livelovesara - An over 40 Style and Travel Blog

What I Wore This Week and some Thoughts on the New Year

January 2, 2017Sara Leave a Comment

When I was young I thought at this age I would have it all figured out. I would have my shit together, confidence, and a mental maturity that seems like the epitome of grown up. What no adult tells you is that while physically you age, mentally you will still retain that 18-year-old self to an extent. While I may not give as many fucks anymore, I still hate making doctors appointments, ordering pizza, and entertaining(my small talk skills suck). They make me nervous and I literally have to write down what I am going to say so I don’t mess it up. For 2017 I want to try to get out of my comfort zone a bit. Maybe join a class, or a book club. I’d really like to take some college classes as well. We shall see.

While I am still learning French, it’s not as much or as focused as I would like so I want to change that. I also want to throw another language in to the mix. I’m thinking either Dutch, Swedish, or Danish. Rosetta Stone keeps sending holiday sale emails and it’s really hard not to order one. When it comes down to it there are so many other affordable or free programs that work just as well if not better but Rosetta Stone has a “fun” factor. Damn that user-friendly and fun interface 😉

My last area I would like to work on is my health and wellness. I need to smarten up and realize that I have reached an age where I have to seriously start taking care of myself. Self neglect is a bad habit to break and I have to try to find a workout regime that actually works for me. Any suggestion for someone who has to workout from home?

Do you have any goals or resolutions for this year?

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How to style a Pair of Oxfords

December 30, 2016Sara 3 Comments

Oxfords have been around forever with their menswear inspired roots but the last couple of years have become a fashion staple in many women’s wardrobes. They are extremely versatile and be taken from casual, to workwear, to dressy with ease. I love the look of oxfords, I don’t have a pair though. The closest I have come was with a pair of 3-hole oxford style Dr. Marten’s. I still love Doc Marten’s and totally regret getting rid of them all.

I received an email from someone who has this pair of Cole Haan black oxfords and she is stuck in a style rut with them. She asked me if I could put together some outfit ideas to give her some inspiration on how to pair them with a range of different looks. I put together 10 outfits that cover many different styles and occasions with examples of causal to dressy and everything in between. Oxfords are easy to wear if you don’t over think it. They add a fun touch to a super feminine outfit, but also a casual coolness to leather and jeans.

When it comes to pulling off a look, as long as you feel good in it, and confident you can wear anything. Below are the 10 outfit ideas I put together using the above Cole Haan Oxfords as the shoe.

You can find some other outfit ideas on Pinterest here.

Happy New Year Guys! See you next week. A Vancouver packing list is on the agenda.

Links for the Outfits are below.

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Ancestry DNA the Process

December 28, 2016Sara 2 Comments

I keep mentioning that I want to try the Ancestry DNA kit. I’d really like to know what my ancestry consists of because no one in my whole family has ever done the genealogy, family tree thing. My dad is adopted, so his side is full of question marks to a point, and all my mom has mentioned was that her side was Danish. I guess no one has ever really wanted to dig deeper.

On Black Friday Ancestry was taking $50 off of their kits so I bit the bullet and bought myself one for Christmas instead just talking about it forever more. It arrived mid December so and I wanted to try to complete it and send it off right away to get a head start on all the kits that I am sure people got for Christmas after that sale.

I thought it was going to be really simple. Open, spit, package up, mail. Which it kind of was until I hit the mail part.

It comes in a small box with a small activation/instruction booklet, tube, funnel, stabilizing fluid, sealable bag, and a prepaid mailer box.

These are the basic steps:

Take the activation code that is on the tube and log on to your ancestry account and click on the DNA section. The option to activate a kit is there and that is where you input the number.
Spit in the tube up to the wavy line using the funnel tip. It’s noted that you should not eat, drink, or smoke for 30 minutes before doing so. I had to restart my 30 minutes three times because I kept forgetting. It’s not a lot of spit that is required but after I hit that wavy line I felt very dried out 😉
Remove the funnel end and attached the stabilizing fluid lid. Twist until the blue liquid begins to mix down with the spit and then shake for 5 seconds.
Place the spit vial in the plastic sealable bag and place in prepaid mailer box.
Drop in mail box. This was the step I had issues with. I figured I would go in to the post office and drop it off when I was in the area but the woman behind the counter wouldn’t take it. She said she didn’t know what it was, or how to process it so she gave it back. This scared me. I figured they would just scan the barcode that was on the back and place it in the mail. When I got home I contacted Ancestry to ask them what to do, and they suggested just dropping it in a mailbox. I was scared to just in case the person who picked it up thought the same things as the post office worker and it wound up in undeliverable mail. I ended up dropping it in the box and crossing my fingers. I won’t find out if they received it probably for several weeks. Once they do, it will be listed on my DNA activation account as received so I am kind of sitting here holding my breath until then because it would really suck to wait for weeks only to find out the never got it and having to start all over.

