Inspiration Monday: Sarah Jessica Parker

Happy President's Day and it's almost the end of Monday and we have enjoyed our long weekend very much. We went up skiing again even though the weather was very warm, the snow was melting and it was turning into mush. I crashed into a father and his very young toddler - they were standing in the middle of a wide space - and I had to run into them! Fortunately, the only one who suffered any form of pain was me. I cannot wait till I start skiing on the harder slopes, because I find that people congregate in groups to chat or have their lessons. It is terrifying because I am not good at turning yet so I pray every time I go down so I do not hit anyone. 

On to Inspiration Monday - we have Sarah Jessica Parker as an inspiration today. I love SJP and she is so daring with her colours and style; I would love to morph more into the way she dresses one day!

I love everything about this - her use of colours. I never would have thought of pairing two colours from the same family but it works very effectively. The red bag adds a nice contrast to the blue and she wears a fairly neutral pair of shoes.

I have a blue dress in this shade but I really lack sweaters or cardigans! (Must thrift for more! Any excuse will do!) So I looked at what I had in my closet and I do have a pink dress which I bought off Etsy and never worn before, because the weather has been too cold.

 

I paired it with a red sweater, seeing that pink was from the same family of colours, and this was probably the only red sweater I had, out of my 4 or 5 sweaters I own. It is made of possum hair, yes, you heard me right! I bought this from Australia when I was back two summers ago. 

It was too cold for me to go out without any sort of leggings or stockings - but hey, it's all in the name of blogging that I do this. :)

If you know me well enough, you would probably bolted upright on your chair very because I am not a girly sort of girl - so this dress is really not something I would normally wear. I was so taken with the softness of it when I saw it on Pinterest one day and spent days, weeks thinking about it. It was shipped from Bangkok so there was no way of knowing if it would even fit me, as the sizes are different there. I am happy to say that it did.

Hair clip with flowers, bought for RM3 in Malaysia (less than US$1)

 I found these shoes at TJ Maxx this week for $29. I left the size tags on because at first I was unsure if I would return them. They are a keeper!

Gold clutch: Bought through Ideeli for $29

Hope every one of you have a good week ahead. Linking up with Inspiration Monday over at Two Birds.

Inspiration Monday: Red

It has been a while since I blogged because I had some renovations done at my house. I was reluctant to dress up, set up a tripod and take a photo in front of so many workers because I felt a bit embarrassed.

We are taking a break and in between phases of renovating the house I saw this picture on Two Birds - and I thought, "Neat! I have most of the pieces!"

It has been a warm winter but this weekend, it finally felt like winter. Coupled with wind chills, temperatures dipped down to 19 deg F or -15 C. We had a chance to go skiing and I took my second class. I am happy to report that I think I have found my skiing legs and it was so fun. I only fell once!

Today was no different in temperatures and this is why I took indoor photos.

 

My jacket is very old, I have had it since my first year at university. it has seen better days and it is a tad too big for me. It will soon be donated to the thrift store.

The handbag was a Goodwill find for $7 and it was brand new with tags still attached.

Jcrew white shirt (thrifted) $7

Scarf, $17 from a consignment store. (I need to learn new ways to tie a scarf)

Suede Shoes: Mattisse, a Black Friday purchase for $49.00

Linking up here with Two Birds.

Working On James Rizzi

I volunteer at my boys' school, teaching what little I know about Art. Actually, that would be nothing I know about art but they just want parents to come in during school hours to give children some sort of enrichment. I stuck my hand up for both my boys' classes and it has been an amazing learning curve because I have to research artists who are new to me and I learn so much about them.

Recently, I found out about James Rizzi, who sadly passed away in 26 Dec 2011. His work is so easy for children to relate to and he is well known for his "buildings with faces".

I gained a lot of ideas from this wonderful lady's blog and had an idea to put together all the children's work onto a piece of canvas, and to auction it off during the school's annual Silent Auction Night to raise funds for the school.

Here is a test run of what my boys and I did (I wanted to see how it would work on canvas, it seems to be fine) Some of the buildings were cut out from watercolour boards and some were cut out from foam core.  Foam core is difficult to work with. Cutting them needs a very sharp knife and a metal ruler.  My oldest, snuck in a Paul Klee inspired bus, can you see it? James Rizzi's work was inspired by the same artist too.

So excited, can't wait to post pictures up once everything is completed!

Copycat Friday: Leather and Red

Tonight, thousands of families across the world get together for a reunion dinner. Basically, it is the last dinner of the year for the Chinese and the sons of families have to return to their parents' homes (daughters go with their husbands' families) to feast. This is probably the most important meal of the year for families and I am sad that I cannot be with mine back in Malaysia.

In the spirit of ushering the Year of The Dragon, which falls on Jan 23, I thought I would wear some red.

I was inspired by this image on Pinterest:

We got up this morning with the first "real" snowfall for this season. Unfortunately, that meant the Chinese New Year Parade we were going to was cancelled. It was freezing outside and my fingers were curled into my sleeve to keep warm. (I did not realise this until afterwards)

I found this DKNY leather jacket (in the right size, yay!) in a consignment store for $56.

I love that it is very fitted around my waist, it has got to be one of my favourite leather pieces I own.

 

Here is my lovely husband, getting ready to go outside to take my picture. It is about 28 degrees F outside (minus 1 C) so you can see how warm he is staying while I am not layered enough! :)

Happy weekend all, hope you stay warm and cosy!

Jeans: From a flash sale site, purchased after Thanksgiving 
Top: Route 66 from KMart
Shoes: Etienne Aigner
Bag: Coach

Linking up to the fun blog, Frills For Thrills!

