Upcycled ring: glam

Isn't this the neatest ring? I bought it from a gal who upcycles old jewellery with various bits and bobs from jewellery castoffs. The original setting is the lavender-hued glass piece in the middle. You can't see it here, but the setting is very traditional on the side. But the creator has jazzed it up with stones (garnet on the upper right) and other wee bobs from various jewellery pieces.

You can find the creator at Eco Finery. I'm pretty sure she sells on the weekends at a new artisan market in Leslieville, Toronto. Some of her pendants are pretty cool - many are too busy for my style but I did see the neatest one with a large hoop earring as the centre piece, with pretty doo-dads hanging in the centre of the hoop.

I wish I had this talent for re-mixing old bling as I am so attracted to those jewellery-piece grab-bags at Value Village that cost a few bucks and you never know what you're getting inside! But this gal does it!

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Peonies & punch at Nathalie-Roze & Co. 5th anniversary do

Yesterday I popped into Nathalie-Roze & Co for its 5th B-day bash. Owned by Nathalie-Roze Fischer, the Leslieville, Toronto indie boutique features accessories and clothing by local artists. There's also this darling canopied and gated-in terrace where they have events and sell what I hear is the best ice-cream in town.

Nathalie-Roze and crew had the place all decked out yesterday for the festivities. These fragrant pink peonies, reposing beside N-R's famous mango and rose-water punch, remind me of growing up.

Back to the shop, a gorg green-walled eco-sanctuary of lovely hand-crafed jewellery displayed on teacup saucers and cool indie fashion labels. At the after-hours do last night, the change rooms and shop environs overflowed with hipster young women in their 30s (ok, some of us weren't 30!).

You know I'm a jewellery nut. This designer found a way to break and sand down teacups and fashion the bits into beautiful pendants.

And this one - a spoon! How brilliant!

Of course, my pics aren't doing justice to the breadth of what's in store - it was just too hard to get decent snaps of the clothing. Trust me when I say everything is recycled, upcycled or refashioned into a new stylish life.

Hair barrettes and head pieces of old ties! Do you know how many old ties I see when thrift shopping that are made of the best fabrics and patterns?

The lady of the evening wouldn't let me snap a pic of her, for shame, so I will wish a Happy Anniversary to the floating and very peony-like paper puff balls - Happy 5th!

You can find the shop at 1015 Queen St. E in Leslieville, Toronto. Look out for N-R's roster of events on her FB page or Twitter - pretty sure there's a clothing swap coming up.

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The Dress, Veronica Slater, et moi: bloggers bond

Remember this dress? Fellow blogger Veronica of Veronica Slater Presents found the same style of Pucci-esque print silk dress in a thrift shop that I also thrifted. Doesn't she look fabulous in it? I love the chunky necklace accessory.

Veronica and I met yesterday, in the flesh, for the first time, after commenting on and following eachother's respective blogs for months and months. Not surprisingly, we got along like old friends. Look, we even look like kindred spirits here, with out short dos, oversize sunglasses and bracelets!

I love this photo of us. I hope I didn't freak Veronica out too much as I found myself opening up to her about all kinds of things going on in my life. Just goes to show that if you bond in the blogosphere, chances are you'll bond in 'real' life. I find thrift bloggers are of a certain ilk, to be sure - but Veronica, just so you know, doesn't just blog about her FAB vintage purse collection.

As you'll see from her blog and website Veronica Slater Presents, Veronica blogs about living better (in three languages to boot), and all the wonderful stuff that comes along with that. She shares her ideas for gifting, giving and living better weekly on the Boreal Express, a CBC Radio-Canada chaine premiere show. Here she is sporting a spunky jumpsuit and a wonderful belt from the 1990s. Quelle style!

Veronica was kind enough to snap a pic of me wearing a Franco Mirabelli dress I thrifted for about ten bucks, made of this gorg fabric which is the Toronto designer's signature.

Here's Veronica again in her lovely thrifted dress. Veronica, I had such a great time with you. I sure hope we hang out again (and maybe do some thifting too?)!

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Look at the tag, I say

When thrifting, I follow these rules: feel the fabric, look for colour, style and tag, in that order. An item has to be in a colour and style that rocks on me, but if it's a crap fabric, I won't touch it. If all those points are met, I take a peep at the tag, and my thrifting spidey senses are normally rewarded.

I'm never disappointed when I find the gorg microfibre dresses made by Toronto label Bionic Women. New, these frocks sell for $150 and up, a price I can't afford even though I love the make.

Used, I have found them from $9.99-$19.99, screaming deals for locally made wrap dresses with simple yet exquisite styling. Here I am in warmer days in one of my faves, with a fake tan.

Here's another one, this time with white legs.

I can't find the pic of my sis in the Bionic Women dress I bought for her. But the black dress pictured above is one she bought for herself while thrifting with me.

I feel partly guilty, partly jazzed when I find well-made locally-produced clothing in the thrift shop, as I know I should be supporting these micro designers by buying new. But the fact is, I often can't afford it (ok I did buy ONE Bionic dress new, at 50 percent off. No pic though). Can anyone relate?

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Thrift blogger kudos for me n' my thrift bloggin' pals

100 percent thrifted outfit: American Eagle Outfitters blazer, MEXX top, Bongo Jeans, dollar store belt, and leather ankle booties.

Takin' a trip down memory lane with my style blogger shot from last winter. I'm feeling pretty stylish as Alex Deeds, creator of the website Associate Degree, an educational website, recently compiled a list of the Top-50-blogs-for-yard-sale-aficionados, and guess what? Yours truly was number one for the Top Style Blogs portion of the list (16th overall).

90 percent thrifted outfit: J Crew wool blazer, Teenflo miniskirt, Nine West booties, generic cotton stretch tee, and (not thrifted) vintage Nina Ricci chain with stone hearts by Toronto designer Rita Tesolin.

Well, thanks Alex for compiling the list! The cool thing: I blog with or at the very least have many of the blogs on my blogroll - the thrifting blogosphere is actually pretty small, if you can believe it!

100 percent thrifted outfit: Bionic dress by Toronto designer Marc Foreman, disco 1970s belt, white platform slingback shoes, vintage costume jewellery chain, and vintage faceted glass sunglasses.

So in honour of the posting I've posted some of my different seasonal thrift looks from the past. Enjoy, and check out the list for thrifting bloggers not featured on my blogroll - or I will, and I'll bring them back to you!

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