What I Packed for Italy Part 2

Just got back from Italy on Thursday, and it was an amazing trip, so much sun, so much food, so much wine.

I would have stayed there forever if I could have.

Anyways, I've got 500odd pictures from the trip to go through, but in the mean time I thought I'd show you what I packed for 10 days in Southern Italy in June. I traveled with only a carry-on weekend style bag, and purse sized backpack (blogged about it here)

First off... to organize things in my bag, I spent some time sewing a couple simple zip-up garment bag, and two pouches for make-up/toiletries...I'd highly recommend something like this to keep things organized. I had one for clothes, one for beach, one for underthings.

OK, so beach! Brought 4 bikinis....wore 3 of them.... (Nude and blue from H&M, Black by volcom, striped from Old Navy) and a pink beach wrap I picked up in the Dominican Republic like 4 years ago.

Shorts and shirts, I ended up leaving the pink shorts (Forever21) and blue tank (?) at home at the last minute. Grey lulu tank (last seen at that yoga-orgy thing which BTW the sweater and tights that day is what I wore on the plane), pink tank and blue shorts H&M, black t-shirt F21. I wore the shorts once... and last minute added in a pair of lulu studio pants capri length in cream and wore them twice.
 

Dresses, Purple Lulu, it's a cinch dress (wore it alot over bathing suits) Black cotton dress from French Connection, grey mullet dress (short in the front long in the back) some random brand, picked up at winners for $12bucks. I wore the grey and black dress twice each.
 

Printed maxi skirt and orange t-shirt from Forever 21, I wore the skirt tied and belted as a dress twice and didn't wear the T. Strapless dress from American Eagle, worn once, le sack dress from American Apparel, worn once.

Dressier maxi dress from (oddly enough) Sirens, wore it out to dinner once, little black sweater (I've had it for too long to remember where it's from.
 

Shoes... Brown and black leather sandals fro Aldo... wore them a couple times. Left the white ones (?) at home at the last minute. Black ankle sandals (?) wore them once for a mad dash through Rome Termini station. Wedges from Spring, wore them quite a bit to dinner. Black, 3 dollar old navy flip flops...wore these about 75% of the trip, had no blisters what soever. Not pictured was the pair of Toms I wore in the flights.


So that's basically what I packed for clothing, I probably could have cut out a few dresses, but I'd rather be wearing different things in different pics and not have to do laundry.

Today I will....

Head to the airport in 3 hours.

Fly to Toronto.

Spend another 7ish hours hanging around Pearson International.

Fly to Rome.

I cannot wait, may as well just stay up at this point....and sleep it off on the flights.

That's the way to overcome jet lag if you ask me.

Threw a coin over my shoulder (you can see it in the air) a little over a year ago, looks like it works to be bringing me back so soon.

Ciao!
~Sara

Afternoon run

I'm running a 10km Sunday after next....I've been trying to run at least twice a week for the last 4 months or so.

Today Sarah and I went for a short 6km down along the Bow River, and over onto Prince's Island.

We checked out Calgary's new (somewhat contravention) Peace Bridge (it cost the city some 24 million dollars)

 The bridge was designed by world renown architect Santiago Calatrava. We thought it looked kind of like a spinal cord wrapped in supportive vasculature.  As for the cost....sometimes it's about more than just being a utilitarian bridge.

Once we got onto Prince's Island, we ran along some of the paths until we spotted some baby geese.

While we were distracted by these 3 cuties, I looked up at the river and saw even more coming over to say hello.

Looks like it was baby geese dinner time....sooooo many fluffy goslings....almost as cute as this one 

 

How do goslings cross the road? : )

Flow in the dark and lululemon Teambuy give-away

This week (as it turns out) is National Yoga Week.

To celebrate, lululemon teamed up with East Village Calgary to throw a free 'Flow in the Dark' yoga class last night at the historical Simmons Building (an old mattress factory), led by Ally Bogard of Gaiatri Yoga and featuring  DJ Wax Romeo.

