Stripes for spring!

February 25, 2022February 22, 2022 / edebock / 1 Comment

I used to write a blog post twice a year about the trends for spring/summer and fall/winter based on the looks that ruled the runways for that season. I’ve quit doing that because they were a lot of work and amongst the women who read this blog, who actually dresses like a runway model? Probably no one! I know I don’t. Real women do, however, want to know how some of those looks translate into the clothes that we’ll actually see in our favourite retailers; things that we would actually wear.

That leads me to one of the biggest trends for the upcoming season… stripes! That’s right, though some of us have been wearing stripes forever, they’re going to be especially popular this season!

A classic Breton top, first introduced in 1858 as part of the uniform for navy seamen in Northern France, is an easy pattern to wear and a favourite of mine. The original design had long sleeves and featured 21 horizontal stripes, one for each of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories. Apparently, the distinctive navy and white stripes made it easy for rescuers to spot sailors who fell overboard!

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Nowadays, Breton striped t-shirts are available in both long and short-sleeved versions and a myriad of colours. Since they never really go out of style and can be worn year round, I’d like to add a couple more to my wardrobe this season while they’re easy to find. I much prefer to shop in person, but I’ve been doing some looking around online and thought I’d share a bit of what I’ve found with you. Please keep in mind that I’m not affiliated with any of the companies represented here and I don’t benefit in any way if you choose to order something. Since I have readers in wide variety of locations, I’m showing retailers from the UK and US as well as Canada.

The Original Breton Shirt – The Breton Shirt Co

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In addition to the traditional Breton top shown here, The Breton Shirt Co offers a variety of colours and styles.

Striped Oversized Long Sleeve T-shirt – Uniqlo

This one is also available in several colours.

Three-Quarter Sleeve Criss-Cross Sailor Top – Blair

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I really like the sleeve detail on this one. Though it also comes in a variety of colours, teal is a colour that flatters every skin tone.

This is just a small sampling of the Breton type tees that are available this season, but stripes are not limited to this one style.

Square Neck Button Front Tank – Cleo

Stripes aren’t always horizontal!

Prep School Shirt – Cabi

This cropped shirt is a cute and casual look for summer.

Washable Linen Pull-On Pants – L.L.Bean

These look a lot like pyjamas to me, but they would be light and breezy on a hot summer’s day.

24/7 Sweats, Dress Stripe – L.L.Bean

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I had just about finished writing this post when this dress popped up on my Facebook newsfeed. Isn’t it interesting how Facebook knows exactly where we’ve been on the internet? Not always a good thing, but in this case I didn’t mind!

Trend or not, stripes may not be your thing. If that’s the case and you really can’t see yourself wearing any of these, why not add a just a touch of the trend in a scarf or a handbag?

Colour Joy Floral Striped Scarf – The Bay

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Stripe Shopper Bag – Nordstrom

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We’ve just come through another incredibly cold snap and it looks like winter will be with us for awhile longer, but it’s nice to start thinking about spring and about what we might be wearing when the weather finally does warm up. What about you? Will you be wearing stripes?

One more day and what have I learned?

December 3, 2021December 1, 2021 / edebock / 3 Comments

Tomorrow is the final day of my “six items or less” fashion fast! It went by faster than I thought it would and now it’s time to share what I learned. Again, let’s take a quick look at the two pairs of pants, three tops, and one cardigan that I’ve been wearing for the past month.

The first thing I learned was that we don’t need as much as we think we do. Dressing in just six items for an entire month was much easier than I thought it would be. In fact, not having a lot of clothes to choose from every morning was quite liberating. It took the work out of having to decide what to wear each day.

Apparently Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein understood this concept. Jobs wore the same black turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers every day. I hope he had duplicates of the turtleneck and the jeans or they would have become awfully smelly! Einstein was known for owning several variations on the same grey suit so that he wouldn’t have to waste time deciding which outfit to wear each morning. Both men understood that they had a finite amount of brainpower for making well thought out decisions and intentionally determined not to waste it on deciding what to wear!

