Details: Chepe dress (retail), Free People belt (thrifted), Old Navy shoes (Poshmark), vintage bag (gift)

Thoughts: I broke my “no retail” rule twice in a month, but I think this Chepe dress was worth that second infraction. It’s pretty much everything I want in a dress … except for the colour. The colour was a calculated risk. I would have loved this dress in white, but no dice. I did see it in black but I decided that would be too close to the black maxi dress I already have (and love). I was going to walk away and then I saw it in navy. Navy has never been a colour I’ve gravitated towards, but it does pair well with colours I do love, like red and brown. And the cut was so good! Well, you can see what happened. I bought it. And I regret nothing! It’s one of those dresses that’s easy to throw on, accessorize, and feel like a million bucks. We all need a few of those in our closets, right?

Details: Liz Claiborne dress, For Cynthia shirt, Rebecca Minkoff belt, Barbara Barbieri shoes (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I’ve come to terms with the fact that the bodice of my favourite rainbow dress simply doesn’t fit well. Plus, I hate spaghetti straps as a general rule. I could take this to a tailor to come up with a fix, but I don’t currently know a good tailor. So my fallback has been to work around the issues by layering, aka camouflaging the problems. I usually layer things over the dress, but this time I decided to layer something under it. This worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It’s a good reminder that white shirts are very versatile.

Details: Emmy Deveaux bodysuit, Gap shirt, Twik jeans, Isabel Marant belt, Tommy Hilfiger bag (all thrifted), J. Crew shoes (retail)

Thoughts: I know a lot of people avoid wearing black and brown together but I love it. It helps to choose shades of brown that aren’t too muddy, so there is clear contrast with the black. Whiskey brown is my usual choice, but this warm chocolate-y colour also works, albeit as a lower-contrast pairing. I love the simplicity of this outfit; it’s a pretty classic formula updated with a more contemporary pair of denim.

Details: UO top, vintage cardigan, Ralph Lauren skirt (all thrifted), Zara shoes (retail)

Thoughts: I’m calling this Highlands cottagecore. I know it’s still only August, but I love taking advantage of cooler days to give myself a preview, as it were, of my fall outfit options. More on my fall 2023 inspo to come, but this vibe is a contender for sure. I love blue-green colour palettes and, of course, anything plaid. I see a lot more of it in my near future 😉

I freaking love flex spaces. Flex spaces are key to use maximization in small houses, especially for families. Having spaces that can serve multiple purposes, at the same time and sequentially over time, is huge. We are lucky to have a very spacious bonus room above our garage, which basically doubles the amount of “communal” space in our house. When the kids were little, it allowed us to have a dedicated play area – full of the usual toys and baby gear – away from our main reception space, the living room. It gave us some breathing room so we didn’t feel like we were drowning in colourful plastic. But it was also a place to store books. An ever-growing number of them. Now that the kids are older, everyone in the family is looking for space to chill in peace away from everyone else; the bonus room is a premium “chill out” zone. And it also doubles as a guest bedroom when needed. Last year, we replaced the couch – which has now relocated to the basement – with a daybed, which can be used both as a sofa and as a bed (it has a proper mattress).

Here was the room about a year into our living in the house; my husband had just added the bookshelves, which completely transformed the space:

But it didn’t look like this for long. Believe me when I tell you that the room looked vastly different when its floor space was taken up by baby gates and rubber mats, and one wall of shelving was filled with nothing but toy bins. We’ve had 3 different couches in this room over time, each one geared towards the needs of the moment. The one in the above photo came from my husband’s college era apartment. The one we had when the kids were babies was a huge, microfiber sectional that we got secondhand, which saw a lot of abuse in its time. The third couch was a major upgrade: a brand-new sectional in a vaguely mid-century style which reflected the ongoing “maturation” of the room along with that of our youngest family members; this piece is now living its second life in the basement.

It’s safe to say that the look of the room now is a reflection of the growth of our family, the development of our aesthetic instincts, and years of collecting via thrift. Most of the décor items are secondhand treasures. The furniture currently occupying this space, apart from the daybed, has been “recycled” from other parts of the house. It all works together … but it didn’t come together overnight.

Here is the side which has has the biggest “glow up” in many ways — it used to be dedicated to toys and children’s books (which have been relocated), and it’s now a space for art & design books, my collection of magazines, and plants.

That blue chair, by the way, is a piece of furniture that my husband built back in his undergrad days. I love having a little piece of personal history tucked away here, amid other accumulated memories of our life together. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years curating various little “vignettes” around the room, and it brings me so much joy to see them all coming together.

The room has no experienced its last evolution; more changes will be afoot in years to come. We need to change the carpet and plan to put in either hardwood or laminate. Area rug(s) to follow, I am sure. There are also 2 rolling staircases that we have been waiting to install, once the kids are old enough. And we will be painting the walls (along with the rest of the house) to match the creamy white we have selected for the basement. We think that colour will really set off the art we have on the walls. And I am sure there will be other changes that aren’t even on our radar at the moment. But that is the beauty of a living space.

Details: C&C dress, Deborah Murray vest, Nocona belt, Chie Mihara shoes, Dooney bag

Thoughts: My quintessential summer outfit: a dress and a vest. I am still looking for my dream white dress, but this one is serving me well in the meantime. I am inching ever closer to full cowgirl mode; I haven’t committed to cowboy boots yet, but I did thrift this horse-patterned vintage vest. I loved the colours most of all, and it suits my summer aesthetic well. White, blue and brown is one of my favourite summer palettes.

Thoughts: I thrifted this Equipment blouse because I love its rainbow pastel colours — you know I can’t resist anything rainbow — and was intrigued by the snakeskin pattern stripes. I don’t usually like snakeskin but this felt like it had potential. I knew immediately that my first outfit would involve this skirt, and I decided to undercut the twee with oversized black accessories – this fab new (to me) necklace and belt. I like using black in this way; the contrast makes the other colours pop more.

Details: French Connection top, Ralph Lauren dress, Talbots skirt, Michelle Ross accessories

Thoughts: Pairing magenta and purple might be a rather “left field” choice, but it’s a combination that feels very happy to me. There is a synergy there, probably because they are both cool toned colours. I took a risk on this skirt because it’s silk and I have a love hate relationship with silk these days BUT I think (hope?) this skirt won’t prove too finicky, care-wise. I’m just a sucker for vintage (lined!) silk even though I’m also a klutz who spills on myself All. The. Time. The skirt is probably from the early 2000s or thereabouts, but the silhouette still feels modern — like something you’d find at Aritzia (except much better quality, hah). That’s basically my thrift mission these days: find high quality vintage versions of modern pieces for a fraction of the current price.

Details: French Connection top, Mexx vest, Banana Republic jeans, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Echo scarf

Thoughts: I’ve been wanting to put together a jeans and vest outfit for a while, but couldn’t quite settle on the right pair of jeans for it. And then these showed up in my life, and I decided the time had come to try again. This is a pretty traditional vest/waistcoat which I think works well for the vibes here, but does require some careful editing. I was afraid the scarf might have pushed the outfit over the top, but adding the sneakers brought it back down to earth.

Details: Urban Outfitters top, Pelican Cove vest, Laura Ashley skirt, Barbara Barbieri shoes

Thoughts: The 90s called and want their everything back. I’m digging it. Someone on IG said this was peak 90210 vibes, and I am not mad about that either. When I was a teen, I could only have dreamed of being that cool. Healing our teenage fashion trauma in our 40s? Sure, why not.