Inspired by Menswear

If you've been with me for any amount of time, you may have noticed how much I wear collared shirts, blazers and menswear inspired outfits. Once upon a time I wanted to be a menswear design and did attend college for a few years to make that dream come true.

I love suits and structured garments (Giorgio Armani is one of my favorite menswear designer) with clean lines mixed with flowy materials. I also have a massive jacket obsession due to my love of structure and construction.

I also love ponte knit as it gives a structured look with a lot of comfort, like my black blazer. I also like a lapel in which I can decorate with pins, like this rhinestone cleaver brooch by Kreepsville 666. 

peek-a-boo

Do you have any menswear inspiration in your wardrobe?

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Wiggle Wiggle

I have to admit that these days wearing wiggle dresses or tight fitting dresses have me running for the hills, but my new closet system has me inspired! I paired the Vamp dress by Mode Merr with this thrifted stripe sweater, vinyl belt and pointy booties.

This dress is amazing for layering! 

Four layers? Yes!

Thank you for reading!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Our Vintage Halloween Kitsch-en

This Madame Talbot print was the inspiration for my idea to have a vintage Halloween inspired kitchen, or kitsch-en as I would like to dub it.

We painted the upper walls gold and painted the bottom paneling dark brown as well painting the trim a high gloss black.

I remembered these orange and black striped valances that I made and voila!, they were perfect. The bottom pieces of material were just hung for privacy, but they have been replaced with plain black cafe curtains which I am may sew on some orange felt bats or something else that tickles our fancy. 

I love the green linoleum floors, very 60s and one of the many things that made me fall in love with our 1887 home. We took off the cabinet fronts and painted them a dark brown and updated the cabinet hands with metal chrome and re-purposed the cabinet hinges by spray painting them silver. I hung up my Halloween cut-outs and even found Halloween Con-Tact paper for the inside cabinet doors and decided to use some on the light switch!

We still have some finishing touches and some other decor ideas (like painting the tiled back splash), but it's coming along nicely! Hard to believe we've only been in the house a little over a month and have been so productive!!! 

A little imagination, elbow grease and using what you have can really make a huge difference! This is what it looked like before:

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Pet Shop Boys

We went out to a Pet Shop Boys/Erasure/Yazoo club night on Friday. I wore this over-sized crushed velvet button up shirt, my hat, leggings and winklepicker boots. I only snapped a few photos before we headed out the door.

Wearing my favorite lipstick color, Medusa by NYX Cosmetics.

It was an early night as Derek had work the next day, but it was nice getting out of the house and seeing some friends. It's crazy how much I don't miss clubbing! 

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Gold

+sweater and skirt: thrift +leopard boots: 6pm.com 

+snake earrings: from Julie Ann

+hair color: purple and lavender mixed, Ion

Yep. I like gold. I especially love gold lam'e with leopard print, but that's for another time. I re-purpled the hair which came out darker than expected, but we all know that fantasy hair dyes fade. Anywho, I love this embroidered knit sweater I thrifted, it's granny goth chic at its finest!

The vintage sweater has these beautiful gold buttons down and front and on the sleeves along with the embroidered roses and filigree. I knew I had the perfect sweater to go with the gold snake earrings that were presented to me by Julie Ann, who knew I would either love them or hate them. I mean, come on, they are GOLD SNAKE EARRINGS, so they were welcomed into my tacky tastes. 

Derek shook his head when we first saw the earrings, but was impressed when I put them with this sweater. He always laughs at me (lovingly), because he sees these things I come home with, but then again I'm usually dancing and singing when I am showing him my thrift finds and convincing him of the awesome potential. 

Gold snakes hanging off my lobes. Very Egyptian!

I'm having too much fun over here!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

My Favorite Sweater

I am wearing my favorite sweater paired with this shirt dress from Forever 21. I had a momentary weak moment and order a few things from Forever21. I hate myself, but I am glad that to have this shirt dress seeing as I have been looking to replace my Robert Smith-esque shirts that fell apart. This is a good example of a typical favorite outfit of mine, oversized and comfy!

I love the double knit of the sweater and the contrasting inside.

I'm currently re-coloring my hair as it's pretty bad when your brother says, "Hey look how faded your hair color is!". Oh big brother, I've been so busy! Grrrr! 

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Oh, This Ugly Thing

I often feel bad for neglected and discarded clothing that I find while I thrift as I see the beauty and craftsmanship in clothing from bygone eras. I saw this sweater and found it to be quite pretty with all the knit details and loved how soft and warm the sweater felt, so it came home with me. 

I tried the sweater on with several things and in several combos and found it paired well with another questionable piece in my closet, this animal print dress. I have to admit collecting clothing for my closet in the 'I feel bad for it' is not the most ideal mindset, but I like to wear quirky things that make my creative style juices flow....and I like to be warm.

