the great capsule wardrobe adventure: days 3 and 4

Don't ask, I couldn't tell ya; items 7 and 11

Don't say I didn't warn ya. I have no idea what is going on here. I was only slightly mocking pose-y photos, I thought I would give it a shot and um...no. I think I need to stick with the toes turned in pose. I don't know.  I did begin the day with item 4 on as well but it is far more comfortable than attractive. It tends to frame um...the girls, more than I wish. Sigh. Shoes are my trusty Clarks (which I now have blisters from, stupid eczema). Scarf is the F21 find.

I call this my old lady top. It is from Kohl's and was found in the corner where the ladies of a certain age shop. I find myself more and more wandering over there. Lord help me. The top however is really nice and stupid comfy. This was the first time I wore it and I got four (four!) compliments! Go me!

I'm happy and comfy (and blurry); items 1 and 12

This is stupid blurry because my timer focus dealio refused to focus on the wall and I though I manually had it covered (I did not). Oof! Golly but I love these trousers. If you have ever checked out my pinterest board you may have noticed my fondness for all things grey and linen-y. They are a bit on the large side on me even with the draw string but darn it all I'm going to wear them anyway. The t-shirt too is stupid comfy. My friend Amy thought I pulled it off well and was super sweet and positive about this adventure.

Shoes are my old Keens that I wish would make a comeback. The new Keens have stupid footbeds that  do not play nice. Grr. I picked these up in 2009 after my brown pair. They weren't cheap but totally worth it!

the great capsule wardrobe adventure: days 1 and 2

Hi there! 

The first day was a no brainer. As it was a pretty cold morning with afternoon temps in the low 70s, I went for jeans and the sweatshirt with a taupe camisole underneath. It was surprisingly chilly in the morning. Chilly enough for me to roll down my pant legs as my poor thick ankles were cold!

Items 3 and 11 plus a scarf and thrifted shoes

I'm a preschool teacher folks (can't you tell?) so jeans that stay put are ideal. I found these Lee's at kohl's and LOVE them. They present well and I have yet to expose any part of my derriere. Plus, they do not bag at all so I am not constantly hiking them up like I do all my other jeans (I hate belts).

cuffing my jeans...it's a jek thing

The scarf was a Forever 21 clearance item. I picked it up for $2! The shoes are Clarks and came from Goodwill...$8! They were barely worn and fit my wide feed and are a bit on the cute side. Yay for versatile black flats!

I am so not a supermodel; items 2, 9, and 11

I have no idea what I am doing here. I do know that this was the best photo out of twenty or so. I suppose it is a good thing I did not try to go into modeling. Posing is not my strong point. The shoe are Born and were about $100. I picked them up from a local old fashioned shoe store in town. They are very comfy. The scarf was another $2 score but this one came from Penneys.

It was chilly enough for most of the day that I did not take my sweater off at all. I am rethinking the top though...when you bend over it gets a bit chesty...and as a preschool teacher I am often stooping over something or someone, this could get embarrassing. This is also a day where I assist the other teacher in the room (I share my room with two others) and so I end my shift a little after 1pm...I think it did get much warmer afterwards and the sweater came off in the car.

So how am I doing so far?

the great capsule wardrobe adventure

Have you ever heard of a capsule wardrobe? It's where you invest in your basic pieces and build from there. It's also sometimes known as a french wardrobe. I liken it to packing light, only yer not actually traveling. Ever since I can remember reading magazines and being an avid purveyor of fashion, I have aspired to owning a perfect wardrobe...of sorts. I blame all those fashion articles on eight easy pieces where you have a handful of items that all miraculously go together so you can combine them into a zillion different outfits and be all snazzy and such. I aspire t have a minimalist wardrobe, I really do but the problem is, nothing I own really and truly fits properly...and I seem to be a magpie and get all wanty with fashion and this needs to stop. I am embarrassed to write that I just did a second closet purge since we moved into the homestead which means that somehow I acquired an entire closet's worth of new items between August and January. Thank goodness for thrift shopping but still, that is ridiculous. Enough is enough, it is time for a change and so, after a visit or two or three to my pinterest board  (is it okay to admit how much I love my own board?) I have decided to try to actually become fashionable once again and that means I need to wear items other than jeans and my old focals t-shirt.

