At the marketplace

And, no, unfortunately not the Agrabah marketplace, haha.

The market in my city is pretty damn cool, though - there are amazing little restaurants surrounding it, and there are tons of stalls with fresh food, even fresh figs! (One of my favourite foods that's almost impossible to find, at least good ones, anyways.)
 




A flower picked from the market! I picked a whole bouquet for my room and this flower came out, just begging to be placed in my hair...









Outfit:
Jacket: Simon Chang, thrifted.
Tank top: Khol's.
Bag: thrifted.
Gold bangles: H&M and A Thousand Villages.

Before I wrap up this post, I wanted to apologize for not updating this blog for ages and having this post in draft format for maybe a month now, and other for up to 2 weeks. I'm more apologizing to myself, I think, because the main reason is school - it's driving me insane, and even if I can't wait for it to be over I'm quaking in fear for that date because it means I would've written something like 12 000 words if you combine my advanced history class and integrative seminar class together. (For advanced history I'm writing a 2 500 word essay on women's status post/during/pre Iranian revolution, and for integrative seminar I'm writing 3 essays of about 4 000 words each relating to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and only 1 is almost done. In case you were all wondering. And then I have 5 other courses with work, haha.)

All to say, I might not be around for next month as much as I'd like to, BUT after that, I'm all yours, baby! ;)

Here's what I'm wondering: what's the best item you've ever thrifted? 
What do you think of this jacket? Honest opinion - my family isn't a huge fan, but the few friends I've shown it to love it. Thoughts?

XO,
Laura

Book Review: The Time-Travelling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky

This post could've also been titled "why being a (part-time) children's librarian is awesome".




The basic description for the book from amazon.com:

What if a beautiful vintage dress could take you back in time?
Louise Lambert has always dreamed of movie starlets and exquisite gowns and longs for the day when she can fill the closet of her normal suburban home with stylish treasures. But when she receives a mysterious invitation to a vintage fashion sale in the mail, her once painfully average life is magically transformed into a time-travel adventure.
Suddenly onboard a luxurious cruise ship a hundred years ago, Louise relishes the glamorous life of this opulent era and slips into a life of secrets, drama, and decadence. . . .

Dreamy and imaginative, The Time-Traveling Fashionista features thirty full-color fashion illustrations to show gorgeous dresses and styles throughout history.


I can't say anything bad about this book. The illustrations are fabulous, as can be seen by the ones pictured here. Aren't they lovely? I love that they're pretty historically accurate, as far as I know, but there seems to be something so fun about them at the same time - I love the sparkle detail and the rich colouring!

Yes, this is a young adult fiction book, so it's pretty easy - language-wise and plot-wise. There isn't really anything complicated here. However, considering it's a book aimed to 10-14 year olds (approximately), I find the language pretty sophisticated. Louisa, the main character, is also very interesting - as a reader, your really get how she wants to stand out and be unique and how she wants to express herself through fashion and be nostalgic, but isn't really supported in that because she is teased a lot in school.

I guess you can consider this a spoiler, but I'm going to say it anyways because you figure out at the very beginning of the book and it's advertised on Bianca Turetsky's website, but Louisa travels back in time to the Titanic when she puts on the sparkly pink dress pictured above. Most of the book takes place on the Titanic, and the historical accuracy is spot-on. Louisa makes observations on how hot she is when they force a warm (but beautiful) red coat on her because they assume since she's tired she's cold, and how the way they applied a lot of makeup back then sometimes resembled clown makeup.



I also have to admit that the story itself is really riveting - I was anxious to find out how she would get off to the Titanic and back to her own time, seriously!
The book also had plenty of fashion history references, such as to the fashion brand Lucille, who invented the idea of the runway and fashion show.

This book is also an excellent introduction to fashion if you're trying to get your daughter, younger sister, niece, or cousin into it.

Learn more about the book and Bianca Turetsky here at her website , and buy the book here on amazon.com .

