The Snowball Effect

Babyfriend and I have the same taste in shoe color.

About a month ago, inspired by my buddy Helen, I decided to join a team weight loss thing --although mine is at my fancy gym. I hadn't been there in months and months, and I wanted to try going again but I didn't know how to start. The promotion is 90-Day Challenge from August 3 to November 3. There is an optional weekly weigh-in (or just weigh in at the beginning and end), and the option to sign up for an extra 10,000-Steps-A-Day Challenge, which I did. There's huge prizes for the winner (it's a nationwide contest since it's a nationwide gym), but the biggest enticement for me was Try It Tuesdays. Every Tuesday there is a free class, sometimes about food but most of it are sample classes in TRX, yoga, pilates, treadmill/cardio, etc. Here was my perfect opportunity to get into a gym routine AND to try exercises I never would on my own! The timing was not good initially -- I was headed for vacation, but I had to go for it.

So I did.

I weighed in, took a godawful "before" picture in a sports bra and shorts (I kind of hope I don't win just so I never have to show anyone that picture) and promptly left town.

Had a super-awesome vacation (which I will post pics of soon). But I was proud of myself there -- I didn't just shut down the whole Getting Skinny project because I was out of town. I tracked my food and drink every day, and I made smart choices and ate tons of fresh, local-grown fruits and veggies, and I tried hard to get as many steps as I could. I even went to a WW meeting during the week!

And laid on the beach for a day.

I felt great about it, and I met all my goals. I made the 10K target 4 out of 7 days, I lost a pound and a half, and I had an awesome, awesome vacation with my husband and friends (and Abby).

Then it was back to work, where I was promptly felled by the flu. The one day I stayed home sick, my Fitbit counted 1,054 steps for the WHOLE DAY. From bed to bathroom to kitchen to bed, hahaha. Luckily it cleared up after a couple of days.

This week is my first full week without vacation or sickness -- and my husband went out of town with his brother for the week. So while it is not quite "back to normal" it's darned close.

As I am sure you are all worried, I am here to say that Abby and I are managing okay in my husband's absence. I went out to the Try It Tuesday class (a lesson about and *at* the grocery store, which..okay, actually I did learn that just as I use real butter and full-fat cheese I should probably eat more low-fat and regular yogurt too; I bought some lemon flavored Noosa to try) and put her back in the crate after our post-work dog park trip, so she was off her nightly routine and didn't realize that Hubby wasn't there and wasn't coming home until pretty late that night. I am sure there will be more pouting by the door tonight. She just lays next to it, and sadly rings the bells with one slow swipe of her paw. Chime, chime, where's Daddy? Chime, chime...I couldn't take it and took her upstairs to bed early. She was fine after that.

As for me, the cleaning ladies came yesterday, so I am doing my best to keep the house as spotless and unrumpled as when they left. The couch is still neatly stacked with pillows, half the bed is still made, and the kitchen counters are still empty. I'm going to see how long I can keep that up, just because I am a weirdo.

Not to jinx anything, but now that all my vacations are over and I am back to my regular work-a-day routines, my commitment to the 90-day challenge is starting to produce results. I've hit the 10K-step mark 5 days in a row, and for two of those I managed to get to the gym and figured out how to work the dumb treadmill.

I think I found a good way to get myself to do it -- if I don't make my 10K steps by 7pm, then I have to go to the gym and treadmill until they are done. If I can get my 10K in, I get a night off. So far the carrot/stick approach is working -- I'm a lot more conscious of how much I am moving/not moving during the day at the hospital, and I try to take Abby out for a long time and long walks in the park or around the neighborhood. If that fails, then I am getting in the habit of just popping over the gym and getting some sweat going.

