DwellStudio for Japan Disaster Relief

I've had my eye on DwellStudio's Hedgerow Persimmon Duvet Set for ages now and when I read on Twitter that they were donating 20% of their sales for the next 48 hrs beginning 6pm today to Unicef I thought I'd take a look....

And boy am I glad I did because it's on sale for 65% off!  So, win-win!

Girls' Day Off

I took today off to spend with S who's on March Break.  We scheduled massages and mani/pedis at Vika Spa which were just OK.  My massage was actually very disappointing as the masseuse I had kinda sucked - it felt like she was just moving the massage oil around (and there was A LOT of it) and asking for more pressure resulted in more of the same. 

Our spa appointments were followed up by full afternoon tea at the Windsor Arms - which was again, OK.  They tout themselves as a luxury hotel catering to stars and other dignitaries and for that, I would have expected better service overall.  The staff weren't rude or anything, it just wasn't as polished as I would have expected.

The tea was super-filling...it came with 3 different finger sandwiches, 4 pieces each, and 4 gigantic scones - literally the size of my fist.  They looked dry but were surprisingly tender and dear I say fluffy.  If I had the appetite, I would probably have eaten the 2nd but there were still petit fours and berries with whipped cream (which I'd totally forgotten about!) to eat.

As to the pretty petit fours - clockwise from the top we have a lemon meringue, a rich chocolate torte, an almond-y present and a coffee-flavoured cake suped-up with what had to be liquer, it was so strong!  

Finally, what's a girls day without shopping?  Among others, we hit MO851 to check out their leather jackets.  With this visit and the stop at Rudsack recently, I feel I've done sufficient due diligence to determine that Mackage's Ming jacket is the one I want.  Now if only it'd just go on sale already!!

Oh, and what's a visit to Yorkville without a stop at Anthropologie?  I don't usually look at belts but this sparkly gem, aka the Enchanting Eyes Belt caught my eye so it came home with me:

What burns is that it's $14 more in Canada then it is in the US.  CAD is above par right now.  Granted it's a more recent event but our dollar has been flirting with parity for quite some time now so why this ridiculous discrepancy?  I may just return it to buy it again online, ship it to Buffalo and have my brother go pick it up on one of his cross-the-border jaunts!

Weekend Update

My weekend got off to a bit of a rocky start since I was forced to go to bed Thursday night at 11:30 because my power went out. I didn't worry too much about the outage because I figured it was temporary - but alas, not so much. I woke up Friday morning - thanks to my iphone alarm which I had set after the power went out - to grey skies, darkness and cold water, which wasn't too big a deal since I prefer showering at night. Turns out a contractor for Rogers and/or Bell was digging holes outside our building and managed to cut the electrical conduit or tube running into our building. The rain of the last few days flowed into this tube, into our electrical room located on P1 and blew our building's transformer - thank goodness it didn't cause a fire!

There was no word on when we'd get power back so when I got home after work, I tossed out some perishables in my fridge, packed up my freezer, and decamped to my mom's at least for the night. And thank goodness for my mom! One of my neighbour's spent an hour calling around trying to find a hotel that would take kids - with 3 conferences going on in the city, supply was apparently tight. Big bonus? Lobster was on sale for $5.99/lbs and my mom served up lobster not one, not two but THREE ways! SO YUMMY! (And yes, I know I'm spoiled.)

Incidentally, it was a big food weekend for me. But first, can I tell you about my bag score? With my spending fast over, I decided it was safe to head on over to the Shops on Don Mills to see what was on sale at Anthropologie. I tried on a bunch of different things but ended up leaving with just one top. My best score though was the gorgeous red Village Satchel from Roots to the left. I mis-read the sales tag as $119 when it actually read $149. When the cashier rang it in, it was $139, but with the current promo, spend $100+ and get $25 off, it ended up being $115 - cheaper than I had anticipated! Sweet!

Back to the food though, I dined on lobster and E-Fu noodles before heading back downtown to my place because we got power back around noon. I stayed long enough to re-pack my freezer and headed out again to see Yellow Face at the Hart House Theatre. The anger I felt while watching the play has since faded and I don't want to get into it because I don't want to focus on the negative. So I'm going to go back to food because it makes me happy.

