Packing

What I packed for the conference

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Logo by SamLast weekend, I had the privilege of attending and participating in a three day Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS) conference in Montreal. Prior to going, I thought a lot about what to pack. Retired for more than a decade, I no longer have a professional wardrobe and I certainly wasn’t going to go shopping for clothes that I likely wouldn’t use again. Since most of my wardrobe is what I would categorize as classy casual, I shopped my closet and carefully chose outfits for each day. Most, if not all of the clothes have appeared on the blog before.

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I left my photographer at home, so I had to resort to taking selfies using the full length mirror that was tucked into the corner of my lovely room in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel in downtown Montreal. I clearly should have taken all the photos after dark when the lighting worked better for photography, but I’ve done my best to manipulate the remaining photos so that you can see what I wore.

For traveling, I like to be warm and comfy, so I chose my new striped sweater, jeans, and a very comfortable pair of white sneakers. My plane was delayed for four hours by a nasty snowstorm, so it was cold, wet, and very blustery when I finally arrived in Montreal. My bright red Calvin Klein jacket served me well and while you can’t see it hidden behind my coat, I carried my favourite travel purse which is very lightweight and large enough to carry any extras that I might need while traveling or exploring.

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Day 1 was a learning and working day for a small group of us from across the country who are part of a newly formed CNETS Advocacy Advisory Board. While we had already met online several times, this was our first face to face get together.

The colours in the photo above are particularly bad, so I recreated my outfit below to give you a better look. I wore a semi dressy pair of navy pinstriped pants, one of the few items in my wardrobe that are left over from my teaching days. Now that wide legs are on trend again, they’re back in style! A sleeveless cabi top and a cardigan, also from cabi, completed the outfit. I was especially glad that I’d chosen to wear the cardigan, a workhorse in my wardrobe, as our meeting room was quite chilly, especially first thing in the morning. I’m also glad that sneakers go with anything these days!

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Day 2 was a medical and scientific meeting. With the exception of those of us on the advocacy board who were asked to attend, this was a day for medical professionals who care for neuroendocrine patients. It took place last Saturday, so I wondered if the participants would dress professionally or, since it was a day off for them, would they dress more casually? Not having an answer to this question in advance, I wondered how I should dress.

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Again, limited by what’s in my closet as well as my desire to be comfortable while sitting for many hours trying to absorb the information that was being presented, I chose carefully. I wore dark brown corduroy pants, the sleeveless animal print top that I recently featured here, and the same cardigan as the day before. As you can see, I did fit a second pair of shoes into my tiny suitcase. While most of the participants were dressed quite professionally, I didn’t feel out of place in this outfit.

Day 3 was a national patient conference available both in-person and online. For that day, I simply added a necklace to my travel outfit. It’s mostly hidden behind my phone in the photo!

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In addition to what I’ve shown you here, another important item in my suitcase was my swimsuit. I seldom travel without one. After long days soaking up information about everything from how treatments and medications are approved and why it takes so long for them to go from being developed to becoming accessible to patients to disparities in cancer care to new developments in research to NET cancer pathology and treatment, my brain was on overload and I much appreciated the opportunity to unwind in the hotel hot tub and sauna on two of the evenings while I was there.

I would definitely give myself a high mark for packing on this trip. Everything I needed fit easily into my teeny tiny carry-on and I felt completely at ease in everything I wore. Definitely a win!

One top, several looks

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Logo by SamI didn’t do a post about what I packed for our recent trip to Mexico, but regardless of where you’re going or for how long, the key to packing successfully is to choose pieces that coordinate well with one another so that they can be combined in different ways. One easy way to do that is to choose a limited colour palette. For our recent trip, I chose mainly blues and neutrals.

Today, I’m going to show you several ways that I wore one top with other pieces from my suitcase. The photos were taken in our hotel room as I didn’t want to climb up and down Mount Dunamar (our nickname for the 60 stairs from ground level to our fourth storey room) in between outfits.

First, let’s look at the Calvin Klein top that I bought second-hand at one of our local thrift shops in the summer of 2022. Simple and sleeveless with a gathered neckline, it can easily be dressed up or down. The timeless animal print pattern in black, white, and beige coordinates well with other neutrals.

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For a casual daytime look, I wore the top with a pair of white shorts.

