warm weather Archives - Page 3 of 37

Chic Sightings: Green Dresses, and an Amazing Discovery!

June 27, 2025

I wasn't sure at first - sometimes, a coincidence is JUST a coincidence. One shouldn't make too much of these things...

But then Belovedest noticed it too: LOTS of women are wearing green dresses! We were walking along the river last week, and saw FIVE women in green dresses... We didn't see five women in black, blue, red, yellow, AND white dresses.

Then today I went downstairs to our grocery store (in our building, the ultimate luxury!), and ran into one of my closest friends here in the building. Wear a green dress.

Okay, that's a sign! So let's look at some pretty dresses.

This first dress is pretty much exactly the color of peridots, so I gave this heroine some peridot jewelry. Realistically, her earrings ... View the Post

Love Primary Colors? Start With 2 Scarves – Lazyjack Press and Elizabetta

June 25, 2025

Sometimes, when you're packing, it's just easier to go back to the very most basic options. That's certainly true with colors; if you're packing core is navy, red and yellow seem like perfect accents!

So let's start with these two scarves:

Our heroine has made a few changes to her navy wardrobe core. This part of your packing can be as conservative or as relaxed as you need, of course!

To go with our red floral scarf, our heroine has chosen a timeless linen camp shirt, and a striped tee! She might wear the scarf with the striped tee shirt, if she's feeling in that mood.

Her yellow clothes make a sort of twinset, with the matching tee shirt and cardigan. And yes, she's got two completely ... View the Post

Like the Idea of Your Painting, But Having Trouble With the Colors? Start With Art – Pink and Black by Ed Clark

June 23, 2025

Another conference? (She did this before.) As the trailing spouse? What an absolutely horrible term...

But she's going, and she will be beautiful. She has the best inspiration; this is one of her favorite paintings, by her favorite artist:

But she's feeling uncertain... her favorite pink clothes are NOT this shade of pink. Does this matter?

After thinking for a few minutes, our heroine realized that unless she carried a big reproduction of the painting around with her and pointed out to people how badly the shades of pink clashed, nobody would ever know. She can put it out of her mind, if she tries!

So she's preparing for the "weird meet and greet/maybe go out to dinner with people they know" arrival. The ... View the Post

Like to Change Your Colors With the Seasons? Start With Art – Blue Level by Lee Krasner

May 23, 2025

You often tell me that you don't much want to wear brown in the summer time, but conversely you're not really comfortable wearing bright colors in the winter. (it feels too '80s, for many of us!)

So what if your favorite painting offered you options?

You can assemble your color palette (I could have certainly included a touch of orange in here, couldn't I?), but just plain and simply ignore one or more of your colors when you plan for a season!

These are the obvious colors that come from this painting - I can't decide if the three vertical stripes are a shade of brown, or maybe plum...

This heroine is packing for an event - I believe she told me it was a first communion, followed by a church picnic. Great ... View the Post

Love Black & White, but Crave Nature? Start With Art – Green Forest by Natalia Goncharova

May 19, 2025

Maybe you're like today's heroine - you love your black and white, but in the warm weather you want to wear the colors of plants, and water, and the sky!

Our heroine has a wide range of accent colors available. Always remember that you don't have to match all of your accent colors to each other. I like to have them look nice together so that the images here look good, but in real life, you can be much more wide-ranging in your choices!

Our heroine is leaving from work, so she's wearing things that will be useful when she gets to her warm destination:

I'm going to pack this heroine's suitcase one piece at a time. The first thing I always start with is a top that can be switched out for whatever one is ... View the Post

Unsure of the Weather? Start With Art – The Silbury Owl by Catherine Hyde

May 16, 2025

Lots of women artists this month; if you love this painting, prints of it are available from the artist!

Our heroine loves a good dark brown - or any of the autumn colors! And she's quite fond of pink and orange, together or separate. So her color palette is obvious and simple:

She's going away for a weekend event, and absolutely NOBODY can give her a hint of what the weather will be! She knows that it's cold where she is right now, so she's going to dress a bit warmly, even though it's May...

