Sveta's Blog

I am going to apologize for too many pictures: after our computer's hard drive died I have lost the Photoshop so I cannot collage pictures until it is installed again :-(
I wore white every single day this week because it feels so spring-like!
pic 1-2 To theater on Saturday. Do you think my cape works with the slouchy trousers here?
White Danier jacket, red Charles Gray London cape, BR striped sweater, SE python booties, Long Tall sally trousers.

pic 3 No rain so I wanted to wear wide leg trousers and decided to use an on trend  pastel shirt.  I had hard time wearing this shirt in a way which feels like me but I quite liked this one.
Lilac shirt - BR, Danier jacket, Express trousers, SE taupe booties.

pic 4 Trying to wear my midi dress more often. this time I was battling the too low neckline by layering a white shirt under the dress.
Donna Morgan dress, white Tahari shirt, David Tate animal booties - and nude hose!

pic 5-6
This one was a homage to Angie's almost white outfit. Now looking at the pictures I am not sure the white t-neck really works here. Also - do you think white and red are too much with the cape?
White monogram trousers, BR t-neck, Danier taupe jacket, SE python booties.

pic 7-9
I stole this inspiration pin from Aida and wanted to wear it as the day was pretty cold for a chunky sweater. I was deciding between my grey wide leg and black straight leg trousers and went with the black ones: I think they are slouchy enough for this look. I think it was my favorite outfit for the week!
Gap chunky sweater, BR Martin straight leg trousers, Clarks black booties.

pic 10-11
I decided to go casual and wear my BF light wash jeans. It felt fine but looking at the pictures I am not sure anymore...maybe I should have left the jeans unrolled?
Danier tan leather trench, BR striped sweater, Kut Catherine BF jeans, Trouve flat oxfords.

Whew, this is a lot of pictures - and you are a trooper if you were not scared away by their number! :-)
Have a great weekend!

This week was a bit challenging to dress because of the weather. How would you dress if it is 8C in the morning and 24C in the afternoon? BUT it is nice to be in positive temps and feel like spring has come after all.

pic 1 After cold and rainy (with wet snow) weekend I was ready to bust out my new yellow blazer. Got a few comments at work - from "you look like spring" to " whoa, this is really bright" :-)  I really hope this blazer does not wash me out...
- yellow pique academy blazer from Gap;
- silver lurex shell from Laura 9thrifted);
- cream Monogram trousers from BR;
- SE python booties
- snake wide belt - discount store

pic 2  These trousers and shirt were with me in Portugal and I did not feel like wearing any of my vacation clothes until now. I guess I need 1 month to recover :-) Did i go overboard with a cat theme here? :-)
- white moto jacket - Danier;
- navy and white cat shirt - Gap;
- slouchy micro check trousers - Long Tall Sally;
- David Tate animal print booties
- black belt - Danier

pic 3 I had an inspiration from this pin but I am afraid my version does not look as cool. I decided that I want some white to break all these dark colors
- Striped sweater - BR;
- Paige Hidden Hills bootcuts;
- Monogram tux blazer - BR;
-  grey Trouve flat oxfords

pic 4 I wanted to break the week of jeans and pants with a skirt - and this was the day of 24C so I decided that my polka dot skirt is called for. I did not wear it at all in winter, I guess it feels woo warm weather to me.
That was an interesting morning. I planned to wear my striped black and white  short sweater with it but when I put it on I realized that the neckline has stretched and hangs out unattractively in the back. With my hubby waiting in the car impatiently I tried to decide what to wear instead quickly. White shirt was the simplest solution so I went with it. I wore the leather jacket outside and planned to remove it indoors...until I realized that while I switched from sweater to a white shirt I did not switch from a black bra to a nude one...so I had to leave the jacket on in the office.  Accidently it worked out OK in the end because they were testing out cooling system that day so the office was freezing cold! :-)
- polka dot skirt - thrifted;
- white Tahari shirt;
- brown leather Danier blaer;
- nude Fidji pumps

pic 5 I felt like a casual Friday to day - or at least my version of it. I really struggle to style this sleeveless jacket because of it length - I feel it is too short for me. So this time I decided to try it with low contrast top and bottoms. I will leave to you to decide if proportions work here...
I don't wear scarves too often but all these darker colors just begged for some white so I went for my silk scarf from Paris. I also used my red satchel but forgot to take a picture with it! :-)
- striped tee - Gap;
- black sleeveless jacket - thrifted;
- Paige skyline straight leg jeans;
- black belt from Danier;
- black shooties - Clarks

As usual comments and suggestions are very welcome. Have a great weekend!!!!!

