Unexpected gifts.

Topshop top (via The Bay); H&M capris; Forever 21 wedges

My friend that I was visiting in Montreal gifted me this top. She had bought it online in two sizes, and meant to return the one that didn't fit but forgot. Months later, she couldn't return it and asked if I wanted it. Um, YES! The cut-out details sold me on the top, but it's also a light-weight chambray which is perfect for the summer temps.

Today I'm off to get my hair coloured. I'm going blonde. JUST KIDDING. I don't think I could ever pull THAT off. I'm doing a demi-permanent to go a couple of shades darker. I usually do this in the fall/winter but I'm eager for a change now. Since this is my "week of Kelly" I have decided to go for it.

A weekend of awesome.

Forever 21 button-up and sunnies; American Eagle denim; H&M flats

This weekend was crazy-busy. On Friday, my friend and I took the 2 hour trip down to Montreal to see Coldplay. Amazing show! They were filming the entire show for something so that was pretty wicked.

Saturday we woke up and shopped for a few hours, and then hung out before we went back to Ottawa. The next plans were dinner and going out on the town for my friend's birthday. It was so much fun! We had dinner at a wonderful italian restaurant and then hung out for a while before we went to a bar to end the night on a fun and party-like note.

Sunday we surprised the birthday girl and took a trip up to Calypso, the biggest theme water park in Canada. The weather was perfect, the place was busy but not unbearable, and there was a good group of us there. By the time I got home last night and crawled into my own bed, I passed right out. Good thing I'm off work this week :)

How was your weekend? 

Aviators.

Costa Blanca top; Dynamite jeggings; Payless shoes; Forever 21 sunglasses

Best summer accessory? Sunglasses. Hands down. I spotted these aviators at my local Forever 21 and could not get over their cool factor - the black tint was totally rockin'.

Tonight I'm heading to Montreal to see Coldplay in concert. I'm so excited that it took me an hour to fall asleep last night. Yes, I am that cool. I'm taking one of my bff's for her birthday so it should be a good time. Then we're staying at another bff's place in Montreal. Wonderful weekend on the horizon? I think yes. Plus my vacation officially started today so I feel fabulous.

Any great plans for the weekend? 

This one time I won a giveaway.

eShakti dress (giveaway win); Forever 21 wedges

So this post is LONG overdue. I won this dress from a giveaway over at Verbal Melange a couple of months back. When I could choose whatever I wanted on the eShakti website, I gravitated towards this dress for two reasons. 1) I actually like the floral print. It's got brighter colours and they pop against the muted background. 2) It is 100% cotton. This is totally necessary in the crazy heat we've been having... Also it has pockets. I guess that's three reasons.


When you buy from eShakti, you have the ability to customize certain parts of the dress. I didn't touch this one because I wasn't sure how it'd look. After I got it, I would have liked if it was a couple inches shorter, but that's a cheap alteration I can do myself. 

I have a special treat for you today. eShakti is having a 40% off sale, and they are offering you guys an extra 10% off with the code KE25NEW! Hurry because it expires next Tuesday, July 31st! Find yourself a wonderful dress or peruse their other things like skirts and tops. Some of them are super duper cute.

Storms and Power and Stuff.

Ricki's top; American Eagle skinnies; H&M flats

Sorry for the brief hiatus. I know, it was only a day but it sort of felt like a lifetime. I so badly wanted to post yesterday morning but alas, the world was against me.

Monday afternoon we had some crazy storms go through our area. There were even tornado warnings. Sometimes we get warnings, but we never actually get tornadoes. Once when I was 5 I remember hiding in my basement, but that was the last time anything ever happened. Anyways. I got home from work to branches and leaves all over the streets, and a tree was down one road away from my house. The power went out and it wanted to stay out.  A friend of mine had some school work she had to submit so we went to a Starbucks and stole their internet. Assuming the power would come on that evening or overnight, I didn't write a post.

Well, the power came on at 4am, but the internet did not. So I left you guys with no post yesterday. This is my story to explain why. Don't worry, it wasn't a tornado that went through our area, just some crazy winds and hail and rain. I consider myself pretty lucky to never have extreme weather like that, I don't know what I'd do if I saw an actual tornado...

Happy Wednesday lovely readers!

Brunch, Movies, and Batman.

Forever 21 top and necklace; American Eagle pants and shoes (via Payless)

This weekend was pretty stellar. Saturday started off with a quick workout and then brunch with a friend, and it ended with Batman. Oh Batman. I could stare at Christian Bale for hours. Minus the facial hair - the bushy beard does not suit him... But the movie did rock. You should go see it. Now.

Sunday I planned to go to the beach but it was supposed to thunderstorm. Supposed to. By dinner it hadn't rained, but that's okay. Instead I spent the day dancing around to loud music and watching more movies. Awesome.

Aside from the music, dancing and movies, I finally took a few minutes and made my blog a button! It's on my right-hand side-bar in case anyone wants to grab it. Now that I finally have a button, I'd be willing to do some button-swapping if any of you guys are interested :) Drop me a line and we can sort something out!

Hope your weekends were wonderful and that you have a great Monday!

Closest I'll come to peplum.

Forever 21 top and skirt; Spring shoes; Fossil watch

The other day I tried on THE PERFECT strapless peplum top. Lace, exposed zipper at the back, super pretty cut. The only problem? My chest wasn't big enough. That's right - not big enough to hold that thing up or even look good. I almost gave up on my peplum search right then and there.

BUT (there is always a "but"...), I found this super pretty flowy top at Forever 21. It's not the same as most structured peplum out there today, but it has a definite femininity and peplum-like style to it. I couldn't walk away from it, even if they were out of my size and I had to buy the next size up. And guess what - the girls could still pull this one off. I think I found myself a winner, and this is probably the closest to peplum I'll ever come.

