Sara, Author at livelovesara

What I Wore This Week

September 26, 2016Sara 2 Comments

Every year at this time the moms in my Facebook groups get on to the topic of “what are you buying your kids for Christmas”. Sometimes it’s hard not to get sucked in with the comparison and ideas from others so you feel like need to buy your kids more because others are buying their kids a lot or “better” things. So bear with me. This post has all of my Christmas present thoughts and ideas as I am trying to avoid the Facebook discussions. I have some notes but If I don’t get them down in a more coherent way I will probably forget them.

It’s Saturday night (as I am typing this) and I have one kid in the bath and one cleaning her room and I am trying to covertly browse/shop for Christmas presents. It’s really hard to buy anything in secret when we go out because there is at least one child always with me. I remember last year we were at the mall in the Disney Store and somehow I was able to smuggle a Cheshire Cat stuffy into the view of the cashier. He saw what I was trying to do and gestured for me to throw it to him when Merle wasn’t looking and stuffed it in a bag for me. It was pretty funny and helped me out that day. My oldest will stay home with Tom, but Merle has a stroke if I leave without her. She has been that way since she was a baby and it is very exhausting. Anyway, because of this I buy 99% of the gifts online now but even that is hard since I can literally see in to each bedroom while I am sitting at my computer and whoever is in them can see me and what I have pulled up on the screen. I have become the master of minimizing windows and having 9 million tabs open. I have also been staying up extra late just so I can shop in peace.

I am glad that I started way back in June and I actually think that I am really close to being done with. The girl birthdays are November 24th, and December 14th so this time of year is quite expensive (hence the super early shopping). This year I have had an easier time buying for Roo than for Merle though. She has a lot of very specific hobbies, likes, and passions now so it’s easy to stick with those and find a lot of cool things. A couple of my favourite gifts I bought her are a Coraline collectible doll by NECA, and a replica Potions textbook from magicworldHP on Etsy. It has 10 reproduction pages with hand written notes from Snape in the margins to make it seem realistic. She is going to love it. I’m stumped for Merle though. She wanted a Kitty Surprise but for some reason they aren’t easy to find in Canada and buying from the U.S. is so expensive. Plus, she doesn’t like the pink one which makes it even harder since that is the easiest one to find. I have been buying her random things like a fake fur blanket, a cat matryoshka doll, a snow globe, weeping angel string lights, an Avada Kedavra shirt (her favourite spell) a Voldermort wand, and a beautiful Wizard of Oz pop up book. This probably seems like enough and it most likely is and she will be happy as shit but I am a good bargain hunter and dollar wise I have spent about $115 (the pop up book cost me $0.01 on Amazon used even though it looked brand new. Everything else I bought when on sale or had discount codes for) and I like to keep them fairly even in dollar value. I think a pair of pyjamas, a few books, and a board game may round us out if I can’t find the kitty surprise.

I’m not sure what I am getting for Tom. I saw a collection of Kiss records for a great price that I know he would appreciate and would love for his collection. My next problem to figure out is to find a spot to put our Christmas tree because there is a bookshelf in the spot we put it last year and there really isn’t many other options. I may actually have to move the entire room around to find a spot.

Where do you hide your Christmas presents?

Previous years it has been easy but as they get older they get sneakier. I have them all in random different areas since there is not much storage space. I literally have a little hand sketched map and notes of where I put each one so I don’t forget.

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What to Wear on a trip to the Pacific Northwest

September 23, 2016Sara 3 Comments

Fall, the favourite season of most people as well as a favourite time of year to travel. You get to avoid the summer tourists, the weather is usually perfect to spend all day walking around in without freezing or baking, there is still an ample amount of daylight, and you get to wear all the best pieces in your wardrobe 😉 (kidding about the last one, or maybe not). Although it is transitional weather it is still easy to pack light because you don’t need to pack bulky winter items. A light jacket and sweater will usually suffice in this weather with a scarf or two and a hat in case it is rainy/colder.

These outfit options go with the What To Pack for the Pacific Northwest Packing light list from yesterday. The list is for a fall trip for 7 days, neutral colours, and a casual style. I made 20 options from the pieces that can be seen at the top and bottom of this post.

What are your favourite places to visit in the Pacific Northwest?

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What to Pack for The Pacific Northwest

September 22, 2016Sara 6 Comments

Every morning I try to answer emails and messages that I get from people. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to get caught up (Sometimes a little longer if your message didn’t forward to me properly). I want you to know that I read each one and am really trying to respond to everything but sometimes I may miss a few. If you have sent me a message via email, my blog contact page, Instagram comment or DM, Twitter, or via a blog comment and I have not responded yet I may have missed it or I may not have received it. I am sorry if that is the case and if you contact me again I will get back to you in 1-2 days. Thank you for all the compliments, suggestions, and requests. It really does help to keep me motivated and lets me see that my hobby benefits some of you.

This packing list comes via blog comment. The request is for 7 days in Oregon in the fall. I broadened to the Pacific Northwest since temperatures and weather won’t fluctuate too much through those states and in to the Southern part of British Columbia. Pick several items from this list for your travel outfit and you are left with 3 shirts, a sweater, a dress, 2 pairs of pants, a purse and two pairs of shoes to pack. You could easily just travel with two pairs of shoes instead of three but I added the flats and dress in case there was an opportunity to dress up. The rest of the choices are casual neutrals, that mix and match together very well.

The outfit options for this list can be found in this post.

Happy First Day of fall to my readers in the Northern Hemisphere 🙂

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Some Shopping Honesty

September 20, 2016Sara 4 Comments

No. 1 – Brown Sweater • Zara | No. 2 – Grey Sweater • Mango | No. 3 – Tie waist Sweatshirt • Zara | No. 4 Strappy Flats • Zara | No. 5 – Jeans • H&M* | No. 6 – Peasant Shirt • Zara | No. 7 – Adidas Gazelles • Urban Outfitters
*I Included these jeans because they are quickly becoming my favourites even though I bought them in June.

