Which Diane are you?

April 12, 2019April 11, 2019 / edebock / 2 Comments

Before I begin, I want to give credit where credit is due. As I sat in doctor’s waiting room earlier this week, I came across the idea for this post in a recent issue of Zoomer magazine. “It’s time to embrace your inner Diane,” suggested veteran stylist, Susie Sheffman in an article written by Karen von Hahn. “There’s a Diane for every one of us, and all of them are inspiring.”

She was referring to Diane Keaton, Diane Sawyer, and Diane von Fürstenberg, all in their early 70s and all style icons in their own right. I’ve written before about choosing your own style icon, someone whose style you admire or whose outfits you love. So, is there a Diane for you?

Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton is known for her quirky, androgynous style. She wears her menswear inspired suits with panache. Her signature style made its debut over 40 years ago with her starring role in “Annie Hall” but apparently the bowler hat that she wore in the movie came from her own closet. To this day she is often seen wearing a similar one.

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Diane Sawyer

American television journalist, Diane Sawyer, on the other hand, epitomizes classic, sophisticated style. Her tailored outfits are both figure-flattering and professional looking.

NEW YORK – MAY 05: American television journalist Diane Sawyer attends Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 5, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Kempin/WireImage for Time Inc.)

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Diane Von Fürstenberg

Flamboyant is the word that comes to mind when I think of Belgian fashion designer Diane Von Fürstenberg. Her taste is eclectic and colourful. Once married to a German prince, she could now be rightly called the queen of boho!

Mandatory Credit: Photo by MJ Photos/WWD/REX/Shutterstock (9628831d) Diane von Furstenberg 9th Annual DVF Awards, Arrivals, New York, USA – 13 Apr 2018

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So which Diane are you? Do you see yourself in any of them or is your style completely different? If I had to choose, I’d say that my style is closest to Diane Keaton’s but somewhat less extreme. I could see myself dressed as she is in this final photo and I love her hats, but I tend toward a more feminine look than she does.

Diane Keaton out and about, London, UK - 16 Jun 2016

We’re each one unique. It’s fun to get ideas and inspiration from other women, but in the end, love who you are and don’t try to be anyone else!

1000 posts!

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 / edebock / 6 Comments

When I launched Following Augustine in early December 2007, I didn’t expect the blog to still be going more than 11 years later and I certainly didn’t expect that I would ever write 1000 posts! According to WordPress, however, which keeps track of all sorts of interesting stats for me, this is it; my 1000th post!

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As many of you are aware, I started the blog to share the year that we spent teaching English in Japan with friends and family back home. Writing has always been a passion of mine and when that year was over I couldn’t simply let the blog die. In the ensuing years, Following Augustine has chronicled our travels to other parts of Asia including a full semester in China, as well as trips across Canada, to the USA, Israel, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Saipan. Soon it will be off to Europe!

When I started Following Augustine, I never dreamt that it would someday include a weekly fashion feature. In fact, I probably would have laughed out loud if someone had predicted that. I certainly didn’t visualize it recording a cancer journey either, but life takes unexpected twists and turns and the blog has faithfully followed mine through many ups and downs.

The blog is older than all five of my grandchildren. It has become so much a part of me that I can’t imagine life without it, but a blog is nothing without its readers and so today, hats off to those of you who have been with me since the beginning and also to those who have joined me along the way! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Photo of a woman silhouette taking off a hat. Taken in Riga, Latvia.

Onstage again!

April 7, 2019April 7, 2019 / edebock / 5 Comments

Over my many years of involvement in community theatre one of the greatest joys for me has been sharing the stage with former students. Some of them even got their first taste of acting in my junior high drama classes. Never did I imagine, however, that I would someday act in a play written by one of them!

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❤ This photo absolutely warms my heart. On my right, is my former student Kelly Berg, author of Silent Jim, in his lead role of Marshall Henry Jackson. Standing on my left, in the role of Jesse Longstrand, the blacksmith, is a young man I’ve known since he was a preschooler. I taught him Sunday School back in those days!

Silent Jim is a western murder mystery with a mix of intensely serious moments and hilariously funny ones. Thursday evening was opening night. We performed again on Friday and have two more shows next weekend. Our cast of 23 ranges from preteen actors trying out the stage for the very first time to seasoned veterans like myself.

Cast photo

Cast photo: Brenda Grove

I have a very small onstage role this year. In fact, I only have nine lines to deliver! Silent Jim is set in the small fictional town of Buffalo Skull in the American west in the late 1870s. In the original version, my character was a judge but, like any western, the play has a lot of roles for male actors and far fewer for females. We had to do a bit of adjusting. There were no female judges in the US in the 1870s, but the first female lawyer, Arabella Mansfield, was called to the Iowa bar in 1869. We could change our judge’s role to that of a lawyer and remain authentic to the time we were portraying. Our lady lawyer needed a name, however, and that’s an interesting side story.

