Sheesh! I need to start posting more.

If I've lost the few readers I had, I completely understand. I haven't posted since February, and I really don't have much of an excuse. Well, I have lots of excuses but no legitimate reasons.

To bring you up to date, here's what has been happening in my life the past 5(!) months:

• Winter sucked around here. We had water problems in our basement and had to do a significant cleanout to get a sump pump installed. Only the cleanout wasn't as significant as I hoped it would be. My basement is still cluttered.
• My older son finished his first year at a military college and is now in boot camp for the Marine Corps. He left on June 1st, and we can only communicate with him via snail mail, and it's hard. He graduates on August 28th and we'll be going to the graduation, then bringing him home for 10 days. I don't want to wish my summer away, but I can't wait to see him.
• I have not lost the 10 pounds that I wanted to lose before the summer. So my clothes are kind of tight, and as a result, I bought new pants/shorts in the next size up. Only they are a little loose. So my regular clothes are too tight, and the bigger ones are too loose. Oy.
• I'm STILL shopping more than I should be. I find myself craving that instant gratification that comes from buying a new piece of clothing. This is an almost daily struggle.
• My house has seen little to no decluttering since the winter. Motivation is severely lacking.
• We got more cable channels so I've spent more time watching TV than ever. DH and I started watching Shameless and I watched Outlander and I've got several seasons worth of like four other shows to watch before the fall when the new episodes start. 
• I got an iPhone for work and now instead of doing things like decluttering, I spend valuable time looking on FB and Twitter and stuff like that. 

Hence, my dining room table has looked like this for months:

Yes, nothing but clutter. Every weekend I plan to clean it off, and yet here I am in early July and it still looks like this. 

I just cut some flowers from my garden so I'm going to clean this damned thing off, put the flowers there and take another picture. 

Red Week

I chose last week as red week. I almost didn't make it. I ended up having just enough red pieces to fill out the whole week.

Monday -- I was excited to wear a pair of new shoes. More on that later.

A different angle, but I don't know why. I guess because I thought I'd look thinner?

This was Tuesday. I really liked this outfit, but for some reason, it was really, really warm in work. So I wasn't comfortable. 

These boots were part of the black shoe purchase. I had been wanting a pair of gray boots and I know I will get a lot of use out of these. They are suede and not quite over the knee, but have a cute bow in the back. They are very comfortable.

This was Wednesday. This is a sleeveless dress with a sweater over it. It was very comfortable. I've had the boots for about 10 years and have only worn them as many times. I decided that it was time to pull them out of the closet. I'm glad I did. 

Thursday. I got this skirt from H&M back at the end of December because I felt I needed another gray skirt. It's actually pretty good quality and very comfortable.

I've had this jacket for a long time. It's a love/hate thing. It's kind of quilted and I received several compliments,
but I feel it can be frumpy.

Friday. I had to lose a few pounds for these pants to fit comfortably in the waist, and I have. I still have about 5 more pounds to go, but at least my pants aren't killing me anymore. 

So that's the week's rundown. This exercise made me wear clothes that I hadn't put on in awhile. What I should do is get rid of things that I am not truly happy with, but I'm giving myself a few more tries before I put something in the giveaway pile.

As for the shoe purchases, I originally went out to just buy a simple pair of black suede pumps. I only have one pair of black pumps and they are kind of plain. I found this cute pair for $50 and the boots were on sale, as well as a pair of rain boots. I paid for the suede boots and shoes in cash, and then charged the rain boots on a credit card. I see the rain boots as a necessity and didn't feel guilty buying them on credit. 

Spending!!!

I decided that I would keep track of my clothing purchases by month for the year. I'm not only tracking how much they cost, but the brand, the actual item, how it fit, the size, and how many times I wore it. 

I thought I was doing good by not spending too much in January, but after I put it on paper, I realized I was wrong. In fact, I am appalled.

Teal pants -- $36 
Sleeveless patterned top with black ruffle -- $25 
White jeans -- $45 
Gray pencil skirt -- $30 

Black tights -- $13

The teal pants are what I wore in one of the pictures a few posts ago. I ordered them online and they were final sale. They are Kate Spade Saturday so the quality is good, but the fit is bad. Too baggy in the butt and thighs. I decided that since I love the color and quality, it will be worth it to have them altered.

The sleeveless top and the white jeans were also final sale and are Jockey. They quality is very good. The pants don't fit great, but I will see how I can style them. I won't have them altered because it think it will be tricky to alter jeans. I'll wash them first and see what happens. The top fits fine.

