Belated WT week 2 -- piles and piles and piles

Last week was a toughie. A looming deadline, my own bad news, and some bad news from a friend meant that I didn't really have the energy for much other than just getting through the day. Although, funnily enough, I didn't really mind my own little misery so much. Not getting the job didn't hurt as much as I had thought it might. I was bummed, sure, but after I vented on the blog I felt so much better.

And so, now that my paper's turned in to the editor and I can do something WT-related for a change, here's the result of my week 2 tasks.

1. Piles and piles of tops
First off, I didn't realize how many shirts and light sweaters I had, so to make things go faster, I did this in stages based on kinds of shirts -- blazers/jackets, light sweaters, button-down/fancy shirts, and t-shirts/camisoles.

Superstars: My favorite velvet blazer. I wish I had more occasions to wear it. A pretty silk shell that I used to wear when I had to dress up for work. My new snakeskin-print cardigan.



Stalwart Staples: Lots and lots of t-shirt type tops and fine gauge sweaters. Long sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, short sleeve, scoop- or v-necks. I got rid of the ones that were sliding towards rabbitiness or that I never wore.

Velveteen Rabbits: I finally let go of some t-shirts that had seen better days -- both nice work-quality shirts and casual t-shirts that just looked too tired to keep in the rotation. Also got rid of some items that were in fine shape, but too dated to wear any longer.

Sentimental journeys: I didn't have any among my nicer clothing, but there were lots of t-shirts (especially related to college football). I tossed some and moved the rest to pajama rotation so I could hang on to them a little longer.

Torture devices and mysteries of the lost shopping trip: I'm combining these two because my problem garments all seem to have the same problems. Those problems include, but are not limited to:

1. The Wrong Color -- why do I keep buying brown clothing? I do love my brown jacket, but all the brown sweaters and tops need to go. Also, I may technically be a Summer, color-wise, but pastels look terrible on me. So out went a bunch of pale pink tops. Darker jewel toned colors look a lot better on me.

2. The Wrong Shirt -- button down shirts are really tricky on me. If they weren't a terrible color, they made me look like a waiter (Thanks to Dr. Wende for the comparison). Add to that my natural talent for wrinkling clothing (I can create creases even while staying perfectly still), and these shirts are not my friends. This one, a gift from my mother, was such an egregious offender on the waiter-front that I never even wore it out of the house. The button downs I did keep are 3/4 sleeve, wrinkle resistant, and in the right colors. They're better, although not that great.



3. The Wrong Quality: this sweater was almost but not quite right. There was a lot I liked about it. It had a nice cut and fit, I liked the sleeves and the neck. I even liked the pattern -- it had sort of a crewel-embroidery thing going on. Unfortunately, the material was itchy and the pattern isn't actually embroidered, it's printed on and feels a whole lot like that puff paint stuff I used to embellish my sneakers with in elementary school. It felt kind of cheap, so I always felt kind of bad wearing it. So out it goes.



4. The Wrong Lifestyle: the clothing I bought in the mistaken belief that I am the sort of person who might wear that sort of clothing. I'm almost never right about that kind of thing. The beautiful but doomed little camisole top falls into this category. I almost never wear clothing that shows off my arms like that, and never quite mastered the art of wearing under the right sort of jacket or cardigan, so it still had the tags on. Maybe the right kind of girl will find it at Goodwill.

The purge resulted in a huge garbage bag of clothing for Goodwill and several new dust rags for cleaning. It's nice to be able to open and shut all my dresser drawers again, and there's actually room in my closet again. Plus, there were a few nice staples lurking at the bottom of my drawers, and now they can get back into the rotation again. And I feel like I learned a lot from what I kept and tossed. Like that I really, really, need to stop buying brown clothing.

Next, onward to the pants and skirts!
But before you do, check out my new haircut. I won't tell you how many pictures I took in the mirror before I figured out how to get my whole face in.