summer has (almost) arrived

After doing my seasonal shoe closet switch-out (switching out my fall/winter booties and replacing them with summer sandals and shoes), I realized that my favourite pair of black woven flat sandals that I wore to death over the past 3-4 years have gotten to the point where I had to let them go :( But, the upside to my loss is that I get to go shoe shopping :)

I wasn't planning to get new sneakers. This purchase came about when I went to pick up my friend's New Balance 420 shoes on Robson Street (she's ordered the mustard colour on-line), and she asked me to try them on for her to make sure they fit (we're the same shoe size). Being the wonderful friend that I am, I obliged and was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable and cushy they are as I pranced (a little) around the store. It was like walking on a cloud. Of course, I now had to find my own pair and while they were sold out of the orange colour at the New Balance store, I managed to find a pair from Aritzia's on-line shop. Two days later, and they were on my feet :)

The 420's also come in blue, purple, grey and mustard from New Balance.

These Stuart Weitzman sandals I have been eying for a while. I first spotted them when I happened to wander into the Browns shoe store, and saw them from afar. They remind me of a silver and black pair of sandals that I got from H&M, which sadly, only lasted about two summers before they went kaput; the silver metallic discs were peeling off and the black was rubbing off the bottoms of my feet.

After months of looking from afar, Browns finally had a sale and I managed to score the last size 8.5 in these gold beauties. They are a little expensive, even on sale, but I'm hoping that investing in a better quality pair of sandals will mean they'll last longer than two years. Also, they're sparkly :)

My last shoe purchase for the summer (hopefully!) is from Coach. Coach was having a huge shoe sale and I got these for $69. The sales associate had to order this pair from their Florida warehouse because the only sizes they had left in store was a 9. I tried them on, but my foot slipped out of them, so definitely too big for me. I love these shoes; they're so comfortable but can dress up a casual outfit because of the fine glitter (that doesn't flake off as I prefer not to leave a trail of glitter behind me).

I like sparkles as you can see :D

So, those are the shoes that I've purchased (so far!). Now time to hide my wallet, lock away my credit cards and start saving up for fall :D

street meat

This weekend, food trucks gathered on the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery for the second annual Street Food City event. There's nothing like food served on a plate, wrapped in a cone, or speared on a stick!

Started off at the Street Meet and ordered the crispy risotto balls to share while my sister got a salmon burger and I had the Hungry Human perogie dish from Holy Perogy for lunch. Since it was starting to rain outside and there wasn't enough seats under the tented dining area, we went to the food court inside the mall to chow down.

Loved everything and I'm hoping to try out more food trucks when the weather gets better.

Deep fried risotto balls: you can't really go wrong with anything deep fried :)

After walking around the plaza, deciding on what to eat, I finally settled on perogies.

The line up at Mama's Grilled Cheese Truck was R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. My brother waited for about 20 minutes before he finally got his order.

Mmm... deep fried goodness with a small salad and spicy dressing.

The Hungry Human perogie plate: potato & cheese stuffed perogies with green onions, sour cream, sausage and beef jerky bits. I added a little bit of sauerkraut on the side.

splurge vs. steal

I woke up this morning with a plan in mind: grocery shopping, buy cleaning supplies and maybe buy a bathrobe. However, that didn't happen. I didn't even go near a grocery store. Instead, I ended up downtown, randomly ran into my sister on Robson Street and all of this happened:

Left to right: sweater + blouse from H&M, jeans + dress pants from the GAP

She had to go into H&M and I wasn't thinking about buying anything and BAM! I was holding 8 items in my arms and standing in line for the fitting room. Bad idea. Very bad idea. I ended up getting a sweater and a blouse.

But, let's take a moment and look at the coral and cream sweater that I got from H&M for $39.95:

It looks very similar to this sweater from See by Chloe that I saw on www.ssense.com. It's not exactly the same, but very similar in colours and design. The H&M sweater has a floral/wavy pattern versus the geometric design of the See by Chloe, but I actually prefer the floral design... and the price :)

See by Chloe red geometric patterned knit sweater, retails for $425 (but it's now on sale at ssense)

Studded and capped collared blouse in blush, also from H&M. I like to think of it as a cooler version of the cowboy shirt. 

Blood-orange dress pants from the GAP. 

Periwinkle skinny GAP jeans or, according to their website, "resolution blue." 

 Okay, now just take a LOOK at the price of the jeans and pants:

That's right; you don't need to check your eyesight, bring out the calculator or clean your computer screen. The jeans came to $9.09 and the dress pants was $6.98! The GAP is currently having a huge clearance sale and on top of that, an additional 30% off the sale price, which means I am SUPER happy with my items and so is my wallet :) So, the total amount, including taxes, for the two items... drum roll please...

 Oh yeah, EIGHTEEN dollars! YAAAAAAAAAY!

The shopping deals didn't stop there; I wandered into London Drugs to grab a bottle of water and noticed that N.Y.C makeup was 40% off so I bought myself a new mascara to try for under $5.00. The mascara wand looks very similar to the CoverGirl LashBlast volume blasting mascara that I love and if I can get a similar version for a lower price, I'm all over it. In my opinion, I don't think you need to spend a great deal of money on mascara and trust me, I've tried a few high-end/brand-name mascaras. So, if I can get a great quality mascara at the drugstore for a handful of change that is comparable to a high-end mascara, than that's the one that I want in my makeup bag.

look up

retail heaven

{ sunshine finally graced the city as summer stock goes on sale to make room for the fall merchandise }

speak the truth

{ word on the street }