In college I started toning it down a bit. The fantastic thing about college clothing was living with 5 other girls!!! The cutest outfits I wore were rarely owned or purchased by me. The bad thing about that was the [lack of] clothing shock when I got married! I never really recovered from that.
Right before Matt came home from his mission, I remember going shopping with my sister in VA at Kohls. It was the first time I'd heard of that store. Anyway, I bought myself some orange plaid capris. When Matt saw them, he told me that they looked like pajamas and that it was almost embarrassing to be out with me while I was wearing those. Ouch! haha. I got rid of them pretty quickly, and honestly, I think that was the beginning of the end of colorful clothes. (Looking at an old pic of them, they were pretty ugly, so don't judge Matt too harshly. I was trying to be fashionable, but just didn't know how, so I basically just gave up the notion.) Oh, and once he mentioned that I looked better without make up and I stopped wearing that! I figured it was cheaper and easier, so I was on board!!
In the last few years, I've ended up going with the most very basic of basics. Solid, fitted knit shirts from Target or Walmart. Kahki capris and shorts. I'm talking basic. The only dress/skirt purchases I've made in the past 10 years were during pregnancies. And when I bought those I got nice and stretchy dresses so I could wear them when I was not pregnant!
When I went to Phantom in Feb. with my friend Kirstin, I realized that I didn't have one decent shirt. Not one. After that I bought a few shirts from Target (all the same shirt in different colors!) and slacks from Old Navy to tide me over.
It wasn't until a week before our scheduled family pictures that I realized that even those weren't quite cute enough to be professionally photographed and documented for posterity's sake. So, as part of a trade for piano, I asked my friend Kary (who loves fashion and helps mainly frumpy mothers find a style) to teach me to shop.
Being from rural Snowflake where we don't even have a Walmart, I've never really known how to shop. I didn't know where to shop. I honestly don't think I've ever known what size I am. I couldn't ever find pants that fit both my waist and legs. I've always felt like the women's section was too "old lady" and the juniors/miss section has just gotten uglier and uglier every year (um, maybe that's a sign that I'm not a 'junior" any more and that I'm out of touch with the young kids now a days. hahahaha.)
2 days before our pictures we went shopping for 3.5 hours straight. We hit 6 stores. She had lists of things I needed. We were in and out. No messing around. Most importantly, I found out what size I am, what sections and stores to shop, and general ideas of what looks good on me. Pencil skirts. Wedge shoes if I want some height. Skirts just below or in the middle of my knee or to my ankle, but nothing mid-calf. I'm generally a size 4 petite in pants and a small in tops. It's nice to be able to go into a store and grab a wad of clothes and have the majority of them fit properly! Oh, and I found that when you shop a little higher quality than Old Navy, Target, and Walmart, pants actually fit me properly! We got me make up, jewelry, shoes, dressier shirts and pants and skirts. I felt like I was channeling my maternal great-grandmother when I bought my hot pink skirt.
So, in the past 2 1/2 weeks I've purchased:
2 black capris, black pants, dark brown dressy shorts, hot pink pencil skirt, black pencil skirt, purple dress, a patterned skirt, 8 or so shirts, black wedge sandals, light brown strappy wedge sandals, 5 necklace/earring combos (from the dollar store till I figure out what kind of jewelry I actually like), 2 eye shadows, mascara, lip gloss. Am I missing anything? It feels like it...
These aren't great pictures. I had Matt quickly snap them when I got home from shopping so I could see what photographed ok. I wasn't smiling in any of them, so I cut off my head! =) I've been trying to photograph my other clothes, but Matt's been working tons and I don't have a tri-pod, so I've been pretty unsuccessful. My shirts are where all the pattern is lest you think I got all solids...
I didn't feel like I'd quite gotten what I wanted for pictures, but I felt more confident in my ability to shop, so the next day I went out by myself. I felt like a contestant on What Not to Wear, trying to follow rules and find things that were out of my comfort zone but cute. I found this shirt and I felt happy enough with how it worked with the clothes I got for Matt and the boys. Paired with a cute necklace and dressier capris it makes a pretty cute outfit.
