Gorilla Post: New boots from Target

In a recent post, I mentioned that I visited Target in Canada for the first time at Plae D'Orleans; read my impressions from that visit here. I purchased some new black booties from the Target in Kingston and have started to wear them this week. I was looking for a short or ankle boot with a decent tread and sturdy heel for Winter and I found it! 

Here are some Gorilla shoots of today's outfit with the new booties, they also some in leopard print which I may need to go back and get!

Outfit

Jacket: Agent 99 in Kingston, seen here, here and here (I have been wearing this a lot lately and it is really cold in our office today so I might not take it off!)

Blouse: Dynamite, seen here

Jeans: Jessica Simpson Kiss Me Jeggings, seen here

Boots: Target

Necklace: Dynamite, seen here

Earrings: Le Chateau

Thank you for reading and check back next week for reviews on pore strips (I forgot how much I love using these!) and a comparison on two concealers I have recently tried.

Happy Weekend!

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OOTD Collage

Outfit

Tights: Lysee

Top: Le Chateau

Boots: Nine West

Purse: Nine West

Jacket: Agent 99 (Kingston, seen here and here)

Necklace: Unknown, I've had it forever!

iPhone case: Otter Box Camo AP Defender Series

How's everyone's week going? This upcoming Monday is the Canadian Thanksgiving and I will be headed to Kingston to spend the weekend with my Mom and enjoy her fabulous cooking. I've always really loved Thanksgiving because it is a Holiday that is just about spending time with Friends & Family while enjoying a belt busting meal then taking a nap. No presents, no pressure - my kind of Holiday.

Speaking of belt busting, these Lysee leggings that I have on today are the perfect option to wear for Thanksgiving. They have a high-waisted tummy control and are super comfy so you can eat until you burst and not have to undo your pants. Wearing skinny jeans during a big meal is not how I roll :-) 

Lysee tights aren't cheap - mine were $80 CDN, bought online last year - but they have worn really well, are thick and haven't lost their shape. You can dress them up with a nice top or sweater, add some boots and you are good to go. 

What are your plans for the weekend, Thanksgiving or otherwise?

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Outfit: Mix & Match Prints

For those of you that are Pinterest'ers, I am sure you have come across Pins that show an outfit where contrasting prints are put together beautifully. I love Pinning those outfits because it looks so effortless and not too "matchy-matchy". However to actually put a mix and match pattern together can be a little tricky. You want to choose prints that would work without looking like you were dressed by a 2 year old. This being said, mixing prints can add fresh new options to your existing wardrobe and though it may seem out of your comfort zone at first, this can be a fun way to be creative with your clothes.

Here are a few guidelines to help you try out a mix & match print ensemble:

1) Make sure there is a anchor color - what I mean by this is having a color that ties the prints together. Like black does here:

Blazer: Le Chateau

Shirt: Urban Behavior

Pants: Dynamite

Necklace: Ardene (seen here)

2) You can mix similar prints (e.g. large dots with small dots) - this is a good option to ease into the mix and match thing. I love this look here (notice the anchor colors, yellow and black):

Photo source: bellanaija.com

3) Don't go too crazy - You still want to look put together, not sloppy. Don't go from one extreme to the other (see Jesse J below). It helps if your outfit is structured and not a flowy top with a flowy skirt for example. 

Sorry SJP, flowy paired with flowy is a NO:

Photo source: glamour.com

Sorry Jesse J, no anchor color to tie these two patterns together. Come to think of it, I don't think even a "like color" could save a flannel and leopard combo!

Photo source: dailymail.co.uk

4) Stripes are a good neutral for matching prints, you can pair strips with animal print, geometric or floral.

Photo source: ttovogueorbust.com

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Outfit Post: Jeans & T-Shirt

As much as I like to get dressed up in pretty shirts, dresses and skirts, there's nothing like wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt. It's easy, it's comfortable and you can dress it up with a few accessories and out the door you go.

