warm weather Archives

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Shunbun – Vernal Equinox

March 20, 2023

I'm writing this on Saturday morning; the temperature is WAY below freezing... sigh...

The first day of spring is my anniversary! 19 years - it seems like almost 2 decades...

I was thinking of pretty outfits for Easter, or some other wonderful Spring dressy occasion. Having one truly lovely outfit in your closet is only right!

A dress with smocking looks MUCH better on a person, rather than just stark in a photograph...

First sign of Spring in a lot of the world:

A pretty blouse or shirt can be worn a lot in the warm weather - with a skirt, certainly, but maybe shorts?

At a distance, this skirt doesn't seem to have much pink in it - you need to ... View the Post

Build a Warm Weather Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Windows by Robert Delaunay

March 17, 2023

This is pretty cheerful! And I always sense a feeling of the Eiffel Tower when I look at this...

So I have FOUR heroines that I'm thinking of, right now... Each of them is going to start the spring with an 8-piece core of beige - lots of linen!

And then each will channel her favorite painting to choose 8 accent garments... What colors might be chosen from our first painting?

First, let's look at what our heroines are each going to use as their wardrobe base...

Frankly, if you want a handful of linen garments for this summer (and then next 10 summers, to be honest; linen lasts a long time!), now is a good time to start looking...

I'm not going to show you the various outfits possible ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Keichitsu – Awakening of Hibernating Insects

March 8, 2023

I can't really make a good connection between emerging insects and a well-planned wardrobe... except...

Maybe we should start thinking about how we will dress when we can bring our knees, ankles, elbows and other body parts back out into the fresh air! Heaven knows that my knees haven't seen sunlight in months!

If you're in the mood to freshen up your warm weather wardrobe, THIS is the time to start looking. I think that the hang-over from the pandemic has made retailers reluctant to stock up on merchandise; I'm seeing lots of things sell out, far before the clothes are in season. Hmm...

I think it makes good sense to take a careful, critical look at things like flip flops, white pants, and anything that ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a 20-piece Navy and White Spring Wardrobe

February 20, 2023

Let's revisit the friend who has lost her wardrobe; she wants to start to rebuild with this scarf as her inspiration:

For reference - this was the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe 13 garments that she is wearing for Spring:

And these are the bonus garments that will round out her wardrobe:

But accessories! She still has a pair of sandals, and her sunglasses, as well as the earrings she was wearing when they were away and their house was destroyed...

I don't have a clear plan - I'm going to assemble 10 typical outfits from this wardrobe and make certain that she can wear those outfits with appropriate extras. Most important are certainly shoes and a bag or two, in my thinking...

First up, a spring bag, ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Flourish Floral from Talbots

February 17, 2023

It can happen. Floods, fires, landslides, earthquakes, eek!!!

And your wardrobe is gone. Completely.

It recently happened to one of us...

She lives somewhere with weather that's already warm-ish, so she wants to start with a Spring wardrobe.

It's a nightmare, and a dream, all at the same time.

She wants to start here:

And the colors that she wants to include are thus:

We discussed how to go about doing this - the Start from Scratch Wardrobe didn't appeal to her, so I suggested we try to look at the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe for Spring:

I was able to assemble suggestions for this reasonably quickly. The accent of soft green showed up most often at Lands' End, where it is called "light ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Risshun – Beginning of Spring

February 8, 2023

Okay, there's nothing resembling Spring in Chicago right now - although I did walk home from Physical Therapy in my shorts! People thought I was nuts...

I have two things in mind today - first is that eventually we should all take a close look at our clothes and accessories for the upcoming season to make sure that everything is in good condition. No yellowed whites? No run-down heels on our espadrilles?

And secondly, I want to have an outfit ready to roll if/when we get one of those freakishly warm days!

If you want to pull together an outfit in unusual (or unusual for you!) colors, it might be wise to get an early start, before all of the really nice things sell out!