If you get it, let me know what you think, I'd love to hear your opinion of it!

XO,
Laura

Disclaimer: I wasn't paid or compensated to mention anything here, it is my own content and my own ideas. The book links are Amazon affiliated, and by clicking on the links/buying the linked product I will profit, but I still choose which products I want to talk about and believe in.

My Week in Instagram Pictures

And by week, I mean almost two weeks. I knoooow, a "my week in instagram pics" post isn't entirely original, but I can't think of any other way to communicate how cray busy the past 2 or so weeks have been! Honestly, it's quite possibly one of the busiest weeks of my life. Family issues, the Jewish New Year, midterms, a free Arcade Fire concert yayayay!, my cousin's 8th birthday (yay!) have all made me soooooo busy.

This is the view from the art history section of my school's library. Pretty, no? As annoying as it is to take public transportation for a good 45 minutes every morning and afternoon, I'm happy I'm at school downtown because the views from pretty much all the windows in the school are nice.
How am I nerdy enough to be taking pictures from the window of a library? Well, from now until the 2nd week of December I hae to write approx. 15 000 words (3 essays of about 4000 words) about neoclassicism in the early 19th century, since the topic of the class is War and Peace, by Tolstoy, so the topic has to relate to that. It's for my end-of-college, project, but anyways, I'll be in that section of the library quite a bit for the next 2 months.
Hence a lack of posting. A bit. Maybe. I hope not!

I WENT TO A FREE ARCADE FIRE CONCERT A WEEK AND A HALF AGO.
Enough said.
Just so you all know, the concert was sooooo crowded we actually watched a projection of the concert, but it was all good, the stage wasn't far at all so the ground was still vibrating from the loud music, the section it was in was only a few metres away from us, just very closed off since it was so busy. And, this way, we could see the up-close shots of the band members - including Regine's adorable dresses! (She wore this amazing red sequined dress with cutouts covered in a sheer material and sparkly red gloves! She's awesome. That's a picture I attempted to take of her on the screen).

Guess where I'm typing this from? MY NEW LAPTOP! It's sooooo fast, you guys! I watched a video on youtube and it didn't freeze up every 10 seconds like both my laptop and computer do! It's pretty! It charges quickly! It's not heavy considering it has almost 9hours of battery and is advanced and has a mini ventilation system, which means it doesn't get absurdly hot, which really isn't healthy for your reproductive system if it's on your lap! (Apparently.)
All to say: YAY! Now I just need to order an adorable Marc Jacobs laptop sleeve, teehee.


This picture represents my busyness because of the Jewish New Year. I was super excited about finally finding purple tights that fit me, were comfortable, and didn't look tacky, but I didn't even have time to make a proper outfit post for them! Or for the awesome outfit I wore for the first out of a million family meals, where I wore a draped black skirt, loose bright green top from the Material Girl collection, black&sheer striped tights, and black booties. Oh, and red lipstick.
And I didn't have time to photograph it at all. /fail
Happy new year, everyone!

Wait, you mean it is possible to have Missoni clothing out of the glorious-fashion-store-hoarder country that is the United States in Canada?
Oh, wait. It's original, from a department store named Winners. For $400. Which is actually a really great price for Missoni (right?), but still. Thank goodness it was too small, otherwise my bank statement would have been jut a bit smaller now. Just a bit.

A book I'm reading right now (for fun, so not War and Peace and not the books on neoclassical art in 18th-19th century France): Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life by Sara Avant Stover. I might only be in the first chapter, but I'm already hooked. So far, it's been talking about how to properly take care of your mind-body state, a bit of ayurveda, yoga, a few recipes, and then it's divided into 4 sections by the season. I'm reading the autumn one right now and it has a few really nice recipes. A full review will come as soon as I'm finished it because it's pretty great, but even so far I highly recommend it.




Soon to come: what I thought about concerning my blog and what I want it to project and bring in while fasting for the Jewish New Year (and no, I'm not encouraging fasting at all, just writing about what I thought about when I was forced to take the day off from, well, life.)

