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Hi Everyone!

Just a bit of housekeeping on this fine Saturday morning.

I seem to be receiving an incredibly large amount of spam comments these days. For example: this morning I had 230 unmoderated comments and only 4 of them were from real readers.
So I have unfortunately had to change who can comment on the blog from "Anyone" to "Registered User". If this doesn't seem to solve the problem, I will enable the word verification again. This is not my preference, as I would like anyone to be able to comment easily on my blog, but my time is too precious to be dealing with a mass amount of garbage like that every time I log into my account.

Thank you for understanding and if you are also experiencing this, or have a better solution, please let me know!!


Lisa.xo

Goodies

Another post with goodies from the road! We hit up one of the thrift stores and an antique store in Dauphin last Wednesday.

Here's what I brought home with me:


These purses were 50 cents each. I love the straw one (I have a huge weakness for straw purses) and I couldn't resist the soft brown leather on the second one (although it looks black in the pic, it's actually dark brown).

I've always wanted one of these trumpet vases. I see them everywhere, but in strange colours that won't go with my house. I couldn't resist this white one for $1.

My collection of blue glass is growing. I can imagine this as a very cute bud vase.

I've saved the best for last. I bought her at the antique store. My very first vintage head vase! I've always wanted one and they're very pricey in Winnipeg. I scored this lovely lady for $32. I actually don't know much about head vases, but a quick search on eBay and Etsy tells me I did not too bad price wise. Either way I like her and am looking forward to bringing her home to my dressing room.

She's in great shape. She only seems to be missing the bottom, dangling part of her pearl earring. Everything else is there - even the original makers sticker on the bottom. She's made by Parma.

Have you scored at the thrift store lately? Do you have a collection of head vases? Do tell!

Lisa.xo

Outfits: Variations on a Theme

Another outfit from the road (although we're in town for the weekend!). As you can see, this one is similar to the one I showed you last week. 

It's a fail-proof formula really: cute beret, tee-shirt, cardigan, skinny jeans, vintage jewelry, boots. I have a number of these outfits in my suitcase. 

What you don't see here is how many layers I'm actually wearing. Under the cardigan, the tee-shirt and the white long sleeve tee shirt is a tank top. Under my jeans are thermal long johns and under my boots are thermal socks. Sometimes I wear another pair of knee high socks over the thermals. And often I will layer on a scarf if the gym we're performing in is cold. 

As you can see, I did manage to wear my new necklace. I thought maybe when I bought it, it was too fancy to wear out in rural Manitoba. Nope! Nothing like a tee-shirt and rhinestones!

Chartreuse Knit Beret: Forever 21

Vintage Rhinestone Necklace: thrifted in Swan River

Aqua Tee Shirt: thrifted

Long Sleeve White Tee (under tee and cardigan): Ricki's

Leopard Print Cardigan: Joe Fresh

Black Skinny Jeans: Forever 21

Over the Knee Boots: Urban Planet

We head back out for the next leg of the tour on Sunday. It's a shorter stint this time - only a week and a half.

Lisa.xo

Dauphin Town Hall Auditorium Tour

We had the privilege to be offered a private tour of Dauphin's historic Town Hall.

The 1904-05 Dauphin Town Hall, a solid brick structure with a dominant square tower, is centrally located on a corner lot. The imposing building, Romanesque Revival-style, was designed by local architect Stuart Geekie. It is a good illustration of the multi-use public facilities erected in rural Manitoba in the early twentieth century. In addition to a second-floor auditorium, the large adaptable facility housed assorted government services for more than five decades, including municipal offices, courthouse, jail, fire hall and, in later years, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment. The structure continues to contribute to the city’s development as an arts and recreation centre.
(The Manitoba Historical Society Website)

source

Most of the building has been renovated with a mix of modern and historic touches. The best part, for me, was the theatre (or the auditorium as it is called). It had a ton of beautiful original. restored character.

These seats are original too! They were actually pretty comfortable!

We'll be home tonight! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed! 

Lisa.xo

Louis Riel Day in Dauphin

Monday was a holiday here in Canada. Most of the country calls it Family Day (I believe BC celebrates the holiday next Monday), but here in Manitoba we call it Louis Riel Day.

Louis Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political and spiritual leader of the Métis people. (Wikipedia) 

Our tour currently has us residing in Dauphin, Manitoba for about a week and Dauphin has a rich Aboriginal and Metis history. Alissa, her boyfriend Christian (who drove up from Winnipeg to visit us!) and I ventured out to Fort Dauphin on Monday to partake in some Louis Riel Festivities!

Warning! This is a picture heavy post!

A couple structures inside the fort.

Here we are helping ourselves to maple syrup on a stick (sometimes called maple taffy)! It's so delicious! Better than a lolipop!

Maple syrup is heated until liquid and then poured in a line on the snow. Then before it hardens on the cold snow you take a wooden stick and roll up the line of syrup until it's a ball on the end.

This is the inside of the Archaeology Laboratory. It's full of fossils and artifacts from the surrounding area.

Inside the museum. I found the Fur Bale intriguing as well as the fur value chart.

More stuff in the museum. These were part of the WWII exhibit. Mostly I liked the sunglasses...

I couldn't resist taking photos of the amazing embroidery and bead work of these items. So beautiful!

The Dauphin Dramatic Society. This photo is so causal and jovial compared to so many turn of the century portraits. I especially like the gentleman holding the violin bow up to the lady's neck on the left side of the picture.

This is the blacksmiths shop.

And the trading post.

I loved this woman's Hudson's Bay coat. She was kind enough to let me photograph her. She told me after that her coat belonged to the museum! And that it was warm!

At the end of the day we went on a horse drawn covered wagon ride! 

And if I may leave you with this puzzling photo. The evolution of the telephone...switchboard to iPhone.

So as you can see we're having lots of fun between work. We get home on Thursday night for a day and a half before we head back out for another week. Couldn't come too soon. I started to feel homesick today for the first time. 

Lisa.xo