 Jacket: Agent 99 in Downtown Kingston 

T-Shirt: Urban Outfitters

Tank underneath: American Eagle

Jeans: Jessica Simpson Kiss Me Jeggings

Shoes: Novellino

Necklace: Ardene (new)

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Dig It

1) Athena d'Orsay Pumps at shopbop.com

2) Lace Booties at necessaryclothing.com

3) Shirt Dress by Michael Kors

4) Kimchi Blue Scalloped Lace Bralette at wanelo.com

5) Sole Society Ankle Booties

Haven't done a Dig It post in a while so here we are! While browsing through Pinterest I pinned all of the above items in the effort to find similar options for cheap. I am also still looking for a nice Chambray button down shirt but haven't been successful yet.

Also to show the new sweater I picked up at Fairweather over the weekend, here are some Gorilla Shots of how I wore it today.

Sweater: Fairweather (new)

Tights: Lysse

Shoes: Nine West

Necklace: Chloe

Earrings: Colombian Emeralds International

Outfit Post: Stripes & Solids

I love this bright striped top and this solid banded skirt paired together. I especially love that the former is super cheap and the latter, not so much but they can be mixed and match to create a great outfit for work or I would even wear this out to dinner with a clutch.

Blazer and Jeans to Work

I am lucky to work in an office that is pretty business casual. We aren't client facing so we can get away with more casual office attire (some take it to the extreme in my opinion). That being said we really aren't "supposed" to wear jeans Monday through Thursday, but I did today anyways. Solid colored denim doesn't look as sloppy as faded or ripped jeans does so I lived on the edge today and wore my white Jessica Simpson skinnies to work and dressed it up with a blazer.

 Blazer: RW (old)

Top: Halter Top from Victoria's Secret

Jeans: Jessica Simpson Forever Skinny

Shoes: Nine West (below)

I also think that this would be a great look for a dinner date. The top is a halter so you can go from office to dinner easily if you added some jewelry like nice earrings and a bracelet. I think a necklace would be overkill with the straps of the halter.

What is your office attire normally like? Do you have to dress in a suit everyday? (If you do, I feel for you!) Or is your office more casual like mine?

Not Meant to Blog Today... But I am anyways

I think that the Blogging Gods are trying to tell me something; I am not meant to blog today!

I had taken pictures last night when I got home from work for a post on my work outfit for that day (which I loved) and they all turned out blurry! I couldn't tell that from the camera's view finder when I had taken them but when I went to edit those pics today.... ALL BLURRY!

So rather than post sub-par pics I decided to ditch them.

Yesterday while at work I also scouted out a maybe perfect spot for some outdoor outfit pics using Google Earth. The previous spot I had found randomly is just too far away. This location looked private with good light and it was closer. So looking at Google Earth I am like "okay so turn left here, right here and the street is about there.... okay got it". While out for lunch today I drove to where I thought the spot was and I drove and drove and drove. Even got out the GPS and I still couldn't find it! AHHHHHH! 

So with that, I give up on my outfit posts for yesterday and today, it's just not meant to be. I will review where that location is more thoroughly and hopefully I can begin shooting my pictures there soon. I don't consider myself directionally challenged but finding this place is like trying to get into Narnia for crying out loud! LOL

Also, I would like to notify my readers that I will be traveling to Vancouver this Saturday for one week to visit my BC Family! I am super excited as I haven't seen them for a few years and I love returning to my home town of Vancouver where I was born and lived until I was 12.

That means I won't be posting next week. I was thinking about getting one of the many lovely bloggers that I admire to guest post for me during my absence but I didn't want to impose on any of these busy ladies. So there will be no new posts next week, but when I return I will have TONS and TONS to post about and I can't wait to show you how beautiful Vancouver is!

I am babysitting my God Daughter tonight so I hope that after the little munchkin has gone to bed that I can film my first Vlog! I was going to do a recap of my first Beauty Haul but I got inspired from A.Co to do a 50 Facts About Me Vlog so maybe I will do that instead. That will require some editing though so please bare with me as I am new to all of the video editing Vlogging stuff. I think it will be fun though!

That's all for now, sorry for the long ramble and the lack of posts but I will be back with vengeance, I promise!