Next Tuesday is a TRX class, which fills me with both dread and curiosity; there are only a couple of genuine fatties like me doing this challenge, so I feel pretty awkward and noticeable at the trial classes, but I am really grateful for the opportunity to just go and try out these things without having to commit to any of them. Yet. I'd love to find a couple of exercises from this that I can enjoy going forward. Once the challenge is over, the 10K thing won't be the main goal, and my hope is by then the habit of going to the gym several nights a week will be set, so mixing up my exercise routines and trying things other than walking will be the next adventure.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the way this is snowballing; I know myself, and incremental change that builds from one success at a time is how I change my habits best. I look back at myself a year ago -- I was hobbled from still-undiagnosed foot pain. I could barely get up the stairs! Then came the blessed appointment at the ortho, and a long, long winter of twice-a-week physical therapy, and then starting to take Abby to the dog park daily this spring, and then getting my Fitbit...and now I am finally at the point where walking 4-5 miles in a day doesn't cripple me for the rest of the week. Hell, I am starting to look forward to next week with Hubby's return so I can go to the gym even if I do make my steps! From my viewpoint of a year ago, it feels pretty damned miraculous that I got this far at all.

The competitive side of me is a little upset, I will admit. I've been watching the leaderboards for both challenges, and most of the people started out making their goals right on the first day. One person has already lost 11 pounds in three weeks! (I hate that person.) I have eased myself into it, because that's how I incorporate things into my habits. It's tough to see myself in the back of the pack on the scoreboard (the only people below me have already clearly dropped out) but I keep reminding myself that I just need to keep doing it.

Tortoise and the hare, tortoise and the hare.

Even if I don't win a prize, I definitely will have won.

The best selfie I have yet to take.

I miss my chin

This is an email conversation I had with my friend Jessie this morning.

Me: I am considering a blog entry too -- one of the nice things about Google Chrome is that now it carries over all my bookmarks from home to here. so I have the links I need to write one. The problem is the content I want to write is pretty Debbie Downer so I am not sure I should write it. Or maybe pull one of those no-comment moves, because I don't really want anyone chiming in. Even though I hate when people do that. 
Ugh. 

Jessie: Debbie Downer in the self-esteem department? Everyone gets to have no more than seven (7) of those days per annum. I don't think you've used up your allotment this year. 
Or are you Debbie Downer in just a life-in-general way?

Me: Hahaha, I may just include that HR-benefits joke into the post. 
Self-esteem. I am feeling very fat, I miss my chin and my hands, but I don't know that I am at the tipping point to do anything about it or if I just want to complain about it and magically wish it away. 

Jessie: At least you recognize that Magical Golf Cart Wishing* is a stage that is separate from doing something about it. I think that's a big and pivotal difference between you and other folks.

I really understand, and I think that you really understand the difference between having Debbie Downer feelings and wallowing for far longer than is actually productive. I think the people who enjoy reading your blog also have negative feelings or feel defeated, and even if you don't let them comment (you drama queen, yuk yuk wokka wokka), you'll be surprised by how many folks will understand and/or give you feedback like, "Even if you're feeling super cruddy, the way that you tackle every day with confidence and humor is very inspirational."

For example, I would say that.

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*Magical Golf Cart Thinking came about a few years ago when a group of us went for a brisk walk through a nearby forest preserve. After about a half-hour of walking, a few people started grumbling about wishing for someone to come on by with a golf cart to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. Now it's become short-hand among my friends (okay, mostly Jessie, WINKIE) for the easy shortcut that does the work for us.

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Jessie, by the way, is blogging (or boogerin', as we like to joke) over at We Need Your Help And/Or Pies, where you can read her special blend of wokka-wokka humor and genuine enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, smarts, and all-around awesomeness as she travels on her own weight-loss journey (and very successfully too, I must add). She is also a recent convert to Gwynnie Bee; someday I may convince her to post an outfit photo or two! (OMG, SHE DID!!!!)

She has left the Magical Golf Cart far behind her these days. It's pretty great to see.

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Anyway. Back to the problem at hand: my hands. And my chin, singular. I miss them. I look down at the back of my hand and I don't recognize it anymore. Where are my tendons? I look at my outfit photos and pick the one to post not that has the most flattering outfit presentation but doesn't show the triple-chin explosion as much. 

Some days I don't have any photos that I want to post at all.

