de facto redhead

I went into the Burlington Salvation Army yesterday, and even though I was dropping some things off, I wasn’t going to leave without at least a glance at the dishes and clothes! The dishes shelves turned up nary a treasure, and after trying on two blazers, a pair of satin genie-type pants, and a black leather skirt (all too big), my “juuuuuuust right” moment arrived in the form of this striped velour-type-fabric short-sleeved sweater that is truly retro. Even the tag looks old – the brand is Mad Jacks, which, unfortunately, doesn’t translate into anything relevant on Google. I admit I hesitated – was it TOO seventies? – but then I smartened up and for a whopping $2.99, my day was made.

(Here lies the third showcase of Picasa’s new effects – this one is called Cinemascope.)

The Cinemascope effect chooses a portion of a photo and creates a black frame around it (a “Letterbox”), which I assume is meant to mimic film. The description of the effect is “add a little movie magic.” OK!

You can turn off the Letterbox feature to get the full picture. Voila!

I knew this top would pair with no other but my high-waisted, bell-bottomed jeans. My summer cut-offs are also calling out “velour, velour; pick me, pick me!”

Who owned this shirt before  me? This question was answered for me today by a co-worker: a grandma.

Necklace and bracelet, vintage; earrings, Le Chateau; jeans, Urban Outfitters; shoes, Aldo; shirt, Mad Jacks via Salvation Army.

I have been struggling to keep up with my Photo a Day tweets (@defactoredhead), and this week I posted four in one day. I just kind of…forget. Today there will be three tweets going up, and two of them I am going to blog about here just because this girl be crazy like that. Day 23′s theme was “your shoes,” and I thought I would give you another peek inside my closet. Again, it’s nothing glamorous: I keep my shoes in an IKEA DILLING underbed storage box on the floor of my closet and the space looks like a nightmare. This picture sums up everything I hate about shoe storage but can’t seem to fix. (Obvious solution: buy less. Obvious reply: No.)

Scary!

Completely unrelated is Day 24′s “inside your bathroom cabinet.” My side of the medicine cabinet looks like a sketchy mess of half-used items, samples, and testers, but I can honestly say I put everything in there to good use. Anyway, doesn’t everyone know that it’s only nerds and squares who keep their bathroom cabinets neat?

Items I use every day: Nivea eye-makeup remover (I’ve had this in my “kit” for about 10 years, and – bonus – it goes on sale a lot at Shoppers Drug Mart); GUM Eez-Thru dental floss (it’s the best floss!); toothbrush (always soft-bristled); Eucerin Replenishing Face Creme (I flip-flop between this and Olay’s Total Effects Fragrance-Free Daily Moisturizer); Clean & Clear Persa Gel 5 (another relationship that’s been going on 10 years); Blistex Lip Conditioner Medicated Sunscreen Lip Protectant (this pulls double-duty as a great gloss and also lasts for the duration of a run); deodorant (I’m not loyal to any particular brand); and perfume (I have a lot and wear a different scent every day). Do you also use some of these same products?

Today is Day 2 of the new Picasa perks, and my selection is “Cross Process.” I think it creates photos that look suspiciously similar to Instagram’s. What say you? Unrelated: have you heard of the blog Silhouetted Skyline? I just found out about it yesterday after my eyeglasses place, the Eye Studio, posted about it in my Facebook feed. From what I can tell, the man behind SS (Steven Lee) is or was a student at OCAD, and he spends part of his spare time taking pictures of fashionable people around Yorkville. I know I can go into the city, walk around, and see these people for myself, but a person can only stare for so long before it gets weird. Pictures aid studying, and study I did, to the tune of the entire SS archive. I did hope that by the time I got to 2012, Lee would have eventually branched out to some other areas of Toronto, where there are fashion-forward people wearing more affordable (and therefore accessible) clothes, etc., but that didn’t really happen. Oh well – I always have a soft spot for other Ontario bloggers. Where else do they lurk?

(Coat, Urban Outfitters; heart pin, The Gap; dress, Old Navy; boots, Spring; belt, vintage; earrings, Ardene; necklace, no label.)

I updated my Picasa program the other day, and even though this process was waaaaaay overdue on my part, everything I discovered was still new and exciting to me! There were so many additions and new ways to manipulate photos, so over the next few posts, I will showcase a few of my favourites. First up is the “1960s” effect:

Wait! I’m not ready!

OK, I’m sufficiently glamorous now.