Probably.

All about watermelon.

Self-made dress; Forever 21 shoes; Dynamite belt

Let's take this post to talk about watermelon.

If you know me at all, you know I have a food obsession. Yes, it's probably unhealthy. No, it'll never change. I love my food. I eat what I love. I don't care. Moving on.

Watermelon is the fruit of the summer. I could eat half a watermelon in a sitting - I have done it before. And I'm talking a serious watermelon, not one of those mini baby things. My favourite way to eat it is cut up in chunks with a fork because I hate getting my hands sticky, but there are a few other ways I must try:

1. Watermelon/Strawberry Slush. This looks amazing and extremely refreshing, especially on super hot days.

2. In a salad. I've had something similar at a restaurant and it was the perfect mix of flavours. I need to re-create this at home!

3. Who doesn't love their tortilla chips? Well here's a recipe for some watermelon salsa. Sounds seriously awesome.

So if you don't like watermelon, sorry about this whole post. You won't have learned anything very exciting. If you love watermelon like me, I hope you enjoyed some of my links and maybe we can have a cook-off and introduce new ways of eating watermelon into each others lives?

Do you have a favourite summer fruit?

Blogger Spotlight: Annie, The Other Side of Gray

I can't believe it's time for July's blogger spotlight already! Today you are all very lucky readers because I'm introducing you to an awesome lady who wears colour and pattern-mixes like no other. I think she could be the goddess of colours. When I reached out to her, I was thrilled she was willing to share some of her wisdom with all of us. Here is Annie of The Other Side of Gray.

Shorts: J. Crew (here) Similar: hereShirt: J. Crew Similar: here
Sandals: Target (girls) Similar: here
Necklace: Urban Outfitters (here)
Bracelets: J. Crew & Anthropologie

Hey guys! Annie here, from The Other Side of Gray...and I am SO excited to be guest posting for Kelly!

When Kelly asked me to do a post, we decided that it would only be appropriate for me to talk about color mixing, since I LOVE to rock some really crazy combos. So for this outfit, I decided to pair my good 'ol mint flavored shorts with this lovely grape blouse. I feel like mint is one of those colors that goes with everything. It's kind of like cheese in that sense. You can add cheese to almost ANYTHING and it automatically tastes better, right? So what I'm saying is, other than the fact that mint colored things are just as awesome as cheese, they also compliment most colors. 

Take a look:

Mint & black? Reminds me of ice cream. Fantastic.

Mint & pink? It's like cotton candy. Delicious.

Mint & green? One word - mojito! Amazing.

Mint & yellow? I can't think of any food this would remind me of, but still, it looks AWESOME.

 Lesson: mint rocks, so does cheese, and color mix your little butts off when you are wearing a mint flavored item. And yes, clothes have flavors, in case you were wondering.

P.S. Does this outfit make you want a shamrock shake and/or a Welch's grape soda or what? Yeah, me too.

Red and white.

Winners pants; Forever 21 shoes and tops; Fossil watch

This would have been a pretty great Canada Day outfit. Ah well, maybe next year! I've been looking for more ways to wear my red pants, and I don't know why but I seem to be turning to simple t-shirts lately. There's just something about a plain tee that is so comfortable, easy and breezy.

I just finished reading Fifty Shades of Grey and now I'm only the second book in the trilogy. It was a surprisingly interesting read, aside from the whole erotica theme. The main character, Christian Grey, is super interesting to learn about and I'm excited to read the rest of the series over the next while.

After this though, I am looking for more books to read. Anyone got any good suggestions?

Maxi.

H&M dress; Forever 21 sandals; Suzy Shier sunnies

Can you believe this is my first time wearing my maxi this year?! I know - how the heck did THAT happen? This summer has literally flown by and mid-July I realize I haven't broken out my maxi. Or about 1/2 of my summer dresses. This MUST change before the end of July.

Over the weekend I went shopping with a cousin of mine. I found some great finds from Forever 21 that you will have the pleasure of seeing over the next few weeks on the bloggy blog. Other than shopping, I watched a bunch of movies. Magic Mike on Friday, The Last Song and part of Marley and Me on Saturday, and Hangover II and an indie documentary about a random sushi place on Sunday. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible to run out of movies to watch?

What did you guys do this weekend? 

Polka dots.

Dynamite top and black pants; Spring shoes; Fossil watch

So for months now I've been saying I don't have enough polka-dots in my wardrobe. I was shopping at Dynamite the other day and came across this awesome top. I don't know why, but I have a hard time justifying spending over $20 on a small cami like this, but the polka-dots meant making an exception. I brought this baby home with me. I also picked up some black skinnies because my American Eagle ones got chewed by the dog. Thanks again, pup.

So back onto my polka-dot love - it's obviously not just contained to tops. A few months ago I bought polka-dotted shoes (as seen here and here). Now I have an new obsession with these American Eagle polka-dotted jeggings...

Source: American Eagle

The obsession is growing, my friends.

How do you feel about polka dots? 

Ugly-love & a link-up.

Joe fresh striped top; American Eagle skinnies; Walmart shoes

So I went to Walmart the other day and fell in ugly-love. Have you ever felt it before? Where you see something you think is so ugly you just...love it? Well that's how I felt about these shoes. I didn't like them at all, I loved them. But it was a completely unexplainable love. Part of me still thinks they're a bit ugly.

Either way, I'm linking up with Sharon's new "What to Wear" link-up over at The Tiny Heart! This challenge was to style an outfit for a backyard bbq. This is totally something I'd wear - stripes, comfy shoes, and cuffed jeans. Super comfy and perfect for backyard socializing and bbq-ing! Of course, I wouldn't be doing the bbq-ing. I have no skills with that thing. 


What would you wear to a backyard bbq?