Fewer and Better Things

I've recently discovered the brand CUYANA. They make beautiful, quality things and their entire philosophy is about having fewer, better things. It's easy to lose sight of that during this insane season with constant bombardment of sales but I'm really striving to make that my goal this holiday season. Things I bought because they were on sale that aren't perfect are going back and I'm searching for meaningful, personal items. My favorite part about Cuyana is something they call "Lean Closet" it's described on their website in the following way"

Lean Closet

With every Cuyana purchase where you select "lean shipping" at checkout, we will send you a reusable bag to fill up with items that aren’t helping you live your most beautiful life. You mail the bag back to us (with the included shipping label) and through our non-profit partner, H.E.A.R.T., your donated clothing will be given directly to women who will be able to gain fresh starts through your generosity. As an added bonus, for every donation you make, you will receive a $10 credit towards your next Cuyana purchase. It's about doing more with less in our closets — and doing more for others who are in need.

That's a philosophy I can get behind. I haven't bought anything yet but they are on my list!

Plaid!

If there is one thing I love, it's plaid and plaid scarves are my especial weakness. I snapped this beauty up at J Crew today and it was only about $40 with free shipping using the code Monday. I am always cold this time of year due to an auto immune syndrome that decreases circulation in the cold so I wrap up all the time! The best part is that I don't find this scarf to be overly "holiday" the way some are. The red Stewart pattern in particular feels very "Christmas" to me. Lot of heavy wear in December, not so much the rest of the year but I can see this one getting some mileage. Most of my wardrobe is navy and dark green anyway so what could be better? I'm thinking about taking it to my local trophy shop that does monograming and having my monogram put on in pink to match that stripe. Cute yes?

Getting (and staying) in the Mood

One of the things I sometimes struggle with during the build up to Christmas is the expectation that everything will be perfect. The kids will get along, nothing will blow up at work, my house will be perfectly decorated and clean. That kind of expectation can be hard to live up to.  We are going to my mom and dad's this year. My fathers has Alzheimer's and this may be his last Christmas where he's really there, if you know what I mean. I'm trying hard this year to focus on the simple things that make it feel like Christmas. If I don't get matching pajama pants made for all the kids, that will be ok. Holiday music, my family, hot chocolate and flannel pajamas! That's my formula. Any times for surviving holiday stress?

Spiked Hot Chocolate!

Now that we are safely in December and can put away our pumpkin lattes, it's time for spiked hot chocolate! When I was in college in Connecticut, my parents always came to NYC in December for a business meeting my dad attended. I'd take a few days and stay with them at the Plaza, shop and got to a show. One night at the Marriot in Times Square, I ordered something called a Stage Coach. It was hot chocolate, Baileys, peppermint schnapps topped with whipped cream and  stirred with a candy cane. Put simply, it was heaven. I recreate it every year. Delish has several yummy sounding hot chocolate recipes up right now but as always, the peppermint hot chocolate is my favorite. Sound yummy? Which one is your favorite?

Ingredients

• 1/4 oz. Peppermint Schnapps
• 1/2 oz. Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
• 1 c. hot chocolate
• Whipped cream, for serving
• Crushed peppermint candy, for serving

Directions

1. Add peppermint schnapps, chocolate liqueur, and hot chocolate to a sauce pan. Heat mixture then add to serving glass.
2. Garnish with whip cream and crushed peppermint candy.

Now the Christmas Season May Merrily Commence!

I've been steadfast in waiting to leap into Christmas cheer until after Thanksgiving. I do love Thanksgiving and fall/harvest themes and decorations so I like to savor them. Now, however, it is time to usher in December and go full out holiday. I love this picture from a long gone J Crew and if you have followed me for a while you will know that I post it every year. I have the same coat in red and still love it. It just radiates Christmas cheer. Are you ready?

The Ugly Item of the Season Winner!

Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner for the ugliest item of the holiday season. I give you the J Crew sequin buffalo checked pants.

I don't even know where to start with these. Elastic waist, cotton, dry clean only. And at $248 it's not even cheap and ugly. I like some sparkle and bling at the holidays, who doesn't? But if I showed up in these, my family would die of laughter.

Wearing the Pants

I know I have posted about some of the recent wardrobe changes I have made given my foot issues and the need to only wear flat shoes. I've trended to slim ankle pants with either pointed toes flats or loafer inspired shoes. I have some great picks to share below. Apologies for the small pictures.

 These are the Lands End Slim Legged wear to work pant. Beautiful navy wool pattern, 29 inch inseam and great quality. The rise is about an inch higher than I tend to like but not so much that I feel like I'm wearing granny pants. I live in Northern California so these are likely to be a year round pair of pants for me.

 Both these red pants above and black watch plaid ones below are also from Lands End. They are the mid rise wool pant. Fully lined and the kind of quality you don't see everyday any more. I went with the red ones because I have a pair of black watch plaid wide legged wool pants from the long past J Crew days of splendor than I wear at Christmas time. Adding another pair seems sort of redundant because they feel like the kind of pants you can only wear in December. But I'm really tempted and maybe I can work them into January in this shape? Stay tunned

This red pair is from Talbots and looks fun but very limited to the holidays. I think I'd go black watch plaid before I went with these but they could be a contender in the right context.

