Peacock thrift shirt I wore as a teen

This is my sis and me walking into the sunset in Vancouver, British Columbia the summer before grade 11 or 12 (I'm in the green skirt).

We've walked into the sunset again: she and I are currently in Ottawa for our big high school reunion, which means grunge queen won't be posting until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Then I'll be returning to regular grunge queen programming - thanks for your patience letting me stroll down memory lane this week.

I actually still have the green skirt I'm wearing in this pic. I found it in a second-hand store in Vancouver that summer so long ago, and I wore it for years. In my early 20s, after high school, I busted the seam and got it repaired. It looked kinda funny after that but I just couldn't let it go ....

Now it's being used as a makeshift cover for a thrift store stool. I'm going to get it made into a pillow because I love the green peacock print. So I'd say this 1960s skirt still has some mileage left in it!!

See you in a few days, and take care!!

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Blue jewel earrings

My sis and I bought these earrings the summer before grade 9, at the Ottawa Exhibition - and I still have them.

We wore them a lot in grade 9, and so did our pals! The fun thing about being young: wearing eachothers' clothing and accessories!

So as we prepare for our highschool reunion this weekend, here's my tribute to grade 9 fashion, and to hanging onto special things that hold fond memories: my grade 9 class pic.

This is one of my fave pics of myself. Quelle hair! I threw a bottle of blond hair dye on my hair - stupidly - hence the brassy look.

I'm wearing my fave royal blue wool sweater here, with a black scarf I bought the year earlier and wore to death for a few years - wonder what happened to it? I lent the sweater to a friend and never got it back, alas - it still smarts that she never gave it back nor recognized how important it was to me.

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This is me in grade nine

You know that Barenaked Ladies song, "This is me in grade 9"?

Since I'm off to my highschool reunion this week I'm taking a trip down memory lane ....

And this really IS me in grade nine, my first day at Canterbury High School for the Arts in Ottawa, next to my (fraternal) twin sis, right.

Yes, my glasses are the size of my head.

I agonized long and hard over my outfit: my fave skinny jeans (in style again), a cotton tee worn under an oversize cardigan borrowed from my sis, and plastic beads picked up the year before in England - plastic beads were ALL the rage back then (as they are again now). You can't see them but I think I wore flats - either that or the very strange boxer-inspired boots I picked up that year. Old army bag I bleached a fish-belly white, don't ask me why.

My sis's look was a little more 1980s pop: Billy Idol hair, plastic red earrings and kerchief at the neck, Flashdance-inspired cut sweatshirt with Esprit de Corps jacket over top (God we wore that thing from grade 8 until it must have disintegrated), and best of all, those red harem pants, bought that summer in some strip mall in Weyburn, Saskatchewan with our dear cousin Clayton.

We were still so green, and I think our innocence and enthusiasm showed through in our garb.

That was the best autumn of my life. And Canterbury was a great school. So looking forward to being there again.

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