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To go for dinner, I wore it over a little black sheath dress that I’ve probably had for 30 years or more. It originally came with a separate chiffon overlay, but all I remember about that piece is that it was predominantly red. That’s how long it’s been gone from my closet! The little black dress is perfect for travel because it doesn’t wrinkle, hardly takes up any space in a suitcase, and while I probably wouldn’t wear it alone, it can be worn with so many other things. 

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The wide-legged pants in the next few photos didn’t actually go to Mexico in my suitcase, but they did come home with me. I fell in love with them in the resort gift shop. When I discovered that they were made in Mexico and that they were on sale for more than 75% off their original price, I knew they were meant to be mine. Since a general rule of thumb is that a fuller shape on the bottom looks best with a more fitted top, they paired well with the animal print top, but my dilemma was whether or not to to tuck it in. I rarely tuck my tops in because I think that that emphasizes the fact that I don’t have a very feminine waistline, but I liked the interesting waistband and wanted to show it off. 

I decided to step outside my comfort zone and wear the outfit to dinner with the top tucked in. Which look do you like better? 

The pants are very lightweight, totally unsuitable for winter in Alberta, so they’re now in storage with the rest of my warm weather clothes, but I’m looking forward to wearing them again when summer returns. The top is one of those pieces that stays in my closet year round though because it can easily be worn under a cardigan or jacket. 

Packing review

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Logo by SamThough I still have one more blog post to write to finish up our trip to Mexico, we are home and for today’s post, I thought I’d do a quick review of what I packed. Once again, we found that traveling carry-on only was the way to go. It’s so easy and there are no baggage fees and no waiting around at airport luggage carousels wondering if our suitcases made it onto the right plane.

But what about the contents of that little carry-on suitcase? Did I pack the right things? Did I take enough of everything? First, let’s review what I packed:

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This was my original packing list. In addition, I put a swimsuit on the bottom of my bag just in case I had an opportunity to use it (I didn’t) and I tossed in one pair of shorts.

  • 1 pair of jeans
  • 2 pairs lightweight long pants
  • 2 pairs capris
  • 1 pair leggings
  • 1 camisole
  • 7 tops – 3 long sleeved, 1 with 3/4 length sleeves, 3 sleeveless
  • 1 dress
  • 1 dressy black jacket
  • 1 ultra light down vest
  • 1 lightweight hoodie
  • 1 light jacket
  • 1 hat
  • 1 pair sandals
  • 3 pairs shoes
  • sleepwear, underwear, and socks

Overall, I think I did a fairly good job of deciding what to take, but if I had it to do again, I might make a few changes. I only wore the top with 3/4 length sleeves once, so I could easily have left it at home. I wore the leggings to a zumba class with our hostess, but I could have worn shorts or capris for that and though I did wear the camisole once on a particularly chilly day, it wasn’t essential either. If I’d known how warm the weather was going to be, I probably would have taken one less pair of long pants and one more pair of capris or shorts, but we had to be prepared for the cooler days that often do occur at this time of year. I’m extremely glad that I did decide to throw in that one pair of shorts though as I wore them a lot. I only wore the dress and the dressy black jacket once for an evening at the symphony in Xalapa, but I definitely wanted to be able to dress up for that.

On our previous visits to Coatepec, we took most of our clothes that needed laundering out to a commercial laundry or washed them by hand. This time, however, we discovered that when the price per kilo of laundry had gone up as well as the price of the taxi to haul it to and from, our hosts had decided to purchase a washing machine. That definitely made things easier and meant that we probably could have gotten away with packing a few less things, especially socks and underwear. As we’ve done in the past, though, we packed mostly old worn out underwear that we could throw away before we came home. That left a wee bit of room to carry home the half kilo of macadamia nuts that hubby yearned for!

Good footwear is essential on any trip, but especially when the sidewalks that we walked on almost every day looked like this.

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But did I really need four pairs? Possibly not, but other than the dressy black pair that I wore only for a birthday party and the evening at the symphony, I put many miles on all three of the other pairs. The Clarks sandals that I bought at one of our local thrift stores last summer are very comfortable to walk in as are the little grey flats that have memory foam insoles.

Now that we’re finally traveling again, I’m looking forward to the next time I get to pack my teeny tiny carry-on suitcase. I don’t know when that will be or where we’ll be going, but I’ll be sure to let you know!

Packing again!

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For the first time in almost four years, we’ve purchased tickets, made our plans, and I’m busy packing our suitcases! This will be our first flight since Covid, but our third trip to visit friends who live in Coatepec, a typical Mexican town located in the highlands about four hours east of Mexico City. On both previous trips, we checked a large suitcase, but this time we’re going carry-on only. Everything we need for two and a half weeks has to fit into our two tiny suitcases, my purse, and hubby’s small backpack.

First, let’s take a look at what I was hoping would fit in my suitcase. The photo and list below also include what I’ll be wearing on the plane.

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Packing list:

  • 1 pair of jeans
  • 2 pairs lightweight long pants
  • 2 pairs capris
  • 1 pair leggings
  • 1 camisole
  • 7 tops – 3 long sleeved, 1 with 3/4 length sleeves, 3 sleeveless
  • 1 dress
  • 1 dressy black jacket
  • 1 ultra light down vest
  • 1 lightweight hoodie
  • 1 light jacket
  • 1 hat
  • 1 pair sandals
  • 3 pairs shoes
  • sleepwear, underwear, and socks

You’ll probably notice that this isn’t what a typical tourist would pack for their trip to a Mexican beach resort. That’s because Coatepec isn’t a tourist destination and doesn’t have a beach. At approximately 1200 metres above sea level, the weather is pleasant, but not always hot. It cools off significantly at night and the houses don’t have central heating so we need to be prepared to dress accordingly. Although I don’t actually expect to have an opportunity to use it, I did decide to tuck a swimsuit into the bottom of my suitcase just in case! I really don’t like to leave home without one. At the last minute, when I saw that there was enough space, I also decided to squeeze in a pair of shorts.

There are two keys to successfully packing light. The first is coordinating colours. As you can see from the photo, I’ve chosen a simple colour palette and pieces that will easily mix and match to create numerous different outfits. The second key is layering. For example, the dress is very lightweight. It can be worn alone or with the little black jacket. For a chillier evening out, it can even be worn over the black leggings. The light blue denim shirt on the bottom of the pile above can be worn alone or as a third piece over any of the sleeveless tops. Depending on the weather, the hoodie, down vest, and jacket can each be worn individually or I can layer them as I will be doing when we board the plane in sub zero temperatures.

Another trick to successful packing is utilizing space wisely. Can you see hubby’s sandals, a pair of my shoes, spare eyeglasses for each of us, and two pairs of socks in this photo? I can!

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Many travellers swear that you can fit more into your suitcase by rolling everything instead of folding, but that hasn’t been my experience. I prefer to fold basics like pants and tops, but I roll a lot of the other items. I’ve also never used packing cubes.

Our clothes pretty much fill the tiny carry-on suitcases. My laptop (a lightweight 13 inch MacBook Air), my camera, cords, chargers, our toiletries, and our prescription medications will be in hubby’s backpack. We’ll also tuck in a few paperback books for him which he’ll leave behind when he finishes reading them. That will give us a bit of extra space if we need it on the way home. I’ve loaded five books onto my Kindle which takes up hardly any room in my travel purse.

Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything, but if I have, there are stores in Coatepec!

My one dress Christmas season

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Logo by SamPrior to the pandemic, hubby and I had half a dozen or more Christmas events to attend each December. When we were still working, there were staff parties, of course, but even in retirement there were dinners, dances, and parties. All that seems to have changed and this year we had only one Christmas event to attend together, a catered banquet and program put on by our church.

In 2018 and 2019, I actually sat down in late November and made lists of what I’d wear to each December event, right down to the accessories. It made getting ready so easy, but this year there was no need to do that. Even without all those events, it’s been a busy month and I don’t know how we would have fit in much more, but I do miss all those opportunities to dress up! 

In addition to the church banquet, I did have one other very special event to attend. Last Thursday evening, my daughter-in-law Colleen, granddaughter Harlow, and I had a girls’ night out. We went to see an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved classic, A Christmas Carol, at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. We even had front row seats. Front row might not actually be the best seats in the house, but for 13-year-old Harlow’s first exposure to professional theatre, being so close to the action was very exciting!