It might be warm enough to wear a slippy little dress. Or she might actually need a sweater! And for her spare time, she's even bringing a sweatshirt... Oh, weather keeps us on our toes, doesn't ... View the Post

Like a Base of Black and White? Start With Art – Variation on a Lighthouse Theme IV by Ida O’Keeffe

May 14, 2025

Yes, IDA O'Keeffe. Georgia's sister. Imagine how she felt, painting her lovely paintings... That had to be hard!

I quite like this painting. The colors are great, and I find the geometric qualities in it to be really pleasing. In the absence of her sister, maybe Ida would have been famous.

The color palette jumps off the painting at us:

This heroine is quite fond of a simple linen shirt, and with good reason. A linen or cotton shirt is one of the garments that you can literally wear every month of the year. It can be worn over a tee shirt and under a sweater in bitter cold, open over a tee shirt or tank top in scorching heat, or on its own (maybe with the sleeves rolled?) on all of the middling days.

Our ... View the Post

May 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 25, 2025

If all goes as planned, I will be in Ireland when you read this!

Let's look for a moment at this quintessential summery painting:

When we last visited this heroine, her 20-piece wardrobe looked pretty great - this is another one of those collections with which one could travel for a really long time!

This heroine is SO ready to be outdoors, but she's also smart enough to realize that it's not all that warm, yet. A sweatshirt is always handy, and a long-sleeved shirt is almost 12 month clothing. Sleeves can be rolled!

And is the bracelet perfect for her?

Her 24-piece wardrobe feel exactly the same. More garments, more functional, but the same personal style!

And her accessories are - as is ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6 – Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

April 8, 2025 It's snowing in Chicago. It might just be "lake-effect" snow - I live within sight of Lake Michigan - but it's still startling, in April. But this heroine, big fan of the warmest, most intense colors, is ready for Spring! As has been true for all of our heroines, her 16-piece wardrobe from the end of March would be a great wardrobe for travel that included a range of temperatures: This heroine feels that her colors are hard to find, and she therefore grabs things that she sees in her colors as soon as they're available. I'm not actually certain that these colors are all that rare; I suspect we might find that we need to really stock up on olive and off-white at some stage. But she's right - who could resist this ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5 – Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

April 7, 2025

I think I say the same thing with every painting - if I were starting from scratch, THIS color palette would really tempt me...

One of the things that always attracts me are the 16-piece wardrobes. This is a level at which you're looking at an appropriate number of garments for travel - wear 3, pack 13. This wardrobe would cover you - literally - from cold weather (a down jacket stuffed into the outside pocket of your suitcase?) to quite warm days - a tee shirt and shorts, with sandals.

I'm just itching to travel... Which is good, since we're leaving for Ireland (Fingers crossed!) at the end of the month!!!

Our heroine's current wardrobe has three teal sweaters, which is a lot! But this happens sometimes ... View the Post

Pretty But Relaxed? Start With a Dress – Two Piece Linen Dress in Thistle from Alex Mill

March 28, 2025

A honeymoon? Somewhere warm? Sign me up!

She's all set for what to wear for her wedding, but her travel wardrobe is still under construction. She knows she's starting here:

There's no question that the weather will be warm where they're going - actually legitimately hot during the day! She has no plans to swim, but definitely intends to be at the beach.

And for once in her life, she's NOT going to worry about laundry. It's her honeymoon, for heaven's sake! Maybe not her first honeymoon, but that's neither here nor there...

So bridal white it is!

At this point, she decides she's going to pack all pretty pastels. It will be the last time in her life she does this, so she's going to do it ... View the Post

A Two-Piece Dress is ALSO Two Separate Garments!

March 21, 2025

Let's take a second look at this two-piece dress, or camp shirt and skirt, as you wish!

You can - of course - wear these pieces separately. The only thing you want to be sure to do is launder them together always, so you don't have a really soft and faded shirt with a still crispy and bright skirt!

I'm going to start with fairly obvious ways to wear the pieces, and then branch out into more adventurous ideas...

There's no color that you can't wear with beige - some go better than others, but all are worth at least trying!

Same with white - I think that this shade of blue, with white, looks lovely for summer:

If you want to cover your dress for some reason, having this shirt handy works well. I ... View the Post