Closet Overhaul: Part 2

I decided it was time for a closet overhaul. So, I'm following Kendi Everyday's guide to creating a working closet. I've wrote about Step One: Purge. Next it was time to assess what I have, don't have, need and want.

Step Two: ASSESS
The first stage was to take inventory of what I already have. I did this mentally, because in reality, I do have a lot of clothes. But you could literally write everything down, if that's your style. Doing this actually reminded me that I actually have like 5 blazers (something that was originally on my needs list) I'm just not in love with how they fit. So, I'm planning on taking one or two of them to a tailor and having them altered.

Then Kendi suggests making closet needs list. It's important to keep in mind these are suppose to be pieces that are considered staples in every woman's closet. NOT what you want to add to your wardrobe, that part's next. To help guide me in creating my needs list, I used Tim Gunn's list of 10 Essentials. His list includes; a blazer, classic white shirt, trench coast, a sweater, skirt, day dress, jeans, dress pants, basic black dress, and a sweat suite alternative. I did a little online browsing and found the pieces I'd like to complete my 10, well 9, since I didn't pick out a sweat suite.

I actually made this graphic before I took inventory of what I already have, so technically I could remove the blazer (1), skirt (5) and day dress (6) because I have those.

1. Blazer - From Forever 21. I like the length, color and cuffs. I already a couple blazers that I'm planning on having altered. Once that's done I can check it off my needs list.
2. Classic White Shirt - From Gap. I can't believe I don't already own a white button down like this one! They pair perfectly with a cardi and tall boots, which it pretty much what I live in during the fall and winter.
3. Trench Coat -  This one is from Sears. I love the dark khaki color and the length. Long enough to cover a long cardi, but not past the knee. I've been needing one of these for a long while. I don't have a good coat for semi warm weather. You know when you're sweating in your winter coat, but a light jacket isn't enough.
4. Sweater - I read in another place that Tim Gunn says it should be a cashmere sweater, so I went with that. I picked this cute pink henley from J. Crew. 
5. Skirt - I have a few skirts, but I love the abstract pattern and paperbag waist of this one from Forever 21.
6. Day Dress - Seriously, I want like every dress from Urban Outfitters. But I have a couple day dresses, so this one will be added to my want list
7. Jeans - I have two pairs of jeans, skinnies and flared. Neither really fit me perfectly. I need to add a pair that fit right. I used to have a pair of Real Straight Jeans from Gap, but they wore out. I LOVED them and need to get another pair. 
8. Dress Pants - I haven't wore dress pants in 2 years, but if Tim Gunn says I need them in my closet, by golly I'll pick out a pair. I went with the Salt and Pepper Columnist Pant from Express. 
9. Basic Black Dress - Note this says, basic black dress, not little black dress. I'm in love with this Ann Taylor sheath dress. And can definitely see myself wearing it to the office or even on date night. 

After your needs list, you're suppose to make a wants list, that is very specific. Much like the needs list I made. I'm working on that list, so stayed tuned for my wants in part 3 of my closet overhaul.

Thanksgiving

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

- Abraham Lincoln

In 1863 in hopes to unite the states, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday to be observed on the last Thursday of November. A day to give thanks and praise to God for all that he had provided.

The past few months, I have been trying to be more thankful day to day. I start my prayer time with prayers of thanksgiving and praise, before moving on to my concerns, needs and wants. It's cool how that can transform how you view everyday life. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to share with you some of those things.

• My Timmy! I'm thankful that I get to experience life's adventures with him by my side. I could go on and on, but I don't want to get all mushy. Just know he rocks!
• Our Love Bean! I'm thankful for how she has changed my life. It's not really a secret that I didn't think I was ready to be a mom and that I was worried about accepting the lifestyle changes having a baby would bring. But these last 2 months have been bliss, and I already can't imagine life without her! I think Tim and I were on our way to be becoming very selfish people, I think she came at the perfect time in our lives. I'm thankful the Big Guy upstairs has better timing than we do.
• I'm thankful for our families, who are so supportive. 
• I'm thankful that we have the means to visit said families. With gas prices, not everyone could afford to make multiple 400 mile, 8 hour road trips in a month. (round trip)
• I'm thankful the nurses and doctors God has put in my sister's and nephew Gatlyn's life. Without them he may not have even survived being born 12 weeks early. 
• I'm thankful for the fighting spirit Gatlyn has
• I thankful we have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. 
• I'm thankful that my biggest worry right now is, how are we going to rework our schedule, budget and daycare so that I can accept an awesome internship opportunity.
• I'm thankful Tim and I found South Loop Church a year ago

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Closet Overhaul

I've decided it's time for a closet overhaul. I feel like it's a natural time for my style and wardrobe to evolve. I found a great series of posts over on Kendi Everyday, that's all about creating a working closet. I'm following her 4 simple steps: purge, assess, organize, shop to create a closet that works for me. By a closet that works for me I mean, a closet where I can go in and put an outfit together with ease, because I love every piece. I'm sick of standing in my closet (that's over flowing with clothes) thinking, "Ugh, I have nothing to wear."