I slept in until 11am this morning, which, because of Daylight Savings, was actually 10am and made myself a pile of yummy pancakes. I spiked the mix with a scoop of chocolate whey protein and added some chopped walnuts too and spread Nutella between each one. SO GOOD! I'm going to come absolutely clean and tell you today wasn't the first time I had them this weekend. I made them last night after I got back from the play too. There. Now you know my shame. I feel mildly better having shared that.

My regular Sunday trek out to Chinatown put me in the way of BBQ pork on rice so I had that for a late lunch and dinner tonight was a salmon steak paired with mushroom & broccoli quisotto - imagine risotto with quinoa instead of arborio rice - a recipe from my now favourite cookbook.  I'm going to have to do better with my portion sizes - dinner tonight was rather large but damn was it ever good!

I'm chilling out now with Season 1 of The West Wing on in the background and am thinking of giving this Hatha Yoga for Better Sleep video a go.  G'night!

Crazy Savings!

I've written before about how I love to take advantage of group-buying daily deals and how Dealradar helps me do that.  I've been on a bit of a spending spree in the last month or so and it occurred to me that I should probably do a better job of keeping track of them beyond printing them out and tacking them onto my bulletin board.

So, I turned to one of my favourite organizational tools - the trusty Excel spreadsheet.  Since Christmas, I've bought 14 of these deals - the bulk of which are massage/spa-type services because if you hadn't noticed, I like to pamper myself - and I've saved over $1600(!!!).  How crazy is that?

I can't help but wonder what the mark-up is on these services because offering a discount of 50% seems excessive, never mind 80+% on some of the deals.  I shan't question.  If they offer it, I will buy it.

*******

Oh, and the spending fast is officially over.  I got off work a few hours early because there was no running water in the building and went to Rudsak with the intention of checking out their leather jackets but ending up leaving with the gorgeous plum-coloured purse with a removable chain strap to the left.  The colour doesn't show at all in the pic below but believe when I say it's lovely juicy plum hue.  Plus it was 35% off.  Not a crazy discount but it was the last one, I loved the colour and I need options beyond what AL called the "gym bags*" I carry on a daily basis. 

I've still got my eye on this clutch by MO851 and will be checking it out next Monday when I'm in the 'hood for my girls' day off.

* Just to be clear, that would be a reference to the size of the bag as opposed to the style.  

Jacket Lust

Ever since Lainey tweeted this pic of her and Tanya Kim prepping for the Oscars, I've been thinking about their slim-cut leather jackets and getting one of my own.

I turned to what's become my go-to designer for outerwear - Montreal-based MACKAGE - and found these 2 styles, which I tried on my way home after work tonight at Next Door before meeting a neighbour for dinner at Fresh.  Both are made of super-soft leathers and have the slim-cut I was looking for.

Rory, $650

Ming, $670

I love Rory's shawl collar, but only when it's zipped up, otherwise it looks sloppy.  With Ming, I love that it looks like a sleek, super-feminine bomber jacket that's hits you perfectly at the hip.  The other detail I love is the layered look of the long knit sleeves underneath.  The padded shoulders in the images look rather extreme but when on, you don't notice it at all.  I kind of wish Ming was available in grey.  And dammit, why does it have to be so dear?!?  I can't bring myself to spend that much on a leather jacket that I just. don't. need. But I WANT IT! So. Maybe it'll go on sale....?

Alternatively, perhaps I'll find something else at Rudsak or MO851?  Danier's supposed to have some great styles now too but I can't help but be a bit of a snob about the brand.  What a way to break a spending fast, huh?  We shall see...

The Calendar Necklace

Love dalla nonna's signature Calendar Necklace, available in silver, rose gold, yellow gold and white gold with your choice of 7 different sapphires.  I so want.

I like 'em big

I was browsing the Roots website and that's when I met Olivia here, a gorgeous brown leather satchel. It's not like I need another bag - I bought 2 on my last vacation, both on the large size of the spectrum. Technically I'm not allowed to buy it because I'm on a spending fast, but does it count if I redeem for gift cards with my Air Miles??

