Shoe Saturday: Trunk Club

Tee hee. I need to find entertainment in small ways these days, and apparently alliteration is my jam at the moment.

I've mentioned Trunk Club in a previous post. I've decided to use Trunk Club primarily when I'm looking for a particular category of item, such as this month, when I really need to address the shoe issue.

As you may recall, I've got that two-week 30th anniversary vacation coming up the second half of May. My husband loves to spend most of our vacation on the hoof. I'm serious--it's not unusual for us to be on our feet for 8-10 hours a day, packing on the miles. 

I don't want to wear gym sneakers all day every day. I do have a good pair of walking/hiking shoes, but they look like hiking shoes. Good for trails but not exactly the thing for wandering about European cities. It may seem silly but I want to feel like I look at least something approaching "good" when we're on this vacation: nice outfits, nice shoes. However, I still have to be able to walk comfortably all day every day. That being said, I'm not putting style ahead of comfort. I would like to believe I could have both! So I put my Trunk Club stylist Amber on the case. The shoes I got in my first Trunk Club are still my favorite dress shoes (worn 2 or 3 times now and no complaints), so I know she does shoes well! I gave her a long list of criteria: no heels; max heel support; can go with X colors of bottoms; price range, etc. 

The box preview she sent me the first time had four pairs of "urban sneakers," much like my Sperrys. I love my Sperrys and wouldn't mind having another pair similar in a different color, but I also wanted some other options. I removed one of the options she sent and sent her a message asking about espadrilles or other flats. She replaced the one option I'd removed with two others that fit my request. So, yesterday, I got five pairs of shoes to try on in the comfort of my own home!

Ironic, isn't it, that the day I got a shipment of spring/summer walking shoes, I woke up to this outside?

Ugg pull-on sneakers

Comfy, but not quite my style.

Saychelles pull-on sneakers

Nice detail, but don't like pointy toe and the sole bed is too high; they look clunky.

Tom's open-toe espadrilles

Love the look! Still testing comfort level at the toe end (see blog).

Tom's pull-on espadrilles

Keeping--good "bopping around town" shoe. Nothing exciting but comfy!

Tom's Lenox sneaker

Comfy, good detail, but I don't wear much black so I'll save my money for something else and send these back.

You can use the forward/back controls on the gallery to see the shoes. I've captioned the bottom of each image with the brand and a brief comment. (If you're reading this by email, it'll probably drop all the photos directly into the email. If you're on a blog reader, you may have to go to the website to see the gallery.) 

I'm definitely keeping the blue Toms. They're great for casual wear, will go with a lot of stuff in my closet, and I've heard Toms are really comfortable. I'd asked for Toms specifically because I wanted to try them, so I'm happy. I'm still a little on the fence about the open-toed Toms. I absolutely love the way they look. Great summer shoe. They're also really comfortable in all ways with one caution: they have the potential of rubbing painfully across my toes if I'm wearing them all day. I'm wearing them around the house as much as possible during my 5-day "try-on" before I have to return whatever I'm not keeping, to see if that toe opening softens up at all. If any of you have these shoes by Toms, I'd appreciate hearing your experience!

If you're not familiar with Toms shoes, for every shoe you buy they donate a pair to a child in need. Love that!

I'm heading to a local mall with a lot of really good shoe stores this afternoon to try on some other pairs I've seen online. I'm not agin' buying more than two new pairs for this spring/summer. Remember all those Crocs flats I bought last summer? They didn't stand the test of time. Fortunately, I got all of them on sale because I'm now donating every pair, sadly. I did get a lot of wear out of them through the fall but found they were difficult to wear all day on my feet for work--depending on the shoe, they'd get too hot, too smelly (yuck), give me blisters, or start making odd "bodily noises" when I walked. I bought a bunch of socks that go with flats but they didn't help much. I'm keeping one pair of Crocs sandals I had because they're still really comfortable and I only wear them casually, so they're okay. Meanwhile, I'm back in the market for good spring/summer work shoes.

Tea Tuesday

How's that for a header, eh? 

So y'all can thank Ronni for suggesting this be a regular feature. We'll see how often I actually do it, but the more I thought about it, I thought it could be kinda fun. And my bff/bqf Lori has a food blog and often does recipes for scones and other such tea-related goodies, so we're going to team up! I'll be linking to recipes from her blog, and she made the great idea to also recommend a book--so tea, snackies, and reading. How wonderful!

For this week's post, I've got some more Plum Deluxe goodies for you. If I haven't already convinced you to give them a try, well, we'll see what happens now. And no, really, I'm not on their payroll!

As I mentioned previously, after getting the free samples I went ahead and ordered myself some tea--two flavors, then "Blender's Choice," in which they choose one for me. Additionally, as a thanks for my review on the last tea post, Andy tossed a single-serving sample into my order. 

Self-Care Blend; photo courtesy plumdeluxe.com. 

Andy's gift was the Self-Care Blend (Elderberry/Apricot). Since I opened the package of teas immediately upon getting home from my first session with my personal trainer in three weeks (since I'd been sick) and I was...umm...a bit worn out... and since I had homework and a conference call on the agenda for the night, I decided a little Self-Care was in order.

I brewed myself a cuppa and sat curled up in my living room armchair with my laptop to get my schoolwork done. The first sip? Oh my. The perfect amount of fruitiness--which, in my case, is "not hot-Koolaid, please." The website describes the key to this tea as the balance between the tartness of elderberry and the sweetness of apricot, and they sure did get that balance just right. If you've tried fruity teas before and didn't like them due to the hot-Koolaid effect I mentioned in my earlier post, this one should be bang-on what you'll like. 

I only got one cup-full in the sample, but this is for sure going on my list of to-buys after I work my way through what I already have. 

Portland Rose City Chai; photo courtesy plumdeluxe.com. 

Next up is the Portland Rose City Chai. 

I'm a big fan of Starbucks' Chai Tea Lattes--for a long time, that's been my afternoon decaf choice, as opposed to my morning Peppermint Mocha (high test) choice. However, when I'd tried a plain chai tea in a tea bag from the grocery store (don't recall which brand), I absolutely hated it. So I've assumed the only way I liked chai was with a ton of milk and sugar in it Starbucks-Style. Now that I'm being more careful about eating habits, chai tea lattes don't happen in my world much anymore.

Then my daughter was gifted a chai tea from a local tea place for her birthday, and I took a sip of hers. Delicious. I realized then and there that I didn't dislike all chai tea straight up, just that one I'd had before. So I decided to give Plum Deluxe's chai a shot and boy, am I glad I did. I really enjoy this one. I will say, however, that it's the only tea so far to which I actually add a little fat-free half-and-half: The balance of the chai with the milk is very nice. This chai isn't as hit-your-tongue peppery as Starbucks is, but the flavor of the spices comes through really smoothly. The balance of the spices with the other flavors just make a nice rich, layered flavor. Very tasty.

Breakfast in Bed Black Tea; photo courtesy plumdeluxe.com. 

This next one was the "Blender's Choice"--in other words, I let them just send me whatever they felt like. Let's start by saying the Breakfast in Bed Black Tea is just plain pretty. I almost hated to douse it with hot water, I loved seeing those blue cornflowers so much. Gorgeous. And the smell? Beautiful. The first two parts of taste are sight and smell and this one already has those all wrapped up. 

But the actual taste doesn't disappoint after that set-up, either. It's rich and smooth. The hazelnut makes it deep without being overly nutty and sweet. I'm a fan of that little bit of fruitiness from the blackberries (very low-key and not at all sweet), and there's just a touch of vanilla. 

Fair warning, though--it doesn't pair well with clementines. Although that probably doesn't come up all that often for most people. (As they say, "ask me how I know.) I'm sure it would be quite tasty with pastries, though. But I won't be testing that any time soon. 

House Blend Black Tea; photo courtesy plumdeluxe.com.  

The last tea I got this time was another breakfast tea with the not-as-creative name House Blend. The description of this one is that it's in the style of English and Irish Breakfast teas, and I'm a fan of both of those, so I figured I'd give it a shot. As breakfast teas go, this one is absolutely fine. However, I have to say, the Breakfast in Bed black tea may have spoiled me a bit. I would probably have fallen in love with the House Blend had it been my first, so to speak. Still, it's a good breakfast tea--strong but not bitter, smooth, would be good with a splash of cream, and particularly good with a hot biscuit slathered in jam and clotted cream. 

Not that hot biscuits, jam, or clotted cream play a big part in my life at this point, either. But a girl can dream. And drool.  

That's it for the tea reviews this week--next week I'm going "grocery store" with a couple of my favorites that I pick up at Wegmans.  

On to snackies! 

My friend Lori got inspired by my reference to Chai tea this week and is offering up this recipe: http://lipsmackinggoodness.blogspot.com/2017/04/its-tea-time-with-pumpkin-chai-scones.html. She does fantastic scones--this is a new recipe so I haven't had the chance to try making them yet but they sound delicious! 

And for some fine reading while you're sipping and nibbling?

Why, Marie Bostwick's latest book, of course! I'm in the middle of reading The Promise Girls, her brand-spanking new release (image on left is a link). I won't review the book fully as, obviously, I'm not done reading it yet and I don't want to make any guesses as to where it's going. I can say, however, that Marie's writing style never disappoints. She's got a real gift for characters. I'm enjoying seeing where the story is taking me and getting to know each of the "cast" better with every chapter. There's a bit of a mystery involved (not a who-dunnit but a what's-going-on-here type of mystery), and other little tidbits here and there that keep things moving unpredictably at times, so every time I have to put it down I look forward to the next time I get to pick it up again.

(BTW, Lori has a book review on her post with the scones as well. It's a two-fer!) 

(Amazon links in this post help support my podcast and blog. Plum Deluxe links only support Plum Deluxe. Thank you!)

Wardrobe Wednesday

I've got two StitchFixes to report on--mine and my husband's, as they came within a few days of each other. Most of this will be mine, though, since I know the vast majority of my readers are women.

After the disappointment of the last StitchFix, I was trying to keep expectations low this time around. If I had one item I liked, I'd consider that a win. Well, this time, FIVE! Woot! I've asked if I could stick with the stylist who did this one now (Cori). She's done others that had items I liked. I didn't keep the card from the last box since I sent everything back, so it's possible she also did that one and it was just a one-off. In either case, once someone gets you right, it's worth staying with that same person because she can continue to get to know your likes and dislikes through all your feedback. 

I'd sent a list of the kinds of things I'd like to see in my next box, and she delivered in a major way--woo!

As my husband was out of town, I texted him pics of me wearing each of my items, so I'm going to use (with some fear and trembling) those photos here. Be nice. (!) I was having a bad hair day, the pics were all taken in my bathroom mirror so not the most attractive of backgrounds, and I don't really know how to model, despite my wealth of experience now!

