Agent Bagsy to the rescue!!

Hello! Hello! I'm wearing red!

I have been a busy little Canadian beaver this past week, making videos mostly. Here's one of them. If you've seen it already on Instagram, just move along. Or watch it again! Hahaha! The music is The New Order by Aaron Kenny. 

Yes, we need more secret agents over 55, or even over 40. I'm happy to oblige, especially armed with a vintage handbag! There are no shots of me actually thwarting the "bad guys," but that's how Agent Bagsy rolls. I want to team up with Mr. Bean so we could be Bagsy Bean or Bean Bagsy.

It was a challenge filming this solo, acting all weirdly downtown and in the alley with my tripod, and filming at the coffee shop. Luckily, I found a spot to myself.

If there was whispering - stay away from her, she's a bit odd, isn't she - at least I didn't hear it. I had to order that expensive juice to lay claim to the location. It was a good investment. I got the footage.

And this is a photo shoot I did this past week as well. It's the outfit I wore to the Nordstrom campaign launch party just shy of a year ago. I had such fun that night, made especially memorable with my friends Suzanne, Patti, and Shelley who came to help celebrate. I wrote about it HERE.

I swapped out the fashion glasses I got from Nordstrom, which had pale pink lenses, with these sunglasses.

I was getting a Marilyn Monroe vibe, shots of her with her hair blowing at the beach. Never mind that MM's hair was platinum blonde and my hair is getting white on its own, or that she was voluptuous and could sing, act, dance, and pose to make us weak at the knees. My knees are just getting weak. Heh. But I can still dream - that never gets old. That's what Hollywood is all about, dreaming. Agent Bagsy agrees.

Shelley gave me that cotton robe. It fluttered wonderfully in the breeze. And it was cool-ish outside.

That next shot actually feels '60s. It's the sunglasses.

Next, putting myself into real perspective. I'm just a dot in relation to this humongous bridge support. I guess that statement would be more profound if that were a galaxy behind me and not just a bunch of concrete. Of course I am small compared to a bridge support. 

That's better. Although I had to boost my size for you to see me at all.

Galaxy photo by Raphael Nogueira on Unsplash

That's all from me this week. I'm going to link up to Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style and Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb. Maybe see you there!!

Thanks for visiting! Dang, I'm out of cheese nippies. I knew I should have got more. But I still have some gherkins and Cheez Whiz light cheese spread and a couple of cartons of fine wine.

New parts in Faux France

I woke up to discover that the part in my hair had changed sides during the night. How did this happen? What mysterious forces are at play?

Actually, I like my part on this new side - it's like a whole new Mel. Hooray! Not that I disliked the old one, but it's too bad that I can't wake up with a new firm neck. Maybe if I slept with my feet over my head that would work because I've tried every other position with failure. Sigh. I don't know how I managed this hair trick.

I am wondering if this sneaky hair shift is due to the movement of the North Pole - yes, it's a thing. Seriously, it's moving, which is totally off-putting. I can't count on the north being north? Canada has always promoted itself as True North, so now we are Off-kilter North? Faux North? Fact are not facts anymore?!! Nothing new there, I guess. Sigh.

Now, obviously, I have to check my hair whorl to see if it has also switched direction. Given that water swirls down the drain counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Northern, it would be logical that hair whorls everywhere are also shifting madly with the movement of the Poles in a whorly-whirly-gig event.

My whorl goes clockwise - or is it counterclockwise? Gaaa, I've forgotten! Why don't we have bracelets with this vital information? Now I'll have to go digging through old photos to check, but I can't do that because I'll lose my appetite and it's almost time for nibblies.

Or maybe my part reversed because of all those earthquakes on the West Coast and the geographical shifting that happened. Sherry, Petite Over 40, of Seattle has said she's inching toward Vancouver. Whoa, free transportation! Again, hooray: reliable and inexpensive transport is vital for a thriving economy, I always say. And it will be great having Sherry as a neighbour for when I need to borrow baking supplies. ??!!

(Note to self: Check out border real estate to cash in on this phenomenon; not sure how shrinking land mass will work to my benefit yet though.)

I took these photos in Faux France, where everyone is attractive and happy and stylish and I speak fluent French, yet with a touch of an English accent to make me exotic and alluring - although I'm not sure it works that way. Speaking English with a French accent sounds so awesome to my ear but the other way...?

I stay at the Hotel George X (double better than the George V), where everything is fun and free. This morning, for example, I had breakfast with Javier Bardem and Colin Firth. Wow! Croissants with butter and blueberry jam, and avocados on the side, and wine of course. And there were loads and loads of flowers on the table, so many I couldn't even be sure if that was Javier and Colin over there; I just took an educated guess. I'm clever like that. Not a genius though, I admit.

Some people might mistake this location for Vancouver Art Gallery, the steps to nowhere because the doors at the top are permanently sealed. It is also malodorous there. I ask you: Why would I go there when I can skip through the streets of Faux France?

