November 21, 2022
The Easiest Job Ever…
bracelet – Fierce Lynx Designs
She arrives at the café as soon as they open – there’s always a table by the windows available…
Merino cardigan – Banana Republic; earrings – Baublebar; vintage peony tee shirt – Lands’ End; beechwood cords – Banana Republic; scarf – Elizabetta; tote – Dooney & Bourke; loafers – Cordani
After she orders breakfast, she takes out her fresh new notebook and her favorite pen:
She eats her breakfast, stopping every now and then to note down something that she sees…
Turtleneck – Alex Mill; aquamarine earrings – Smilla Brav; scarf – Treasure & Bond; aquamarine bracelet – Shar Oke; peat ponte pants – Orvis; boots – Fly London
Some days, she orders a second cup of coffee, because she’s going to be sitting there until about 10 a.m. Second cups of coffee aren’t always “the thing” with breakfast, but she doesn’t mind being different!
Light sage cashmere sweater – J.Crew; green jade earrings – Gemondo; vest – L.L.Bean; brown knit cords – Lands’ End; green narrow scarf – Lost Pattern NYC; bracelet – Fierce Lynx Designs; loafers – Easy Spirit
Around 10 or so, she pays for her breakfast, tips generously, and walks back to her hotel room…
Scarf – Treasure & Bond; earrings – Kate Spade; peony tunic – Lands’ End; skirt – J.Crew; boots – Naturalizer
She brushes her teeth, refreshes her sunscreen, and gets ready to go out for lunch and for the rest of the afternoon. Just before she leaves, she takes her notebook out of her tote and tosses it onto her bed…
toasted almond quarter-zip – L.L.Bean; earrings – Sorelli; oatmeal turtleneck – L.L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean; scarf – Ana y Francis Tejedores Handwoven; loafers – Aerosoles
When she gets back to her hotel in the late afternoon (just enough time to nap before dinner!), a fresh new notebook is lying on her bed…
love,
Janice
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I love the storyline. You do wonder what people are doing when they sit in cafe’s writing or typing on laptops – work, a novel, people watching?
The bracelet is delectable. As I delve more into brown and taupe, light green and pink are definitely on my accent list. I also add in teal and burgundy. I’m still not sure about blue and browns. I love the look back. I rarely wear grey and navy together but I do have a navy and grey cardigan which I wear in winter and could build a capsule around. As ever, you present us with possibilities….
I know several people who have two or more cups of coffee with breakfast! I’m a tea drinker and have a small mug of green tea when I wake up, then a big mug of tea with my breakfast and often a second as well.
Those are some really pretty outfits!
I love blue and brown – it just has to be the right shades together. I have two cups of coffee in the morning before I go to work. Sometimes I ‘treat’ myself and make the 2nd cup with a flavored coffee and creamer. mmmmm. Although these colors are too soft for me, the wardrobe itself is just lovely. Dropped off five more bags to Goodwill yesterday – think the closet is about where I want it to be. Thank you Janice for helping me reign it in and figure out what I want it to look like! Have a good day everyone.
Yes, it’s getting the right shades of blue and brown together. Have you found the perfect blue/brown combination? I would probably still have to have a patterned top, scarf or beads to bring them together.
I’ve been working with these colors since I already had many similar pieces in my closet: https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2022/09/september-2022-start-with-a-bracelet-the-radiant-lynx-bracelets.html/ I did buy the Elizabetta wool scarf, and though it doesn’t really show on the screen (or at least not mine) there’s a dark chocolate brown in there, so I can also use it to tie in the one dark brown sweater I have. The colors in the scarf are definitely cool, not warm. I also have a dark brown sherpa coat, and JCrew featured it with a navy and white striped sweater and white pants – which is not a combo I ever would have thought of. I agree with you the combo needs a scarf to tie them together.
ps I have both cool and warm tans/browns which is driving me quite mad to try and work out outfits …
Sheila & Beth T would the thought of a Siamese cat help? I’ve often been struck by the beauty of their piercing blue eyes in the shades from off white to taupe, tan and deep chocolate.
