or shiny. They also return to their shape after you take them off so that when you put them back on you don't have droopy knees or anything like that.

Also included in this comfy out n' about outfit is a blue and black no name scarf a vintage leather purse from a consignment shop in downtown Halifax, and my new Torrid Black Kate Moto Boots.

Next time I promise the photos will be in colour - we actually didn't realize we were shooting colour until after, but I think they turned out pretty snazzy if I do say so myself!

To come - ASOS curve skinny jeans... oh yes!

Take care everyone!

Katie

Why not?!

So I received a very prompt response from Asos after my little letter. From day 1 I have been really impressed with them, because I know my letter probably didn't make an enormous impact, but they didn't ignore it and they responded politely and in a friendly manner. I think from any large company that I have ever communicated with, this experience has been the nicest. Here is the response in case you are interested. More than anything, I think it was really great of someone to respond personally, that too me is worth a lot when it comes to the integrity of a company.

Hello Katie,

Thank you for your email and feedback.

All comments, good or bad is always greatly received.

I can confirm the model used for ASOS curve does fall into the size bracket of ASOS curve range (20-26) but have passed your comments onto the relevant department for you.

Thanks again and please advise if you require any further assistance



Kind Regards,

Emma S

On that note, this weekend I will be taking pictures of my Asos purchases as I now have a bit of time. I also have a couple of accessories and things to share with you as well, so come on back!

Katie

P.S.  if you are interested in the wicked statue next to me in the photo check out visual textile artist Allyson Mitchell.

What a day.

It's Good Friday, hooray! Now for most of you this means a day off, but now that I am done working, everyday is a day off for me, so this doesn't bring nearly as much excitement for me.  Regardless, despite being a tad bit grey today, the weather was on the amazing side. It was almost 16 degrees and even a bit humid.  Since most places are closed today, and there isn't much left for me to do in this fine city, My lovely friend and roommate Hillary and I took her dogs, Pat and Rose to Point Pleasant Park for a long walk. The park was so busy with lots of delightful little dogs and some big gigantic ones too, but all very friendly. I think I've probably suggested that you check out this park before, because it really is awesome, and now that everything is almost thawed out, the paths are easy to walk on.  Hillary's dogs are so amazing, they always listen and they are so cute. They really just want to run and play and have fun with you. They also love to swim - as is evident by these adorable pictures below.





So there you have it, and even if you don't have a dog, the park is still really nice to just walk and get lost in. I hope you all have a phenomenal Easter Weekend with your families. I will be back next week with preparations for my Boston road trip!

Stay tuned - as per usual.

Spec

Thursday night and nothing to do...

So yesterday was Thursday, as you all know and usually on Thursday nights, if I'm not too busy, I try and see my dear friends Donna and Chris for dinner followed by the amazing Five Minutes of fame show at Reflections Cabaret. Last night, Donna made a delicious vegetarian chilli for us and I brought Garlic cheese naan bread - what a treat!!! Anyways, for those of you who are not familiar with it, it is basically a Drag talent competition where men and women all compete in a two part show by performing musical numbers. The entire show is hosted by Eureka Love - Halifax's most famous drag queen, and she is fabulous. You can see her in a nun get up above in the photo)

The entire show was great as usual, and I even won two free passes for Reflections for when I go next... how exciting! Because today was Good Friday the audience was much bigger than usual, which was rather nice and everyone had a great time.  If you ever have a free evening on a Thursday you should all check it out. It starts at 10 :30 and is a good time.

So there you have it, that was a big highlight of my week, as the rest of it involved studying for an exam and getting organized.

Spec.