Style

That's how ridonculously stoked I was to get to wear this gorgeous Obakki dress to the Leo Awards recently.



Obakki is a local Vancouver design house known for their earthy, artistic designs. The clothes are manufactured in Canada, in Vancouver in fact. As well, the Obakki Foundation http://obakkifoundation.org works to support humanitarian causes around the world. Not only are the clothes beautiful and special, the company itself is as well. They were so friendly and down to earth to work with which is not always the case in the fashion world... My mom came with me to pick out a dress and she was quickly converted as a fan of the brand, as she herself began coveting the lovely items on the racks.



Thank you Obakki! Their flagship store in Gastown in Vancouver is worth checking out based on the layout alone. It won the Governer's General award for its innovative and contemporary design.

Style

(My dress courtesy of Obakki and Brad's pink ruffled shirt dug out from deep within his closet!)

Today is a red carpet day! How ridiculously exciting is that! My talented boyfriend has gone ahead and gotten himself nominated for a Leo award which means we have a red carpet event to attend this evening!




So that was a couple weeks ago and now I'm gonna finish the post...

What a great event, we really had a wonderful time at the Leo Awards 2011. It was our first time ever doing a red carpet event, press line and the whole gambit. I felt the same as when I used to play dress-up in my mom's closet when I was a little girl!

I definitely had a moment of panic when I realized that I had no idea how to get done-up for a red carpet event. Note: always be sure to paint your finger and toenails the day before, not hours before, because if you wait to the last minute on that step it just makes everything else more complicated. And as Brad and me learned in spades, just be yourself, wear what you want to wear, if you are confident and comfortable you are always in style.

Brad's pink shirt was a hotly debated item before we left the house. I cannot lie, myself and my parents were voting for a safe GQ look of just a white t-shirt with his tux; but he knew what he was comfortable in and everyone loved his pink shirt. Now he's threatening to give us all style lessons (cue eye roll.)

Obakki was kind enough to lend me a dress to wear for the event. That whole story is such fun that it gets it's own post!

(Special thanks to Miss 604 @ www.miss604.com for the use of her photo!)

Style.

Fall has arrived. I thoroughly enjoyed the final lazy hazy days of summer, hence the lack of blogging action, but now it is back to school and back to reality. I love this time of year! I find myself drawn towards freshly sharpened pencils, crisp notebooks, and September issues of fashion mags that weigh more than a newborn baby.

What are the must-haves of the season? Do I like the new trends? At the beginning of the summer all I can think about is getting a new swimsuit and when fall arrives I begin to obsess about getting a new pair of boots. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes about it I'm getting new boots! We are off to Seattle for what I consider a weekend of shopping and what my boyfriend thinks is a weekend of football (the Seahawks season opener is Sunday and he is a diehard fan.)

Aside from the traditional boots, my only other must-have for this fall is the maxi-skirt. I love love long skirts and for the first time in a couple years I find myself liking the trends again. Alright, time to log off, I have to go shopping now... Happy Autumn!

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I love fashion magazines for inspiring ideas on how to put together fun outfits from what I already have; as well as, finding out what new fashions I want to try on. However, lately, instead of shelling out a small fortune on fashion magazines I cruise the blogosphere for awesome street style sites the following are my faves:

Garance Dore
The Sartorialist
Who What Wear
Vanessa Jackman
In Style (not really a blog more of an online version of the magazine but I love their website's 'look of the day' feature)

You can even create your own personalized magazine by registering all your favourite blogs on bloglovin.com. Once you register bloglovin.com will provide you with updates as they come... Every morning I sit with my coffee and get outfit ideas from fashionistas around the world for free!

Style.

It is a dream of mine to master the rare art form of packing light. I am convinced only true perfectionists, those who have achieved an enviable low maintenance style, or people who don't care at all about fashion, can pull this off. In which case, it will undoubtedly remain a distant dream.

A dream dashed by the literal nightmare I experienced the one time I managed to "pack light" on a trip to Vegas. Of course my friends and I wound up with fabulous invites to glamorous parties, and I was rendered, with a healthy buzz, totally confused as to where all my fun fashionable outfits were hiding. I was especially missing a particular pair of shoes that had fallen victim to a last minute "cut" from the suitcase; which, since I was practicing "packing light" really only qualified as an oversize handbag, not a proper suitcase.

I remember being in the train station in Paris and in awe of the genetically stylish Parisian women, standing modelesque with tiny roller totes fully prepared for a European get away. On that very trip, the rule was we could bring whatever luggage we wanted but we had to be able to carry it ourselves. Suddenly, my spaghetti armed eighteen year old self, was able to heave a massive suitcase equal to my own weight all over Europe. There was also the trip to the Cayman Islands, where the security actually abandoned searching my bag considering his partner had already thoroughly searched through the rest of my family's luggage. (Note: if attempting to smuggle goods, simply over pack!)

They say the trick to packing light is neutral colours and interchangeable items. Also, only travel to warm destinations, summer clothes are naturally lighter than winter coats and boots. The appeal of not having to check your baggage, if you could fit everything into a carry-on, used to be very high. Now with all the anti-terrorist restrictions, barely allowing the lip gloss in your purse to get on the aircraft, only taking a carry-on is nearly impossible. The only things that restrain me from simply throwing my entire wardrobe into suitcases, are the extra fees for being over the luggage weight allowance or the more than one bag fee. These fees I affectionately call the over-packer tax.