Month: December 2023

2023 fashion shopping review

/ edebock / 9 Comments

Logo by SamAt the beginning of 2018, following the example of one of my favourite bloggers, Sue Burpee of High Heels in the Wilderness, I started keeping a list of all my fashion purchases including clothing, accessories, and footwear. I was interested in finding out more about my spending habits and I wanted to be more intentional about wardrobe development. In addition, I wanted to become a more ethical shopper. I’ve continued this practice every year since and at the end of each year I publish a fashion shopping review analyzing my purchases and setting some goals for the next year.

What surprises me most when I look at this year’s list is how short it is. I only bought 17 items! That’s less than half as many as most other years. Of those, 12 were thrifted and only 5 purchased new. I spent a total of $395.50 (CAD), again less than half what I’ve spent most other years. Research shows that some women spend that much every month!

So, what did I get for less than $400?

  • 2 pairs of pants
  • 7 tops
  • 1 vintage jacket
  • 1 vest
  • 1 scarf
  • 1 swimsuit (which hasn’t actually been worn yet, though I hope to remedy that soon)
  • 1 swimsuit cover up (also not worn yet)
  • 1 pair of earrings
  • 1 necklace
  • 1 pair of sandals

The last item on that list was by far the most expensive. At $175 my Ecco walking sandals were worth every cent. I love thrift store shopping, but good quality footwear is something that I’m willing to spend a significant amount of money on. I consider it an investment in healthy feet.

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Trying to shop ethically is complicated and how successful I’ve been is always very difficult to assess. One of my fashion shopping goals in recent years has been to avoid buying items, especially new ones, that were made in China. I loved living and teaching there, but these days Canada-China relations are chilly at best. Conditions for many factory workers in that country are abhorrent and human rights are being increasingly eroded. It’s a personal choice, but I prefer not to support China if I can avoid it. One of the items that I bought new in 2023 and several of the second-hand ones were made in China and others were made in Vietnam and Cambodia. It’s virtually impossible to find out whether they were made in sweatshops where workers are exploited and forced to work in unsafe conditions or manufactured in socially and environmentally responsible factories. Unfortunately, since the vast majority of fashion manufacturing takes place overseas, those of us who live in North America have little choice but to buy clothing made in these countries.

Until recently, thrift store shopping was lauded as being ethical and sustainable, but now that’s a topic that’s up for debate. I still feel that it’s often a better option than buying new, but I plan on writing a post about this early in the new year, so I won’t go into it here.

Having done this exercise for the past six years has definitely made a difference to how I shop. I’ve become much more intentional, making fewer impulse buys and limiting them to things that I love and pieces that go well with what I already own. My goal for the coming year will simply be to continue in this vein. Some new blue jeans will probably be on my shopping list as a couple of pairs of old favourites are starting to show their age. I’d like to try a pair of wide-legged ones while they’re in style. I also need some new capri pants for summer as most of mine are quite worn. The worst ones didn’t make the cut when I did my seasonal closet switch in the fall.

And now, in addition to the sandals shown above, here are a few of my favourite fashion purchases from the past year. They’ve all appeared on the blog before.

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When winter rolled around again, I was very happy to start wearing the dark brown button fly cords from cabi again. Purchased in a season end sale last January, they’re a little dressier than my jeans.

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The neutral plaid shirt, originally from Gap, was an excellent second-hand purchase that only cost me $2! 

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As comfortable as pjs, these striped linen blend pants were a great addition to my summer wardrobe. They were also thrifted.  

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Finally, I was very fortunate to find this sleeveless top from cabi’s Fall 2018 Collection in our local thrift store in September. I don’t know where it had been hiding for the past five years, but it looked as if it had never been worn!

And now, with with just two days left in 2023, I want to take a moment to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year!

Wearing navy and rust

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Navy is often considered a neutral colour because, like black and grey, it’s a good base colour that plays well with just about every other colour. Perhaps that’s why I like dark wash jeans so much. They go with almost everything. That’s not as true of my rust coloured corduroy skinnies. I often pair them with cream, but when I tried them with navy, I knew I’d found another combo that worked. 

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Except for the slippers, I’m dressed in head to toe cabi here. Though you probably can’t see them very well in the photos, even my earrings are from cabi. The pants are from the fall 2020 season and the lightweight striped pullover is from fall 2017. It has been a workhorse in my wardrobe for the past six years and it’s beginning to show it’s age. It’s cost per wear would be so low that it definitely doesn’t owe me a thing and I’m keeping my eye out for something similar to replace it with when it’s no longer wearable. 

