No Shop Summer and the Tiny Closet Challenge

I recently did a closet inventory and discovered that I have around 375 items. I was shocked! Plus, that doesn't even include all of the items that are in storage as I'm working to lose my "newlywed spread." For that reason, I want to institute "no shop summer" for myself. From June 21 to September 23, I will be giving up clothes, shoes, and accessory shopping, even if I receive gift cards for my birthday!

If you're a longtime reader or have an elephant-like memory, you may recall that I determined to stop shopping last summer. I didn't stay disciplined or committed to that plan at all! There are a few reasons why I think I'm going to be successful this year. First, this is a shorter time frame. It was unrealistic to think that I was going to go from shopping like crazy to cold turkey. That may work for some people, but I don't operate that way. Second, I'm more disciplined overall this year. I still have a long way to go and grow, but the act of getting up and working out 4-5 times a week has made me more focused in other areas. Third, we REALLY need to save money because we want to buy a house! There's nothing like knowing that a mortgage company is going to be looking at your financial history that makes you question how many times you want retail establishments appearing on your bank statements!

(I also have written a few times about shopping more ethically and have been failing at that as well. I have a couple of ideas about why I'm having trouble in that arena that I may share soon).

After I counted all of my clothes, I started thinking more about remixing. During my research, I started reading about the Tiny Closet Challenge from Alison Sherwood at fresh. The challenge runs from June 1 to July 12 and involves remixing 33 items (including shoes and jewelry- but not including jewelry you wear regularly, like your wedding ring) during this 6 week period. It took me a few days to figure out my items, but this is what I settled upon:

The jewelry

Not a great shot but my entire wardrobe!

The breakdown:

TN necklace

silver hoops

silver studs

garnet ring

silver ring

plain white tank

plain white tanks

gray lace tank

black lace tank

chevron tank

chambray tank

lacy t-shirt

graphic t-shirt

black and purple polka dot shirt

white 3/4 shirt

light red button down

chambray tunic

white cardigan

purple cardigan

black cardigan

pink shorts

green shorts

white capris

green capris

black capris

denim capris

black and white polka dot skirt

black and white maxi skirt

anchor dress

tan sandals

silver sandals

black sandals

flowered TOMS

Here's the first outfit. It was super windy, so this isn't the best picture!

Summer to-do list:
Pressure wash house
Learn to apply self tanner to legs

I am going to try to take pictures daily, but if I don't, I will at least keep a list of what I wear and have a breakdown at the end of the challenge. I'm excited about this (and a little nervous). Wish me luck! =)

Poison Ivy and Poison Teeth

Poison teeth may be a little bit of a stretch, but I liked the way it sounded together when I wrote it!

My husband had his wisdom teeth removed this morning. It was a very quick decision made by his dentist when he went in for a cleaning last week. I'm still trying to think of something to do to embarrass him while he's knocked out on painkillers! ;-)

I've got the poison ivy...lucky me! I think I got it from a co-worker's pet pig that he brought into the library last Friday. She was adorable, but as soon as she left, I had a rash on my arm. No fun!

How about some pictures of me without poison ivy...

My husband told me to turn around and model.
Also notice the dog booty in this picture!

I wore the same white cropped cardigan that I did in the last outfit post, but it was so warm when we took these pictures that I couldn't stand the extra layer! The cardigan made it look a little bit more professional...well, as professional as a denim shirt and TOMS can look!

Sprite Skirt

Warning: you're about to see my face again. Heh. After not posting an actual outfit picture since December 20, I was ready to post something again. For some reason, I'm going a little link up crazy today too!

First, there's Inspiration Monday at two birds:

Printed, belted, swifted.

Second, I'm a little late to this party, but there's the Style Me April challenge at Dean Street Society:

Sunshine. Got it.

And finally, there's Style Imitating Art, hosted by Salazaar at 14 Shades of Grey this round: 

"Spring Rain" by Erté

Wait. Sunshine and rain? It's like a spring day in Tennessee!