So. Tempting.

Psst!

I booked myself an afternoon at the spa next Saturday and you might be wondering why I did when I'm supposed to be on a spending fast.  Well, given the explosion of group-buying deal-a-day sites - Groupon and Living Social being the biggest - I accumulated quite a few spa package coupons last year that I haven't yet redeemed, and this spa afternoon is one of those redemptions.  An aroma facial, hot stone massage, hand paraffin treatment and the choice of a manicure or pedicure - all for $39(!)  Crazy right?

Anyway, my inbox got pretty full on a daily basis from all the deal sites I had signed up for and the clutter was distracting - until a friend told me about dealradar.com - so now I'm telling you.  It's a service which consolidates all the daily deals into one email.  There's good coverage of the major Canadian cities including Toronto (bien sur), Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa and Winnipeg; coverage of a few cities in Great Britain and Australia and about 70  cities in the U.S. 

If you're into deals and want a more effective and efficient way of managing them, subscribe to their free daily email.*

*  For the record, I'm in no way affiliated with the site.   

Anthropologie Wish List

I received Anthropologie's latest catalogue in the mail today and was struck by their cover product - the  gorgeous Daily Brights Satchel in blue below.  Look at that lining of zebra AND leopard - never mind how functional it is on the inside! 

A quick flip through the catalogue and that's when I discovered their Filgreed Chestnut Tote which I MUST HAVE. Except that I'm on a spending fast. Yep. A spending fast. So all I can do is stare at it longingly...I wish I could feel the texture. So beautiful.

Oh and I've got my eye on these too...Damn spending fast!

Swept Swag Sweatshirt, Mainstay Tunic, Morning Mists Top, Emerald Wicklow Dress

Boxing Week Sales

How was your Christmas?  Mine was rather restful.  I spent an extra-extra-long weekend at my mom's and filled myself with all sorts of goodies like cookies, dim sum, turkey, prime rib and roast potatoes.  All kinds of bad during my current burn phase of training but it's the holidays! Down with protein days!!

After the damage I'd done to my wallet while on vacation, I had no intention of shopping the annual Boxing Week sales, let alone braving the malls on the actual day. But my brother's girlfriend wanted my help in finding a nice wool coat so I woke up bright and early Sunday to make it for the 8am opening at Fairview Mall - no way was I going later to drive circles around the parking lot looking for a spot.

We found her a coat at Aritzia, this T.Babaton Military Coat with shiny buttons that looks really cute on, and me, I picked up 2 blazers at only 10% of :( - the Wilfred satin crepe shawl blazer and a grey wool Talula blazer which I already have in black.  Neither of which I was really looking for, but both look great with skinny jeans, which I've come to love of late. 

Once I started, I couldn't really stop. I hopped online to check out the sales at Chapters/Indigo and picked up a bunch of holiday stuff at 50-75% off - mostly candles and reed diffusers plus a couple of books.
And today, while out to get 2 of my Axxium french manicured nails re-done because the polish had chipped off far too soon, I picked up Christmas ornaments at Urban Barn that were 3 for the price of 1 in sparkly/iridescent shades of purple, brown and white:

Now I just need to get a skinny condo-sized tree for next year!

London Days 4 & 5

Coming up on my last days in London Town. I saw Wicked for the second time yesterday and Billy Elliot today. I love the theatre scene here. I stopped at Leicester Square both days to visit the half price ticket booths and came away with fantastic tix in the stalls, aka orchestra level for £42 - which is ~$72 and still cheaper then the seats would have been at home.


Dinner last night was with a small group of family and friends at Suze Wine Bar where there was great conversation over lively libations. Witness the many glasses on our table:


I spent the morning in Covent Garden and stopped in the Museum of Transport where I was a total nerd and picked up a towel of a map of the London Underground along with a poster.
After the musical, I made my pilgrimage to Liberty for a proper browse. Look how lovely it is at night:


The fourth floor was decked out for Christmas and of course, I had to take a photo of their selection of purple ornaments.


I know thus is totally lame but I couldn't leave without a purple Liberty bag so what did I do but buy a canvas Liberty tote, a tea towel and a Lisa Stickley makeup bag.


