Business travel fashion – Facilitating in comfort

When traveling for work I have a tendency to pack pants – and usually black pants.   Is it a fashion statement?  No, more like a lazy statement.  Lazy in the sense that I can match a single pair of heels to black pants while still having some level of variety with the tops I wear with those black pants.  I’m slowly breaking myself of my dependency on black pants as a staple of my business travel wardrobe – and have (shocking) added dark brown, navy and dark gray pants.  🙂

On this trip I brought a little more spice…dresses & sweaters.  I’ll show you those tomorrow and Thursday – when I have them on.  Today I wore my LOFT ankle pants and Ann Taylor striped blouse.  Paired those with a pair of Easy Spirit pewter kitten wedges since I knew I’d be on my feet all day.

Self photo in the hall mirror of my hotel room

That’s a very “Victoria Beckham” style pose & non-smile.  Oh well…half the pictures I took cut my head off.  I love love love these pants.  They are super comfy, sit low – so you can eat a lot (just kidding) and have front pockets that don’t add a lot of bulk.  I find women’s pants have a little more added complexity than men’s pants do.  You want front pockets but depending how they sew those pockets in you can look like you’ve got some “junk” that you don’t actually have or the pocket “line” is seen as you stand/sit.  These pants are great and super versatile.  The Ann Taylor top is made of 100% polyester – but not your 70’s era polyester.  The top is great for packing because it doesn’t wrinkle and is loose and very feminine for having such bold striping.  The sleeves taper toward your elbows so give you a nice shape.

You can’t see it really well, but I’m also wearing my black Guess “divers” watch.  It’s heavy and big…which I adore.  I feel like a humongo-saurus when I wear smaller ladies watches.

Pewter kitten wedges

These shoes are really comfortable for standing in ALL DAY.  😀  I actually prefer a kitten heel or wedge more than flats for the arch support.  They are a really cool pewter color on a mini-cobblestone type print.  It offers me more variety than plain black heels.

So that’s my first fashion post!

See ya later

Cathy

 

Business Trip…I thought I was prepared

 

Carry-On Packing…It’s a 2 day affair

It’s a business travel week and after a short work week last week post-Half Marathon/Holiday and no travel before, I guess my heart wasn’t in it.  Post-run shower, Sunday morning, I started laying out all my clothes for the 3 days I need to pack for.  I don’t know about you other travelers, but when I pack for business travel I usually have to try on my bottoms (never my shirts – odd).  My legs are really long and I always need to make sure my pants haven’t shrunk between uses or that they don’t flop around like 70’s era bell bottoms (what is up with work pants that do that???).  So I tried on my planned outfit bottoms (I should have taken pictures – der) and had my pants/tops folded and ready to be put in the carryon.  Then I decided to try on a dress that I probably bought 2 years ago and put straight into my closet – I mean it still had the tags on for goodness sakes!  I decided that I’d wear dresses and sweaters to lead my meetings this week instead of my normal pants & tops ensembles.  I thought it’d be less clothes to pack – but it’s exactly the same number – 1 dress & 1 sweater per day.  I only liked 2 of the dress/sweater combos so I packed my favorite Ann Taylor LOFT capri pants and an Ann Taylor striped dolman-ish sleeved top.   **Self reminder: Take AM photos with each outfit so I can start a fashion post like my favorite blogger PBFingers!

I also laid out 3 exercise outfits, my Garmin & iPod Nano – anticipating that I would keep my pinky swear to exercise while traveling.  Couple of t-shirts, capri jeans for afterwork and pj’s and my clothes were ready.  They all got into my carry-on.  I love my carry-on bag.  It’s a Diane Von Furstenburg (is that how you spell her name) that I got from TJMaxx.  I like it because I have not seen anyone  with this bag on all the trips I’ve been on.

DVF Carry-On

You think no one carries it because it’s ridiculously bright and girly?  🙂  There is a ton of room and I can shove it in every overhead bin on every plane I’ve been on.  That’s the best part.

I finished packing up toiletries this morning and told HunBun “Hey, if I forgot anything I’ll just go to the store..hahahaha”.  Der!  On the way to the airport my brain finally registered that I FORGOT TO PACK DEODERANT!  Major oopsie.  So I’ll be CVS‘ing in Westlake after work tonight.

Morning Eats

One of the pains of business travel is the ease in buying/eating not so healthy food.  Although I will say the airport shops have gotten better with having the one tiny section of healthy snacks (which are ridiculously expensive, so beware).  It’s also easy to pick up a Starbucks since you’ve got time to kill while waiting for your plane.  To minimize my eyeballs telling my brain and tummy that it needs that snack/Starbucks…I started my morning off right!  3-ingredient pancake with Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Wonderful PB  (OMG!!!! Wonderful is an understatement!!!) and STUFT Mama‘s Cherry Mocha Smoothie.   Here’s a step by step of the smoothie…the “pancake” cooked while I zipped this up.

See ya later!

Cathy

All you need for a Cherry Mocha Smoothie

Put the powdery stuff after the almond milk

Cram that spinach and those cherries on top

30 seconds of loud noise later…Smoothie Deliciousness

 

 

 

 

 

Work trip (like a road trip but usually with less fun)

This will be a visual post…and a limited “eyeball” into my “there and back again” trip to Westlake Village, CA for a work meeting.  **I need to remember to photo journal now that I’m starting this blogging adventure – so bear with me on this first one.  I’m sure you’ll be fascinated by peeking into what my day was like yesterday.

Let the vicarious viewing begin!

Cathy

What the airport looks like at 5am

Sitting at the gate…so quiet and dark

Sun’s up in LA

Capicola Ham and Provolone sammy (I chowed the first half down before I remembered the picture)

What another airport looks like at 8pm

Good night, Moon