I tried reading Fat Acceptance blogs, and most days I am okay with how I look, but in the end...I don't want to be fat forever. I don't know if there's a "skinny" girl busting to get out of me, but I don't want to live the rest of my life like *this* either. 

Which brings me to my next problem: how do I get rid of all this extra weight? There are so many plans and options, and I have tried and failed at many of them. The craziest was Medifast, but of course that was the one that I lost the most. LoseIt, Weight Watchers, just trying eating less, that weight-loss challenge we did at work...even my doctor's come-to-Jesus talk last year didn't spur me into action. (Speaking of which, I have been putting off my annual physical to avoid THAT conversation. Can't do that for much longer!) 

I think I know what I want to do, but I don't want to verbalize yet -- because I don't think I can handle another public failure. And as much I like blogging and I appreciate everyone who reads and leaves helpful, funny, and/or encouraging comments, I am always aware of how public this is, and how embarrassing it is to fail in front of people. All I need to do is look at my tags some days and see all the failed diets and resolutions and dreams. Ugh.

And yet -- all that self-pity and dislike, and I am still not sure I am at the tipping point. Seems amazing, doesn't it? Seriously, I haven't hit rock bottom yet? 

No, I haven't. 

I know that I need to do something, and I am pretty sure I know how I want to do it. I just don't know yet that I WANT to do it. And that's the piece I cannot succeed without. 

So I am kind of hanging out at the edge of the cliff, peering out from time to time, watching my friends strapping into their gear and rapelling down the rocks. I wave to my other friends already at the bottom. I'm happy for all of them, and I cheer them on with genuine enthusiasm. 

But I still want that Magic Golf Cart to get me to the bottom of the cliff. I know it can't; I know that the real success in getting to the bottom of the cliff is in doing it myself, with my own sweat and hard work and commitment. 

Right now, that thought exhausts me. 

But some day soon, I hope it won't. That will be my tipping point day.

Until then, my chins and I will be here.

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Comments on, because I don't want to turn them off and be a drama queen, but truly, I am not looking for a pep talk. I just wanted to write this out, get it off my chest. 

How I killed my impulse shopping habit

A remarkable thing has happened to me the last few months: after five years of impulse shopping, spending hundreds of dollars and hours at the mall or in online stores every month, I finally broke myself of the habit.

When I say I shopped, I mean I really shopped. I thought nothing of going up to the outlet mall for the day, one weekend a month, and coming home with multiple bags. I had a routine online, where I would hit 3-4 of my favorite stores, fill up the shopping carts, then as the best sale email popped up for each I would hit Checkout. Of course, I also ended up returning a lot, but that just gave me another excuse to go to the store.

Even if I wasn't buying, I was always shopping.

I could give you tons of excuses for it -- I had significant weight losses and gains, I discovered fashion very late in life, I got wrapped up in following and being a fashion blogger and trying to keep my closet fresh -- but all of those are just excuses. The truth is I liked having new clothes, and lots of them.

Killing that habit has been a 4-step process.

1. I read Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. My reader Roberta recommended it months ago, and I have been recommending it to all my fashion-minded friends both on and offline ever since. The book does a tremendous job detailing the impact our shopping habits have had on our style, our economy, our charities, the international economy, the workers, and then environment. The chapter on what really happens to most of the clothes we donate was enough for me to re-evaluate what the hell I was doing.



2. I cleaned out my closet. And by closet I mean I cleaned out everything, right down to every obscure corner where I was essentially "hiding" clothes: in drawers, on hangers, under the bed, in bureaus in the hall, in closets in the office, in many, many places in the basement. I had an unnecessary amount of clothes, so much so it was preventing my ability to SEE what I had. I have always used my outfits as a creative outlet, mixing together colors, patterns and just the right accessories to finish it off. Now I can do that much more easily because everything is right in front of me every day, and I don't feel like I am "missing" things for outfits...which of course means I don't need to shop as much.




