May Purchases

This month has just flown by, I didn't get around to doing any posts because I was crazy busy! Overall I would say this month has been my most successful yet- I rarely did any online shopping, in fact I didn't end up buying a single thing online this month! I also did a variation on the 'Clothing Swap' idea with my friend, in which we invited people over to her place to take all of our stuff. Not very many people showed, but I managed to get rid of a huuuge amount of stuff! The majority of this stuff was not on my Closet Inventory list but things I had had piled up for ages. Nice to finally have it all gone.

In terms of things I had hanging up in my closet at the beginning of the month that have now been tossed/donated: I tossed 16 scarves and kept 33. Just a note that when my Grandmother passed away I inherited about 25 of her scarves, a few of which I got rid of. Even though I don't really know if they will ever come in handy to wear, the ones I kept are really pretty and I don't mind holding onto them for awhile. I also tossed a pair of Joe Fresh dress pants that were too short, and a faux-leather Moto Jacket from Buffalo by David Bitton that is too big for me.

There may actually be a few other things that made their way from my closet to the clothing giveaway party, I will have to do an updated Closet Inventory at some point soon!

Now for the fun stuff: my May Purchases.

• Max Studio Striped T-Shirt and W118 by Walter Baker Leopard Blouse from Marshalls - I have been wearing this Max Studio shirt ALL MONTH. Just try getting it off of me! It's the kind of perfect slouchy tee I see often online, but is just a bit too expensive to justify the purchase. The leopard blouse is great as work wear or for a dressy event. Both of these tops were originally around $65 and were marked down to $20.

• Express Columnist Slim Dress Pants - I absolutely love these dress pants! I didn't have any that fit me properly, and I wanted to make sure I had a good pair if a job interview or similar occasion came up. I went on a 40% off day and got them for about $50.00 which is well worth it in my opinion. I can't wait until I have a chance to wear them.

• Old Navy Pink Sueded Heels - These were definitely an impulse buy. But it gives me more reason to start wearing heels more often again!

• NYGARD Black Label Cropped Pink Pants from Target - These pants were on sale for less than $20 and I thought they would be a great buy for any future dressy/casual events.

The only reason I ended up buying the heels from Old Navy or the cropped dress pants from Target was because I was out with my boyfriend running some errands, along with exchanging a shirt for him at Old Navy that I got him for his birthday (he barely has any clothes), which tells me that a lot of the time I buy things on impulse and without any planning. Sometimes that's okay and you end up walking away with some nice stuff- but I know that I need to be careful and not let my need for instant gratification get away with me.

I'm really happy with everything that I bought- it's great that everything is pink, black, white or some variation. I feel like I'm really honing in my purchasing and not going off target to styles that are way outside of what I wear day to day.

• At the Clothing Giveaway with my friend I procured: F21 Floral Crop top, F21 Cream Jeweled Blouse, Cropped Cream Cardigan, and a light brown Infinity Scarf - I have definitely been trying to stay away from Forever 21 as much as possible (and I've been doing a great job of it I think!) but I didn't mind picking up these few items for free. And if I change my mind, I won't have any guilt about bringing them to the thrift store. I've been wanting a few more cardigans and I wasn't sure if this one would work into my wardrobe, but it looks cute on so I thought I would give it a try.

April Instagram

Woohoo, I think I met my goal of instagramming at least 3 times a week! Here are just a few of my faves from April.

Follow me on Instagrammmm!

Summer, summer, summertime

Summer is fast approaching and I have been thinking about what I have, and what holes need to be filled in my summer wardrobe.

TOPS

What I Have: Lots of graphic tees. A bunch of tank tops, both fitted and flowy. I've got a few good cardigans.

What I Want: I would like a few more casual blouses; one of these will be the giant Hawaiian shirt I plan on DIY-ing into a cute summer top. I would also like a loose/casual button down shirt in linen or cotton, and anything with stripes! I've also been looking for a nice light open-knit sweater or cardigan over the past few years and haven't found anything I've liked. I'll keep searching.

BOTTOMS

What I Have: I have plenty of skirts that I really need to make a priority of wearing this summer. I have one great pair of pink shorts that I love that I bought at Joe Fresh last year, and I have a pair of capri's from yeeeaaars ago.

What I Want: I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to hem my black & white leopard print shorts, that is a project I need to get going on. I would also like to get another pair of capri's as I only have one right now. I would also like to find a pair of black & white printed shorts to add a bit of visual interest to a simple tanktop/shorts outfit combo. After talking about my love of mixing up tough/chic looks in a prior blog post, I would love to find a cute eyelet or lace skirt to mix into my wardrobe. I will probably search thrift stores and the mall for this one.

DRESSES

What I Have: I have a handful for Forever 21 dresses which are okay, but they are really too short for me- I plan on phasing most of them out of my wardrobe in the future.