Love,

MelMac XOXOXOXOX

Lace Dress

 Dress: Dynamite (old)

Heels: Aldo

Necklace: Dynamite

Anklet: Magpie

Just a quick outfit post taken Gorilla style this time. I forgot to bring my camera with me to shoot a quality photo so iPhone will have to do for today! What do you think of the anklet? I recently saw one of my favorite fashion bloggers, Sincerely Jules, wear one and I think this will be a come-back trend. I have two anklets that I wear sometimes, one gold and one silver (shown above) and I think they look really cute. I used to feel that anklets were a little too 80's looking or white-trashy but I am thinking they need a come back! Plus it's another cute piece of jewelry to wear :-)

First Haul Post: Beauty!

I have seen several "Haul" posts and videos on some of my favorite blogs but I never had the desire to post one myself. I feel like what I buy is pretty boring and why would anyone want to see that? But I like to view these Haul posts by other bloggers to see if there are any products I might like to try or to get inspired, so.....here we are. My first Haul post! Yay! I am hoping to do a video to accompany this as well later this week so stay tuned for that (that will also be a first for me, yikes!)

I have really toned down my shopping over the last few years, I used to spend way to much $$ on random trips to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy stuff I really don't need. Then it ends up cluttering my space and I LOATHE that. However, I had a ton of Shopper's Optimum points to use and there was a promotion this past weekend that if you used X amount of points, you got like $15 - $20 extra to spend. For those readers not from Canada, Optimum points are earned when buying products from Shopper's Drug Mart that you can accumulate to earn money towards buying more products; the more points, the more "free" $$ you have to spend.

So while in Kingston this past weekend visiting my Mom, I headed to Shopper's to spend my points to get things I really don't need. But it was for free so no guilt!

Here's what I got:

Revlon Lip Butter in Sugar Frosting; Bought this Lip Butter before but I didn't love the color, this shade is more me :-) It goes on smooth with pigment that you can actually see and it's moisturizing. Get's an 8/10 from me.

Olay Regenerist Resurfacing Night Elixir; I have used this before and liked the results but switched to a cheaper brand to save $$. Since this was freebie I will gladly use this again. It's a serum that exfoliates at night while you sleep giving your skin a blast of moisturizers and it get's a BEST rating from Paula Begoun! I give it a 9/10 right now but over extended use I am hoping this will help with my fine lines.

I have read countless reviews of this deep conditioning hair mask from Macadamia and wasn't sure if it would live up to the hype. I used it once this weekend and I wouldn't call it a miracle product but I definitely think that this works. I have naturally curly/wavy hair that I highlight every 9 weeks so it gets DRY and DULL looking. This hair mask made my hair feel softer, made it shiny and smells fantastic . It contains silicon  so that is what coats your hair to make it soft. It is pricey at $32 for this 500ml tub but most reviews say that it lasts a long time. That will be the deciding factor if I buy it again. Remember to only use hair masks once (max twice) a week, overuse will actually damage your hair! I give it a 8.5/10 as the product did work but I will need to wait and see if it lasts as long as reviewers claim it does to justify the price. I also don't know if I like the idea of my hair coated in silicon but it seems to work!

So there you have it, my first haul post! I hope to have a Vlog to accompany this post up by this Friday. It will give more of my thoughts on these products plus a couple of bonus products not included here. WARNING: I don't currently have video editing software (does anyone know of any free downloads?) so the Vlog will be rough and uncut! 

Product Review: Essie Nail Polish

Hi Everyone and Happy Friday! 

Like many of you lovely ladies, I love nail polish and having my nails neatly manicured is one of the small (but great) pleasures in life. It just looks....well, polished (pun intended!) Having tried just about every nail polish brand you can think of, one that I have never used is Essie. Being a Pinterest'er, I was always seeing Pins about Essie showing tons of the really fun colors they offer.

So while strolling through my local Shopper's Drug Mart I spotted a nice looking display of Essie Nail polish and oh look.... it's on sale! The price was regular $10, on sale for $3.95, I would be crazy to pass on a deal like that so with nothing to lose, I picked up a bottle of Essie A List; an opaque cream polish. According to the Essie website, this is an award winning product and has become a classic. 