Secondly, I learned to be more creative. Even though I wasn’t going out a lot and being seen by other people, wearing the same six items day in, day out did get boring. As the month wore on, I started to look for ways to use accessories to make little changes to my outfits. Instead of wearing the same few pairs of earrings over and over again as I usually tend to do, I brought out some that hadn’t been worn for years. Some days I wore funky patterned socks instead of plain ones and at least half a dozen scarves came out to play. Here’s one of my most creative looks.

No, I didn’t cheat! That’s not a blouse that I’m wearing under the cardigan. It’s a large, square scarf! I held it in front of myself, tied the two top corners behind my neck and the two bottom corners behind my waist, and voila! It looks like a blouse, but it isn’t.

This trick could revolutionize packing when we finally feel comfortable flying again. After managing three and a half weeks in Europe pre-pandemic with carry-on luggage only, we’re committed to traveling that way in the future. A scarf takes up hardly any space in a suitcase, but what a great addition to a limited wardrobe!

I learned that I missed colour. My wardrobe tends to be made up mostly of neutrals and I intentionally chose a limited colour palette for this exercise so that the six items could be mixed and matched to create many different outfits, but as time went by it definitely began to feel bland.

I also learned that I need to take a closer look at what’s in my closet and let a few things go. When I started this exercise, I thought about moving the six items to a different, empty closet so that I didn’t have to look at the clothes I wasn’t going to wear, but I’m glad I didn’t do that. As I looked into my closet each morning, I found myself yearning to wear some of what I saw, but other pieces didn’t call out to me at all. If, after a month, I didn’t miss them, do I really need them? I’m going to do another closet purge this coming week. If I didn’t miss it, I probably don’t love it, and if I don’t love it, maybe it’s time to donate it. I’ll be asking myself questions like: Do I love it? Do I wear it? Does it still fit properly? Does it go with other things I own?

Today though, I’m just dreaming of what I’m going to wear on Sunday and Monday and…

I’ll definitely be keeping the six items in rotation, but I probably won’t be wearing them for a little while. Except for the blue jeans, that is. Over the past month, I wore those at least twice as often as the grey skinnies. I’ve always been a blue jeans kind of girl and I don’t think that’s about to change!

When is an accessory not just an accessory?

September 17, 2021September 15, 2021 / edebock / Leave a comment

Accessories are the finishing touches that can take an outfit from drab to dramatic. They also add versatility to your wardrobe enabling you to create many different looks with the same basic outfit. Accessories are also an opportunity to express your personal style, taste, and preferences, but sometimes they are even more than that. Sometimes an accessory has special meaning or significance to the person who wears it. That’s definitely the case with my new hand-crafted zebra pendant!

As many of you are already aware, the zebra is a symbol of neuroendocrine cancer (NETS), the cancer that I’ve been living with for the past eight years. In medical school, doctors are taught “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras”. NETS was previously considered rare and therefore, a zebra. However, with increasing awareness and quicker diagnosis, neuroendocrine cancers are proving not to be as rare as once thought. Another reason that the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS) chose and continues to use the zebra as their mascot is the fact that every zebra has its own pattern of stripes. Just as each patient and their needs are unique, no two zebras are exactly alike.

Committed to improving the quality of life and the survival rate for NETS cancer patients across Canada, every year CNETS funds research initiatives that will have a direct and meaningful impact on their lives. As a little-known cancer, it falls upon patients to raise much of the money for this ongoing work.

Screen Shot 2021-09-15 at 2.45.32 PM Al Gillis is a neuroendocrine cancer patient who came up with a unique idea for both increasing awareness and raising funds; a beautiful one-of-a-kind pewter pendant/keyfob featuring the CNETS zebra logo. Made entirely of donated materials and using only volunteer labour, the first distribution sold out in less one day! I was fortunate to nab one of those. Now, a second batch is in stock and going fast. If you’re interested in purchasing one and supporting this important endeavour click here, but don’t hesitate too long or you’ll be waiting for Al and his crew to make more!