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I saw very few dresses on women in the audience, but I was happy for an opportunity to wear an old favourite of mine, the midnight blue Dream Dress from cabi’s Spring 2019 collection. You first saw it on the blog here. Since it’s winter in Alberta, I wore it over leggings and tall black boots this time. 

After spending the weekend in the city, we got home just in time to get ready for the church banquet on Sunday evening. I pulled the dress out of the suitcase and wore it again, changing only my accessories! That’s one of the things I love about the Dream Dress. The floaty polyester fabric and the underslip take up virtually no space in a suitcase and come out without a wrinkle. 

Speaking of suitcases, I’ll soon be packing for our trip to Vancouver where we’ll be spending Christmas with our oldest son and his family. I don’t know that we’ll have any need for dressy outfits, but I’ll tuck in something that would work just in case. 

 

Packing for the in-between season

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LogoLast year at exactly this time, I wrote a post about deciding what to wear for a day away from home during this in-between season when the weather is so unpredictable. This year, my challenge was much greater as it involved packing a suitcase!

At home on the prairie, the geese are returning and the gophers have come out of hibernation, but there are still patches of snow on the ground. We’re travelling through high mountain passes where winter conditions are still a distinct possibility, but our destination is the coast where flowers will be blooming and rain showers are likely. Daytime high temperatures there are likely to be around 10ºC (50ºF). How do you pack for all of that?

There’s a “just in case” bag in the back of the vehicle with heavy coats, toques, scarves, and gloves, and we each brought along a pair of winter boots. I’m seriously hoping that we don’t need any of those things, but as they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Layering is always the key to coping with varying temperatures and weather conditions, so I packed accordingly. I want to be able to add or subtract layers as the days warm up or cool off. For the most part, the clothes in the suitcase came from my fall/winter wardrobe, but I did go into storage and pull out a couple of the warmer items from my spring/summer collection. The majority of what I packed was neutral in colour allowing me to mix and match, creating a variety of different looks with a limited number of pieces.

The main purpose of our trip is to be with my special brother who is having surgery on Monday, but since that’s taking us to the coast at such a beautiful time of year and since it feels like forever since we’ve had a real holiday, we’ve added a few days in Victoria to our plans. Casual outfits will work well for most of what we plan to do, but I’ll probably want to dress up a bit for a couple of events. Accessories take up very little space and easily add polish to an outfit when that’s what’s needed.

A change of shoes can also give an outfit a lift. That’s one area where I can indulge myself on a trip like this one. When we fly, the number of pairs of shoes I can take is limited by suitcase space, but when we travel by vehicle I can fit in many more! Comfort is key, however. We plan to do a lot of walking, especially when we’re in Victoria, so I made sure to bring more than one pair of comfortable, supportive walking shoes. That way if one pair gets wet, I’ll have another to change into. We also packed umbrellas!

I’m not sure if I’ll be posting anything for Fashion Friday the next two weeks, but it will be a treat to be able to write some travel posts instead! Do stay tuned!

One more day and what have I learned?

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LogoTomorrow 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. 

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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. 

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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! 

Are you high maintenance?

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LogoWhen we travelled to Europe two years ago I learned that I could easily fit everything I needed for three and a half weeks away from home in a teeny, tiny carry-on, but when we take the vehicle, moderation or minimalism go out the window! After all, there’s a lot of space in a large SUV! On the way home from our recent trip to Jasper, we spent the weekend in Edmonton with our son and his family. I took some good-natured teasing from both hubby and son when they discovered that I’d packed six pairs of shoes for one week away! I was laughingly told that I’m high maintenance.

That led me to wonder… what makes a woman high maintenance? One definition I found online says that a high maintenance woman “places a strong emphasis on her own image, wants, needs, and desires. Her feelings are her highest priority, and she expects everyone around her to conform to her self-created worldview and value.” Ouch! That’s certainly not the kind of woman I want to be!

As often happens, the idea for this post took me down several online rabbit trails looking for information about what people really mean when they refer to a woman as high maintenance. I found lists that included traits such as needy and controlling, self-obsessed, hard to please, always plays the victim, wants you to be her personal chauffeur, makes you feel like her errand boy. Interestingly, most of these were written by men. I can’t help wondering how many of them were coming out of a bad relationship when they wrote these things!

