Dressed up/Dressed down

I find that when I wear a dress my inclination is always to dress it up rather than to dress it down.

Layered

Lately the days have been sort of irregular. They start off seriously cold and windy, a nip in the air, as the day moves on it gets warmer, sometimes the wind dies down, and then by evening it tends to be cool again, and often wet - this kind of weather obviously requires layers. Lots of layers.

Considering fall trends

I've been thinking a lot about fall.

Now, don't get me wrong - I get as irritated as the rest of you every time somebody pins a pumpkin-frickin-spice-latte on pinterest, or something about "can't wait for cable sweaters and coloured leaves" and blah blah blah... yeah, everybody loves those things about fall. But here in Canada, and specifically in Ontario, those aspects of fall (the coloured leaves, the bright sunny but still nicely cool/crisp days) last like a couple of weeks, 3 tops. The rest of "fall" is either late summer weather where people have put away their shorts and tee-shirts and then suddenly we have like 4 days of 25+ weather and by day 3 everyone is finally unpacking some of their summer stuff only for it to go back down to 10 two days later. And rain. That's pretty much fall in Ontario.

HOWEVER - I am kind of excited about fall fashion. The nice thing about fall in Ontario is that even after all the leaves have fallen off the trees and it has stopped raining and is cool, bordering on cold and mostly the sky is grey-ish, because clearly winter is coming it's still "warm" enough (warm being a relative word in Canada) to wear our outfits with a few layers, but without the winter necessity of scarf, toque, boots, mitts and down-filled coat. It's a nice in-between season.


And speaking of fall fashion - there's quite a few trends out there that are hitting the flyers and websites... but not all of them are mom friendly, or plus-sized friend, or (IMHO) real-life friendly. So I've picked out a few that I think are classic enough to be worth spending a little cash on, but trendy enough to not make you look like you haven't updated your wardrobe for like 10 years. Cool? Cool!
Onwards.


Mama's Picks for Fall Fashion 2014!

Thrifted Vest

I have been wanting a cargo/canvas/military-esque style vest for quite a while now. However, most of them are either a)stupidly expensive b)not shaped correctly for someone my shape (because I just LOVE looking like a big square... literally) or c) covered in weird/awkward/so-not-my-style blingy bedazzlement - sorry - but if you grew up in the 80s/90s anything that looks like something someone went at with a Bedazzler is not really at the top of my list.

So when I saw a short-sleeved button up shirt with pretty much all the cargo/military type styling I was looking for on VarageSale for a whopping $3.00 I had to jump on it. Picked this baby up, took it home, chopped off the sleeves - and voila! Cargo vest for $3.00!

I paired it while at the cottage with a long sleeve tee, my current fave jeans and my happy birthday to me moccasins. Super comfy, warm enough for a cool rainy day up north. I can see this vest getting a LOT of wear this fall as I'm looking forward to layering it with sweaters, button downs and hoodies. I also like the versatility that the buttons and string-tie at the waistband offers.