3. I began tracking my purchases and edits on a monthly basis. I did one final massive drop-off at the donation center when I cleaned out my closet, but that is the last time I intend to do that. The quantity of what I gave away was ridiculous, and not in a good way. That said, things do need to get culled regularly, and it's equally important that I track my purchases. It helps me see my buying patterns, and more than that it helps me see when I am buying things that don't make it more than a month or two. I already have a few items I bought in September and October that I want to get rid of already; I need to get smarter about that.

Once those pieces were in place, that solved many of the utilitarian, practical problems that impulse shopping had created. But what the first three steps didn't give me was the excitement and fun that I got with new clothes: that first thrill of trying on a new piece and see how it flatters me, the creative buzz as I figure out what I can pair it with in new outfits, the compliments I got from other fashion-minded friends.

That only came with the last step of the process.



4. I joined Gwynnie Bee. I've talked about my love for this company many times in the past, but they've earned it. I love everything about them: the website is easy to navigate, the photos of the clothes are flattering and often show the same item on different models so you can see differences in fit and drape on various body types, and adding items to your "closet" is a snap. They've improved their shipping times since I started in September, and will be improving them again once they move to a new distribution center. But for now you can indicate on the website when you are shipping something back, and they will send your next piece out sooner.

Best of all, I get all of the fun of new purchases without having to buy anything. The white box arrives every couple of days, and inside is a lovely piece gently folded and wrapped in tissue. Sometimes I don't check the website before so it's a surprise when I open the box, other times I take a peek so I can start planning how I will fit it into my closet before it gets here. Once I've tried it on and determined it is the right size (which I am getting better at ordering now that I am more familiar with some of their brands) the creativity starts as I dream up new outfits for it. And if the item didn't fit, I fold it immediately into the return bag, go to the website that evening to note I am shipping it back and wave it goodbye, just like I would do with any returns from my impulse shopping days.

Some of the pieces I have gotten lately (more are here):



(My hair was still soaking wet so I just did a quick half self-portrait.) This Rafaella long sweater was unexpected and fun; the cowl was a knit weave, but the sweater was more like a terry sweatshirt. It felt great and perfect for a chilly winter day.



This Edista top is still one of my favorites, ever.





Like I said, I didn't a good picture of myself in this Eloquii sequin jacket, but it was a really flattering fit and good quality.





This Karen Kane orange drape neck top proved to add a nice punch of color to a couple of business meeting outfits.





This brown animal print jacket is hard to photograph so you can see all the detailing, but it has great quilted ruching on the side so it is not nearly as boxy as the top photo suggests. I really liked the orange with it; the brown and black have a dusty, muted tone to them so it's difficult to find the right blouse for the jacket.



I got in one more wear of the orange top in a casual outfit, with a long chunky grey sweater, silver circle pendant from LOFT Outlet, faded Kut from the Kloth boyfriend jeans, and my faux-moto Clarks boots.



I showed off this JonesNY snakeprint cardigan in my Color Project: White post, but it also got a few more wears with other colors for some work outfits too.



The all-black palette brought out more of the baseball jacket look of the sweater, I thought. And hey Mom -- that's the badge pendant necklace from Brighton that you got for me! :)



Last outfit was with my own red Lane Bryant drape top -- which you will see again as part of the Color Project: Red round-up. :)

Gwynnie Bee approached me last week to become an affiliate, and I very happily said yes. Long-time blog readers will know that I don't really do blog sponsorships; I get email inquiries occasionally asking me to review products, but nothing has ever interested me the way Gwynnie Bee has. So I guess this is my first official blog entry that will need a disclaimer!

If you are interested in signing up for Gwynnie Bee, click this link to join. Joining is free -- it lets you look around the site and view some of the clothes they offer. If you decide to subscribe to the 1, 2, or 3 plan, they are currently offering a 30-day free trial, and after that they will charge your credit card for whichever monthly rate you choose. Here comes the disclaimer part: as an affiliate, I will get a free month myself if you follow the link to join and end up as a paying subscriber.