One of the aspects of theatre that I absolutely love is the costuming, especially when we’re doing a period play. What would a lady lawyer have worn in the 1870s, I wondered. I turned to the internet in search of photos and as so often happens when I’m online, I ended up going down a variety of interesting and unrelated rabbit trails. One of them led me to an amazing find; my grandmother’s 1909 graduation photo from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

Gran - Eliza Clara Walker - BA Dalhousie University 1909

Though the photo is apparently signed “Lizzie Walker. Dal. 09.” I know that Gran’s full maiden name was Eliza Clara Walker and that later in life she chose to use her middle name. Though hers wasn’t a law degree, there weren’t a lot of university educated women in her day and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to honour her memory by naming my character after her. My fellow thespians agreed and so I became Clara Walker, Esquire!

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In addition to my small onstage role, I also act as prompter for the first three quarters of the play. I was surprised to discover that I really enjoy that position as I’m fully involved in every moment of the show.

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Curtain call photo: Caity Moore, Clouded Creations

Spring jacket

April 5, 2019April 4, 2019 / edebock / 1 Comment

One spring, many years ago, while shopping for something completely unrelated, I fell in love with a classic anorak in a light beige colour. At the time, I didn’t really need a new spring coat and I did my best to talk myself out of buying it. “I don’t need it,” I told myself. “It will show every speck of dirt,” I continued. My arguments were futile. The jacket insisted on coming home with me and I’m ever so glad it did. I’ve literally worn it until the collar and the cuffs are threadbare. It’s been through the washer innumerable times and always came out looking good.

As much as I still love that old jacket, by the end of last season I had to admit that it was time to begin thinking about a replacement. Then, about a month ago, I was sitting on a bench at the entrance to the fitting rooms in a Reitmans store in Red Deer waiting for my sister-in-law to try on a blouse when I glanced across the store and there it was!

A classic anorak is a lightweight jacket, long enough to cover the hips and typically with a hood, that protects the wearer against wind and rain; perfect for spring and fall in our part of the world. With a drawstring at the waist, it’s roomy enough to wear over a sweater on chillier days, but can be snugged in for a more fitted look if desired.

My jacket came in navy and this lovely olive green, both colours that are very much on trend this spring. I don’t know if it will last as long as its predecessor did, but I’m certainly enjoying wearing it now that our weather is finally warming up and the last bits of snow are quickly disappearing!

The Heart of cabi Foundation

March 29, 2019March 28, 2019 / edebock / 4 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know that I wear a lot of cabi. There are many reasons for that and one of them is definitely the Heart of cabi Foundation. ❤

The mission of the foundation is to encourage and empower women in need around the world. This is accomplished in several ways. For each new stylist who joins the company, cabi funds a small business loan in her name for a woman entrepreneur in a developing country. They do this in partnership with Opportunity International, a nonprofit organization that works to end global poverty by creating and sustaining jobs. To date, 15 232 loans have been funded in 62 countries around the world. To learn more about this program and to meet some of the women who have benefitted from it, watch the short video at the end of this post.

❤ The Heart of cabi Foundation is also very actively involved in domestic giving primarily through disaster relief efforts. When disaster hits a community, the foundation partners with local cabi stylists to plan clothing distribution events for women who have lost their homes. Clothing also goes to other groups of women in need including those escaping domestic violence or rescued from human trafficking and those transitioning from homelessness. To date, $54 million USD in clothing has been distributed.

Thankfully, you don’t have to be a cabi stylist to contribute to this worthy cause. Every woman who places a cabi order is given the option of rounding her order total up to the nearest dollar. It may only be a few cents, but together these cents become dollars that empower women who are working to create better futures for themselves, their families, and their communities. In addition, the net proceeds from the sale of one item in each season’s collection helps fund The Heart of cabi Foundation. ❤

Every season since I was introduced to cabi, I’d look at the Heart of cabi selection, try it on, and think about buying it, but for one reason or another it was never quite right for me. Until this season, that is!

This season’s Heart of cabi piece is the Petal Blouse. The moment I tried it on, I loved it!

Smooth and lightweight, this body-skimming polyester blouse drapes beautifully and is so comfortable! Although it’s part of the Spring 2019 collection, like many other cabi garments, the Petal Blouse will act as an all-season piece for me. Until the weather warms up, it adds a pop of colour under a sweater or a jacket.

The cardigan on the left is also from cabi, several seasons ago. Cabi is made to last and the sweater has been a workhorse in my wardrobe.

