Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sail Away With Me Hunny. By Melanie Moss.

Its Tuesday afternoon, you’re fed up and you’ve decided to pack up and go away for the weekend.

The best part about going away on the weekend is the lead up. You spend Tuesday booking the beach house, flights and food. Wednesday listing what you are going to wear, Thursday writing your cleaning list and washing enough undies then before you know it its Friday and you can waste the day emailing all of your friends telling them about your plans for the weekend.

Cleverly executed, a weekend away can take up your entire working week.

I consider myself an expert packer. I can cram enough for myself, husband and two cats in the same leather overnighter, throw it in the car and be ready to go in half and hour.

Packing for a weekend away is fun. There’s the expectation of the escape, the fun adventures you might find yourself on, the opportunities that may crop up and so on. The not so fun part is spending most of Sunday afternoon repacking rather than lying on the beach.

After heading off to Jervis Bay every second weekend in summer for the past 10 years I have learnt the hard way. We started with a boot full of junk we never used and have now finely tuned our gear into one bag, one beach bag and one booze esky.

Here’s how.

Be realistic about how many changes of clothing you are really going to need. You aren’t seriously going to change your outfit three times a day and if you can pack clothing that transforms from day to night all the better.

Limit yourself to one bag which must include shoes!! This was the biggest challenge for me, I always needed a pair of thongs, walking shoes and at least three pairs of heels. The thing about a weekend away is, you want to be as comfy as possible and perhaps a sparkly pair of thongs is a better option than skyscraper stilettos.

Keep your beauty routine to a minimum, wash and style your hair Friday and leave for the weekend. This cuts down on packing – shampoo & conditioner, styling product, hair straightener etc. If you do swim just leave the salt water to create curl and scrunch dry in the sun for the sexiest beach hair ever. Pack beauty essentials that do more than one job – bronzer for skin and eyes, lip stain for cheeks and lips and moisturiser with inbuilt sun blocks are all great ways to cut down. A friend of mine keeps sachets from magazines of perfumes and makeup for the ultimate throw away beauty kit.

If you have a child in tow I suggest purchasing a matching overnighter just for them. That way everything is separated, organised and most importantly stylish. I chose the baby’s overnighter before I bought the baby bag…….

Have a handy list of essentials ready to pack. I keep a separate beach tote in the car with togs, sarongs, sunscreen, body butter, white rubber thongs etc so its all ready to go. Then all I need to pack is my clothes and booze.

Try keeping it to the bare essentials:

Sarong – doubles as beach towel, skirt, pashmina shawl and the most fabulous dress when wrapped from your back, under your arms, twisted across the front and tied around the neck as a halter.

Beaded thongs that go from night to day

Bikini, the top can also double as a bra under a dress or full piece to wear with shorts rather than a singlet

Jersey maxi dress

Vintage slip for warm summer nights. Choose one that can double as an impromptu dress if needed – Fleur Wood is perfect

Oversized beads to dress up a swimsuit or outfit

Classic white shorts & a stripy singlet for Sunday brunch and markets go Country Road or Esprit

Throw in a book at the last minute, a nice long one for beach reading. If you haven’t read Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrel yet it’s a beauty!

Keep a colour theme running through the entire capsule and you will save time and excess baggage.

If you can manage to keep to this failsafe list, not only will you get home Sunday night satisfied that you wore everything you took, you only need to spend 2 minutes emptying your overnighter into the washing machine!

You can now spend Monday loading your pics onto Facebook and telling your friends all about your fabulous weekend!

Image Credits - Clockwise from top left: Kookai, Fleur Wood, Lana Ford, Wittner
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