I’m going to be honest. I have bought a few wardrobe items lately. Last month you know that I bought two sweaters. One to replace a worn one, and the other because I realized last winter that I didn’t have enough sweaters. I may actually get another oversized cowl neck or a cardigan for winter as well to round out the selection. I just haven’t really looked. In June I bought what are now one of my favourite pairs of jeans, and I recently bought a peasant shirt and a black tie waist sweatshirt as well. I spread it out somewhat so it doesn’t seem that bad, and I am sure to many that it isn’t because in the grand scheme of things I have seen people drop 5x that amount in one shopping trip. Although I still feel a little guilty since I am trying to cut it down as much as possible.

Over the weekend I cleaned my closet and did a shoe inventory while the girls attempted to clean theirs. I decided that a few shoe wardrobe holes I would like to fill are ballet flats and sneakers (I have converse but I want a more sneaker style). Tom forgot to buy me my birthday sneakers until I kindly remind him on Friday, so they should arrive in the mail soon. He said, “whoops, you should have reminded me”, and I responded that, “It was no biggie and I was just going to buy them myself.” which prompted him to order them. Passive aggressive? Yes, but sometimes he needs a little nudge or reminder. If I didn’t make sure to buy everything then the kids would have nothing on any holidays or birthday’s so I am not ashamed 😉

I had some black flats that I bought three years ago but I didn’t love the way they looked so I recently donated them since they didn’t get any wear. I’m sure someone will get a lot of use out of them. They were the d’orsay style and although I love the look of d’orsay they seemed emphasize how narrow my feet are and make my ankles look skinnier.

Note: This isn’t a woe is me post, but it is my own personal issue that has carried over from my teenage years. I wore a uniform in high school and people always, always made derogatory comments on how skinny my legs and ankles were. They would even say I had an eating disorder and nicknamed me ATV (anorexic tapeworm virus). Nice huh? It got to the point that I would wear several pairs of tights at a time trying to make my legs look fuller. That stupid mental shit stuck with me and I am still super conscious of legs and ankles and never fully comfortable baring them. Long story short, I donated my flats that I wasn’t comfortable in to make room for something that I was, and after about 9 months I found the above ones at Zara on the weekend. I like them a lot. A strappy flat with a twist. They seem quite comfortable even with a sore toe.

So the moral of this story is don’t keep what doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and sometimes you need a seasonal closet refresher even though you are trying to be a minimalist 😉

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What I Wore This Week

September 19, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

I know you have all been waiting on baited breath for my search for a white blazer for the Halloween costume dilemma but I found one 😉 Not only did I find one but I also found white pants, a white button down, and a tie. I think that someone either donated their child’s wedding party outfit or it was for a religious ceremony. Either way it was a good score for under $20. Now I just need to figure out how to paint the stripes on it without ruining it. I’m definitely not a super crafty person so I do best with step-by-step instructions like this one. This picture makes me laugh so hard. Not only does she have severe hat head, it also so painfully obvious I need to remove the shoulder pads and the pants are too skinny. I’m going to look for a less tight option (and I totally which emojis worked on here because this is where I would put the laugh till you cry face. This is so funny to me).

My girls room is a complete shit-pit. It is a combination of them having way too much stuff (if I had a do over I would totally have a minimalist attitude towards their toys from day one) and not sticking to my guns when it came to making them keep things tidy and put away after every use. I am going to blame that one on past depression and not having enough energy to make it even worth my while at that time. But those are excuses and shit has to change so I pulled out a large bin that is full of Barbies, Barbie equivalents (i.e. Monster High) and Barbie paraphernalia and dumped it in the middle of their floor. They now have to go through everything and keep what will only fill to small bins. Everything else goes back in to the large bin along with whatever else I think needs to go (because if it is left up to them they would keep it all) “this broken piece from a toy I can’t find? Oh I need to keep that.” They inherited the hoarder mentality from their dad. I am pretty sure it is a gene that passes on. I swear it.

Shit is about to get real in this house because I am TIRED of all this crap. Any tips aside form Marie Kondo. I have read both her books and want to hire her.? 😉

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What to Wear for 2 Weeks in Europe for Christmas

September 16, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

This post is the follow-up to What to Pack for Europe over Christmas. With the 13 pieces of clothing plus jacket, shoes and accessories in the main list I put together 20 outfit options. I actually had a lot more options that could be made but since the trip is only for around 14 days I figured 20 outfits would suffice.

This trip covers several cities and the weather will fluctuate slightly between them all. Edinburgh is not as cold in the winter as some of the Austrian Mountain Villages but the options above will give you enough variety to be warm and comfortable. The leggings can also be worn under jeans if you find you need extra layers. I do that on winter days that the temperature drops significantly. Luckily that only happens for a few days in a row during different points in the winter.

One of my favourite colour combinations is pairing mid-dark blue with denim, then adding camel or leopard accents. I chose this palette because I thought it would work well at this time of the year and it is very easy to mix and match a grey, black, white, and blue wardrobe. For footwear you should be okay with a leather boot (for a lot of walking), and some sneakers and booties (for drier or dressier situations). In the winter I generally only wear winter boots if I am doing a lot of walking through snow/wet, or the snow is deep and they haven’t cleaned the sidewalks yet (we can get a lot of snow here). I usually just waterproof my moto boots and wear them. But it all comes down to personal choice, so bring the shoes that you feel most comfortable in for the weather conditions you are going to experience.

And this post totally reminded me that I need a new pair of winter boots.

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