A Case of Spring Fever with The Perfect Striped Linen Jumpsuit

Happy Friday Yall!

Man, has it been a crappy week here in Charleston….at least weather-wise.  We did have a surprising flash of pleasant weather yesterday, which was beyond appreciated.  We literally hadn’t seen the sun in over a week and it was really starting to wear on my mood.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I just find bad weather so demotivating.  Sometimes it’s nice for a day to maybe force us to stay indoors and relax, but after that I’m O-V-E-R it.

Anyhoo….while I’ve been majorly demotivated to leave the house unless I absolutely have to, we’ve at least been able to really get cranking on planning some of the finer deets for our big summer vacay.  In case you haven’t caught the news on my IG (which is doubtful bc I’ve been pretty freaking giddy about it;)), Michael and I will be heading to Europe with our friends Alissa (of Graefic Design on instagram….check out her sweet collection of custom products on her website here :)) and her husband John.

We traveled to Mexico with them (and like 14 other friends;)) last summer and during that trip we just started chatting about traveling and other places we really wanted to visit.  It was mostly alcohol-induced talk (aka ‘drunk talk’ ;)), but I’m all about putting a plan into action once clearer heads prevail….and pretty much the instant anyone expresses interest in traveling abroad with us, my brain immediately starts storming with ideas.

So after getting all our schedules coordinated and discussing where we’d all like to visit, we went to work putting together an itinerary that checked everyone’s boxes. Not always an easy task, but somehow the stars aligned and the perfect plan fell into place.

If you’ve ever gotten through my trip planning post to read about my process (first of all, bless you!  It’s a long winded one=\), but for our travels abroad you might recall that we usually try to stick to travel by land or sea once we get over there, and explore within the region.  We broke our travel philosophy for this trip in a major way for two reasons.

First, the more we travel, the harder it’s becoming to explore by region without re-visiting places we’ve been on previous trips.  We’ve repeated a few destinations, so we’re not opposed to this, but we also really want to visit new places whenever we have the opportunity.

Second, we all knew we definitely wanted to visit Krakow, so initially we tried to plan the rest of our trip around that region, but quickly discovered it takes FOREVER to get from Krakow to the next closest major cities outside of Poland via ground transportation (checked out trains, buses, and vehicle transportation).  So instead we figured we’d start focusing on an itinerary that included other destinations that were towards the top of our wish lists, but of course our picks didn’t happen to be a quick train ride away.

So in the end we settled on three nights in Krakow, four nights in Florence, and five nights on Corfu Island….AND we were able to find cheap direct flights to take us from one place to the other, so we won’t actually be wasting a lot of time traveling (all our flights are two hours or less).  We booked all our flights early last week, finished booking our three Airbnbs over the weekend, and this week we’ve been busy booking Tuscan Wine tours, Krakow Vodka and traditional cuisine tastings, and a sailing trip around Corfu island….basically all the fun stuff;)

Along with that, I’ve also been trying to figure out a packing strategy for this trip.  I’m limited to packing 40 pounds (ackkkkkk!!!), as the regional flights we’re taking in Europe have a lower weight limit for checked bags, vs the usual 50 pounds we’re used to.  This is already giving me major anxiety.  I mean…50 pounds sounds like a lot, but have yall noticed how light 50 pounds becomes when it’s midnight before your flight and your suitcase looks and feels perfectly reasonable, but you put it on the bathroom scale and it’s 10 pounds over-weight?!?  Seriously…..every frickin time over here…every. frickin, time.  For my whole life I’ve been trying to become a smart packer, but I’m like a girl scout and always like to be prepared for every possible scenario, thus the over packing.  It’s just who I am ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Every vacay I devise a new strategy to (attempt to) avoid overpacking, and every vacay my strategy fails.  BUT, I have a new packing plan for this vacay, and I feel like I might be on to something here.  In the past, I’ve focused on bringing a lot of basics that can be mix and matched, and re-worn if necessary.  If we’re traveling during the winter months, this is essentially the only way to go, but I’ve always packed like this when we travel during the summer as well.  The problem with this strategy, is initially I try to limit myself, but at the last minute I end up throwing in too many other ‘just in case’ pieces that can be mixed and matched with all those that I’ve already packed.  Then (after frantically weeding out that extra 10 pounds of weight at the last minute) when I finally get to our destination I really have no idea what’s still in my suitcase, and I am completely overwhelmed at the many possible outfit combos.  On top of that, I’m in an unfamiliar place, with weird mirrors, or sometimes no mirrors, which makes it much harder (for me at least) to get ready.  All of these factors cause me to have a giant brain fart when it comes time to get dressed.  I end up quickly swapping out pieces of my outfit several times before my husband finally forces me out the door.  It’s so weird, but whenever we’re traveling like 82% of the time I hate the outfit I have on as I’m walking out the door of our hotel or Airbnb.

I feel the need to say that my indecisiveness rarely causes us to be late, but it still drives my husband (and myself, frankly) absolutely bonkers.

During our last trip to Greece, I did my usual packing of a bunch of separates, and then added a handful of cute rompers and dresses.  The weird thing is I find myself rationing the cute rompers and dresses that I love to “save them” for a day I feel more like dressing up, but then I’m unhappy with the plain shorts and tanks or whatever I throw together instead.  In reality, I’ve generally packed enough cute rompers or dresses that I love, so there’s no need for me to wear something lame and save all my really cute stuff for a special day.  And half the time I end up never getting around to wearing the stuff I really love.  Ya feel me??

Sooooo…with all that being said, and since we’re traveling during the summer and it’ll be nice and warm everywhere we’re heading (makes it much easier to pack), my strategy for this trip is to basically only pack my favorite “onsies” (eg. dresses, jumpsuits and rompers).  This way, I don’t have to stress out trying to put outfits together….because they’re onsies….there’s nothing to mix and match (aside from maybe a simple tank to throw under those that need it).  I’ll likely feel much better about what I’m wearing.  Summer style adult onsies are also usually much lighter weight than packing several pairs of denim shorts, jeans etc.  These sort of pieces are also better to go from day to night, which is great, as we prefer to not go back to our apartment to change if we can avoid it.  And my hope is that I’ll seem like less of a pain in the ass to my husband and our travel buddies.;)

This jumpsuit I’m wearing above will definitely be in my suitcase for this trip.  It’s super lightweight, so perfect for summer vacay, and I just think it’s adorable.  I purchased it in a medium and I’d say it fits true to size.  It’s also very budget friendly at just under $30, so hurry bc it won’t last much longer with the warmer temps on the horizon!

I added a belt I’ve had for about a decade to help give met a waistline, but it looks cute without it too:)

I recently got an order delivered of a whole mess of other adult onsies (I mean….why should babies have all the fun??), and I can’t wait to share them with you:)

In the meantime, lemme know what you think about my new packing strategy.  Can any of you all relate to my past issues?  Anybody??=\