First up, the shoes. I was so excited to see a shoe bag in the box--this is the first time I've gotten shoes from StitchFix! These are a pair of the very soft, very flexible ballet flats that are majorly "on trend" right now. They're pretty much like wearing slippers--which means they'll be great for wearing for date nights and family events, but not for a lot of walking. I wore these all day in my home office and they were quite comfortable. I love the light blush color, too. I may wear them out this Friday night, depending on the weather, when we're getting together for my sister-in-law's birthday. 

I'd asked for floral print sleeveless tops I could dress up or dress down. I wear a lot of this kind of thing for work under cardigans, but they've got enough shoulder coverage that if I start overheating (ahem--women of a certain age) I can ditch the cardigan and still look mostly professional. 

Including this one, I now have three sleeveless off-white/cream tops, each with a floral print, but every one is distinctly different and/or a slightly different color scheme. I'm happy!

Utility jackets are all the thing for spring right now, although I've mostly been seeing them in olive. I'd asked for one because all of my spring jackets are either (1) really, really old and showing their age or (2) too big now, and look it. I have one fuschia trench coat, but nothing that was more appropriate for casual wear, so I asked for a utility jacket. 

I was so pleased to see she'd included one! And even better, it's not olive green! I could've made olive work but it's not my favorite. This one is much more "me," and I absolutely love the stripe detail. I'd unrolled the sleeves in this pic but you can see the snap on the elbow--you can roll the sleeves up and the fabric tab snap to hold them is the same stripe as the hood. It's absolutely adorbs! (And using that phrase isn't really "me," but hey, it works.) 

There's a drawstring waist which means it fits me now but will also fit me later, and it's got great pockets. The fabric has a little stretch to it so it's super-comfortable. Love, love, love. Even though it's barely spring temps out there right now, I'm going to wear it anyway!

I've never been much of a dress person--I have usually done separates as I like to have options of mixing and matching. However, I've begun to buy into the idea that sometimes a dress is just a whole lot easier--throw on one garment, shoes, a necklace, and you're done. No having to figure out "an outfit." So I asked for dresses, and pinned a bunch of wrap and fit-and-flare styles to my Pinterest board since those work best for my body shape. Once again, Cori delivered!

This looks better on me than this angle might suggest--sorry about that. It fits absolutely perfectly, and the fabric is wonderfully comfortable and stretchy, but not clingy. It'll pack beautifully for my trip, too. I love that the v-neck isn't too low, which can often be an issue, and I also love that it's long sleeved but doesn't look heavy. Perfect for cold conference rooms. This is a great dress for work or for dinners out, but I can also throw a denim jacket and flats on and go sight-seeing or to spring festivals. Very versatile. The color is also pretty transitional--it's light enough for spring but the sage green will also make it work into early fall, especially if I wear cardigans and tights. Bingo. 

Ignore that I look really unhappy in this photo--I was concentrating on how to hold the dang phone for the picture.

Two dresses--woo woo! I love this dress, and it was a favorite for my husband, too. It's a ponte knit so, again, it'll travel well and it's got nice structure but is really, really comfortable. The "fit-and-flare" style looks more youthful without looking girlie. (As my daughter said to me once, "You look youthful in that...but in a good way!")

Again, another transitional piece: Because of the cap sleeves, I can wear it in warmer weather but because of the color, I can throw a cardigan or jacket over the top and wear it in the fall. It's modern, and modest enough for work while still fun to wear for vacation with a great necklace and shoes. This one has a little bit more of a formal feel to it than the other one so I don't see myself "dressing it down" to wear casually, but it'll get a lot of wear otherwise.  

So, yay! I've now updated my wishlist for my next StitchFix--there are still a couple of things I'd love to have for vacation (and future travel). I've also changed my delivery date to much earlier in the month--for a few reasons--so I will be getting my next box in just a couple of weeks. Stay posted.

About the shoe reference above: I'm now working with Amber of Trunk Club on shoes. She did such a fantastic job with the sandals I got last time that I just asked her to find me great walking shoes for my vacation. I sent her a laundry list of requirements, so we'll see what happens! Stay tuned (and I'll include more background as to why I'm still in need of shoes despite a bunch of twitter posts since last summer about shoes I've bought, LOL). 

Now for my husband's StitchFix. I actually had a longer post about this drafted but it never got finished or posted, so now you're getting the abbreviated version. In a nutshell: I really didn't think he was going to want any of the items in the box but he ended up keeping them all. They all looked great on him but he can be very limited-in-his-thoughts about what he wears. He's really trying to break out of his own style rut and, frankly, me working on my wardrobe has made him start looking at his a little differently too, tee hee. Here's a gallery of the clothes he's now adding to his closet. One note: The burgundy corduroys are the biggest "envelope-pusher," not at all like anything he'd normally pick out for himself (nor I for him as neither of us is big on corduroy). But they looked fantastic on him, so he decided he'd bring them on vacation where no one knows him to know he normally doesn't wear stuff like that, and see how it goes. 

The StitchFix and TrunkClub links in this post are my referral links, so thank you if you use them! 

Tea Tuesday (an OT post)

So, perhaps I've taken the whole alliterative title thing a little too far...

I'm pleased to say that over the weekend I finally turned a corner on the cold thing. Not quite ready to say it's completely gone as the cough lingers on a bit, but it no longer directly affects my day-to-day so it's good. I'm back to my 5k training, which feels great, and I'll be able to pick things back up with my strength trainer at our appointment later this week. I knocked out a paper this weekend and am all caught up on my school reading. It's a nice recovery after the mayhem of the earlier part of this month!

Meanwhile, I have a recommendation for you. I was drinking gallons of tea over the couple of weeks I was sick. My husband, daughter, and I are all big tea drinkers, although my husband only has a limited number of flavors he likes (Earl Grey, Moroccan Mint, and the occasional green tea--though he mostly drinks plain hot water which we jokingly refer to as "white tea"). My daughter and I are the more adventuresome types. When she was still living at home we had difficulty getting all our varieties to fit on the tea shelf. 

I was recently contacted by Andy Hayes, founder of Plum Deluxe teas in Portland, Oregon. He noted how often I referred to tea on my blog and asked if he could send me some samples. As I coughed my way through my email, I thought, "Sure, why not?" He asked me what kind of tea I was interested in and I let him know some of my basic likes and dislikes, and just a few days later I got Happy Mail including three samples of some of their more popular teas.

Let's start with the general overview: Plum Deluxe teas are fair trade and organic. I've been in search of a good fair trade coffee and have yet to find one I like. I'm pleased to say that the same is not true for these teas: These are fantastic! They're also blended by hand when they're ordered, so they're not shipped from some big production house and sitting in bags on shelves for years until they make it to you. They have a great blog covering all sorts of topics, and a newsletter that's got interesting tidbits, life balance encouragement, recipes, and ideas for entertaining. Additionally, Plum Deluxe has a philanthropy fund that it uses to support worthy causes. They list several of the things they've supported in the past on their website. As you can guess, that was a major plus for me before I'd even tasted the teas!

So...let's get on to the teas, shall we?

The three samples he sent were the Oregon Breakfast Black Tea, Refreshing "After Dinner" Mint Tea, and Easy to Be Herbal Tea. 

Oregon Breakfast Black Tea--photo from plumdeluxe.com. 

Let's start with the Oregon Breakfast Black Tea. In Andy's email, he said this was the most popular of their teas among coffee drinkers. Whether it's because I'm a coffee drinker or not, I could probably just say "yum!" and end my review there. But you know me better than that.

My daughter happened to be crashing at our house overnight the day I got these samples. She was standing with me at the kitchen counter when I opened each bag, so we were each taking deep inhales from the bags. (That's not illegal. Really.) When we sniffed this one, we looked at each other, eyes wide. "Holy cow," I said, or something along those lines (!). "This is amazing!" It's deep and rich but not at all bitter, which a lot of "teas for coffee drinkers" can be. 

It's a black tea with other additions, such as a hint of orange and hazelnut. You can smell the hazelnut more strongly than you can taste it, which is exactly what I like. I don't like an overpowering hazelnut flavor--I like it to float underneath whatever it's flavoring, and with this tea, that's exactly what happens. And the orange doesn't taste like orange--it's more of a bright note to balance out the black tea and the nuttier hazelnut. All in all, a fantastic blend.

I'm not inclined to give up coffee, but I do find myself finishing my coffee faster in the morning so I can still get in a cup or two of the Oregon Breakfast tea before noon (my cut-off time for caffeine lest I not sleep at night). 

After Dinner Mint Tea--photo from plumdeluxe.com. 

Plum Deluxe's Refreshing "After Dinner" Mint tea is a blend of peppermint and spearmint, with a few other herbs added in to give it some complexity.

I'm a mint tea connoisseur at this point. Mint is my go-to flavor, and I have at least three different versions in my tea cupboard. In this case, I liked the complexity of the "After Dinner" Mint tea but I could've used a little stronger mint flavor. Now, mind you, I'm pretty picky about my mint tea. I've had mint teas that tasted like I was drinking liquified toothpaste and almost felt like they were burning the tastebuds right off my tongue; I've had others that felt like hot water with a mint leaf barely dipped in and then thrown away. This one was a little on the quiet side of middle; many folks would probably like it, but for me it could have used a more obvious mint kick to it. I've taken to doubling the suggested amount of tea for one cup and steeping it longer than recommended to boost the mint flavor closer to what I like. That being said, I don't mind that this one was a little less of a big deal for me because I so thoroughly enjoyed the other two. 

Tea Subscription option--photo from plumdeluxe.com. 

The third sample, and my other favorite of the three, is Easy to Be Herbal Tea. This one is fascinating. It's also not a super-strong flavor but it's got a lot going on. I think if any of the individual flavors were any stronger, it would be less enjoyable. In the few days since I've gotten these samples, I've fallen into the habit of having the Oregon Breakfast tea when I'm done with my coffee in the morning and then switching to the Easy to Be herbal tea in the afternoon. Easy to Be has a mix of blueberries, raspberry leaves, cranberries, and lots of other good stuff, but it doesn't come out as "fruity." There's a hint of fruit aftertaste to it, but it's not overpowering. I have some other fruit teas, unsweetened, that still taste a little like I'm drinking hot Kool-Aid. There's a time and a place but, generally, I like things a little more subtle (other than my mint, of course). And, again, that smell! I have my sample bags sitting out on my counter and it isn't unusual for me to pull one of them open, take a deep whiff, and close it up again. 

I can see making iced tea out of this one in the summer. Tasty. Unfortunately, you can't just buy this one--it's only available to the subscription members. 