Work is crazy, the weather is rainy, my kitty was sick  and in addition 3 of our home computers stopped working this week! I am so happy this week is over and really looking forward to the weekend... (the kitty is fine now :-)

I have started to take inventory of what I wear every day so I can see if I have more wardrobe "almost" orphans. I have decided the hanger trick will not work for me because while it shows WHAT I wore it will not show HOW OFTEN. So I decided to use an Excel spreadsheet where I have listed my wardrobe items to record what I wear and haw many times a month. We will see how it is going!

pic1 Running errands last Saturday. 
Last weekend was nice and sunny, we did not know what a gloomy rainy week is ahead :-(

Gap sweater, Danier leather jacket, Paige Canyoh Flare jeans, Naya burgundy boots.

pic 2 Copying Suz
Suz's amazing spring white outfit inspired me that day. I am afraid it did not look as striking as hers but I tried :-) This was also the first outing of my new 
Martin trousers from BR which I decided to keep after Angie's blessing. They are straight legs but I wonder if I should taper them a bit...what do you think?

White Danier leather jacket, Tahari white shirt, BR Martin balck trousers, SE python booties. 

pic 3 Going for the gold...
...sweater which is turning to be another orphan. The reason - sleeves stretch a lot when scrunched up to the point they don't stay up. I really like the color - brown with gold lurex - but would prefer a better fabrication and boxier fit.

Here is it paired with Halogen yellow skirt, BP cognac boots and CK belt

pic 4 Tuxedo party!
I like these trousers but really struggle with the length and now tighter fit on the calves after we tapered legs a bit. Thinking of undoing the tapering to make them more comfortable to wear. Love the jacket however, what a great quality and look - long enough for me!:-)

Jessica trousers (Sears), Halogen silk shell, BR Monogram tuxedo jacket, MK animal print belt, Naya burgundy boots.

pic 5 FFBO
They promised a freezing rain so I went for skinnies + boots formula.

Missoni for Target tunic, BR black Martin skinny pants, Franco Sarto grey boots.

pic 6-7 Giving my boyfriend another chance...
Remember I complained on the fit of those Gap BF jeans last week? My mom altered them a bit - took them  in in the waist (I still can take them off without unzipping though) and made the back a bit shorter - that extra inch of fabric was bunching on the back and drove me crazy. I felt much more comfortable in them today.
I realized what is my tolerance level for slouchy fit now. I need to have the jeans loose but still fitted on the top part of my hips and bum and then they can be looser and sloucher on the bottom part and on my thighs. I cannot stand them bunching under the belt, they need lay smoothly there. I don't know if it makes any sense to anybody but myself though :-) Anyway newly altered BF jeans fit very closely to that now which makes me much happier!

Gap 'YLF' chunky sweater, Gap BF jeans, Naya burgundy boots. I have also included a picture with my trench  as a bonus :-)

As usual any comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Following on my wardrobe post last week I have decided to gime my wardrobe almost-orphans a second chance so this week dressing was all about  that.
I also tried to figure out WHY they are orphans for me. Let's see...
#1 Orphans - Donna Morgan midi flare dress, cognac boots, zebra belt
I like this Donna Morgan red dress but I don't wear it very often. I think i know why - it is a neckline which does not work well for me. The V is too deep for my smallish chest, I prefer much higher necklines. Because of this I prefer to wear this dress with a layer on top but it is tricky to layer over a flare dress.
My new white Danier jacket comes to the rescue <waving to Suz and Inge!>. I think I really dig how the ladylike midi dress looks with the moto jacket - much better than I like it with traditional blazers.
I also tried to use more orphans in this outfit. Those BP boots are from NAS 2011 and I was not thrilled with their quality. As a result I seldom wear them even though I like the color and style - it is just hard for me to feel fab if quality is not up to my liking.
This thrifted zebra belt is another orphan because it is too short to wear with pants. It also feels a bit too loud for my late minimal style. However I think it works well here because of the white jacket.
Verdict: dress and belt have potential; as for the boots I will try to wear them for one more season and see how it goes.