The gray pencil skirt and black tights are from H&M. They fit very well and the quality isn't bad. I am pleased with this purchase.

BUT, for someone who has more clothes than days to wear them, I SHOULD NOT BE BUYING CLOTHES. Period. 

I have made mistakes with mail order items and final sales before and I have finally learned my lesson. No matter the reviews or the brand, I cannot risk it. The two items from Jockey I was able to try on (at least the top, and a different style of pants to see if the waist would fit), so that is fine. But never again will I order anything online that is final sale. I don't need a closet of ill fitting clothes, regardless of the quality.

Ugh. 

I plan to buy nothing in February.  

UPDATE: I bought shoes and a T-shirt this month so far. 

Suede black sling backs -- $50
Grey suede boots -- $30 
Black rain boots -- $70
Target gray T-shirt -- $9

I LOVE all three of the shoes. I was going to wait on the boots and get myself a pair of Hunter, but I saw these instead and decided that they'd work. They're Tommy Hilfiger and I got them at a discount store. I did need new boots as the ones I have are falling apart. 

Did I need the shoes? No. I kind of feel like a hypocrite for buying things I don't need, but I'm not really THAT kind of minimalist. 

Still, I do have an awful lot. Probably not as much as your typical shopaholic, but I feel as though I could really make do with a lot less. 

Stripe Week

In follow up to my previous post about picking a theme each week so I make sure I wear all of my clothes, I too pictures of my outfits last week for stripe week. I only took pictures for two outfits and snapped them in the bathroom at work. 

I really like wearing striped shirts with floral scarves. I like the contrast. 

Here is another outfit. 

I received a lot of compliments on this outfit, but the pants don't fit right. More about that in the next post.

I forgot to photograph Friday's outfit. Now that I know I can do this quickly in work and that the quality isn't really as horrible as I expected, I will do this every day and try and put them up once a week. 

Next post is about spending.

An Alternative to Project 333

One of my goals/resolutions this year was to do another round of Project 333 (like I did this time last year), but when it came time to choose favorite items to wear, I just couldn't narrow it down. Over the past year or two, I have gotten rid of a lot of clothing that I just didn't love. And I still do that whenever I find something that I don't like anymore. Or if I wear it and it bothers me, it goes out that night, whether it be to the giveaway pile or the trash. 

But I simply could NOT limit myself to 33 items this year. Last year I couldn't do it either, although I did follow the other rule of removing things that didn't fit or didn't wear that often. For the most part, those things have been given away this year, and yet I still have about 12 skirts, 10 sweaters, 7 dresses, 10 casual tops, about 5 blouses/button down shirts, 5 pairs of jeans, 5 pairs of dress pants, and 7 or 8 jackets. Not to mention the shoes and purses. 

However, at least in this past year, when I bring something into the house, something goes out. Amazingly, I only bought one or two pairs of shoes last year. My mindset has definitely changed. I have a pair of rain boots that I bought about 5 years ago, and they are on their way out. But instead of just rushing right out and buying another pair, I'm giving this pair one more season, and then I'll buy a pair of Hunter boots at the end of winter. I am finally investing in higher quality shoes because it is worth it. 

So to make sure I am wearing ALL of the clothes in my closet, I decided to have a theme each week, and that would limit my choices and force me to wear everything at least once. The thing that started me on this idea was when my mother in law got me aqua nail polish for Christmas. I decided to try it and I really liked it, so I looked in my closet to see what I could wear with it. I don't have a lot of that color, but I successfully pulled together five outfits that matched my nail polish in some capacity. I might have worn black pants and a white top, but I also wore a scarf that had teal in it. 

The second week was gray, the third week (last week) was animal print, and this week is stripes. 

I'm working from home today but I wore a striped shirt yesterday and I'll be doing the same tomorrow and the rest of the week. My striped item will probably be a top each day, because aside from a scarf or two, the only striped things I own are tops. 

This has helped me tremendously so far with simplifying my outfit options and forcing me to be creative. I am really enjoying this self-induced challenge. I may even photograph my outfits and post them.

Are you doing Project 333 or are you doing something else to make sure you wear what you have? 

Still Alive, Still Decluttering, Mostly

I put what seems like bags and bags out for the local charity -- at least every 6 weeks or so -- and yet there is still more stuff to go through. My husband is almost finished the steps, and then that project will be done. Here is a picture of the steps after the rugs were removed and the steps were sanded and stained. Turns out my husband hated it, so he totally redid the whole thing. An after picture to follow.

That's all for now. Gotta run.