The Best $10 I Ever Spent

dress - H & M, shoes - Target, purse - c/o J. Crew, ring - H & M

Happy Monday! (As happy as a Monday can be, right?) I hope you all had a nice weekend! Mine was pretty good but of course went by waaaaay too fast. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up. On Saturday night I slipped into this fun, floral dress I bought months ago for $10 on sale at H & M (yes, ten bucks!!) but had never worn up until this past weekend when I went to dinner with my family. We went to Chop Steakhouse to celebrate my Grandma's 90th Birthday. I've mentioned before that I'm a vegetarian so you might be wondering, "What the heck does a vegetarian eat at a steakhouse??" Well, I'll tell you!

I started off with spicy cashew snap peas...

For my main dish I had a chicken apple salad with toasted pecans  (minus the chicken) and I finished off with a....wait for it, wait for it..

...delicious baked apple pie with vanilla ice cream that I shared with my sister-in-law. It was amazing! We all walked out of the restaurant with food babies in our tummies. D. had twins, he could hardly move.

My nephew Kayden and my grandma after she blew out her candles. She looks great for ninety years old, hey???

Have a great week! And don't forget to enter my So Pretty Jewelry international giveaway for a chance to win a $100 gift card! 

**CONTEST CLOSED** International Giveaway! Win a $100 Gift Card to So Pretty Jewelry!

To say I'm excited for today's giveaway would be an understatement! I have been a huge, HUGE fan of Cara Cotter's So Pretty Jewelry line ever since I laid my eyes on her gorgeous pieces at Coup Boutique almost two years ago. Her contemporary, unique, timeless, and absolutely stunning jewelry landed her a recent feature in FASHION magazine. And lucky for us, after eight years of building her Edmonton-based business, Cara has launched a brand new website + e-commerce store plus four new lines! To celebrate, she has teamed up with Marie a la Mode to offer my readers a chance to win a $100 gift card to be used to purchase anything on her site. And since So Pretty Jewelry ships anywhere in the world, this contest is open internationally!

To enter the giveaway:

*Mandatory Entry*: Visit So Pretty Jewelry online here and tell me what piece of jewelry you would spend the gift card on if you won in the comment section below this post. Make sure to leave your email address in your comment so I know how to contact you if you win. (1 entry.)

For extra entries:

• Follow So Pretty Jewelry on Twitter here (+1 extra entry)
• 'Like' So Pretty Jewelry on Facebook here (+1 extra entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway saying 'Enter to win a $100 Gift Card to @SoPrettyJewelry  on @marielamode http://mariealamode.blogspot.com/2012/07/international-giveaway-100-gift-card-to.html  *please make sure you include the link to this post (+2 extra entries)
• Follow me on Twitter here (+1 extra entry)
• 'Like' me on Facebook here (+1 extra entry)
• Follow me on Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin' (+1 extra entry)

***Please make sure you let me know how many entries you qualify for.

Contest will be open for two weeks. Good Luck!

Inspiration: Lauren Hutton

photos via tumblr, style rows, harper's bazaar, vogue, one style at a time

Lauren Hutton proves women can be beautiful at any age. And not just on the outside. Model, actress, entrepreneur, activist and adventurer, Lauren Hutton's spirit, style, grace and the way she lives her life truly inspires me. And I love how the Olsen twins chose her as the face of their clothing line The Row a few years back. Such a perfect choice! Who inspires you?

 

Is there a DOCtor in the House?

maxi dress - H & M, booties - c/o Dr. Martens West Edmonton Mall, hat - Roots, purse - Christopher Kon(Winners), 

gold cuff - Banana Republic, gold + black bracelet - H & M, ring - The Bay

A couple of weeks ago I attended the grand opening of the new Dr. Martens store in West Edmonton Mall on Europa Boulevard - the first stand-alone store in Western Canada - and was gifted with these beautiful, chic, black Kimora laced-up booties, which are surprisingly comfortable! No really, they are. I adore these shoes and I know I'll be getting lots of use out of them all year round. So thank you to the very friendly and extremely helpful staff at Doc Martens! And thanks for the tour of the store and for putting on a great party ; ).

Here are a few pics I snapped that night:

Fall 2012 preview: gold, metallic and silver ankle boots

Fun, eclectic prints from the Liberty of London Collection

Women's beautifully-crafted heels

Retro shoes. (Loved these.)

Flirty florals

Brelyn Shannon (Operations Manager), Louise Dirks (Owner), and Douglas Segal (head of Dr. Marten USA)

I hope you all had a great weekend. And now it's back to the grind!