So how do we combine all of those challenges into a super challenge? We use the Sprite skirt!

What is the Sprite skirt? It's a skirt that has the color and shapes found in Sprite's logo. I know it's random, but it's the only image I get when I see this rarely-worn skirt!

Judge for yourself:

See the lemon shapes in the skirt and the yellow/green tones? Or do you just see the skirt of a crazy person? ;-)

Here's the skirt and the rest of my outfit:

Smartphone pictures in the office during lunch. Sweet! I also tried to get a better shot of my green shoes. One of our maintenance men said he needs a pair! 

I match the painting in my office also. How's that for Style Imitating Art?

I've got my Inspiration Monday look going with the printed skirt and belted look. I've got my Style Me April look going with the yellow in my skirt, yellow earrings (that I didn't get a good shot of), and the overall spring/sunshiny look. I've got my Style Imitating Art look going with the lines in the skirt imitating the rain in the picture and the green (and by matching my painting ha ha). Are any of those too much of a stretch? I had all three of the linkups in mind when I was choosing my clothes last night. Any thoughts?

I've missed blogging! I got a few tips from Danielle at A Little Bit of WoWe about how to make the picture process easier (and how to have better quality pictures since they won't be taken with a phone camera under fluorescent lights!). If anyone else has tips about how they make blogging easier on themselves, please pass them along!

Now go enjoy a Sprite!

Hibernation Mode: Activate

It's cold. 

I know, I'm not telling anyone anything that they don't know, but I thought I would add to the extensive Internet literature that already exists and refers to the cold December weather. I'm more insulated than I would like to be, but I'm still not built for this type of weather. All I want to do is hibernate! Unfortunately, I don't have a job that allows that, and the groceries and Christmas presents aren't going to buy themselves. So, I layer up and maybe rely on an extra warm, caffeinated drink from a certain place to help warm me from the inside. And ladies and gentlemen, I may have figured out where some of that extra insulation came from!

In other news, it's Inspiration Monday. Here's the picture:

I went for an interpretation- scarf, sweater, leggings, boots:

Ugh, grainy cell phone picture. I tried to edit it a little to make it more crisp, but that didn't really work! It's been raining for approximately 35 years now, so I've been stuck taking pictures inside. Meh. I should've at least used my camera! 

I just liked how this one looked for some reason. This was when I was setting up my phone/self-timer. A little soft-focus action for ya today.

Also, I brought this up earlier in the fall, then my life evidently blew up with work, family, etc, but I'd like to try it again! If any of you ever read Fab Finds Under 50, then you may remember the Outfit Inspiration Calendar. She has since stopped blogging, but before she did, I asked for permission to take this over. To submit a look for the January calendar, just fill out the form below by Friday, December 27. This will be a new experience for me, so I'll try to make it as smooth as possible! =)

Linking up with:

Inspiration Monday and Thrifters Anonymous (since my sweater was thrifted! Woo hoo!)

What kind of animal is that?!?

Today I'm linking up with Bri at Work Clothes, I Suppose for hehr Third Thursday Threads: Animal Prints feature. I have a pair of leopard print flats, but I wanted to wear a new-to-me pair of black wedges that my boss gave me earlier this week. I don't have any other animal print clothes, so I went for something that looks animal print-ish.

I'm still getting the hang of lighting when I take outside pictures, so hopefully this isn't too over-processed! 

Here's a close-up of the print of the shirt:

It's kind of leopard-y, right? It also reminds me of our puppy's fur, so I could say I'm puppy-printed! 

I also wore actual animals with my elephant earrings, so I'm good to participate, in my opinion! =)

(How did I just find out about Flickr's photo editing software? Prepare for my future postings to have an onslaught of edited pictures. Focus + blurring, ftw!)

Finally, here's my "model pose". I always enjoy seeing some of the faces I make!