Our pictures got rained out and rescheduled for August. But that was fine. I felt like our outfits needed a little fine tuning anyway. I went shopping again. For a person who hasn't done much shopping at all in my life, I have been a shopping maniac the last few weeks!! I actually want to go again tomorrow to find a few more casual, yet cute tops that I can wear on a daily basis.
I have to admit, I am kind of liking wearing a little make up again (mascara and very subtle eye shadow and lip gloss), and I've really enjoyed (*gasp*) shopping. It's fun looking cute. I hope I don't start enjoying it too much!! Being a plain Jane has definitely been kind on the pocket book.
13 comments:
I love the white/pink combo. Both the colors and how it fits your shape. I love to shop and I think I can pick some good things out, it's just parting with my beloved money that gets me more often than not. :) Which is probably why most of the shirts I get complimented on are hand-me-downs from Angela.
Thanks! I'm pretty sure the purple looks much better in person than in that shot. I don't even have pictures of my favorite outfits! I'll have to do it after our reunion I guess.
Love the dress and the pink skirt! Looks fantastic!!!!!! Sam Moon is a good place for jewelry too, they have lots of fashionable things, and they're pretty cheap!
Erin, maybe after you get back here we can have a little trip to Sam Moon. I'd never been interested in jewelry so I'd never wanted to go. But now I think it would be fun!
Definitely! I've missed Sam Moon, and shopping is always more fun with friends! :)
Celia, in addition to Sam Moon Charming Charlies in Allen (off Bethany and 75 in the shopping center where Borders is) is really fun place to find inexpensive fun bags shoes and jewelry and boutique clothes too.
I love love love your pink skirt! All the outfits are super cute, but that is my fav.
the pink and white is my fav too. I think you did a good job on the blue shirt too. Good job Cel!
I quite love the white cardigan with the pink skirt, too! It's amazing what a few cute clothes can do to our outlooks! Happy shopping!
How fun! You look great in the pictures! I bet it was fun to buy new outfits and try them on at home again.
I went shopping like that back in Feb or March. It was the first time I bought knee-length skirts that I really like wearing! :)
Happy shopping!
I really love all of the outfits. Very cute but not too far out there. I love Kohls! They have the best sales on stuff that is still nice and can be worn. And as far as makeup, if there is anything I learned from trek, teenagers can get away with wearing no makeup, but sorry, those who are 30+ just look washed out without a little help. BTW, I feel like I have had a little more sense of what to buy after living in a neighborhood where people dress nicely and wear accessories EVERY day. I still like to keep it simple and wear comfy clothes and no accessories on the days I know I will be staying home and handling kids and cleaning all day, but it does help to see it every day...now affording a whole new wardrobe of trendy outfits with matching accessories is a different story.
I didn't vote for my fav, but I think it's the turquoise/brown one. It looks comfortable but classy. You look really great in all of them.
OK. Sorry for the third comment of the day. But I thought I would pass on a few things I have learned about my style of picking clothes for family pictures, mostly from looking at lots of other peoples pictures.
The first thing that I have found that I don't like is solid color tops that all match. It has no texture, and the heads look like they are floating.
The thing that I do like is a common thread in the color scheme. Brown, or pick two or three colors to run throughout the outfits, but tie it in more with neutral clothes and colored accessories.
The other thing that I love is layers. That might be hard to do in August in TX, but the best pics I have seen have every person in a denim jacket or puffer vest, or accessory type scarfs, sweater shrugs, textured necklaces, etc. Anyway, if you can't do layers, you can add texture by adding in plaid shirts on your boys and not makin it match too much. Anyway, if you look at GAP adds of families that's another good place to get ideas.
Thanks for all the compliments and comments! I really want to take pics of the rest of my clothes and get a little feed back. There are a few things I'm on the fence about and haven't taken off the tags yet.
I guess it's a good thing I'm jumping on the make-up bandwagon now since I'm only 29. =) That way when I hit 30 and I'm washed out it won't be a hard transition... hehe.
Amanda, thanks for the picture tips. We have all our clothes. I'll be doing a blue top (this one or one closer to royal blue that I just picked up from Banana Republic), Matt has a light blue plaid button up shirt, Walter has a blue polo shirt with a yellow stripe and Dean has a yellow shirt with a nautical print. I didn't want matchy matchy clothes but stuff that looked good next to each other. That's why I ruled out the pink skirt as much as I liked it. Everyone else had something in common.
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