After I'd had two or three cups of each of the samples, I went on the website and bought a few more. I'll be getting the House Blend Black Tea ("Creamy Vanilla English Breakfast") and Portland Rose City Chai, plus a "Blender's Choice," which means they get to send me whatever they want. It'll be a fun adventure! There are a ton of other very tasty options on their site I'll have to work my way through. They have a subscription club which I may do at some point, but at the moment I'm being very cognizant of my already-overflowing tea cupboard. I need to throw a few more tea parties!

So, thank you, Andy, for the free samples. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to enjoying more of your teas in the future!

(I'm not being compensated for this post, beyond the three free samples I got to begin with. And the words are all mine. I just love tea and am happy to spread the word about a great fair trade product!)

Thinkin' about It Thursday

This week, I'm thinking...

• about snow. Sigh.

Off-Topic Tuesday--Word of the Year

I decided a few weeks ago that my former word of the year, "Balance," has run its course for the time being. It's actually been my WOTY for a couple of years because I really, really had to work on it. But I'm in a pretty good place now. I was thinking one afternoon about how that word no longer called to me the way it had and whether or not that meant it was time for a change, when another word popped into mind and just wouldn't go away. After a couple of days letting it mull in the back of my brain, I've decided that--despite it being a couple of months into 2017 and therefore an odd time to be setting a Word of the Year--I'm now going to use a new word.

Fun.

I've generally always managed to keep fun in my life but I've realized lately that, as part of finding balance, I've also been naturally leaning towards having more fun. Sometimes "fun" is something big, like signing up for the Color Run and DirtyGirl Mud Run (see Friday's post) or participating on a whim in a fashion show (see Saturday's post). But most times it's the little things that entertain me. 

For example, when I joined the Instant Pot community on Facebook (for those of us who are fans of our electric pressure cooker) I noticed that there was a trend of IP users to get custom made vinyl decals for their IPs. Yeah, it's a thing. IP owners are a bit overly emotionally-invested in their IPs, perhaps.

Anyway, after seeing a bunch of different decals pictured, I finally followed the links one afternoon and my IP has now been duly decorated.

Work at it--you'll figure it out. Or, at least, if you're a Tolkien fan, you will. (That's a hint.)

(Want one of your own? It's from EllieCanary on Etsy. She's got a ton of options.)

Along the same lines, my bullet journal is in a Leuchtthurm 1917 notebook, which has several lovely colors. I plan on working my way through most of the colors over my bujo lifespan but (for those who know me, they'd say "of course") I had to start with the fuschia one. I love it. Still n' all, when I saw decals on the bullet journal Facebook group I'm in--those FB groups can get you into trouble!--I ended up ordering a custom-made one with one of my currently-favorite protest phrases.

One could, I suppose, dilute the message by saying, "she persisted in getting her tasks done," but that's not how I mean it.

'Nuff said.

Kimberly at Sublime Reflection has a ton of resources and all around good stuff on her website. She also has vinyl decals with various sayings along with the ability to have something custom made. I sent her my wording, my choice of fonts from her options, as well as how I wanted it laid out (which words smaller and bigger, directionality, etc) and it's absolutely perfect. It was easy to apply and I just love the graphic boldness of it. It makes me smile every time I see it.

I already plan on having a different word or saying every time I start with a new bujo notebook. In fact, the next one might just be my word of the year--great way to remember, it, right?

The other thing that's making me giggle these days is Mickey on my Apple Watch. When you tap him, he tells you what time it is. And sometimes giggles. Or calls you "pal." I grin every time. It never gets old. 

What little things make you chuckle every time? How are you having fun every day? 

Me? A Fashion Model? Pshaw.

Well, it happened!

A few weeks ago I was shopping in Christopher & Banks--one of my favorite places for the basics/layering pieces in my wardrobe--and as I was checking out, the clerk asked me if I'd be interested in volunteering to be a model in their fashion show. They throw out an open invitation to any customers to join in the fun. I was sort of surprised to hear myself immediately saying, "Sure! That sounds like a hoot!" A bit out of my comfort zone--but it really did sound like fun so, why not? (Of course, I had no voice when I woke up this morning--this cold is a "symptom of the day" type and always keeps me guessing what's going to happen next--so I was a bit squeaky when I was meeting all the other models, but they forgave me. Since I tend not to talk much in those situations anyway, it worked out okay.)

You get to choose what outfit you want to model ahead of time; they hold onto it in the store for you to change into the morning of the show. Models get 40% off anything you buy the day of the fashion show, including sale items. Wow! I knew I wanted a pair of light dress pants in my wardrobe, and I'm a sucker for a cardigan, so that's the outfit I chose to model, knowing ahead of time there's no doubt I'd be buying it. I already owned the shell I wore under the cardigan but they still provided one from the store so I wouldn't have to remember to bring it from home. I also found a necklace that worked with the outfit--it was on clearance so I decided that would come with me too. The shoes I wore are the pair I just got from the Trunk Club shipment last week. I could hear some approving comments about the shoes as I walked by the (very small) audience--they're definitely a winner.

Before the show began, I was changing into my outfit in the back room with the other models and they told me I actually got to model two outfits. So I quickly ran back out into the store and put together a second outfit: colored jeans that are amazingly comfortable, a tunic blouse, a white peplum jacket, and a great scarf. I loved it, plus all the other models (and my husband) thought it was a winner too, so I ended up getting both outfits.  Lots of great pieces for my May vacation to mix and match (with other stuff I already own too), as well as some work stuff I have at the end of May. More wins!

That's really why they do this, of course: we models were all shopping off each other. I and another woman both modeled the same white jacket and we had a Great Swap going on in the back room over which size fit who better as there were limited sizes available in the store. We both ended up happy. Several women went back to find pieces that one of the other models had worn and bought those as well. Other than the few friends/family members that had come, there was a small handful of customers in the store so we did get a little bit of an audience. But mostly, I just had a great time with the other models and bagged some great clothes at a significant discount.  

All in all--it was an absolute hoot! I'd have to say I'll probably do it again if I have the opportunity!

Wardrobe Wednesday (for lack of a better title)

An impressively-sized box!

So I decided to give Trunk Club a try. I still feel like I need a little help breaking out of my style rut. I do, indeed, have a "uniform." 90% of my workwear (and casual wear, for that matter) is a sleeveless tank of some sort, a cardigan, and either jeans or dress pants. That's all well and good and it's suited me fine for years, but I'm ready to break out in new directions.

A dress? Well, that remains to be seen. Let's not talk crazy talk, here.

I'm still doing StitchFix, despite sending everything back the last time. I'm hoping my feedback will lead to better in the future (after all, I had two good deliveries before that). Trunk Club is very different; the only similarity is that someone "styles" you and sends you stuff to choose from. However, from there, the two vary widely.

Trunk Club, owned by Nordstrom, is not a subscription service. You only get boxes when you ask for them. Additionally, you have more interaction with the stylist. You can message her through the app any time you want. You can make specific requests or, as I did this first time out, you can give her general categories of what you're looking for to build your wardrobe. She then sends you an email (or a message in the app) with pictures of several of the items she plans to send, and you can say "yay" or "nay". if you say "nay," she'll swap out with other items. Once you approve the box, it gets shipped. You then get a box of 12-15 items. (StitchFix only ever sends five). You have 5 days to dither over what you want to keep or return. Once you are ready for returns, you can schedule a free UPS pick-up at your house. Easy.

Another difference from StitchFix: With StitchFix, there's a discount if you buy all five items in the box. With Trunk Club, you pay for each item--no discounts. They're Nordstrom prices--if they're on sale at Nordstrom when delivered, you get the sale price. There's a $25 styling fee which is then credited to anything you might choose to buy. 

I really just wanted to test this out. In the future, it's possible I'll be doing a whole lot more work travel and if that's the case, it might be really convenient not to have to go to a mall to find new work clothes. However, until then, especially as I'm still changing sizes, I'd be extremely selective of what I decide to pay Nordstrom prices for. I'd have to be sure I'd get a lot of wear out of something. Still, it's always fun to see what someone else would pick out for you.

This first time out, they recommend that you not say "nay" to anything the stylist suggests, because it's a matter of trying to learn about each other through trial and error. (My words, not theirs). When I got the message with the images of what she was going to include, I was pretty dang sure I wouldn't like most of it but one thing I've learned is that you never know until you actually try something on. I've had several instances where I didn't like something out of the box/on the rack but when I saw it on, I fell in love with it. So I was game. Also, I only saw about half of what ultimately got put in the box. I did get a message after the box had already shipped that showed everything that was included, so I knew what I was getting; I just hadn't seen it to approve it all. That took away some of the fun surprise element in StitchFix, but it did give me the opportunity to think through some things ahead of time--like, "how many outfits could I make with that one, if it fits, given my current wardrobe?"

(Packaging isn't as pretty as StitchFix, although quantity is substantial!)

The criteria that the stylist and I discussed were: I need light colored bottoms (dress pants, casual pants, maybe even a skirt although I backed away from that) because my wardrobe is currently exclusively dark pants; I'd like some brighter tops/blouses and tops with prints; I needed "nude" (or light) dress and casual shoes.

Here's what I got:

I have a bit of "boho chic" to me, and if I hadn't just recently added a bunch of navy to my wardrobe (in an attempt to break out of the "black as my main neutral" rut), I might have been more inclined to like this one. 

First, this wouldn't be a versatile piece for me--for work or casual. It's exclusively casual. The bell sleeves are "on trend" right now and I'm not agin' 'em, but the top part of the sleeve was a little snug. The shoulders didn't sit right on me and I really couldn't figure out if the tie was supposed to go in the front or the back--it was ambiguously placed. I decided with one glance at the mirror...nope. Returned.

The "Cold Shoulder" look is also very on trend right now, and I think I am agin' this one. Every time I see it in blogs, I've thought, "Nope. Not for me." Still, to be fair to my stylist, I tried it on. Nope. Not for me. Plus, blush (also on trend) is REALLY not a good color on me. Granted, I'm down with a cold this week so I'm not looking my sparkling best, but this really made me look like death warmed over. Returned.

When I first saw this, I thought, "Why are they sending me a fall/winter top now?" Well, possibly they're trying to clear inventory--but when I put this on, I realized it could be spring/summer because the fabric is actually pretty lightweight. 

It's very soft and comfy, but it's not a good version of purple for me and it's a boxy construction so I'd be more inclined to wear it around the house or at quilt retreats than out in "public" (quilt retreats not being "public" in my mind). At Nordstrom prices? I don't think so. Returned.

Oh, I so wanted to love this! When the stylist and I were messaging and she asked me about blazers, I said "unconstructed." I mostly wear cardigans, but the few blazer-type things I've really loved over the years weren't standard suit-style jackets. They have a softer vibe, unexpected shapes, etc. This one had possibilities! It looks like a suit jacket from the front but has this wonderful waterfall pleat back. Very funky. Unfortunately, it didn't quite sit right on me from the front. This may be TMI but I think I'm not big enough "up there" to hold it up the way it was designed to be held up. I put it on twice because I really wanted it to work. But no, it's just not to be. Returned.

