What I Wore

It was the first week of school. I always have a hard time with that one. It's really hot outside (and sometimes in if you are like poor husband whose classroom doesn't have AC), it's technically still summer, but I want to wear my new fall clothes.

Shirt: made by me, Skirt: old, Necklace: Forever 21, Shoes: Old Navy

This is what I wore the third day of school. I needed to take my PE class outside to play lawn games but I didn't want to change into my PE clothes yet so I opted for this cool outfit.

Shirt: H&M, Skirt: Old, Shoes: Hand-me-downs, Belt: Ross, Necklace: Gift

This is what I wore the second day of school. The photo didn't turn out well at all but I really liked the outfit. It's good to look professional on the first days of class.

Shirt: Shade, Skirt: Made by me, Shoes: Steve Madden via Ross

I've already shown you this outfit last week. It's what I wore the first day of school. And it's my first handmade by me skirt!

Dress: Ross, Shirt: Old, Belt: Ross, Shoes: Forever Young Shoes

This is what I wore the 4th day of school. After this I will stop telling you what day it is. I feel like I should be singing the 12th day of Christmas. I actually picked out a great outfit to wear this day but decided to save it until a little bit later in the fall and wear this very summer-y dress instead.

And finally, this is what I wore for the Shop Your Closet challenge last week. Our challenge was to wear something that you hardly ever or rarely wear. I had never worn the zebra belt before.

Remember: This weeks challenge is to go monochromatic. I have already worn my outfit, but am saving it to post on Saturday!


As always, linking up at the Pleated Poppy.

Shop Your Closet

This week's challenge was to wear something monochromatic. This was the first challenge that I didn't already secretly have something in mind to wear. I wanted to cheat and wear this again, but instead I cheated and wore black with all my pinks.

I figured that the skirt was already monochromatic, I would just accessorize it to be more so. I have had this skirt since 2002. I wore it for my senior portraits in high school! I have only ever worn it with black so I added the pink blazer, shoes, and handmade plastic cup necklace. Not my favorite outfit ever, but I successfully shopped my closet! I have had the shoes since 2005 and the blazer since probably about '06 or '07 and have never worn these pieces together.

Everything is so old that I really don't remember where much of it came from. I think the blazer is from Vanity and the rest from department stores.

How did you do? Grab a button and link up below!

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NEXT WEEK'S CHALLENGE: Dress up a t-shirt. I used to wear a ton of graphic t-shirts and hoodies. I then drastically changed my style to where I rarely wear those items besides when working out. I still have a few t-shirts that don't get much use so this week I am going to pull together a nice outfit using one of those tees.

Here's ten tips for dressing up a t-shirt.

In this video, the lovely Jessica Quirk from What I Wore, mixes a t-shirt into a nice outfit.

Don't know if my weather would permit this, but check out this pin.

And finally, this pin takes the t-shirt to the office.

Good luck!

Craft Room: My Inspiration Board

Do you have an inspiration board? Besides Pinterest I mean. As great as that website is, I still love my 3D tangible collection. I have had this board for awhile, but I recently painted the frame white so it would pop against the green walls of my craft room. I like it.

Here are some of my favorite "pins."

My favorite thing is literally a pin. I have a big collection of pins. This one was purchased at Disneyland about a year ago. It was just me and husband and it was an amazing trip. It was the first time I had been to Disneyland since I had started crafting and blogging and selling on Etsy and it was tremendously inspiring.

You guys, I can't draw. At all. I am not being modest. During this same Disneyland trip we discovered this great place in the California Adventure park that gave drawing lessons. I drew this Minnie Mouse all by myself. I was so proud! I had to bring it all the way home.

(I also love the dress and outfit in the top corner.)

This outfit inspired the skirt I made. When I saw the fabric on sale at Walmart for $1 per yard it reminded me of this picture on my board so I bought it. Aren't those necklaces amazing?

It's good to inspire yourself, right? This is a flower that I made.

There are still blank spaces on the board because it is continually rotating. I can add and subtract as I feel like it!

Shop Your Closet

This week's challenge was to wear something you have never or hardly ever wear. How did you do?

I picked this challenge just so I would make myself wear this belt. I have had it for about one year and have never worn it. I am not sure why. Animal prints are really in right now, I just have a hard time styling this belt.

I picked out an outfit to wear to church and when I put it on that morning it looked horrid. We were already late so I had to just throw something together and this is what I came up with. There's nothing extraordinary about this outfit but at least I wore the belt.

