Styling grey hair, and a blogger meetup

Oh dear, oh dear, I'm levitating again. There's something about orange and pink that defies gravity.

That's a new top from the $5 rack at My Sister's Closet eco thrift boutique - wispy orange chiffon, probably home-made, with open cape-style sleeves that shield my arms from the sun. I adore the people who sewed this and then donated it instead of chucking it. It looks so great with these pants. I'm also wearing my lace-up sandal-shoes with the block heel.

And my neon orange vintage sunglasses; I don't often wear them. My hair also defied gravity today. Speaking of hair...

This week I made a video about how I do my tower hairstyle. Simple. Here it is. I put it in the context of a series called Secrets of the Schtars in case I want to do more. Heh.

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****Secrets of the Schtars!****

Styling Grey Hair: Tower Hair
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I wore lots and lots of makeup because I can - actually I had planned on doing a comedy video but decided at the last minute to do a hair tutorial for my sticking-straight up hair.

I don't go to salons anymore. I don't colour my hair anymore either. For now at least. Luckily, O has a talent with scissors and he cuts my hair at home.

His cuts give me two go-to styles, which I LOVE, worn down like a pixie cut, as seen above in a still from the video. And straight up with tower hair, like below.

I know that a lot of you already do standing-up hair, in a variety of colours too! It's really so much fun. But I enjoy the down look as well, demure, sophisticated, and/or androgynous. I think I have all bases of my personality covered with these two looks.

Let me know in the comments if you have questions. It's pretty straightforward.

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And a blogger meetup!

Last Friday I had the exquisite pleasure of meeting up with Vancouver Barbara, who attended the blogger meet-up in Vancouver last summer, Louisa of Damselfly's Delights and Sue of A Colourful Canvas.

We started out with lunch at the landmark Sylvia Hotel next to English Bay, as seen above, then made our way to Dressew fabric store and Atex Fabrics where we all happily added to our fabric stashes. We topped off the day with a stop at Purebread bakery.

Hats off to the one blogger, who, in her absence, still managed to be the life of the party - Suzanne Carillo. Off and on all afternoon we swore like sailors in her honour, especially in Barbara's car as we careered through Vancouver streets. Feckin' eh.

Everyone looked fantastic and was wearing something they had made or thrifted. In my case, my robe was from Shelley, Forest City Fashionista. But even more impressive was the warmth, humour, intelligence, and talent of these amazing women.

I didn't get many photos of the bunch, which speaks to how much fun we were having, but I did manage to get a few sidewalk shots for my street style blog, here.

Meeting people I've met through blogging in real life, that's the best, like meeting celebrities! I hope you get a chance to have meet-ups too.

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One more photo of my orange outfit for the road.

Also, if you tried to listen to my CBC Radio interview and couldn't, I uploaded a YouTube version of the clip to make it more accessible. It's on this post.

I'm linking up with Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday and Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb for #iwillwearwhatilike.

Have a great week!

PS: Whew. Last night I was suddenly having quirky layout issues with Blogger! But a dear woman named Meutia posted a coding fix. Wow, I am soooo thankful for these people who share their expertise.

The crotch grab, and a little movie with Shelley!

"Dang, woman, those saggy-butt, hangy-diaper pants are making me hot!" I swear, can't they come up with something more original than that? Sooo predictable. One thing is for sure: these hot-lovin' hip huggers are certifiably waddle-icious.

I went with the grey wall backdrop for these photos because someone had set up camp over at the blue wall.

The pants were a size too small but such a steal at the consignment shop. Buy? Walk away? Buy? Walk away? I could zip them up, barely, and achieve locomotion like the Tin Man before the lube job, but that ruined the whole saggy I-don't-give-a-feck effect. There was also no way I'd be able to de-grow into them. In the end, I decided they were worth a session of pro-wrestling with my sewing machine.