There have been some other interesting sweaters that have made their way into my winter wardrobe, so I'm discovering that another person's ugly sweater is my solution to staying warm. Haha!!!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

The Upstairs Room(s)

The title was inspired by The Cure song "The Upstairs Room", because I'm upstairs at the house sitting at my beautiful 1950s vanity while I am typing up this blog. The lyrics of the song have nothing to due with this post, but I'm a crazy Cure fan so there you have it. *Wink*

I've been chased upstairs due to the extreme stinkiness of having our floors being refinished, which will be so worth it when everything comes together....and there is so much more to be done! Since we can't continue painting our living room or dining room and the kitchen is near completion, we've turned our attentions to our living area upstairs which is our master suite. The room that my vanity is located is in a main room (where we sleep) with adjoining front and back rooms, the front room is my sewing room and the back room is our walk-in closet.

(This isn't all my clothing, I don't want to break the wall!)

The walls of our closet room are green, which I dig and we're not going to change. I love to live in a space that isn't just white walls all around and green makes me happy! Derek installed a closet kit on the one side of the room as the double garment rack we purchased (located on the other side of the room) to share just didn't cut it. We both love clothing and need a space to be able to store and care for our garments properly. Derek is an angel for putting up that stupid clothing system, those things are so frustrating!  

Our closet room also has a little closet of it's own and it is the perfect place for our shoes, belts, etc. This is just my side of the shoes closet where I can finally store and find all my shoes! 

I have to say, having a space that I can alter to fit our needs and wants is pretty amazing. There has been a lot of frustration that has come with the house, but we're settling in nicely.

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Holy Crap, This Was a Surprise!

p.s. That is a Death in June band t-shirt I'm wearing. 

You'll have to pardon my half decorated/half finished kitchen and my appearance, but HOLY CRAP this jacket! Derek surprised me with the Straight to Hell white/black trim leather jacket I have been lusting over for about 4 years now. I was so surprised, I cried! Thanks to our friend Bryan, he hipped Derek on where to score this lovely love for $100 brand new! I have been searching for a vintage leather and/or thrift find leather with no luck and dropping serious dough on a leather wasn't in the cards. 

I love white leather so very much. I think it's exotic to me seeing as I mostly wear black. Hahaha!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Hardware

I love pieces that have a lot of silver hardware combined with leather. Whether it's a belt, boots or accessories, it stands out against black so nicely. 

I'm wearing this large knit sweater over a dark purple velvet maxi dress, both were thrift store finds. Surprisingly the hole-y knit is warm!

They say that if you wore it before, you shouldn't wear it again (as in fashion and trends) and I pffffffft to that. I wore stretch velvet in the 90s/early 00's and I welcome it back into my life now that I can find it! Yeah, I bought some wide leg velvet pants and did a little happy dance. 

PS-I got a shout out from Jen over at Betties N Brimstone, thank you and yes, goths can smile! Haha!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Blue Room

First photos taken in what will be my sewing/studio room and it's blue. I can't say I hate blue, but I probably will paint at some point. I have to make this space more 'me' and plaster it with Robert Smith and Ice Bats.

My outfit is super casual, but it's pretty dressy compared to the yoga pants and no make up I've been rockin' while we've had a few snow days. I've been too busy to care, but going out with friend's for tacos and tequila is a good excuse to make an effort. Hahaha!

I need a bang trim very badly.

+zebra shirt, wool sweater and necklace: thrift. +pants: Target +zebra creepers : eBay

Slanted walls! AHHHHH!!!!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Behind the Scenes : Photography by Jennifer Link

Talk about a real flashback, to 2007 when my friend and photographer Jennifer Link did a series called, Behind the Scenes. She got clothing from Canadian cyber futuristic designers, such as Futurstate and Plastik Wrap (the other designer names escape me) and asked a few girls to model, myself included. I'm the blonde......

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Check out Jennifer Link's website!

Welcome!

Yep. This is my darling husband. Haha! This photo was taken on Sunday when our friend Danielle helped us move some items to the house. The movers came yesterday, which I was grateful for, as it was 15 degrees with the wind chill making it feel like the Arctic. We've both moved a lot, so this was our first time ever hiring someone to move our furniture and boxed items, and I have to admit I felt really odd just letting them work while I just puttered around.

So as I'm typing this staring at the half-finished refinished wood floor, it has all been worth it and will continue to be. So much more painting, cleaning and decorating to do, but it's allllll ours. *Big smile*

Do you have a home or flat you own? What is the most rewarding part of home ownership?

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Happy New Year!

I want to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year! 

I also wanted to thank you for all the comments and love that you gave me in 2014!!!!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla