paperdolls

Build a Wardrobe

My goal with all my shopping is to end up with a nice wardrobe that will fit all my needs. I don't want to only wear brand-new stuff. I don't want to be the girl with a closet full of stuff that I've only worn one time (or worse, we all know it happens, never worn). To do that, I need a plan. Here is one part of my plan:

Part I

Stick to a neutral pallette. My colors are:

grey
navy
black

For interest, I'm adding in:

olive greens
pinks (probably not with the greens though)
ivory
white
possibly a new pair of khaki pants since I shrank my khaki bistros (boo - I loved those pants)
jewelry in gold tones

The grey, navy and black will make up the bulk of my bigger pieces: pants, sweaters, jackets and some tops. I'll add in the accent colors in belts, maybe a bag and tops. Perhaps a scarf but I'm really not good with scarves. Maybe something to tie on my the new grey bag I ordered.

I'm already struggling with this as I found a perfect brown bag at Cole Haan. The Whitney Zip Hobo with the awesome grommets. I love this! But I am resisting. It's not a bad price for a nice bag but I'm not adding brown to my wardrobe at this time.

I did order the J Crew Campo Messenger Bag in Slate - should get it next week sometime. This bag should work with most of my wardrobe. I like that it has gold-toned hardware on a grey bag.

Part II of my plan - identify what I do and what I need to wear to do the things that I do:

Work at Client Site: My current client is business casual. To me, this means pants and shirts. Generally, I have been wearing J Crew Slim Stretch Shirts (untucked) in a variety of colors with either black, grey or ivory pants. And with khaki pants until I shrank them. The grey pants I have are too hot for summer - lined wool. So right now I have black and ivory pants. I don't work at the client site every day, so I don't need a full month's worth of clothing, but I do need some variety. Two pairs of pants (and the black pair is looking kind of shabby) is not enough.

So on order I have one pair of Premium Stretch Bistro pants in dark pewter (yes! the same pants I shrank in khaki - I know I keep going on about this but I loved those pants!). These will be dry-clean only!

One pair of downtown denim trousers for casual Fridays. I hope these work out. I have been wearing my 7 jeans but I think those are a little tight for work. And of course my distressed denim is not work appropriate (even if J Crew does show it rolled with heels and jackets for work - maybe if I worked for J Crew I could wear that)

Community Meetings: this is casual, but I want to look nice. One issue is that we often walk to the meetings (every other month at the Methodist church, every other month at a nearby resturant). I don't want to wear sandals or other type of open shoe since I think my feet will get dirty. High heels are also out - it is maybe 6 or 7 blocks but we have to clamber over rail road tracks and walk in the street sometimes - not a nice stroll down a neighborhood sidewalk.

For shoes, I bought some Skechers that are sneaker-like. They are grey with silver sparkles. The sparkles are kind of old-lady looking to me (not little kid for some reason). I do like the sparkle though - when the meeting is boring I can move my foot to make the sparkles sparkle and entertain myself that way. These shoes go with my grey boyfriend and scout chinos as well as jeans and casual dresses.

I don't want to be sleeveless in the church (it is kind of warm in there but it doesn't seem right to me to be sleeveless in the sanctuary which is where the meetings are - probably no one cares though - may just be an old fashioned notion on my part). The resturant can be cool. We often go to the resturant after the meeting in the church. I have some featherweight cashmere sweaters that work great for this type of thing - light but will keep the chill off. Yes, cashmere can be perfect for Houston summers.

We also have committee meetings that are at people's houses. This is casual as well.

Parties: for the community, we are having a cocktail attire fundraiser in October, a Neighborhood Night Out party also in October and a Christmas party in December. My husband's company also has a Christmas party (although not sure if they will this year). I think I have outfits for the cocktail fundraiser (I have 2 lovely party skirts from J Crew that I have worn to previous Christmas parties - a silk black and ivory striped one and a blue and black silk and cotton taffeta one that I can wear different tops with). And my awesome grey patent Cole Haan high heeled Mary Janes. I love those shoes!!

If my husband's company has a Christmas party, I will probably get a new J Crew skirt. I have a hard time wearing dresses (I am long waisted and dress waists tend to hit too high on me). And skirts can be so versatile. I can't wait to see what they have this year!

Poker: we have a monthly revolving poker game with our friends. Casual.

More later on my wardrobe plan as I work it out.

Oh, yes -I have lost about 15 pounds this year so I have to get new pants (down a size or 2 there). My shirts still fit ok. I will probably lose about 5 more pounds so I don't want to buy a lot of pants at this point. Pants that are too big just don't look nice.

rockin J Crew

Here is my neighbor on her 91st birthday. My husband took this picture for an interview for our neighborhood newletter. She is wearing the J Crew Ikat pencil skirt and the cotton-silk ruffle swirl tank in warm shell.

My husband told me she was also carrying a J Crew bag. I was all like "ooo, which one!" (as if he would recognize a J Crew bag and could tell me the name). He said, "no, like a brown paper bag with J Crew written on it and string handles." Oh, that explains how he knew it was a J Crew bag.

