I finally swapped out my seasonal clothes and let me just say, I have waaay more clothes than I originally thought!  It was definitely an eye-opening experience and an important exercise to undertake every 6 months.  Not only does it help maintain clutter, but it also allows you to assess your wardrobe inventory.  It's also kind of nice to open up the storage boxes and find clothes that you completely forgot you had!

I spent almost 3 hours inspecting each item for any damage, trying on items for fit, and rigorously interrogating myself on the reasons why it should stay in my wardrobe.  I demanded nothing but brutal honesty in answering whether it was flattering, comfortable, or if I had even touched it last season.  Basically, the question boiled down to whether or not I'd buy it again or if I'm just being sentimental about keeping it.

I ended up with two 13-gallon trash bag-sized piles of clothing for donation.

Looking at my closet now, I realize I need to declare a moratorium on purchasing any more white tops as they make up almost 25% of my shirts.  I was happy to find a gray shirt and a white tank that were on the GYPO Spring Challenge shopping list.

Fortunately, with all these new Huggable Hangers I recently bought, I can pretty much hang up all my tops which makes them more visible than putting them inside drawers.  I got three 40-count value packs for $30 and four 10-count shirt hangers for $9 each for a total of $126 at Target.

So after discovering how many clothes I have, I still went online and bought two different pairs of white jeans (modern skinny and modern straight) from Loft.com.  They were having a cybersale (promo code: CYBER50) of 50% off and free shipping which hardly ever happens!

It's going to be a real challenge, but I plan to really try my best to save up my money and give myself a budget of no more than $200 for this spring challenge.

Happy Easter Sunday!

I've been wanting to switch out my fall/winter wardrobe for my spring/summer wardrobe for over a month now.

Last week I spent two hours replacing all my white plastic hangers that I had accumulated since college for these Huggable Hangers which came highly recommended by fellow GYPO challengers.

What do you think?

BEFORE                                                     AFTER

I don't know if it really made that much of a difference.  In fact, it took longer to hang clothes on the hangers and take them off, but I do love the look of the shiny hooks against the rods.  Looking at the bottom row of pants, I may go with black hangers since the white really sticks out.

So I signed up for the GYPO Spring 2015 Challenge and you should too if you haven't already!  It's not too late to join.  The outfits will be released next Monday.

The GYPO shopping list came out this past Friday and I feel confident in filling the gaps of my spring wardrobe with it, except in order to do so, I need to first assess what I have!

Both of these blogs, Putting Me Together and A Little Bit of Cheer, have great guidelines on how to clean out your closet.

It seems like the only time I can do a closet purge is between the hours of midnight and 2 am.

The GYPO challenges are a great resource for fashion ideas and inspiration.  I learned two really neat and simple wardrobe tricks that make it easy to distinguish between the clothes you wear and the ones you don't.  This would be super useful in a closet purge at the end of a season!  The first method is to hang all your hangers backwards on the closet rod and turn them around once you've worn the item.  The second method is to tie a ribbon on your closet rod and then as you wear your clothes, move the hanger to the other side of the ribbon.  I'm going to try the ribbon method.

I am doing something I've never done before - wear leggings!  I think they look so cute on everyone else but always thought they wouldn't work on me because of my athletic calves. However, wearing riding boots covers them up nicely. I got the famous Hue ultra wide band gray leggings during Cyber Monday for $27 (had to size down to avoid knee wrinkles) and they arrived yesterday. I can now understand why some people would live in leggings - they're as comfy as yoga pants!

Also wearing a Caslon tunic I got for the fall challenge but never got around to wearing until now. I felt like the Zara vest interfered with the Dolman sleeves on the tunic so I left it off. Plus, the weather is in the upper 60's.

Guess what?!? This is my 3rd challenge and I finally got my first ever unprompted compliment from my hubby today. "You look nice! Get your pretty on!" he said with a smile. Woot woot!!! 😇 Feeling over the moon!  Happy Tuesday!

Looking at it now, I should have added in my tassel necklace to dress it up a bit.

Yesterday was the kickoff for the Winter/Holiday Style Me Pretty Challenge. It's not too late to join! Just click on the link or the graphic below:

Once you join, be sure to join the Facebook group since that's where most of the fun is. You get to see how other people style the outfit of the day (OOTD) and can get tips, inspiration, and lots of encouraging feedback. I highly recommend it!

I posted my OOTD late yesterday since I received my new fur scarf and neutral gray sweater in the mail in the afternoon but didn't get to open the packages until well after my son went to bed. I was wearing a teal version of this Target Mossimo sweater with my leopard scarf and neutral flats before I got to play dress up.

What a great outfit to start off the challenge!

