livelovesara - An over 40 Style and Travel Blog

What to Wear in Italy and on a Mediterranean Cruise

September 2, 2016Sara 1 Comment

This post gives you the outfit options to the last post What to Pack for Italy and a Mediterranean Cruise. The 30 options give a variety of suggested outfits for many scenarios.

To pack the most versatile wardrobe possible it is important to think of all the different types of outfits you are going to need and how each piece you bring can be changed for each outing.

There are outfits that are casual, for the beach/poolside, dinner/formal.

When I plan out outfits I take one key piece and then try to figure out how many different combinations I can make with that item using as many of the pieces in the packing list as possible.

For example, the black slip dress can be casual with the cardigan, grey sweater, chambray shirt, or even the white t-shirt dress left unbuttoned. Make it dressy with the trench, blazer or shawl.

You can also make a formal outfit casual by switching shoes and accessories.

For example: A day look of the black slip dress, blazer, and sneakers can quickly be made formal by changing the shoes, adding some jewellery, an up-do, and some lipstick, but keeping the blazer.

It literally takes less than 10 minutes. This is a simple thing that you can also apply to most of your looks with a few easy swaps. Even just a quick cuffing of your jeans can change the entire look of an outfit.

Creativity and versatility are key.

* Clothing details for all 30 outfits are located under the first collage.

Have a great trip!

What to Wear in Italy and on a Mediterranean Cruise Outfit Options 11-20

What to Wear in Italy and on a Mediterranean Cruise Outfit Options 21-30

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What to Pack for Italy and a Mediterranean Cruise

August 31, 2016Sara 2 Comments

This week I have a request for help with what to bring for a 3 week vacation spanning both Italy and a Mediterranean/Greek Cruise in October. There are many obstacles to this kind of trip because the temperatures can vary so greatly at this time of year. Across Italy may experience cooler temperatures while many port stops on the cruise has the chance of being quite hot the more south you go. The solution to this is to try to bring layers.

This list is a guideline just use these ideas as general suggestions, casual dress, t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, are just what they say. Every person’s favourite jeans, or sneakers will be different. What I did want to do is to try to stick with the suggestions she provided of style and colours, so I tried to keep within the parameters of those.

Scarves are versatile as swimsuit covers (if large enough) as well as head and shoulder coverage for religious sites. They are easy to pack as well as easy to keep in a purse to bring sightseeing. Cruise ships typically have a pool or two on board so a swimsuit is never wasted suitcase space.

I included an extra dress in this list because of the cruise. Many cruise ships have formal dinners ranging from smart casual to formal. While some fellow cruisers may use this opportunity to dress in a ball gown, a little black dress is completely appropriate. Your cruises itinerary should list what level of formal you should expect. As for shoes, heels are instantly dressy but can be difficult to maneuver on a moving ship deck. That will also most likely be the only place you wear them since walking along cobblestones and hills aren’t very high heel friendly. A nice pair of wedges or just strappy sandals will suffice with a LBD and some jewellery. I try to think about versatility when I choose, but in reality if you wanted to trade a pair of shoes in for some heels then do what works best for you. There are no rules.

Have you ever packed a ball gown for a cruise?

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What I Wore This Week

August 29, 2016Sara 1 Comment

What a weekend. I swear to god I was ready to run out the door and down to the closest pub and drink myself into an oblivion. This is a quick summary:

My kids can’t keep their room clean for shit. It is always a complete disaster and I have no idea how it gets that way one day after being cleaned top to bottom. I asked them to get in there 50 times this weekend and I am about to box every thing up and throw it down the garbage chute. Do you think that would get a good reaction?
Tom threw a pair of gross, dirty dark coloured running shoes into my load of white laundry I was washing. I got pissed and removed the water-logged shoes and tossed them in the tub to drain telling him they can go in with the darks. He took them out of the tub and put them in the dryer while still saturated. Seriously dude? What are you, new?
I went grocery shopping, bought a bunch of stuff, bananas being one of them. They have somehow disappeared along the way from paying for them and home. They are on the receipt but not in any bag. I have tried to drink a green smoothie everyday for the last few weeks to up my healthy food intake and bananas are important to add a sweeter flavour. Now I have to walk over tomorrow and get some more which is a pain in the ass.
We went to Ikea today because I was on a mission for a new mirror. I saw one in Kijiji to buy second-hand but that didn’t pan out. Ikea offered some nice large ones for a really good price but it was chaos in there today so I wanted to get in and get out as fast as possible (which isn’t very fast when you are stuck in a mob of people). I presume it was so busy because school starts next week and they were all buying things to outfit their new apartments or dorms. When I worked retail the week before Labour Day and back-to-school was our busiest time. I was also the time that our computer systems crapped out and we had to do all transactions on handbills and calculators (this happened two years in a row). Talk about stressful 😉 Anyway, Merle was being so bad in there that I wished I owned Dorothy’s shoes so I could click myself home.
I have kept forgetting to buy some paint for Merle’s wings for her Weeping Angel costume for Comicon/Fanexpo which is next weekend. I asked Tom to bring home some grey spray paint because he works next to a hardware store and he brings me home silver costume hairspray :/ So I sprayed the wings to give it a lighter base and have to try to find some tomorrow when I picked up bananas. Why can’t people follow simple requests/directions?
Tom just cut his hand with a knife. He is currently in the hospital getting stitches. Edit to add: He got 15 stitches and groaned and moaned all night. He asked me why they didn’t give him anything for the pain and I was like, “I had a caesarean and all I got was Tylenol and Ibuprofen to deal with the pain at home. They don’t just hand them out like that.”

I know that these are all “First World Problems” but crammed in to two days is annoying. At least have the courtesy to spread it over the space of a week 😉

How was your weekend?

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Amsterdam Netherlands Packing List for Older Kids

August 26, 2016Sara 1 Comment

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Amsterdam Netherlands Packing List for Younger Kids

August 24, 2016Sara 4 Comments

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What I Wore This Week

August 22, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

Do you know what is cool? When you find out that a mall you go to regularly has a secret flea market in the basement on weekends. We discovered it this weekend and there was all kinds of great stuff. The girls found a couple of things to add to their Harry Potter collection. Then they found a 2ft tall life-like Gollum that they wanted. Where the hell would you put that? It was $300 anyway.

I’m kind of excited to get a few of the things I ordered this week (a couple of sweaters and a t-shirt). I’ll take some pictures of Instagram in a few days to show them if I like them. If not they will go back and I’ll pretend I never bought them 😉

I recently started taking some Magnesium supplements to try to improve my physical and mental health. I heard that they could help with brain fog and general fatigue which are two things that impacting my daily life. I started them last week and while yesterday I was exhausted (I think that was because of a 3am bedtime and otherwise piss poor nights sleep) today my head felt clearer. I don’t know if they are really starting to work or if it is the placebo effect and will come back next week. I am remaining optimistic though because something has to give.

Have you ever taken a magnesium supplement? And if so did it help you?

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