I am going to be blunt here: if you are a plus-sized woman who likes clothes, you are foolish not to try this out. I've been a big girl all my adult life, and I have never, EVER had a site where I could see -- and more importantly, get to feel and wear -- so many different brands and styles together in one place. It's like a whole mall, just for us!

They have TONS of dressy outfits too; my plan when I have a nice party to go to is to rearrange the closet and hold sections so I will get sent a good assortment of dresses and sparkly tops and jackets to try and to borrow for the occasion. I can't even think of another site where that is possible for someone my size.

When I eventually start to lose weight again, I suspect they are going to be a godsend for that as well; I will just order smaller sizes as I move down the scale, thus rotating through a new wardrobe without having to buy a whole new wardrobe.

Most of all,  Gwynnie Bee makes me feel PRETTY, and WELCOMED, and VALUED, as a woman and as a customer. I never feel left out because I want to wear something that isn't offered in my size (thanks a lot, Banana and Gap), I don't feel pushed aside and sent to the Misses section behind the luggage on a different floor than everyone else (hello, Macys) and the online photos they choose are pretty and flattering and don't make their models look like squat dwarves in highwaters (that's you, Nordstrom). I do shop at all the stores I just complained about, of course, but it's always while feeling like a little bit *less* than their preferred customer. Gwynnie Bee never makes me feel like that.

Seriously, give them a try. They were definitely the final piece I needed in place to kill my impulse shopping habit. :)

Now, don't get me wrong: I still love shopping! In fact, my next post will be about Stuff I Want. But the need to do it as often as I used to, or at the same volume of purchases, that's dead and gone. I don't miss it.

If only it were this easy to give up some of my other bad habits! :)

Rock-a-Kristen

The other day I commented on Angie's You Look Fab blog that I felt my signature style was classic, colorful and coordinated.

"Classic" to me means classic shapes: straight-leg and bootcut pants over skinnies, sheaths and empires over hi-lo dresses, tidy jackets and cardigans over angled-hem tunics.
"Colorful" means bright jeweled tones: turquoise, teal, purple, hot pinks, cobalt blue fill my closet. I have also invested in building up a fair assortment of neutrals, that now can either stand alone or blend well with my colors.
"Coordinated" means, as my co-worker complimented me this week, that I make sure that every piece of my outfit "goes" with the rest. The choices of jewelry, shoes, bag, and coat are made to go with the rest, not necessarily in matching colors but in coordinated styles and/or colors.

Most of the time that translates to a preppy, polished look. 



But lately that's been changing,and I didn't even realize it. With the help of Gwynnie Bee, I have been pushing beyond that look, adding a little more edge and glam to my style, like Thursday's outfit.




The top is Edista, with a sheer neckline and ruched seams and arms. It's SO flattering and pretty and glam; I got a ridiculous amount of compliments on it all day, even from Hubby!





The cropped denim jacket is Old Navy; I love the collarless neckline because it makes the jacket seem more dressed up than a basic denim jacket would. The plastic ice necklace is Banana Republic that I bought a few months ago, and the bracelets are a bunch of cheap ones I got from Charming Charlies ages ago.



Black Gap straight-leg pants and olive suede Artisan from Clark booties, and the outfit is complete.

It's all my regular, classic, basic pieces, but when you add in the edgier top it veers far away from the preppy look!



When I look through my photos of the last few months (many that I never posted here), I can see that this has been happening more with my Gwynnie Bee items.


Alfani key-print peplum top



INC black knit drape neck top


Talbots cowl neck tee


Soft Surroundings cool cowl shirt

And many others. For me, Gwynnie Bee has definitely been a good resource for clothes. Not everything has worked, but a lot has. Here are my stats.

Gwynnie Bee stats:
Joined Sept 12, 2012
On average, items are out 2 weeks (includes shipping), several were kept 3 weeks.
Paid $351.83 (2/out for 3 months, 3/out for 2) since September

That seems like a lot, so I broke it out into cost/item and cost/wear. 

