Mother’s Day Gift

I know I said I wasn’t going to update again until it was time to start on my Summer capsule, but I just had to post about my morning.

A couple of weeks ago I received a wonderful Mother’s Day gift. My father in law bought me a gift card for a spa day.  Being rainy and cold, today was the perfect day to use it!

They started on my eyebrows. I figured I’d get the unpleasant part over with right away. Getting your eyebrows waxed is a little bit like giving birth; it’s very unpleasant, but totally worth it. Okay, maybe it’s a bad comparason; giving birth is much more extreme, on both accounts. Anyway, I’d been needing to get this done for some time, and I think it makes a big difference.

A facial followed, then a massage, and I finished it off with a haircut. The haircut was another thing I’d been meaning to get done for much longer than I should have waited. She used a curling iron on my hair, which I haven’t done in years. Decades, probably. I like the result. 

 

In other news, I did my nails last week, for the first time in a long time. Getting my wardrobe sorted out has helped me to feel a little better about how I look, and it’s kind of spread to other areas, making me want to do other things like this, too. 

Ever hear of Jamberry Nails? They’re nail wraps that have a variety of different patterns and colors. They’re so much fun, and I’m glad I found made the time to do them again. 

Taking some effort in how I present myself has really given me a little bit of a pick me up. Well, I had been making an effort before, but I was distracted by so much clutter and discouraged by the results, so that it didn’t really do anything for me. This focused, purposeful way of doing it now takes much less time, and is much more effective. 

Goodbye for now. I’ll be back when it’s time for Summer!

One Month

I’ve been doing this one month, and even now I have not repeated a complete outfit once yet. This may be longer than I’ve ever gone without wearing the same combination of clothes before. I’m getting the hang of this, and enjoying the minute or two it now takes to pick out my outfits in the mornings. It’s actually fun, not a chore, and I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve been wearing, for the most part. 

I’ve learned a few lessons in this first phase of the experience, and know what I want to change for my next capsule. I’m looking forward to getting started on that in another month or so.

Now that I’ve gotten the hang of this, I probably won’t be posting until it’s time to start on my summer capsule, other than a picture every now and then. 

So now I leave you, temporarily, with some pictures of recent outfits. See you soon.

  
  

  

Pink and Yellow?

I took a bit of a risk with this color cobination. I had already been planning on wearing the pink pants with the sandals, but I grabbed the yellow shirt when I realized that it was a little chillier than I’d originally thought. 

  

What do you think? Does it work?

Dress Time!

Today was a perfect opportunity to test myself, to push myself a little further. The dress, without a shirt covering it up. 

My plans involved church in the morning, and then an art show in the afternoon, so I figured it was a good day to dress it up a little. I tried a new scarf tying technique, and it was pretty easy. 

  

The dress, a scarf, and makeup. But I just noticed the lack of earrings. Ah, well. I’m happy with it anyway. 

And, I’ve got a beautiful new piece of art done by a local artist to hang on my wall! Good day. 

Again With the Head Scarf

This was a very relaxed look, for a relaxing day. Not much happening here.  I wore my button down with a tank top. I did not count tanks as one of my 18 tops, because I wear them like underwear. This time, I left the shirt unbuttoned, so maybe not exactly like underwear, but they don’t count because I’ll never wear a tank top without something over it.

  I don’t like this way of tying the scarf on my head as much as I did the other way. Either way, though, it was really too warm. I think head scarves will need to be just for cooler weather.

Shoes Made For Real Feet

Here is my outfit for today. I can’t decide whether I like it or not. On one hand, I really like color, and there really is very little here. But I also like the clean, simple look. 

 And the shoes! I’ve finally worn those poor neglected uppers.

Please bear with me as I talk about my feet. 

They’re sore. As a homeschool mom, I’m on my feet for much of the day. Cooking meals, cleaning up, doing laundry, cleaning the house, walking from one side of the table to the other checking school work, doing the hokey pokey,  grocery shopping, dog walking, and I can’t even think of what else. 

In the last year or so, I’ve found that I have to wear shoes all the time. If I don’t my feet are in lots of pain, sometimes after I’ve been up for just a half hour. And the shoes have to provide support. Some days are worse than others. Some days I can get away with less comfortable shoes, but others, well, those are the days you’ll see me wearing my Nike shoes.

So these shoes I wore today didn’t pass the test. They absolutely killed my feet. I hate to say it, but these guys have got to go!

Then again, maybe it was just a bad foot day. I’ll give them one more chance. 

