FOP - Fear Of Packing

FOP.  Fear of packing.  Yup, it’s very real in my world, and many of yours too, it would seem from recent comments.

And I may be coming across as someone filled with anxiety, but that’s because I probably am. 

I hate packing.  I panic at the thought of it.  I procrastinate and usually leave it till the last possible moment and pack a mix and match of bland and safe.

For the trip I’m on now I pushed myself to do things differently, right from the packing point - I started packing in good time before my trip to the UK, sooo not me!

Coming to a cinema near YOU ...

Carry On Packing!

(It's possible only British readers will get the joke!)

It started with the shoes.

It started with me thinking shoes.  In my head, I was thinking a comfy pair of sandals for walking and something glitzy for the fun stuff was all I needed.   A lite shoe wardrobe.  But nah, in my case is something very different.  I soon ended up with four pairs, and when that case is a small carry on, there isn’t much room left for anything else.

Holiday update:  I've worn just two pairs so far, the flatties and the glitzy pewter sandals.

And then packing went off-grid!

My travel pack is usually filled with neutrals, black, grey, taupe.

This time I’ve gone off-grid.  I packed colour!

Yellow and green are bursting out from a backdrop of navy and white this trip. 

Holiday update: so far I've worn my travel jeans, white jeans, navy,  and yellow tops, navy long sleeve T, and the cowboy and denim shirts.  That's not bad eh?!

Outfits For A British Summer Holiday

The days have been sunny, overcast ... or deluge.

(yes, that's TP's finger!)

Another thing I’ve done is steered away from my travel-safes when it comes to jewellery. 

This time I’ve teamed jewellery to the outfits because of the strong colours.

Holiday update: this strategy has paid off as so far I've worn three different blue hued necklaces

The Illusion Created By Clear Beads

So talking of necklace hues, I had a duh! moment last summer - if you wear a clear bead, the colour of your underlying top comes through.  So it means that you can pack one necklace , like my mix of blue and clear beads in the top pic and it creates the illusion of uber matchy matchy - 

- and with each change of top it looks like you have a necklace in, say, yellow as here. Not a bad for a £1.50 charity shop buy.

So Today's Top Travel Tip is: 

pack a clear bead necklace to minimise jewellery packing.

So For this holiday I’ve thrown safe packing out the window and gone with navy and white, yellow and green - let’s see how this travel capsule continues to pan out ...

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

Could Do Better Travel Capsule

Hello dear, before I kick off I ask that you please bear with me as I continue to struggle with the challenges of technology falling apart around me, or just falling (that's a story I need to hold back on until I feel brave enough to fess up to it!).  Suffice to say, right now my photos are few and my one-finger typing on a small keyboard not ideal.

Ok,so I've just returned from a short break away in the UK.

I did my pre-trip planning according to the book.

- I started monitoring my destination weather a week before my trip.

- I  identified the number of days and nights I'd be away, what I would be doing and what sort of outfits I needed to pack.

And on one brilliantly sunny day I put together a travel capsule.  You can find my 7-piece-travel-capsule. HERE - pretty darned perfect, even if I do say so myself!

And then it all went pear-shaped.
 The destination forecast worsened as D-day approached and my capsule confidence started waning commensurately.

On the day of packing it rained.  A lot.  And it was blowy. 

So what happened?  The weather was in the driving seat when I packed.

I went off to the airport with a suitcase filled with taupes and greys - dreary weather colours and so far removed from my original bright ultraviolet.  In fact the only blast of brightness left was the suitcase itself.

I travelled in taupe, black and dark grey (incl. a down coat!)

when my travel outfit inspo on those sunnier days had been this.

A light jacket over a white tee and blue jeans.

Here's my travel capsule,

Pretty sombre eh?

This is the danger that comes from packing on a dreary day.

This was pretty much my uniform for most of the break

I expect I could fool myself into thinking I was keeping it close to some inspos in my Pinterest folder.

I also packed a black vest top which created

something similar to this.  You'll have to trust me on this in the absence of any pictorial evidence (oh sooo embarrassing ...).

An outfit I CAN show is - 

Black jeans, taupe jumper and a scarf (perhaps this scarf was the cheeriest I got with my packing, on reflection!)

But in all honesty, I think I was making the best out of what I'd found myself unpacking in the hotel room.