#2 Orphan  - teal lace skirt
My mom made this lace skirt for me last year but I just don't reach for it very often. While I was wearing this outfit I was thinking why is that ans I think I know: it is not very comfortable. the lining is cotton blend and although it is breathable it does bunch because it is missing the silkiness of the regular lining.
This grey BR sweater is a new one (yes, another striped sweater) in a lighter weight than my other BR sweaters - cotton  / silk blend. I think I should be able to wear it well into summer. I surprised myself that I preferred this soft grey color to fuchsia one and also that I decided not to go with the oversized look.
I am also adding my outerwear shot as a bonus - love how cobalt, teal and burgundy play together.
Verdict: I will give this skirt a try a couple of more times and see if the bunching bothers me.  

#3 Orphan - black wool blazer
I have really hard time to wear this blazer. It is a nice quality and style but I alwasy have a feeling it is too short on me. Here I am trying it out again. This was my inspiration for this outfit (sans the scarf and purse).
I was feeling OK in this outfit because I think it works better with a column of color rather than differently colored top and bottoms.
Verdict: need to experiment more if I can find other formulas how I can wear this jacket.

#4 Orphan - polka dot shell
This is not really an orphan but I bought this shell in January and this is its frst outing in April. One reason maybe because it is more of a warm season item.
Verdict:  I quite like it and hope it will come out to play more often as weather warms up.

#5 Orphan  - dark wash BF jeans, animal print shirt, cardigan
Again technically these jeans are not orphans yet as I have just bought them
recently. However I find I don't feel as fab in them as in my light wash Kut BF jeans. The reason - they are bigger so they slouch more and I don't like it to this extreme. Honestly I was feeling quite frumpy in them today. Maybe I can ask my mom to take them in in the waist a bit to remove that extra inch which bothers me?
I got this shirt in Chicago last spring but I don't wear it as often as I thought I would. It is polyester and has some static so that maybe the reason why. I like the style though.
Cardigan - I just don't wear cardigans very often but I like long cardigans with BF jeans. I was really craving a comfort dressing today so I thought this cardigan will fit the bill.
Verdict: Try to style the shirt more. Try to alter jeans to the slouchness level I can live with. Cardigan is useful for those comfort craving days.

#6 Bonus - my outfit for tonight when we had friends over. I am cheating a bit here - I did not use the clutch at home but thought it would be fun to get it in the shot.

That was my orphan taming week. I have started to keep a spreadsheet where I mark how many times I wore what. I am going to be ruthless to orphans I cannot beat into submission!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

All these posts on purging, culling and wardrobe size made me to ponder what is my current wardrobe size. I think I evaluated it about 1 year ago and realized I have around 120 clothing items I wear outside of the house (not counting workout / hiking / gardening gear and undergarmnets). That felt like a good wardrobe size for me - big enough to have fun and variety and small enough to feel justified and not overwhelmed by it.
However I was buying more clothes over that year and somewhere in the back of my head I had a nudging feeling that my wardrobe is going out of control, I am buying too much and so on. I love Angie's rule of 'one in - one out' but I was not following it religiously for each buy even though I was doing ongoing little purges from time to time.
Anyway I spent the afternoon today to take stock of what I have and these are the numbers:
- cool season clothing items (fall - spring) - 84 items including coats;
- summer - 36 items
Together they come to 120 clothing items - pretty much what I had last year.
That was a very pleasant surprise - looks like I was following "one in - one out" rule after all, even if subconsciously. :-)
I have also counted my shoes:
 - cool season: 13 pairs excluding gear;
- summer: 6 pairs
Total: 19 pairs.
I think I am going to try and keep this size as it works pretty well for me. 'One in - one out' rule is going to be pretty much my mantra from now on - this time in all consciousness!

Other interesting observations during my inventory:
-  I have 13 pairs of trousers and jeans for cool season and just 10 skirts and dresses combined. You can really call me trouser obsessed!:-)
- however it is an opposite way for summer where I have 6 pairs of shorts / pants and 8 skirts and dresses. Looks like not only I change a color palette  but also a style of dressing from winter to summer.

I still have some items in my closet which I wear less frequently if even at all. I am going to mark them and watch the usage: if they are not worn enough they are good candidates for this magic rule to free space for some potential goodies from NAS!

Thanks for reading my novel. It is really amazing how putting these thoughts in writing helps to make them clearer in your head.
I feel much better now about the size of my wardrobe!  Hmm, is it why the first thing I did after the inventory was to place an order with GAP? :-)