What’s in my Carry-on for Italy

What's Coming to Italy

 

I have been meaning to write this post for weeks and now that we are in the final countdown for our Italy trip…I’m running out of time!!  Believe it or not, I have not done a ton of extra shopping for this trip. Yes, I bought new shoes and a few new dresses but that was about it. I have a pile of summer dresses in my closet that only get worn a few times a season so when I went through them all to see what  I ‘needed,’ it surprisingly wasn’t much. You may recall that my plan is to do this entire trip in a carryon, so here’s a peek at what’s going with me on vacation! We’re going to be gone for 10 days and have access to laundry.

I’ll admit there’s one more black/blue striped dress from Target coming and perhaps another pair of shoes if I can squeeze them in my bag. And I might swap the maxi dress for black pants for the plane. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!! My goal was to stay simple with dresses – add some jewelry for pop for evening, and have a basic cardigan if need be to dress things up. I’m not a huge scarf person so cardigans and necklaces will be my color pop.

But yes – all of this fit in a carry-on. My secret? Packing Cubes from Ebags. These mesh zip bags come in many shapes and sizes and fit perfectly in a carry-on. I can fit three of the square size and a few narrow ones work well for underwear, socks and belts. They’re also great to move dirty clothes in to them and help you repack quickly if you’re moving from place to place.

I’ve been a bit crazy getting ready these past few weeks – hoping everyone out there in blogland is fabulous and can’t wait to catch up on everything when I get back.  I’ll be sure to follow up with how my packing plan worked and what I had to much of/not enough of. So how about you – do you have a packing plan when you travel? Or do you just wing it? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

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J.Crew Collection Contessa Snakeskin-Bow Pumps

J.Crew Collection Contessa snakeskin-bow pumps

 

Two weeks ago during one of my morning check-the-J.Crew website for popbacks routine, I spotted these pretties in my size and decided to try them out. Not being final sale, I figured I could take a bit more of a risk on them. I had honestly really admired them in the pink but not at their original price of $278. But with an extra 30% off the sale price and a quick perusal of sets on Polyvore (this is usually what drives me over the edge to purchase) I decided to give the blush stone colorway a try. They arrived, and they’re very beautiful shoes. But the color…oh, will I kill them after one wearing outdoors? I’d say that’s my primary concern at this point, and worrying about whether I have too much toe cleavage. Let’s take a look.
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I’d say the color is truly a blush stone. For me, they’re fairly close to my skin tone. They advertise a 4″ heel which I believe. I took my usual size 9.5 that I take in J.Crew shoes (1/2 size up from my regular size).
The toe box on these are pretty narrow, which you can see on the pictures. Which of course leads to quite  bit of toe cleavage…as shown here:
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Not the most attractive shot of my feet. The toe cleavage looks pretty exaggerated here.
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The toe cleavage doesn’t look so bad in this shot. I won’t be walking for miles in them, the arch in them is very high.I held them up to my cap-toe Everlys for comparison (3 1/2 inch heel)
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So of course, the more I wear them , the more I like them. Then I take them in to my closet to see what they go with…ooh…look at that…they go with a lot of things in my closet. Case in point:
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And lastly, the pixelated houndstooth skirt which was a total disaster on me. But I do love the colors. And these shoes would be perfect with them. When am I going to learn that J.Crew’s  kick-pleat skirts show me no love?
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These shoes are still popping back in the mornings on the website in this color (no pink ones to be found). So…what do you think? Keep them or return them? My closet says yes, I’m still undetermined. As I said earlier, I’m worried about them getting destroyed immediately. And if I keep them, how do I keep them lasting longer and protect the suede? Comments please!
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