Travel Archives - Page 31 of 65

What to Pack for a month in Italy

July 18, 2017Sara 4 Comments

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Does anyone else constantly have cold hands, even when it’s a million degrees out? It probably doesn’t help that the central air blows out directly above my desk, but it is making me type in slow motion. I’m a little stir crazy today because there is an air quality advisory so we stayed in. Merle recently discovered that several of her Playstation games have the ability to go online to play with other people and that she can use a microphone to talk to them. She also thinks that she has to talk really loud for them to hear, so it’s hard for me to focus 100% since her Playstation is about 4 feet from my desk 😉

This request came from a while back. It has taken me longer than I hoped to play catch up so I am finally getting to it. It’s for a mom with 3 young children going to Italy for 4 weeks for September-October. She wanted a smallish capsule of pieces that should carry her through and transition through the month. Depending where you are in Italy you are going to see varying temperatures, especially at this time of year when it is making the transition to fall. September usually starts of in the low 20’s and will slowly decrease as the month goes on. Night time, rain, and being on water will also drop the temperatures so it is best to be prepared.

Having 3 young kids to travel with also means that the clothes need to be no fuss, and easy to wear so I stuck with basics and added pieces in. I decided to add a swimsuit last minute because I figured that at this time of year the weather can be unpredictable and you may find there are more than a few beach weather days on the trip.

I put together a full 30 days of outfits from these pieces which can be found in this post. I will link it as soon as it is posted.

The accent colour I chose is yellow, because I am really liking yellow at the moment. Do you have a current favourite colour to wear?

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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What to Pack for Greece Outfit Options

July 13, 2017Sara 2 Comments

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It’s cold and miserable today which is my favourite weather. On days like this I wish that our patio was a bit bigger so we could put one of those self standing hammocks and a Papasan Chair with a colourful cushion (this is a cute stool that would also make a great outdoor side table). Kind of like bohemian decor to sit out in and enjoy the rain. There is also Ribfest going on across the street until Sunday night so for the next few days I will be eating ribs like a boss. Yay for living smack dab in the middle of a city, you get access to all the cool stuff.

Tis the season for great sales and the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale started today (for card holders) and you can check out yesterday’s post if you want to see my early access picks. If only I had a never-ending supply of money 😉

This post has the outfit options to the What to Pack for Greece packing light list from Wednesday. The list is for a 14 day trip so I was going to put together 20 outfits, but ended up with 30. There are just so many ways to piece these selections together that I could have easily made more but it is 8 pm (as I write this) and I want to get to bed at a decent time.

The original post has all the pieces laid out in list formation but for those that don’t feeling like looking at that post the breakdown is as follows:

5 tops (a graphic tee, striped shirt, printed short sleeve, a plain t-shirt, and a chambray that you can wear buttoned up or over tanks, t-shirts, and the sleeveless dress left open. It also looks cut knotted at the waist).
Two different style and colours of sweaters for cooler evenings and travel, one cardigan, and one oversized pullover.
4 bottoms which include, one pair of shorts (you might want to bring two depending if you are a short wearer), jeans (for cooler times and travel), some black, slouchy, casual pants (here is a white choice if you prefer a lighter colour), and a midi skirt.
Two dresses, one black, slip dress style (which is great for layering t-shirts under and sweaters over), and one shirt dress that can be left open over shorts or pants as a kimono style.
A bathing suit or two for variety and in case one is wet when you want to go swimming.
A small and big lightweight scarf that can be worn around hair, as a shawl, and for a swimsuit cover.
Accessories for the sun like a hat and sunglasses
3 pairs of shoes; sandals, slides, and espadrilles.
Two purses are a good option, a regular size purse, and a crossbody

I used to have a fantastic pair of espadrilles years ago but I wore them basically until the sole fell off. They were the only shoes I wore when we went to Barbados even though I brought several pairs. If I would have known they would be back in style I probably would have tried to find a way to salvage them.

Have you ever had any regrets about getting rid of items from your closet? I still regret getting rid of a top from 1995…..

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What to Pack for Greece – Packing Light

July 11, 2017Sara 4 Comments

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I just want to start by saying ugh. My contact form apparently isn’t sending me everything when it is submitted. I just received 6 messages that were dated from the beginning to middle of June that never went through until now. If one of those messages were yours than I am so sorry I missed them. I wasn’t ignoring you. I try to respond back to every single message and I am feeling really bad right now. I think I am going to just remove the contact form and leave my email address there instead to avoid this problem. Once again I am sorry 🙁

Every once and awhile I like to revisit some old packing lists to update them or see what I chose, and how my choices would be different this time around. This time I went back to one of my most popular lists from a couple of years ago, Santorini, Greece. What I like about my choices from that list was the addition of colour. I guess I was feeling more vibrant then. It’s a fun, warm weather list, but in hindsight I included too many shoes and bags and would change that this time.

