Baby.

I'll admit it: today's theme is not all that far-fetched for me. I often dress and act as though I am approximately 4 years old, as evidenced by my intense and long-standing love for things such as rompers, frilly and/or colourful socks, rice pudding and juice boxes.
And speaking of socks, here's a fun little factoid about me: I own about 30 pairs, and not one single pair is a 'normal' colour or pattern. I have socks for every holiday, including the best one of all - Hallowe'en - socks with my initials on them (the ones I'm wearing in these photos actually), socks in every animal print known to man, and the list goes on. I've tried to buy a standard white or black pair many a time, and I've not yet been capable of bringing myself to do it. I've no idea why this is.

So I just want to put this out there: playgrounds are fun. Adults should hang out in playgrounds more often...that is if it weren't a super creepy thing to do when actual children are around. However there were no children in this particular playground this morning and as such G and I had a fantastic time.
I'd kind of forgotten how much fun it is climb up the ladder to a gigantic twisty slide (which, for the record, really isn't as gigantic as you remember it being the last time you were on it) and, better yet, sliding down such twisty slide!
And while slides may appear smaller and the ride down them shorter because, well, you've gotten bigger, it's at least good to know that some things never change: 15 years later and I still cannot for the life of me manage to get across a set of monkey bars without assistance. For one, they terrify me and did even more so when I was 3 feet tall and therefore quite a bit higher off the ground in hanging position.
Way more pleasant than my monkey bars terror is 'Baby', the Harajuku Lovers fragrance. It's expected given its name but really nice nonetheless; there's a strong baby powder aspect to 'Baby', but it's nicely offset with a fresh, clean floral base and hint of musk. It's absolutely the kind of scent I can imagine myself wearing for date nights, anniversaries, playground trips and any other event which is flirty, romantic or just simple fun. So while 'Baby' may not turn out to be on the heavy rotation shelf in my washroom, G and I both love it and it's therefore a definite special occasion keeper.
Wearing
Top: Erin Fetherston for Target
Dress: vintage
"S" socks: Goodness knows. Someplace nuts undoubtedly.
Shoes: F21
Bag: Harajuku Lovers

Angel.

While white is technically the absence of colour, I nonetheless deem it appropriate for my Colour Challenge '08. The challenge's raison d'être is, in fact, that I refrain from wearing black (which I'm pretty certain is technically all of the colours in the universe jumbled together or something along those lines). I probably should have paid more attention in kindergarten as opposed to happily and ignorantly making masterpieces out of playdough, because I actually just googled this to confirm that my colour-jumbling theory wasn't way out of left field. Moving on, albeit slightly shamefully...

Today's Harajuku Lovers theme is Angel or, as the perfume's actual name suggests, ('Lil) Angel. I am not particularly little - though I suppose when standing next to certain people I am - but I believe I got the angel thing down pretty well, at least externally speaking. Yesterday's outfit was definitely in underwear-as-outerwear territory which most 'normal' folk tend to shy away from/not understand/look down upon, but I think that, if done correctly and in the appropriate setting, why not? Not very angelic of me perhaps, but I've got to have my fun right?
The fragrance itself is a clean, citrusy floral with a really fruity kick to it, and I find it to be the most unique of the bunch. There's not much which I personally find to connotative of angel in the actual scent, but then again I would probably dislike that more, as 'connotative of angel' from my perspective means sugary, powdery and grossly sweet.
Angel is extremely pleasant and wearable and something I would definitely not mind being stuck in an elevator with (if you have never had the misfortune of being stuck in an elevator with an individual who reeks of knockoff designer perfume as I did this morning and have many a time prior, then I seriously envy you), but probably not the one which suits me and my style best. I cannot, however, say that I wouldn't buy it - as the tag line of the Harajuku Lovers product line blatantly suggests, the set of characters is irresistibly adorable.
Yesterday after work was spent in this beautiful park I discovered while walking home from work, which I cannot believe I've passed by without a thought all this time. I always find it interesting to find green spaces in the heart of downtown - it's so dichotomous and fun to see a skyscraper next to a tree and just spend some time enjoying where you are when you're there and not thinking about all of the crazy, busy, exciting, non-exciting, etc. things in life that generally consume 99.99% of one's brain space. In short, it's really nice.
Wearing
Tank and slip: La Vie En Rose
Pants: Rock & Republic
Shoes: Juicy Couture
Necklace: thrifted
Pins: the "S" pin with the angel on it (which you can see in the above photo) was given to me a long time ago as a gift. It's something I rarely if ever wear, but I felt it to be highly appropriate given the theme.

Bag: Chanel, vintage

Love.

This week's theme (as alluded to on Friday) is not only colour, but also the new Harajuku Lovers perfumes which I was recently given the opportunity to try out prior to the Canadian launch of the product; you may or may not be familiar with them already, but in short there are five fragrances (Love, Angel, Music, Baby and G), each of which comes in a super adorable little character bottle representative of the accompanying scent.
I personally consider scent to be an integral aspect of fashion and style, and as such generally keep about five different perfumes in heavy rotation at any given time, the wear of which is determined by what I'm wearing or feeling or thinking or whatever else. It's very much like getting dressed for me, only easier and without as many decisions to make.