So, right before I got sick, I cleaned out the closet and had a pile of thrifted items I really liked but the colors were meh. So, channeling my old friend Margie, I did not cut them but I did dye them all black which warranted exactly what I was looking for...various shades of grey. Three of the items ended up a purplish bergundy and most all of them looked really nifty together. That was it, no time like the present, a mini capsule wardrobe was born (that collage up there took me forever to put together). I'm going to try going two weeks, only wearing the above items but mixing them up with various shoes and scarves. So far I've had five days which should have been eight only I got sick. Not pictured up there are two pairs of leggings, one grey with darker grey polka dots and one black and white stripes. We're experiencing freaky summer temps here but I'm really committed to this. In fact, after this, I will pull together another mini wardrobe and wear that for two weeks and so on and so on. I really have too many things in the closet that do not get worn. It's silly really.

Another reason why I am doing this and posting it thus being super vulnerable to fashion criticism is that whenever I look up capsule wardrobes online so far, every post I look at is of someone who is fabulously young, thin and gorgeous which is awesome for them. I however am not exactly fabulously young,  thin or gorgeous. I figure someone needs to represent the middle-aged frumpster so why not let it be me? And, to put myself out there even more I'll let you in on a secret. I'm just shy of 5' 6" and weigh about 190 pounds. I wear a size 12 to 16 depending on the item fabric, and manufacturer and am always, always startled at how wide I appear in photos, I don't feel wide. Sigh.

To break it down for you here is some background info on the items in case you are interested:
1. Khaki colored Banana Republic T; thrifted for about 75 cents
2. Taupe Linen sweater wrap; thrifted $1.50
3. Mossimo 2-tone grey sweatshirt; thrifted $2
4. Taupe Cardigan; thrifted $1.50
5. Linen skirt from Talbot's dyed by me; thrifted $3.99
6. Checked smock dyed by me; thrifted $3
7. Black and khaki Croft & Barrow smock; Kohl's $22
8. Black puffed sleeve T; JC Penney $7
9. Mossimo Black and brown printed cowl neck top; Target $12
10. Bergundy dyed by me Joe Fresh top; JC Penney $10
11. Jeans by Lee (elastic waist band, sssh!); Kohl's $25
12. Dyed grey linen trousers St. John's Bay; thrifted $2

Sit back, take a gander, ask questions, say hello and enjoy this adventure with me...please? Let me know what ya think.

the first cold of the year and already i have cabin fever...

there are 47 birds in this photo...

 Unlike most people who catch colds, I am knocked of my feet and walloped in a BIG way. While most people tend to pretend they are not sick, I need to take to my bed for as much sleep as I can cram, stuff myself silly with vitamin C, and drink hot stuff till I'm tired of peeing all the time. And if yer one of those who carries on at work like you're not actually sick? It's. All. Your. Fault! It is! Stay home, take a sick day, watch hours and hours of Doctor Who, drink the sweetest hottest tea you can stand...just stay home! I caught mine from the mister who carried it home from his work as it has been a very busy work week at his place and everyone has been coming in sick. Blech. Thank goodness I got my flu shot and managed (knock wood) to so far evade the holiday ick that hit everyone at my school.

So here  I am, buried under blankets listening to the birdies (and the neighbor's dog) enjoying the breeze that sneaks in through the window. I have laptop in lap and am positively bored. I don't feel like looking at pinterest, I canceled Netlfix in December, and am on a Facebook hiatus that should be a drop but darn if Candy Crush doesn't keep me there (not that anyone noticed save for you). I'm having an existential crisis in regards to the living me and the online me. If I fade away from Facebook will anybody notice and if nobody notices do I cease to exist at all? I've been feeling this way ever since we returned from our BIG road trip. Most will probably roll their eyes but I am a person who needs friendships validated via letters, email, and phonecalls. Liking a post on Facebook doesn't cut it. I am bummed by the large number of emails, fb messages and voicemails I have left for old friends that have gone unanswered. I've been tending a garden full of drought tolerant plants methinks. Sometimes I think I should drop it all..this blog, flickr, facebook, etc. but then the sad raccoon creeps out and vanity hits and I tether myself again to this thing called social media but fnd myself more often than not depressed by it all. I used to be gung-ho for it. I used to think the internet could cultivate real solid relationships. And it did, it did not long ago but now we are all so used to instant gratification that unless you are a constant you are out of the game. I am aware that we all have our own lives to live and families to raise and be with but if you have time to instagram something you have time to tell an old friend you re thinking of them, do you not?