No flowers poking up through ... View the Post

Chic Sighting Round 2: White Shorts and Pants

July 27, 2022

On Michigan Avenue, you see all sorts of people - locals, tourists, people in from around the region for a shopping day...

In the parks near my home, it's much more a neighborhood crowd...

Maybe it's because most of us are pretty close to home, but people don't seem to be nearly as worried about wearing white as you might expect:

One of the many joys of wearing white pants or shorts is that ANY top that you have clean will go perfectly!

Of course, living this close to the lake means that we will see a fair number of people dressed in classic sailing colors!

Any top with a white background is a candidate for these kinds of outfits:

If you choose the right top, your can have ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Shōsho, Small Heat

July 6, 2022

It's not the worst of the summer heat, not yet! But it's quite hot enough during the day that shorts and tee shirts are essential...

So she's headed to the lake, alone. She's rented the world's tiniest lake house. She can only be in 1 place at a time, so a 1-room house (let's be frank and call it a cabin, eh?) is perfect for her...

She might run into other people - it's not as if she's renting the entire lake! But she's going to dress for herself - cool shorts and tops for the day, and a sweatshirt for sitting outside after dark, watching fireflies...

There's a certain calmness that comes from being able to lie in bed at night and see EVERY SQUARE INCH of your cabin... She's seriously considering ... View the Post

Another Way to Think About Closet Cleaning

June 29, 2022 Today's my birthday - I'm 62!!! The only certain treat today is a yellow cake with maple frosting, from Sweet Mandy B's... Sadly, I will NOT be able to have a blog post ready for Friday; between my birthday and other utterly unrelated errands I have to run on Thursday, it's just not possible! I will of course be back on Monday...

But on to more practical things - clearing out a wardrobe that's just plain and simply too full. More clothing than you need is confusing, distracting clutter, and clothing that you can donate could be a wonderful gift to a total stranger...

Here's our starting point:

I'm working (gradually and haltingly!) toward Project 333 for myself, and I'm trying to be sensible, by keeping clothing ... View the Post

June 2022 Start with a Bracelet: The Surprising Lynx Bracelets

June 27, 2022 They Never Know What to Expect...

Some years their more... eccentric aunt can't make it up to the lake for a weekend with them. They understand; she travels a lot and is often busy with work...

So when they got a call asking if there was room for her this coming weekend, they were all pretty excited to see her, for all kinds of reasons!

Her current car is a convertible. Electric. Very sleek... And she looked quite elegant...

They weren't expecting purple socks, but they weren't exactly surprised...

It was the next morning, when she turned up for breakfast wearing a swim-dress, a matching hoodie, and water shoes, that they were gobsmacked...

"Yea, I was stuck in the Maldives for a few days on a ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Golden Stairs by Sir Edward Coley Burney-Jones

June 24, 2022

Yes, you saw this painting a long time ago! That heroine was also traveling for a family celebration...

Let's take a close-up look at a bunch of these lovely ladies, and enjoy the color palette...

Our heroine is off for a quick weekend trip to a family wedding! She's taking Friday off of work, so that she will arrive early in the afternoon - certainly early enough for lunch with relatives, and possibly early enough for a quick nap:

Because the partying starts tonight, with the rehearsal and the following dinner, and then of course the wedding on Saturday! By Sunday, she just needs to drag herself to brunch before they run out of coffee, and then sleep on the train on the way home!

She wants to ... View the Post

One Way to Get to Project 333

June 22, 2022

By this time of year, most of us should be easily able to whittle down our warm-weather wardrobe to a tidy 33 pieces. While this is NOT what Courtney Carver suggests for her Project 333, I'm pretty confident that she wouldn't be too upset with us starting at this point. So long as we look seriously at our wardrobes from time to time, she will probably approve!

buy her book and read it; trust me!

How to minimize what's in one's closet is a question that I am asked almost every day, and thus I keep thinking of different ways that someone could go about eliminating a big chunk of their wardrobe... Let me share one idea!

Let's start here - I think (but am by no means sure!) that there are 69 garments here... If all of ... View the Post