Day four of thirty

Unsurprisingly "the frock that Mondo likes" is one of my choices for the thirty day challenge.  I love this dress to pieces and I'm so glad I was adventurous enough to buy it almost four years ago.  I like bold prints and  I should definitely hunt for a few more bold items.

I accidentally mixed in a few eras today with my '60s dress and '50s inspired hair.  Perhaps I'm having a personal fashion epiphany, realising how fun it is to get dressed in the morning.  Dress-up for grown-ups!

Dress: H&M  Shoes: Aldo  Tights: Gap  Bracelet: Thrifted

Days two and three

Day Two (May 12th):

Much to my surprise I was incredibly grumpy again and had the patience of a cat trying to catch a laser pointer's dot.  No amount of tea was helping, so I put on my most cheery cardigan hoping that its fun colour would rub off on me.  I actually believe it helped because by the time I was ready to head off for zumba I was in a much better mood.  I love red and liking this colour could definitely be credited in part to my Mum because one of my childhood books was called "Red is Best".

I am hoping by including this cardigan in the challenge I can finally make peace with it.  It may have a fantastic colour, but I rarely wear it.  I have found its shape difficult to work with, and I sometimes feel that it looks stuffy and old.  Hopefully by actively attempting to work in into different outfits and seeing visual proof of how it looks I will change my mind.

Cardigan: Jacob  Shirt: H&M  Jeans: Zellers  Shoes:  Target

Day Three (May 13th):

Finally a non-grumpy Zsanica!  I was very pleased to wake up on the right side of bed yesterday morning and be ready to tackle the day.  It was a bit overcast and that generally means cooler air is about, so I popped on jeans and long-sleeves.  This cardigan is actually my favourite piece of clothing, but it wasn't always that way.  It took me a years (not kidding) to figure out how to wear it.  You would think that with all of my years in Fine Art I would know how to apply colour theory to clothing, yet it never crossed my mind to apply it that way!  It wasn't until this spring that my mind finally put the two together.  So this cardigan feels like a breakthrough for me and I feel awesome when I wear it.  (I'm also super glad I didn't toss this necklace back in August.)

Cardigan: H&M  Shirt: Ann Taylor Loft  Jeans: Zeller  Shoes: Target  Necklace: Le Château

Day one of thirty

I have wanted to try something for a while and it has to do with clothing (surprise, surprise, I like clothing).  If you follow any "fashion/style bloggers" it's pretty hard to miss the 30 for 30 outfit challenge started by Kendi and I've admired the creativity behind it.  The challenge reminds me a lot of an abstract drawing class I took in my second year of Fine Arts.  My professor worked very hard to make us realise that we box ourselves in.  We set up parameters of what we think something should be and then end up stuck in a rut because we can't see what it could be.  I'm growing to realise that the theories and practices in fine art can be quite applicable to clothing.  I've boxed myself in with my wardrobe and failed to see the promise it has.  How did I survive with such a boring view on fashion?!  Thank goodness that's changing.

I'm starting my personal challenge mid-month because I want it to end on my birthday.  This was something I had planned for a while, but it caught me by surprise.  I realised last night as I was falling asleep that my birthday would be 30 days away today!  Thus I'm starting my challenge a little less organized than anticipated.  While I have most of my items on hand, I still need to fill in wardrobe gaps left by my weight loss.  Shopping restrictions would be illogical at this time!  I'm sure I will ramble more about this as the thirty days progress.
Onward to day one:

Sweater: Thrifted  Skirt: Jacob  Tights: Gap  Shoes: Aldo

The second of May

It's so hard to get my thoughts into writing sometimes without feeling like I come off as pretentious.  Silly thing to be afraid of, but I am aware that I can be socially awkward in writing.  Geesh, on that line of thinking I can be awkward in real life too!  It does leave me wondering how to properly express my feelings about today though as I do not wish to sound like an angsty aspiring high school poet (no offence to all those good high school poets out there, that just wasn't me and there's proof of that at my parents' house).

So why is today important?  Well it is election day here and that is a very important thing, but that's just a coincidence.  Years ago I was having the best spring of my life in Ottawa.  It was the year that I had lost weight and I felt free.  It was a light, airy, excited feeling that made me want to bounce off of walls and explore the world!  Placebo (a band that I enjoy) had released a new album that year which happened to have a song on it that mentioned the second of May and it has stuck with me all these years.  Whenever I hear that song it brings me right back that spring.  Every year since then I listen to it on May second, but this is the first year since that time that I feel the same way.  That excited feeling is back.

Onward with what I wore today!

Dress: Thrifted (and hemmed by me)  Camisole: Zellers

Cardigan: H+M  Shoes: Target

As you can see I dressed up for voting!  It was a gorgeous day out and I'm so happy that I was able to wear this dress around town finally.  I took a whopping eight inches off of the length and I think it looks fantastic.  I have some fondness of showing off my legs now.

I also just wanted to give a little shout-out to Pam R. and say congratulations!  That's awesome work with the weight loss and it's great to see another former non-runner taking up running.  I would love to hear how your C25K goes!

Workout fun: victory!

SparkPeople's Rookie Running Plan: Week 6, Day 1

Today was a complete victory to me.  I jogged for a total of twenty-four minutes!  Keep in mind this is yet again the most amount of time I have jogged in my entire life.  I may be as slow as a turtle (it's really true, I. keeps up to me by walking), but I love that I'm doing this.

I had been a bit concerned when I left the apartment as to how I would handle this week's changes.  My walking time was decreased to one minute from two previously, and two more intervals were added.  Six minutes of extra jogging seemed daunting and I'll admit I was a bit nervous.  But everything was going to planned until my second set, that's when I had an electronics malfunction.  My timer decided not to let me know when my three minutes of jogging was up so I ended up doing six minutes in one go.  Talk about confidence boost!  I had no idea I could do that and I felt awesome.  For the first time since I started this running plan I know that I will be able to run those five kilometres!

I definitely look a bit crazed in that photo, but it my defence this was my last interval of jogging and I was so proud of myself.

The rest of the day was quite amusing.  My workout was actually the beginning of a shopping excursion that I. and I had planned.  The idea was to walk/jog and after that catch a bus to the mall.  But we missed the bus by about 30 seconds...and it was a 30 minute wait for the next one.  We decided to walk instead.  It was a gorgeous day after all and it seemed like something to enjoy.  This is where the slight issue occurred; we were unaware that a nature reserve and a highway were in our way.  So after what looked like a "Family Circus" route and a few extra kilometres, we made it to the mall.  Final thoughts on the day:  I'm glad to be home with a cup of tea and I'm glad that my butt muscles aren't so angry any more.

Well I hope everyone else is having an excellent weekend too!  If you want to come say hello to me on SparkPeople (or maybe even add me as a friend) I'm known as ZsanicaZsanica.