No matter what, the reality is the wind in my hair and this faboo outfit, all old, thrifted, energizing - man shoes, black jeans, an oversized top. The amazing neckpiece is from Anja, Curly Traveller, from a few years back. I love it!!

And that, my friends, is my day. I'll be hopping on the Concorde (the good kind that exists and doesn't malfunction) for New York in a few hours. Maybe we can have lunch at the Met? Wear a gown. Toodle-loo. Heh.

Hope you're all having a stellar time being your fabulous selves.

I'll link up to Patti and Catherine at Not Dead Yet Style and Not Dressed as Lamb for Visible Monday and #iwillwearwhatilike.  Yup.

We're not posing - we're LIVING!

Or how about, if a style blogger doesn't take a camera on a meetup with friends, does she still exist? Of course the answer to both would be a resounding YES! Our outfits are just the coating for the goodness within; in fact, sometimes a camera just gets in the frickin' way if it's remembered at all. 

But for those other times, when one has an impish beauty itch, a whack-ton of makeup and a tripod, a remote control, and a conspirator, well, see exhibits AAA below. These are from Shelley's visit to Vancouver in June, which I posted about here. Shelley posted here and here.

This wall in a nearby alley was perfect: mossy, concrete, grey, and black. There also wasn't too much garbage or smell, which is a critical make-or-break location factor, especially with guests. The micro-distillery gin joint on the corner, closed at the time, still provided great mental ambiance. 

Marching with fortitude into position.

There was nobody around, unless you count the ring of residential highrises. The few people who strolled by probably didn't notice us, and there were a couple of cars, but, pffft, when you're professionals, you don't even bat an eye unless it's on cue if ya knows what's good for ya.

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ME: CUUUUT!!! (I stamp my platform-shod foot) DO IT AGAIN, SHELLEY! How many times do I have to tell you!? The look I'm going for is you're dangling your feet in the pool and there is a giant guppy attached to your toe. Now ACTION!

SHELLEY: Is he nibbling or biting?

ME: He's a mutant cross between a guppy and a piranha. Doh!

SHELLEY: Oh, okay. Is it a salt-water pool or fresh water?

ME: Ummm, salt water. Now ACTION!!

We managed to get a few serious shots (below, not above), mainly at the beginning, before the cling of adulthood had blown off. Shelley wore her floaty silk dress with a watercolour motif and I wore my vintage satin pearl pink palazzo pants with a floaty orange/coral top. 

Strenuous posing is hard fun, so of course we demanded ice cream (gelato) afterwards. Coming right up at an independent coffee shop on the other corner. Hey, if the distillery and the cafe joined forces, they could serve gin floats! Or not.

The sun was shining and we sat outdoors while we planned an air-conditioned afternoon watching zombies (Jarmusch - The Dead Don't Die).

The breeze couldn't have been better even if we had rented it. Did you notice that I put light blue in my hair? And the metal earrings weighed a ton; every time I hopped or skipped, like above, OW! But it was for ahhhrt.

I am startled sometimes when going through my photos, especially the more hilarious ones, that most women in their mid-50s, or any age I suppose, do not engage in this sort of thing. Of course, for me it's just who I am. And Shelley too and my other friends when they're in town. Shelley wrote about this in her post. 

I suppose I never unlearned how to play, although its expression has gone underground at various times in my life. I'm grateful now that I can still tap into this powerful resource as a liberating force and share it at every opportunity. It definitely puts a rose tint on what might otherwise be a bleak outlook.

I also managed during that week to slip in a night at the theatre, Bard on the Beach, to see The Taming of the Shrew, as a guest of Mara Gottler, pictured below. She is a co-founder of the company, now in its 30th season, and a celebrated designer who designed all the costumes for this show.

How I laughed! - a rollicking (perfect word here) good time. The production had a western theme and featured a very strong-minded Kate (the shrew) with a few well-placed tweaks. And if Instagram were a thing in the Wild West, Bianca, Kate's twittery sister, would definitely have been a selfie star!

The show runs until mid-September. Check HERE. (not sponsored)

I wore my prairie dress for the western theme, and Mara was a chic gunslinger.

The next photo is called Traces - what stays behind. I walk by that alley now and smile remembering our photo session.

And finally, an outfit featuring a blazer spied for me at Turnabout Luxury Resale Granville store by Sheila when she joined me and Shelley for a day (see previous post here and Sheila's post here). Navy, velvety, and with split sleeves. Oh my! Worn with my Marni for H&M drop-crotch purple/gold lurex pants, which I farked with side stripes. Sunglasses from an outing with Suzanne.

And that's all. I loved the process of doing this photo session with Shelley, and in the end, I'm glad to have these cool photos as visual reminders of our time spent together, the reflections cast in digital form. As with most of my creative pursuits, the process is paramount.

I hope you have all found avenues of liberation in your lives, even for micro-moments. Who doesn't need little escapes? Which reminds me, I must get to the woods - with my camera. Hahaha!! I'm a style blogger and I need to record the process!

Thanks for dropping by. xo

I'm linking up with Patti at Visible Monday over at Not Dead Yet Style and later with Catherine at #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb. See you there maybe?