warm weather Archives - Page 3 of 23

2 Moods in 1 Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – Poem by Bunya no Asayasu by Hokusai

As of 7:36 Central Time today, I changed the downloadable file that many of you purchased. I understand that the first file was NOT downloading at all! I'm so sorry... If I could avoid these computer-ish snafus, I would!

love,

Janice

July 9, 2020 The Kids Can Canoe All Day... And the rest of us can hike, or go with the kids, or sit on the shore and watch...

She thinks this is brilliant - the 3 families will distance from each other for 14 days; the house is plenty big enough. It will require some vigilance to make certain that the children understand what's required, but they've been pretty smart, so far...

Knowing that they're going to be there probably 'til the first of September, she wants to plan carefully. ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 49: Print or Textured Warm-weather top

July 6, 2020

I know, I was saying that this top would be "textured," but I was just trying to be consistent with how I described other tops at this point in each quarter. My thought, at the time that I wrote the original list, was about cabled sweaters, seed-stitched knits, and other lovely fabrics that have some depth...

BUT... these aren't easy to find in warm weather, nor are they going to be particularly comfortable! So what makes the most sense at this point in these wardrobes is to just find a blouse, tee shirt or other top that you love, and that goes with your neutrals....

Not a lot of guidance necessary here - you should love this item!

Even though our chances of wearing a silk scarf (in the Northern Hemisphere, ... View the Post

Expanding a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Shopping with the Countess de Martel!

July 3, 2020

Okay, she's no longer living; for our purposes, our heroine is a fictional character who looks a lot like her...

When we left our heroine, stocking her pantry in Paris with the essentials, she was traveling with this wardrobe:

She has just learned that she's going to have to stay in Paris for at LEAST 2 weeks longer than she expected! (let's not get into the details of why - it's fiction, and a fantasy!)

She certainly could stay with just the 8 garments she has - a little bit of well-timed laundry would be really all she would need to manage. But since she's going to be staying there regularly in the future, she decides that she will very carefully buy more clothes...

Even though she can't leave ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – June 2020

July 2, 2020

Yes, it's July, but we never got around to the beautiful June bracelet!

In all fairness, our beautiful jewelry designer is having to deal with getting stones and beads delivered, which isn't uncomplicated under our current circumstances. We can easily forgive things, these days...

The Moon Will be Full... And that's all she really needs to be motivated to go to the cabin for the weekend!

She's going to be dressed and in the car anyway because she has a doctor's appointment. Some things do NOT wait for the lockdown to end...

Nobody else much wants to come with her - even at the cabin, they have to be careful about not socializing closely with the other people who live around the lake. THAT means that ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting the Countess de Martel de Janville by Boldini

June 30, 2020

She really only planned to be in Paris for a couple of days....

yes, she's seeing more blue in this painting than is there, perhaps... but this kind of thing isn't regulated, and certainly isn't anybody's business but hers, and ours...

She was going to stock the kitchen of her pied a terre with the basics - vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, wine, wine, wine...

So she packed a good market bag, to leave there, and a couple of warm weather outfits. An extra cardigan is never wrong - she might leave it in Paris too...

She's happy with the clothes that she has with her, but....

Now she's found that she really doesn't want to go home! Paris is starting to gradually open up, and back home everything still ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 48: Neutral print or patterned top

June 29, 2020

Today's my 60th birthday!!!! The entire weekend has been a series of carefully choreographed get-togethers with friends and family...

And I feel EVERY SECOND of my age right now!

But let's look at getting our summer wardrobes sorted to our satisfaction, eh?

First up, this beautiful little top would be perfect for most of us who are using white or khaki as our summer wardrobe neutral:

I always have a few thoughts to share - mostly I'm always a big supporter of doing what you most want to do, and not buying and pretending to wear things that you don't love...

Speaking of accent colors - this kind of tee shirt is perfect for introducing something out of your comfort zone (in this case, orange). There's ... View the Post

Start with Art: Door to the River by Willem de Kooning

June 26, 2020

She knew, as soon as she saw it, that the door lead to where she wanted to be...