For this list my choices parallel nicely in some areas and differ a lot in others. Greece can be really, really hot depending on the time of year so slight adjustments might need to be taken into consideration if you are travelling during the peak hot season. Maybe an extra pair of shorts, and a couple of sleeveless tanks would round it out nicely.

My selections are broken down as follows:

I included 5 tops (a graphic tee, striped shirt, printed short sleeve, a plain t-shirt, and a chambray which can be worn buttoned up or over tanks and sleeveless dresses unbuttoned).
Two sweaters for cooler evenings and travel, one cardigan, and one oversized pullover.
4 bottoms, one pair of shorts, jeans (for cooler times and travel), some black, slouchy, casual pants (here is a nice pair of white ones too), and a skirt.
Two dresses, one black, slip dress style (which is great for layering), and one shirt dress.
A bathing suit or two.
Some lightweight scarves in small and big that can be doubled for tying around hair, shawls, and swimsuit covers.
Sunshine accessories like a hat and sunglasses
3 pairs of shoes; sandals, slides, and espadrilles.
Two purses, a regular size purse, and a crossbody

I hope you like the updated version and I will put together 20-30 outfits from these pieces for next post.

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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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What to Wear on a Road Trip – Outfit Options

July 6, 2017Sara Leave a Comment

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I’ve been sitting here with the Zara sale page open to a shirt that I like for 45 minutes debating whether or not to get it. I have been putting it in and taking it out of my basket for the last 4-5 months. I guess I’m going to have to check and see if you can return sale items. If you can I will probably get it. I hate being so indecisive, I do it with everything and it’s a quality about myself that frustrates me :/ I’m always second guessing myself.

These are the 30 outfit options (15 at the top of the page and 15 at the bottom) that go with the What to Pack for a Road Trip packing list (if you want more details on the trip and the pieces you can check it out over there). The road trip is set for two weeks this summer going from California to Arizona. The desert states are pretty hot so I made this a comfortable travelling capsule that will work well for this type of weather.

Remember that I list things in general terms so a graphic tee is any tee you have that has a band or print on it. This applies to all the pieces. You pick comparable items that you have that will work with the colour palette that you choose. I do these because a lot of people are visual and actually seeing how everything is put together helps them immensely when they are trying to figure it out at home. Below is a short summary of what pieces I used to put these outfits together.

5 shirts ( t-shirt, graphic tee, tunic, peasant top, black shirt) and a chambray shirt for layering (but also works well by itself).
a cardigan, and a pullover for any air conditioning, and cooler evenings.
The bottoms include shorts, jeans, wide leg pants, and a midi skirt.
A cute, knee length style dress, and a maxi/midi dress.
a bathing suit for any beaches, pools, or water parks you may hit along the way.
Accessories like a woven summer hat, sunglasses, and a lightweight scarf.
Three pairs of footwear which should have casual sneaker of some kind, sandals, and then something fun like and espadrille, mule, or flat in a good colour/print.
A big tote works well to keep crap in, in the car, and a regular shoulder bag.\

I will leave you off with some current weekend sales:

J.Crew Factory extra 50% off sale with the code EXTRA50
Ann Taylor – 40% off select with code WEARNOW
Lands’ End 30% site wide with code LAWNCHAIR
Tory Burch – extra 30% off sale with code EXTRA30
Aeropostale – extra 40% of sale with code EXTRACLEAR
Club Monaco – up to 60% off select no code
Boden – up to 60% off with code NS19
Net-A-Porter – Extra 20% off select no code
Anthropologie – extra 30% off sale no code
Coach – 50% off sale no code
West Elm – 25% off one item with code YOUR25
Williams Sonoma – extra 20% off sale with code JULY

Have great weekend guys!

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What to Pack for a Road Trip – Plus Size

July 5, 2017Sara 7 Comments

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I just walked in the door from a really long outing with the family today (Tuesday). We were out for longer than we have been out in one day in a long while and I was totally hoping it would knock the kids out but it seems to have energized them. I’m ready to sleep though. We hit up the museum where we each had our favourite parts; Merle was in geode heaven, I am all about the Middle Ages, Roo thrives on Greece, and while Tom isn’t a huge museum fan I think he secretly liked some parts because I caught him reading lots of information plaques and taking pictures. Maybe I will win him over 😉 Then we hit up the big Value Village where we found some books, and then we went out to dinner. Now I am writing this blog post while eating my leftovers and trying to stay awake. Maybe I’ll rewatch Friends in the background to keep me alert.