Wearing: Dress: [small local shop that is now out of business and I can't remember it's name], Sweater: Ross; Belt: Ross, Wedges: Hand-me-downs.

NEXT CHALLENGE: This week, let's try a monochromatic look. This one is going to be a bit tough for me because I don't have many colored bottoms.

Be inspired: I love this look from Kendi. I don't know if it's entirely monochromatic, but the accessories look fabulous.

Here are some tips for making this work.

Cute and Little wore a great monochromatic pink outfit recently.

This is a fun all blue outfit.

Come to think of it, I guess this week I wore monochromatic. I will have to go for something other than black. I better head off to my closet and start planning...

Good luck!

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I made a skirt!!

All by myself! I haven't sewn clothing since I was in high school home ec. But I did everything myself- the shopping, the cutting, the sewing. I even wound a bobbin! This is big for me!

I first got the idea from Suburbs Mama. Then my real life friend Ashley made a similar skirt. I knew I had to try it.

I followed the tutorial on Suburbs Mama. It was easy to follow. But if you have a serger, I would serge the edge that attaches to the elastic. Mine is fraying like crazy so I am going to try to fix it at my mom's house.

I love this outfit. I wore it for the first day of school. It seems "teacher-ish" to me.

The shirt is from Shade and the shoes are Steve Madden via Ross.

What I Wore

Did you notice that Lindsay at the Pleated Poppy has started doing style challenges too? And that she and I chose the same challenge this week? What a coincidence! So... if you are visiting from the Pleated Poppy and wore something that you never or hardly ever wear, come back here on Saturday to link up to the Shop Your Closet challenge!

I had a lot of outfits this week since I did best of/worst of last week, but then my hard drive died and I lost everything, including those photos. Therefore, I only have these few pictures. But today is the first day of school so I should start dressing better and have more interesting outfits.

Jacket: Old, Shirt: Old (Ross?), Pants: Maurices, Shoes: Steve Madden via Ross

This is what I wore on back to school night. I am still dying over these shoes. I love them! Gray patent leather platform sling back pumps. Woot! I love them because they are a platform heel but aren't very tall!!

Shirt: Shade, Pants: Old Navy, Shoes: Walmart, Bag: Tai Pan, Necklace: Made by me

I was at a loss for what to wear this day. I was checking my blogs during breakfast and saw this outfit and suddenly knew what to wear. I remembered that last time Jessica wore that sweater she had paired it with teal so I did too.

I also tried a bit of bracelet stacking.

Shorts: Calvin Klein via Savers, Shirt: Made by me, Shoes: Walmart

Are you getting sick of seeing these shorts? Me too. But at least I feel like I got my money's worth out of them. I was trying to think of what else I could wear with them for a simple summer outfit when it occurred to me that I hadn't worn this shirt refashion for a long time. So I wore it.

I also realized in looking for that link that I haven't done a good shirt refashion in about 6 months it seems. I tend to craft in stages- do you? I am sort of on a sewing kick! Shocker! Coming up soon week will be my first skirt!!!

P.S. I already know what challenge I am going to do this week so if Lindsay picks the same thing as me again that would just be nuts! She probably doesn't even know my little blog exists! : )

Giant Paper Flower

I made this giant "wallflower" as a decoration for my craft room. I love the contrast of the pink and the bright green (although on my monitor it's looking a little olive green... you?)

I used the same technique that I used in the Valentines' Day book page flowers. Just cut all of the circles a lot bigger. I used 12 X 12 cardstock and traced a mixing bowl. Also be sure to get the cardstock moist (not completely wet) so it scrunches up.

You can see how big it is in comparison to the spoon. I think something like this would be really pretty as a center piece for a wedding or similar event- super cheap and easy. It would be even better with nicer paper, maybe two kinds of paper with contrasting textures...

I think I (husband) will hang it up by putting a nail through the center of the flower where it can't be seen.

If I can ever decide where I want to hang everything.

Don't forget about this week's Shop Your Closet challenge! We are wearing something hardly ever or never worn. I have already worn my outfit. I'll give you a hint... zebra print. Come link up on Saturday!

P.S. I am linking up to these parties.

Shop Your Closet

Our first Shop Your Closet challenge was to wear pink and red together. Some of you said that you owned one color and not the other, so hopefully you could add a colored accessory or at least were able to find a little bit of new inspiration!