You might also be interested in watching this video in which Al demonstrates and explains how the pendants (which can also be used as keyfobs) are made. I found it quite fascinating.

Do you have any accessories that are especially meaningful to you? Please tell us about one or more of them in the comments section below.

Why accessorize?

December 4, 2020December 3, 2020 / edebock / Leave a comment

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Accessories are the finishing touches that can take an outfit from drab to dramatic. They also add versatility to your wardrobe enabling you to create many different looks with the same basic outfit. Almost any outfit will benefit from a few carefully chosen accessories, but think beyond jewelry to watches, scarves, belts, shoes, handbags, gloves, and hats. These days even masks are accessories that can complement an outfit.

Accessories are an opportunity to express your personal style, taste, and preferences. They can add a pop of colour to an otherwise neutral outfit. Accessories can also draw attention to your finer points and away from those you might not want to accentuate. For example, a short necklace and statement earrings will draw the viewer’s eye to your face and away from your bust while a long necklace will make you look taller and leaner than you really are. In addition, some accessories have sentimental significance and add a feel good aspect to getting dressed. This could be something you’ve received as a gift or something you picked up while traveling. In my case, I also have a few pieces of jewelry that belonged to my mother. Rather than storing them away for safekeeping, I like to wear them occasionally.

Choosing which accessories to wear can be intimidating, so let’s look at a few tips from the style experts.

Think of your outfit as a blank canvas. What does it need to enhance it? For example, is the neckline very plain and simple? Perhaps it needs a necklace or a scarf to fill it in.
Create balance by giving centre stage to one dominant piece and adding more subtle accessories as supporting characters. For example, if you’re wearing a statement necklace, choose earrings that won’t compete for attention.
Keep the proportion of your accessories appropriate to your body. If you are petite, you can still wear fashion jewelry, but smaller scale pieces will enhance your outfit rather than overwhelm or distract.
Wear what suits your personality and makes you feel comfortable. Several months ago, a reader shared a quote from an O. Douglas novel that really resonated with me. “When you’re sure your clothes are right you can forget all about them. When you’re wrongly dressed you’re miserably aware of it all the time.” The same is true of accessories. If something makes you feel self-conscious, don’t wear it.
Keep your accessories appropriate to the occasion. For example, you might wear the same little black dress to the office, to a funeral, and to a New Years Eve party (though maybe not this year!) but each circumstance would call for different accessories. The glitzy pieces that you might choose for a special evening event would be totally out of place in either of the other two situations.
For a modern look, coordinate your necklace and earrings rather than matching them. The matchy-match look will immediately make you look dated. If you have a matching set, you don’t have to stop wearing them. Simply break them up. Wear the earrings with a scarf or a different necklace that has a similar “flavour” or feel. Do the same with the necklace.
My last suggestion would be to store your accessories in such a way that they’re organized and easy to see. Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered that yet and I’m often found trying to untangle necklaces from one another! If and when I figure out a method that works well, I’ll share it on the blog. How do you organize and store your accessories?

How to wear a sweater dress

November 27, 2020November 25, 2020 / edebock / 5 Comments

Sweater dresses are a big hit this winter, perhaps because they’re so incredibly comfortable. If there was ever a year when we craved comfort, this has to be the one! I was fortunate to find this one on sale while doing some Christmas shopping recently. I bought it in midnight blue.

Tall boots and sweater dresses are a very trendy look. They’re often shown with bare legs, but that doesn’t work in our climate, so I’m wearing mine with leggings. Since the boots are dark brown, I chose navy blue leggings rather than adding a third colour.

For a slightly edgier look, I switched the tall boots for a pair of black ankle boots and added a pair of cozy knit socks in almost the same shade as the dress.

As far as footwear is concerned, almost anything goes with a sweater dress. In the remaining photos, I’m wearing a pair of flats, but the possibilities range from stilettos to sneakers. Come spring, I might try wearing the dress with bare legs and one of these pairs that both reside in my closet.