I'd said "no skinny jeans." I got skinny jeans. On the flip side, I had asked for light colored jeans and/or dress pants, so she was partially listening. And it's possible these aren't technically in the category of "skinny jeans" because they're ankle length and meant to have the ankle rolled up a little--which, to be clear, is also not a style I wear, but I was game to try.

Despite these being most of what I'd not wanted, I tried them on. They fit really well, but, well, that skinny thing. And these were *really* expensive jeans. So, no. Returned.

I have no problem with print pants on other women. I sometimes admire them, in fact, when they're in the right outfit. But it would have to be just the exactly right print for me to wear them myself, and I can't even tell you what that print would be. I'd just have to be able to "feel it" when I saw it.

So, in the spirit of "I'm trying to be game," I tried these on, even though I wasn't "feeling" them. They were a bit snug, although they'd be fine by summer, but I just can't do it. Not this print, not these colors. Returned. 

So, by now you're probably wondering...was there ANYTHING she liked in that delivery? Yes, actually--two things I saved for last.

You may need to put sunglasses on for this first one. When I saw their picture in the message after the box shipped, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me." 

When I saw them in the box, I thought, "No freaking way."

And then I put them on. And fell completely in love.

They fit beautifully. They're crop pants that hit in just the right part of my leg; they're also a beautiful fabric with a fantastic drape to them so they balance out my shape really well. They'd be great for summer work events. And (wait for it) I have a couple of sleeveless tops and cardigans that would style with them very easily. So it would be a way to make my standard "uniform" more fun and unique. Yes, they're bright--although not quite as "glow in the dark bright" as the photo makes them seem. But they work on me!

Unfortunately, by the time I have my summer events that I'd be wearing these for I expect to be down another size. I waffled for a day, thinking, "I could have them tailored then," but I know myself. By the time I'm down another size and looking for clothes to wear on that particular work trip, I'll want to be able to find something new to celebrate my continued weight loss. So after 24 hours of debating, I'm returning these. I did tell my stylist to remember the designer and style, though, because they work really, really well!

Finally, the one keeper. Remember how I'd told her I needed nude/light colored dress shoes?

She'd included this pair. When I first looked at them in the message, I thought, "Huh. Well, maybe." I'm not usually a fan of pointy toes and really not sure about the ankle laces. I had a pair of ankle lace shoes the last time they were in style (a long time ago) and always hated the way they felt. I'd never have picked these out in a shoe store but since they were delivered into my hands, I was willing to give them a shot.

And they're fantastic. Extremely comfortable to wear. I'm thrilled that block heels are currently "on trend" right now because they're the best way to do heels! And I emphasized with the stylist that I don't do high heels and she listened! These are a great height for me--just high enough to look a little fancy but very easily walkable and comfortable.

Here's the best thing about a home-delivery style service. I wore these shoes around the house for a whole day, just making sure no weird little rub spots developed. You can't do that in a shoe store. I already have plans to wear them on Saturday for a special event I'm participating in...but more on that in a later blog post.

Wearing them around the house reminded me, though, that I do need to get more used to walking in heels. Even as comfortable as these are, I still have to change my stride just a little bit to keep from pitching myself forward. (Hazards of working from a home office is my main office wear is slippers.)

So, I'm considering my first experience with Trunk Club a decent success for these reasons:

• I tried on styles just to see if I'd like them on or not, and learned something about what I like and don't like in the process. That saves me time and money in the long run, so it's all good.
• I found a couple of things I'd not normally have tried on in a store but discovered I loved! Even though I only kept one of them, that's also good learning.
• I got a great pair of shoes out of them. And with the $25 styling fee taken off the price of the shoes, they're the price I would normally have paid for a good pair of shoes. Although, in this process, I'm also learning that perhaps I should be willing to pay more for a really good pair of shoes, because I have a history of inexpensive shoes that end up not being worth it in the long run. 

I'm going to wait until after I get my next StitchFix in a couple of weeks to decide if I want to order another Trunk Club right now. I have my 30th anniversary vacation coming up in May and want to be well dressed!

(If you're interested in Trunk Club, here's my referral link if you'd like to use it! They also have Trunk Club for Men--in fact, that was their original Trunk Club.) 

Making It Monday

So all I've made these days is my March layout for my bullet journal. 

I'm finishing my current bullet journal with the last couple of days of February. I commented to my husband that if nothing else, doing a bullet journal actually made me completely fill up a blank book for the first time in my life. I have a multitude of journals that were begun for various purposes over the years (journal-journals, prayer journals, travel journals, etc.) but after a couple of months I'd stop using it, but never wanted to repurpose it for anything else. So, lots of pretty blank-books that are 2/3rds blank now. 

This one, however, got nailed pretty darn fast. I only started it in mid-January and I managed to squeeze out the last couple of days of February by doubling some stuff up. 

You may recall this photo from an earlier blog post that compares the size of the book I'd been using to my new Leuchtthurm 1917 A5 notebook. It's got significantly more pages as well as more real estate on each page so it'll last me somewhat longer...I hope.

I've been working over the last week or so to figure out what trackers and layouts I most wanted in my new bujo. I've been poking away at setting them up over the last few lunch breaks--as in most of life, it takes longer the first time because I'm figuring out what goes where and how to do each layout as I go; my expectation is that it'll go faster in the future because I'll just be editing what I already have rather than starting from scratch. We'll see how much of this I keep up in March; that's how I'll determine which ones I'll do again for April. I decided to stick with monthly trackers for most things rather than a yearly one because I didn't want to have to migrate yearly trackers to new bujos every time I start a new notebook. 

So, here's a collage of most of my March layout.

You can see I did a little decorating but I'm not putting a lot of time into that. I'm keeping my expectations low. Where I ended up with blank space I just quickly wrote in a related quote and used my colored highlighters to make it slightly more interesting. Slightly. 

I have space at the beginning of my bujo for my index, future log, general mindmap and monthly projects/goals. Then I have my March-specific stuff: Monthly calendar spread first, then a bunch of trackers (shown: habit tracker, cleaning/organizational tracker, workout/mileage/weight tracker, gratitude log; I also have spending planners and trackers, and a few others that are more journal-y). I also have a general "brain dump" page for everything that occurs to me that I've forgotten to put anywhere else. I tried to keep everything in one place so that every night I can just flip through pages and quickly fill stuff in. If I can't track everything in 10 mins or less, it won't happen. I'll also add post-it-note tabs so I can easily find the most relevant stuff rather than having to always go back to the index.

The image in the second row, left, is my current weekly layout. It's morphed over the last few weeks; since I have more room in this notebook I've added a couple of little things I didn't used to do such as keeping track of which recreational books I'm reading in any given week--I thought that might be interesting to look back on in the future. I'll do my dailies after that page. I haven't decided if I want to do a one or two page daily yet as I've moved some of the stuff I used to do in my dailies to a monthly tracker. I still have a couple of days before I have to do my March 1 daily to figure that out. I also may decide the monthly tracker doesn't work as well for some things and end up moving those back into dailies again as I move forward. 

That big blank page on the lower right? That's for my "creative life" in March. Yep. Blank. I do plan on getting back into embroidery and/or doing a little sewing, but I haven't figured out yet how I want to set up that page. You may also notice I misspelled "creative" when I wrote the header. "Oh, what a giveaway," as a Monty Python sketch once said. It's been so long since I've done it I can't even spell it right anymore. 

So--with March, and with my new book, I'm really to really see how this bullet journal thing works for me, LOL. So far, so good!

Do you bullet journal? Share your layouts (or post them on Instagram and make sure I'm following you). I'm always up for new ideas! I follow lots of bujoers on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook and it is fun to see what people do--even if I'll never take nearly as much time with mine as a lot of them clearly do! 

OT: March StitchFix

I was so excited about this month's StitchFix, I was basically haunting my USPS tracking number until it showed up on my doorstep. 

And then it came! Oh, it came! 

As I opened the box and pulled each item out, I got more and more excited. All of them seemed to hold such possibilities--I loved every one as I laid it out on my bed.

And then I tried everything on. And my heart broke just a little bit.

This is one of those off months where everything looked great to start, but it didn't quite hold true to its promise once it was on my body. On someone else, some of them would have looked great, but they just didn't work well on me. I've learned to become much more picky about what I invite into my closet, especially right now since I know it'll only last one season as I plan on being a different size by the time I reach my goal weight. So a couple of these may have made the cut before, but I didn't want to spend money on them now.

First up--these pants were the only item that I didn't immediately fall in love with out of the box. I like the concept of these pants as they can be either casual or work wear for me (which is something I've requested from "my stylist"). 

However, ankle pants are very tricky for me--they have to hit in just the right place to keep from putting 15 pounds on my legs, and these didn't quite do that. They're also not a color that would work with a whole lot in my wardrobe going into ankle-pant season. Finally, they were too tight anyway. Pants sizes are all over the place so although they were the right size for me on paper, they weren't shaped right for my body. Had the color and the length been excellent, I might have considered keeping them in my wardrobe for 10 pounds from now--but as it is, they were an immediate "nope."

I thought the navy top was kind of cool when I pulled it out of the wrapping. You can sort of see from this picture that it's "business in the front, party in the back," so to speak--plain navy button-down front with a striped and pleated back, hi-lo style. That could've been very fun, and I have a "navy capsule wardrobe" working so I could've very easily worked it in with other things I already own.

However, when I put it on, it just sort of hung on me and wasn't particularly interesting from the front. I decided I didn't want people to only be interested as I was walking away. It was on the fence until I made decisions about everything else--but ultimately it wasn't enticing enough for me to buy it just on its own.

Now we get into the ones I was dancing around about as I unwrapped them from the tissue enclosure.

First: this great t-shirt that I thought I could wear casually with shorts on the patio or dress it up with dress pants for summer events. Again--incredibly soft fabric. That seems to be a reliably common theme with my StitchFix clothes! I loved the interesting stripe design with the gray panels on the lower side--it looked like it would be slimming.

Not so much. When I had it on, somehow that narrower stripe at the bottom just created a bulls-eye target on my not-so-slim middle section--it draws your eyes right to the belly. It was even worse when I put a cardigan over it--it actually made me look a bit pregnant. I think someone who was straight-up-and-down could probably wear this easily and, again, it's supremely comfortable. For me, though, it was a miss.