Don't get me wrong, I like taupes and greys and blacks, but my intended case would have been just the cheery start I needed to the mostly gloomy days we had during our city break.

On a positive note (for there are some!) I liked this combo,

black jeans, taupe cardi and silk cami.

Similar to what the trendier young ladies are posting on Pinterest.

And my taupe vest,

just about seen here

worn with the cardi created a twinset similar to the above inspo (pause whilst I yet again cringe  with embarrassment at my catastrophic photo event!)

Moving swiftly on, an observation I made is that when I'm touristing I seem to walk around like a bag lady, with scarves flying, hair swirling untidily if not anchored to my head.  And my bags always look like they're tethered to me.  Is this what touristing really looks like and the scruffier side of outdoor life just never gets shown on social media?

So back to my travel capsule and yes, perhaps I could have packed better.  A bit cheerier.  Indeed,  when I posted a few OOTD shots whilst on holiday, one of my new mates on Instagram (You can find me HERE) asked "But where's the colour?!"

Yes, I could should have packed colour and yes, I certainly could have packed less.

Here's what I didn't wear: 

1 pr of flatties (I wore these boots day and evening)

This longish floral shirt, Leoprint blouse, long jersey and chiffon edged tunic and floaty silk scarf (I tended to just change a vest or cardi at night).

What have I learned?

- Pack for YOU, not the weather you see out of your window.

- Brighter colours DO work in gloomy weather.

- Just pack for slight changes to the daytime outfit for evening.

- Repeat-wear, repeat-wear, repeat-wear - NO-ONE notices or cares if you wear the same pieces multiple times.

So I feel that if my fashion teacher were reading this post (and oh how I wish I'd had one!) she would note that I'd learned something from this pack and she would at the very least have written underneath this essay a "Could do better".  But I hope I wouldn't have opened my exercise book to a "See me!" written firmly in red pen!

A la perchoine,

Mary

Come back soon to see if I managed to retrieve my lost holiday snaps!

Credit: non-me photos - Pinterest

The 7 piece Travel Capsule

Hello my friends, are you having a good day?

What's not to like about sunshine?  That makes for a good for day and on this super-sunny day I put together a pretty good travel capsule for an upcoming trip with The Girls.

Ultraviolet long sleeved top.

Black skinnies.

Flatties.

Add one leoprint scarf.

I think the print really pops out against a strong colour backdrop, like ultraviolet  here.

A black leather skirt.

Black modal vest.

Ultraviolet cardi.

Bare legs and heels.

This creates an outfit for nightlife dining.

Change the vest top for a lace cami creates an even posher meal look.

Add the leoprint scarf to create something a bit more daytimey.

And daytimey was taken out in daytime.  To visit TP's surgeon for his post-op (all good).

(Yes, we haven't quite mastered the vlogging yet! #wherestheeditbutton?)

Add  a white top into this mix and this and you get a #7piecetravelcapsule, which would all fit comfortably in a carry on.  This will make a huge outfit selection.  

How many outfits can you make from this 7 piece?

These pieces fit comfortably in a carry on.

But you can't put ALL your clothes in a carry-on, eh peeps?  

You need to actually WEAR something for travel!

So I see two bigger-picture choices here.

A.  Travel in complementary pieces additional to what I've shown here, popping all 7 pieces above in the carry-on.

B. Wear some of the 7 pieces for travel, leaving a cavernous vacuum in the carry on for destination shopping!

And now let's have some fun!

So what would YOU do, A or B?

How many outfits do you see with 7 pieces, incl. a white top?

If you chose A, what would you travel in?

How many outfits would you get with the addition of your travel pieces?

And if you chose B, what would go in your shopping bag right now?!

What I do realise when writing this post is that I see MANY outfits.  

I need just 7.

A la perchoine,

Mary

The 12 Piece Travel Capsule Exposé !!

Hi peeps, I've travelled to the UK for a few weeks' break.
So what does any self-respecting blogger do?  Yup, here comes the travel case post!

I travelled in black jeans and jumper, ivory sleeveless top, ecru jacardi and leoprint scarf, black boots.

Now here's a fun story.  On arrival at London Gatwick, I found myself lurking outside the mens' toilets, as you do (calm down, I was waiting for The Photographer!).  A lady came towards me and we spotted immediately that we were wearing the same coat. So we smiled in recognition of this coincidence as she walked past, then she turned back and we started chatting. Turns out the jacardi is on sale and my pretty Irish new BFF had bought the grey version too (which I was torn over when buying my ecru version).
Funny how a piece of clothing gets complete strangers chatting together like old friends.