Hark! It’s the Sears catalogue calling.

Who is so intriguing, standing to my left? It’s only sturdy and dependable Mr. Wall. I’ll never love him in the way he wants, but he always puts a smile on my face.

I sometimes flirt with Mr. Wall by putting my hand near my neck, and I make him jealous by leaning against Mr. Sideboard.

Whenever Mr. Sideboard comes into the picture, Mr. Wall tries to get fresh as a way of asserting his masculinity, and this time he slipped my shirt off my right shoulder. Rat!

(Coat, Old Navy; leather gloves, PEI flea market-type sale; scarf, vintage; boots, Spring; jeans and belt, Forever 21; shirt, Dynamite; tank top, Urban Outfitters; earrings and giraffe brooch, vintage; bracelets, mix of Claire’s, Forever 21, and vintage.)

Today’s topic for the February Photo a Day Challenge was “inside your closet,” and while I have been faithfully participating in this online community via Twitter (@defactoredhead) since February 1, I thought today warranted an actual camera photo (and blog post) rather than a grainy low-light picture posted by my cellphone. Without further ado, here are two pictures of the inside of the chaos that is my closet:

Nothing in here is ironed. I iron on an as-needed basis.

1. I spy a Dear Edna bag among the jungle of belts and purse straps.

2. My overstuffed jewelry box.

3. My overstuffed bracelet drawers.

4. My overstuffed necklace “tackle box.”

5. Where my tights and leggings are stored. I just lied. There are more in a box you can’t see.

6. The top of a stack of sweaters (I keep my sweaters and pyjamas in this green bin).

7. My workout clothes that get the slum treatment, folded in piles on the floor.

I am horribly behind with my posts, and unlike everyone else I know, I don’t even have Pinterest to blame – every time I log on, my mind goes completely blank. Apparently, though, I’ve been feeling less-than-inspired on here as well…hence the lack of action on De Facto Redhead. But, for those of you who like chaos and confusion with some thrifting thrown in for bargooning pleasure, here is what I’ve been wearing and how I’ve been wiling away the time:

Boots, Spring; jeans, Costa Blanca; shirt-dress, Vero Moda; vest, H&M, belt, Le Chateau; bracelets, assorted; necklace, vintage, gift from Mom.

Boots, Spring; jeans, Levis; blouse, H&M; sweater, Zara; belt, thrifted; brooch, vintage.

Boots, Spring; jeans, Levis; sweater, Jacob; coat and hat, Urban Outfitters; gloves and purse, Old Navy; scarf, vintage. I wore this outfit in Toronto on January 21 while going to this:

This exhibit was taking place at the Bell TIFF Lightbox, and my mom and I managed to sneak in on the last weekend the event was in town. We dutifully paid our $15 for our tickets and proceeded to enjoy every minute of the exhibit. Grace Kelly’s letters, movie posters, clothes, wedding dress (a replica), accessories, and more were on display, and as soon as my mom and I got home, we started our online search for reputable books we could read about Grace Kelly’s life. The order was placed, and now we wait… We must know more about the “woman who had many lovers and was quite the hot tamale.” (Direct quote from an elderly lady behind us at the exhibit.)

This print was on one of walls outside the Lightbox. No pictures were allowed inside the exhibit. Boooo!

I look like this every day. Don’t you?

It wouldn’t have been a proper weekend with my parents if we didn’t darken the door of at least one thrift store. My mom and I each scored this Pyrex juice jug for $0.99 at the Burlington Goodwill.

Hello! We came home from the Freelton Antique Mall with a nice lady named Carla. We admit we were pricey at $12, but we will be forever grateful for Carla’s kind heart and sparkling smile.

What up, Sudbury? Why were you lurking in Freelton? What brought you there? And why did you have to be $7 and make me feel guilty about spending that on you? You are just too darn winsome.

A vintage 1968 edition of the Joy of Cooking, purchased for $1 at The Reuse Centre.

Another score at The Reuse Centre – a $0.25 mug for Darcy with his last name on it. 

Last night, Erin, Mike, Darcy, and took off for the outer ridges of Niagara wine country, and we stayed in Jordan. This is us at the Jordan House Tavern, and in the background you can see the pool table where I sharked it during my first game in about four years. I refute all accusations of beginner’s luck. Today, we collected a nice little bounty of wine and came home with plans to quit our jobs and open a winery. With my beginner’s luck, we can’t lose…