The Look For Less

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have seen me posting/gloating about my beautiful new LEAB bag I bought from Aldo (on the right) for $55.00. This morning on my coffee break while perusing People magazine online I came across a photo of actress Sofia Vergara carrying what looked to be the same bag. But I was mistaken. After doing a little research, aka googling, I found out the one she's carrying in the photo above is a Chanel bag (of course! she's a celebrity after all and can buy whatever she wants) and it retails between $2500 and $3000.00. But if you, like me, can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on a handbag - and if you can I hate you (but not really) -, this Aldo purse is a great dupe! In addition to beigy-pink, it also comes in black, fuschia and peach. Click here to buy.

Clearly Contacts Giveaway Winner Announced!

Before I announce the winner of the pair of Derek Cardigan 7004 Birch sunglasses from Clearly Contacts I'd like to thank all of those who entered and of course Clearly Contacts who sponsored this giveaway. Thank you! The lucky winner of the gorgeous shades is..................Kira from Northern Style Exposure. Congratulations! I will be in touch with you shortly! Stay tuned for another giveaway coming up soon on Marie a la Mode!

Life, Lately

Clockwise starting from top left: my new Aldo purse, get it here

Fabulous new booties c/o the new Doc Marten store in West Edmonton Mall

Trying out some new makeup and taking a picture of myself in said makeup

I found Kitty hiding in our closet during a loud thunderstorm, on top of D.'s clothes

A friendly squirrel at my family's cabin eating out of my mom's hand

Outfit post wearing my new dress from Loft 82

My nephews' new kittens. How cute are they??

My older nephew playing in the mud at the farm, without a care in the world!

Awkward family pet photo for #felinefriday

Styling Rena Donaldson

On a boat yesterday right before it started raining

Relaxing at the cabin

all photos via instagram @mariealamode

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Kate Upton - Fat???

A couple of days ago on Twitter I was lead to a link to a "skinny" blog that basically promotes anorexia and frowns upon any woman weighing more than 110 lbs. I'm not going to mention the website because it's rubbish and I don't want to send any traffic their way but if you want to google it I'm sure you can find it. The post I clicked on was about Kate Upton (above), an American model and actress whose career is heating up fast. She was this year's covergirl for Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition and has modeled for Victoria's Secret, Guess and Dooney & Burke, just to name a few. Most recently, a Youtube video photographer Terry Richardson posted of Kate doing the 'Cat Daddy' dance back in May went viral and pitched tents in every straight man's pants while they watched it over and over (and over) again.

The author of the post compared Kate to a cow and called her thick, vulgar, lazy, lardy, "with huge thighs, no waist, big fat floppy boobs and terrible body definition." She then goes on to say that "Fashion is supposed to be aspirational - and the kind of people who aspire to look like [Kate] shop for clothes at Wal-mart." 

This post angered me. First of all, this "skinny girl's" blog is what's called a "thinspiration" blog, a "pro-skinny" site that up until this week offered "Starving Tips of the Day!" like this one:

"Pay close attention to other girl's bodies. Pick them apart — try to find faults even with the best bodies. Then apply these high standards to yourself."

And another: "Think of your stomach pains in a whole new light. Your stomach doesn't hurt because you are hungry, that burning feeling is fat melting off of you."

Say what?! Really? Really? What a bad example to set for impressionable young (and sick) girls who probably visit this site daily, wanting to maintain an unrealistic and dangerous body weight. This blogger should be ashamed of herself. Sites like these need to be shut down.

Second of all, Kate is gorgeous. She's not fat. She's healthy, beautiful, and oozes confidence. More importantly, she is comfortable in her own body. But I get it, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I just wish this blogger's opinion of themselves (and others) could be full of a little more love and a lot less hate.

Denim on Denim

Chambray button-down top: KUT (from Black & Bold), skirt - Urban Outfitters, - shoes - Spring, purse - vintage, 

rings - H & M, sunglasses - Derek Cardigan Sun 7004 Birch c/o Clearly Contacts - WIN THEM HERE!

My inspiration:

Ashley Olsen. photo via

I used to be hesitant about pairing denim with denim, otherwise known as wearing a "Canadian Tuxedo" because I thought I'd look like a cowgirl which is fine if I was a cowgirl but I'm not although I do ride horses from time to time at my brother's ranch but I digress. I found that if I paired two different shades of denim, mixed with non-denim accessories I wouldn't end up looking like this:

Denim on denim on denim on denim. What were they thinking?? 

Ahh, love was blind back then. (And so was their stylist.)