Some knits are loose or chunky and hide your figure, so cinching them in with a belt can be flattering. The heavier the knit, the wider you can go with the belt. Mine is a finer knit, so it looks best with a narrow belt. I’m not sure that it’s my best look though as it emphasizes the fact that I don’t have a very girlish waistline!

Today’s photos aren’t as clear as I would have liked, so it might be a bit difficult to see that my dress has a split neck. In the next photo, I’ve buttoned it up to form a turtleneck. I haven’t worn turtlenecks much since my extensive neck surgery six and a half years ago because I haven’t found them comfortable, but this one was loose enough and soft enough not to bother me.

As always, accessories complete a look. The finer the knit, the easier it is to dress up. The V created by a long necklace is flattering and elongates your look. Scarves are another way to enhance an outfit. This worked well enough with my turtleneck, but might look even better with a crew neck or V neck.

With Covid numbers escalating rapidly in our province and everyone being urged to stay at home, I probably won’t be shopping again for awhile, but I definitely wouldn’t mind adding another sweater dress to my wardrobe. They’re so versatile!

Digging deeper!

November 13, 2020November 10, 2020 / edebock / 2 Comments

Now that winter has arrived, challenging myself to wear skirts and dresses to church every Sunday has resulted in me digging much deeper into my closet. Last Sunday morning, the temperature was -10ºC (14F), a strong wind was blowing, and it was snowing. Clearly, dressing warm was a priority.

I started with a camel coloured pencil skirt that I bought in early 2013, just before we left for a teaching term in China. Named for it’s long, slim shape, a pencil skirt is a timeless garment that never goes out of fashion. It’s a basic wardrobe piece that many different outfits can be built around. In addition to this one, I have navy and grey pencil skirts that both date back to my teaching days.

I wore the same tall brown boots and patterned top that were part of last week’s outfit. Though only barely visible in the photo, I wore a pair of dark brown leggings under the skirt, partly for warmth, but also because the skirt wasn’t quite long enough to cover the top of my boots and I didn’t want a sliver of bare skin breaking up the look. Next, I added my cozy Checkmate Jacket from cabi’s Fall 2019 collection which you’ve seen on the blog a couple of times before.

Costume jewelry can be a fun and inexpensive way to finish off an outfit. The name dates back to the early 20th century and simply reflects the use of the word “costume” to refer to what we now call an “outfit”. To complete Sunday’s “costume”, I chose a pair of dangly earrings and a simple bead necklace. The beads are made from coconut shell. We spent the summer of 2011 as short term missionaries on the Pacific island of Saipan and it was there that I purchased the necklace from a Chamorro woman who made them to sell to tourists. The Chamorro are the indigenous people of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Now that winter has arrived, I’m not sure that I’ll continue wearing skirts and dresses to church every week, but it’s been fun digging deeper into my closet and coming up with new ways to style some of my older pieces.

Scarves, scarves, scarves!

September 18, 2020September 17, 2020 / edebock / 4 Comments

Fall is a beautiful season, but bittersweet because it means that our long, cold winter is just around the corner. At this time of year, I’m always reluctant to put my summer clothes away because I keep hoping that there will be a few more truly warm days and that I’ll still need them. Realistically, however, the days are getting shorter and cooler and I’m wearing mostly transitional pieces. While I haven’t switched my closet from spring/summer to fall/winter yet, I have started making some small moves in that direction. A few summer clothes that weren’t used at all this year have already been dropped off at the thrift store and this week, in preparation for fall, I decided to take a serious look at my scarf collection.