The scarf is from Nordstrom and I love how super soft it is. Feels like the most luxurious thing I've ever owned. I tried it on with the red sweater (Target had a BOGO60) and felt like Mrs. Claus (possible outfit for Xmas card)! Target ultrasoft V-neck sweater, AG skinny jeans, Naturalizer riding boots from Macy's, Coach bag, Nordstrom pyramid stud earrings.

Not gonna lie. This was definitely a challenging outfit probably because it was almost too basic - is that even possible? When I first put it on, I felt so masculine in it, like one of those guys that work at Best Buy or something. Not my favorite look.

Evolution of today's outfit:
1) I didn't have a statement necklace, so I first tried this with pearls, but it looked all kinds of wrong. 2) Then I tried to add some color with a pink tank and pink dangling earrings, but it looked too matchy-matchy as if I was trying too hard.
3) I kept the tank on for warmth, switched into my pearl studs, and decided to throw on this lightweight $5 floral infinity scarf from Charlotte Russe to both add color and femininity. From the fall challenge, I discovered Charlotte Russe has an awesome selection of lightweight scarves for only $5.  I hadn't shopped at Charlotte Russe since my college days!

I do love how much a look can be changed by adding accessories since you can get a bunch of them for the price of a shirt.

I only know one way to tie an infinity scarf and this is it. I think it makes the look a little top heavy though. I had to leave the house so ran out of time to try improving this.  Maybe some winter white pants and cognac riding boots next time?

Another blog that I recently started following, Pinterest Told Me To, just did a post yesterday about how scarves can elevate the style of an outfit.

It's raining today but I still managed to run quite a few errands.  Today's outfit called for a jewel-toned blouse with bootcut jeans, tassel necklace, and leopard flats.  I was so excited to wear the JCP shirts I recently bought.  Unfortunately, I had major gaping issues!  What!?!  They worked fine in the dressing room.  I must have just grabbed different shirts when I headed to the checkout line.  Needless to say, I ended up returning both of them and amazingly, left JCP with nothing but my receipts.  Instead, I shopped my closet.  This is what I wore:

I love this Banana Republic blouse and I don't wear it as often as I should.  The last time I wore this blouse was went we closed on our house two years ago!  It has a dainty white mini-polka dot print and a ruffle collar that goes down the front placket.  I never would have thought to pair this with jeans.  Since the neckline already forms a Y, I went with my new Stella & Dot necklace that arrived yesterday instead of the tassel necklace.  Like other ladies in the challenge, I spent half an hour tucking and untucking trying to decide which looked better.  I think tucking the blouse draws too much attention to fluffy abs, so I left it untucked.  One of these days, I will venture out with a tucked shirt, but not today.  This is the perfect date night outfit for my dinner date with my husband tonight.

Went by TJ Maxx looking for the "must-have" Bobeau asymmetrical wrap that I heard was on sale for $20.  They only had heather charcoal and black, both of which looked good.  However, this time I went with black.  These would make really nice gifts.

LOVED my outfit today!  Not only did I get this selfie right on my first try, but I got to put together two old pieces I had thought of donating, layered my necklaces for the first time, and overall felt really pretty.  I hardly wear these necklaces since I don't know what to wear them with, but as I was playing around in my closet this morning, I put them on and voila!  They just worked!

Just love how the lavender and gray played off of each other nicely too!  It was pure style magic.  I was searching for a neutral sweater and a plaid shirt and ended up shopping my closet for weather appropriate tops.  I pulled out my old Banana Republic plaid lavender shirt and my old H&M gray sweater that I've had forever since they were both lightweight.  They were perfect for the 70 degree weather we had today.

This is one of those outfits that I feel really captures "me" - fun, romantic, laid-back, and classic.  This is also the first time I ever wore this locket that I purchased off of Etsy for my wedding 2 and 1/2 years ago.  It contains a picture of my late father and I had wrapped it around my bouquet as I walked down the aisle with my brother.  There's a lot of sentiment behind this outfit which makes it extra-special.

Have a terrific Thursday!

I apologize for the lack of posts recently.  I had gotten sick along with my son from this cold front that made its way to Houston since my last post.  The temperatures are now climbing back up to the 60's and 70's.