I hope it arrives quickly and I am excited to share my results even though it won’t be for around 2 months.

Have you ever done Ancestry DNA?

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What I Wore This Week

December 26, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

Well, Christmas is over and a lot of stuff happened this weekend. First and foremost my Aunt Lynda (my mother’s older sister) passed away after 4 years of rapidly declining from the complications of diabetes. It was expected and she welcomed it, but it truly doesn’t make it easier does it?

On Tom’s last day of work last week he was hit by a car. He is fine but it shows you how quick something can happen. He was at a gas station filling up his work truck and went in to pay. He then walked out in to the brightly lit overhang (it was night-time but it was really bright there) and as soon as he stepped out of the door a woman drove past and somehow managed to simultaneously run over his foot and hit him so he ended up rolling on the front hood. She then had the audacity to blame him because he was wearing black although it was like daylight under there. Needless to say there were witnesses who gave Tom their cards if he wanted to press charges and needed witnesses. He went back to work where the on site medic looked him over and he was fine. Not even a broken toe.

As I was typing this I just aw that George Michael passed away. Please let 2017 be better than 2016.

Take care of yourselves friends.

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What to Wear in Lisbon, Portugal Outfit Options

December 23, 2016Sara 2 Comments

Today is my last post before Christmas and it is 20 outfit options that go with the What to Pack for Lisbon, Portugal packing list. The 20 options cover the 2 weeks that the list was made for but many more options can easily be put together.

There is tons of versatility in these pieces, like you can leave the shirt dress open wear it kimono style over the black dress or jeans/shorts, the scarf makes a good swimsuit cover, or shawl, and the blazer works as a light jacket or to dress an outfit up. Being able to use pieces in several different ways is what makes packing light easy. If you have trouble getting creative and coming up with different ways to wear what you have, companies like the Canadian company Encircled offer a large selection versatile pieces that will make your packing for your next trip ridiculously easy.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays guys! I’ll see you sometime next week.

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What to Pack for Lisbon, Portugal Two Weeks Packing Light

December 21, 2016Sara 2 Comments

So I had a super fun experience today. I mentioned a long time ago that I walk everywhere and have one of those little compactable shopping carts that I use to tote the groceries home. Well today while I was bringing home a million pounds of groceries and stuff the effing wheel sheared off. To top it off Merle was running ahead and slipped and skidded her knees which caused an abundance of tears and drama. Plus I left my phone at home so I couldn’t even call 911 when I thought my arm was going to fall off from supporting the back-end of the cart to compensate for the lost wheel 😉 I don’t think I have ever walked that slow in my life.

This is probably going to be the last packing list of 2016 so I went for a warmer, sunnier destination since it’s the first day of winter. I was going to do a beach/resort vacation but I am not much of a beach person. Tom is, he’d pack up and move to a tropical paradise in a heartbeat if he could. I’m not really in to hot weather or laying on a beach. We are very much opposites in our ideal vacation ideas.

When we went to Barbados he didn’t tell me until we arrived that if I see a coconut on the ground do not touch it because there are centipedes as long as from your elbow to your fingers that like to climb into the fallen ones. If he would have told me beforehand I would have refunded my ticket (kind of kidding). I really, really dislike bugs. Especially huge ones which tend to live in the warmer climates. I’m a bug wimp.

I chose Lisbon because it is a popular vacation destination especially to those who live in other European countries. It’s gloriously sunny and quite temperate. And because it is a port city for cruises you will often see tourist dressed very casually for their land excursions. Lisbon is also very hilly so some decent walking shoes are a good idea. Heels are not so good unless they are packed for a fancy dinner or outing. Also, don’t forget to bring a swimsuit because they have some lovely beaches. Many don’t realize that there are a lot of easily accessible beaches in the Lisbon area which are described in greater detail here.

Outfit options are found in this post.

We decided that we would start our Christmas holidays on Monday, so no school work means more free time to bake. The girls love baking and it’s surprisingly something they do without fighting (miracle), so we are going to spend the day tomorrow baking.

Merry almost Christmas guys!

If you like this post you can find more packing lists and outfit options in my:
Packing Light Series
What to Wear Options

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