First quarter re-cap!

I like to re-visit my goals on a regular basis to see my progress, and reflect on how I've been tackling them. As we start the second quarter of the year, below is a re-cap of my wardrobe goals that I posted earlier this year to see how I've been doing.  

My goals for 2015 are to:

• continue to downsize the number of shoes I have - I purged a lot this year but there are still some that I can let go of. Also, I won't be replacing a number of them when they wear through. I purchased 4 pairs of shoes and my mom gave me 3 pairs of near-new shoes that she can no longer wear due to spurs. I removed a pair of sneakers and runners from my wardrobe. I'm struggling to minimize or maintain the size of my shoe collection - this year, shoes seem to be my weakness  and I'm working on reeling my self-control back in, and continuing to pare down.
  
• continue to work on using the things I love and not worry about them getting ruined. This is going well! 
• build a capsule wardrobe for each month - unlike some capsule wardrobe challenges, I'm not limiting the number of items I will use but I will make sure the amount is reasonable. Decided that with the number of items I currently have in my wardrobe, this isn't practical - I found myself missing certain items. I will need to pare down more before I can attempt capsules again so that I can get more wear out of all my clothes.
• continue to shop out of my bag and wallet collection and implement a one-in, one-out rule.  Haven't bought a single bag or wallet so far - in fact, I let 2 SLGs go, didn't bring in anything new, and re-purposed a tech case into a mini-wallet.
• rotate through all my wallets throughout the year. So far, I have used 2 different wallets, and 10 different bags.
• use jewelry more to accessorize my daily outfits. I got a bit lazy, but working on this more and also let a few costume jewelry rings go.
• continue to purge, re-fine, and down-size my wardrobe. Continuing!
• budget $1,000 for wardrobe purchases (not including investment pieces that may replace current wardrobe staples). Aside from my Burberry coat (investment piece), I am $26 over my quarterly limit. 
• downsize the number of jackets and coats. Donated one jacket, bought one investment coat, and was given 2 coats. At this point in time, I don't know what I will be doing since I now have a pretty good variety of jackets and coats. I think this category will need some major re-evaluation at the end of the year.
• use the bags I weren't able to use in 2014 - if I don't use them again in 2015, consider letting them go. So far I've used 3 and they turned out to be keepers.
• have some purchase-free months. March was purchase-free!

March comings and goings

I vowed that I would not make any purchases in March, and I succeeded! =) I ALMOST had a slip-up when I saw a Transformers t-shirt (hubby's a huge fan) on mega-sale at Target, but I walked away from it. 

Going - 

• Adidas sneakers - I loved them when I bought them but because I wanted to keep them looking new, I rarely wore them. I tried to bring them back into my wardrobe earlier this month, only to find that they were not as comfortable as I remembered. I have been wanting to let these go for years but couldn't overcome the guilt I felt for spending money on something I barely wore - I'm over it now, and own one less pair of shoes, hurray!
• Adidas runners - I've had them since grade 8, haha, and I just love them; they were really hard to give up but my mom gave me her runnners and she told me mine needed to go. Can't argue with my mom!
• few more pieces of costume jewelry, and items I was going to use when I wanted to try my hand at making my own jewelry (what was I thinking?)
• Adidas bag - one of the vintage inspired ones from my university days.
• Indigo tote bag - given to me by my friend, but just have too many bags and had to decide to let it go.
• Not wardrobe related, but I let go of a few more glasses from our kitchen, and made the rounds in my condo and threw out as many random pieces of paper as I could.

Coming - 

• Black Hunter boots - my mom can't wear a lot of her shoes any more due to spurs =( so she gave me her knee-high Hunter boots. In Vancouver, these are a staple and I'll now have another pair of rainboots to add to the two I already have. Rainboots are an item that I plan to not buy until I need to replace them so since my existing pairs are still in great condition, I won't be buying rainboots - probably, ever.
• Nike runners - again from my mom. This is great because I have been thinking about replacing mine and I really needed a push. Free, is a good push, haha. 