I was equally excited about this hunter green top. I like tops that have the look of two pieces, especially when the lower piece is loose and flowy compared to the upper piece. I have several of that type of top pinned on my StitchFix Pinterest board so they're clearly paying attention. This would also have been a fantastic seasonal transition piece--still dark enough for winter but having a touch of spring, plus long-sleeved but a thinner material. I cried a little tear inside when I put it on. The break between the two materials at the hip hit me at my widest part, so it visually added inches. Also, the collar placket on one side kept flopping over and just making the whole thing look way too casual so I wouldn't have been able to dress it up as easily. Six months ago I may have kept it because I generally felt like, "if it fits, buy it." Now I'm learning to be a lot more choosy, so this one went in the "nope" pile.

Finally, the one that really made me sad. I've been looking for more layering options, especially blouses I could wear on their own as well as under cardigans or pullover sweaters. I've also been looking for more print pieces as my wardrobe leans heavily towards solids. I'd noted both of these things to StitchFix so I was again glad to see they'd listened and included this wonderful print blouse. It has just a touch of Boho to it, which I love. It is loose and flowy but could be tucked in should I get to the point where I actually start tucking in blouses. I loved the length of the sleeves and the type of collar, and that it was long enough to hang just a little over my hips but not so long it couldn't easily be tucked in. I loved this blouse out of the box. 

And then--do you see where this is heading already?--I put it on. At first, I was really excited. It fit perfectly and looked wonderful on. But then I noticed something--I pulled and tugged and pulled again, but nope. I was right. It was poorly constructed and the front of the blouse hung cock-eyed. I even looked at the card that comes in the box to see if it was supposed to be asymmetrical (and just wasn't obvious about it) but no--it was just sewn crooked. I kept futzing with it to see if I could get it to hang straight or, conversely, to decide if I could just live with it. Finally, I reminded myself: "Don't buy something you don't love." That was the fifth "nope."

So everything's going back. As you know, that's not typical of my short-but-so-far-good history with StitchFix. I'm looking at this as a one-off and I gave detailed information when I reported on my returns. I especially commented on the poor construction of the blouse and said I had a concern about quality. Mind you--all the pieces from previous StitchFix shipments are holding up great! In fact, I'm wearing the jeans from month 1 and one of the tops from month 2 even as I write this blog post, and no complaints about either of them. So, although this month made me sad, I'm still looking forward to next month!

If you're interested in checking out StitchFix, here's my referral link. Or, if you'd rather, just go to www.stitchfix.com. Remember, they have StitchFix for men too (my husband's next shipment will be sometime next month), and they just announced that they now have StitchFix in plus sizes. Despite this one post, I definitely still recommend StitchFix! 

OT Tuesday--Color Analysis

Here's another off-topic post for you, although it does very loosely relate to quilting and embroidery as it's all about color. Operative term being "loosely."

Even though I'm good at working with color in quiltmaking, and with my hand-dyeing past I have spent years studying color, color relationships, color schemes, and the like, when it comes to wearing color or putting color on my face in the form of cosmetics...well, somehow that's a completely different thing.

I kinda-sorta know what colors worked for me. And I didn't. All at the same time. It felt like now was the perfect opportunity--as I'm working my way through a few different wardrobes this year--to create a far more strategic closet only including things that look great on me and I feel great wearing. I've mentioned doing Imogen Lamport's Ignite Your Style Genius workshop--that's where I started really thinking about colors and contrast when it comes to my outfits. I know I'm a "high value contrast" person as I have dark hair and eyes but relatively fair skin. Generally that means I'll look and feel best in high contrast outfits. I'd already sussed that one out myself. In Imogen's system, I'm also a "low color contrast" person since my hair and eyes are both brown (as opposed to a redhead with green eyes, for example, who would be a "high color contrast" person.) Technically, that suggests I'd do well in monochromatic outfits, but that's not really my jam. I prefer more color going on than that. But beyond that, I really had problems figuring out what colors and color schemes really worked best on me.

And now I know why. As it turns out, I'm a human bridge! Or, perhaps, I'm deeply complex. A mystery wrapped in an enigma.... Whichever image makes me seem more fascinating, that's the one I'll roll with.

I did a little research but really didn't want to rely on online color analyses working from photos or Skype. Too much margin for error with computer monitors. I wanted to do something in person, so I went to Kerry Jones of IndigoTones. She had rave reviews and she travels all over doing color analysis for people and groups so I thought it was worth a shot, and boy am I glad I did it. It was an extremely educational hour for me!

Not only did we determine my best colors, but we also talked about my style (I'm a "natural" with a splash of "creative" going by the five categories she used) and how I could work to integrate my new color knowledge into my current wardrobe--which has a whole lot of my not-so-best colors in it at the moment. She also had me bring my makeup with me, which could fit in one small bag as I'm terrible at choosing eye shadows and blushes that actually look good on me--and lipstick is a complete loss (don't like to wear it much anyway)--so I've been throwing out a lot of what I'd collected over the years. Once we determined my color "season," she put some different makeup on me and it was a pretty amazing difference. I actually looked awake! 

So--the results are:

I'm a Bright Spring!

Why could I never entirely decide whether I was "cool" or "warm?" Because I'm actually neutral--which means I'm a little of both, but on the flip side, some colors of either tone also look really bad on me. Boy, did that answer a lot of questions!

Additionally, whenever I tried to do my own analysis with online processes, I would tag myself as one of the winters but never felt like it was exactly right. Bright spring (aka "clear spring") shares some elements with "clear winter," hence my confusion there too. IOW, there are some clear winter colors I could get away with wearing and they'd look okay, but not as good as the bright spring/clear spring colors.

I've always loved bright colors but my career has moved me away from them--my felt need to dress fairly conservatively--and because I have dark hair and eyes in my formative years I'd often been steered towards the darker colors. I remember being told once as a teenager I should "always wear brown" because I have brown hair and brown eyes. All I could think was, "how incredibly boring!" (As a point of interest: ever since then, I've rarely worn brown. Don't tell me I "should always" do anything. That's the fastest way to make me never do it.)

Bright Spring color swatch from Indigotones.com

But guess what? It's time to let my Bright Spring come out and play! I'm far enough along in my career now that I have a much better sense of what I can get away with and where versus where I have to tone it down--plus, well, I gotta be me. My three color words to remember are "Bright" (the highest priority), "Light," and "Warm." Where I was most interested in the nuances was in the neutrals--black actually washes me out a bit, where as the warmer grays make me look brighter. Interesting. Not ditching my host of black cardis quite yet but will probably mostly weed them out over the next year.

After my analysis was done, I immediately stopped in a consignment shop with my color fan and picked up a gorgeous mint green blouse, a coral and purple sleeveless top, and a soft gray casual tunic top that will be great with leggings; plus, because it made me giggle, I picked up a shocking-coral colored funky necklace*. For us bright springs those funky necklaces are all da bomb. I have a penchant for funky jewelry anyway (note the "creative" in my style words above), so that's an easy one. Plus, that's one of the tips for working with my current wardrobe--take a less-than-great-colored top, throw a "bright spring" scarf or necklace with it and it'll make it look a whole lot better on me.

Something in me is very excited to let my Fuschia out.

*Consignment stores are my new best friend. I've scouted out a handful of excellent ones in the area with quality clothes aimed at me as a target audience rather than at teenagers. Gotta love getting a great pair of gray suede booties for $18. And bonus: They're already broken in and incredibly comfortable! My favorite "chain" consignment store is Clothes Mentor. Check to see if there's one near you.

Planner Progress

Today's post is about planners; I thought you might like an update (for those of you who are actually curious about this--the rest can close this post and move on).

I'm back to the bullet journal again. I lasted about a day and a half in the Passion Planner. Really, I do love the way that Passion Planner is set up and the way it feels in my hands and everything...it's just not right for what I need right now. It felt too cramped for everything I was trying to get into it. Most of what I really loved about it, though, was the process of it. The Passion Planner includes weekly and monthly reflection questions that I might poach into my bullet journaling system--or, perhaps more accurately, "be inspired by." 

In any case, here's where things stand with my current bullet journal. I'm still testing spreads out and trying different techniques (I refuse to call them "hacks" even though everyone else does, since how can you "hack" something that's basically an individualized, free-flowing, "open-source technology" anyway? Sheesh). 

I like having a monthly, weekly, and a daily spread. A lot of bujoers (look at me, using the lingo and everything) do only weeklies, or only dailies, and monthlies are hit and miss depending on the bujoer. I like all three, though I use them for slightly different things. My monthly is just a one-glance overview with dates, calendar events, travel, etc. When I move into a larger bujo I'll also include monthly goals in the spread (those currently live on a separate page in my cramped current book). I do also do a monthly mindmap/goal brainstorming page that gets translated into the weeklies/dailies accordingly. My weekly includes scheduled events again, but it's also primarily for meal and workout planning. I've messed around with trying to include weekly "MITs" (Most Important Tasks) but honestly, for tasks, I mostly go to my dailies. I've also tried keeping a "look ahead" kind of spot for things that occur to me during the current week that I need to remember for the following week but, again, my current book is so tight on space that's been a tricky one.

Here's the weekly spread I've been using with a few tweaks here and there the last few weeks. (It's intentionally pixellated to maintain at least some semblance of privacy!)

Note--I didn't make it to that cardio kickboxing class on Monday as that was the day I was in bed with a stomach flu. The meal planning was also ignored. I got to the Greek Chicken (From SkinnyTaste Fast and Slow cookbook) on Wednesday night instead--very good, even with a still-somewhat-unhappy-digestive system.

In any case--the weekly gets translated into the series of dailies, a two-page spread for each day.

As you can see, my bullet journal is a combo of schedule, tasks, and journaling. I keep moments of gratitude, things I'm proud of myself for doing health-wise and my "why" for doing those things (and I credit these two daily entries for a large part of why I've been so much more successful in my health goals this time around, but that's a different post), and then some random notes as needed. 

That's worked pretty well for me, although for a lot of days the tasks and schedule parts are fairly blank because I still keep all my work-related and school-related things digital. My bujo is strictly for personal goals and home-related tasks. Additionally, rewriting my meal plan every day did help me keep it in my head, but I don't always take the time to do it. (I track what I've actually eaten in the WW app.)

So this week I'm experimenting with a different type of spread I'd seen on Pinterest and found intriguing: It's called the Dutch Door. There's a few variations on this but I liked the horizontal one best. In this, you cut away the tops of some of the pages to create one larger spread with a series of smaller spreads underneath. It takes a little planning, and it depends on your notebook how easy those in-between pages are to cut out, but I managed to make it work pretty well. 

My weekly spread is now along the top, with a "dashboard" of sorts on the first left page where I keep everything related to the whole week. Then each day has one of the smaller pages in the middle. I liked someone's idea of folding a strip of washi tape across the top of the smaller pages to help delineate the separation better--plus it keeps those smaller pages a little stiffer and easier to turn without grabbing the whole week at once. It's nice to be able to see the week all the time without having to re-write schedule and meal stuff every day. I have high hopes for this spread.