Watch out, Zoolander! Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! It's only supposed to be 38 degrees on Sunday! I want to hibernate!!

Style Imitating Art: What's Black and White and Re(a)d All Over?

Does anyone remember the old joke about what's black and white and red (or read) all over? There were a couple of different answers- a newspaper, a zebra with a sunburn. I think there was another one too, but those were the only ones I could remember on this crazy Monday!

I'm excited to be participating in Jen from Librarian for Life and Style's first Style Imitating Art selection. You can read more about the selection and why she chose it here, but here's the inspiration:

Here's my interpretation:

I tried to take pictures outside this morning, but the light was too bright, and they kept being washed out. Instead, you get to see my after-work blah hair and part of my bedroom, including the Employees Only sign on the door. ;-)

I went with a black, white, and red (more maroon actually) color scheme. No stripes on this outfit, but the flowers on my cardigan kind of echo the wallpaper behind him. Clearly, I excelled in my art appreciation class in undergrad!

Here are a couple of closeups of the cardigan:

It should be fun to see how others interpreted this painting! 

A Year Late and Several Dollars Short...

As a frequent clearance rack shopper, I often find that I'm a little behind on the "blogger trends" that go through my reader. Honestly, because I tend to primarily shop at Old Navy and Goodwill, I'm usually behind on the trends for other reasons as well! Today's sweater was a fall/winter 2012 favorite for many bloggers, but it has all but disappeared from the blogosphere (is that the right word? It sounds so awkward!). The exception to that, of course, is the fabulous Jen at Librarian for Life and Style who is actually a real person and remixes her clothes and doesn't make you feel like you need a second or third job just to be able to wear cute outfits! Whoa, let's call this Flattery Friday, okay? Didn't mean to gush quite so much, but it's always nice to see people actually re-wear items and use them in different ways, especially if I own the same item and can get inspiration from it!

Anyway, getting back on track here!

Love playing with the settings in Picasa!

 TGIF! It's supposed to be a nice weekend here, so I'm excited to open the windows and get some fresh air in the house while I do some desperately overdue cleaning. The weather folks are calling for flurries (!) Tuesday night, so I'd better enjoy this nice weather while it lasts. Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

EDIT: This was supposed to have been published Friday night, but I guess my brain didn't hit the publish button when we got home from Christmas shopping. I know I could save it for another day, but I don't like drafts languishing there too long, and knowing my brain lately, I'm liable to let this one sit until February...

Mundane Monday

I promise that I'm not trying to be a grump lately; I'm just going through a funky stage right now related to work, and it's touching a lot of areas in my life, unfortunately.

Also, camera phone pictures. Blah.

Here's hoping to a Terrific Tuesday...or at least one where I don't have to tell someone not to run in the library...

Four Eyes, One Heart

Today's outfit was loosely inspired by this week's Inspiration Monday pick:

I don't really like sheer tops that much (except for my mint top...), so I went for stripes and color blocking tucked into my black skirt. I don't have any black heels either, so I wore flats. 

I had a co-worker take my pictures because I wanted to show my husband that I wore my glasses to work (he usually leaves for work about an hour before I do). I had some horrible sinus problems today, so I had to bust out the spectacles. I like them, but they kept sliding off my face when I bent over or looked down. Oops! 

This photo cracked me up!

I can't wait to get off work today! My big plans tonight include drinking a milkshake and reading more about the Warrior Dash; we're doing it on October 5, and I'm terrified beyond belief slightly nervous. The milkshake is to soothe my fears...and help me gain more padding before the race, of course. 

Mega Monday

Inspiration Monday, Style Imitating Art, and tomorrow marks Section 391's 1st birthday! Wowzers! I'm going to veer away from "Would You Wear That Wednesday" this week to do a retrospective of my first year of postings as "What I Wore Wednesday." Should be interesting to see how (or if) my style has evolved over this past year!

And now for the inspiration pieces.