Fun In The Snow

My husband and I took my two boys out of school yesterday to go up to Pennsylvania to ski for a day. They have never been skiing before so this was met with a lot of excitement. Especially skipping school for a day,  anything was exciting compared to going to school, right?

I had gone skiing once before, in Australia, where I went to this huge mountain area called Falls Creek. I was a newbie - first time experiencing snow, I had jeans on, which quickly became wet but that did not stop me. I hired some ski gear, went up the chair lift to the top and didn't notice the signage. Took a wrong turn and I was going down such a steep incline, then I was faced with a cliff. I flew off the cliff and down this ravine, fortunately, there was lots of snow but I could not get back onto my skis again, I kept sliding down. It was so frustrating and upsetting I had to take my skis off and struggle back up again. I was alone, wet, very cold and I vowed that I would never ski again! It was later that I learned that I went down the black diamond, which is for advanced skiers, whoops.

Fortunately, no one had that sort of experience yesterday and we all took lessons. My 10 year old and hubby took snowboarding lessons while my 8 year old and I took ski lessons.

I found out that people make their own snow here! I have heard of companies doing that, but never in such a large scale that it covers mountains! My husband told me that they spent $20 million on the snow making equipment and they pump water from their dams to turn it into snow.  Wow!

When we arrived, this was what we were greeted with. You can see that there are two huge blowers that make the snow. They were all over the mountain. That pod like building is the ski lift up the beginner's slope.

Cameron trying his ski legs for the first time. He surprised all of us by taking to it like a duck to water. We were so amazed because if you know Cameron he has gross motor issues, when he was younger he used to see an occupational therapist to address these issues. He LOVED it so much and was flying down the slopes! I had my mouth halfway open most of the time, I was so impressed!

As for James, I have a video of him snowboarding but somehow only the end bit where he falls over can be loaded on Youtube. He was a bit of a perfectionist, wanting to get it right the first time, so there were tears of frustration and he wanted to quit halfway. I could understand it but I made him go back up again. I am a tough mum, I don't allow my children to quit unless they have tried at least three times. I live by this Japanese mantra, "You fall down seven times and you get up eight times." I was so proud of him at the end when he was snowboarding with better ease.

At the end, we signed up for the whole season so we will be going back there on a weekly basis!

Antique Shopping in Maryland

My husband has every two Fridays off and we have been looking for a dining table since last October. We ordered and returned tables from various shops because when buying online, you don't really get a sense of the table, how it would look in your dining room. Fortunately for me, in the USA, everything can be returned at a very small fee.

Yesterday we drove up to Hagerstown and ended up in this huge antique warehouse. Not only that, there was another one next to it, equally as huge! The two stores were so amazing, we found our dining table but we also picked up three original artwork.

Here are some images from my trip.

I love these three paintings, just something about the colours that speak to me. I also like the nude form, there is something very mid-century about it. We bought all three of them for just a touch under $150.

 

Lovely leather butterfly x -wing chair $385

 

 I loved the lines of this settee $685. The slim legs (I love all furniture with dainty legs) and the toile fabric, ooh lovely! It was in perfect condition but I didn't know where it would fit in the scheme of things for our house.

This dresser is one of my favourites. It does not go with the style of my house but there is a name for this type of detailing.  This furniture is quite rare and usually quite expensive. It was no surprise it was $1450, which is still a great price. If I could have made it work in my house, I would have bought it as it is in such good condition.

A look up close. It is not just painting on it, but it seems to be engraved and painted over. 

Thonet chairs, love them but not sure if the back is comfortable for prolonged sitting periods.

 

I spotted this wheat sheaf table. I am looking for something like this for my entryway but I wanted it to be more of a butler's table height. This was more of a coffee table height. I would paint the base gold, like the pictures below. This was only $195. 

This is a pair in excellent condition, picture from 1stdibs.com for what it will look like touched up, and the seller is L'Enfant from DC. $1,100 for the pair. Beautiful.

I saw a pair of Victorian boots, and I was mildly interested in them because last week, I was playing dress up and pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. These boots would have been so appropriate for that moment. Actually, I bought two vintage skirts and I don't know how to wear them - I love the length and can't bear to cut them!

So here is a picture of me trying to style one of the skirts, hair and all. I know...my husband and kids sometimes take out the popcorn, sit back and just watch me take off when I am in one of my creative moods. This is actually my back yard and I was collecting firewood. The farm behind me is real, and we have cows walking up and down everyday. I think the shoes above would have been great. Not quite Laura Ingalls but I had to make do with what was in my closet. You would not think that it was freezing outside, it was around 0 deg C (31 deg F) that day, hence the pained expression.

I love antique shopping, you can glean so much history from the things that people throw out of their houses.

Copycat: Dots On Dots

I came across Frills For Thrills' blog and decided to take part in her CopyCats challenge. One learns so much by copying others, just like art, students are encouraged to copy the works of masters.

I am a big big fan of Atlantic Pacific's blog and love how she is so daring with pattern, colour and I love how stylish she is. When I saw her wearing this combination I bought everything except the shoes because they were sold out. However, my favourite piece has got to be the Madewell sweater. I had never heard of them, being new in the USA, but I ended up buying a few other items on that site because it happened to be after Thanksgiving sales. The sweater was so popular that it sold out within days, I was keeping track of it and had to call around stores in DC to find out if they still had it. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of one.

My outfit:

There are many things I do not own such as sunglasses and those two bracelets are the only accessories I own at this stage. Bree from Atlantic Pacific loves over accessorizing with chunky jewellery, a look which I also adore. The sunglasses are my husbands and they are his sports ones.  My shoes are making a re-appearance since I blogged about them previously. They are the only strappy heels I own.  Handbag is from Frye.

Thank you for letting me take part, Thrills and Frills!  Linking up here: