My travel capsule

The photos below show the travel capsule for my recent trip to see family and friends in the UK. I was away from home for nearly two weeks, however I didn't want to carry a large suitcase as I find it tricky travelling into central London from Gatwick airport with heavy luggage. I ended up with three bags: a small cabin-sized case, a foldable canvas bag (which fits neatly on top of the case) and a rucksack. 

On the way to London there were two bottles of my local Jumilla wine in my case to share with my hosts, while on the way back I had some purchases from a shopping expedition in central London to fill the gap in my case. Well, that's my excuse!

The first two photos show what I packed for my trip. My neutrals were beige and navy with accents of red, orange, olive and turquoise. These colours will be the basis of my autumn capsule wardrobe.

       

I wore navy trousers, my favourite blue Desigual top and a comfortable pair of navy trainers for travelling, and carried my short red trenchcoat in case it was cold when I arrived. My new purchases, which are for my Autumn capsule, were a striped top (no surprise there!), a pair of copper slim leg cotton trousers and a pair of ballerina shoes to replace a pair that have seen better days. 

 

All of these worked well with the clothes that I had packed for my trip, so I am confident that they will fit into my existing wardrobe. As summer seems to be on its way out here in Spain, where they've had horrendous weather while I've been enjoying the sunshine in London, I will soon be organising my Autumn capsule. As in previous years, this will be inspired by Project 333 and will consist of 33 items of clothing that I will wear for the next 3 months. 

Over here - then over there!

Where did July go? August too is fast disappearing and September is almost here. Living in a Spanish town that is renowned for its wines, there have been plenty of celebrations during the summer months. It started with "Música entre Vinos", a series of concerts held in different local wineries, and then continued with the "Feria and Fiestas of the Vendimia" with lots of wine-related happenings as well as Moors and Christians events and the National Folklore festival. Time definitely flies when you're having fun! My two daughters visited me separately: Vicky came in July and enjoyed one of the "Música entre Vinos" concerts with me; Kate was here in August and witnessed the handing over of the keys of Jumilla Castle during the "Noche de las Antorchas" as well as going to a great evening concert in nearby Pinoso.

Sitting on the edge of the Wine Fountain

I didn't have time to feel lonely once my visitors had left me, as there was so much going on in Jumilla, and I'm also lucky to have lots of Spanish and British friends. There is a great sense of community here and my Spanish neighbours are very patient with me as I attempt to speak their language. I think it helps that I have a little Spanish dog called Lisa, who seems to be friends with everybody in our neighbourhood.

In the above photo I am sitting on the edge of the "Fuente del Vino", though the wine in my glass was from one of the many stands offering tastings in the "Miniferia del Vino". Another favourite event of mine is the "Cabalgata Tradicional", where a procession of floats winds its way around town, offering wine, sangria and snacks to the appreciative onlookers. The party atmosphere is amazing and there is literally dancing in the street as the floats, accompanied by musicians, go past.

One of the many floats, waiting to set off.

After all these festivities life is a bit quieter now, so it is an ideal time for me to go over "there".  There, of course, is London where my three children live. I will be staying with my son Mark and his wife Kate on this occasion, though I will also be making a flying visit to Lincoln to see my brother. Although I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends, at the moment my main concern is what to pack! It's been as hot - if not hotter - in London as in Spain, however that is likely to change before my trip. I have numerous clothes spread out on a bed in the spare room, but I plan to travel with carry-on size luggage so cannot take them all. I have a long list of things to do over the next three days, however I hope to post my final travel wardrobe here, assuming that I can make a decision before Monday!

Family celebrations & holiday in Ljubljana

Faced with the challenge of packing for six days in the UK plus five in Ljubljana, with one day in Alicante both before and after my holiday, I tried not to panic. I had the advantage of a suitcase in the hold, which meant I wasn't limited in the number of clothes I could pack, however my trip was going to include a visit to north-east England as well as Slovenia. The solution, you won't be surprised to hear, was to create a travel capsule with plenty of layers.

My new summer skirt

Regular readers know that I'm a "jeans and t-shirt" fan, so I only have a few dresses and skirts in my wardrobe, however I discovered this skirt recently in a local shop. I thought I would only wear it in Ljubljana when going out for dinner, however it was lovely and sunny in South Shields for my cousin's Golden Wedding Anniversary celebrations, so I wore it there too.

There be dragons!

 My two daughters, Vicky and Kate, came to Ljubljana with me, so my birthday holiday was extra special. We did a walking tour of the city, which included tickets to the Castle, where we found out about the famous Ljubljana Dragon.

Having lunch in Bled Castle, overlooking the lake

Another highlight of our holiday was a trip to Lake Bled. We walked up to Bled Castle, but splashed out on a taxi for our return trip (our excuse being that it saved valuable sight-seeing time!)

Apart from my green skirt, I packed a pair of jeans (for the UK), smart navy trousers, beige cotton trousers and a lightweight navy patterned pair. I took the tops I had worn for my 10 x 10 challenge, plus a couple more, making sure that they would go with all of my bottoms. My colour scheme was neutrals of navy and beige (plus my olive skirt) with accents of red, orange, coral and blue. I also packed my favourite red trench-coat as well as a short-sleeved coral jumper and a navy cardigan in case it was chilly up north (it wasn't!)

We all loved Ljubljana (even though it was full of other tourists!) as it is a beautiful city, plus the locals were very friendly and spoke good English, though they also appreciated our attempts to speak some Slovenian. We rented an apartment close to the city centre, with the idea that we could cook for ourselves, but there were so many good restaurants beside the river that we ate out most days. This time I had packed some dressy tops for changing into in the evening, so there was no need to do any hand washing!

Although I'm not a travel blogger, I thought I would share some other photos from our holiday in Slovenia.

We enjoyed a boat trip along the Ljubljanica river

One of many lovely squares, with the castle in the background

More like a country scene than a city view!

View from Ljubljana Castle

Ljubljana Castle

View of Bled Castle from the lake

Our boat was driven only by manpower!

We went by boat to the island in the middle of Lake Bled

Bled Castle

View over Lake Bled from the castle

Planning a holiday wardrobe

When you're going through hard times it's good to have something special to look forward to, to help you feel more positive. What could be more special than the wedding of my dear friends Callie and Emilio in Florence, Italy? 💕I'm flying to Italy on Friday 6 July, so it's time to plan my holiday wardrobe.

If you're going abroad for a wedding too, or planning your summer holiday in a hot climate, no doubt like me you are wondering what to pack. There are plenty of blog posts to inspire you, however I've found that many of them are talking about beach holidays and packing lots of swimwear. I'll be in Rome as well as Florence, so I don't think swimwear will be appropriate, do you? 😎

I also hope to fit in some sight-seeing, which may include visiting churches, so I need to have suitable clothes for these activities as well as the actual wedding. Apart from the wedding outfit, my holiday wardrobe will be casual, comfortable and hopefully chic! I am looking at mostly natural fibres, with linen trousers (yes, I know they will crease!), cotton tops and a few mixed fibre items. As usual, I will decide on a colour palette that should let me mix and match my clothes to create different outfits.

This blue and white top is so light and cool that it's a must for my holiday wardrobe! I am
also taking the two pairs of linen trousers shown: the slightly cropped dark grey ones in the middle and the full.length navy ones on the right. As you have no doubt guessed, my neutrals will be
navy and grey.

 

Here are the tops that I plan to take, which will add a touch of colour. I am also going to pack the turquoise and striped dresses shown on the bottom row.

No prizes for guessing my favourite accent colours: turquoise, orange and red. I will pack my navy and coral Decathlon shoes for walking, as they are so comfortable, plus two pairs of ballerina shoes for a slightly smarter look in the evenings.

I love Decathlon's ballerina pumps for walking!