Here's Inspiration Monday:

And here's Style Imitating Art:

This is my summer interpretation of Inspiration Monday. I went for a loose green top and fitted lighter bottoms since it was 90 something here today! I don't love sleeveless tops on me, so I skipped the sleeveless action today. Also, it kind of reflects the colors in the SIA picture with the muted tones. We can even pretend like the silver sandals reflect my outfit like the water at the bottom of the painting...can't we? This was one of the better pictures of the outfit's colors, even though my head was turned (yelling at the puppy, naturally).

This puppy has been testing my patience lately...

Mega Monday can also refer to that pile of laundry behind me. Yikes!

And, as a bonus picture, here's my new staff directory shot with my library behind me. My eyes didn't look so closed on the camera preview, and I think my hair looks a little funky here, but I needed an updated picture since my other one was five years old!

I've gotten three submissions for the librarian linkup already! If you have a look you'd like to submit, email it to me by Wednesday evening, or come back on Friday and use the linky-majig. I had grand aspirations of making a super sweet icon for it; I still have time, but the odds are looking slimmer! 

Time to go put away some laundry (clearly one of my favorite chores...). 

Knotty Stripes

I've been on a pun kick lately! Today, I got my inspiration for my outfit from the colors in my shoes! I always try to be kind of matchy-matchy with these shoes, and as I stood in my closet trying to find an outfit, this look came together. I didn't get a good shoe shot today, but if you want to see the colors in them, check out the picture of them in Go Chic or Go Home. Also, since I talked about my stopping shopping and wearing all of my clothes on Wednesday, I wanted to wear a couple of things that haven't seen the light of day in a long time. Despite fighting with this cardigan some today, I liked this look!

My hair seems really cooperative here!

 

 Sorry for the lack of cropping on these. I had to upload them to my Flickr account and work on this posting on a different computer than usual, so I didn't have my handy-dandy Picasa editor with me. At least this way, you get to see three of the different wall colors that the renters before us chose. That's three out of the nine colors that are on our walls. Sometimes I feel like I live in a puddle of clown vomit...

Preppy Pattern Mixing

Today was a fashion risk for me. I've never done such overt pattern mixing. In fact, my pattern mixing is limited to one instance where I wore a printed tank top and pants with very subtle pinstriping. I don't even know if anyone noticed. Today I felt...out there. It did get the husband seal of approval when I tried it on last night, and my mom said it wasn't bad when I saw her today, so I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought. You be the judge:

Here's a close up of the two patterns:

I didn't get a good shot of it, but my shirt is a Ralph Lauren and has a monogram on it, which made me feel extra preppy today. Also, my shirt and skirt are from Goodwill! You can't beat that!

Also, linking up with Thrifters Anonymous!

 

What I Wore: July 15, 2013

Well hello again! I've only been gone for a month. No big deal, right? ;-P I think I can be forgiven since today (all 39 minutes that are left as I'm writing this!) is my birthday! And it's not just any birthday; it's my 30th birthday! Say what?!? I remember thinking as a teenager that 30 sounded so old, and I would have all of my crap together. Guess what? I definitely don't! But, I'm getting there!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had a discussion about my style after I wore a particularly frumpy outfit to church one night. We talked about how I always stick to dark colors, don't really experiment with color, etc. That lead me to buying some clothes at Old Navy (and completely falling from my commitment to shop more ethically) that were a little fresher and younger. This outfit reflects a couple of those pieces:

Full body shot

Close up of the stripe detail

Also, I chopped off my hair! I've had long-ish hair since I met my husband at the end of 2010, so it was time for a change. He helped me not have a panic attack, even though it was my idea! I miss my hair a little bit, but it's definitely quicker to wash now!

Face close up; not the best hair shot!

I have a couple of posts in draft mode, so hopefully I won't disappear for another month! I have to also share how our puppy feels about my blogging:

Clearly someone isn't a fan of this blog!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!