Clean Closet! Monday, Feb 13 2012

Well, I finally did it. After a few weeks of being lazy (hence the blogging hiatus) I cleaned out my closet. It is amazing the immediate effect that it has. I feel like I have all new clothes, even though everything in my closet has been in there for several months, if not years. The pieces I kept are the pieces that I wear the most. Instead of feeling like I have nothing new, I feel like everything is new. Being able to see every item coordinated by color makes outfit possibilities seem endless.

My top rack is where I keep all my tops. It went from this:

to this:

I even had room to move some of my jackets from the back middle rack to this rack. I wear my jackets more than just pieces of outerwear; they change up any outfit, so I like having them with my everyday clothes.

My back middle rack is where I hang my dresses. It went from this:

to this:

I feel inspired now when I walk into my closet. It’s amazing what a little chore can do to make each day so much brighter. Now what will I wear tomorrow……

I have no idea if you can really tell a difference in these pics, but believe me, in person it’s a transformation!

4 Responses »

 

In the Navy Tuesday, Jan 17 2012

I spent the weekend with my parents, so of course my mom and I made some time to shop. We hit the jackpot at Ann Taylor Loft and I bought a new pair of work pants. I can’t remember the last time I bought work pants, so obviously I was in need of a little update to that area of my wardrobe. And I stepped out of my comfort zone and bought navy pants.

These are the “Julie” style and I think they said curvy on the tag, so they fit my hourglass frame perfectly. Every figure has fit issues, and as an hourglass girl, I often find that pants that fit my hips are way too big in the waist. These defied that conundrum, so if you also have that problem, check out these pants.

I love the colors Loft is showing right now – navy and bright oranges and yellows and greens. They are rich, deeply saturated hues that look fresh and current. Plus, it’s a great color palette to transition from winter into spring. For my pop of color, I bought a bright orange skinny stretch belt:

I am loving that deep orange right now and it works great with navy. A belt is a great way to incorporate a bold color without feeling like you’re as bright as the sun.

I also purchased a couple of tops that coordinate with the pants. You know it’s a successful shopping trip when you come home with a mini-wardrobe to incorporate into your existing wardrobe. There is nothing worse than buying something new only to find that you don’t have anything in your closet to wear it with.

Now I’m just anxiously counting down the days until my pants are ready to be picked up from the tailor (my other fit issue: being 5’2″ means that pants always require hemming).

What did you purchase on your last successful shopping spree?

Images from Ann Taylor Loft, via my Pinterest page

Leave a Response »

 

Would You Move? Monday, Jan 9 2012

I wore one of my favorite dresses from Dress Shop today. (Sorry, no picture. I didn’t take one and we all know my camera sucks anyway.) But back to my topic, a colleague at work complimented me and said “You should be in fashion instead of doing XYZ….” I said thank you and told her I would love to work in fashion, but really needed to live in NYC for that. The conversation got me thinking about being bold and brave enough to uproot yourself and make a change for something that you love. I can tell you right off the bat that I personally don’t think I would ever do this. For one thing, I’m married, we own a house and are the parents to a chubby, wrinkly English bulldog. We are at a place in our lives where packing up everything and relocating would be beyond challenging. Secondly, I appreciate security and routine so would never be brave enough to just quit my job and move. And I discovered my love of fashion late in life. I didn’t major in it and never really considered making a career in that industry. Plus, I’m pretty sure that I’m not edgy or avant-garde enough in my style to actually work in the industry.

I have huge respect and admiration for people who actually take that leap of faith and move or start over to try something they love. Have you ever made that leap? Do you think you ever would?

Just for fun, let’s pretend that we don’t have jobs/mortgages/family commitments to keep us somewhere – in this fantasy land, where would you move and what you want to do? I would love to have lived in NYC for a while, or even better, London or Paris. And I would have loved to have a shot in the fashion world, or as a best-selling author or even as a chef. It’s fun to play pretend.

It’s even more fun to spend the evening with my hubby and my pup.

Leave a Response »

 

Green & Stripe-y Tuesday, Jan 3 2012

Yesterday, my last day off before I had to go back to the real world, I spent some time perusing Pinterest. It’s certainly my favorite online timesuck. While sorting through the fashion and style pictures, I noticed that I was particularly drawn to stripes and immediately vowed to add more striped pieces to my wardrobe (noted for my next shopping trip). So last night before going to sleep, I skimmed my closet to get an outfit idea for today and came up with this:

None of these are new pieces, and this certainly isn’t edgy or fashion-forward, but it was a new classically chic outfit pulled straight from my closet. I typically pair this tank (black and white stripes with gray and silver detailing) with black pants and a gray cardi. Boring and exptected, no? So today I injected it with a shot of color. It was definitely out of my comfort zone and I liked it. Plus, I love finding ways to make non-work clothing suddenly work appropriate!

