House of Illusions

January 13, 2017April 12, 2018

Floral Prints in the Winter

Jacket (Blank NYC), Dress (Free People), Bag (Steven), Boots (BP) c/o Nordstrom. Sunnies, Gucci. Ring, Samantha Wills.

One of the most rewarding things I’ve gotten out of blogging is how much it has forced me to push boundaries outside of my comfort zone. Especially when it comes to colours and bold prints. While I never had issues with over-the-top style pieces, I did tend to live in a monochromatic colour scheme mainly revolving around black. For years, if you’d asked me what my favourite colour was, I’d tell you black. But apparently black isn’t even a real colour.

Truth is, I never realized just how much black I was wearing until after I started blogging. Don’t get me wrong, I owned colour pieces and always intended on wearing them…but it just never happened. Catch me in floral print? Uh…not since the 4th grade! However, looking back on it now I realize this was probably because I had been such a tomboy in my early teenage years. Even as I grew out of my tomboy phase I still avoided anything girly like the plague. I suppose that even after I embraced my feminine side subconsciously I was still avoiding warm colours and prints out of habit.

Be that as it may, I was happy to have made this discovery because boy had I ever been missing out on the fun part of fashion! Not only have I embraced florals and other prints, but I find myself pushing new boundaries by wearing them even in the wintertime. Case in point this beautiful tunic from Free People that I’m sure you’ve seen me wear before. The deep burgundy floral print makes for a great fall/winter dress when layered over leggings, trousers, jeans, OTK boots. Or even a maxi skirt (like here). I need not mention that in the summertime this tunic becomes its own standalone minidress. Winter just became a lot more fun.

What are your favourite colours or prints for winter?

January 6, 2017April 12, 2018

Winter Layering

Top, Nasty Gal. Jacket (Blank NYC), Skirt (Halogen) c/o Nordstrom. Boots, Ralph Lauren. Scarf c/o Pinkstix. Bag, Rebecca Minkoff.

Staying fashionable in the winter months can be a daunting challenge at times. Especially if you live somewhere that tends to get buried in snow while reaching ridiculously stupid freezing temperatures. While the preference is to hibernate during the winter months unfortunately that is not always feasible. So I’ve opted for a new strategy – layering. Layering clothing items provides not only warmth, but also gives quite a bit of versatility when it comes to styling. It’s a perfect opportunity to combine different fabrics and textures, which is exactly what I did here.

For the base layer I opted for knits; long sleeve top and fitted maxi skirt, worn with a biker jacket and fun printed scarf. For colder temperatures one could easily layer on a maxi cardigan or long coat. Another benefit of layering is the ability to add or remove articles of clothing as required. There is nothing worse than being stuck in one heavy piece in the event you need to transition between interior spaces that have different temperatures (for instance the office I work where one room can be overly hot while other areas are freezing). Stay warm my friends!

And most importantly – Happy Friday!

January 1, 2017April 12, 2018

2016 Reflections

I’ll start this post by wishing you all a wonderful and Happy 2017! Secondly, I must apologize for being MIA for the past couple of weeks. The weeks leading up to the holidays were a bit chaotic to the point where I was more behind than ever. The day job was totally kicking my ass, and then to make matters worse I spontaneously decided to migrate from Blogger to WordPress (yes, I was still on Blogger!). This task had been on my to-do list for over a year at least and I decided last minute (on the 26th) to make the switch to start 2017 off the right way.

And so here we are, a brand new year ahead of us. As well, a time for reflections on the past year in an effort to identify areas where opportunity to improve may exist. 2016 surpassed any expectations I had as a blogger. I was fortunate enough to meet some fellow bloggers from Toronto, attend fun events, and I had the opportunity to work with some beloved brands that I could’ve only dreamed of a year ago – I’m very much looking forward to 2017 and the journey that lies ahead.

Reflections of 2016

One of the biggest struggles that I faced throughout last year was how to be myself online. Seems simple enough, but when you have to fully put yourself out there and expose yourself to criticism we tend to hide behind what’s safe. When I first started blogging, I avoided all social media like the plague. And even went out of my way to ensure that no one would find me locally. Looking back on that now, it seems rather silly and I realize that was probably one of the biggest blogger mistakes I could have made. But I cannot have regrets as I was being true to myself at the time.

Although as time progressed and I became more comfortable with blogging and social media I made it a point to keep as much of my personal life out of the blog. But in an attempt to keep it ‘clean’ and ‘professional’ I quickly realized that I was losing myself and creating the same parameters that keep me confined at my day job. Strangely enough, I had even drafted a blog post about this same topic previously as it had been causing me a bit of anguish, but never published it because of aforementioned reasons!

Ultimately, after many deep discussions with my Love, the most beautiful thing occurred to me the other day. I have learned and come to accept that we are all individuals beautiful in our own unique ways and we each have our own journey. Other people’s journeys are not always meant for us, we are meant to experience things in our own special way. And most importantly, there is nothing wrong with that! Selling out and pretending to be someone I’m not in the hopes of scoring more attention or even to gain opportunities has never been my thing. But I can definitely learn how to be more comfortable in my own skin and have confidence when being transparent with my life.

Before I conclude this post, I did want to thank each and every one of you that has been a part of this journey with me! Thank you so much for being a part of my blog, social, and life! So here’s to 2017 and a New Year of being yourself, loving who you are, and not being afraid to share that with the world!

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