What I Want: I don't feel like I have any amazing workhorse dresses in my wardrobe- I mainly feel kind of meh about them. I would like a couple more summery dresses in a fit n' flare style that show my shape- I find that dresses like these are typically very flattering on me, which is frustrating since I am constantly drawn to oversize tent/smock dresses! Related to my wanting to find a cute skirt, I would love to find a pretty lace/eyelet/crochet summer dress to wear with a moto jacket.

OUTERWEAR

What I have: I have plenty of denim jackets, a rain jacket, and moto jackets so I really don't need anything else!

ACCESSORIES

What I Have: I have at least four or five pairs of ballet flats so I won't need to buy any more this year.

What I Want: I really need another pair of casual flat sandals- the one pair I have right now actually broke last summer. I managed to superglue them back together, but I'm not totally certain they will stay that way for long!

 My Priorities are:

• a pair of sandals
• a sweet/chic skirt or dress
• a few thrifted summer dresses
• my summer DIY projects

April Purchases

April was an interesting month. It was great in the fact that for the majority of it I did not feel compelled to shop, I didn't slowly drive myself crazy trying to tear myself away from online shopping. In fact I hardly went on my two favorite online shopping websites- Forever 21 and ASOS- at all this month. April was my first month out of school, and I finally had time to start going through my wardrobe, culling a few things, and that energized me. I hope to continue this through May. I still want to cut down on the amount of things I'm buying each month, so that will be something to work on in May.

• Joe Fresh slouchy crewneck tanks (1 b&w stripes, 1 black) & black cuffed shorts - I only have 3 other pairs of shorts and none in black so I was happy to find these ones! The 2 tanks were a bit of an impulse, but they have already gotten quite a bit of wear this month already so I think they were a good purchase.

• Forever 21 cropped tanks (in black, grey) - these are the perfect cropped tanks for layering under billowy/sheer summer shirts and tank tops. I've been in need of something like this for the past 2 years, and these two were only $6 each so I am pretty happy with them.

• ASOS Oversize Baseball Dress - I had been watching this dress for a few months and it finally went on sale, so I bought it.

•  From VALUE VILLAGE: H&M pink dress, H&M striped sweater dress, Gap b&w striped dress, Dollhouse pink skinny jeans - I went to Value Village twice in April to help someone do costuming for a high school show, and ended up finding these pieces for myself. I'm really happy with all of them, especially to find 2 spring/summer dresses. I generally don't like the buy out of season but the sweater dress was a steal at $15 and I know I will be wearing it a bunch next fall.

•  I was gifted 2 leopard scarves! People know how much I love leopard! Related to that I will be going through my scarves soon to remove some I don't need anymore and make room for these two.

A Pair & a Spares WARDROBE REHAB

I absolutely love Geneva's method on A Pair & A Spare for curating your closet; or as she calls it, 'Wardrobe Rehab'. The first step she has is to cull your wardrobe, which I have been doing and still am, so I decided to skip to number 2: Defining Your Style.

Instead of looking to my closet I decided to look to Pinterest; specifically my "Outfit Inspiration" board to see what I really love. I feel like my closet at the moment is a bit of a mish-mash of different things, which is why I decided to look to other people's style whom I admire to define what I really need in a wardrobe.

ALL OF THE LEATHER JACKETS

Leather moto jackets, followed closely by suede jackets are one of the first things I notice while perusing my Outfit Inpiration board. I have one great leather jacket from Viparo, and 3 other moto jackets that fulfill this catagory nicely (doesn't mean I don't have my eye on some amazing leather jackets from brands like Saint Laurent! one day!...) Followed closesly by... 

LOTS OF SKINNY JEANS

A leather jacket paired with skinny jeans is my go-to outfit. This really makes me realize that I need a good pair of dark-wash skinny jeans in my closet. Right now I have a couple pairs of skinny jeans, which I love, but they are of the $20 variety and they definitely look like it. Scraggaly threads and pulls aren't what I need in a jean- they DO look great when on (from a distance, at least) and I'll keep them for everyday wear, but a slammin' pair of skinny jeans that look like a million bucks (but don't cost it) are next up on my list of things to purchase.

TOUGH BUT CHIC

Another thing I notice on this board are the many outfits which have mixed tough leather and denim with sweet, chic swing skirts, soft blouses and floral prints. I really like the idea of mixing these two things to keep an outfit from going too masculine. I'm pretty sure if I shop my closet I can come up with a variety of outfits that fit the bill.

BACK TO BASICS

Simple sweaters, button down shirts, the holy WHITE-TEE, I really love the basics. When paired with skinnies and a leather jacket, you really can't go wrong! 

COLOR BLOCKING

Many of the outfits on my Outfit Inspiration board are made up of 2 or three colors; mainly black, grey and white, with some pops of color like pink or a leopard print. Luckily most of my wardrobe already adheres to these colors with a few exceptions.