Today I finally crossed off the last item on the Build Your Wardrobe Basics shopping list - the jewel-toned dressy blouse!  Hooray!!!  I found it, or should I say them, at JCP.  Have I mentioned that I never shopped at JCPenney before the fall challenge?  It's my favorite place to find shirts nowadays.  I actually couldn't decide between the regal teal and the intense plum, so I did what I normally do in these moments of indecision...I got them both!  The teal is such a beautiful deep blue turquoise-like color that was so flattering and difficult to find.  It reminds me of the ocean.  The plum was more of a berry-wine that looks so elegant.  I'm starting to gravitate to berry colors this season.  Since the shopping list mentioned that the blouse would be used to layer underneath the black sleeveless shift dress, I was imagining how these colors would look.  I think the blue would give off a nice pop of color and the plum would tone it down so other accessories could take the spotlight.  I would imagine the plum would pair very nicely with my brown tweed skirt for a quintessential fall look.

Lots to catch up on, plus pictures!

The outfits have been released for the past 3 days and they've been living up to the challenge's name so far (as in being very basic).  For Monday's outfit, I woke up feeling under the weather but got dressed up anyways because I was so excited for the challenge outfits to start.  This is what I wore:

The striped shirt I already had gotten for the fall challenge at Ann Taylor, same with the tassel necklace and oversized gold watch from Forever 21, the dark wash bootcut jeans are a Long & Lean pair I already had pre-challenge from 1969 GAP, and the Coach bag was one of the few items I purchased for this challenge.  I got it at the Coach outlet during my birthday weekend with my mom.  After getting dressed, something amazing happened!  I felt much better and even went out to run some errands as opposed to staying in bed.

I also realized how much footwear really completes an outfit! These were my DSW Lucky Brand flats that arrived yesterday and I was still wearing them around the house debating whether I should keep them since I sized up to 7.5 and they're a tad big, but I can't exchange them for a 7 since they are sold out. I love they way they look though!

On Tuesday, I got to wear another new purchase for this challenge: my Ann Taylor Factory leopard belt.  This was my first time belting an un-tucked buttoned-down shirt in my life!  I am amazed at how it creates a waist with a subtle peplum effect.  I have no idea why I never thought to try this earlier.  These are the moments I love about the style challenges: they really do encourage you to go beyond your comfort zone!

Also, I hadn't worn black dress pants for more than half a year and am amazed they still fit!  As you know from my previous post, I had been raving about this $10 JCP chambray shirt, when I came across the lighter Old Navy one for $20.  I think the darker one looks dressier and has a nice cuffed sleeve contrast, but I also really like the contrast in the buttons on the lighter one. I switched out of the dress pants for black straight leg corduroys for the first picture.  Which do you like better?

Dark	Light

I decided to keep them both since they will be useful in different situations.  The darker one would be more appropriate for work or meetings, and the lighter one is more casual.

For today's outfit, I thought, "This is the GAP uniform!" Well, except for the leopard flats.  Never tried putting a button-down shirt under this denim jacket until today, but I like it!  I'm doing all kinds of crazy things here in the basics challenge!  Not sure whether the lengths of the tops work, but when I tried tucking the shirt in, it just emphasized my long torso due to the low rise in my pants, so I left it untucked.  My old GAP jacket is much shorter than I remember, but I know the waist-length works perfectly for summer dresses. These Banana Republic weekend chinos are my khaki pants version - I love them since they have a nice relaxed fit with just a hint of stretch.

All clothing was shopped from my closet.  The white button-down shirt is The Limited Essential Shirt.  I love the shirt since it's made of thicker material than other see-through white shirts.  Plus, this outfit worked surprisingly well for the 60 degree weather we had today.

During my trip to JCP, I confirmed that I will be keeping my DSW Lucky Brand leopard flats despite them being a tad big.  I had been eyeing the a.n.a. pair of leopard Epic ballet flats since they remind me of the memory foam cushioned Lucky Brand Emmie Flats that felt incredible on my feet.  However, I felt like the suede leopard print was too faded so I returned them.  The JCP ones were cushioned, but I really prefer the grosgrain trim and suede upper of the sold out DSW Lucky Brand Letah Flats.


One of the side effects from doing these style challenges is that you purge your closet of clothes that do not work.  The ones that are too old, no longer fit, or you never wear since you have nothing to wear it with.  You're more willing to part with them in exchange for ones that do work and work well.

I had purchased Umbra's Little Black Dress at Marshall's yesterday for half the cost and absolutely love it!  It completely cleared out my cluttered jewelry drawer and it keeps all my long necklaces nice and untangled.  I had been thinking of the best ways to organize my jewelry and this is pure genius!  The solution to all your jewelry problems - it takes up very little space, lets you see your entire collection at a glance, keeps everything in its own space, is user-friendly, and is so well-organized that you can find whatever you need within a second.  No need for fancy jewelry boxes, this does it all!

Based on the success of the jewelry organizer, I got myself a scarf organizer from Marshall's today.  Actually, it's 3 18-hole each scarf organizers for $10.  I ended up using one of them for a belt organizer and cleared another drawer!