I also found several “How high maintenance are you?” quizzes that assign points to traits such as wears high heels every day, owns 20+ pairs of shoes, wears makeup daily, takes 15+ minutes to apply makeup, buys high end makeup, has painted nails, wears acrylic nails, has nails done professionally, has a regular pedicure, gets a massage regularly, wears a lot of jewelry, carries a designer purse, etc. According to those, I am definitely NOT high maintenance!

Clearly, there are women (and men) who excel at self-indulgence and others who take absolutely no interest or pleasure in their own appearance. Then there are the rest of us who fall somewhere in the middle. Not only do we not really know for sure if we’re high maintenance, we probably don’t even care! Instead of worrying about whether or not I’m high maintenance, I prefer to focus on what kind of person I am. Am I a person of integrity? Am I kind, compassionate, and self-controlled? Do I exhibit patience and humility in dealing with others?

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And now, about the six pairs of shoes! I took my hiking shoes, my walking shoes, my white leather sneakers, a pair of casual flats, and two pairs of sandals. I wore all of them except the dressy sandals which I would have worn to church except that it was cool and rainy that morning. Instead, I wore the flats. Come to think of it, I actually had my water shoes with me too and wore them when we went kayaking. And my rubber boots were in the back of the vehicle! They stay there all summer in case they’re needed when we’re camping.

Don’t anyone tell my husband or my son that I actually had eight pairs of footwear with me! 🤣

What’s in the suitcase this time?

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LogoI didn’t actually think that there was going to be a Fashion Friday post this week. Life threw us an unexpected curve a few days ago when we learned that my very frail 96-year-old father had taken a turn for the worse. He isn’t expected to live and we’re once again on our way to Vancouver.

There were a lot of details that we had to take care of at home in order to clear our calendars and get on our way. Very little thought or planning went into what’s in our suitcase. Thankfully, we travel a lot and packing has become second nature to me. When I looked at the clothes laying on the bed in our guest room, which doubles as my packing room, I realized that I’d automatically chosen mostly neutrals and that everything coordinated so that I could put together many outfits with just a few items. The latter is a very important key to packing well.

We spent many hours on the road yesterday and at one point I found myself thinking about what was in the suitcase. I came to the realization that, for the most part, I’d packed what might best be referred to as comfort clothes. Comfortable, yes, but also comforting. Clothes like my grey and white Breton t-shirt and my tan cords that feel like old friends. I may not be a shining fashionista in the things that I packed, but in these challenging days, I’ll be dressed in clothes that bring me comfort.

What about you? Do you have clothes that you instinctively reach for on days when you need comforting?

How to shop like a celebrity

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LogoI thought that taking my oldest underwear to Europe was a great packing tip, but actress Helen Mirren goes much further than that.

“I love a good charity shop, especially when I’m travelling. When I’m going to cold places, I take nothing – just underwear. On my way from the airport, I ask the driver to take me to a good charity shop, and I buy boots, socks, trousers, jumpers, sweaters, hats and scarves… On the way back to the airport, I have it all in a big bag and drop it off at another charity shop,” she said in August of 2010.

She’s also been quoted as saying, “The whole thing of clothes is insane. You can spend a dollar on a jacket in a thrift store. And you can spend a thousand dollars on a jacket in a shop. And if you saw those two jackets walking down the street, you probably wouldn’t know which was which.” 

I first learned of Mirren’s penchant for thrift store shopping when I saw this meme on Facebook. I immediately knew that we were two of a kind!

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Apparently Helen Mirren is far from the only celebrity who shops for second hand clothing. Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, and Sara Jessica Parker are just a few others who can be found searching the racks of thrift stores. Eva Mendes even attended her first movie premiere in a $6 dress from Goodwill. I love the fact that they prove that thrift stores aren’t only for people who haven’t any other financial options, but why would stars who can easily afford to be selective about where they shop choose second hand? Perhaps it’s because it allows them to find unique pieces that they know their fellow actresses won’t be wearing. Perhaps they hate fast fashion and see thrifting as a way to contribute to the well-being of the environment. Or perhaps, like me, it’s more about the fun of going on a treasure hunt.

So, if you’d like to dress like your favourite celebrity, it might not be as expensive as you think. Instead of dreaming of hiring a stylist and shopping luxury stores, why not be a frugal fashionista and check out a few thrift stores?