Eegads...I just had an unsettling thought all wrapped up in ego. Everyday I have moments where I am reminded of people who have wandered through my life. When those moments happen and they are people I can contact, I do (everyday in fact with no reply) if they are not in my life, I try to find them even though I have tried before. I think how lucky I am to have these memories and to have these people in my life and to be honest I want people to think the same of me. Selfish isn't it? Vain? Now I feel like an ass.

Let's chalk it up to cold meds had I been taking any...I just want to say I appreciate you and you and you and here's to 2014, making new friends and saying goodbye to the old.

(This post was not planned in the least. I was going to write about my adventure in attempting a capsule wardrobe but that will have to come later....especially since I have missed two days now to being sick...but I do have three for ya...)

this and that..hello winter?

Why is it that no matter how many errands you run, it takes about three hours? Without fail, I dash out to do a thrift drop off and hit the market and three hours later I'm home. Need to do returns and pick up a prescription? Three hours. Get my hair done and fill up the gas tank? Three hours. Winter so far has felt like spring...or how summer usually feels which is like how spring usually feels to someone outside of Central or Southern California. It is crazy warm and it is making me cranky as I pine for sweater weather and hot tea.

The mister and I spent three hours dashing all over town looking for a curb alert washing machine, dropping off stuff to the classroom, picking up gardening stuff, dropping off old oil from the last oil change, and picking up some oilcloth for the school. It was busy and productive and everything happened save for the washing machine...it had already been snatched up which is fine as we're not looking for the machine itself but the drum inside. Mister is building a fire pit.

 

I've been making a tiny bit of headway in the scary room taking breaks now and then to walk a few blocks over with the mister to pilfer a curb alert of pallet wood or to repot some succulents so that they create new plants or you know...plopping down on the sofa for a read or pinterest browse.

 

While the mister worked in the garden, and ukulele necks, I gathered up an assortment of thrift pieces I liked but didn't love the color of and tossed them into a black dye bath. The results were what I expected and wanted...various shades of grey (with a smidge of  bergundy). Of course, the entire time I was dying everything I could hear my old favorite margie-girl's voice saying "cut it and dye it black". Oh margie, where are you? I miss you!In between dying things, I snacked on my favorite winter apple. Yay for opals!

 

Other than that I baked up another batch of eggnog poundcake (using  mixture of eggnog and buttermilk) and de-pommed my last pom of the season (drats), and pulled out my afghans for the new blanket shelf that the mister built by repurposing and old bookcase. It is ugly as all get out but super useful and thrifty. I need to put stuff on top...that might help.

 

 

This week it is back to work and all things schoolish. I have pom-poms to make for the classroom, grids to write out and curriculum stuff to work on. To pass the time in the evening, mister and I have been competing to complete colorku puzzles.  I'm both excited and ready for a nap...happy January!

diy: party wreath

This is another one of those projects that has been kickin' 'round the noggin for a few years now. After months of not being outside-of-school crafty I was determined to get it done! The party blowers were a dollar store purchase and the sparkly bits came from Target' holiday clearance. They were thirty-cents for two silvery puff balls. I bought five packs and if I had bought more, the wreath would have been larger. As it is, it is a mini wreath built upon a six inch embroidery hoop. I first attempted it on a twelve inch hoop but it was a mess so mini wreath it is!

Gather up your materials...blowers, festive bits, hoop (I ended up with a smaller hoop), and tacky glue. I suppose you could use a glue gun but I have such bad luck with them...nothing ever really sticks...so I used tacky glue. Play with the bits before gluing up the hoop. My first attempt was to create a wreath made from blowers only but I could not get the bits to round out and it kept looking like a pentagon. Everything was coated in glue from all the moving around I was doing I ended up fleeing the room with a frustrated scream, hands up in the air, fingers covered in tiny bits of tinsel. It was a mess!

Once items are arranged to your liking, add glue and affix. I used three blowers and extra tinsel from two other blowers that got eaten by the glue. The entire cost of the finished wreath was four bucks! The hoop was a fifty cent thrift find, blowers were a buck and the tinsel puffs totaled a buck fifty. Whoo-hoo!

Hang in a happy place or pro it up somewhere inside. Either way, it brings a bit of festive cheer to your day. Use leftover blowers and bits for a party or string 'em up into a garland! Happy New Year!