 IN CONCLUSION

I think all of this gives me a really big clue towards what I should be focusing my shopping on in the future. I've always known this was my style and this is what I like, but it is easy to get away from yourself when you walk in to Forever 21 and everything is so cheap- thats when you start to water down your style. So my number 1 rule for future shopping is: FOCUS! & shop with intention!

Check out my Pinterest!

Progress

Tossed!

I had a bit of extra time over the past few days and decided to go through some of my skirts and belts- it really only took 15 or 20 minutes to blast through them all and decide whether to KEEP or TOSS.

Starting # of Pencil Skirts: 8

Keep: 4

Toss: 4

Starting # of Full/Circle Skirts: 4

Keep: 3

Toss: 1

I had 4 black pencil skirts and got rid of three, because I really didn't need 4 almost identical looking skirts. During this I also found one pencil skirt and one full skirt in need of hemming/mending!

Starting # of Belts: 34

Keep: 22

Toss: 13

13 isn't a huge amount to toss but I'm really happy about it! The belts I chose to toss ranged from too big/too small, to ones that I just don't like anymore. I also matched one of the TOSS belts to some old shorts and realized they are now 2 sizes to big for me... so those are getting TOSSED too!

I have to mention that before I did my wardrobe inventory a few weeks ago I actually had an even larger wardrobe, judging from the (very) big pile of clothes in my dining room that are going to be sent to the thrift store. I actually am very good about going through my stuff and getting rid of things, as I have done many times over the past few years- but evidently I am very bad at bringing new things in. It is pretty sad to see a pile of wasted money and fabric. But I am getting better at dialing down my impulses and really thinking about my style and what works for me. I'm looking forward to some more KEEP & TOSS times in the future!

Closet Inventory part 1

Let me preface this by saying; I have a lot of stuff. More than I originally thought- as I was counting and the numbers started adding up I was pretty shocked, but not really surprised. I decided to focus on my clothing and leave the accessories for later. So lets get down to it.

I created categories based on what I had in my closet to make it easier to divide things up.

OUTERWEAR	#
Leather/PU Jackets	4
Suede/Faux Suede Jackets	2
Winter Jackets	2
Blazers	4
Denim Jackets	5
Other	4
TOTAL #:	21
TOPS
Graphic & Print T-Shirts (Short Sleeve)	48
Graphic & Print T-Shirts (Long or 3/4 Sleeve)	2
Plain Shirts (Short Sleeve)	27
Plain Shirts (Long or 3/4 Sleeve)	14
Button-Down Shirts	16
Blouses	22
Cardigans	25
Ponchos	3
Graphic & Print Sweaters	7
Plain Sweaters	13
Sweatshirts & Hoodies	7
Vests	6
Tank Tops	13
Tank Tops (layering)	24
Crop Tops & Bralets	4
TOTAL #:	231
BOTTOMS
Jeans	13
Pants	4
Capris	2
Cotton/Tube Skirts	9
Denim Skirts	2
Circle/Swing Skirts	7
Pencil Skirts	8
Other Skirts	8
Shorts	3
TOTAL #:	56
DRESSES
Spring/Summer Dresses	11
Fall/Winter Dresses	15
Retro Look Dresses	3
Going Out/Fancy Dress	12
Formal/Special Occasion Dresses	5
TOTAL #:	46

I think the overall problem is that I have been hanging onto things that I've owned for YEARS- some from back in high school. I'm also one of those people who hangs onto things 'just in case' I need them- the thing is, quite often a random event will come up (like a steampunk show I went to recently) and I was able to create an outfit out of stuff in my closet that I typically don't wear. If I had gotten rid of that stuff, I wouldn't be able to do that. So maybe some stuff needs to be transferred to my costume bin for fun times like that.

I have a TON of graphic t-shirts. And I really don't wear them often enough. Over the past few years I have told myself many times not to buy anymore because I already had too many, and generally I have stuck to that except for buying a few concert t-shirts as mementos. In this case I need to purge some shirts, maybe transfer some over to my sleep shirt drawer, as well as just commit to wearing them on a more regular basis.

 

I really only wear a couple of my jackets on a regular basis, so as the whether warms up I'm going to need to make a really big effort to wear all of my spring coats & jackets so I can decided what is going to stay and what is going to go. In terms of skirts, I really want to wear them on a more regular basis but there are so many I really never wear that I just need to get rid of. I might keep one plain black circle skirt and a couple basic pencil skirts but the rest can go.

I think my upcoming strategy might be to box up a large amount of my clothing that I rarely wear, put it away and see what happens. Most likely I will forget about all the clothing I put in there and it will make it easier to get rid of. After looking at this inventory it would be hard to believe that I really need anything more at all, but I seem to always feel that way. I think it just goes to show that I'm not utilizing my wardrobe 100%- I have a lot of items that should be donated and really shouldn't make the cut in my wardrobe. So that is something I'm going to have to work on in the coming weeks and months, to really pare down what I have.