Obviously, since it’s a tank top, I would never wear it to the office. But with a bold green cardigan belted over it, no one was any wiser.

And as much as I love cardigans, I sometimes worry that they veer towards frumpy, so I belted it and added some new, chunky jewelry to keep the look young.

New Sandra Ling bracelets, a Christmas gift from my loving hubby. These are kind of a “thing” in my family and have really become a signature item of mine, so I’m slowly amassing a collection of different colors and stones.

Wearing a “new” outfit for free was a great way to start back to work.

Have you eased back into work yet? Done any shopping in your closet lately?

7 Responses »

 

One More Resolution Sunday, Jan 1 2012

Oh, technology, how you mock me. I had a post all written and somehow before publishing, all of my content just disappeared. That. Is. Maddening. Okay, moving on, taking deep breaths and just re-writing.

Happy 2012! I have spent the last few days being lazy, mostly laying around reading The Hunger Games and loving it, as all my friends said I would. I’ve barely even gotten dressed or put on make-up; hence the non-fashion-related post. After a busy few weeks of the holiday hustle and bustle, it was nice to just take a break. And I actually feel refreshed and motivated to tackle some things on the to-do list tomorrow: put away Christmas tree, lights and all other holiday decor. Find a home for new Christmas gifts. Do some laundry. Write some thank-you notes.

While preparing my mental to-do list, I came up with an additional New Year’s resolution: tackle one organizational/home project a month. I typically overwhelm myself into paralysis when thinking of all the bigger things I need to do around the house, so I’ve decided to take on one project a month. It seems so much more manageable that way. For January, I am going to clean out closets! I’m only focusing on closets that house clothes (as opposed to linen closets or storage in the laundry room), which gives me 4 to tackle: our master closet, the guest room closet, the study closet and the hall closet. So hopefully this:

will eventually look like this:

Super organized closet courtesy of Pinterest

Have you made your 2012 resolutions? Or do you prefer to make resolutions anytime? I actually fall under that school of thought, but love to start a new year with some defined goals.

One Response »

 

Naked Eye Wednesday, Dec 28 2011

In addition to my love of fashion and style, I am a beauty junkie. I love skin care and cosmetics, specifically eye shadow. Nail polish is a close second. For Christmas, one of my best friends (who clearly knows me very well) gave me an eye shadow palette.

Naked Eye Palette by Too Faced

The funny thing is, I saw this exact palette in Sephora while Christmas shopping with my mom and thought, “Ooooh, I would love this. What a great gift idea.” Well, Leslie read my mind and I opened the gift last night. Of course I used it this morning. It is made up of nine versatile colors.

That picture is not a great representation of the colors. They are all more in the pearl/taupe/champagne/brown family – no teal or navy. (I never claimed to be a photographer, so bear with me.) Trust me when I say they are versatile, wearable colors. What’s really unique about this palette is that it comes with three little cards that feature instructions on how to create different looks with specific colors.

The different “looks” are Day, Fashion and Classic. This is a fantastic added benefit for those who don’t feel comfortable creating color combinations, or just to give your brain a rest during your morning routine. I tried the Day look today and loved it. Too Faced offers a variety of these palettes, in themes including Natural at Night, Matte Eye Palette, Natural Eye Collection, Smoky Eye Collection and Romantic Eye Collection. Keep this in mind next time you’re treating yourself or a friend to some new make-up.

Did you get any make-up or skin care for Christmas?

Also, 10 points if the title of this post makes you start singing “Naked Eye” by Luscious Jackson from the ’90s. I’m singing it in my head right now.

One Response »

 

Best Dressed Tuesday, Dec 13 2011

I was reading an article on Fashionista today ranking their top 20 best-dressed women of this year. It got me thinking about who I would vote as best dressed, realizing that what we like in the fashion world is rather subjective. Of course, I don’t have a photo history of all major celebs to peruse to make an educated decision, but the two that came to mind for me were Emma Watson and Kate Middleton.

I love that Emma’s style is a mix of edgy, trendy and classic. Most importantly, it’s uniquely her.

The Duchess of Cambridge is probably the most current fashion icon for my preferred style, classically chic. I love how she always looks polished and utterly elegant, yet still current.

Obviously, what we find fashionable and stylish are personal opinions. Who would you pick out as the top of your best-dressed list?

