two years later . . . .
It’s been almost two years since I wrote Style & the SAHM: A Quest, the beginning of an on-again, off-again series. I’ve been less enthusiastic about my quest lately (gaining 20 pounds will do that to you). Still, the quest continues. Here are some lessons learned from the past fall and winter . . . which, in April, is helpful to no one in my hemisphere . . . you can bookmark this to read come October. 😉
1. If you try on a sweater at TJ Maxx
and don’t buy it and then find yourself, thinking about it a lot, you should go back and buy it. You’ll wear it a lot. Especially, since you’ve been on the lookout for a flattering, white, non-scratch, cableknit sweater for a long time.
2. When in doubt, ditch the bootcut jeans and sneakers and go for skinny jeans (or LOFT curvy straight leg jeans) with boots, especially if you have a drapey top. Also, those red bowling clown shoes were a mistake.
See example A
vs. Examples B and C
3. But bootcut jeans aren’t always a bad choice, if your top is more on the fitted side. And even those red sneakers, well . . .
4. If you have a round face and broad shoulders to begin with, and then gain weight, you’ll wish you had bought more v-neck, drapey tops like this one from T.J. Maxx . . .
and this one from Express (didn’t buy it but should have):
and fewer fitted crewnecks like these. The pictures were taken when I bought them a year ago–they’re more snug now 😦
5. If you find yourself at a coffee shop wearing the same sweater as someone else, then later notice that she has taken off the sweater and is now wearing just the shirt underneath, take a good look at yourself, and ask
“Would I want be dressed like me?”
Lesson learned: beware the siren song of the elastic waist. When in doubt, wear jeans. 😉
Also, after two years, it was time for another closet purge. It’s amazing how much piles up, even when I try to be pretty minimalist.
Most of these things I gave away, or am in the process of giving away. A few I saved for a different season. A very very few I couldn’t bear to part with and saved in hopes of losing weight.
Now the extent of my wardrobe is this:
and this:
with one box in the closet of out-of-season or too-small things I’m hanging on to.
The battle against frumpiness and clutter takes constant vigilance.
Keep fighting the good fight
{And click over to Jenna’s blog for more five favorites posts.}
