Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Lands End t shirt

Lands End t shirt

Lands end

Lands end

Lands end

Lands end

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

January Dresses and other things

Well, I totally failed my goal of writing a post every week. However, I also wasn't able to start any of my fitness goals until the beginning of this month, when I was 6 weeks postpartum. At least, that's my excuse. So, this year instead of being January 1st, it's February 1st. For feeling the pressure to get things done. Self induced pressure. That I am really good at self inducing :)

And boy do I ever have goals! I really, really do. I want to be an awesome blogger again, among other things. Although, it's not really that high on my actual internal priority list.

But this is internal monologue is not really what I wanted to spend my precious nap hours writing. I want to share some of the neat crochet projects I finished worked on in January!

First, here's baby Cora Madeline:


And the dress I crocheted for her! This is the back.


This is the front.


Here's the dress I STARTED for her. With way too big of a needle. And way too large of thread. So it ended up for her 6 month old cousin in Provo.


And then I wanted to experiment with sleeves. So here is the sweater I crocheted for her other cousin.


Jane got glasses!


John is obsessed with Batman.


This is that night we ate fondu.


Cora again!


BOO!


There's the sweetness.



Wednesday, January 7, 2015

January Capsule Wardrobe

January Capsule Wardrobe


I want to look good. Part of that goal is definitely going to involve a lot of sweat and effort, since I just had my baby 3 weeks ago. Another very different part of that goal has to do with  style.
I enjoy clothes. One roadblock to me wearing fashionable clothing tends to be that I like to "save" my clothes. I find something that looks awesome and keep it in my closet, untouched, because I want to have it. It's dumb. My sisters in law have a much better attitude - wearing the piece out of the store! 
Another major roadblock has been that nothing fits me right now. I recently came up with a potential solution to this problem while browsing pinterest. (I tend to get a lot of netflix/amazon prime instant video/pinterest/facebook time now that I am breastfeeding a baby who likes to eat every 1-3 hours.) What is it, you ask? The Capsule Wardrobe.
Basically, the idea is less clothing that all (or almost all) matches. It's the idea of being intentional about your clothes. This kind of planning has proved to be extremely effective for me in the kitchen; why not the closet also?
First step: I researched it online. That was fun. I always have fun researching over-researching my interests online. Then, I purged my closet. What isn't in the donate pile went into three large boxes. As I lose weight, I will be "rewarded" with being able to open these boxes and add some of my old clothes to my wardrobe. This means I only kept out the clothes that actually fit my body right now. Only 3 maternity items made the cut, and they are all long t-shirts that don't look that maternity-ish on me. My nursing self is very big-bosomed, so long t-shirts fit me much, much better. Also, my mom bought me a TON of clothes, which was extremely generous of her. And finally, I made a pretty collage on polyvore. 
When I picked out my outfit today, I didn't have to think as much. It felt great. My top matched my pants, and the whole thing looks great. Not that I'm going anywhere, with a high of -6 outside!
It turns out that there are a few pieces left for me to finish my January wardrobe. I am pretty sure I will end up spending less doing my wardrobe this way than I would binge-shopping. I imagine it is the same principle as, "don't go to the grocery store without a list." This is my list. It's so cool to arrange it in polyvore; I can really SEE how things coordinate! Granted, I will probably spend more than I have in the past 9 months, because I wasn't interested in buying clothes while pregnant. But I'm worth it.