This outfit was mostly unintentional. I was originally planning to wear it with my blush pink cardigan, but that seemed too similar to the colour scheme I had tried before with this dress. Next I tried, in succession, a black and a navy blazer, but both seemed too dark and heavy for this dress. Running out of options – and, more importantly, time – I threw on this seersucker-ish number, and hoped for the best.

The necklace was another not-really-matching option, and the bag and shoes … well, they’re both patent leather so at least they have that in common. With all that said, the final result was not flames-coming-out-of-the-side-of-my-face terrible. So, hurray for small miracles.

I seem to have a fatal attraction for colourful muumuus, which should be all you need to know to understand why I had to buy this Etro tunic. It was only $50. I had to. It looks like the sort of thing a Real Housewife would wear to the beach on St. Barths – or wherever nouveau riche ladies with aspirations of Bravo TV fame vacation – so I have no idea where I might wear it. I mean, does “summer weekend in Edmonton” count? For what it’s worth, I wore it to go on a bookstore-and-sushi date with my husband.

It was pretty awesome. I refrained from buying dubious literature (as an incentive to continue writing my own dubious literature – I need all the encouragement I can get) in favour of something that might actually, well, help me write better. Maybe. We’ll find out next year. In the meantime, here’s another photo of my fawncy Italian silk muumuu.

It’s been a hot minute since I last showed you this cropped sweatshirt, so now you’re going to get a two-fer. First, the rainy (summer) day version, paired with my Merona maxi dress from last year. I know Target was a dismal failure up here in Canada, but I will miss its clothing department; some of the stuff was hella cute. (And I’m not even talking about the designer collabs, which were pretty unimpressive recently. Polyester overload.) This dress is a good example.

I loved this outfit a lot, which is probably why I ended up … um, dancing a jig on my driveway? I don’t know, you guys. But this did happen, since we have the photo to prove it.

Outfit #2 is an even more casual option, this time for sunnier weather. And what is that I spot? Bare belly flesh? #TheHorror

Just kidding. It was totally fine. Nobody really even noticed, thanks to the high rise of my denim cut-offs. I’m not sure if this is my favourite way to wear either piece, but I’m glad I tried it. If nothing else, I can now say that I wore a crop top the way nature the fashion industry intended it.