I wore this skirt from JC Penny's that I have had for about 6 years but haven't worn in a long time. I am pretty sure it has never been on the blog. It may have been cheating to pick something that already had red and pink on it, but I really needed to mix it back into my wardrobe and find a new way to wear it.

I have only worn this skirt with a white top so it was quite a jump to do the red blouse. I think it matches nicely without being too obvious. With all the crazy colors I kept the accessories neutral in the belt and shoe. I wore my basic silver jewelry that I always wear and skipped a necklace.

How did I do?

How did you do? Was it easy or hard? Is this a color combo that you already wore a lot? Would you wear it again? If you didn't participate do you think you might try this color combo now? Comment below! Link up below! I will get a thumbnail linky soon if I get participants.

(I made the button smaller so it doesn't take over your whole blog- I would love if you would add it to your blog or post, but I won't force you.)

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NEXT CHALLENGE: Wear something you have never (or rarely) worn. I am guessing we all have that something in our closet that we have never worn or have only worn once then shoved it to the back of the closet. It's time to break that item out (pants, shirt, belt, jacket, shoes, etc.) and put it to good use.

Since everyone's item is going to be different I can't really provide inspirational links for this one (which almost changed my mind about this challenge). You can Google or search Pinterest for similar pieces to what you will be wearing. I will also link you to some of the fashion blogs I read that I haven't mentioned before for further inspiration:

Sunday Crossbow
La Vie Petite
I would also link you to
An Unpretentious Teacher but I cannot get her blog to come up right now. You should Google the name though.

You can also check out my Style Inspiration pin board too.

Good luck!

What I Wore: Least Favorites

Yesterday I posted about how I have been taking pictures of my clothes for almost 1 year. I did a post about my favorite outfits. Today I am posting my least favorite ones.

I remember feeling like such a clown this day. I would have liked this much better had I skipped the sweater and worn a brown belt instead. Then it would have been just fine.

This was an attempt to dress up my school t-shirt a little bit. I guess it's not terrible- I just don't like wearing t-shirts much anymore. But I buy a school shirt every year because I am the student council adviser. Plus they are great for working out and sleeping in. I just might buy two this year, but know that it's just going to have to be plain old t-shirt day if I wear it to work.

This outfit would have been just fine if it weren't for the denim jacket. The jacket and pants are pretty much the same color which I think looks terrible. I am not very good at styling denim jackets.

I don't like this outfit and can't exactly pinpoint why. The clothes don't look like they have a flattering fit and I don't know if the Accordion Strands necklace really goes with this outfit.

And finally, this attempt of stripes on stripes failed miserably. Plus, the way that the pants and boots are makes for kind of a strange silhouette.

You win some, you lose some. I have learned a lot from photographing my clothes. I will hopefully not make the same mistakes twice, but I am sure that next year at this time I will have some outfits that I don't like that I wore this year. My style will keep changing.

What I Wore: One Year Later

It's been one year since I started photographing my outfits almost everyday. Above, is the first outfit that I blogged. It is what I wore on the first day of school last year. I thought it might be fun to go back and look over my outfits and see how I did. I am showing my favorite and least favorite outfits. I was pleased to find that I found a lot more good outfits than bad ones.

Today (Tuesday) I am showing my favorites from the past year. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will show some that I don't like much at all.

I LOVE this dress and the whole outfit.

I forgot about this one until going back over previous posts. I will have to wear it again sometime soon. I kind of forgot about this necklace that I made. I need to wear it again.

I don't wear these shoes often because they aren't comfortable at all, but I LOVE this outfit. Funny how I am constantly making Blooming Sash belts, but rarely one for myself. I do love this red one!

Classy.

I wore this recently. It's just perfect.

Very similar to the above outfit. And the only one that isn't with a skirt. I guess that goes to shows that I should wear more skirts to be happier with my clothes. : )

This is one of the first times I tried pattern mixing and I liked the results.

This was the first time I wore this skirt with something besides brown. I really liked how it turned out.

Same description as outfit above.

More pattern mixing fun.

My favorite sweater and boots. Can't wait for fall so I can wear them again!

This is where I got tricky- remember- this skirt is really a dress!

It's been fun to watch my style develop this year. I have come along way from the American Eagle shirts and Doc Martens I wore in college. :) Come back tomorrow to see the outfits that I didn't like.