Recap: Days 21-30

I'm not going to lie, having my whole closet available when choosing an outfit is kind of stressing me out.  It almost feels like there are too many options.  I really enjoyed doing the 30 x 30 with the exception of taking a picture of myself everyday.  Embarrassing.

Here's what I learned:

1. Spend the extra 30 seconds to accessorize your outfit.  I have a big tub filled with accessories and two drawers filled with scarfs that I hardly ever use.  I've been trying to add at least two accessories before I leave the house.  It adds polish to a look and makes you look put together.
2. Texture, pattern, and color are key to a stylish wardrobe.  Layering them is even better.
3. I tend to keep my articles of clothing in a "box." Example: a certain top only gets worn with a specific pair of pants.  Force yourself to try things in a new way.  Don't (necessarily) throw away something just because you feel like it's out of style.  It may still be a good layering piece, or it may look new if you pair it with something else.
4. When shopping for clothes, try to think of at least three ways you could wear the article of clothing using items already in your closet.  If you can't, you probably won't wear it more than once every few months.

I learned other things too, but that's probably enough for now.  Second Chance Saturday will resume next week.  I just can't convince my camera (or my husband) to take any more outfit pictures at the moment.

Doug and I are going shopping today!  We will be shopping mostly for a few birthday presents and bridal shower gifts, but I am also dying to replace these:

Gross, huh?  And want to know something grosser?  This picture was taken last April...as in a year ago.  And I still wear them all the time.

Day 30!

And. I'm. Spent.  Don't worry.  I wore this yesterday.  Today, I'm greening it up.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Day 29

Is anyone else in love with the pizza dough that you can buy at Trader Joe's for less than 2 bucks?  It's awesome.  For an easy and delicious dinner, Doug and I roll one out, throw on any toppings that we have in our cupboard, and voila!  Dinner.  Last night it was pesto sauce, sun dried tomatoes, black olives, artichoke hearts, and feta.  Pretty much gourmet, right?  And, it takes less time to make than it does for Domino's to deliver.

One recommendation:  Allow the dough to get to room temperature before you try to roll it out.  It will keep shrinking back up on itself if it is cold which gets REALLY aggravating.

Day 28

I gave up alcohol for Lent this year.  So, why does St. Paddy's day fall during Lent?  This was poor planning on the Pope's part.

Day 27

My Goal: To get my 30 x 30 done by St. Patrick's day.  Must. Be. Able. To. Wear. Green. 

Day 26

How to Make a Dress into a Shirt:

Step 1: Put on dress.

Step 2: Put on tights.

Step 3: Tuck dress into tights

Step 4: Put on skirt.

(Step 3 can be avoided if dress is shorter than skirt.)

Ta daaaaaaaa!

P.S.- Sorry for not doing a Second Chance Saturday post yesterday.  I was busy up in the mountains.  Taking naps, watching Disney Princess movies and pulling kids around on sleds.

Day 25

I haven't been so good about taking pictures this week.  Well..let's face it.  I haven't been so good about getting dressed this week... So, I decided to go through some old pictures and see if I could find outfits that were comprised of my 30 x 30. 

Here we are with my sweet baby sister at her 21st birthday in Vegas.  They grow up so fast...  Now she's graduating from college in a few months! 

Doug and I are headed up to Big Bear this weekend with the Young Adult's Group at our church.  Doug will probably snowboard while I stay at the cabin with the babies.  Mmm.. babies.  I like them.

Day 24

When I wear this sweater belted, it kind of reminds me of a smoking jacket.  That reminds me of this poster that I had on my wall when I was in 6th grade.  It was a close up of a posh-looking man and woman.  The man was saying, "Mind if I smoke?"  The woman responded, "Care if I die?"

Man, oh man.  I thought that it was hilarious.  There's nothing funnier than second hand smoke.

Day 23

Welp...it's been over 30 days...but I'm still not done.  At this rate, this is going to be a 30 x 60.  Darn those nights that I get home from work and change immediately into sweatpants.

Doug is growing a beard right now.  He knows I'm not a huge fan of it.  Yesterday he bought a beard trimmer and cleaned it up a bit.  It looks a lot better.  I was looking at him while we were sitting on the couch last night and said, "Your beard looks pretty good," meaning that the beard trimmer was a huge improvement.

He smiled and said, "Thanks Babe!  I like your sweatpants."  Liar...