So we all dressed up in white, neon and glow sticks... packed in mat-to-mat....and experienced what I would describe as a  Yoga/Rave/Orgy/Tribal Dance/Sweat Sauna as we tried to "wake up in the dream time" and release the "medicine men and women within our DNA". Overall it was an incredible experiance, something I would definitely repeat (next time with neon body paint too!) and possibly the only time I'll ever get to smell like ~350 different people's sweat.

Here's a couple pics taken with my blackberry:

 Sarah and I waiting outside in the freezing drizzle (luckily David's Tea was there giving away free samples to warm you up a bit)

 Getting glow sticks on in the dark.

 Awesome new lulu top looking extra funky, me looking relatively human before the class started.
(it's the namaste tank.....they only have black on the website right now)

 People in our area warming up.... the orange's looked the best!

Looking a little bit more like my 'inner medicine" woman at the end of the class!

In other news, Teambuy is giving away 2 $1000 lululemon gift cards... so here's the link:

What to Pack for Italy

it's 12 days now till I head off to Italia (eeeeee squeals of excitement) and I'm beginning to pack for it.

I'll be there for 10 days, we'll be in/around Sorrento and Cosenza, and we're renting a car... so the bag I pack doesn't have to be the 100% most practical (at least that's what I've been telling myself)

To see what I packed in these bags click here.

For my carry-on, I'm going with the American Apperal, Stripe Canvas large Carry-All bag

And trust me... this bad boy  does carry-all....I've used it a couple times as a weekend bag and loved it...hopefully it'll be good for traveling abroad too.

For my one personal item (i.e. purse) I'm going with a small backpack, which will be an ideal day bag for Italy

This one is the Prothro from Spring (they also have it in poke-a-dots and neon stripes) I picked it up today after looking at backpacks from many....many other stores. It's a great size for carrying a journal, spare pair of shoes, camera, light sweater....you name it!

Anyways I'm planning on taking pictures and showing you all what I packed, where, and how (I'm sewing a few zip-up garment bag thingies to keep the giant empty space of my Carry-All organized) some time this weekend so look forward to that!

Happy Wednesday all! Hope it was a good one!

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day mom, and Nana you too! I wish I could be at home instead of half  way across the country to celebrate with you. I am so grateful to have both of you in my life. Love you and miss you. Will see you both soon in Italy.

Today I...tried on some bikini's

So yesterday I had a mind blowing moment when my cousin msged me to inform me Lulu was now carrying swim suits! And I know....it's sad.... but I can admit I have a problem....a serious Lululemon addiction.

Today I rushed to go check them out, with instructions from my cousin and a friend to let them know how they fit.

So I tried on the Heatwave Beach Bikini...here's what I thought:

Pros:

• I loved the way the bottoms fit, would make for a great sporty bikini
• They are all reversible, this one's solid white on the other side....there's also black/print, grey/pink options
• I love the print
• The bottoms...in true lulu style....have a tiny pocket in the back to stash a key or something

Cons:

• The website claims this model is a 34D...and is wearing the size 6.....now I'm a 34B-Cish... and tried on the 6....and the triangles on the top left me feeling like I would slip a nipple at annnny second
• I tried one-upping the size for bigger cup options...but then the band becomes too large...while you can adjust the fastening to a smaller diameter, when you do this it became bulky seeming in the back
• The tiny pocket on the bottoms is on the white side, and so when you reverse to the print side you get a bulge where the pocket is... since it has like a plastic clip thing
• Considering how sporty the bottoms are... I would have expected the top to be more activity friendly...probably only if you're mostly flat chested

Overall I decided it wasn't worth $102 dollars... and bought this dress instead

The it's a cinch dress *jacuard.... was it worth the 88bucks... hopefully (must develop more self restraint)

And as for bikini's I went over to H&M next... after seeing ads for $5.95 bikini tops and bought this one

The top was 12.95 and the bottoms 5.95.... so very fun for a bra-like bikini... but it's nude... so I'll definitely have to get a bit more tanned before I wear it... Hopefully my bottle of Jergens Natural glow can get me a head start.

That's all for now... 10km in 3 weeks (eeek) and Italy 2 days later.... can't wait!