Color capsule attempt - Black, White, Gray, and Navy

After my Tuesday post about our dreary Spring, I decided to try a new approach to my wardrobe. When I began my purge, I organized my wardrobe by colors and let go of anything that didn't look good on me. I am going to take it one step further and try to stick to a color capsule of only black, white, gray and navy (blues). 

Why the sudden change? I'm bored by all this rain and also find myself distracted with what I have - it's been harder the last while to put together outfits and I need to re-focus; also, my purging has really slowed down and I find I'm getting tempted to make purchases (I haven't! but I'm tempted!). Since my attempt at a capsule wardrobe didn't work out, I'm hoping this will help me stay focused but allow me to still be flexible. Also, it's a great way for me to wear more of my shoes - since I got so many new pairs lately, I've been working on creating outfits around my shoes (I have a really bad habit of starting with awesome shoes and then changing into flats the second I get a chance)

I discussed my plan with my co-worker (I shall call her N) and she suggested that I only do this for work, or I might get bored or feel restricted. I thought that was a really good point, especially since I still love color, have great pieces, and am still trying to perfect my weekend wardrobe - perhaps I can shift anything outside of the color capsule into my weekend and voila, perfected! (We'll see, haha) 

Also, she loved the color capsule idea so much, that she joined me on my challenge to wear only black white, gray, and navy for the rest of the week. Here are our outfits:

My outfits:

(Shoes: BCBG gray patent pumps; Nine West Swaymeso kitten heels; Nine West leopard pumps)

N's outfits:

I loved all of N's outfits - she looked so perfectly put together for the office and made it look so easy! For myself, I definitely love the idea but I need to actually organize my closet and think about outfits. Since it started out as a whim idea, I wasn't super prepared but we decided we loved the idea so much, that we're going to take the challenge into April - we'll be sticking to the same set of colors. Also, my husband is returning soon (yay!!!) and I will have use of my Stylebook App again (bonus yay!!!).

Did you notice my shoes though? hehe. I think if anything, although I wasn't super happy with my outfits, I AM super happy about my shoes and their rotation. 

Spring is here! and what do I wear?

For the last few weeks I have been anticipating the arrival of Spring - looking at Pinterest for ideas, I couldn't wait to start wearing some color and break out some lighter outwear. Of course, we are experiencing terrible weather. While we have it better than eastern Canada, it is pouring rain and randomly breaking into torrential down-pour. This means it's wet, dreary, and COLD. Forget the cute skirts and open toe shoes, forget the tan trench coat, forget the small cute bags, but DON'T forget your umbrella and rain boots =(

How have I been battling these Spring blues? With khakis! After I discovered GAP khakis, I have purchased 4 pairs in less than a year. 2 in lighter spring colors (pale pink and dusty gray/blue), a lighter gray in linen, and a pair in dark gray. Yes, Yes, I know, I talk about the GAP a lot, and honestly, I'm surprised that I haven't raved about these pants sooner, haha. When I bought them, I bought them for summer use, but I am fast realizing that they give me the taste of Spring I'm so longing for, AND they keep me warm. 

The great thing about them is that they look great with flats, sneakers, and high heels. I've been wearing my rain boots to work and then switching into my heels for a more professional look at the office. When I have a tour, I can wear flats and they still look professional and keep me comfortable, and for weekends, I can wear my sneakers =) Very versatile!

TGIF!

TGIF! Must be said twice. What a week... I am happy to announce that March is still a no-purchase month for me and I haven't had an urge to buy anything; I've also had 3 no-spend days in a row, this last week! 

My younger cousin has taken up sewing lately so instead of donating my items, I have been giving them some thought to maybe re-vamping/re-purposing them. I was given two, WAY over-sized t-shirts (in the same style!) and I asked her to turn them into a crossbody feed bag, and a laptop sleeve.

(original t-shirt; two sides of the feedbag)

The laptop sleeve (not shown) worked well and the look of the bag was great except the material is 100% cotton so there is a lot sagging. We are currently thinking of how to correct this - the most obvious answer is to add a lining of the non-sag nature (perhaps with another item I already have), buuut... we may also re-re-vamp it, entirely.

I'm now less 2 t-shirts I will never wear and have one functioning laptop sleeve, and working toward, a functioning feed bag =)