Fair Isle

One of my favourite things ever is fair isle knits.

Blue print and ball cap

These blue print pants are back in rotation again. The weather is starting to turn colder and once it stops getting up to 15+ degrees in the afternoon, I'll have to give up and put these pants away for the winter.

I finally picked up a "leather" ball cap. I've been wanting one for some time, but I sure didn't have the cash to drop on a real leather ball cap. I picked this one up from Ardene on a 3 for $10 deal - that means this hat cost $3.33! Now that's a steal!

It was pretty cool this morning, so I opted for a black waffle-knit crew neck tee-shirt under my blue cardigan both to keep warm and to pick up on the black in the ball cap. My trusty navy boat shoes and I was set!

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!

Cowboy hat & Aztec print

So sometimes an outfit just kind of comes together of it's own accord. This was one of those days. We were heading across the city to stay at my in-laws for a couple of days, so I knew I wanted to wear something comfortable for riding in the car and lounging around at a friend's pool, plus the hubs had made some crack about me not wearing enough skirts or something, so I grabbed this aztec print skirt out of the closet and threw it on with a classic black v-neck t-shirt.

Then we did actually go to a friend's house to swim and lounge and I knew I needed to wear a hat (so I didn't look like Bob the Tomato for the rest of the weekend) and I put on my straw cowboy hat that I picked up when we visited the Calgary stampede earlier this summer. And then I did swim and my hair was all kind of beachy and such and I thought - hey - I look pretty good right now - Hubs! Take my picture.

And that's all there is to it. Voila.

Summer Blues

The end of summer always gives me a slight case of the blues. Summer is so short here in Ontario, and while I do look forward to crisp fall days, and the colours of the leaves on the trees (and all the thing I'm allergic to being dead and not affecting me anymore) I know that it will only be a short time before I'm longing for the hot, lazy days of summer.
Also - it just so happens that my birthday falls in the last week of August, so I have to officially get older every year at the end of summer... so, y'know, there's THAT.

That said, the blues in this outfit do not give me the blues. They're actually quite bright and fun, and I love these printed pants so much that they basically always get worn straight out of the laundry basket.

Runnin! ..... errands.

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel just about run off your feet? Like suddenly every single errand that you've been thinking you need to do needs to happen all in one day?
This was one of those days. Aside from waking up that morning feeling seriously oppressed by the heavy storm clouds that were just hanging out, not doing anything except giving me a headache I suddenly felt the need to go to the farm market store, the grocer, the bank, and the library. And then come home and weed and harvest from the garden. I needed clothes I could "run around" in. Easy shorts, bright plain tee and some comfy sneakers and I'm set! What's your go-to errand outfit?

Print Mixing

Print mixing is one of those things that can either be awesome or horribly horribly awful. You know what I'm talking about. For the longest time someone would say "print mixing" to me and I'd immediately have a mental image of a teacher from my grade school, rocking the crazy aztec print blouse with a giant, floral skirt.... not.... awesome.

So, while I've had this t-shirt and these shorts for a while, and I often pull them out to wear together I usually buckle under and change one or the other for a solid instead of wearing them together. But THIS TIME I packed them in my bag to go on my kids-free weekend with the hubs... and I didn't HAVE an option to switch either for a solid piece instead... so I just went for it. And y'know - I think I like it after all! It helps to have the prints be reasonably close in size and the colours to match (and or compliment) well. That's my 2 cents for print mixing - take it for what it's worth people.