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.

With the basement renos inching closer to completion, the rest of our house is settling back into itself. Any sort of construction is always disruptive, but especially in a small house where storage space is at a premium. Especially when the space undergoing construction used to be the main large storage area available for dumping, well, all the flotsam and jetsam of life. We cleared out a LOT of things, and now that the basement is usable again, all of the things I’ve been saving up to decorate it with are finally in their rightful place. And the rest of the house can breathe again.

As I’ve been going through rooms, clearing out clutter and all the various pieces destined for the basement, I’ve fallen in love all over again with the house. This happens with some regularity. You live in a space and, after a while, you stop seeing it; it just becomes something you take for granted. And then, one day, bam! You see it again with fresh eyes. It’s wonderful! Or full of potential! Or both! I’m a big fan of periodic “refreshes” of our living space. As with everything else in life, the needs for your living space change over time because people – individually and as groups – grow and evolve. Their patterns of living change.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that the solution for this is to move to a new house. My husband and I don’t subscribe to it; when we moved into our house – a modest suburban “starter home” by the standards of our city – we very quickly decided that we would not move again if we could help it. The location is great for our family, our housing costs easily manageable, and I never have to think about how to transport 1,800+ books. Instead of moving, we have worked steadily over the last 13 years to “upgrade” our house to suit our changing needs and our aesthetic aspirations. It is a constant work in progress. We’ve had to make peace with that – there will always be a next project, and another, and another. Some of them are functionally necessary (furnaces and roofs need replacing), some are practical (adding shelving for 1,800+ books), some are aesthetic, and some are a combination of all three. The fact that my husband is basically a one-man construction company, who can pretty much build a house from top to bottom, is incredibly helpful. I mean, that’s an understatement. I recognize how lucky we are to have his skills. It does mean that every major project takes, on average, a couple of years to complete because a full-time job, hands-on parenting, and life in general don’t leave a lot of spare time for renos. That’s something else we’ve had to make peace with. Life is not HGTV.

Our house has changed a lot over the last decade, and it will continue to do so. I try to take photos of it at various stages to record its evolution. It’s kinda like our “baby”, you know? It’s nice to be able to look back and see how far we’ve come on.

Take the living room, for example.  Here was its very first iteration:

We had just moved in; two almost-30 year olds, about to get married, on a teeny budget. That leather couch was the most “grown up” piece of furniture we owned at the time. Everything else came from our respective college-era apartments. I don’t even remember what our aesthetic tastes might have been at the time, and you certainly can’t tell what they were from this set-up. I’m glad we didn’t rush out and buy a bunch of new furniture and things to fill up this space, though. I’m certain that whatever we might have picked then wouldn’t be something we would still love now. It’s taken us years of living together to develop our collective ideas about interior design (my husband trained as an architect so I’m sure he had a more robust sense of design that I did at the beginning). Taste and personal style – in interior design as much as fashion – take years to mature. At 30, I didn’t yet have the vocabulary to envision our living room as it looks today, and I would have been amazed to know that this was something we could achieve.

This brings up another important lesson I’ve learned. When I was younger, I was often bowled over by the houses of older acquaintances. They displayed a level of style that I believed could only be achieved by spending pots and pots of money. But I was wrong. You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money all at once to create a beautiful space; you just need time. A good part of the beauty of many of those interiors I admired was derived from the fact that they were collected and curated – perfected, if you will – over many years. If I could tell my younger self anything on this topic, it would be not to worry or be too impatient. The process of assembling one’s dream house, piece by piece, is inextricably part of the reason why it’s one’s dream house. Beauty and meaningfulness derive from the process as much as the individual elements.

One last thought. A few weeks ago, I saw an IG post from the Washington Post referencing a study that had concluded, and I quote, that “HGTV is making our homes boring and us sad.” The gist was that watching home renovation media, like HGTV (and I would add, social media like Instagram), leads homeowners to decorate for the masses and not for their own happiness. I didn’t look into the details of the study, but at a gut level, I agree with this. I call it the flattening of viewpoint – people are exposed to a specific aesthetic over and over and seek to replicate it, which reinforces the predominance of that aesthetic and drives out diversity and individuality. Indirectly, this also ties back to what I was talking about earlier – the desire I used to have (which I think is common, especially in younger folks) to want to have a “nice” house instantly. Being presented with a socially-reinforced formula for what a “nice” house looks like feeds the belief that it can be achievable with one click or two clicks. And what’s lost when we adopt that mentality is the whole process of creating meaning and beauty through the expression of one’s ever-evolving viewpoint.