EDIT: OMG and a post on the Jean-Paul Gaulthier exhibit I went to, it was awesome!

Tell me about your autumn so far! Any pumpkin-picking or apple-picking happening yet? I'm going to a market tomorrow with my family, hopefully we'll buy a pumpkin to bake :).

XO,
Laura

Disclaimer: I wasn't paid or compensated to mention anything here, it is my own content and my own ideas. The book links are Amazon affiliated, and by clicking on the links/buying the linked product I will profit, but I still choose which products I want to talk about and believe in.

Audrey Hepburn and 50's-inspired teatime outfit

Every so often, on Saturday afternoons, we go to my grandmother's (we'll call her Mami) for tea. It's funny - I've realized that whenever I do that, I gravitate towards this little jacket and the shoes I'm wearing which are pictured further down in the post. Maybe because it's classy - the shoes and jacket remind me of Audrey Hepburn, which reminds me of being classy, which I guess kind of reminds me of afternoon tea?


Anyways, this tea time is really nice - we spend time together as a family, eat yummy fruit or pasteries, drink yummy mint tea in moroccan tea glasses, we relax, talk... And although we don't practice religion (Judaism) very strictly, my grandparents do, so out of respect for them we put away our cell phones, which aren't allowed on Saturdays (Shabbat) - we put away all electronics, basically. That's the icing on the cake. I find that, over time, on both sides of my family, cell phones have become an integral part of the dinner table - people will be texting while eating with family sometimes! Anyways, it just bothers me, which is why I like having a reason for everyone to put their phones away :).


This outfit definitely reminds me of Audrey Hepburn - the jacket has a simple and structured shape, and look at the flats I'm wearing! I think Audrey Hepburn definitely would've been drawn to them. They're amazing, I usually don't find flats comfy but they're the comfiest I have, and they're classic. :)




The diamond and sapphire ring my grandmother gave me for my 16th birthday. It's the first piece of jewelry she bought after immigrating here from France (which was after she lived in Morocco. In case you were wondering?)


How adorable and classy is this purse?! It's my Mom's from the 80's, and you'll never guess where it's from. I mean, it looks pretty classy, right? White version of a Chanel purse? (Well, okay, it does look a little cheaper than that, haha...)
WELL, it's actually from Las Vegas! Who'd have thought?

My question for this post: as much as I want to ask a question about how stupid it is to not have big clothing chains like Target and Macy's in what people consider the fashion and artistic city of Canada, and in Canada in general, I'll restrain myself and wait for another post  do you find yourself gravitating towards a certain item of clothing or accessory for certain events? Like a certain pair of shoes for all black-tie events because they make your legs look amazing, or a certain jacket or skirt for when you go out for brunch, just like I gravitate towards the flats and jacket for tea? Why do you think you gravitate towards those pieces for that specific event?

XO,
Laura

What I'm wearing:
tank top: Kohl's (bought on vacation and out of the country, of course).
Jacket: H&M (bought on my high school graduation trip to NYC, actually...)
Jean shorts: Macy's (bought on vacation and out of the country, of course).
Flats: Macy's (bought on vacation and out of the country, of course).
Purse: vintage from Las Vegas, informally gifted/handed down from Mom.
Pink/gray/beige bracelet: gift from Mom.
Sapphire and diamond ring: gift from my grandmother, Mami.
Gold heart necklace - gift for my bat mitzvah from close family friends.
Nail polish - an old colour from the Gap.

Gratitude

The beauty of the nature around us makes me grateful!