And ta-dah! Only a few hours and profanities later (have you ever tried to push in a straight pin from the wrong end?) I ended up with these. I added roominess by sewing wide racing stripes down the sides because that's how I roll, roll, not racing, being the operative word - unless I'm grabbing for the last chocolate croissant. I like the orange bits and am pleased with the results. Waddle on! I didn't exp.....Uh oh....

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STOP EVERYTHING. BREAKING NEWS!!!

Video Alert, 24 sec. Watch now.

Oof: Shelley & Mel Meet

Shelley, aka Forest City Fashionista, came to Vancouver recently. 
We had a blast. Choreography by Shelley.

Hahaha!!

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See? My blog is almost like real TV with little commercial breaks. If this were a real emergency you would have been instructed to go eat chips - it's all over anyway. Now back to the outfit. Take it away, Mel!

The pants are "Marni for H&M," although with gold lurex and shiny purple I don't care what brand they are. What more could you want of any pant, besides a drop crotch and hipslung hug? Oh, they're lined too.

I'll link these up to Patti at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine at #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb, and Anne at 52 Pick-me-up: Black and White/Destiny at SpyGirl.

Of course I'm grabbing my crotch like all the best people do. Okay, like Madonna does, except in Toronto they threatened to arrest her for it. So this is the safe and friendly two-handed, off-side Canadian Crotch Grab, not quite committing to the full grab because 1) I am a polite Canadian, and; 2) as a mere mortal non-superstar I might get arrested. So much drama/one pair of weird pants - just the way I like it.

The top with the huge drapy sleeves is vintage, the neon orange ruffled blouse was thrifted, and the geta-style shoes were retail at big discount. Now enough of my outfit.

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Look - it's more Shelley, Forest City Fashionista!! 

In my previous post you saw that she came to Vancouver at the end of May and we played hard! The photo above is Shelley at Bacchus Lounge at the Wedgewood Hotel where we had cocktails (well, I had coffee working up to the hard stuff) and fries during our night of cocktail hopping at luxury hotels - but only because it was raining. (Yeeeah, right.) I've seen Goldie Hawn here in the past. The piano man, directly to the left of Shelley's elbow, was playing all our faves.

On Shelley's final day in the city, we had brunch with Sue, A Colourful Canvas, and Louisa, Damselfly's Delights at Acme Cafe.

Shelley and Sue

There were dogs sitting at the next table, seriously, men wearing dog headgear, and one had a tail. They were good dogs; they didn't howl or bark or self-groom or try to hump our legs, thank goodness. Clearly these men took my previous posts to heart - to live life like a dog. [Edit: Shelley corrected me - they are actually puppies.] 

Louisa above. She spun, dyed, wove, knitted, and sewed every single piece of clothing she was wearing. I can't believe the talent! She grows plants for dye in her garden. The plants in my garden usually just die. Oh wait, I don't have a garden. Her dress was a beautiful shade of soft mint green.

The back of Shelley's robe, which I gave her, and Sue's coat, which she sewed. Sue also designed that amazing applique. WOW!  

And I did a post about the fancy party that Shelley and I attended on Friday, May 27, "Emma Dunlavey CURVE Fine Art Photography Exhibit and VIP Shopping Event" where we did some serious hobnobbing among Dior, Prada, and Moschino at Leone, thanks to an invitation by event impresario Vernard Goud. The writeup is HERE, on my street style blog.

I have so many photos from Shelley's visit, and I'm sure you'll see more of them over at Shelley's blog and Instagram. Louisa has also put up a post on our brunch, HERE.

I know I haven't covered everything, but that's all I can manage at the moment. I miss farking with Shelley!! 

Shelley at the big do. Everyone at the party loved Shelley! Of course.

Tired now. Must go eat chips even though it isn't an emergency, well, yeah, it kind of is.
I wish I had a hat for Judith's Hat Attack! Dang! I'm just trying to stay on top of everything. Easier said than done.

Hope you have a great week, you guys!!

[Edit: Shelley's post on our get-together is HERE.]