 

 

Any good pants in your life this year?

What a big family looks like

Now, my husband comes from a big family. He is the youngest child of 9. My kids are numbers 16, 17 and 18 in the list of grandchildren. It's a huge difference from my family where there is just my sister and I and my three kids plus my sisters 2. My kids are also the youngest of the grandkids. Most of them are grown up and starting to get married. This picture was taken just recently at one of the cousins weddings.

 This one is all of the original kids and spouses with my mother in law. My father in law passed away several years ago. My husband and I are on the far right.

My mother in law, who will be 90 in the spring, is in the center with the bride and groom. My family and I are on the far right. Missing from this picture are 5 adult cousins, 4 spouses and 4 great grandkids. It's quite a group!

The Good and the Bad

I can't seem to help myself with regards to J Crew. It's hard for me to give up on them despite their current lack luster offerings. Holidays is one of the things J Crew has done really well in the past so I had hopes for the new arrivals. Breathlessly, I went to the web site.

 

These beauties are the Sloan Plaid d'Orsay flat with bow. Yes, they are pricy at $168 but I jumped on line to order them at once. Unfortunately, they are sold out in all sized but 12. I'll keep stalking these though. Perfect with wool pants and a cashmere sweater for holiday fun. They also have a pretty pump in the same bright plaid but with an almost 4 inch heel, they are not in my plans.

Now we come to the bad. I just have no idea who would wear these.

These are the Collection Ultra Wide Legged Pant in Italian Wool. They are $328 and the description does not state they are lined which leads me to think not. Maybe, and I do mean maybe, someone tall, thin and very long legged could pull this off with a sleek tucked in turtleneck and some high heels. They look awful with the sneakers the model is wear.

So, maybe there is hope for J Crew. However, I still think the prices are inflated as compared to quality. Have you seen the new roll out? What do you think!

DIY Pumpkin Chai Latte

Do you read The Glitter Guide? You should. It's a fun web site with great ideas and they send email blasts which are great. In today's email there was an article (click here) with a yummy recipe to make pumpkin chai latte. They had one earlier that was just to create pumpkin latte and I tried it. So yummy! I'll be making this to enjoy this weekend!


Pumpkin Chai Latte
– ¼ cup liquid sweetened chai tea
– ¼ cup brewed coffee
– 2/3 cup almond milk
– 2 tablespoons sweetened pumpkin purée*
– Cinnamon stick
*Sweetened Pumpkin Purée
Mix the following ingredients in a saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes (or until fully incorporated and heated through):
– 2/3 cup pumpkin purée
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
DIRECTIONS
Combine brewed coffee, chai tea, almond milk and sweetened pumpkin purée over medium heat for 5 minutes (or until heated through). Pour into a coffee mug and garnish with a cinnamon stick. To make a less sweet version, add additional almond milk when serving!

Let's Enjoy Fall!

In keeping with my last post, I want to remind people to enjoy November and fall before throwing yourself full force into December and Christmas madness. I love the December Christmas feeling but I love Thanksgiving too. Sometimes I even think I like it better (shush, don't tell). Why? Because it has all the things I love about Christmas, food, family, fun and none of the pressure to have a perfect holiday that I sometimes feel about Christmas. So throw a log on your fire, admire your fall leaves, have another piece of pumpkin bread. Let's savor the season, not race through!

Holiday Pretties

Now, I'm not one to start decorating for Christmas even before Halloween. It's actually one of my pet peeves, don't get me started. Anyway, I do love Christmas tree decorations. It seems like we have a ton but the reason for that is that my mother gives each of my kids a beautiful ornament every year at Thanksgiving. The idea is that when they grow up and move away, they will have a "starter set" of ornaments with meaning. What I'll have is an empty tree. While we are several years away from this happening, I'm always on the look out for pretties all my own. I found these two beauties at Anthropology.

I missed out on the sailing ship snow globe ornament from last year but these are also super pretty. I can't wait to hang them on my tree, although I will be waiting until after Thanksgiving to do so!

This makes me crazy!

My daughter, she's 12, wants to be Joan of Arc for Halloween this year. This part, I love. She recently studied Joan of Arc at school and independently picked this as her costume choice. Now, my daughter is tall for 12 and has a developing body. She looks like a teenager, not a child. This past weekend we started looking at costumes. The picture below is representative of what we found.

Can I just say, WTF? Why are all women's costumes "sexy" something or other? Needless to say, we were horrified and went to the fabric store and I'll be making her something. But, if we wonder why girls don't appreciate their worth or feel inferior, look no farther!

Costume Idea!

It's fall and my kids are going back and forth on what to wear as a costume. I found this great idea on Pinterest. The original link is here. It was originally an idea for a girls tulle tutu but I love how it was done above for a witch costume. CMB is thinking about being a witch this year and this might just do the trick!