So this is all very exciting stuff in my books, and I therefore figured why not incorporate my excitement towards this venture into my daily blogging by dressing somewhat thematically? As I have mentioned before, I rarely turn down the opportunity to play dress-up, however in this case I wanted to ensure that my thematic outfits were still wearable so I've set one rule for myself: that I must wear the daily outfit all day with no exceptions granted - if it can't be worn normally throughout the duration of my normal days it's not really worth doing, is it?
Today's theme, as per the post title, is LOVE. I'm quite surprised at how much I like this fragrance, as it's pretty much a rule of thumb with me + perfume that I intensely dislike anything particularly flowery, sweet or girlish. As a matter of fact I've been known on occasion to don G's colognes...Prada by Prada for Men is fantastically genderless and probably my favourite scent ever, but I admittedly had to stop wearing it so often after G kindly informed me that he prefers to not be scent-twins.
Nonetheless, one can consider my preference for Prada cologne to be a barometer for all things which I like in a scent: crisp, clean, musky, subtle and long lasting on my strangely perfume-resistant skin. I'm quite obviously not a perfume expert and know very little about the technicalities which go into creating scents, but I do know that Love, which I was fully expecting it to go into overbearing and sickly sweet floral territory, fits all of my requirements and is something I will continue to wear long past this project's end. Love does have a really strong top note of rose petal but not annoyingly so, and I've found that this wears off after about half an hour of wear and turns into a really lovely feminine rose-musk-thing that I enjoy.
Moreover, yesterday's theme ended up being fitting on a number of levels - after a wild Saturday night out and about G and I ended up having a very lovely day consisting of walks through the city, furniture browsing, coffee on park benches and, finally, some heavy-duty housework which made us both feel pretty accomplished I think. In fact, you can even see G (kind of) in the photo below for what I believe is the first time ever on Modern Guilt. Well, there may have been one similar time long ago, but who's counting, right? As you can see from the photo, I am tiny and silly and blonde to his tall and serious-looking (deceptively so) and dark. We're a funny but good pair for sure.
Wearing

Sweater: Erin Fetherston for Target (I know, I know, it's grey and I promised all-colour-all-week...but it was cold outside and this has little heart buttons on it, so it's kind of still valid?)

Dress: F21

Tights: Winners

Shoes: the purple suede ones are from David's, and patent black flats are from a cottage-country dollar store - romantic walks in the city mean carrying a pair of comfy flats in your bag!

Bag: Chanel, vintage

The Dangerous Type

To celebrate a recent promotion at my work-work - I refer to it as that because blog-work is work too - G took me out for a really gorgeous dinner last night at a local restaurant that we both love. Because of my half-Italian heritage I have a really difficult time complimenting the cooking of Italian food by anyone other than my nana, but I will nonetheless concede to the fact that both the food and the wine list at this particular restaurant are awesomely out of this world.

G looked really dapper in dark wash denim, loafers sans socks, a charcoal blazer and a white t-shirt (G's take on men's fashion is that it's all about hair and shoes...of which his are admittedly respectively awesome), so I decided to slightly 'match' myself to his look in that I went pretty basic with one of my best-fitting little black dresses, patent pumps and minimal accessories. I suppose it's not entirely matchy or anything, but at least I attempted to not go crazy bohemian-fringe-grunge-whatever.While digesting and continuing to be winos we watched a film which is one of my favourite guilty pleasures ever: The Craft. Hell to the yes, I really couldn't care less what anyone says about it because that movie rocks, and looking back on it now has some pretty decent fashion in it as well. I remember my 14 year old self wanting so badly to be a part of an awesome little witch clique, and after watching it last night realize I still wouldn't mind that. Well, without the killing people and sharks and causing general mayhem part, obviously. One could even speculate that last night's photos were inspired by the film, as I really do look kind of witchy and evil...though I must say I fancy myself to be more of a Robin Tunney than a Faruza Balk.

Wearing

Dress: Zara

Shoes: Aldo, from ages ago

13 O'Clock

Yesterday evening was not quite as eventful as the one prior to it, but it was nonetheless enjoyable in a really subdued, laid-back way. G and I made some dinner, did some laundry, organized finances and did all of that other stuff which unfortunately has a tendency towards reminding you that you are not even close to being a child anymore and that you are, for all intensive purposes, a proper adult.
I certainly don't feel like an adult most of the time, but I suppose that it is reasonably comforting to know that I am and that it's really not as bad as I thought it might be. I feel as though I'm really coming to understand the whole 'you're only as old as you feel' adage on some intrinsic level...at the same time, I'm considering purchasing this Lancome nonsense because I'm pretty sure I'll have a change of heart about the whole matter at the onset of my first fine line.
At a certain point last night I grew a bit tired of the grown-up activities and responsibilities and as such cajoled G into coming to the park with me to sit on the expansive grass lawn, drink iced teas and basically do nothing but enjoy sitting and drinking iced teas. It's not as though we have year-round summer here, so why stay in the apartment and let any moment of the nice weather pass us by, right? Mind you I didn't even notice that the pattern of the dress I donned nearly blended in with the actual scenery until we sat down and G started to click away. Silliness on my part ensued, as per the photograph above. Here's to hoping that all of you are having as nice of a week as we are!

Wearing

Dress: H&M

Belt: vintage

Shoes: Nine West

Bag: vintage

Anita, Kate, Mick and...You?

This blouse is pretty much too cute to sell, but I'm doing it anyways! Auction ends tomorrow afternoon at 6:30 p.m. EST - bidding is still super-cheap, so hit it up before it's too late...