Boring Can Be Fun

My very own mother asked me if I stopped blogging. a) Hi, mama. b) No. c) L-A-Z-Y. Remember? I had to check and sure enough it's been two whole weeks since I last thrilled you with my mindless musings. I suppose I haven't felt particularly hilarious lately. But I promise to be really funny sometime very soon. Here are some things I'm thinking about telling you about: My capsule(ish) wardrobe--where I am on that A review on a book I recently read that made me immediately want to write up a weekly cleaning routine so I can be a fabulous and chic working mom with an easy, effortless system for maintaining our abode A follow-up when I fail to achieve Chic Mama status School pictures for my INFANT CHILD. How happy I am that Gilmore Girls is streaming on Netflix Ummm... other stuff I'll think of something. In the meantime, am I the only one suddenly struck by what an odd word "infant" is? Infant. In-fant. In. Fant. Fanta. Doncha wanna?...

What with getting a house, focusing more on my diet and getting some exercise, and wiping the cutest butt I've ever seen, I've not really focused on my wardrobe here lately. However, after rushing out the door in a pair of pants that, I discovered too late, had a stain on them (and unlike my spit up jeans , these had just been washed), I thought perhaps I should start replacing some of these things. Which made me remember that I was going to go all Fabulous Capsule Wardrobe on my closet. (That's the sartorial equivalent of going all crazy on your--ahem--butt.) I decided to sit down with a pencil and paper and play a game. If I had to start completely over from scratch, what core items of clothing would I want? I didn't say you'd think it was a Fun game. Bear with me. 1.) Pick your color. It's still pretty much a sauna outside here in North Florida, but we are approaching fall and winter. I don't think I look spectacular in black, and I get awfull...

Before we begin, do a search on Pinterest for "capsule wardrobe." See all those pretty pictures? Yeah, that's what I thought my closet would look like by now. Once upon a time, I declared that I would rid my wardrobe of drab and unflattering clothes. I would only have a perfect, thoughtfully put-together closet of clothes I LOVED. In a ruthless fury of emotion, clothes went flying . Ta-ta, stupid old clothes! I'm going to get better ones! I don't need you anymore! Only, I was pregnant at the time, so I didn't get to see, practically speaking, what I was left with. Now I'm not pregnant. And I have no clothes. Well, that's not true, I do still have some clothes--society rather insists that I keep covered in some way. My point is, it turns out that it takes more than a major purge sesh to turn one's wardrobe into a perfectly put-together capsule wardrobe. It also turns out that not replacing some of the clothes you got rid of means your capsule...

As you are undoubtedly aware (because you voraciously read this blog and diligently memorize every word I type), I recently performed a major clothing purge. I had bags of stuff to take to Goodwill and I lost some old friends (my old, danky tees) to the garbage can. I gained the ability to not jam my clothes together in my closet. I started that project in the name of simplifying and ultimately improving my wardrobe. As a result, I'm now very fabulous and stuff. But you knew that, didn't you? You're so kind. In return for your kindness in thinking what I want you to think about me, I want to issue a warning. It's something I didn't mention when talking about the initial purge of clothes. When you start to clean out your closet, there will be a massive, untold (until now) side effect: The desire to purge will overflow into EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE!!!! ...Or, at least, into other closets and storage spaces. Whatevs. You know that I went through my closet a...

Hey peeps. I got exactly 2 responses when I asked if you cared about my possible quest to narrow down my wardrobe and be a fabulous minimalist. But they were both fairly enthusiastic responses. Obviously this is a hot topic and you are all dying to know about it. Lucky you, I'm here to oblige. I have a very small closet. My apartment was built in the late '60s when "storage space" wasn't quite the hot commodity it is now. Compared to some people I know, I really didn't have that many clothes. But still, I began to be more and more frustrated that I was looking at a closet full of clothes while saying "I have nothing to wear!" Clearly, there were clothes there. Lots of them. So why did I act like they were nothing I could use? Why did it take me so stinkin' long to figure out what to wear in the morning? Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? It says that we wear only 20% of our clothes about 80% of the time. So what about that other 80% of o...

I've long been a bit of a nerd when it comes to money. I really like saving it. I mean, really . Making each month's budget is actually something I enjoy. I do it in a very cool, high-tech way: I keep a notebook and write each month's budget in it with pencil. My mother bought me The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyszyn when I was maybe 19 or 20. I was genuinely happy to receive it. Even then, many of the tips were dated, and a lot of it was taking frugality to an extreme I wouldn't bother with, but I was totally down with cutting cable, washing out my baggies, and using an empty toilet paper tube to keep my flat iron cord neat and tidy under the sink. Don't get me wrong. I like to spend money, too. The girl who cuts my hair is totally worth the cost because she never disappoints me. Spending a little more on certain brands because they're more eco-friendly or buying organic when we can--not cheap, but worth it to us. But when I realize tha...