Clothes Plans: Let's Think Spring

One of my favourite Canadian-but-not-Group-of-Seven-or-Emily-Carr paintings is Approaching Spring, by Donald Mackay Houstoun. Here's a link, because I don't want to get in trouble by posting images that I shouldn't. This is the same picture that we saw, ages ago, at an antiques market, priced way too high for us. We haven't been there for awhile, so I don't know if it's even still there. But I still like the painting. And the title "Approaching Spring" seems appropriate right now.

When I started shopping my closet for spring, I came up with clothes in navy, off-white, grey, denim blue, pink, green. Plus a pair of old-faithful I-think-they're-khaki pants.

All fine, but a lot the same. Even this new-to-me pullover, nice as it is, seemed a bit dark.

Then something caught my eye on a blog post about "business casual" clothes, although I don't need business casual, just really casual.  First of all, a pink shirt...I had a blouse like that a couple of years ago, downsized it around the time we moved, but miss it now...okay, I could probably find another similar one. (Haven't found one yet, but I'm looking.) But the use of light yellow...I'm a chronic yellow-avoider, with traumatic memories of 1970's warm yellows and golds, but I liked the way that the yellow in these photos broke up the dark blues, greys, wines. It reminded me of the light colours in the foreground of Houstoun's painting. I decided that I could use a little yellow in my life, or at least in my closet.

So I went thrifting and found a pale-yellow cardigan, a yellow cotton t-shirt, and a scarf in spring shades that included a bit of yellow.

On the same trip, getting a little carried away with the Easter-egg theme, I bought a mauve print sleeveless top, a pansy-purple silk/nylon cardigan, a green sleeveless top, and a long sage-green cardigan.

Every time I try to photograph the green cardigan, it looks like it's made of print fabric, but it's actually the texture of the knit, so I'm including a close-up.

Oh, look at that: you can wear it upside-down.

So if I were grabbing a dozen things to put in a suitcase, or doing a Vivienne Files "Whatever's Clean 13," I would probably start with this list (you can see some of the clothes in the first photos above):

white short-sleeved t-shirt

blue and grey striped short-sleeved t-shirt

dark blue short-sleeved t-shirt

wine-brown short-sleeved top

dark purple-grey linen shirt, 3/4 length sleeves

white button-up shirt

jean-style shirt

navy pullover sweater

white cardigan

blue jeans

khaki pants

navy jersey pants

blue t-shirt dress

And then I'd add in my six new accents:

purple cardigan (it buttons, but it's a bit gappy)

yellow cotton button-up cardigan

sage-green long cardigan

mauve print sleeveless top

green sleeveless top

yellow t-shirt, 3/4 length sleeves (plus the scarf)

If we're counting clothes, that only comes to nineteen items, and I think there's room for a few more.

The scoop-neck pullover shown before

Navy zippered fleece blazer

Dark pink tank top so I can wear the purple cardigan as a top

Lightweight leggings

A long-sleeved grey top with spring graphics, that is just fun.

And a pair of black jeans, because this turned out to be too low on bottoms. I haven't included any skirts, but if I could find a print skirt with a bit of yellow in it, I'd add that. Or I could include another dress. That makes 25 (or 26) pieces of clothing, not counting outerwear (which, right now, includes snow boots).

All Together

More Outfits

Accessories

I haven't gone too heavily on accessories.

Some scarves:

The same shoes I've worn before, although if I could find some of those floral discount-store sneakers, I'd buy a pair (I wore out my last ones).

Some socks:

Some jewelery:

Wine tote bag

grey-blue purse

backpack

Happy Spring!

Last updated March 3, 2021.