Schooling

CMB's horse is named Dancer. We bought him about 3 years ago when she outgrew the little pinto pony she had learned to ride on. He's about 15.3 hands and a registered quarter horse. For those who don't know, horses are measured in "hands" which are 4 inches each and they are measured from the withers (at the base of the neck) to the ground. Anyway, he's been pretty good and she's had 3 good hunt seasons on him. However, he developed some bad habits as CMB got more demanding and became a better rider. She also got busier when middle school started. Dancer lives on my parent's property about an hour from where we live. He started bucking people off, well, CMB and I specifically as we are the only 2 who ride him. He went to spend the summer with a trainer to see if some good old fashion discipline would help. CMB and I went to visit last weekend. He looks really good and she had a nice ride on him. Hopefully, things will improve when he comes home.

An Interesting Side Effect of the Capsule Wardrobe

I'm going to start right off by saying this isn't my closet. Although, I totally wish it was! I've posted in the past about trying to buy fewer, better clothes and stick to my defined style and colors. The interesting side effect is that you really don't want to buy stuff. I guess that's the point. I click around on web sites and flip through magazines but, if I already have the perfect navy turtleneck sweater, do I need 2 or 3 less than perfect ones? No. The hardest thing for me is re-training myself to look for clothes that really fit my style now that I have narrowed it down. I admit I love dresses and pencil skirts. There are times when I fill my on-line shopping cart or eBay watch list or dressing room with them. Then I look at them and remember, I can't wear heels at all anymore (severe arthritis in my ankle and big toe joint) and I think flats worn with pencil skirts and most dresses make me look dumpy. I know lots of people wear them and look great but I hate the way it looks on me. Same thing with button front blouses. In theory, I love the crisp look and style of a button front. In reality, I have narrow shoulders and they don't really fit right. Still, I long for them. It's been an interesting transition. My wallet thanks me and I love the ease of getting dressed and out the door in the morning so I plan to keep it up.

Not getting it done, J Crew

Ok, first off this is not a good picture but my computer is not performing well this morning. I just can't get over how, I guess the word is over, I am with J Crew. There was a time almost all my clothes came from there. I've thrown away the last several catalogues after a quick skim and a laugh. The super skinny models, the sloppy layered look, the messy hair and don't get me started on the dropped shoulder trend. All of this was visually off putting but the lack of lined dress pants, the increased costs and the declining quality are also a major factor. The last time I had the chance to walk into a brick and mortar store, I turned around and walked right back out. Really the final straw is the apparent demise of the School Boy Blazer, one of my staples. I wear a blazer almost every day in my business casual office. I have wool school boys for fall and winter and linen ones for spring and summer. I hate the popped collar on the Regent blazer and am not a fan of the Rhodes or Campbell either. The prices are higher and the fit isn't as good on me. I'm busy scouring ebay and snapping up school boys when I can. What do you think? Am I being to hard on the "Crew"?

Ethically Source/Produced Clothing

As I learned more about "fast fashion" and started to re-focus on buying few but better items, I began to add learning about a companies production environment was like and including that in my calculations when looking for items. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Brooks Brothers is one company that is paying attention to this. They have a detailed description of their process and commitment on their web site here. They also just opened a new, expanded manufacturing space in Massachusetts.  A commitment to ethical production and to production in the US and not oversees. Just another reason to love them! Brooks Brothers has long been one of my favorite places to shop, although I usually stalk items and wait for sales. As I re-focus on fewer and better things, this really has been working for me. Do you consider production when you shop?

In Which I Embrace Printed Pants

 

I was always a dark, solid pants person. Navy, black, the occasional glen plaid maybe, but nothing printed or bright. I know that printed slim pants have been around a while but I have only recently jumped on the band wagon. My shift on only flat shoes have had something to do with this. I tend to wear mine with a pointed toe loafer or flat and either a round neck top or turtleneck and a blazer. That's my new uniform but I'm experimenting with some slightly different pants to mix it up.

 

 It's really hard to tell but these are from Brooks Brothers and a very dark navy or black (I can't really tell) and have a small, subtle brighter blue foulard print on them. They almost look like a man's tie.

These I think I have posted about before. Also, Brooks Brothers. They are so great! I was nervous about buying them as they were my first toe dip into printed pants but I love them. I also have a gray windowpane plaid pair of Sloan slim ankle pants from Banana Republic which I couldn't get a good picture of. I wore them to work this week with a dark green Tippi sweater and a dark green blazer. I think the key has three parts. First, quality trousers. They shouldn't look cheap or shinny. Second, I always try and pair them with a conservative top. The busier/crazier the pants, the more conservative the top. This goes for shoes too. Third, I'm sticking with conservative prints too. Not wild floral prints. It's working for me and I quite like it. It allows me to feel fashion forward and safe at the same time. What do you think?

Almost Fall!

I think fall is one of my favorite seasons, not that we get a lot of season in the Bay Area. But the feeling of fall is the same. The light is a little different, even the sunshine feels quite, a little sad. I went to college at Fairfield University in Connecticut and the fall was so beautiful there. I miss it every year. Still, there are a few leaves turning on the trees outside my house, the evenings come quicker and there is a nip in the air. Time for fires, pumpkin spice, quilted vests and boots!