Step One: PURGE
Here is a picture of my closet before The Great Purge of 2011. I usually keep more organized, but I thought letting it get messy, would make for a more dramatic before and after shot. This is almost all of the clothes and shoes that I own. Missing are what's in the laundry, but obviously if I've worn it in the last couple weeks, I'm going to keep it.

Before

 These next two shots were taken after I has everything sorted into piles. I numbered the piles and outlined what they are below. Hopefully you can see the numbers...please excuse the horrible pictures, my camera is a piece of junk.

1. Keepers. These are all the of clothes that I hung back up in my closet. There are a few shirts that I was on the fence about, but hubs said he liked them so I kept them. 
2. Give Away. This is the pile is all of the clothes I got rid of. I ended up with one big bag of stuff that I'm going to try to sell at Platos Closet, and two big bags of stuff to either donate to Goodwill, or store to sell at my mom's next garage sale. 
3. All of my belts and scarves.
4. Keepers (2). This pile is all of my tank tops that don't hang up, so I kept the separate from the other keepers.
5. Maybes. This pile was a tough! It was a pile of clothes that I had to try on before deciding what to do with them. I wanted them all to be keeps, but there were just some things that didn't fit me right post Love Bean. Among them a pair of practically new Gap cords and my favorite black plants that were perfect for date nights and going out.
6. Comfy Clothes. T-shirts, sweats, and pj's. 

 Shoes! I got rid of 6 pair. There were a couple others that I wanted to get rid of, but I need to replace them first. Example: my black pumps, they are in horrible condition, but they're the only pair I have! I boxed up all of my sandals so that they didn't take up so much room.

 

Ta da! Here is the after shot. I did this all on Sunday night, and I have to say, it was easy getting dressed on Monday and Tuesday. So, I think I'm well on my way to have a working closet!

Next step, assess. I'll probably post about that after Thanksgiving, since we're going to visit Timmy's family for a couple days.

Stella 2 Months

Our little Love Bean will be 2 months old on Sunday! Each month (until she's a year old) I'll be taking a picture of her in our orange chair.

Watch her grow: 1 month

Family Tradition

A couple of weeks ago, I told hubs that I wanted us to start some of our own family traditions now that we have the Love Bean. On Sunday, I came up with an idea that I love! Hubs says it's a good idea, but truthfully I think he's kind of indifferent about the whole idea. Anyway...the first family tradition the Krenz's will be starting will be...12 Days of Christmas, 12 Random Acts of Kindness.

Each day, for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we will be doing one random act of kindness. What I love about starting this tradition is imagining how much fun Love Bean will have once she's old enough to comprehend what we're doing! Kindness and generosity are two character traits that I want to instill in her from a young age. When the time comes, I'll post our RAOKs each day (or at least every couple days).

Operation Christmas Child

This year our church is participating in Operation Christmas Child. It's put on by Samaritan's Purse. They collect shoeboxes filled with little gifts and toiletries and send them to kids in 3rd world countries, who wouldn't otherwise get Christmas gifts. Our pastor set a goal for our church to donating 50 boxes. Tim and I put together two boxes. Tim picked out stuff for a boy box and I picked stuff to fill a box for a girl. We had a lot of fun trolling the Dollar Tree for goodies. Side note: I hadn't been in a Dollar Tree in FOREVER! I was actually kind of impressed with the selection!

box for a 10-14 girl

box for a 10 to 14 year old boy

Some of the items we included were notebooks, pencils and sharpeners, soap, toothbrush/tooth paste, playdough, deodorant, candy, a toy truck, bracelets, combs and mirrors. There were probably a couple other little things too.

Silly Stella

Silly photos of the hubs and Love Bean for your enjoyment. I'm working on a couple posts for later this week, including an introduction to our new family tradition!

Love Languages

Have you heard of the 5 Love Languages? I had heard of them, but that's about it. The other day, through a trail of links from blog to blog, I eventually stumbled upon the a simple quiz/questionnaire that you can take online to help you assess what your language is. The 5 different languages are Physcial Touch, Words of Affirmation, Qulaity Time, Receiving Gifts and Acts of Service. Hubs and I both took the quiz to see what our languages are.

The results?

JAMIE: Words of Affirmation and Quality Time were tied for my top language. Although, in the break down they said, I lean towards Words of Affirmation. And I have to say, I totally agree that this is how I communicate.

Words of Affirmation: Actions don’t always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, “I love you,” are important—hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten.

Quality of Time: In the vernacular of Quality Time, nothing says, “I love you,” like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there—with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all chores and tasks on standby—makes your significant other feel truly special and loved. Distractions, postponed dates, or the failure to listen can be especially hurtful.