Some other day - some other season - she knew that she would include the blue, and the darker browns and greys, in her wardrobe. But for now, for the summer, she wants lightness...

When her sister called her - at the very last minute! - to invite her to the cottage for the weekend, she knew that she had to go. She was dressed for a meeting, but decided that getting on the road was more important than changing clothes.

Besides, she knew that dinner on Friday night, at the cabin, was always pretty special! Her sister can really cook, her sister's partner is a whiz with wine, and all of the kids know that this is an important part ... View the Post

I Love It, But Will I Wear It? Patchwork Shorts

June 24, 2020

Another cry for help from my email - a question I LOVE to get... If I order these, how will I wear them?

Okay, this is maddening, bordering on insane. The color, described on the website, for these shorts is "Deep Admiral Blue." Unless I'm drinking something more amusing than coffee at this hour, the primary color here would be forest green? With beige, coral and white?

Whatever! The easiest way to find at least 1 or 2 garments to go with a contemplated new purchase is to look for items that are the same color, from the same company. So we start like this:

The tan or beige color in these shorts is sufficiently prominent that wearing beige with them would look great. Generally, even if a garment has 47 ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 47: Neutral lightweight top

June 22, 2020

Ah, this is finally looking exactly like the weather!

There are no wardrobe rules. None. I might make suggestions, and offer guidelines, but you should make your own choices! It's your style...

I absolutely would mix patterns with these shorts - anything that looks as if it might be one of the prints in the patchwork is a reasonable choice:

If you've got cool earrings, let them be the statement part of your outfit. Simple, classic clothes are a perfect background for accessories:

Let's mix some brown and black, eh?

A print that includes your 2 neutrals is a perfect choice. This heroine could swap out for navy shorts, or a white skirt, or navy pants....

And talking about annoying color ... View the Post

Rescuing Forgotten Accessories: The Navy Blackthorn Scarf

June 17, 2020

Maybe it's not really a forgotten accessory - since you just got it. But when a new scarf arrives at your home, it can be sort of overwhelming to figure out what to do with it!

For me, in warm weather, with a rectangular scarf, I would first off try to see if I could wear it in my hair! And then I'd play around with how I would tie it to a handbag. Then I would think about actually wearing it around my neck. The more ways you can find to wear a scarf, the more often you'll be able to incorporate it into an outfit....

Let's ponder how you might wear (or be inspired by) this scarf for the next 4 months...

First month, it's smart to make certain that you've got the necessary solid-colored tee shirts and pants (or ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 46: Neutral lightweight 2nd layer

June 15, 2020

My plans for this were so good, I thought for sure that I could find lovely linen shirts for everybody! Normally, this time of year, stores are FULL of linen, silk or cotton "overshirts," which is exactly what I had in mind for this wardrobe addition...

But NOT this year - things are selling out quickly so I had to do a little bit of scrambling... Thus, we've got ruanas and cardigans and shirts and kurtas...

It was pretty straightforward finding toppers that will work with the growing wardrobes built around these 6 scarves:

The thing that convinces me that this layer is useful? The fact that everybody I know with a car keeps a cardigan in the back seat ALL SUMMER!

Oh how I WISH someone would make ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Teal and Hot Pink Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 12, 2020

It seemed like a good idea - take a couple of the scarves from yesterday, along with the accessories, and see how they would work for a travel capsule wardrobe. So let's go!

There are the 2 scarves that are going to be the starting point for this wardrobe:

First up, I added a tank top to both of these Accessory Families, so that the accent colors would be well-represented in the clothing for this trip...

Navy would be a lovely neutral with these 2 accents, but I thought that I'd go full-on summer with beige and white:

This would be such an easy trip - travel wearing the beige cardigan and pants, and the beige espadrilles, with any of the 4 tops. Pack the other 6 garments and the accessories, and ... View the Post