Skirts Aren’t Just for Sundays

Maybe I’m the last woman to catch onto this concept, but skirts are not just for dressing up. I’ve always felt like skirts and dresses, although very pretty and feminine, were so incredibly uncomfortable, so I’d only wear them for special occasions and occasionally for church. I remember some Sundays not wanting to stay after church to talk to people because I was so eager to get home and get comfortable.

But I do have some comfortable skirts, and it’s surprisingly easy to give them a casual look by wearing them with a simple tee and casual shoes.

  

That is what I was wearing today when I was out running errands and I spotted this: 

Just a few days ago I was inspired by The Luxe Look Book‘s post which included what she called a statement necklace. And then I saw one above at the store. 

I’ve never ever worn jewelry this large before. It’s embarassing to remember how long I stood there in Walmart, putting this necklace into my cart, taking it out and putting it back again. At one point I even left it, got in line at the checkout, and then went back to get it. My final reasoning was that it was on clearance for very cheap, and I wasn’t using money out of our household budget, but my own spending money, so it really wasn’t a big deal. If it did happen that I realized that I looked absolutely ridiculous in this thing, I was only out $5. So I bought it, and wore it the rest of the day.

Opinions?

15 Tops. Or is it 18?

There is space for fifteen tops in the capsule wardrobe. That’s a multiple of three (as are other categories) for a reason. For the tops, I’ve seen recommended to have 3 tanks, 3 tees, 3 button downs, 3 vests, and 3 sweaters. 

That sounds nice, but I don’t wear vests, and I only wear tanks as underwear, layering them under shirts that would otherwise show too much and causing me to bless others more than I should. Also, I didn’t think I could get by with only fifteen, since our spring weather is quite different than what they have in Texas. So I tweaked it a bit, to make it fit me a little more.  

T-shirts

A good start so far. The pink one is a little more pink than the picture shows, and it fits well, as does the striped one. The yellow one is very bright, which I love, so I compromised a bit on the fit, which is a bit boxy and square. 

 

Button down shirts

I have four instead of three. I just couldn’t force myself to choose one to get rid of. There is a mix of colors, though, and sleeve length. I do feel like I could have had just three of these and been just fine.

And going off topic, all four of those shirts were hanging in the exact same spot when I took pictures of them, but in this picture, the backgrounds look completely different from one another. Isn’t it interesting how light works?

  Hoods

I’ve got three tops that have hoods. One is my camp hoodie, which is very comfortable and I had it before. The other two are new. They’re very thin and not at all warm, so I need shirts to layer underneath them. Here’s a mistake I made: I don’t have many options to layer under those two. There are no neutral-colored long sleeved shirts that work under these.

Two Warm Sweaters

These were very nice to have in the beginning of Spring when it was so cold. The first one is pretty old, and the second one was purchased at Maurices for this capsule.  

Cardigans

The long one is one  of my favorites. I’ve used it just to throw over several outfits in the mornings when it’s just barely too cool for short sleeves. The other two I haven’t worn much, and I think the one on the bottom will not make it into another capsule after this one. 

 

The Others

These don’t really fit into a category. The long one is a favorite find of mine, another find at Maruices. The short sleeved one is an oldie but goodie. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I bought the bottom one. It’s too see-through to be worn alone, and the buttons prevent it from going under some of the thinner hooded shirts. 

My lesson learned here is that I need to look at what I have all together, and stick a little more closely to the number three. Honestly, I feel that I really didn’t need to go up to eighteen items. I would have been fine wtih fifteen, if I had shopped a little more carefully. 

Overall, however, I think this first capsule was a success. I haven’t had much trouble finding things to wear and figuring out what pieces would go together. I’m enjoying the learning process, and I’m already looking forward to creating my Summer capsule.

Making It All Up

Is she wearing makeup?

Why yes, yes I am. I found some old, ancient stuff in my drawer and gave it a try. My mom once told me that the trick with makeup is to look like you aren’t wearing any. Did I succeed?

  

I like weird. But I’m usually too afraid to wear it. This shirt is weird enough to be fun, but not so scary that I avoid it. What do you think? 

These boots again. Am I wearing them too often? I’ve still got shoes I haven’t worn once yet this season.

Another Try With a Scarf

 

   

Clearly, I’m not used to posing for the camera. Please excuse the awkwardness.

Here is another try with my pink and orange scarf. I found a website with several different scarf-tying styles, and I gave this one a try. It’s called the Carmen Miranda. The instructions were very easy to follow. 

Jeans and a T shirt were pretty much all I used to wear when it was warm enough, but this time it’s different. The scarf makes a big difference, and so does the fact that the shirt fits well. The old tees I used to wear were either too boxy, making me look like I had no shape at all, or were too short, causing me to be very careful not to bend down or raise my arms too much! 

Yay for clothes that fit! And yay for jean jackets!