Orange ballerinas. I'll take red ones too.

I am adding colour with accessories too. A totally neutral outfit isn't my best look and I need contrast in my outfits. I will also include a wrap and/or lightweight scarf to cover my shoulders if I enter any churches when sightseeing.

How about you? Are you planning a holiday in a hot climate and, if so, any tips to share?

PS I hope to have a photo of my wedding outfit to share with you on my return.

Capsule wardrobe - take two (part 2)

Now that I'm using the brighter colours from this palette, it is getting easier to create my daily outfits!

Outfit for day four

 I'm committing a fashion faux pas in the above outfit, as I'm wearing trainers! However, as we do a lot of walking on holiday, I would probably include a pair of trainers in my travel capsule. My excuse on day four was that we were walking our dog Lisa in the afternoon and going on rough tracks in the countryside.

Outfit for day five

On day five I wore a red top that I will wear with the matching skirt when I'm on holiday - if it's warm enough. As it's been cold this week I wore my top with the dark brown leggings instead.  The top is bright so it holds its own with these leggings. I wore a pendant to break up the red expanse and hopefully create that longer, slimmer look that I'm always looking for!

Outfit for day six

The combination of olive green top and dark red trousers was a bit dark, so I decided to add this cardigan. It is the one that I had used as a replacement during the previous challenge, when I discovered that my original cardigan was too long, so a bit of a cheat here! It looked better with this outfit than the green cardigan that I had picked for this capsule, so again it helps to test drive a potential travel capsule before going on holiday.

I had two tops to choose from for day seven: the weather decided it for me, as temperatures are plummeting, so I wore my thick Fatface jumper with a camisole underneath.
 

Outfit for day seven

This is another neutral outfit, though my necklace and gold trainers help to lighten the look.

I thought it might be interesting to look at the outfits for each colour palette and see which one worked best.

Outfits for colour palette 1

Outfits for colour palette 2

I'm being indecisive here, as I think there was a bit more variety in colour palette one, however I do love the reds in colour palette two. I might go for colour palette one for my trip to London and colour palette two for my holiday in Salamanca. Or maybe just mix and match them? What do you think? Which colour palette do you prefer and which individual outfits do you think flatter me the most?

Capsule wardrobe - take two

This is the colour palette for my second travel capsule, which includes my favourite accent colour - red. I thought this would be an easier challenge than my first one however, looking through my wardrobe, it became clear that wasn't the case. My bottoms were fine, as I  had a pair of brown trousers, some dark red trousers and my dark brown jeggings, but what about the tops to go with them?

The next three items were just asking to be included (my favourite red!), though I doubt if I'll be wearing the red skirt this week as the weather forecast isn't very promising, and the red blouse may not be warm enough either. I would probably include them in a travel capsule though, as they would be ideal if we were going out for dinner. My first choice bottoms to go with the first red top would be navy, so will it work with brown?

Looking at the forecast again, the dark red jumper. dark green jumper and orange-coral cross-over top shown below are all lovely and warm so are sure to get an outing. The red v-neck top may need to be worn with a cardigan or jacket.

Finally, an olive green cardigan and top plus another two warm jumpers. giving me plenty of options if it's as wet and cold as the local weatherman is predicting!

Outfit for day one

Having selected the different items for this week's capsule wardrobe challenge, the next step was to make it work. As soon as I put on the dark red jumper with the chocolate jeggings, I realised that the combination was a bit dark for me. My solution was to select a bright scarf with a touch of deep red in it, however I must admit that if I hadn't been doing this challenge I would have changed into a lighter top or bottoms.

Outfit for day two

I anticipated a similar problem with my outfit for day two, so tried a couple of scarves to give contrast to the dark green jumper and dark red trousers. My hair and eyes are dark so deep colours do suit me, however my skin is light, giving a high value contrast, so I also need something light and/or bright such as a scarf or necklace whenever I wear dark tops.