2 Responses »

 

Copycat Thursday, Dec 8 2011

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it on this blog several times, but I am loving JCrew lately. Their clothes are a fresh twist on classic and their styling is unique and impeccable. Browsing through their catalog is fashion eye candy for me. If I lived in a make-believe world where money was unlimited, I would spend hours in there buying every piece of clothing and styling it exactly the way they do.

But in the real world, especially this time of year, I’m saving my pennies to buy gifts for my loved ones. So while flipping through the catalog a few nights ago, I decided to venture into my closet to see what I owned to create my own JCrew-inspired look. And lo and behold…

I’ve had all of these pieces for sometime now, and although this outfit doesn’t quite have the color and pattern mixing that they do, I thought it was a pretty good representation. I felt great in it. To keep it even more current, I paired it with my chunky loafers that my fabulous, generous mom bought for me recently:

So maybe I’m a fashion copycat, but this was a great reminder to use what I already have to emulate looks that inspire me. Easy and free.

Have you come up with creative new combinations from clothes already in your closet lately?

Leave a Response »

 

New Year’s Resolutions….A Few Weeks Early Tuesday, Dec 6 2011

I have had a serious case of writer’s block lately, which is pretty obvious, seeing as how I haven’t blogged in more than 2 weeks. Yikes! But moving on, first go check out Glass Heel to read my article on “Decoding Holiday Party Attire.”

Even though it’s only December 6, I’ve started thinking about my New Year’s Resolutions. I realize that resolutions can happen at any time, but there is something refreshing about starting new habits at the beginning of the year. The items currently on my mind:

• Blog more
• Stay in better contact with friends – I tend to chat with friends via email since I sit in front of a computer most days and so do my friends, but that doesn’t replace the occasional phone chat to catch up on each others lives
• Challenge myself – I’m leaving this one open-ended but do have some initial ideas to kick this off: try a new work-out and start volunteering.

I’m a creature of habit kind of person but just feel the need lately to break out of my routine. I try to work out regularly but get bored easily. My beloved Exercise TV is going away at the end of the year, so I know I need to find something besides a cardio machine at the gym to keep me motivated and interested. The Bar Method is a fairly new fitness craze and a new location just opened by my office. Since my “sport” of choice growing up was dance, I think this would be right up my alley.

I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never really been one to give of my time and volunteer, but lately I’ve felt the pull to do just that. I’ve done a little bit of research into Dress for Success – it combines my passion and interests, and I think it would be really rewarding.

So now that I’ve put these out there for all the world wide web to see (or in reality, my 10 friends who read my blog from time to time ), maybe that will give me the motivation to stick to these resolutions.

Am I the only one who has thought of her New Year’s Resolutions even though I haven’t started Christmas shopping yet? If not, what are some of your resolutions?

One Response »

 

Browsing Saturday, Nov 19 2011

I braved the mall today to do a teensy bit of shopping. It’s already starting to feel like Christmas – the mall was packed. I’m trying to be a little more cost-conscious this year, so I didn’t spend a lot of time. I focused on the two gifts that I needed to purchase now (not Christmas gifts) and then did a little browsing.

I stopped into Fossil after seeing a purse in the window that caught my eye.

Fossil Maddox satchel

Oh my goodness, I instantly fell in love with this purse. I don’t usually go into Fossil, so this was quite a surprise. I love the shape and structure and am a complete fool for anything shimmery. The Fossil website describes this as a “shimmery metallic suede” – it’s a subtle metallic, not in your face. And I have to say, at $198, it’s pretty reasonable as far as purses go these days. Love this. Must find a way to get this. (I have a hard time buying for myself during the holidays because I try to be smart with money and really love buying gifts for others, so this is probably just a pipe-dream.)

I also stopped into JCrew. I love the way JCrew styles their clothes. I find their pieces to be fresh, modern and a good mix of trendy and classic, and also just a little outside of my comfort zone. However, that appeals to me more and more because I feel very blase about most of my current wardrobe. Apparently it needs a good jolt of energy and JCrew might be the right place for me now. I think a JCrew gift card may make it’s way onto my Christmas wish list this year.

The coats in JCrew really stood out to me today. There was a bright yellow, not quite sunshine-y but also not too mustard, and also a gorgeous cobalt blue one.

JCrew coat

I’m not totally sure this is the exact coat I saw today, but it just gives you a great idea of color and style. (It’s a bit reminiscent of Kate Middleton’s style, isn’t it?) At $325, it’s a bit on the high end, but a good coat can last for years.

So tell me…have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Have you stumbled on any unexpected surprises that stole your heart while doing so?

Purse image from Fossil.com and coat image from JCrew.com.

Leave a Response »