You'll also see I'm playing around with color/decoration again. I don't know. I struggle with visual clutter, but I think once I start writing in the boxes it will be helpful to keep the headings visually separate from my writing. We'll see. 

I'm not sure how many more weeks I'll get in this notebook--I suspect only one full week. I'm looking forward to moving into the new notebook because it has significantly more real estate, plannerly-speaking. And you can see I've already installed my nifty pen holder! 

OT: January StitchFix

So, perhaps I really ought to be calling this the February StitchFix as that's what it really is: each month's box comes towards the end of the month before. But that'll eventually get too confusing, so I'll just consider myself as having gotten two Januarys and we'll move on from there. 

Once again, I ended up keeping all five items they sent. There were a couple I was debating but--again--with the full-box discount and a couple of credits (thank you, kind reader!), it ended up being cheaper to keep all of them than it would have been to send two back. I suspect I see a theme developing. However, "debating" means I liked both of the questionable items at some level and could see how I could integrate them into the rest of my wardrobe--they just weren't my favorites. So I'm going to challenge myself to wear them both a few times over the next couple of weeks to allow them time to work their ways into my wardrobe-heart. 

Yes, that's a bag you see on the bottom of that box. Yay! They clearly are looking at my Pinterest board because I've probably pinned about 40 versions of this same bag.  

The one they sent is reversible, which makes it a little extra fun.  It also comes with the little zippered pouch that has pockets inside, because the bag itself has no pockets (understandable given the reversibility). I like the idea of the little pouch because it would actually fit in a few other bags I own so I could feasibly just start moving that bag to change purses. Kind of handy. I've also found that the pouch acts as a purse organizer--in other words, it's a lot faster for me to find my chapstick and reading glasses than when I'm digging through a pile in the bottom of my purse. Nice, unexpected benefit!

I like the lighter side out a little better; I think that's because of the little bit of contrast with the handles and tassel. But practically speaking, that would get beat up looking pretty quickly. It's not real leather, though, so it may be easy to wipe off. 

The only knock on this bag is there's no closure; it's just an open bag. So security-wise, not so hot. I've used it the last couple of days just bopping around town, but it's not coming on airplanes or on vacations with me. 

This was one of the two I was debating. One thing I've learned about myself by looking at all my pins and my reactions to things in StitchFix boxes is that I prefer organic, curvy prints to geometrics. This print is not one I'd ever have picked off a rack to try on. However, it's wonderfully comfortable, a great seasonal-transition piece, and can dress up or dress down. So it's an excellent addition to my wardrobe from all those perspectives. And I don't hate it. I have a lot of this burgundy in my wardrobe, as well, so I've already found one dressier outfit I can make with it; wearing it with jeans is easy. I know I'll find others. 

Can't go wrong with basic black. This is another wonderfully soft, lightweight short-sleeve sweater that will be great for work, no worries. It's just a hair on the sheer side so I need to be a little careful what I wear foundationally, shall we say. You can't tell easily in this picture but it's a hi-lo sweater (cut lower in back than in the front), so I think it could look a little more interesting with dress pants than your usual black top. 

So you may be surprised to find out this was the second item I was seriously debating--or maybe not, since you don't have the benefit of seeing the rest of my closet. But I have a couple other duster-length cardigans that I wear frequently. In a lot of ways, this one should be right in my wheelhouse. It looks darker here than it is in real life;  it's sort of a dark gray-blue (or gray-teal: it really is a bit of an odd color). It fits me really well, and I like the style of it, but the color feels like it'll be a tricky one to work with, and the hood automatically makes it a titch more casual and less flexible between work and play.

I'll definitely be able to wear it and I imagine the color will grow on me as I do. It's wonderfully comfortable!

And last...when I pulled this one out of the box, my first reaction was "ugh." It looked completely shapeless and unappealing all folded up. But when I tried it on...it immediately became my favorite. My husband and daughter (who had come to mooch a few meals off us on a broke weekend) immediately said, "that's great!" I wore it running errands today and got a couple of compliments on it too. Definitely a keeper.

So--StitchFix #2 gets a 7 out of 10 for me. StitchFix #1 was a 9 out of 10, I think--although I suspect when I first got it I would've said 7 or 8 out of 10 due to a couple of pieces I wasn't sure about, but I've worn the heck out of them so they went up in my rating system after the fact. The same is quite likely to happen with this box too!

Interested in StitchFix? Here's my referral link: https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/10141355, or just go to www.stitchfix.com.  

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming....

Making It Monday--January 16

A great day honoring a great man.

(Not much being made around here except a class assignment. Tune in next week to see if I make any fiber progress...)

Thinking About it Thursday: Apps, Planners, and Blog Posts, O My! (More New Year Organization)

I think it's time to return to my Thinking About it Thursday posts. This one is more wordy than they usually are but I've got some 'splainin' to do.

I saw this book referenced on someone's blog and thought, "Color me intrigued." I now have one in my reflective little hands: The 52 Lists Project by Moorea Seal. I'm an inveterate list-maker so the idea of using lists to reflect in a meaningful way seemed like it would be right up my alley. I received it on Tuesday, and did the first week's list and can already highly recommend the book. It's a beautifully designed book, the list topics are really interesting--many are pretty unexpected--and each one has a suggested action item at the end that can make even random-seeming lists make sense in your life. It's obviously designed to start in January and go the full year, but if you got it at a different time of year, you'd just start in that section of the book. The weeks aren't dated but they're organized seasonally.

Since I got this the first week of January, I started with the first list, which had to do with goals and dreams. I've done a lot of work on goals over the last few weeks (years, really), so I thought I'd already know what would come out of my pen when I sat down to write. But as I let myself go "stream of consciousness," I discovered I had a lot of other less-obvious goals, dreams, wants, or whatever you'd want to call them, that hadn't been formalized into my mind-maps in my planner. I don't believe in overloading myself with goals, but many of them were simple things, such as the fact that my husband and I have gotten into a bit of a rut with our date nights and always go out to dinner or a movie (or if we're really time-efficient, dinner and a movie). So now I've added into my planner reminders to find area events and check museum hours and such. Little things that are so easy to do but tend to get lost when we're busy!

One of the things that showed up on my list as a goal (I won't call it a resolution) for 2017 is to be a bit more regular in my blogging and podcast than I was able to be last year.

1. I now have a goal of blogging at least once a week, preferably twice, even if I don't have anything of value to say. I also have a goal of posting a podcast episode once a month--and if I don't have much to say, it'll just be a short one!

Looking forward to that? LOL. I'll try to keep it interesting. There will likely be less quilty stuff and more general life stuff than I like to do, but it is what it is. However, I'm hoping the accountability of seeing "write blog post" or "post podcast episode" on my task list will keep me to another of my goals:

2. Embroidery or sewing every week, even if it's only 10 minutes. (That's 10 minutes a week, not 10 minutes a day. I know my limits at the moment.)

I'm more likely to be able to do consistent, short bouts of embroidery as there are some rather obvious moments in my daily schedule that could be more productive than they've been in the past. It's more a matter of making sure I have everything at-hand where I'm most likely to use it, so it's an easy pick-up-put-down kind of thing. I will finish that dang Halloween BOM by next Halloween, dang it.

3. Change up my personal-life task-tracking system to be more readily accessible.

I've been using LifeTopix for years and really like it on a lot of levels, but the developers have focused on making LifeTopix deeper, not broader. In other words, it's an extremely feature-rich program but it hasn't increased in user-friendliness nor in expanding it's platform (it's only on Mac/iPad/iPhone). Since getting an Apple Watch for Christmas, plus looking at how I really work during the day, I decided to test out a bunch of other task-management apps and am now using a combination of Todoist and Google Calendar to replace LifeTopix. I haven't deleted LifeTopix yet as I may ultimate decide Todoist doesn't quite hack it, but so far, so good. Todoist is available on ALL platforms--so I can sit at my computer and throw a bunch of tasks on there as they occur to me, I can be on my phone or iPad, or do fast checks and updates on my watch. It's also a lot faster to enter tasks in with appropriate schedules and priority than it was on LifeTopix, so setting up my reading schedule once I get my syllabi should be a lot faster. There were some workarounds I had to find out in order to get Todoist/Google to be as close a replica to LifeTopix as possible but so far, so good. (If you'd be interested, I could do a post that reviews the apps I tried, pros and cons, and why I ultimately chose the one I did. Let me know.)

4. Using a paper planner. (No, I haven't missed the irony that this comes immediately after talking about apps!)

Studies have shown that writing something by hand really does cement it better in our memories and, somehow, makes things feel more significant an important. As digitally-oriented as I am, I really wanted the more physical experience of working with a paper planner. I'm now using a Passion Planner. Again (you know me) I did a ton of research and downloaded a bunch of sample pages from several options but really liked that the Passion Planner had a lot of ways you could customize it to your own needs. Sure, customization means printing things hard copy, cutting them apart, and taping them into your planner, but that's just a good excuse to use some cute Washi tape, right? My planner and my digital apps work in consort with each other. I sit with my planner last thing at night and first thing in the morning to review my goals for the day. No work stuff is in here--just personal goals. Task items then get added to Todoist but I also have pages in here for reflections, notes to myself, inspirational quotations, habit checker lists, and so forth. Right now I'm finding it super-useful. We'll see how things go when I get back into the full mayhem of school in session.

There are a lot of other little things I'm working on but those are the biggies. On my Fight the Funk Friday post I'll share some things I've added to my healthy-living tools. Or, more appropriately, added back in again. And by then, maybe I'll have done some embroidery to share!

OT: My First StitchFix Box!

Don't forget about my 2017 Quilty Resolutions Giveaway!

Did I write about subscribing to StitchFix in a blog post or did I only talk about it on Twitter? Sorry--holiday amnesia, don't recall a thing. In a nutshell recap: As part of my efforts to update my wardrobe and actually have it be a wardrobe rather than a collection of random outfits that don't play nice together...I decided to try out StitchFix. This is a monthly subscription service that I'd read about on a lot of style blogs and decided I'd give it a few months' worth of a trial to see how it went. I got my first box yesterday and I just have to say, they hit it out of the park!

When you subscribe, you fill out an online form about your size, style, the type of clothes you're looking for (casual, work, party, etc.), and a few other things. They also encourage you to set up a Pinterest board where you've collected pictures of clothing/outfits you like. I did that, and it was really educational for me too as I realized I kept pinning variations on basically the same outfit over and over! Apparently I do have what is referred to as a "style formula." A stylist then chooses five items and ships them to you. You have up to three days to make up your mind what (if anything) you want to keep and what (if anything) you want to send back. They give you a return envelope and you just stick it in the mailbox or take it to the post office--easy peasy returns.