Outfit for day three

I felt that this outfit was far more flattering on me, with the bright top in a colour that suits me and isn't too dark. I could also have worn the top with the chocolate jeggings from day one. I didn't have to worry about finding a scarf to wear near my face, so chose a necklace that matches the colour of my top as well as my gold shoes.

After three days of this challenge,  it has become clear that outfits need to have the right balance and it's not enough to grab clothes randomly in your neutrals and accent colours. I think my first two outfits prove the point: the colours go well together, however overall the outfits are too dark on me. You need to think about combining them in ways that flatter you, with the right value and colour contrast. Accessories are a great way to help get the balance right. Let's hope that I can do better for the rest of the week!

Capsule wardrobe - take one (part 2)

For the first three outfits of this week's challenge, I concentrated on the colours on the right. I didn't try to sneak in any other colours, but that all changed on day four!

I'm still wearing my navy jeans with a different navy striped jumper, however I succumbed to temptation, wearing one of my red necklaces with my red Fitbit and red Longchamp bag. All is revealed below!

Outfit for day four

I'm moving on to the colours on the left, with a dark green top on day five.

Outfit for day five

The waistcoat, trousers and gold trainers are the same as for day three, however I have chosen a different necklace, as the one I wore on day three is the wrong colour for this outfit.The red necklace shown above, as worn on day four, would also have worked (worth considering in a travel capsule where I don't want too many accessories).

Outfit for day six

I decided to wear this scarf with my lime top as it has stripes that blend with it, however looking at the photo I don't think it quite works, so I won't include it in my travel capsule for that reason. This is the beauty of trying things on and taking a photo of your outfit (or just looking in a mirror critically) before packing them for your holiday.

Outfit for day seven

Although it wasn't very warm on the last day of this challenge, I didn't need to wear a cardigan with this outfit as I had a camisole on underneath. No column of colour here, however I think the pendant helps to draw the eyes down to create a slimmer look. I could have worn the waistcoat too, although it's shorter than the top, as it would help the proportions of this outfit.

The crucial question: would this work as a travel capsule wardrobe? I think so, although I would have to take care that the camel trousers didn't get stained, as they're a lot lighter than my navy jeans!  However if all of these items fit easily into my carry-on, I would wear a third pair of bottoms for travelling. What do you think? Before I make my decision, I will wait until I see how the second colour palette works out next week.

Capsule wardrobe - take one.

This week I'm basing my outfits on the following colour palette, testing it out as a possible travel capsule wardrobe.

These are some of the items in my wardrobe that I will be using in this challenge.

 

There are seven tops, so in theory I could create 14 different outfits by wearing them with two different pairs of trousers. I can also use accessories to change the look, especially if I become bored with all the navy and blue - watch out for one of my red necklaces!

Outfit for day one

I liked this outfit on me, especially as I had created a column of colour, with the aim of making me look taller and slimmer. However the cardigan was a bit too long for the jacket that I planned to wear, so I had to change it for a shorter one. I've made a note that I need to consider this when creating a travel capsule, as I won't have a wardrobe full of alternatives with me!

Outfit for day two

This time I wore a navy cardigan and navy jeans to create the column of colour. My top was a lighter shade of blue, which gives me the value contrast that I need, and I wore a patterned blue scarf to bring the shades of blue together.

Outfit for day three

I had a couple of options for day three, however it was a warm day, so instead of a cardigan I decided on the waistcoat that I'm wearing in the above picture.

I'm not half way through the week of my first colour palette challenge, however I'm quietly confident that I can create enough different looks for it to work for me as a travel capsule. I'm wearing three different pairs of shoes, although I could have managed with two pairs. If I was using this as a travel capsule, a lot would depend on our itinerary and planned activities. I might include a smarter pair of shoes plus a dressy top, if we were going out for dinner in the evenings for example.

My next post will show the last four outfits from my capsule. I will sum up my thoughts on this challenge - and your comments of course will be very welcome!