Aah, I've been away! on a short but most delightfully fun girlie jaunt to Melbourne with my mother and my daughter.
I have about a zillion photos of mind-blowingly beautiful clothing, some of which I will share here very soon :) And a bunch of Grease songs recycling on auto repeat in my head. And um, an extra 5kg of weight to my suitcase on the way home. Obviously, we had to visit the Fabric Store and Tessuti. Don't worry, some of it is actually for other people! *gasp* So unselfish of me! Note use of heavy sarcasm font, there.
Anyhow, now my inner analyst is bossily commanding me to reflect upon, dissect and assess my travel wardrobe. My selection was boring and - warning, buzzword approaching; minimal. Primary motive; to create as empty a suitcase as possible, with a view to the aforementioned Christmas fabric shopping spree, ahem.
Time away:
5 days
Where to:
Melbourne
Season:
Early summer; cool and pleasant. Daytime temps were pretty consistent, from 14C lows to 22-24C highs, with a sprinkling of rain on one day.
Expected activities:
All girly stuff. Days involved chatting, walking, exhibition-viewing, browsing and ultimately spending! Evenings included still more chatting, tapas-ing, bubbly-sipping, spa-ing, and going to the theatre.
Colour scheme:
rather colourless! mostly black and creamy-white/ivories, with only some caramel brown and gold in my accessories to relieve the unrelenting nothingness.
What I packed:
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from left to right, top to bottom; each garment is linked to its original construction post
forest green cardigan
loose black blouse
lightweight draped white top
loose, very pale pink blouse
black velvet dress with black satin petticoat
pale yellow scarf (never worn), black belt, pale yellow handbag
wide cream skirt
burnt brown bootleg jeans
straight ivory skirt
bathers and white thongs, travel umbrella, caramel leather sandals, black suede shoes (for evening)
not pictured, my nightie, toiletries bag and a selection of underthingies
My daily outfits:
I did use my phone to take daily selfies in our hotel mirror for my daily outfit blog but they were totally awful! So, some re-enactments...
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Thoughts:
Well, just one cardigan, one pair of jeans, one evening dress and heels, one pair of day sandals. Three tops, of varying weights and silhouettes, and two skirts, again with different silhouettes. Only one pair of flat leather sandals for day wear plus the ever useful thongs. I always toss in the thongs and my bathers too, just in case. They don't take up much room so why not! And as it turned out the hotel had a spa/hot tub which we used on three occasions *blissful sigh* so we were super glad we all had our bathers.
So, now we're all back home, everything is washed and put away and all is back to normal and back into the nitty gritty of real life. Sad face, but only for a second; since the party season is upon us in an intensely full swing and we have tonnes of fun party-ing and socialising ahead of us for the next few weeks! Aaaugh! love this crazy time of year but how am I going to get all my Christmas sewing and cooking done? goodness only knows. I'm going to have to get cracking on that Christmas fabric pile ... and fast!
I have about a zillion photos of mind-blowingly beautiful clothing, some of which I will share here very soon :) And a bunch of Grease songs recycling on auto repeat in my head. And um, an extra 5kg of weight to my suitcase on the way home. Obviously, we had to visit the Fabric Store and Tessuti. Don't worry, some of it is actually for other people! *gasp* So unselfish of me! Note use of heavy sarcasm font, there.
Anyhow, now my inner analyst is bossily commanding me to reflect upon, dissect and assess my travel wardrobe. My selection was boring and - warning, buzzword approaching; minimal. Primary motive; to create as empty a suitcase as possible, with a view to the aforementioned Christmas fabric shopping spree, ahem.
Time away:
5 days
Where to:
Melbourne
Season:
Early summer; cool and pleasant. Daytime temps were pretty consistent, from 14C lows to 22-24C highs, with a sprinkling of rain on one day.
Expected activities:
All girly stuff. Days involved chatting, walking, exhibition-viewing, browsing and ultimately spending! Evenings included still more chatting, tapas-ing, bubbly-sipping, spa-ing, and going to the theatre.
Colour scheme:
rather colourless! mostly black and creamy-white/ivories, with only some caramel brown and gold in my accessories to relieve the unrelenting nothingness.
What I packed:
forest green cardigan
loose black blouse
lightweight draped white top
loose, very pale pink blouse
black velvet dress with black satin petticoat
pale yellow scarf (never worn), black belt, pale yellow handbag
wide cream skirt
burnt brown bootleg jeans
straight ivory skirt
bathers and white thongs, travel umbrella, caramel leather sandals, black suede shoes (for evening)
not pictured, my nightie, toiletries bag and a selection of underthingies
My daily outfits:
I did use my phone to take daily selfies in our hotel mirror for my daily outfit blog but they were totally awful! So, some re-enactments...
Well, just one cardigan, one pair of jeans, one evening dress and heels, one pair of day sandals. Three tops, of varying weights and silhouettes, and two skirts, again with different silhouettes. Only one pair of flat leather sandals for day wear plus the ever useful thongs. I always toss in the thongs and my bathers too, just in case. They don't take up much room so why not! And as it turned out the hotel had a spa/hot tub which we used on three occasions *blissful sigh* so we were super glad we all had our bathers.
And I had tonnes of fabulous space in my suitcase leftover! Win.
Did the clothing selection work? well yes, up to a point. I could have kept going on those pieces for two or three days more and still not doubled up on outfits, the boredom factor notwithstanding. I think two ivory skirts was a tad much even for me, the dedicated pale/ivory lover. Wished I had a grey or black summer weight skirt. Need to rectify that, sometime.
Note to self: grey or black summer-weight skirt.
The dress, well I LOVE my velvet dress! so much! It's doubly great, because the velvet is luxurious enough to look tres chic at evening events; but also being black and not eye-catchingly flashy it can work equally well as a day dress in a pinch. Not that a pinch ever cropped up during this short trip, but well, so the possibility is there.
We went to the theatre twice, and I took my distinctly homely and casual cardigan stuffed in my bag each time, and surreptitiously slipped it on in the dark once the lights went down and the need to look elegant subsided. I find theatres are damn cold, nearly always air-conditioned to the MAX! Like, practically arctic! What's with that?? I did have one lightweight scarf, but it didn't go with my evening dress. Actually, I didn't need it during the pleasant days either so I didn't even wear it at all. So; taking a light, evening-y type of cardigan or stole would have been a much better idea.
Note to self; if you know you'll be going to the theatre, take an evening stole!!
I'm always shocked at how cold aeroplanes are too. Brrr! But that could be just me: I noticed plenty of people on the plane are in shorts and short sleeves, little skirts and dresses and appear to be perfectly comfortable, while I'm rugged up in my jeans and thick woolly cardigan, teeth chattering, asking for a blanket.
I took the drapey top in case of an unexpectedly warm day, which didn't come. It was ok with the cardigan on over it though and I wore it twice. Actually everything I did take was perfectly fine and nit-picking aside, I felt nicely dressed enough each day :)
So, now we're all back home, everything is washed and put away and all is back to normal and back into the nitty gritty of real life. Sad face, but only for a second; since the party season is upon us in an intensely full swing and we have tonnes of fun party-ing and socialising ahead of us for the next few weeks! Aaaugh! love this crazy time of year but how am I going to get all my Christmas sewing and cooking done? goodness only knows. I'm going to have to get cracking on that Christmas fabric pile ... and fast!