I have a few warm, wooly scarves for outdoor wear in the depths of winter, but for this exercise, I was addressing only what I’d call my fashion scarves. I started by gathering them all together in one place. There were infinity scarves, rectangular scarves, square scarves, and even a few very tiny scarves. There were animal prints, polka dots, stripes, and a variety of other patterns. As you can see, there were lots of earth tones, some blues, greens, and greys, and a few pops of other colours. For a woman who doesn’t wear scarves very often, I seem to have a lot of them! A couple were gifts and a couple belonged to my mother-in-law before she passed away, but I picked up the vast majority of them at the local thrift stores over the past few years. Some I’ve never actually worn! It was time to decide which ones to keep and which ones to move along. A scarf doesn’t take up much space, but getting dressed is so much easier when your wardrobe is pared down to only those items that will actually be worn.

I decided to start by separating my scarf collection into three piles… ones I’ve worn regularly in the past, ones I don’t wear and probably never will, and ones I’d like to wear but haven’t figured out how yet. This method can actually work well for everything in your closet, but for now I was focusing only on scarves. The don’t wear pile was set aside for my next trip to the thrift store. Hopefully someone else will enjoy those ones. Next, I went through the favourites pile and took a closer look at each of them. One of them was badly worn with lots of little catches in the fabric. It was time to let that one go too. The rest of that group went into my closet on handy scarf hangers purchased at the dollar store.

Over the next while as I do the rest of my seasonal closet switch, I’ll play around with the final few; the scarves that I like but haven’t quite figured out how to wear with my existing wardrobe. Hopefully they’ll result in some new looks for fall.

And finally, here’s my newest scarf. Infinity scarves are so easy to wear and when I saw this one in the thrift store last week, I knew immediately that it would look great with a jean jacket, in this case a basic one from Gap that’s been in my closet for several years. Perfect for an early fall day!

Inspiration for an easy jean outfit

April 24, 2020April 22, 2020 / edebock / 3 Comments

As you no doubt know by now, I read several fashion bloggers for “women of a certain age” on a regular basis. I’ve posted links to their blogs here. Every now and then, one of them posts an outfit that inspires me to try to create something similar from what I have in my own closet. I like to think of this as being inspired rather than copying!

This is exactly what happened about a week ago when Brenda Kinsel published a post entitled Easiest jean outfit recipe for the COVID season and beyond.

Brenda Kinsel

The key ingredient in her outfit is her beautiful Dressori kimono jacket. I don’t have anything like that in my closet, but its denim colour brought to mind something that I do have, my cabi waterfront shirt from several seasons ago.

Though it can be worn as a button-up shirt, I much prefer to wear it open over another top.

Here I’m wearing it with a pair of medium wash Gap jeans and a plain white t-shirt from Uniqlo. While Brenda fashioned her outfit to meet a friend for coffee at an award winning hotel and spa, mine is much more a relax at home during the COVID-19 pandemic sort of outfit. Even at home, however, I like to finish my outfits with appropriate accessories.

I tried a long necklace first, but it didn’t play well with the ties on the waterfront shirt, so I decided to wear my black pearl heritage necklace from cabi instead. I added some simple silver earrings and my Nordgreen watch with its navy leather band. Since I was staying home, I also wore the SoftMoc slippers that I featured in last Friday’s post.

After reading that post, one of my friends told me that she thought I should get a commission because she decided to order a pair. Many fashion bloggers actually do monetize their blogs by advertising for various brands and receiving a small commission when one of their readers places an order. Some also receive free product in return for featuring it on their blog. Though the idea of free clothing does have appeal, I consciously decided not to try to go this route with my blog. When I mention a brand, such as cabi, Nordgreen, or SoftMoc, there’s nothing in it for me. I blog simply because I love writing and I love the connection that it gives me with you, my readers. Monetizing would make it feel like a job and possibly take some of the fun out of it. If I wanted to go that route, I suspect that I might also have to start a second completely separate blog so that I could continue to share opinion pieces that might not meet the approval of companies I chose to be affiliated with.

And the winner is…

January 17, 2020January 13, 2020 / edebock / 6 Comments

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Susan Street, who writes the fashion blog, SusanAfter60.com, offered her readers a number of generous giveaways including a Nordgreen watch bundle. Imagine my delight to learn that I was the winner!

