True F@#!ing Story

Today I'm doing something that deeply offends my Virgo sensibilities: I am posting an outfit out of chronological order; that is, I'm skipping over several days' worth of older outfits in order to bring you this one hot off the presses. And why is that, you ask? Well, it's all because of our favorite foulmouthed blogger and jewelery designer extraordinaire Wendy Brandes, who is responsible for these:

I never swear. I f@#!ing promise.

Yes, the glorious Wendy Brandes for Francis swear rings are mine at last! I coveted them for months, stalked them and obsessed over them, was haunted by them first on Kingdom of Style and then by Wendy herself, and finally broke down and bought them last week rather than waiting until after the holidays as I'd originally planned. And I have to say, I'm really fucking glad I did! Pretty much as soon as I put them on my hand and headed into my first meeting, someone promptly noticed all the flashing silver and started oohing and ahhing. Soon the whole team was admiring them. Yes, MY coworkers, noticing, and admiring, some seriously boundary-pushing jewelery. Go fucking figure!

Then after work, I stopped into my favorite stationary and card store to get a gift box, only to find out that the store no longer carries gift boxes of any kind. True fucking story! My response, of course, was this:

Where will I go now for all my gift box needs?

It was serendipity, I tell you. Serenfuckingdipity! So you see, I had to post this right away. Thanks Wendy; it was totally worth breaking my meticulous chronological ordering of the outfit posts for a timely showcase of your amazing creations. They garnered praise from my coworkers and gave me the perfect response to a frustrating situation, all within the span of a few hours.

I suppose I ought to tell you about the rest of my outfit too. Continuing in my ongoing outerwear feature, I'll start with the jacket. This one was selected because with the thick vest to keep me warm, all I really needed were the long sleeves. The cropped leather jacket was the perfect solution, plus, the detailing is cool enough to stand up to those fabulous rings.

Since I don't really like the feel of tucked in shirts, I used the fitted vest to give me waist definition and to balance out my proportions, which were a little off because of the length of the shirt. I also wore long socks over tights with this outfit, but the socks were only for warmth and were pulled all the way up rather than showing beneath the skirt -- and anyway, something about knee high socks with a pleated wool skirt just strikes me as waaay too schoolgirlish for a 40-year-old woman to be wearing. I just love all the socks-over-tights looks I've seen recently on Chelsea and Erin though, and I'm determined to put together one of my own.

These rings are already proving to be really handy at work. Shown here is

a remarkably easy way to say, "Get out of my office."

Shirt: Promod

Vest: Shawna Hoffman

Jacket: Skin Graft

Skirt: Banana Republic

Boots: Modern Vintage

Swear rings: Wendy Brandes for Francis

Marie Antoinette and Jewelery

It is Marie Antoinette Week on one of my favourite blogs Cupid's Charm. Joy is having giveaways on her blog so don't forget to stop by. Joy also invited me to extend the party to my blog and so I am dedicating this week's posts to all things Marie Antoinette.

On Marie Antoinette's wedding day, she was presented with a richly embroidered crimson velvet coffer of jewels nearly as tall as she was and three times as wide. Inside, there was a magnificent selection of jewels reserved for the Dauphine of France. Presented with a tiny golden key by Louis XV, she unlocked it to discover an array of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, buttons, fans and snuffboxes made of diamonds and other precious gemstones. The collection included a spectacular necklace of priceless oversized pearls worn by Louis XIV's mother Anne of Austria. Along with the set of white diamonds she had from her trousseau, Marie Antoinette "shone the brightest" among a sea of courtiers "clad in brocades, silk, and other gorgeous robes and flashing with jewels".

Her appetite for jewelery was legendary and she later found herself involved in a messy scandal known as the Diamond Necklace Affair (a good subject for another day's post).

Being something of a jewelery junkie myself, I can totally relate to her passion for all things sparkly!!! I recently indulged myself in some Marie Antoinette inspired jewelery purchases.

Check out the whimsical Marie Antoinette charm bracelet made by Joy from Cupid's Charm (which I intend to wear while in Versailles in May). As well, I found these vintage costume pieces in an antique store. It was the end of the month and the dealer was motivated to move them out so I got them for a song!!! Lucky me!!! All I need is a fancy dress party and some champagne and I'm set. Who wants to join me?