I’ve recently just discovered this color palette and decided that I really like it. Thank you for the wardrobe inspiration and always the wonderful story to fuel our imagination.
So enjoy your combos.
But who takes the notebook and replaces it, and what do they do with it?
Love the color scheme, and the clothes…
I am worried about this too! Is she a spy? Who is getting into her room and swapping notebooks while she is out and about looking so fabulous???
Maybe she’s getting paid to wear the clothes, and the notebooks are just a cover!
Yes! I’m hoping there is a follow-up post in which all will be revealed.
I am wondering if she is a restaurant reviewer. Hmmm…
One of my favourite combinations ever. Love the subtle accent colours and the cool browns/taupes make fabulous key neutrals when you can find them — which isn’t always easy.
As someone with pearly hair and soft colouring (soft summer), these are combinations I could live in everyday.
Gentle colours are very under-rated in today’s ultra bright world. Interestingly, I’m currently visiting Japan and the colours and combinations used here are generally much more subtle than those worn in most Western countries.
Many thanks for your great work, Janice. It’s always appreciated.
“Gentle colours are underrated in this world” … now that is going to sit with me all day today as I work on a major closet purge. Definitely food for thought.
Janice has so many gems of advice tucked into her posts over the years. I’ve written down a few of them — and I probably ought to keep a sheet of them posted in my closet! I have shown several of my friends this website. One wrote back and said, “I’m reading from the beginning. I am obsessed.”
Oh Jenny, truer words…. Gentle colours ARE underrated but so much easier to wear at least for me.
Love everything in these combinations! These are my colors and your styling is superb!
I do hope you are keeping warm. We have had some very cold temps in Indianapolis.
None of these are my colors but I love the entire wardrobe! Looks like such wearable, easy and good-looking clothes. I was wondering the same as others if this woman was a spy. I don’t drink coffee but love iced tea and I drink a ton of it.
Lovely colors and wardrobe & I love the story. She is a writer, poet, novelist whose muse requires fresh notebooks and funds an assistant for her research trips/immersive forays.
As I sit here with my second cup of coffee I find myself very thankful to have your posts in my life. I really enjoy them. Thanks to you I think I’m getting better at seeing the color combinations. I’m working with changing my wardrobe now that I’ve stopped coloring my hair and let my silvers shine through. Some of the outfits that played well with my dyed dark auburn no longer work with my natural silver and chestnut. And for what it’s worth, I think our heroine is either a spy or private investigator.
What a pretty wardrobe! You have me thinking of color palettes as I lay out ingredients for Thanksgiving baking: cranberries, orange zest, golden raisins make a pretty combo, and so do pumpkin, brown sugar, and cinnamon! Inspiration is everywhere!
Very mysterious! It sounds like the perfect job to me….
Why do you keep pushing these bracelets? I had to return all of mine and it was a huge hassle because I did custom sizing and she got it totally wrong. I like looking at the clothes you list but enough with the bracelets.
Using bracelets as inspiration for color combos is really no different than using scarves or paintings. A $300 scarf is out of my budget, but I can still appreciate the inspiration. I don’t have to buy it. I own at least a dozen of these bracelet sets in various colors and enjoy wearing every one of them. Sorry that they didn’t work out for you.
Char, I have wondered if the colors are as rich as they are on my screen. I have not always had luck with the colors on my screen translating into the real world. I’d be interested in your assessment.
I’m sorry the bracelets were a disappointment. I have two sets of three bracelets, all custom-sized, and I’ve been very happy with them. Not arguing your experience, just saying it may not be the same for everyone.
I think she’s an author jotting down ideas. For outfit #4 do you wear the sweater outside of the skirt or tuck it in? I think it’s so long it might look slouchy. Thoughts?
I adore slouchy, so I’d be wearing it out. But our heroine might have other ideas!
hugs,
Janice
Thanks for this new story. I love a mystery and will be puzzling over the notebook replacement.
