Based on the pieces from last post Fall/Winter Workwear Capsule Wardrobe Business Casual I put together 30 outfit ideas. There is definitely a lot more different combinations that can be made, 30 is just a good start. These options are based on a work business casual environment that has casual jean Fridays. Under the dresses I would wear some black tights to still keep a professional look while remaining weather appropriate.
I suggested that you start right from the bottom of your wardrobe all the way to the top to see how many items you already own that would work in your professional wardrobe. It is surprising how many pieces you can transition over to look completely different paired with the right pieces. I give a quick breakdown on how you can do this in 5 steps in this post.
While many people have a completely separate work wardrobe from weekend wardrobe I like to integrate them together as much as you can because it can save you money and give you a lot more outfit options. Along with your work capsule you still need your accessories and seasonal pieces like scarves, winter hats, gloves, and winter boots. These are necessary items if you live in an area that experiences a colder winter season.
Is your work wardrobe and weekend wardrobe separate or integrated?
I was asked if I could put together some fall/winter business casual workwear outfits to give some inspiration, so this weeks list is a fall/winter workwear capsule wardrobe. I thought it would be a better idea to break it down into what pieces I would include and then make outfits based on those pieces like with the packing lists. That way it’s easy to see what pieces you have that are similar or that you already own and what type of things you might want to add. If you refer to my A Simple Teacher Capsule Wardrobe in 5 StepsI give you a quick way to go through your clothes to see what you have that will be suitable for work and what you may need to add/substitute/or buy. It’s the easiest and most inexpensive way to build a work wardrobe.
I didn’t include bright colours because that is a preference of mine and I find it easier to make everything match if I follow a basic colour palette. But it would be very easy to build a more colourful wardrobe or add some colour with scarves, accessories, shoes. Even a bright blouse, sweater or blazer will add a nice burst of colour. This list is for fall so I obviously picked heavier knit sweaters, wool pants, and a wool jacket. Not included in this list is the rest of your winter gear like hats, scarves, gloves, and boots. When I was working in a professional environment I still walked and used public transport to work. This meant that I had to wear my winter boots and pack my heels/dress boots in my bag and switch over at work. It is a pain and doesn’t usually look very cute, but it is a common practice because a) It stops you from falling on your ass in winter and b) saves your work shoes from being destroyed by slush and snow.
I’m going to pair these in to outfits for the next post. I hope it gives some inspiration.
I had my first seasonal crafting fail this week. I guess not as much as a complete fail as a slight miscalculation and setback. When I was on Instagram I saw a photo of a lion hat that someone made for their Luna Lovegood Funko from a lion Beanie Boo. Luna wears a Gryffindor lion hat in the movie and since she is my daughters favourite Character (Roo’s not Merle’s. Merle is completely in love with Ron Weasely for some reason). I thought she would love it and it wouldn’t be too hard to make for Christmas. I searched online for the lion which I found at Chapters Indigo. They listed them as small medium and large. Based on the measurements I ordered the medium because I thought the small was the really tiny pocket-sized one. Nope, I needed the small because the medium is like a regular sized stuffed animal and the Funko literally can fit in the head entirely which totally doesn’t work. It looks like Merle inherited a lion stuffy by default and I have to order the small. I have this twinge of guilt thinking about taking the stuffies head off to make the hat, almost enough to abort the mission. I get worked up upset over weird shit though so it might be just me.
Have you had any crafting fails lately?
I’m working on some fall/winter business casual outfit ideas for work this week. If you have anything you’d like to see on here let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to my fellow Canadians. It’s nice to get a holiday weekend before the weather starts to change too drastically, although there is a frost warning for tonight so I have to get my Succulents in the condo for the winter. We didn’t do much today. Just did some visits to a few Value Villages. I was looking for a new belt, some leather gloves (the girls took mine to use as “protection” when the were watering the cacti), checking out if they have any good jeans, and we always scope out the shoe section for Converse for the girls. Every single pair we have bought for them (Roo has like 32 pairs) are from Value Village. Then we came home for dinner.
On my to-do list for tonight (Sunday) is taking the shoulder pads out of Merle’s Beetlejuice suit jacket and then finding a good movie still of it so I can see the proper stripe placement. Since tomorrow is a holiday I will tape off the stripes and use the new fabric marker to colour them in. It’s like a super fat Sharpie with a more chalky consistency and I think it will work really well on the fabric based on the swatch test. We found some good fake teeth at Spirit Halloween on the weekend as well, along with makeup and hair colour spray. I’m excited to do a test run to see how it all pulls together. My kids totally take after Tom with a love for Halloween and all things creepy so they all get a kick out of this time of year. Me not so much. I burst in to tears and ran out the entrance of a haunted house once when a live character jumped out and screamed in my face. I can’t even watch The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones, but I’m totally game for a walk through the Catacombs or a Jack-the-Ripper Walking Tour.
While we were in Spirit, Tom bought Merle this totally creepy baby doll in the picture below. She loves it in a Wednesday Adams sort of way. Don’t mind the vampire teeth, she decided it was a really good idea to chew gum while wearing them and they were stuck in her mouth for a bit. I don’t even really know how to react to that expect shrug and sigh. She takes after her dad with her decision-making skills 😉
I figured out something that I don’t like about condo living this weekend. Certain circumstances can cause extremely long wait times for elevators. I was taking my daughter to a class which really close by so we left only 20 minutes before the class started. On a normal day we would had arrived within 5-10 minutes depending on how pokey they were walking, but this time the elevator didn’t arrive for 20 minutes before we decided to take the stairs. In which I had to carry Merle for 7 floors because she gave up and moved at a snail’s pace. We were already late so by the time we reached the bottom and speed walked there I was ready for a rest 😉 It turns out that one elevator was booked for someone moving, another someone broke the door (by trying to move without booking the moving elevator), which left two for the entire building which has 32 floors. It was ridiculous and I can’t imagine what would have happened if there was a medical emergency or a person couldn’t physically walk down the stairs. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Peterborough. The city was really terrible at staying on top of the snow and clearing the walks. It would get so bad in the winter you literally had to climb over huge drifts in some places. It pissed me off because I don’t know how elderly people, or people in wheelchairs managed to get around during the snow season. I am thankful that I don’t have to deal with that in this city.
Aside from that fall is in full force and I actually wore a toque, beanie, knit hat (whatever you call it where you live) for the first time this weekend because it was cold, windy and rainy. I missed wearing one 🙂 I also tried to clean my closet today but success was definitely not in the stars. Maybe tomorrow, but I am predicating no 😉
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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