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude. Life doesn't always turn out the way we want it to - gosh, it only does once in a while - but there are so many things around us we should be thankful for, even basic things such as the fact that we have shelter, food and water, whereas such a large percentage of this world's population doesn't have even that.
I was away in Burlington this past weekend with family (more on that later in another post) when we stopped in a few shoe stores to a) try and find nice heels for my cousin's engagement party, which is in 2 months, and b) try and find any shoes at all because my feet are tiny and it's hard to find good shoes that fit. My sister got lucky - her feet are slightly bigger than mine and she almost never wears heels, yet she found cute heels and managed to walk well in them in 10 minutes, even if they were 4 inches high (she measured, haha!)
Me? Well, I tried on about 8 different pairs of heels, half of them didn't fit, and I felt like a cripple after trying each pair on for a grand total of 2 minutes each. I think I managed to walk around in 1 pair for 5 minutes before feeling like the bones in my feet were about to break.
I was feeling pretty crappy about it - I'm short, why am I the person who can't walk properly in gorgeous heels?
Then I realized - my situation, my life, could be so much worse. I could be poor, homeless, not able to even afford shoes. I could have had a crippling form of cancer that robbed me of my legs.

Now that the school year has started, I'm full into homework, assignments, essays, and tons of reading. It's busy and stressful and not always fun, sure, but I'm grateful for it because I'm getting an education that will help me get into higher education, which will help me follow my career interests and eventually get a good job that I enjoy. School can suck sometimes, but I'm grateful for it because I could be, as I said before, homeless and unable to afford school, or living in a third - world country where schools are scarce.

Sometimes, I get into arguments with my family members, and I really want to take out every penny in my bank account and move out, far away. But then I think - outside of this argument, I love my family like crazy, and I don't want to imagine my life without them, and they do everything they can to help me succeed, feel loved, and have a good life. Why do I take advantage of them, and not appreciate them as much as I could? I know people who have lost family members, sometimes at a painfully young age. How dare I complain about my family when theirs isn't even complete because of illness or tragedies?


I'm grateful for my adorable kitteh :3.

I think the issue of gratitude is very relevant for bloggers. If you're a blogger in general, you can either afford a computer or afford a tuition and can use the computers in your school, or you're lucky enough to live somewhere where there's a good local library. If you're a fashion blogger, for example, you're able to afford clothes to show off on your blog, which half the world can't. If you blog about your family, you're in good enough health to be able to conceive children, which many women and families aren't. If you're a cooking blogger, you're able to afford good enough food to make your blog interesting, which, again, half the world can't.
Do you see where I'm getting at? No matter where you look, you'll be able to find one area of your life where you're exceptionally lucky, or where you thought you weren't but realized you were after looking towards other, more unfortunate, people.

However, I can understand that sometimes you're in a bad mood; you're not being optimistic; life has got you down. I can understand that, and I try to counteract that everyday. A few ways I do that:
1) The first thing I do, upon waking, is telling myself 5 things I'm grateful for. This sets my day on the right path, since I start off the day by realizing how lucky I am, even if all I'm saying is that I'm grateful to be alive.
2) I fill out the Printable Pocket Goddess Gratitude Diary from Goddess Guidebook, a fantastic site run by Leonie, which deals with art, creativity, spirituality, and other cool stuff from the other side of the world in Australia. Anyways, the Gratitude Diary is a hand-drawn 3 week/21 day diary with headers such as "Today my life is the best ever because...", "5 ways my heart sung today", and "Holy dinger thank you today for...". It's simple, but I find writing it down has really helped me be more grateful.

The question for today - what are YOU grateful for? Do you have any tips for remembering how lucky you are, even for things as simple as just being alive?
I think we need a blogosphere-wide gratitude circle - every blogger tweeting or blogging about something they're grateful for. 
(Honestly, I think I'm starting to get sick of the superficiality of the fashion world in general. I think that, alongside our fashion interests, which I obviously support wholeheartedly considering I run a fashion blog, we should get back to the root reason some of us became bloggers - we can reach people far away we wouldn't have without a blog and we can try to influence them to be better and really question themselves and the status quo. Or something like that, it's just kind of been bubbling around my brain...)


XO,
Laura

First Day of School!