29 garments in 4 months = $12.13/item

12 were returned unworn (mostly too big, a couple because of fabric issues), leaving 17 that did get worn = $20.69/item

Most get 1 wear, 7 pieces got 2 wears, one got 3 wears = $13.03/wear

I could probably cut down the $/wear if I was better about wearing it and sending it back sooner, but sometimes I like to let it percolate in my closet while I dream up the right outfit for the right day. I do want to get better at rotating too so I have at least one item in transit while one or two are in my closet; for a while there around Christmas I was shipping both out at once, then had both in my closet at once.

Since I buy retail and not thrift, if I had bought the same 17 items in the store the cost would have been $510 (assuming $30/avg top), and knowing me, they probably would have gotten the same number of wears in the same amount of time. Plus I would now have these 17 tops, some of which I loved and some I only liked (and some I didn't like at all) clogging up my closet. Instead I sent them back and already have another 30-plus new ones sitting in my virtual closet waiting their turn to be sent and worn. 

Gwynnie Bee saves me money and guilt. Works for me!

As always, if you are interested in signing up for the service, send me your email and I will send you an invite. I think they are still doing a 30-day trial period.

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Now I am off to try on a new tunic that just got sent to me. Hope it works with my cords or jeans!

October Edits and Purchases

For a couple of years now, I have greatly enjoyed Lorena's Edits posts. She diligently removes a few items from her closet every month, and documents why she got rid of them. She also shops, as we are all wont to  do, and she documents those too. Now that I have done the Great Closet Purge, I want to keep a closer eye on what I am adding in, and I want to edit out with more frequency, so I decided I would pay homage to my friend Lorena and start my own monthly Edits and Purchases post.

#1



A pair of Old Navy yoga pants. I have 4-5 of these since they are my at-home lounging pants. This one got a hole on the thigh, so time for them to go!

#2



Old Navy button-down neckless blouse in grey dot pattern. Got it sometime summer/fall 2011 but I rarely wear it. I am too lazy to iron it, and there is just something about the neckline that is very unflattering on me. I have a similar one in deep purple that I am also on the fence about, but it lives another day. For now.

The polka-dot blouse in better days.



Its purple twin that is still around, for now.





#3



Target banded-hem short-sleeve blouse in hot-pink floral pattern, from summer 2012. This is a classic example of my failure in picking tops: I fall in love with a pretty pattern or color, then ignore all the flaws that don't flatter my body. In this case, the banded hem kept riding up my backside every time I sat down, and that horrible wide neck yet again looked terrible on me. (Why do they only make that neckline for plus-size blouses? Do they think our necks are too fat otherwise to get it on?

Phillip took this one. I ripped a hole in it before the day was though, which I did patch and wear one more time before I gave up. Stupif ugly neckline.



#4



I got this necklace from my sister for a jewelry party thing she was doing in 2011. I wish they had shown the whole necklace in the picture instead of just the pendant; those side elements are ugly as sin and make the whole thing look like it came from the 1970s. I tried to make it work but it just irritates me every time I see it hanging with my other necklaces. Time to go!

#5




Extra-long grey pullover sweater from LOFT. I think I might have bought it because it was an XXL but it still fit me, so I kept it to pretend that I was still small enough in size to wear LOFT sizes. But it's too clingy in form -- because it's so long -- so it showed every bump of my waistband in pants or skirts. I give up.

Onto the purchases!

I went on a big shopping trip with a work girlfriend at the very end of September, so even though I started tracking in October, I included everything I bought then too.




I am tracking by store, item, and color. September was setting myself up for fall/winter, adding a bunch of nicer pieces from Nordstrom, and a few needed shoes. October was a lot of neutral basics; outside of the pink fleece lounging top ($6 at Old Navy, and so cozy I am wearing it as we speak), everything is black, white or brown. That is because seeing my closet laid out as it is, it is much harder to kid myself that I need another cheap patterned top that I won't wear enough.

But I needed more pants because Hubby is stretching out how often he does laundry, a couple of white tops because the ones I have are getting ragged, a couple of black and brown cardigans that actually fit over my boobs, a bra replinishment, and a couple of coats (one casual, one work-appropriate) for the chilly in-between weather that we have in November.