Tomorrow I'm heading to the shops in Knightsbridge as I promised to return with the Harrods Christmas Bear for WL.
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Fav buy...

I found this "bag in bag" in a shop on Carnaby St. and it's my new favorite thing because it just makes total sense since I carry big-ass bags that things can get lost in.


I bought this bag from Karen Millen today after sleeping on it for the last 3 nights and look how fab my little organizer is:


Now I can find my camera without digging around and my London A-Z and copy of John Armstrong's Conditions of Love are in one place. Love love love!!!!
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London Day 3

It's the start of my 3rd full day here and it's cold and snowy! Something's wrong when Toronto's forecasted to be 10 C and the UK is in a "deep freeze" with "arctic conditions." I'm going to have to shop for warm jumpers today because I packed for temps in the high single digits.
My first purchase here was a wool/cashmere jacket Sunday from Reiss in a biscuit colour. I knew I had to have it as soon as I put it on.
Yesterday was all about shoes and boots - 3 of which were from Clarks which is so different in the UK! The heels and boots are stylish AND comfortable! I bought the middle pair below in black and the bottom pair as shown, along with a pair of boots. I've always thought of myself as more of a bag lady then a shoe girl but it seems my shoe addiction only manifests in London. No more shoes though!

My mission today is to find an outfit for the "From Russia with Love" theme party I'm going to on Friday. What that means I'm not quite sure but I figure I'll know it when I see it.
Apart from the shopping which has been great, I've been very impressed with the decor in the cafe/restos here. I'm sitting in a high-style juice and sandwich bar(!) called Joe and the Juice taking advantage of the free wifi and wishing there was a cool space like this back home.



Isn't this just so inviting? I don't want to leave but I've been here 1.5hrs and should probably get a move on...



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London Wishlist

In 7 weeks I'll be in London, one of my favourite cities in the world, and also the city in which my favourite cousin resides.  London is also one of my favourite cities for shopping, and in advance of every visit, I like to browse and daydream about all the beautiful goodies that I may come home with.  So here's my current wishlist, which is by no means complete...

London 2010 Wish List by phoenixc featuring a corsage dress

Ziggy Dress
55 GBP - monsoon.co.uk
Monsoon dress »

Jametz Dress
160 GBP - monsoon.co.uk
Corsage dress »

Baby signature leather metal work bag
165 GBP - karenmillen.com
Tweed dress »

Coast Stores - Some Like It Hot - TALLULA JACKET
140 GBP - coast-stores.com

Cath Kidston - Provence rose IPhone case
25 GBP - cathkidston.co.uk

Monsoon Accessorize - Small Bird Trinket Box
12 GBP - monsoon.co.uk

Slim Travel Wallet, Damson Collection: View All
smythson.com

What I really really really want though, is Orla Kiely's Quilted Patent Ivy Bag in Violet.  The Tafetta Sleeveless Dress is pretty cute too.

J. Crew wish list

Finally flipped through the latest J. Crew catalog and fell for the Tretorn Flannel kicks below, which led me to the website with the though of buying them. Unfortunately, only 11s are left. 
This didn't stop me from browsing though and now I've got my eye on this gorgeous necklace and the luscious leather Brompton purse.  Lovely as they are, they're not nearly as compelling as the sneaks.

 

Tretorn Wool Flannel Sneakers, Tassel Stoneset Necklace, Brompton Purse

Serendipity

ser-en-dip-i-ty [ser-uh n-dip-i-tee] – noun

1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.

I walked home after work today through Chinatown today to pick up faux cherry blossoms as part of the wedding centrepiece.  The original orchid theme tweaked to include cherry blossoms because M had his heart set on this wedding cake.

I'd spied them last Friday in a store on Dundas and went back for them but the shop owner was on vacation which was fine, except they didn't have enough in stock - I needed about 40 - and the shop girls couldn't help me so I'd have to wait until Friday when the shop owner was back.

Mildly disappointed, I headed on home....except I didn't go straight home.  I was searching for pretty chopsticks to give away as bombonieres and stumbled onto an even better option for the cherry blossoms then the first!  And they were cheaper!!  While they were twice as expensive a branch, they were fuller so I needed only 11.  Ooh, and the great thing about Chinatown is oftentimes, if you pay cash, they'll give you a discount, aka, no tax.  

