St. Paddy’s Day!

O’  St. Paddy’s Day!  An excuse to drink in excess and claim you’re Irish!  It’s great!  I’m a big fan of any excuse to drink beers in the afternoon or all day among friends, whilst the bar spontaneously breaks out into song and the occasional jig with fiddle solo.  In previous years, the shenanigans would begin by getting ourselves down to an Irish Pub for breakfast-brunch around 11am to secure fantastic seats/section for the rest of the day to comfortably letting the beers flow, as groups of friends and friends-of-friends joined our table-o-fun throughout the day.  See pics below of all previous shenanigans of St. Paddy’s of my past.

 

So I was seriously bummed that St. Paddy’s Day fell on a Monday this year.  Plus, with nearly all my peeps coupled off, moved far, far away from the city, start having babies…trying to round-up the troops for early celebrations on the weekend wasn’t working out. 😦

But then a Facebook invite lifted my hopes: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It: Retro Road Show’s St. Patty’s Bash @ The Dovercourt House!  80s/90s music with nominal cover charge and in my neighbourhood.  Perrrrfect! 

Now…what to wear?

I picked up this fabulous dress at an event in Guelph last summer called Consign Your Curves.  Where curvy women opened up their closets and sell their never/barely worn garments before hauling it all away to Goodwill or storage lockers abyss.  Sadly, in all the time I’ve owned this piece I haven’t found an opportunity to wear it….until THIS weekend, I thought!

But that evening I didn’t feel it was GREEN enough.  In fact, I realized how little items of green I own.   Instead I ended up wearing 2-piece illusion dress (sheer green/black skirt) from Forever21+.  With a few green pre-cocktails at a friends place we headed to Dovercourt House where we danced between two floors of video dance party goodness.  There was even a photobooth with props…which we clearly enjoyed!

Now, since Monday is really St. Paddy’s Day…I couldn’t attend meetings in the office without bringing a touch of the Irish with me 🙂    Originally I put together the below for an office appropriate St. Paddy’s approved Outfit of the Day. 

Buuuuut, over the weekend when I was killing time before the Mirvish show: Arrabal at The Panasonic Theatre (a surprisingly good show told all in dance!),  I found myself in The Hudson Bay Company poking around the Dorothy Perkins section (my fav)… I discovered their UK clothing line called Billie & Blossom.  Typically UK sizes are about two sizes smaller than stated, i.e. a UK 16 is really a size 12/14 in Canadian sizes.  But this delightful butterfly patterned pleated coral dress seemed to fit as it should on moi at a UK18!   Plus, the sleeves were just right and I love the neckline.   And this morning I had-had-had to wear it instead… with my Kelly Green blazer, of course to give it a touch of the Irish! 🙂

I had hoped to convince a bunch for Folleauges (friends who are colleagues) out for a few green beers after work today and maximize my outfit to double duty – nobody likes wasting a good outfit on an insignificant day.  But the afternoon had got away from me, and when I next looked up it was already after 5pm, Irish pubs near the office had line-ups growing since before 3pm and my office was a ghost-town.  Sigh.. 

How did you celebrate St. Paddy’s Day?  What did you wear?  Share in the comments section…or better yet, post pictures on the  Facebook page.  I’m dying to see what y’all got up to 🙂

xo, Irene

How I got The Look:

Saturday Night: Blue-green dress from Asos + Rocker-chick buckle&zlip booties from Aldo

Monday March 17 – Office Day: White-Pink-Orange dress from DressBarn (original choice); Butterfly patterned pleated coral dress by Billie&Blossom (Hudsons Bay Co). + Kelly Green blazer from INC, Hundson Bay Co. + Black leather pumps from Guess

Accessories: Earrings & necklace were both gifts from wayyy back & St. Paddy’s Day headband from Old Navy many many moons ago