I am really trying to curb my shopping, teaching myself to get smarter about it. The last 5 or so years -- since Shopping Friend taught me how to dress myself better,  then I discovered YouLookFab and then fashion blogging -- I have bought a TON of clothes. And donated a ton too. Now, I also lost and gained 70+ pounds during that time, which necessitated a lot of those purchases, but still, it's been a whole lot more than what I needed. As you can see above, most of my clothes come from Target, Old Navy and Gap (Nordstrom only when I am buying the better stuff) -- I buy a lot of cheap fashion.

This summer I asked for book recs, and Roberta recommended Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, which has been a huge eye-opener for me. I want to do a lengthier entry about it soon, but it's really prompted me to look closely at my closet and my shopping habits, which makes this whole transformation for me so timely. I didn't really love the suggestions for improvement the author made (slow fashion with organic material is a very long ways away for most of the public, which means plus-sized will be almost impossible to find), but the concept of moving away from buying pretty-patterned, cheaply-made Target tops is one that I want to embrace now.

So we shall see how my spreadsheet looks as time goes on! And Gwynnie Bee helps with that; instead of buying a top I will only wear once or twice, I am now using the Gwynnie Bee service to rent them. I pay a flat monthly fee, and Gwynnie Bee sends me something from my online "closet" (aka my Netflix queue). I wear it and slip it back into the bag for a fast, free return. Gwynnie Bee now has an option on their website to let them know you are shipping something back, and they will send out your next item immediately instead of waiting until they recieve the package.

In October I was on a 3-items-out package (the 3rd item was an upgrade, thanks to Allie at Wardrobe Oxygen), and I rotated through 11 items. Four were returned unworn because they were too big, but six got worn at least once (and a few had 2-3 wears), and one is still hanging in my closet for this week. Two are in a bag on their way back tomorrow, and I expect to get the next in the queue within the week.

My 2-item plan is $59/month (the basic 1-item is $35/month, and the 3-item is $79). That ended up being $5.36 for each of the 11 items, or $8.42 for each of the 7 items I did wear. If I had bought all 7 items I would have easily spent $150, and I probably would have worn them the same number of times.

Gwynnie Bee is a great way to put the lessons I learned from Overdressed in action, while still giving me the variety and the "whee, new clothes" excitement of cheap-fashion shopping. Plus, the items are better-made than your basic Old Navy top so they're elevating the look of the rest of my wardrobe. Win-win-win all around!

If you are interested in joining Gwynnie Bee, give me your email and I will send you an invite. You don't have to commit to a monthly subscription until you log in and look around the site; if it appeals, give it a try. I am glad so far that I have!

Pink snakeskin draped top from DKNY (Gwynnie Bee) with my black LOFT Outlet cardigan, gray Gap straight legs, and new black studded Vince Camuto flats.

(P.S. I do get a referral rate if I send you an invite. Just so you know.)

Windy Weekend

It was a windy, rainy, cool weekend. I'm not gonna lie, I loved it. Bad weather keeps people indoors, so I was able to zip through my errands and weekly shopping with few hassles. Even the post office was a breeze!

It also gave us the excuse to be lazy, to stay in and watch "Up" for the first time (God bless AppleTV and their many closed-captioned options, way more than Netflix). I did stock up on squash at the last farmer's market of the season, but the laziness extended itself into skipping weekly cooking too. It's squash, it will keep! (More to come on that later this week. Gotta save my blog topics up now that I am trying to do them daily again. Heh.)



With the closet re-organization, I am making a concerted effort to wear items that used to be buried in drawers or in the back of the closet. This knit bubble-hem top, with a purple and grey speckled pattern, is an Old Navy impulse purchase that has only gotten a couple of wears and lived underneath my other long-sleeved layering tops in a drawer. Since it is really a centerpiece top and not a layering one (meaning it works as the main part of an outfit, not just underneath a sweater to fill out the arms or neck) I hung it up in the New Closet where it catches my eye as an outfit option. I really liked pairing it with a grey super-soft Target cardigan of the same light hue; it muted the pattern and colors so they looked more sweet instead of zany.