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For some reason, this colour combination reminds me of my mother. She was an artist who loved colour. When she decided to redecorate our living room with a blue carpet and an orange couch back in the early 1960s, I remember being somewhat skeptical. That’s when she sat me down and taught me about the colour wheel and complementary colours. Colours that are opposite one another on the wheel go well together, she told me. I guess Mom knew what she was talking about! 

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Perhaps it’s Christmas and not just colours that has me reminiscing about family, so let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, I hope Santa is good to you!  

What I wore for a Christmas event

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I really didn’t want to buy anything new for the few Christmas events that we’d be attending this season, but I did take a look at what was in the stores. It quickly became obvious that I didn’t need to buy anything. Everything I saw was either black, red, or sparkly and I already had similar items in my closet from Christmases past. Here’s what I wore for a banquet that we attended last Sunday evening.

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I started with a pair of wide-legged black pants that have been in my wardrobe since the last time wide legs were in style! A sleeveless top, also several years old, added a bit of sparkle and a hint of red. After trying on several possible toppers, I settled on a cozy sweater jacket that I purchased at one of our local thrift stores a few winters ago. I tend to feel chilly much of the time, but I knew that even if the venue was a bit cool, I’d be warm enough dressed this way.

I accessorized the outfit with a pair of sparkly earrings and a necklace that also has a bit of sparkle. The little vintage evening bag is big enough to hold everything I need for an evening out and is one of my favourite second-hand finds. While I could have taken a pair of dressy shoes to change into, I decided that I’d just wear my red ankle boots and leave them on.

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Although a few women were dressed more formally or fancier than I was, others were dressed more casually. Neither overdressed nor underdressed, I felt very much at ease in my ‘middle of the road’ outfit.  It fit my five style adjectives… classy, comfortable, casual, confident, and authentic.

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Posture and appearance

/ edebock / 6 Comments

“Stand up straight!” “Stop slouching!” 

Did you hear your mother’s voice or perhaps your grandma’s when you read that? It’s timeless advice that’s worth heeding. Good posture has many health benefits. Incorrect alignment of the spine puts extra stress on the legs and can lead to achy knees and feet. Poor posture can have a negative impact on circulation and digestion and may lead to increased headaches. Good posture is also essential to balance which becomes increasingly important as we age.

So, what does good posture look like?

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Image: Stanford University

Notice that in the image on the left, the model’s ears are directly above her shoulders. One of the leading causes of poor posture today is constantly looking down at phones and laptops. Did you know that your head weighs approximately 5 kg (11 pounds)? Every time you look down for an extended period of time its weight adds stress to muscles, joints, and nerves, especially in the neck and upper back.

But what does all this have to do with our appearance? Have you ever been to a fashion show or watched one online? Models, without exception, have great posture; shoulders back, chin level and hips neutral. There’s a reason for that. Clothing always looks better on a body with good posture.

I love to people watch and I can’t help noticing that people with good posture walk with more ease and grace. They look taller, more slender, more confident, happier, and healthier. So, as you put on your Christmas finery and head out the door to whatever special occasions this season holds, remember to listen to that inner voice that’s telling you to “Stand up straight!”

Logo by Sam

Sixteen years of blogging!

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I published my very first blog post sixteen years ago today! It was also the shortest post I’ve ever written; a brief message announcing that hubby and I had just accepted positions teaching conversational English in Japan. The blog was meant to share that year-long adventure with friends, family and anyone else who might be interested. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would still be alive and well sixteen years later!

The title, Following Augustine, no longer fits the blog as well as it did in those early days, but since it’s what I’ve been known as in the blogosphere for more than a decade and a half, I hesitate to consider changing it. You can read about why I originally chose the title here.

Though I probably already had neuroendocrine cancer (NETS) when the blog was born, I didn’t know about it until several years later. When I finally received a correct diagnosis, blogging became a helpful way to process what was happening and to share the journey with friends and family. I also use the blog to raise awareness of NETS. I’m sure that this will continue to happen as I’ve recently become a member of a newly formed Advocacy Advisory Board that will report to the board of directors of the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS).

When I started the blog, writing about fashion was the farthest thing from my mind. Several years ago, however, I starting following several fashion blogs and began to develop a greater interest in the topic. It was then that I decided to add the weekly Fashion Friday feature. At times, I find it a challenge to come up with a new fashion related topic every week, but it’s been a great way to connect with other women and to ensure that I post something at least once a week. Fashion Friday has a fairly small, but loyal following of interested readers, so I as long as I can continue to think of engaging content, I plan to keep the feature going.