This week I have a packing list for a 2 week road trip in summer than starts in California and goes to Arizona. Arizona is pretty bloody hot right now so I didn’t bother adding any type of light jacket. The thought behind this list is comfort, and I may or may not have included an extra shirt or two in case the heat is so intense you sweat through them all before laundry time 🙂 The breakdown is as follows:

A t-shirt, graphic tee, tunic, peasant top, black “dressy” shirt, and a chambray shirt for layering (or by itself).
One cardigan, and one pullover which will work for air conditioning, and cooler days/evenings.
For bottoms I included one pair of shorts, jeans, wide leg (loose fit) pants, and a midi skirt.
A cute, knee length style, and a flowy summer maxi/midi dress.
a bathing suit for any beaches, pools, or water parks you may hit along the way.
Accessories which include a woven summer hat, sunglasses, and a lightweight scarf.
Three pairs of footwear which should include a casual sneaker, sandals, and then something fun like and espadrille, mule, or flat in a good colour/print.
Finally a big tote to easily throw all the car crap in quickly when needed, and a regular shoulder bag.

I made this quite a casual list because car travel needs comfort. If will have any situations that require something more dressy than black pants, and a black shirt then you will have to adjust the options accordingly. I will put together the outfit options from this list for the next post.

What are your go-to’s for a long road trip? I get car sick easily (it sucks) so since I can’t read then music is the next best thing. I would say a good playlist is a top rank for me, along with books and an iPad for the non driving parts.

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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What to Wear in Paris and Prague Outfit Options

June 29, 2017Sara Leave a Comment

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When I go to bed at night I always reflect on the day and 99% of the time I shake my head at how unproductive it was. Then I go to bed with the promise to myself that tomorrow I will do better. When I actually pay attention throughout the day to exactly why it is so unproductive I think about the meme that says “trying to accomplish something with children around is like having 152 things going through your head while someone is continuously hitting you with a stick.” That applies to so many things with kids and people who have more than two and still have it all together, I tip my hat to you. Twelve years in and this shit is still hard. So currently I have allowed my older daughter to have her PS4 back (taken away due to ridiculously messing room) and my youngest is quietly watching Charlotte’s web on the iPad so I can sit in silence and actually string two thoughts together on here. Annnnd she just asked for milk and cookies, like 45 seconds after typed that :/

This post is part two, to the What to Pack for Paris and Prague request I got on Instagram. Last post I mentioned how I tried something new and picked the entire list from the store & Other Stories. I found that I kept picking pieces from there so I made the decision the put together the entire list strictly from them. I pretty much want their whole inventory so it was easy. I also talked about how my choices reflected my personal wardrobe the most out of every packing post I have made (I think).

The trip is for 10 days so I put together 18 outfit options from the pieces in the list. A quick breakdown of what the list includes in case you missed last post or you found yourself here from Pinterest (or another social media site) is as follows:

Several shirts (a tank or camisole, striped t-shirt, a graphic/band t-shirt, and a silk blouse)
A couple of sweaters (an oversized, off the shoulder sweater, and a pullover) a cardigan might make a good substitute for one of these choices as well since they are very versatile.
Three bottoms (a blue denim, a grey or black denim or trouser, a skirt)
Two dresses (shirt dress, summery casual dress) this lace one is great too.
A light jacket for cooler evenings or rain. I picked a linen jacket that looks great belted on the website (there is also a leopard one that I have my eye on that almost made this cut).
Shoes, 3 pairs. This is were I always have difficulty but ultimately a walking shoe, a slide, and a sandal made the list. An alternative to the slip on walking shoe would be a sneaker or some kind.
Accessories. The pieces that tie everything together and what you will use to change-up your looks. These include a hat, scarf or scarves of varying colours and prints, sunnies, and possible some simple jewelry. Like a dainty necklace, bracelet, or rings.
Purses. Ultimately you only need two maximum. A larger tote/shoulder bag, and a crossbody. These two should get you through any kind of travel situation that may arise. Any more than two is just a waste of precious suitcase space.

So as you can see the pieces above can be worn is so many ways. I put together 18 outfits but the possibilities are much more with some creativity.

This weekend is Canada’s 150th birthday and there is so much going on. I’m not sure what we are doing yet, but I hope you all have a great weekend!

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