I like to think that the accessories I wear is what makes my outfits. When I have the urge to go shopping, I often come home with a watch, a handbag or a new pair of glasses opposed to a new outfit. For this reason, when stumbling upon the latest collar trend, I knew I had to have one.

Challenge accepted.

The first brand I have come to know (via blogs and hearsay) was Eleven Objects, this brand being what I consider to be the pioneer in collar pieces and trends, is also a luxury brand as the decadent pieces come with hefty price tags. Nonetheless, here are some of my fav’s:

Man Repeller, Leandra Medine, is wearing the Pineapple printed silk twill collar sleeves with crystals ($325.00 USD).

Designer, Lisa Ou, is wearing metallic silk lurex collar with Swarovski Crystals and hardware from Object Eleven’s Fall 2011 collection ($1, 195 CAD).

Several other collars can be found on popular sites such as Polyvore where collars range in price ($13 - $730) and brands such as Topshop and Modcloth.

Or if you’re an Etsy lover like me, you can easily find one-of-a-kind pieces on the handmade/unique shopping website.  The collar shown below, from Equelitz ($30 CAD) is the newest addition to my tickle trunk of accessories and didn’t break the bank either.

And with that, put a collar on it. Similar to putting birds on things… or something to that effect. (For those of you unfamilar with the Portlandia series, please disregard this last reference… and the punch line of this entire post. Whomp-whomp).

Some people love to say that Ottawa is a city of suits and schmucks, and I love to prove them wrong.

After harassing politely asking these girls to take their photo, I discovered that lady with the tassels (shown below) is a clothing designer here in Ottawa. Some items from her line, The Lost City, can be purchased at Victoire Boutique.

Aside from my beef with The Standard Tavern for taking Steam Whistle Pilsner off their beer list, if you pay them a visit on a Thursday night, you will find the cool people.

Here are two of them:

Growing up, I always loved going into my grandmother’s closet to look at her shoes. My Nanny loved shoes, and still does to this day. When I was a little girl, I would spend hours looking through the labelled boxes she had organized from the floor to the ceiling of her closet. 

Be it a shoe fetish, hats, glasses, watches, purses… or in my case, all of the above. Simply put- people like to collect beautiful things. 

The following is a collection of what I think to be beautiful watches, all of which I hope to keep in the boxes they will be purchased in. When I’m done wearing them, they will find a place in my closet and someday someone will find them and admire them, just as I did with my grandmother’s shoes. 

Juuussstttt kidding. 

The weather has been starting to feel (dare I say) spring-like as of late. I’ve been wearing open-toed shoes to bed in hope that I will summon the seasons to change sooner rather than later. 

This being said, a stylish solution to the in-between months of March and April (drum roll please) = knee-high socks. A great way to avoid making the common mistake of many Canadian women: wearing skirts or dresses sans tights before the rest of the world is ready. I purchased a few pairs from Topshop on a recent trip to New York City, Topshop has a great selection which includes ankle socks… avec lace. Enough said. Its Britney, bitch. Too much? 

I would like to start off by saying that I’m no skin-care expert by any means, but rather a beauty product consumer who stumbled upon something that actually worked (this doesn’t happen very often).

Quite the opposite in fact, I see a fancy jar with sparkles and ponies on it and I buy. Or, a sales person sees me looking like a lost child in aisle three and convinces me that I need to buy eye cream to take care of that zit on my cheek.

I digress. Like many Canadian women out there I suffer from terribly dry skin in the winter months for obvious reasons. A few months ago me and my crocodile face made our way to Sephora on the hunt for a moisturizer that would solve my skin’s winter blues. It was here that I was advised to purchase Ole Henriksen’s Sheer Transformation moisturizer. I also purchased the On-the-go cleanser (which I adore and still use because it smells like oranges). The moisturizer however, which cost $56, was terrible. I had to apply it several times prior to putting make-up on and even then, my skin still looked and felt incredibly dry (insert image of me lighting money on fire).

Fast forward to a few months later, me and the croc face decided to avoid burning money and went to Shoppers, this time searching for a more affordable option. One of Shoppers beauty experts approached me. As sceptical as I was, I explained my situation and listened to her advice. I ended up walking out with not one, but two products: Vichi’s Aqualia Thermal serum AND Aqualia Thermal 24-hour moisturizer.  I paid less for both products than what I had paid for the single 50-gram jar of Sheer Transformation and in all seriousness; my skin has never looked or felt healthier than it does after using these products. The change was not only drastic, but instant.

I’d like to make it be known that I’m not being paid to write this product review. I simply wanted to share my success in finding a product that truly worked as I know how many women suffer from the croc face.