As an avid reader, it was my passion for books that prompted me to add the latest feature to the blog, a monthly book review that first appeared at the beginning of February this year.

I refer to Following Augustine as a lifestyle, travel, and fashion blog, but in recent years, there hasn’t been as much travel content as I would have liked. First, the pandemic and then a number of other health issues, both mine and hubby’s, have limited our ability to spend as much time away from home as we would like, but our brand new ten year passports arrived in yesterday’s mail and we hope to be able to put them to good use in the future. If that happens, the blog will once again chronicle our wanderings.

Following Augustine will probably continue to undergo changes from time to time, but at this point, I don’t see it coming to an end anytime soon. Over the past sixteen years, I’ve published over 1400 posts and I expect that I’ll continue adding to that number until I’m no longer able!

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A day to remember!

/ edebock / 8 Comments

On December 1, 1923 my mother’s baby sister, Norma Pearl Raby, was born. On Friday, we had the privilege of celebrating her 100th birthday! What an amazing milestone!

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Auntie Norma and I have always been close. In fact, she often told people that I was the daughter she never had! For several years I’d been telling her that I planned to be at her 100th birthday party and I was only half joking as I knew that she’d had an aunt who lived to almost 103.

Auntie Norma has lived in Jasper, Alberta since 1953 and is now the town’s oldest living resident. Always active in the community, she lived in her own home until the age of 97 when she moved into the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge. On Friday, the lodge staff went above and beyond as they prepared for her very special day. They set up and decorated a table in the common area for our family celebration and served us a lovely lunch. The table decor included photos from throughout Norma’s life and the pièce de résistance of the meal was the amazing cake baked and decorated by a member of the lodge’s kitchen staff!

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For most of her life, Auntie Norma was robust and physically active. In fact, we went hiking with her when she was 87 years old! Over the past year, however, she has become very frail. Now virtually blind and confined to bed or wheelchair, her once sharp memory has started to fail. She has good days and bad, but Friday was a very good day! Although she sometimes goes for days without eating, she had absolutely no problem polishing off two pieces of that delicious chocolate cake!

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She was alert and attentive as numerous residents of the lodge and visitors from the community came by after lunch to wish her a happy birthday. Her body may be failing but her sweet spirit and her sense of humour are definitely intact! It was such a privilege for Richard and I to share her special day with my cousins (or perhaps I should say my brother’s from another mother), Norma’s two sons and their partners.

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Now back home, my heart is full as I look back on such a wonderful day and consider how fortunate I am to have had this special lady in my life for such a long time!

Book of the month – November 2023

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Lisa See

81URNOpF3vL._SY522_I read mostly for enjoyment, but I love a book that transports me to another place or perhaps another time and a book that teaches me something. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was such a book. Before reading it, I knew absolutely nothing about the Akha people, a minority hill tribe who live in small villages in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Yunnan province in China.

As the story opens in the late 1980s, the families of Spring Village are living a very traditional lifestyle without modern conveniences and with very little contact with the outside world. Traditional beliefs and rituals dominate their existence and their lives are aligned around the seasons and the growing of tea. When twins are born to a young village couple, the father is required to kill his babies and the couple is banished from the village.

That’s when I had to put the book aside to do a bit of research. Who were these Akha people? Did they really exist? Were they still living that way in the late 1900s? I learned that indeed they were. The Akha believed that only animals could give birth to more than one offspring, therefore until about 20 years ago, twins were considered an extremely ominous occurrence and were killed immediately, as were babies born out of wedlock.

Now, back to the story… Gradually, the outside world begins to encroach on Spring Village. Li-yan, daughter of the local midwife and one of the few educated girls on the mountain, slowly begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she gives birth to a baby out of wedlock, she rejects tradition and travels with her newborn daughter to a nearby city. There she leaves the baby, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage.

While Li-yan eventually leaves her village for further education, a job, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins and across the ocean, Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.

Perhaps the well-researched story tells us more about the history and the production of tea than we really care to know, but it’s also an enthralling family saga; a captivating story of mothers and daughters, families, fate and love. A secondary narrative depicts what it might be like to be one of the many Chinese girl children adopted by American families.

My favourite quote? “Those who suffer have earned contentment.”

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Fashion Friday will return next week.