Tuesday 8 April 2014

Pretty pastels

People who have known me a long time are reeling. They're confused. They're wondering why I'm wearing pastels, and to be truthful, I'm pretty surprised myself. As someone who thinks wearing light colours is something I may possibly be allergic to, it was pretty surprising to me when I actually decided I liked a few things I've been seeing in stores.

Obviously, there are a few major trends out this spring, including horizontal stripes and nautical themed pieces (that's for another post. Navy and red together? YES PLEASE!)

Soft, feminine pastels have been spotted in plenty of shop windows of late, and while I'm not going full-on floral or anything, I have thrown a few pieces into my rotation for spring/summer.

One of the key pieces I attained was through a very lengthy mission after seeing the item posted on Pinterest, only to find it was not available in Canada. Thanks to my wonderful friend Jill in New Hampshire, I now have in my hot little hands. What is it I've been coveting so? A blush pink blazer.



The blush pink blazer is from Forever21, from the American store. I knew it fit perfectly because I bought the same one here in white. It is from the Forever21 "Love 21" line, which is for young ladies like myself to wear to work, more age-appropriate items in this line, I find. I noticed while shopping for this jacket online, that the website gives you specs on the model wearing it! So when they said the model is as tall as I am (I'm 5'9") and the sleeves were long and the jacket came down far enough on the body, I knew it would work for me. Many blazers out right now are "cropped" and look like I'm wearing too-small clothes. (Some girls on the American site were complaining in the reviews, "I'm 5'4" and this looks like a lab coat on me blah blah blah ... maybe if you had read the model's height and seen how long the jacket is on her, you'd realize it would be far too big for you? Sigh.)

I have paired this here with a chambray shirt, which I've been looking to buy for quite some time. Mine is from Old Navy, which you can see here


I also plan to wear this with my navy blue canvas skinnies, and possibly if I can find the right one, maybe even a skirt.

Here is as better look at the pink blazer. There are a few other pink blazers around, including another one at Forever 21, like this I've also seen them at Sears, the Bay, J Crew and possibly Zara.

I have been looking for white jeans/pants that are not made of flimsy fabric and are not cropped. Being tall, wearing cropped pants usually just makes me look like I'm too tall for my pants, and I prefer my pants to have some structure to them, so many lightweight summery fabrics were not to my liking. I lucked out big time and got a pair of "Sexy Boot" white jeans at the Gap for a wicked sale price ($8, and they're "tall") though I do wish they were one size smaller. however, not tucking in my chambray shirt gives me the ability to hide the fact the jeans are a bit too big in the waist.

The necklace is actually two pieces and is from Aldo! They have a TON of great pastel pieces that could easily be worked into a neutral wardrobe of greys/taupes etc. if you're nervous to start throwing pastels into the mix.


I was really surprised at the selection and the reasonable prices as Aldo. I also bought an amazing clutch bag that I'll post in another entry on another day.

I got a 15% off coupon when I filled in the survey from my purchase when I bought the bag, so I got a discount when I bought this necklace, which comes apart, and also has a clasp so it can be turned into a shorter necklace that goes around twice. I love versatile pieces like this!

And lastly, my rose gold boyfriend watch. I attempted to buy one of these around Christmas time, as I had picked up a seasonal job at the mall, but our store only got five, and four of them were bought by employees and the fifth one sold before I even came in for a shift, so I didn't get one. BUT. I was able to get one someplace else, and love the addition to my pretty pastels. (It looks bronze in this photo, but you'll see better in my photo below)



I've got a photo of it here with my white blazer, same as the pink one from Forever 21, and an aqua shirt I bought last summer and hardly ever wore.

My sister made fun of it and said I look like Miami Vice with the white jacket and pastel shirt, so I put on my aviators just to irk her even more.

I also got a couple pearl stretch bracelets, some resin rose earrings and a few tank tops to wear under these items as well, so now I have a few outfits I can mix/match, I also wouldn't mind wearing some of these with a fitted trouser-like jean, which I'm going to attempt to buy this weekend.

Overall, I haven't actually spent that much on these items, and it's a fun way to get in on a trend for spring/summer without the commitment of going all flowery. As you can probably tell, I'm not really a fan of patterns, I much prefer solid colours.

I'll talk more in another post about accessorizing and how to spice up plain pieces that way :)

What trends are you in to for spring? Are you loving the pastels? Or are you digging the nautical look with stripes?

Monday 7 April 2014

Goin' Greek

Last week at Loblaws, all the President's Choice lasagnas and frozen dinners were on sale for FOUR BUCKS. They're regularly $10, so the freezer is now full of quick and easy dinners.

A few days later, at No Frills, I noticed another variety I hadn't seen at Loblaws a couple days prior (pickings are slim at the grocery store at 3 p.m. on a Sunday!) and since I had my flyer with me to stock up on another item Loblaws had been out of, I said, "Hey, I think I'll try that!"

So, we tried the Greek lasagna, and while the reviews on the website aren't that good (Here), we thought it was tasty and different from our usual fare. My dad is diabetic and my mom is on weight watchers. Both have high blood pressure, so we are careful with what we eat. The lasagna was not huge, but big enough to serve four. One quarter of the pan was only 380 calories, and had 24% of your daily recommended intake of fibre. It was also 35% of your daily salt.

Overall, for the price I paid, I was quite happy with it.

We had a Greek salad on the side, which worked out well, since I prepared it while the oven was heating, so it had some time to sit in the fridge so the flavours could blend.

GREEK SALAD

You can use any lettuce, I used romaine because that's what I had on hand.

- Five Cups Lettuce, washed and torn
- 2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
- half a cucumber, peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup sliced black olives
- feta cheese, crumbled or cubed (I used half a 250 gram package of Krinos light feta, which is in brine, so I chopped it into small pieces)
- oil/vinegar style dressing to taste (I typically use Kraft Greek feta dressing for this, but we had Kraft Italian Calorie Wise in the fridge so I used that)

Toss all ingredients together.

Squirt dressing in and toss to coat.

Chill in fridge approx. 20 mins to half an hour before serving.