The first day of my last semester in college - YAY! I'm posting this after my first 2 days of school for the year, and it hasn't been so bad! I'm a bit worried about 2 of my classes which involve some math (I suck majorly at math), but other than the big workload, this semester shouldn't be terrible - mostly essay writing, which I'm used to.







I feel pretty, oh so pretty! ;)




How beautiful is this bag? It's also really comfy because the strap is wider than most of my other purses.




How cool is this picture?! I decided to fog up the lens ;).



If you're still in school, are you excited to start? Get back into the routine, all of that? Or are you seriously moaning about the fact that summer is ending?

Outfit:
Jeans: Urban Planet, the London fit.
Top (which is new and v. cute!): The Garage.
Shoes: Globo? Or DSW? I don't remember, I bought them ages ago...
Earrings: From my Bubby, bought in Mexico a few years ago.
Bag: Zellers

XO,
Laura
ps: coming up: gratitude, aaaaaaaaaand...*drumroll* THE LION KING ON BROADWAY, WHOOT! :)

What I'm Liking Today

So, I was going to make an outfit post for my first day of school, but then it rained so I couldn't take outfit photos! I'll try again when it's sunny again, because the top I was wearing was too cute to not snap a photo of! (My new red converse were also super cute and comfy for school!)
In the meantime: here, have the 2nd edition of what I'm liking today! Unlike last time, I'm starting with music.
Why, you may ask?
BECAUSE FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE CAME OUT WITH A NEW SINGLE! I literally jumped for joy when I got the e-mail newsletter about it yesterday! After listening to it some 30 or 40 times, I think I've decided that it might be my favourite Florence song, I love the lyrics!
Florence and the Machine fans - what do you think of this song compared to her other songs? Are you excited for her new album?
New Florence and the Machine fans (because it's practically impossible to not be a fan after hearing this song, at least in my opinion) - are you all thinking: "Florence Welch, where have you been all my life?!"
There's been a Florence & the Machine post in the works for some time now - hopefully I'll be happy with it soon enough! :)



My word of the day: Education.

Definition: the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. (Courtesy of dictionary.com).

(Photo courtesy of Weheartit).

There's definitely a difference between education and school. School is generally thought of as a place that causes stress, inter-student bullying, harsh memories of being chubby and having braces and not getting good marks or working your ass off on an essay for way too many hours to count and then getting a good mark but needing to sleep for 50 consecutive hours afterwards (that's me). Sure, the 2nd option is better than the 1st because of the good-marks-outcome, but it doesn't leave you any less burnt out or bitter and uncreative, especially when you're studying a subject that you don't like.
So, although school has never been a favourite of mine, I love getting an education. I love learning, being curious, discovering, discussing, gosh, I've even liked writing an essay or 2 over the past year now that I'm in a really interesting and thought-provoking program at school!
For the start of my school year, I want to give a toast to education - I may be idealistic because it's only my first day, but I'm hoping that I'll learn a lot over the course of the year.

Fashion:

How adorable is this outfit?! I want to be the woman in this picture wearing pretty clothes and reading an old-looking book on the Seine :).
(Photo courtesy of Pinterest).


This is such a sassy outfit! I love the yellow and purple together (they are complementary colours on the colour wheel, after all), and the train is fun and more unique because it's to the side, not the back. I've always love Emmanuelle Chriqui's style, and this is no exception! (Apparently her grandparents know my grandparents - how cool is that?!)
(Photo courtesy of The Vogue Diaries).

What's making you happy today?
XO,
Laura

The joy of red converse

So, where have I been for the past 2 or so months? Working my butt off at a kid's day camp, actually. Not my dream job, but it's a means to an end! (The means being money and a reference letter, which goes towards travel and my dream job {so far} as a museum curator, respectively.)
You're probably thinking - "but, Laura! Day camp ends at 4, or 5:30 if you're doing late pick-up!" To that, I would say that I had a bad cold for 3 weeks, and, more importantly, no inspiration whatsoever. Every single workday for the past 8 weeks has been a day for uniforms - aka a neon green, unflattering, and boxy t-shirt. The only creativity I had was deciding which earrings to wear. I didn't even have much of a choice in terms of shoes since I chose to be comfortable in running shoes, though I have to admit the bits of hot pink and neon green on those running shoes are pretty awesome.
I've missed blogging, though, and my new red converse seem to have inspired me! So, hello everyone, yours truly is back in town!
The theme of this blog post is red, black and white. Check out those red earrings, aren't they awesome?!