The shoes are a new purchase from Clarks; I have needed a new pair of casual walking shoes for a while, and I really just love the look of those elastic-lace ones from Privo. They're still *sneakers* but they're nicer and more stylish than white running shoes, that's for sure. (Assuming you find ones that aren't frumpy or impractical, which isn't as easy as it should be!) I have a pair in purple from several years ago, but they are kind of wide and often look like duck boots under jeans. These were much better!

Privo "Pursuit Happiness" style. They felt like mine the second I put them on. I didn't take them off all weekend!

Sunday was super-casual; I solved the wind problem by pulling my hair back. And I wasn't kidding about wearing the Privos all weekend!



I wore a color-blocked short-sleeved sweatshirt I picked up at Old Navy and have been enjoying this summer, but with the cool weather I added a cobalt blue long-sleeved layering top under it. Messy and casual, which is what I was going for. :) They're not all fashionista outfits!

See what I meant about the wind?




What did you guys do this weekend?

My Triumphant Return

Hello, internet! Sorry for being MIA, but I have been so busy.

Remember this?



Now it is this.



You guys, I could not love this paint more if I tried. It is perfection, and I love so much how all the paint colors on the first floor finally go together now.









The painter did a spectacular job. SPECTACULAR. He went above and beyond the original estimate too, repainting the remaining mustard walls with a fresh coat, painting the entire ceiling of both the living room and kitchen, doing a bang-up job cleaning up the edges of the baseboards. He had only planned on staying a couple of hours on Sunday to finish up the orange walls but extended to the whole day. Of course, he charged us for the extra work (threw in half the ceiling for free) but even with that, his price still so reasonable. If you are in the Chicago area, I highly highly recommend Matt from Precision Painting (also the owner of Jackpot Charters, an excellent charter fishing boat). Tell him I sent you!

Since my kitchen was torn up anyway, I took the opportunity to do some reorganizing/spring cleaning. The shelving unit where I store all the big kitchen equipment went from this...



to this.



I realized I only use two of the cookbooks, and then my binder of printed online recipes. Made it much less cluttered.

Of course, now that the paint looks so good, I've come to accept I need new cabinets. LOL! Gotta let the home repair saving account fill back up first!

As long as I was on a roll, I finally contacted the shower-grout contractor that I had purchased a Big Deal on Angie's List for; this is our first owned home and we don't know the first thing about home repair, so the shower had fallen into vile, disgusting, moldy disarray. Plus, the grout itself had formed tiny pinprick holes in it and was causing water to leak into the kitchen. (According to Matt the painter, who fixed the crack in the ceiling before he painted it, it wasn't the first time it had happened, because the crack had been repaired before.) 

Anyway, I got on the contractor's calendar and he brought a team over last Friday. I am much too embarrassed to show you a before picture -- I didn't realize how bad it had gotten, but we pretty much looked like we lived in an abandoned crack house. But the after picture is amazing; the whole tub and shower looks like new!




I also highly recommend James from J.T. General Contracting. Reasonable prices, and excellent work. It took a bit to get it scheduled but it was worth it.

Naturally, I also re-organized the bathroom, especially all the junk under the sink (our main storage area), I ended up throwing away 7 bags of garbage!

Aaaaand we need a new bathroom vanity now. Seeing it cleaned out against my shiny new shower and tub, I can see it's made of the same cheap plywood as the kitchen cabinets. Sigh.

But that's for later. First there are a few more non-cosmetic changes to make, like a new water heater and new garbage disposal, and to finish hanging the photos and art back on the walls. Then we're going to enjoy our renovated house for a bit.

It's just so warm and cheery. I love it.







George has settled right back into his throne in the new living room. He approves!



I have more to share about my adventures the last two weeks, but it will have to wait for the next post. I am back on posting track!