 The thing about this jacardi, as I call it, is that it's quite distinctive.  As well as the airport anecdote, I walked into my double cousin's kitchen the other day.  She looked at me and instantly said "Zara!  Looked at it at the airport shop back in November, wish I'd bought it." 
It's a sort of once-seen-never-forgotten piece.

So, fired by the carrot my BFF had dangled, a sale price of 13 Euro, I went on to the Zara website.  No sign of it, so it must be sold out already.  Sorry peeps, but no surprise really.  But there may be some left "physically" in a Zara store near you ...

But, I digress, bigly (sic).  In my little carry-on I packed this little lot.

Grey and white jumpers, grey cardi, pink and leoprint sleeveless tops, black and grey jersey tops,black cami, grey jeans; down coat (bagged up and out of shot), scarf, brown boots, snakeprint flatties, beret and gloves, just in case it gets chilly, notebook, spare specs and filofax as, evidently, I haven't yet left the 90s - and you should see the size of my mobile!


So that's 12 capsule items, in blogger-accounting.

And my Wild Card - the item you can bung in at the last minute without counting it per blogger-accounting.  It's the black pink and taupe splodgy jersey top.  I threw it in because it's coming up for its 4th summer and I have worn it 0 times.  So I am challenging myself to wear it this holiday.
Wish me luck!

So that's Exposé No. 1, the truth behind the "12" piece travel capsule.


Here's some of what I've been wearing so far.  The first reveal is a bit of a shocker actually. 

Shocker, you ask?  Well, here's the first wearing of a M&S tie top, bought recently in the sales.

Grey jersey.  Long sleeves.  High neck.  What's to shock?

Well, it was how I tied the knot at the bottom.  Without looking in the mirror I tied a simple knot, with the ends dangling.  You will have to use you're imagination at this point, for I've now popped the photo in my bloopers file.

 I went out for the day wearing the top. The. Whole. Day.

Only when downloading the photos for this post did I spot that the tie arrangement looked a bit, errr, embarrassing! 

Why oh why did I not check myself out in the mirror?!  There ensued Tiegate (and that's putting it genteelly!).  TP now tells me he'd given me the heads up when photographing.  He delicately suggested I might want to "re-tie" as it was "bunched up".  Too subtle for me.  Maybe he should have asked which side I "dressed".

No matter, as I did what I always do - I ignored him.  To my detriment, it now seems.

And the top's no longer on their website so I can't see how it's supposed to be tied, decently.  Anyone else having problems with tie tops?  

That's Exposé No. 2, nuff said on that one - so moving swiftly on ...

And here I'm wearing a pretty reserved mix but I must point out the beads.  I hit my fave charity shop in Battle on Saturday and found three necklaces that mix perfectly with what I've brought over.  £1 a-piece.  Bargain!

And finally ...

Although I bring a core capsule over with me when I come to Sussex, I do also have what I call a "visiting wardrobe" that I can tapp (sic) into.  The visiting wardrobe came about by an unfortunate event a few years ago.  TP was held at the NHS' pleasure - not HM's, I am pleased to say!

We were over for a few weeks and I had packed an appropriate travel capsule.  But TP ended up unexpectedly in hospital for a few weeks, poor thing,  And he then convalesced for a few more weeks.  By which time, we'd moved from late summer into early autumn. 

What's a girl to do?  I hit the shops in the area!  Primark, M&S, Next  ...

I picked up some disparate items, like undies and socks, a few tops, some boots and outerwear. 

You get the picture - I'm an opportunist!

Quite understandably I hadn't packed these things for what started out as a 2 week August holiday and ended up as a mid-October departure.  

Simply put, I'd packed for the wrong trip.

I tell you all of this in the spirit of transparency and openness.  For although I show you my little carry-on's contents, this wasn't in it ...

Another rogue item will pop up in my next post too, whilst I'm fessing up ... and probably in many more posts to come!

You see, I don't always restrict myself to my 12 piece.  I augment.

And that, dear reader, is Exposé No. 3.

So on those blogger's travel capsule bombshells, I bid you adieu,

A la perchoine.