Once summer comes, there are many ways that I can wear the Petal Blouse. There’s the front tuck, the side tuck, and I even like it belted.

Though each cabi garment comes in only one colour or pattern, cabi is committed to ensuring that each piece coordinates with clothing from at least three seasons before and three seasons after making it easy to build a well coordinated, versatile wardrobe. Here I’m wearing my new Petal Blouse with my Brick Dust Skinnies from Spring 2018. It also pairs well with red and burgundy.

Though most of my spending this year is going to travel, not clothing, I look at this piece as a donation. I’m always happy to support a company with a heart! Besides, it will tuck very easily into the teeny tiny suitcase that I’ll be packing about five weeks from now! ❤

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I have not been compensated in any way and the words are entirely my own.

Three years of Fashion Friday!

March 22, 2019March 18, 2019 / edebock / 2 Comments

On March 25, 2016 I introduced a new weekly feature to the blog. From the beginning, Fashion Friday posts have been more than simply “look what I’m wearing today” pieces. Over the past three years, I’ve written about a wide variety of topics related to how we dress, how we present ourselves, and how we feel about ourselves.

One of the reasons that I decided to add a weekly feature to the blog was to ensure that I posted regularly especially during those periods of time when we weren’t doing anything that seemed particularly blog worthy. I’d been following several fashion blogs for quite some time and had learned a lot about my own personal style, so the topic was one that appealed to me. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to keep it up, but I haven’t run out of ideas yet, so Fashion Friday will continue for the foreseeable future!

There have been a number of unexpected rewards in writing these weekly posts. I’ve challenged myself, stepping out of my fashion comfort zone and trying new looks. I’ve become more confident about my own appearance and more comfortable in my own skin. Best of all, though, I’ve connected with interesting women around the world.

My three most popular Fashion Friday posts have had nothing to do with what I wear. Two of them featured a number of the fashion bloggers that I follow and the third one, posted last July, dealt with the untimely death of fashion model, Cindy Joseph. Hardly a day goes by without someone finding my blog by searching “what kind of cancer did Cindy Joseph die from” or something similar.

Here are photos of a few of the outfits that I’ve worn on the blog over the past three years. I call my style classy casual.

As always, I encourage you to leave a comment below. What would you like to see on the blog in the future? Do you have any fashion questions or topics that you’d like to see me address on upcoming Fridays?

We’re not decorations!

March 15, 2019March 12, 2019 / edebock / Leave a comment

In the wake of International Women’s Day, I came across a couple of quotes that made me stop and think. More than a decade ago, blogger Erin McKean, writer of A Dress A Day, wrote:

You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.

Then, on March 8, International Women’s Day, Susan B. of une femme d’un certain âge wrote:

You don’t owe it to the world to look taller and thinner. You don’t owe it to the world to look younger or more conventionally attractive. You only owe it to yourself to be authentic, to wear what feels right.

Profound!

Why do we, as women, feel the need to conform to some preconceived image of beauty? Negative body image, often fuelled by media and advertising, contributes to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, relationship problems, substance abuse, and a variety of other health issues. It’s time for us as women to say no more. We are NOT decorations!

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be pretty, but the question I would ask is why? Why do you want to look or dress a certain way? Is it to please yourself or someone else?

Whether your approach to fashion tends toward minimalism like this look from Jessture by Jessica Hu,

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is colourful and eclectic like Iris Apfel’s,

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or falls somewhere in between, discover your unique style and feel true to who you are. It’s so much more important to be happy and healthy than to fit someone else’s idea of pretty, sexy, or alluring. After all, you’re a person of immeasurable value, not a decoration!

Milestones

March 12, 2019 / edebock / 10 Comments

I’m not sure how it happened so quickly, but our youngest grandson will be 5 tomorrow!

We spent this past weekend in Calgary for an early birthday celebration. On Friday, while Mommy and Daddy were working and big brother and sister were at school, we took him on a lunch date to his favourite restaurant, a McDonald’s with a great Playplace where he burned off a ton of energy after eating his meal.

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It was a weekend full of fun… sledding, skating, colouring, playing multiple board games and hide and seek, and in the early hours of the morning, a tiny boy crawling into bed with me! I’ve long referred to Simon as my velcro boy because whenever I’m around he attaches himself to me like glue. I thought that that might begin to change as he grew older, but so far it hasn’t and I’m definitely not in any hurry for it to!

Turning 5 is a milestone of sorts. Over the coming year, Simon will leave the preschool stage behind and take another step toward becoming a “big kid”. He’ll go to Kindergarten in the fall.