Day 22

Is it bad that I only left my hotel once while I was in St. Louis?  Is it worse that the one time I went outside was to get into a shuttle to go to the Casino down the street?  You know what's definitely not bad?  The fact that I won $35 at the craps tables!  What else isn't bad?  This outfit.  I love it.

When I got back from my trip, Doug made homemade Oreo-type cookies.  Filled with cream cheese frosting.  Now, that's love (and "not bad" keeping with the theme of this post...I'm just saying...)

Day 21

Welcome back to Second Chance Saturday!  You've probably already guessed which outfit I picked to restyle.  Day 13, welcome back.

Now, even though we didn't like this, we have to be polite.  We don't want to hurt it's feelings.  We'll start with the good.

The Good:

• I love the idea of this sweater.  It's a unique color, a beautiful knit, and an interesting shape.

The Bad: 

• This outfit doesn't provide enough visual interest.  The colors are all too similar, and it comes off as very bland.
• The individual pieces of clothing don't fit together.  The turtleneck detracts from the cool neckline of the sweater, and the round toe of the oxfords with straight leg jeans make my feet look really weird.
• My chandelier earrings compete with the collar of the sweater.
• There is something wrong with the proportions of the outfit. 

For the last few days, I have been experimenting.  This outfit hasn't just received a second chance, it's received a third and forth chance as well (although the 3rd didn't get photographed...but don't worry...you're not missing anything.)  I've pretty much tried on every one of my 30 x 30 articles of clothing trying to figure out what works.  Honestly, I can't figure it out.  This is a cry for help. 

***HELLLLP MEEEEE****

Solution #1:

• The brown boots are a huge improvement over the oxfords.
• I chose a brown undershirt instead of a blue to tie in the brown.
• Something is still just not right.  What type of accesories would work with this? 
• Let's face it: this hat is a little bit ridic.

Solution #2:

• Again, I think that the boots are an improvement.
• The open neck shirt underneath the sweater draws more attention to the neckline.
• I like how pairing this sweater with black makes it look more grey.
• I tried to accessorize.

So...do either of these outfits deserve to be Day 21?  You decide!  Vote below.  I voted.  I didn't really.  But I thought if I said so, someone might give me one of those stickers.

Never mind.  Don't vote.  It didn't work out.  Better luck next time.

Recap: Days 11-20

Brrr...it's cold out here (there must be some Toro's in the atmosphere...)  So lame...but such a good movie.  In case you were wondering if I am taking pictures while I'm out here in St. Louis, the answer is no.  Why?  Well, I tried to picture the scenario in my head.  This is how it played out:

"Hey {coworker, boss-man}, do you mind taking a picture of me?  By myself.  Full body.  Make sure you get my shoes.  I don't like that angle.  Does this shirt make me look fat?"

"Sure Lizzie." (They like to make me happy.  I am, after all, one of only three women out of the 300+ sales engineers in the US.)  "What is this for?"

"My blog.  I take pictures of myself. And post them online.  Now, let's discuss how to grow the business in the pharmaceutical market."

My favorites?  Days 16 and 20.  Least favorite?  You'll have to wait until Saturday.

***A little edit: 
Most people at work know that I have a blog.  I blab about my life.  A lot.  I just don't think anyone actually reads it.

Day 20

This morning I left sunny California for the beautiful city of St. Louis, Missouri to attend my company's annual Sales Meeting.  I'll be busy the rest of the week "networking."  Ugh... I hate that word.  I prefer to call it "hanging out with my friends."  See, in my mind, all of my coworkers and customers are my friends, not people forced to work with me in order to keep their facilities in production.  I'll be telling Doug a story and say, "oh, my friend, {insert coworker}, {did this really funny thing}," and he'll say, "Uh... do you mean your coworker?"  Then I get real depressed.

Anyway, I scheduled a few posts before I left to keep you entertained the rest of the week.  And...rumor has it...Doug might be guest posting...the blog is called "Doug + Lizzie" after all...

Day 19

Doug and I are back from an awesome weekend in Mammoth.  We couldn't have timed our weekend better.  It began snowing about 20 minutes after we arrived at our hotel, snowed all day on Friday (every run was fresh powder!), and stopped on Friday night.  We had blue skies and fresh tracks on Saturday and a chain-free drive home on Sunday.