Everything's all coming together!  My sister just confirmed the cake design and order and I've got my quotes for the fresh bridal flowers to review and we're well on our way! 

Girly Friday

I took the day off for an extra long weekend and spent the day at the spa and shopping with my best gal pal.  We met at Anthropologie where I ended up buying the 2 dresses at left plus a tank top that was on sale.  The LBD is a jersey material that's super-flattering and the Audrey Hepburn-esque polka dot number is sweet and classic. 

I wouldn't normally go out and buy 2 dresses all at once but I've got 2 weddings coming up so that's my justification for the splurge.

I spent the rest of the afternoon being pampered at Novo Spa where I indulged in an hour-long massage and mani-pedi - the last of which was the best part because you sit in a multi-functional massage chair while getting your toes done.  HEAVEN!  Oh, and the mint-y chocolate mousse foot mask which smelled yummy and made me hungry!  Everything smelled yummy, actually...there was an algae mint foot scrub, a vanilla-coconut oil sugar hand scrub and a mango-coconut hand lotion that left me smelling like a pina colada.  S and I have decided to go back on the regular just for the pedi!

One thing led to another

I started thinking about getting a passport cover early this year. Why? Maybe boredom. I don't know. But I started thinking about it again to distract myself from thinking about a vacation destination. 

Here's my dilemma: I have 4 weeks of vacation still to be booked and more than enough miles for a free flight somewhere, except that there are no flights available to be booked.  Plus I want to spend as little cash as possible on the travel. So what to do?  I distract myself with travel-related accessories, beginning with Smythson of Bond St, where I found the brilliant red passport holder below and the happy yellow slim travel wallet from their Mimosa Collection.  I love the idea that the passport cover is removable.

The drawback?  The slim travel wallet is GBP 315!  A very pretty penny!

A quick google search served up Aspinal of London where I found the Lindberg Travel Wallet. It's similar in style to the yellow Smythson with the addition of a pen loop which would be very handy since the last time I was in Brazil, I found myself without a pen to fill out the obligatory entry paperwork.  Oh, and it's about half the price at $225!

Something to think about.

Retail Therapy

I've been working my ass off the last few weeks - so much so that I got sick and had to see a physiotherapist because I strained right wrist with too much mouse-work.  Lame, right?  Anyway, I drove across the Peace Bridget to Buffalo for a day of shopping at the Walden Galleria and Target.  There was a great sale at Loft - 40% off all regular priced items and an additional 50% off sale items so I picked up a couple dresses including the one-shouldered number below which I'm going to wear to my sister's wedding.  The rest of my big haul included 2 pairs of pants, a skirt, 3 tops including J. Crew's sequin necklace tank below and a silk-flower embellished cardi, a scarf, a couple pairs of shoes and miscellaneous stuff like pretty picture frames.

I had some time to kill while N was at rowing practice so I hung out at Chapters and caught up on the latest fashion mags.  A browse through the sales stacks unearthed a couple Penguin clothbound Classics that are no longer available online on Chapters including Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Cranford, so I snapped them up.

All in all, it was a very satisfying day.  Now I'm off for dinner at Treadwell's which I'm super-excited about! :)

Itchy...and random

I've been on a loose spending fast of late and am seriously itching for some retail therapy.

I've cheated by redeeming my air miles for $50 Indigo gift cards to buy these gorgeous clothbound Penguin Classics that now grace my bookcase:

Last Saturday, I went back to Anthropologie to return 3 tops I'd picked up the weekend before after my haircut and left with the pretty embellished sleeveless number below and on Sunday, before my massage, I killed time browsing around Yonge and Davisville where I found this adorable Frog Prince tealight holder:


See? Weak.

Anyway. I've been holding out on buying some new clothes after losing about 10lbs with all the training I've been doing because I've only really just started this first "burn" cycle and am fairly certain there's more weight to be lost.

I woke up this morning to sunshine and thought, maybe I'll head out to browse the shops. But now it's raining so I guess I'm safe from temptation.