phew! it’s been aaaaaages since I did one of these! or it feels like it anyway! We’d originally booked this holiday back in 2019, to be taken in 2020; and well, we all know what happened in 2020! Covid, in case future me has forgotten this world-altering event already… hehe. We’d decided we wanted to treat ourselves to a lovely relaxing break after catering to the respective two weddings of our two eldest; Tim to Kelly, and Cassie to Daniel. Of course these were both lovely and wonderful events in our lives, at the same time I’d made the wedding dresses plus all the bridesmaids’ dresses for both and was pretty much exhausted.
Anyway, we finally got to take this longed-for dream holiday! and return back to our dream holiday spot in the Maldives.
Time away: 7 days
Where to: Velassaru, of the Maldives
Season; tail end of the monsoon season, meaning possible rain. High tropical temperatures from 27C lows to 29C highs #heaven!!!
Expected activities: lots of nothing at all! no really, just swimming and lazing
Colour scheme: cheerful and colourful, as befits a blissfully beautiful oceanic isle
What I packed: We’ve been here previously, so I know that the ideal holiday wardrobe is basically a new little sundress every day. So this is what I took!
From left to right, top to bottom; all items are linked to their construction posts… (I will update this post with the links once the as yet unblogged ones are finally blogged)
rtw red thongs
rtw turquoise thongs
rtw ivory scarf
rtw black booties
not pictured; my oxen dress, a few books, small knitting bag, my nightie and a selection of underwear
I’ve been so slack with blogging this year! I’m sorry! I will make a big effort to blog everything as soon as possible 🙂 Also, there’s another sundress in my outfit shots that I wore but forgot to put into the lineup… also unblogged, whoops!
My daily outfits:
Thoughts:
I’d taken the long sleeve tee, cardigan, tights, scarf and booties to wear on the plane. It was bitterly cold in Perth as we were leaving, plus planes are cold, so I knew I’d need to be warmly dressed just for this short part of our trip. I wore these things over/under one of the sundresses on travelling days, to minimise packing space. Verdict: necessary!
The bathers got worn every day obviously, the bucket hat occasionally, and all of my colourful pretty sundresses got worn, each perfect for the climate and location. 🙂 it’s pretty hot and humid so you basically need a fresh one every day… verdict; all necessary!
I didn’t really need the raincoat; although we’d gone at the tail end of the monsoon season and it did rain several times, the resort provides big umbrellas for you. Plus, it was too humid and hot to wear the raincoat anyway… verdict; unnecessary!
I’d taken one pair of red thongs however I did not wear them even once! since the resort also provides a pair of thongs for you, the turquoise ones pictured above; and I wore these ones every day! Such a pretty, summery colour, and as a bonus they have “Velassaru” stamped into the bottom. There are Velassaru footprints all over the island, and I found this totally charming!
One thing which I did not take and which I wish I had? a pair of sand shoes, or sneakers. This trip we did a good solid hour on the treadmill in the resort gym everyday. This is actually so unlike us! a gym?! but for some reason we just got into it and enjoyed it. Possibly because the first day it rained quite heavily ALL DAY (thus the umbrella in my 1st daily outfit pic) and we still wanted to get some exercise after a day of travel. And after day 1 we decided to do it every day; just that one hour of solid exercise and then we could fully relax, swim, read, snorkel and just generally laid about for the rest of each day. And I had to wear either my thongs or a pair of Craig’s socks on the treadmill, because I had no choice! In future; I will take a pair of sneakers for both on the plane, and that I can wear for exercise if needed. because actually the booties were a kinda frivolous, plane-only thing… verdict; better footwear choice needed!
Some favourite holiday snaps: Craig took the 1st and 2nd distant shots of me, and the final one is our de facto pet from during the holiday; a rather large fruit bat hanging in the tree outside our cabin. I loved watching him swoop silently along the beach at night!
I made another Booragoon skirt for myself; partly so I could film it and make a kinda helpful – I hope! – youtube video to illustrate some of the more difficult parts of the construction process. I appreciate this is an advanced pattern with some tricky aspects to getting a nice sharp and clean edge to the front panel, and the way the zip is inserted is quite unique, in my experience. SO I hope this helps some! I will be linking to this video in the instructions too…
Hello!
Simples!!
…hyperbole? I don’t think so!
Oh yay, storm clouds, yes you’re making me happy too… not.
This thing truly is GIANT, which is great because beach towels are pretty giant too, usually. I used another newish 
It’s lined with plain white poplin (yes, stash) and I added a few extra internal pockets to reduce the risk of things getting completely lost within the cavernous expanse of the bag… a biggish pocket for a book with a sectioned off bit for a pen, and a phone pocket. And it already has a huge pocket on the outside too, for frequently required sundries such as sunblock and a water bottle.
Craig’s phone is standing in for my own, which had more urgent duties to perform such as taking this picture here, hehe…
I made a green dress… this is a dress that I’ve been meaning to make for ages! and have been quietly gathering suitable green fabrics as I see or unearth them. It’s actually been a very long term work in progress! since I identified what I thought could be the first suitable fabric about four years ago. I know, right?!