Here's my question, particularly for those of you who have strict uniforms: do you ever feel that having that uniform drains your creativity, or does it fuel it because it's a challenge to work around that uniform?

BDIB - Bloggers do it better: Neons & Neutrals!

I'm so happy with how these photos turned out! It proves that, with preparation and good lighting, aka not randomly deciding to late at night in your room, good photos DO happen!
These were taken for the "Neon & Neutral" challenge on Pretty Shiny Sparkly (go congratulate Kristina on her recent engagement!!! :) )
I think this outfit definitely represents a way to do the neon and neutral combination without going overboard with crazy neons everywhere - if you don't want to have too much colour in your outfit, wearing neutral-coloured clothing with a few brightly coloured accessories is a good compromise!



I love the little green effect next to my left cheek - I wish I knew how it got there, haha!
By the way, I'm in love with this scarf - it's fair trade from a store next to my school called "Peruvian Imports", the owner of the store is lovely and speaks Spanish with me, and it was only $10! (I have another one, too - a striped one with the central, most obvious colour being purple - and it's sparkly!)




I love how 70's this picture looks - from the floppy hat to the flowy, almost peasant-y top that ties at the collar - and to the general look of the picture!


Who's theeeeeeeeeeeere? *Scary music in background*. HAHA!

What I'm liking today

A word:
(I was going to put fashion first, seeing as this is a fashion blog, but I find this a little bit too interesting, and maybe even beautiful, to not put first.)
According to this entry at Urban Dictionary, the world "Mamihlapinatapai" (from Tierra del Fuego) means:

"Two people looking at each other each hoping the other will do what both desire but neither is willing to do."

I find it beautiful, because I've had so many of those kinds of looks, and it's so nice to have a word to describe it, a word to think back on when it happens - I think I'll be using it more often in my diary! ;)



Fashion:


This is the dress I'll wear at next year's Oscars, because I've obviously been invited to the show! (Yes, for sure, why wouldn't I be?! haha)


Can I steal her hair colour? IT'S SO GORGEOUS! I'll definitely be looking for it in stores - I've never dyed my hair before, but it's probably a bit dark for summer, and a bit useless to do because I'll be swimming a lot, but it'll be good for winter! OH YEAH, I also love her dress, it's so classy and sleek! ;)

Music:

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea


Tegan and Sara - Superstar
(It's my new badass song!)

For those of you who like the telivision show "One Tree Hill" (it's my guilty pleasure, and it's actually a great show), check out an awesome video of Brooke Davis set to "Superstar" here.

Health:
7 random uses for used tea bags:


What are you guys liking today? Which link/section of this post is your favourite?

xo,
Laura

I'm pretty confused about how people think Marc Jacobs is outdated!

According to Times, Marc Jacobs isn't cool these days. Frankly, I don't get it.


(Quite possibly my favourite look from the S/S 11' Marc Jacobs collection).

I first discovered him when I was 11 years old and reading the Gossip Girl books (that was 8 years ago, in case you were wondering), and since then I've always found him a very interesting designer!
His S/S 11' collection is my favourite of his from the past few years (is it just me or are the S/S collections, especially last years', really spectacular?), but his fall/winter 11' collection, which recently showed, was so interesting! It felt like classic looks and silhouettes with a twist, almost on some classy form of acid, haha!
For now, though, to prove that he truly is a great designer, here are the great looks from the S/S 11' Marc Jacobs collection, one of my favourites:


It reminds me of ice cream! Yay!