Most of the weekend, I wore this, but I managed to pull myself together out of my post ski stupor on Saturday night.  Here's is what I wore.  I used my skis as props.  We hugged a little.  We're in love.

Day 18

Welcome to my first ever Second Chance Saturday!  As I explained in my last post, I will be restyling my outfit from Day 7.

We'll begin by dissecting the outfit.  Once we figure out what worked in the outfit and what went wrong, we'll be able to restyle the outfit effectively.

The Good:

• The scarf!  I love the pattern with the pop of pink.
• My oxfords look perfectly lady like with this sweater dress.

The Bad:

• First and foremost, the capri leggings.  They cut off my legs and make them look super short.  Also, the defined waist line of the dress, the bottom hem of the dress, the capri leggings, and my white legs against the oxfords each create a horizontal line that segment my body.  This outfit chops me up into 5 pieces.
• The lack of texture in this outfit.  The dress and the leggings are both a flat fabric.  The only item of interest is the scarf.
• Bare arms with a sweater dress.  It just seems wrong.  If it's cold enough to wear a sweater dress, shouldn't I be covering my arms?

Day 7, meet Day 18.

The Solution:

• I replaced the capri leggings with textured tights to both add some visual interest, cover up my absurd whiteness, and lengthen my legs.
• The black turtleneck covers up my nakey arms and ties in the black shoes to the rest of the outfit.
• My grey hat (again, knitted by my sistey) also adds texture to the outfit and hides the fact that I didn't do my hair today (shhhhh).

You like?

And that, my friends, was my closet's first shot at a second chance.

Day 17

Wanna know a secret?  I actually wore this outfit 2 weeks ago when my dad and step mom were in town.  I just haven't had a chance to post it.  I made my dress into a tunic!  Aren't I clever?

Today was a good day.  Doug got his Beer of the Month microbrews in the mail.



For Doug's birthday last year, I bought him a subscription to a beer club.  Pretty manly, huh?  Every other month he gets a 12-pack of beer in the mail that features 4 different microbrews.  This month he will enjoy a brown ale, a marzen, and two golden ales.  Every shipment includes a newsletter that describes the beers and the brewery, and Doug and I always have a fun time reading it.

Day 16

I know, this picture is a little bit blurry.  And Doug's backpack is in our living room.  But it's a cute outfit, huh?

Day 15

I've been trying to wrap my mind around my experience at Winter Camp so that I can put it into words, but my typically sarcastic style of writing just isn't going to cut it.  I was so blessed by my experience up there.  My girls opened up to each other on a new level, identified sins in their life that are keeping them from fully experiencing God, and truly desire to serve the Lord with their lives.  I am so thankful to have them in my life, and I love them so much.

Remember when I said that I was having some struggles with this sweater?  Without any prompting from me, on the last day of Winter Camp, one of my girls looked at me long and hard for a few seconds, then she reached into her bag and pulled out an eggplant colored headband with a big flower on it.  "Here!" she said.  "This is what you need," and plopped it on my head.  She was right!  Purple is the color for this sweater.  Just one more reason why I keep these wonderful girls around.

Day 14

Back from Winter camp.  And completely exhausted.  So I'll leave you with this.  The comfy sweatshirt.  And my Ugg-lies.  And my favorite hat.  My sissy made it for me.  And my mom made my sweatshirt.  Where are my mad creative skills?

A little bit of cheating?

When I selected my items for my 30 x30, I sort of forgot that I was going to be spending two weekends in the snow in February.  This weekend, obvies, is Winter Camp, and Doug and I are going up to Mammoth for a little romantic (or hard core shredding) ski trip next weekend.  So, I've decided on my 30th item.

Photo credit

Meet my Ugg-lies.  They might not be the cutest kicks around, but man, oh man, are they perfect for a weekend in the snow.

And while we're on the subject...this is a little bit awkward...would you mind if I switched out one of my items?  See... the brown blazer that I picked...  It doesn't really look good with anything.  I probably should have tried it on before I threw it into my mix.  It just seemed like it had such good potential.  So, I'm thinking: I would like to change it out for a comfy sweatshirt to wear while I'm up in the mountains.  I may not be able to take too many pictures while I'm up there, but I promise to keep up on the challenge.  Except of course for the themed dress up nights.  That's the time to go crazy.  Crazy, I tell you.