The timing was perfect. Though many depend on their cell phones to tell them what time it is, I’m a bit old school and can’t imagine life without a watch on my wrist. I love the Citizen Eco Drive watch that I received as a retirement gift twelve years ago. It’s powered by light and never needs a new battery, but living in Canada where daylight hours are short at this time of year and the cold weather generally calls for long sleeves, it hasn’t been getting enough light to keep it charged. This didn’t seem to be a problem when it was newer, but this winter I often get up in the morning to find that it stopped overnight and needs to sit under a bright light for awhile to wake up. I had been thinking about putting a new battery into an older watch that I bought shortly before I retired and starting to wear it again, but then I received Susan’s email!

I was able to go online to the Nordgreen website and build my own watch bundle. The first step was choosing which model I wanted. I liked the simplicity of the Native dial.

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Next, I chose the size of the watch case. The choices ranged from 32 to 42 mm. My wrists are not very big, so I chose the smallest. Step three was selecting the case colour; silver, gold, rose gold, or gun metal. My retirement watch is a combination of silver and gold and my older one is gold, so I chose silver. Step four was choosing the colour of the dial; white, black, or navy. I like a dark watch face, my retirement watch is black, and I wear a lot of navy, so I chose navy for my new one. The final step was choosing the straps. Not one, but three! I chose silver mesh, navy leather, and dove grey leather. Vegan leather is also available. A super simple and convenient quick release system makes it easy to change the straps without any tools.

The package arrived this week all the way from Copenhagen. Nordgreen is a Danish company started by Pascar and Vasilij who are, according to the website, “two lifelong friends, watch enthusiasts, and born-and-bred Danes on a mission to deliver true Scandinavian design and lifestyle to everyone.” The Nordgreen name represents both their Nordic identity and their focus on sustainability. Nordgreen partners with three global NGOs to create tangible change in the fields of health, education, and the environment. As a customer purchasing a watch or a bundle, you would have the opportunity to choose which cause you’d like to support. For me, I think that would be as difficult as choosing from all the watch options! As a retired teacher I’d probably settle on giving one month of education to a child in India. It’s also worthwhile noting that Nordgreen offers free shipping and returns worldwide.

I’ll still be wearing my retirement watch some of the time and I might just put a battery in the other one as well, but you’ll definitely see me wearing my new Nordgreen watch on the blog often. Accessories, including watches, add finishing touches to our outfits and this one fits my personal style very well.

Thank you, Susan!

Nordgreen has generously offered a 15% discount to Following Augustine readers. Use the code ELAINE15 to receive yours.

2019 fashion shopping review

January 3, 2020January 2, 2020 / edebock / 6 Comments

For the second year in a row, I kept a list of all the clothing purchases that I made over the past year so that I could analyse my shopping habits and establish goals for the following year. I started doing this at the beginning of 2018 in part because I wanted to be a more ethical shopper. I was also interested in finding out more about my spending habits and I wanted to be more intentional about wardrobe development.

Based on what I learned in 2018, I came up with the following goals for 2019. Let’s see how I did.

I will continue tracking my purchases for the coming year so that I can review and evaluate my shopping habits again a year from now. Done!
I would like to buy less and spend less. Partial success. I actually purchased more items, but I spent less.
I intend to buy basics that I need and items I love that work well with what I already have. Mostly successful. I did buy two thrifted items, a tank top and a necklace, that didn’t fit into my wardrobe very well. Both have already been returned to be enjoyed by someone else.
I will resist the pressure of friends to buy pieces that they like, but that aren’t right for me. Complete success!
I will continue to buy quality pieces, not wasting money on fast fashion items that are poorly made and end up in the landfill after only a few wearings. Success!
I will continue to write a weekly fashion post! Done!