There's a monthly fee for the styling service, but that fee is then taking out of the cost of any of the items you choose to buy. The price for each item is listed on the invoice, but if you buy all five items in the box, you get a significant discount. This came into play for me on this box, as I'll describe below.

Since I work from home and I'm not traveling much for work until later this spring, I had them emphasize casual clothes for the time being. I had also made a note on my subscription form that it's very cold in these parts at this time of year. They did an excellent job paying attention! The five items I was sent work together in various ways and are great for layering. I was hosting Second Christmas (my side of the family) on the afternoon I got my box, and I immediately wore two of the items combined with one I already owned for the gathering. Woot!

(Apologies--I'm not great at styling clothing shots, so some of these might look a little weird. But you'll get the idea.)

The first item I tried on were the jeans, not really expecting much. After all, don't we have to try on umpteen pairs of jeans in the store before finding a pair that fits and is comfortable? Holy cow, these fit beautifully! Super comfortable, very flattering. The denim is really soft--I kept running my hands over my legs all evening because I couldn't get over how different they felt from my other jeans. My daughter told me I looked like a "modern Mom" in them, which I decided to take as a compliment. I wore them for my family gathering and got several compliments, especially once people found out they were mail order and fit me perfectly right out of the box!

To be clear, the price tag on these was about twice as much (and then some) as I've ever spent on a pair of jeans in my life. I'd never have bothered even trying these on in a store. But by the time I'd chosen which clothes I wanted and did the math, the discounts brought the item cost down to something much closer to my usual price-point for jeans. And these are such NICE jeans, I think I've learned a little bit of that "you get what you pay for" thing. These were definitely and immediately a keeper.

The next item I put on (with the jeans) was also immediately a keeper. I absolutely love this blouse. My husband also commented how much he liked it on me, which is saying something because the design has a paisley in it and he's always had an inexplicable hatred of paisley. The fabric is very lightweight which makes it perfect for layering now but will have a long seasonal life span. It also makes it great for wearing for entertaining when I'm spending most of the afternoon in the kitchen. I have a navy cardigan I threw on over it and had my Second Christmas outfit in the bag. 

Item number three (to be worn this weekend, and probably almost always) is this extremely soft cardigan. 

It's a little oversized on me (as I'm losing weight I'm between sizes at the moment so it's hard for me to accurately tell Stitchfix what to do), but I don't mind that for a cardigan like this, as I'd be layering it over long-sleeved shirts to ward off the chill in my home office. I hate feeling like I can't move my arms because I've got layers on--I don't think I'd have that problem with this cardigan. And the fiber blend (various synthetics) is super, super soft. Made for curling up on an armchair in front of the fire and reading, actually, which might be on the agenda for this weekend. 

I debated this one only briefly, but as I'd recently gotten rid of a big, comfy, gray cardigan that had developed some sort of itchy around the neck, it seemed destiny to be able to replace it so easily.

Item number four--another amazingly soft thing that you just want to curl up in. If I could turn this infinity scarf into a full-size quilt I would.

As you can tell, this scarf will easily go with all of the above, as well as several other things I've already got in my closet. My only quibble with it is that I'd like it to be a little longer. When I do the double-loop thing, it all sits up fairly close to my chin and I'd like a little more room there. But I've looked up different ways to use an infinity scarf so I think I'll find plenty of uses for it. And did I mention how soft it is? 

I have to say, I didn't think I had much navy blue in my wardrobe. It's not a color I gravitate towards. But when I took a few minutes to compare all four of these items to what I already owned, I found several new outfits I could make just incorporating these four pieces. Apparently my wardrobe is slowly becoming an actual wardrobe!

The final item is the only one I wasn't wowed by.

If it hadn't been for the discount, this one would've definitely gotten sent back. However, it turned out to be far cheaper to buy all five than it would've been to send only one or two back. Interesting math. That being said, I will get a lot of wear out of this sweater--just not likely in public much.

It's also super-super-soft. It's like curling up in the infinity scarf above, actually. Cozy on cozy. So I can see myself wearing it while I'm working at home, or running to the grocery store where I don't particularly care how I look. However, it's not a flattering design or shape on me. The color block makes me look, well, blocky, plus it just hangs straight; no shape whatsoever. It's a little hard to tell the color unless you're standing in certain light but it's a deep purple on top. I do have a fair amount of purple in my closet so I'd be able to mix it up with scarves and blouses underneath. I'll try styling it in a couple of different ways to see if I can make it look better than it does just wearing it straight up. 

For those of us who are style-challenged, they include a nifty little page with ideas for styling the items using other pieces. I got a couple of ideas from here for things I want to try using similar items in my wardrobe (or, at least, the same type of items--i.e., I have a dress that might work with the gray cardigan even though the dress is entirely different from what they pictured here). 

So--month one, thumbs up! If you're interested in trying out StitchFix, you could consider using my referral link here. I believe I'd get a little bit of a discount or something. Otherwise, just search for StitchFix on Pinterest or other social networking sites and check them out. I'm scheduled for my next delivery at the end of January so I'll keep you posted!

A sad bit of news...

For those of you who have been following along with Charlotte's Scrapitude mystery quilts these last couple of years, I wanted to let you know that Charlotte's husband, Ray, passed away suddenly on Thursday, November 3. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

For those of you who had asked me over the last few weeks about whether she was doing a mystery quilt again this year, she was working on one. Her website hadn't been updated yet but she has a little information posted in her Facebook group with some initial cutting instructions. You'll need to scroll down on the wall in the group to find it. I haven't been to guild in a few months so I can't clarify anything for you--sorry.

Return of Fight the Funk Friday

Yes, Virginia, there is still a Sandyquiltz.

It's not so much that it's been a busy fall. I'm still in school, of course, but I've had a lot less travel this semester and the class is set up in such a way that it's been easier to work around my other responsibilities. That being said, I've not been online much at all--even social networking--and I've been working on quilting or embroidery not at all. Other than going on a fall retreat in mid-September with some of my quilty buddies, during which I did spend the whole weekend embroidering, I've not touched anything since. 

I decided this summer that this year (program year, August to August) is the Year of Physical Health. It's all part of my focus on balance. I did a number on myself last year and wasn't in a particularly good place by last May. So I'm slowly peeling away the layers, focusing on one additional thing at a time, so that by next summer I'm in a very, very different place. If I'm not physically healthy, no amount of other kinds of self-care are going to be particularly useful. So this blog post will simply be a brief update as to what's been up with me other than school and work.

1. In mid-August, I went back to Weight Watchers. I've decided their new points system (that ticked me off when it was introduced last January) is really smart and works really, really well. I've lost weight nearly every week even when on vacation and traveling for work, and haven't felt like I've been deprived or anything. I'm just being more conscious about what I do and getting lots of activity in. So yay for that. I'm already down a size! Woo!

Battle Ropes--Tough Chick style!

2. In mid-September, I started working with a personal trainer again. I'd done it before with a different trainer who I'd worked with on and off over a period of years, but then I took a long break, preferring to do my own thing at the gym. I found, however, that boredom was setting in and I wasn't feeling like I was making effective choices. I'm now with a new trainer--"new" being the operative word as the shine of school hasn't worn off her yet--and she's been great. She's 23, full of energy, and reminds me of all my nieces and daughter, so we have fun together. We're doing "functional strength training" which focuses more on large muscle groups and the kinds of movements that mimic day-to-day life. I'm having a great time. I never know what she's going to have me do and there's times I feel like a downright Tough Chick by the time I'm done. Battle Ropes are da bomb. 

3. This week, I had my first appointment with a physical therapist about my vertigo. I'd planned on doing this back when I was going to PT for my knee a couple of years ago but we didn't get to it. A few weeks ago, I got fed up with the constrictions having vertigo was putting on me so I made myself an appointment. Sure enough, the PT was able to pinpoint what we're pretty sure is going on, so now I have a set of exercises to do three times a day. It's a mix of retraining my eyes to communicate better with my inner ear and loosening some neck muscles while strengthening others. If anyone's curious, email me and I'll see if I can explain it better. After only a couple of days of exercises, though, I'm already noticing a difference! I'll be starting to have more frequent appointments with my massage therapist to address the neck as well. I'm on a full court press to get Un-Dizzied! This, however, is why I've not done any embroidery. My neck has not been right in awhile so I've decided that when I'm actively in school doing so much reading, I shouldn't exacerbate matters with doing embroidery at the same time. And I'm making friends with a cuddly wrap-around heating pad on my neck and shoulders while watching TV at night.

Love the Habiter brand--extremely comfy and stay in place, but show over the edges of my flats. Dang.

4. Y'all already know about my style efforts. Boy, is that paying off. What's far more important to me than the comments I've gotten is feeling confident when I'm in front of people that I'm conveying the me I want to convey--professional but comfortable/approachable at the same time. And it only takes me about five minutes to figure out what to wear now, as opposed to the agonizing four- or five-outfit rummages I used to have in my closet. Now I'm working on figuring out the right-sized sock liners that will allow me to keep wearing my flats as our weather gets colder--I love my flats and don't want to give them up yet! I ordered four different brands/styles to see what would work in different pairs of shoes--still testing. Having a sock liner show over the edge of my flat is like having your slip show. Yuck.

Smart Instant Pot--woo!

5. I just added an Instant Pot, an electric pressure cooker, to my kitchen appliance collection. I use my slow cooker a lot at this time of year, but the Instant Pot has been all the rage on the Weight Watchers social networking platform so after doing some research, I used a gift card I'd been given and bought the Smart Instant Pot: It has an app for my cell phone so I can check on progress without being right in the kitchen. This girl can't resist throwing a little technology into the mix. I just got the Instant Pot and a couple of cookbooks earlier this week so I'll keep you posted. My first foray into rice went well, anyway!

6. I also took advantage of the Craftsy sale and bought "Make the Most of Your Pressure Cooker" and "Make the Most of Your Food Processor." I have a high quality food processor that in recent months has become a very nice Parmesan grater. I've used it in the past for making dough, too, but I really should be using it more than that. I thought watching the class may give me enough tips to start using it more than I do, and maybe speed up the cooking process even more. Last year we ate a lot of sandwiches when I was deep in the midst of studying so I'm hoping to do better this year.