She was also wearing the white hat but removed it.

I'm back...

OK, it seems from my last post as if I got drunk and fell off the face of the earth....well - perhaps - but I am back.

Saw Calvin again today for the first time since the last time - heh - by which I mean when he offered us popcorn in the tunnel. We were leaving our Civic Council meeting (meets in the historic Methodist church) and he was walking by. He's got cancer (as he's told D in the past) and has bandages on the back of his head and neck. He said "How you doin" to us and D say "fine, how are you" and he said "I am blessed."

Holy fucking cow. He is homeless (not sure where he is staying now that he isn't in the tunnel). He's got cancer. He's got bandages on the back of his head and neck (I can't imagine how it feels in this heat - my God the heat). And when he said it, it seemed like he meant it - not like it was a line to get some cash (D did run after him to give him all his cash - three bucks).

It was good to see him again. It did make me feel blessed.

On another note, I finally tried out the steamer I got a while back. Gosh, I wish I had used it this morning. I wore a featherweight cashmere sweater (freshmint, I think) and since I hand wash, it was a little crumpled looking. I steamed my ivory cashmere sweater this afternoon - looked like brand new. I steamed the white tee I wore to the Civice Council meeting and it looked ever so nice. My goal is to try to steam the tees I wear outside the house and of course my cashmere. It seems so much easier than ironing (which I suck at).

Earlier drinking with friends was fun. Now drinking alone seems wrong....need more friends for more drinking!

Vegas was awesome fun! But I did not score very high on the girlification scale. I think maybe minus 100? It was 4 couples and 2 of the girls spent a lot of the time shopping - sometimes all 3 of them. I spent my time hanging out with the stinky boys.

And I loved it! I can shop here - and I do. I've been to the Galleria since we've been back - to exchange some pants (size 8's for 6's - yay!) and spend some of my winnings! Well, not exactly winnings - but money I did not lose. I took $1,300 and came back with $1,000 - and I did a lot of gambling - I think I broke even on the gambling.

And I bought some shoes from Zappos (bought and returned for a larger size and got the new ones already!). And ordered some more stuff from the Crew online.

I played a lot of dollar video poker. I got a straight flush! I was awesome. I got dealt A-4 of diamonds and I asked my friend if I was going to the the 5. He said I was. And I did! It was pretty exciting. I had 4 of a kind like maybe 6 times also.

I lost my horse race bet but I have a golf bet still to come - I bet on Camilo Villegas to win the US Open next weekend. ha! We will see!

I polyvore'd everything I packed - but I never wore my dress jeans (didn't want to wear heels - I wore my pink converse sneakers the whole time except for one morning in the hotel I wore my skull flip flops). I never went to the pool. I never wore my nice strapless dress - but it washed up nicely so I ordered it in charcoal grey too. Because of the awesome shoes I got with the money I did not lose - a pair of shiny dull grey patent cole haan heels. They are over 3 inches and I wore them to work today with a new pair of grey JCrew pants (size 6!). They would actually be comfortable if they weren't so damn high (high for me). I think I will improve walking in high heels though?

ooooo - right now I'm wearing my favorite new pants - JCrew broken in boyfriend chinos. I would have gotten them even if they weren't size 4 (ha - yeah I had to ask the SA if he could get me a pair of these pants in grey in size 4!) ha! Anyway, the sizing has been all over the place for JCrew - these pants are something everyone is "sizing down in" but still cool.

Least girlified moment #1 - one of the guys, Crunk, saying "Jules, you're a dude. You're one of the dudes." ha. Thanks but no thanks. Although in Vegas I want to drink and gamble, not shop.

Least girlifited moment #2 - drinking 2 5-hour energy shots in a 3-hour period (all of us "dudes" did - it seemed like a good idea at the time - I honestly thought they were like my emergen-c thingies - vitamins - but obviously had some sort of stimulant in them. I don't do stimulants well - they make me cranky). And then yelling at the Cat for yelling at D (or so he said - we were all on the 5-hour energy shots) about wanting to have a nice dinner. Thinking about it, she probably didn't yell at him.

Heading out to neighborhood meeting now...

lunch

Today I'm having lunch with my mom and SIL to talk about my dad's 80th birthday party. My mom brought up the idea earlier in the year.

I know she has an idea of what she wants to do but she won't say what it is. I think, after some discussion with her and my SIL that she wants to have the party at my house. It will be mid-July so of course hot but I think we can still go up on the roof for cake and coffee after dinner.

Last week I called her and asked if she still wanted to do the party. Yes, she says. I say how about me and you and SIL have lunch one day to talk about it. She says "that is a WONDERFUL idea" like it is the bestest idea ever. I thought it was kind of a DUH idea. I mean you can't have a sit down dinner for 20 people with out some planning, can you?

Not sure yet what I'm going to wear to lunch today...