TIM: Physical Touch was the clear winner for hubs. This actually didn't surprise me. He is always coming up and giving me hugs at random times, like when I'm doing the dishes, and he loves to cuddle, hold hands and all that jazz.

Physical Touch: This language isn’t all about the bedroom. A person whose primary language is Physical Touch is, not surprisingly, very touchy. Hugs, pats on the back, holding hands, and thoughtful touches on the arm, shoulder, or face—they can all be ways to show excitement, concern, care, and love. Physical presence and accessibility are crucial, while neglect or abuse can be unforgivable and destructive.

 I hope that knowing this about each other will help us express our love for one another in ways that are satisfying and special to both of us.

I encourage you to take the quiz. Even if it's only so you can be self aware. It really simple, and it doesn't take long at all.

Memory Box(es)

I'm not really much of a scrap booker, so as an alternative, I stole the memory box idea from my sister. You can read about the box she's making for her little princess over at her blog, Peach Pits and Grass Clippings.

 Since I haven't decided how I want to decorate the box yet, for now it just has her name on it. Inside the box are tabbed dividers labeled with each month of the year. At the end of every month (so far just September and October) I'm going to write on a card special things that happened that month. So for instance, the September card has her birth date and lists people who came to meet her. On the other side of the card, I'm going to make mini scrap book pages. September's just has her hospital picture. If there are any little keepsake items from that month, they'll go in too. Like her hospital bracelet and identification card.

September and October's cards weren't very creative...I'm sure this will be the case with other months to come. Not every card from now until she graduates is going to be a masterpiece.

Working on Love Bean's memory box, got me thinking about the memory box Tim and I have. It's full random stuff from when we were dating. I put together a mini collage of some of the items in there; cards, pictures, ticket stubs.

Also, I found this gem in there....pretty sure it's one of the first pictures of us ever taken. We were real hotties weren't we? ;)

Love Bean Mini Book

This is going to be a super quick post, will some super bad pictures, of a cute mini book I made for the Love Bean last night!

I wanted to do something really simple so, I bound together so blank cards I had laying around and taped on the Polaroids the hubs took of my growing belly. Under each picture I wrote about how big the Love Bean was at the time. Example; under the 30 week picture, is says "You weighed as much as a head of cabbage." That info came from the weekly emails I received through out my pregnancy from Baby Center.

The note on the last page reads:

A couple of days after that picture was taken you made your debut! We fell even more in love with you the moment we set our eyes on you. We're so glad that you're our precious love bean.

I wish we would have used the Polaroid camera to get a pic of her when right after she was born, so that I could have included it.

November Love List

I say it every month, but I can't believe it's already November and time for yet another Love List.

This month I'm loving

• That Love Bean has started sleeping through the night. (watch now I've probably jinxed myself)
• Thanksgiving - pretty certain we're spending it with my in-laws, which means Love Bean will finally meet her other Uncles!
• Black beans, corn and salsa mixed together. This concoction can go on anything...we've ate on rice, taco shells, potatoes and this morning I had it with eggs in a breakfast burrito
• Christmas shopping - I love buying gifts for people, and for some reason I'm in the Holiday spirit earlier than usual this year
• Firefly Design (if you wanna know what that's all about there will be a whole post dedicated to it next week)
• Hubs and I have decided when we want to move to The Mitten (not until next August, but this is pretty big for us - it means looking for new jobs, finding a place to live and all that jazz) 
• My nephew Gatlyn continuing to kick life's butt
• Love Bean's smile

Mr. & Mrs. de Lara

My littlest sister married her Prince back in August. I had the honor and pleasure of designing their invitations! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think they turned out pretty great.

As you can see, it's totally typographic, which I love. The bride gave me a little bit of direction. She showed me some pictures of stuff she liked, picked out the wording (it's definitely not your traditional wedding invite wording!), and knew she wanted a typeface that had variation in the thicks and thins. For all my designer friends...I used Bodoni and Helvetica Neue. Fun fact: it was the first (and only) time I used Helvetica on a project since swearing not to ever use it at the beginning of my Senior year of college.  

The RSVP cards, which you can see a peek of in the picture above were two separate cards, rather than one card with check boxes for yes and no. I also designed programs, table numbers and place cards.

Yummy Burrito

I've been MIA because Love Bean and I were in The Mitten visiting my family. We were there Friday to Tuesday, it was a long trip, and we missed daddy but had lot's of fun!

Stella was a Love Bean Burrito for Halloween. We visited both sets of her great grandparents and went to a Halloween party at her Auntie Mal's. She slept through pretty much all of it. Check out our cute little burrito with her cousins, who dressed up as a cupcake, spaghetti and a lion. These girlies are gonna be trouble when they're all big enough to run around together.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'm finally going to share the invitations I designed for my littlest sister's wedding!