I found that applying the polish was easy; the formula is on the thin side so that makes it easy to work with, especially when applying red which can get messy. The polish is creamy and seemed to set pretty quickly so you have to work a little fast, other wise you could get streaks. I applied two coats and that was enough to get the color where it needed to be. I didn't use a base coat but I did apply a top coat and in two days there have been zero chips. Not far enough in the wear to really see if this product is chip resistant but I have applied red nail polish before that has chipped the next day; top coat and all. I really like the color of this red, it is on the blue-ish side which I prefer to an orange tone. It is a true classic red that is shinny and will pop enough to get noticed. I have had several compliments on this color already and it's only been a couple of days. 

Overall I give this a 9 out of 10 only because the product performed the way I would expect it to but hasn't WOW'ed me. I would buy Essie again but probably only when it is on sale, $10 is too pricey when you can get a good polish for about $5.

Here are some Gorilla Shots of today's outfit where you can see that I am a little worse for wear, got into the sauce last night so I am at about 70% capacity today :-)

Dress: Le Chateau (old)

Shoes: Aldo (old)

Bracelet: Unknown (gift)

I hope you find this product review useful and if you are on Pinterest, follow me!

Tommy Hilfiger Dress

Happy Hump Day MelMac'ers! I wanted to start taking outdoor outfit pictures for the blog because I have a snazzy new Nikon camera that I am slowly learning to use properly. So I headed out on my lunch hour today to scout out a place to take said pictures with a cool back ground that would also offer privacy. Fellow bloggers, know what I am talking about; you don't want to be the weirdo talking selfies in plain view. 

So I drove, and I drove, then I drove some more.....then I hit a gravel road (I am now in the middle of nowhere if you can't tell), then I drove a little more to reach a dead end that was a parking lot for a hiking trail. Though not convenient this spot was private! So with bees buzzing around I managed to snap a few shots. Hope you like them!

This dress is a favorite of mine, I bought it at Tommy Hilfiger in the Trainyards (a box store plaza here in Ottawa). With the extreme heat we are experiencing, our office has declared that we can wear "Friday" attire for the remainder of the week to keep us comfortable. We do have A/C so I don't really know what the point is but I will take it! 

This dress is super comfortable and you can wear it endlessly -- for shopping, golfing or a casual day at work like me :-)

Before I went on my scouting adventure I stopped at my "go-to" salad bar for lunch, Farmboy which is also located in the Trainyards. 

How good does this look?

I used the Food setting on my camera for this shot

Let me know if you like this location for pictures in the comments below. I will continue scouting for a location that is closer to get to, but for now this spot is pretty and private. However, I can see getting to this location being an issue in the Winter months :-)

Biker Friday

Does anyone watch the TV show Sons of Anarchy? Or maybe your significant other does? It stars Katy Segal (aka Peg Bundy) and Ron Perlman as the Matriarch and Patriarch of the Biker Gang called the Sons of Anarchy (airs on FX). I've watched a few episodes of this show and it's a very intriguing portrail of the struggles and drama of life in a biker club. Watching this show got me thinking about the rugged style of bikers, how it has influenced fashion. We used to only see Bikers wearing leather jackets, chaps and big bulky biker boots; now biker style has seeped into the mainstream box stores that appear on every corner. For example, the below T-Shirt was a gift from my Roomie that she picked up at our local Giant Tiger. Biker chic at GT Boutique? Ummm..... okay! 

I personally love biker style, it's so free and dangerous looking. How can you not feel like a bad ass when you have on a leather jacket and biker boots? I don't know how bad ass I feel in a SOA T-Shirt from Giant Tiger, but in the Fall I would love to pair this T-Shirt with my faux leather jacket, skinny jeans and my flat riding boots or sexy high heels. Stay tuned for that!

Photo Source: www.stuffpoint.com

www.ashfootwear.co.uk

www.ca.allsaints.com