7. I succumbed to a Facebook ad and bought the DragonTree Rituals for Living Dreambook and Planner. My trusty app (LifeTopix) is great for tracking personal tasks and schedules and the like (I use Outlook for work), but I'd ended up with four other types of journals--one (electronic) for meal planning, one (electronic) for life goal planning, one (print) for habit-tracking, and one (print) gratitude journal. And none of them had a full month view (and even full weeks were hard to come by). I like being able to see the overview at a glance and then zero in. So although I'm still using LifeTopix as my portable task list, I'm now using the Dreambook for meal planning and other personal goals. The beginning walks you through a process to develop concrete projects and goals around whatever areas you need, and then has full month and weekly planners. You can break down projects into tasks and track the tasks in the week (which then get put into my LifeTopix). It starts each day with an intention and ends each day with a gratitude, so I can do everything in one place. I use it for meal planning, making notes about people I want to touch base with or personal care-type things I need to set up, and so forth. I've avoided paper planners for years because I don't like the visual clutter--I hate having to cross something out and rewrite it somewhere else. But I'm pushing myself in an entirely different direction with this one--I'm using colored pens, little happy face stickers for days I stick to my food plan, star stickers for days I get intentional exercise, I'm doodling and writing random notes in the middle of the day--it's fun. And plenty of stuff gets crossed out and rewritten, and it doesn't bother me! I've also released myself from tyranny of journaling where I wrote lots and eventually just got bored of listening to myself. Now everything is just sentence fragments, words, brain dumps, and random thoughts. It's been working really well for me. There are lots of this kind of journal out there: I may do a different one next year, but so far, I really like this one! It felt a bit pricey when I first made the purchase but it's very good quality and I'm using it multiple times a day, so price-per-use is excellent.

So that's all the news from Western NY. Really--not much going on over here except Sandy is finally starting to take care of herself. As always, the main reason I'm telling y'all this is in case someone out there is feeling as cruddy as I did last spring. Maybe I can be an inspiration. Or maybe you'll just want to get a really comfy pair of socks for flats. Whatever works for you.

(Next week--some new exercise-related apps I'm trying out...)

(By the way, those two links to Craftsy classes are affiliate links and they're new ones so they should work. I think. Still haven't taken the time to look it over yet as I was gone a lot of October. But thanks for supporting this blog!)

Closet Matters (Update on Style Project)

I won't only be talking about clothes and closets from here on out...no worries! (I've actually been doing some embroidery lately!)

Just thought I'd do an update on a couple of other changes that my whole "trying to get a fashion sense" has generated. 'Cause if I was finding certain stoppers in my closet, my guess is some of you may be finding the same.

It really is a snowball thing. Once you start examining one thing, you realize you have to take care of this other thing, and oh yeah, this other thing. When assessing why I wasn't wearing/using certain items in my closet, I came to the conclusion that in many cases it had nothing to do with the item itself--it had to do with how easy it was for me to access or use it.

As I was sorting through everything, I realized that my closet storage methods for several categories just wasn't working for me. When it's hard to see things, or when stuff falls on your head when you pull something off a shelf, you're far less likely to actually use what's there. My so-called "purse shelf" was ridiculous. I'd kept stuffing my ethnic bags, special-use-bags, and seasonal bags onto one shelf until it was virtually impossible to access any of it. Pull one, you'd get five on your head. Once I'd sorted and culled to get down to what I wanted to use, I decided I needed a different storage solution. Do some googling. Head to Amazon. Buy the purse hanger.

I don't have too many purses so one hanger should be fine. I had to knot my cross-body bag handles a bit so they wouldn't drag on the floor, but overall this new hanger is working swimmingly. I still have a clear plastic, lidded tote on the shelf with my less-used specialty bags, but now I don't have to worry about putting my eye out when I decide I want to change purses.

And scarves. Yikes. First off--true confessions--I have like 40 of the things. That's after the cull. And I could easily buy more. I've got a thing for scarves and wraps and pashminas and such. They're so dang pretty. So scarf-storage is a big deal in my closet. I thought I'd found the perfect solution a few years ago when I bought a few similar to this wooden one.

Well let me tell you, boy, these things have driven me nuts. First of all, thicker/bigger wraps barely fit through the holes. Secondly, when I pull one through, I often get caught up with the opposite end of a second trying to sneak through the same hole and then getting all twisted up. Thirdly, sometimes threads can snag on the wood. Fourthly (?), you can't fold the scarf to make it shorter and still fit it through the whole, so all of my scarves were dragging all over the floor. My late cat used to use my scarves as a cat bed. It got so I was less frequently trying to use scarves because they were such a pain to get on and off the hangers.

Enter google, enter Amazon, enter a new scarf hanger. 

I think I'm loving it. I only bought one to start to see how it would go, and the test went well: I just ordered the second one. 

First, each hanger holds more scarves than the former ones did so I can get away with two hangers rather than the four I used to have. Second, I can more easily slide them on and off; thirdly, nothing snags; fourthly, I can fold longer scarves in half so nothing's dragging on the floor anymore. These two hangers mean my 40 scarves take up half the space they used to in my closet, too. Bonus!

The other big issue I needed to deal with was pants. I've been using skirt hangers for my pants for most of my adult life. I started it back when we first got married and I had a closet the size of a change purse. I had tiered hangers for everything! I don't think I quite knew at the time that there were tiered hangers for pants that didn't involve clips and then I stopped thinking about it. I've always folded my pants in half at the knees and clipped them on. Well yes, you guessed it, whenever I pulled my dress pants out of the closet I'd have to iron them to get those stupid little clip creases out. It got so I avoided wearing certain pairs of pants that weren't as wrinkle resistant just because I didn't want to go to the bother of ironing them every time.

So, in order to actually wear the pants I have in my closet, I found a different pants hanger solution.

These are working beautifully. Yes, my pants take up more space in my closet now but I've got a bigger closet these days and it's not a problem. You know what else? I've actually hung my jeans up now too! I used to scoff at the idea of hanging jeans. Jeans weren't hanger-worthy. But once again I got tired of trying to pull one pair of jeans out of the middle of the folded stack on my shelf and having everything else come a-tumblin' down. Now I can easily see which pair of jeans I want and just get those in my hands without having a wrestling match with the rest of them. 

Finally, I also like to hang my sweaters up so I can see what I've got more easily. You guessed it--bumps on the arms. Those bumps are fairly easy to get rid of just by dampening them down but once again, having to take that extra step often meant I wouldn't bother wearing the sweater (or I'd be walking around looking like I had growths on my shoulders). 

I did a lot of research on this one, though, because I've never owned a padded hanger. The ones I bought (in the picture) are canvas covered, not the frou-frou-satin kind, because I didn't want stuff sliding all over the place. The canvas holds the sweaters in place really well.

Yep, I've spent some bucks on hangers in the last couple of weeks. But I look at that as an investment in having a closet that makes it a whole lot easier to use what's in it.

So, as you look at your own closet--what do you see? Is it easy to use? Can you see and access everything? Are there clothes you don't wear often just because you have to fight to get to them? Because you may end up with a concussion trying to get things out of a stack or a stuff shelf? What are your stoppers? Maybe it's as simple as using a different hanger!

(By the way, nothing here is sponsored by anyone and I don't get any benefit from using the links. Just hoping I can help y'all out!)

Some embroidery, then a general health and well-being report

After all, we need to be healthy enough to quilt, right? (Not much time for the quilting at the moment, but doing well on the being healthy!)

First--a  couple of quick embroidery-related updates.

In cleaning my sewing area today (it had gotten stacked during my travels), I took my new lightbox out of its packaging and realized the one I bought is bigger than the one I'd borrowed from BFF/BQF Kate. Apparently she had the 8x12" or whatever it was; I have the 11x17". You don't think about how big that is until you see it laying on your cutting table. I'm going to have to figure out a safe place to store this thing and I'm also thinking "padded lightbox holder" might be something I have to add to my "things to make when I find time" list. Still, it's nice to have the bigger one as I can envision myself doing some larger embroidery projects.

I did also get a little embroidery done last night, and hope to get more done today. I'm very much behind on this embroidery BOM (I got August's block in the mail yesterday and I'm still working on May's!) but I'm not worried. They go fast so if I can just get myself back in the habit of regular embroidery in the evenings, I should be able to catch up before the end.

Okay, now for health and wellness. My goals this week were:

1. Get my calendar organized around current assignments. Done as much as possible. Still waiting on that syllabus.

2. Set myself up a good habit of consistent journal-writing around my thesis topic. Pretty good--I've done some journaling most days. Still need to work out a better study schedule.

3. Prep my groceries to make it easier to eat healthy this week. That really is helpful. I've been eating a lot more fruit and vegetables because they're so much easier to grab-n-go. 

4. Get back into the habits of my gratitude journal and habit journal. I finally started getting back into this midweek. I also started playing around with a vision board app to keep my goals in front of me. I'm not sure how helpful it'll be or how much I'll use it long term but it's provided some entertainment for now, anyway.

5. Get back into habits of moving. 

I've begun using WW's FitBreak app (see below for more about Weight Watchers), although my personal jury is still out on it. It gives you short little one-minute exercises you can do throughout the day, ranging from stretches to office-chair-calisthenics to weight-lifting (using household objects). For the most part, I like the way it's done. However, it has no notification system to reach out and grab me saying, "Hey--time for a FitBreak!" That seems a big miss. I've tried to link it to other reminders but still, I have a goal for a certain number of FitBreaks during the day and I keep missing it because, frankly, I forget about it for hours at a time. (By the way, you don't need to be a member of WW to use the app and it's available on several platforms.)

Meanwhile, I've also been in the pool doing aqua aerobics and aqua yoga again. Ahhh. Plus I've been getting back into my "moving 5 minutes every hour"--I'm probably at about 60% with that but 60% is better-n-nuttin! Unfortunately, taking time for the FitBreaks and pool exercise means my steps are lower, so I'm dropping down the FitBit friends leaderboard. Don't have time for everything!

6. Make a decision about re-joining Weight Watchers and going to meetings. 

I have, indeed, rejoined Weight Watchers. That means I'm back to tracking and planning meals. Now that I've had the new points system explained to me, I'm feeling friendlier towards it than I did when I first ran into it last winter. It does make logical sense--and that's all I require of a system: It needs to appeal to my logic. 

7. Get some personal and household appointment-type-reminders into LifeTopix. Much better at this. I finally dealt with some houseplant issues (!) and got the dogs set up with the groomer--both things I've been wanting to do for weeks but until I got it written down in LifeTopix it didn't happen.

I've also been working on paying attention to time in the evening and getting off electronics around 9p so I can get to bed between 10 and 10:30 so I can be up and perky earlier in the morning than is my habit. I'm back to reading magazines or doing embroidery in the evenings. Much more renewing than hours of mindless iPad games...

Goals for next week:

• Continue to build up the "favorite meals" and "recipes" database in my WW app so it's as easily as possible to track and plan.
• Get more regular with walking/FitBreaks through the day.
• Be more consistent on bedtimes.
• Do embroidery most evenings.

By the way--it's birthday week. I'll be turning 51 on the 26th. My daughter and MIL cooked up a girls-night-out party for me on Wednesday and we're doing one of those painting-and-wine things. Should be a hoot. Next weekend my husband and I are heading to Buffalo for the weekend as a small getaway and a chance to see my son for a bit. That's my favorite kind of birthday--just hanging out with family and friends. Yay!