Simon’s birthday is also a milestone for me. In late August of 2013, when I was first told that I had cancer, Melaina was 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. Before we knew what kind of cancer I had, what sort of treatments I might be facing, or what the outcome might be, I prayed very specifically that I would live to see and hold that baby. It was pure joy to be in the delivery room on March 13, 2014 when he arrived and to have the honour of cutting the umbilical cord (his Daddy was there too, but he’s squeamish about such things and was more than happy to have me do it)! I am extremely grateful to still be here to see Simon turn 5 and to enjoy all the fun of being his Gram!

Thankfully, recent CT scans have shown that my condition continues to be stable. I’ll be having another, and most likely my final, PRRT treatment in June. We have no idea what will come next, but there’s every reason to believe that I’ll be around to see Simon and my other grandchildren celebrate many more birthdays!

Uniqlo ultra light down vest

March 8, 2019March 6, 2019 / edebock / 5 Comments

I’ve been busy lately planning an upcoming trip. I’m not going to give away any details about our destination just yet, but in addition to going where we’ve never gone before, we’re going to be doing it with carry-on luggage only. I’ve always been pretty good at packing light. I proved that in early 2008 when we left for a full year in Japan with less than what was, at that time, the allowable limit on a plane. This trip, however, is going to take packing light to a whole new level. Three and a half weeks with one teeny, tiny suitcase each!

Though we don’t depart for almost two months, I’m already thinking about what will go into those suitcases. Traveling in the spring, we need to be prepared for varying weather conditions. One of the keys to packing light and yet being prepared for changeable weather has always been layers. Richard, in particular, likes to wear a fleece vest when he’s feeling chilly, but they’re very bulky to pack. The answer? An ultra light down vest from Uniqlo for each of us.

I don’t really like ordering clothing online. I prefer to see, touch, and try on before I buy, but the closest Uniqlo store is 1300 km away in Vancouver, BC. Since we won’t be there before our big trip, ordering online was our only option. The process was simple and efficient with the package arriving in the mail just eight days after I placed the order. Unfortunately, however, in spite of the fact that we tried to make sense of the online size charts, Richard’s vest was too small and will need to be returned. While shipping was free and Uniqlo provided a prepaid shipping label for returns, they will deduct a substantial shipping charge from our refund. Uniqlo Canada doesn’t currently offer exchanges for online purchases, so I’ll have to reorder. Unfortunately, the vests were on sale when I initially ordered them, but aren’t any longer. I love Uniqlo clothing, but I do think that their customer service (at least in Canada) could use some improvement.

In spite of the frustration and extra expense of securing the right size, I think the vests will serve us well. Thin and incredibly lightweight, each comes with it’s own little stuff-sack made of the same water-repellent material as the outer shell. Once in the sack it’s about the size of a 1-litre water bottle and is by no means fully compressed when stored this way. It will easily pop into a day pack or fit amongst the other items in our luggage and add almost nothing to the weight. There’s even a little loop inside the front of the vest to attach the carrying pouch to so it doesn’t get lost.

The vest has zippered pockets in front as well as two inner pockets. There are a vast array of colours to choose from for both men and women. I chose navy, while Richard’s will be dark grey, both neutrals that will coordinate well with most of what we carry in those tiny suitcases. Do remember if you decide to order one that they fit a bit small.

Stay tuned for more about our upcoming trip and more packing tips in the weeks ahead!

It’s so me!

March 1, 2019July 2, 2019 / edebock / 1 Comment

When I spotted this top in our local thrift store, I immediately remembered this post by Brenda Kinsel, one of my favourite fashion bloggers. Though the style of her coat isn’t something that I’d likely choose for myself, I loved the fabric.

Brenda Kinsel

I love to read, I love to write, and I’m a self-professed word nerd. What could be more perfect than all those block letters on a comfy, eye catching top? It’s unique and it’s so me! My only regret is that I didn’t find it 15 years ago when I was still a language arts teacher! Wouldn’t the kids have loved it?

Here, I’m wearing the top with a wide silver bracelet that was also thrifted.

In my closet, this top is unique in another way. It was made in Italy!

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I’m always curious about any unfamiliar clothing lines that I find when I’m thrifting. A quick online search revealed that the Pistache designer is based in Toronto, Canada but all of the clothing is made in Italy. Sadly, while the “Made in Italy” label tends to suggest quality craftsmanship, I also learned that many of the garments that are made in Italy are stitched by illegal Chinese immigrants working in sweatshop-like factories in Tuscany. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, I was unable to find out whether or not Pistache clothing is made in one of those. As much as I want to be an ethical shopper, it’s very difficult! In this case, however, I can comfort myself with the fact that my top was bought second-hand and was, therefore, at least a somewhat ethical purchase.