This is a really lovely wardrobe. I automatically think that the clothing colours and my colouring are not a match made in heaven. But, if I were in the shop, I would try these outfits on to test that assumption. I am experimenting with less colour saturation as my hair and skin colour changes with aging. And the comment about gentle colours being under-appreciated in this world resonated with me. Thank you Janice & others, noho ora mai
The blue and taupe are so lovely. Of course Alex Mills of the $$$$$ prices would have a sweater in the difficult to find shade! It plays so very well with the pretty blue. Oh well these are not colours that play well with me but look so beautiful together.
It is creepy that someone enters her room and takes the notebook while she is out. Unless it’s a housekeeping manager and she is secretly involved with quality control? Then there is the issue of housekeeping staff reading it…maybe she is having an affair with a hotel executive and this is how they communicate? Or she is scoping out a hotel for the CIA. Possibilities are endless…;)
This range of cool browns is lovely. I esp. like the taupe pieces in the first outfit with that gorgeous scarf.
Research assistant to a shut-in novelist? In any event, that notebook contains 150 pages, which surely she isn’t filling up every morning in a couple of hours. I sure hope that they aren’t truly giving her a fresh new notebook every day! (Even in the midst of reading this fantasy story, the voice of my frugal/waste-not forebears is speaking loudly to me, haha.)
Maybe they just tear out the pages upon which she’s written, and put the same notebook back? It’s a mystery…
hugs,
Janice
I’m also intrigued by the exchange of notebooks. I’m going with the restaurant reviewer as another person has suggested. Though…..why didn’t she take it to lunch with her then??
A mystery AND lovely clothing combinations!
Maybe there is Another notebook for the lunch restaurant….
I wondered if she is a hotel mystery shopper/reviewer. And I wondered what does the title “The Easiest Job Ever” tell us?
I’m also wondering if she might be a spy. A spy in beautiful soft outfits… and the prettiest notebooks.
Maybe it’s Edith and she’s going undercover for the Kingpin.
Well wouldn’t that be a fun continuation of the story! Although If I remember correctly these weren’t quite her colors… hmmm. :)
Such a pretty wardrobe!!!!
LOVE the colors! They suit me well and I thought to order the Orvis pants but the reviews persuaded me to pass. Then I clicked on the JCrew skirt. Chocolate brown available but Taupe was sold out. Oh well I’m pretty sure I have something similar in my wardrobe for the pants. I’ll just have to keep checking for skirt option. I have learned that when Taupe is available grab it!
Check back with J.Crew – they often get things back in stock. Or so it seems to me…
love,
Janice
Responding to Sandy B about bracelet colors: I have found the blues and greens to be pretty true to the screen colors, the pinks and reds seem a bit more subtle and not quite as bright as on screen.
Is she a spy? What’s she writing down? Who takes the morning notebook and puts a new out for her???
I enjoyed this one. Thank you for something pretty and a fun story. I have an off the wall item to nominate for one of your ‘I love it, but will I wear it’ posts. Hope that it doesn’t make anyone say it’s too ugly for words, but it is an item that I like a lot, but…am unsure how it could be styled. The item is Landgirl Breeches from House of Foxy. They come in olive and fawn, but I may like the olive a little more. If it were a brown corduroy, I would save up for them in a heartbeat…but after a year of looking am put off by the price knowing that it could be difficult to style. If they make the cut for a post, great. If not, I will keep looking and hope for a brown to show up. Thank you for all you do.
I looked them up and I think they’re lovely. An unusual item, definitely a star of the show. I prefer the olive more, and they look like they’re more of a versatile shade than the fawn.
I’m fond of this olive shade- I wear it with black, white, winter white and it goes beautifully with soft aqua, most soft blues including denim tones, taupe, and navy. The one neutral I don’t put it with is grey. It even plays with dusty rose tones. I don’t wear brown but it would go well with saddle, rusty brown and chocolate tones.
They also look like an ideal supporting piece for some colourful hand knit socks or intricate lacy socks if you want to feature the socks as the star.
They might be a bit tricky to style but definitely worth it if you are drawn to them.