Next week, I can’t wait to talk about our OG flex space (long before the basement): the family/bonus/library room.

Details: H&M top, Maeve skirt (both Poshmark), Rebecca Minkoff belt (thrift), Copper Canoe Woman earrings (gift)

Thoughts: These pieces are made for each other and you can’t tell me otherwise. The judicious use of black to ground rainbow outfits never ceases to impress me. Yes, I am easily impressed by myself, haha! I added the earrings — a BFF gift from my bestie (she has a matching set) — because I wanted that pop of colour paired with black, to echo the rest of the outfit. 10/10 would do it again.

Details: Topshop dress (thrift), Zara shoes (retail)

Thoughts: I love this dress a lot, but the fabric kills me (softly?) every time. The cut is fantastic, the print is lovely … why waste all that on cheap polyester? Why, Topshop, why? I make it work, but it does bug me. I’ve worn this dress a few times already but this might be the first time I’m wearing it by itself. You can see the cut properly this way; the bodice suits my body type very well. It has a slightly retro vibe but it’s not costumey at all.

Details: Pilcro top, Thiermann skirt (both thrifted), Stella & Dot necklace, Anne Marie Chagnon ring (both Poshmark), Prairie Trail Goods jacket

Thoughts: Fully leaning into teal with this outfit, and that always makes me happy. And a counterpoint to the previous grumble: this skirt is silk, and it’s a bit of a PITA in its own way. It’s the kind of silk that loves to pick up greasy stains, and I’m not even talking about food and the usual culprits — I have to be super careful about hand cream and stuff like that. It’s all a bit too high maintenance for me. But it does feel divine to wear, I must say. Still, I’m pivoting more towards cotton and linen (and wool) these days because they are much easier to care for (especially when you’re a klutz like me).

Details: Foil top, Max&Co skirt (both thrifted), J. Crew belt & shoes (retail)

Thoughts: Another counterpoint, this time in colour theory. Magenta has become my second favourite colour, I think. Definitely top 3. It’s not even the Barbenheimer influence because I still haven’t seen either movie, lol! I just love how energetic (and energizing) magenta is, without being the least bit irritating. It’s hard to explain, but I find some bright “warm” colours like red, pink and orange to be overstimulating in a way that feels mildly unpleasant over a longer exposure. Is that weird? It’s probably weird. It’s why I tend to gravitate towards cool colours (blue, green, purple) because they don’t excite my nervous system in the same way. But magenta is an exception — I think because it’s cool-toned, with blue undertones in the pink. Aaaaaanyway … this was a cute outfit even though this top is on probation right now because the shoulder seam sits at a weird angle on me and annoys me. Why do I sound so crochety all of a sudden? *shrug*

Details: Toni T dickie, Vince top (both thrifted), Banana Republic Factory jeans (retail)

Thoughts: Guys, I think it finally happened. I think I finally found the palazzo trouser jeans that I’ve been looking for. Only, what? Nine months later? Hahahah! This was a totally random find; I happened to pop into a Banana Republic Factory store in Calgary because it was right across the street from our hotel, and stumbled onto these jeans. I swear they are a dupe of a style I tried back in December/January at the regular BR store. In fact, they’re more or less the jean version of the corduroy pants I got there. I’ve got tiny reservations about the front pleats and the rise, but the cut and length (inseam) are both perfect. I got them on major sale for less than $40, which is a decent deal. If you’re looking at these, I would check measurements; I’m usually a 27/28 and comfortably took a 26 (even though they’re not even truly high rise). Also, this is the Regular length and I can wear it with low heels and even flats, so keep that in mind if your inseam is longer than, say, 29 inches.

Details: Aerie crop top (retail), Ralph Lauren shirt, Cotton Pickers skirt, Nocona belt (all thrifted), Chie Mihara shoes (swap), Prairie Trail Goods tote, Nina Ricci necklace (from my mom)

Thoughts: I decided this outfit would be all about playing up textural and pattern contrast. Sticking to a simple colour palette allowed these other elements to be the focus. The colours are one of my fave summer combos though: blue, white and brown. The vibe was my usual prairie romantic thing, with a little dash of southwestern flair. It’s my summer style sweet spot.