It’s difficult to find accurate information on women’s shopping habits and it clearly varies from place to place, but it appears that on average most women purchase approximately 70 items of clothing a year and spend somewhere between $150 and $400 a month or approximately $1800 to $4800 annually. Personally, I can’t imagine buying or spending anywhere near that much! Over the past year, I spent a total of $1071.74 CAD or approximately $89 a month. With that, I purchased 43 items including clothing, accessories, and footwear. The biggest change from the previous year was the number of accessories I bought which included two hats, two purses, one belt, one scarf, and several pieces of jewelry. Accessories take up very little space and don’t have to be expensive, but they are the finishing touches that add interest, individuality, and detail to an outfit.

Another difference from the previous year was the number of thrifted items that I added to my wardrobe. I bought only 5 second-hand pieces in 2018, but 14 in 2019 and some of those are amongst my favourite purchases. I paid full price for only 9 items over the past year. The majority of the brand new garments that I bought were on sale. I also added several cabi pieces to my wardrobe at half price by hosting a party in my home in September. The most expensive item that I bought all year cost $99. I have no idea what the total value of my purchases was because I don’t know the original prices of the thrifted items, but I do know that if I’d paid full price for all the brand new items, those pieces alone would have cost me $1609.80. All in all, I’m very satisfied with my wardrobe spending over the past year.

When it comes to shopping ethically, however, I wouldn’t consider myself particularly successful. Finding accurate information in order to make wise choices is extremely difficult. In late June I wrote this post outlining my concerns about purchasing items made in China. I thought seriously about refusing to buy anything else that was produced in that country and for awhile I tried. I read labels and even walked away from a few items, but I soon found myself caving in. In spite of my increased concern, I did only marginally better than the previous year. Some of my thrifted purchases were missing their labels so I don’t know where they were made, but I knowingly bought 18 made in China items in 2019 compared to 20 the year before. Many of the others were made in third world countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. I have no way of knowing if they were manufactured in factories that are socially and environmentally responsible or sweatshops where workers are exploited and forced to work in unsafe conditions, but at least those countries are not the threat to Canada that I believe China to be.

So what are my goals for 2020? Many are the same as last year, but I’ve revised some a bit and added a couple of new ones.

I will continue tracking my purchases for at least one more year so that I can review and evaluate my shopping habits again a year from now.
I will continue to buy things that I need and items I love that work well with what I already have.
I will strive to buy less and experiment with new ways to wear what I already have.
I will continue to buy quality pieces and not waste money on fast fashion.
When considering a purchase that was made in China, I will attempt to find a suitable alternative made elsewhere.
When adding to my closet, I will consider five adjectives that begin with C… classy, confident, comfortable, casual, and creative. These words all describe what I’d like my wardrobe to say about me. Thank you, Pam Lutrell, for inspiring this one!
I will continue to write a Fashion Friday post each week.

As I look at my list of purchases from 2019, it’s difficult to choose just a few favourites to share with you here because I truly love so many of them! You’ve seen most of them on the blog before, but here’s a small sample:

This is what I wore on New Year’s Eve for an evening of fine dining and dancing with my hubby. The little black jacket was my first purchase of 2019 and has been worth it’s weight in gold. It has appeared on the blog several times throughout the past year as it can be worn with so many things in my closet. The Dream Dress from cabi was bought half price at the end of the Spring/Summer season and I picked up the vintage evening purse at our local thrift store for just $3!

The Airwalk Speed Vitesse sneakers that I purchased at a Payless closing out sale were absolutely perfect for walking the streets of Europe in May and have continued to serve me well ever since. They were amongst several items that were bought specifically for traveling in 2019.

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In this photo, taken in beautiful Bruges, Belgium, I’m wearing a favourite thrifted top and carrying the anti-theft crossbody bag that kept my valuables safe while we traveled.

I can hardly wait for summer to return so that I can wear my DIY frayed white jeans again! They were also thrifted and cost just $2 plus a few minutes work to let down the hems and fray the edges.

Here I am on a hiking trail wearing two more favourite purchases from 2019, a lightweight thrifted hoodie and my Uniqlo ultra light down vest. Both have proved to be great travel companions!