Read a Book: Curated Closet by Anushka Rees {Self-Care}

You walk into my closet in the morning and look around at all the clothes hanging, waiting to be worn. You blink a few times before deciding on something to grab. Only thing is, you don't want to wear any of the clothes in front of you. Or you go through multiple combinations before finally deciding on something to wear for the day, feeling completely dissatisfied with the selection you ultimately made. All the pieces in your closet were cheap easy buys you made because it was cute, or you liked it for the moment only to discover they don't work with anything else you own or you don't really like it as much as you thought.

Yeah. I've been there.

I'm still there. Kind of. It's getting better. Slowly. My capsule has helped a little bit.

I'm still searching out tips for working on your wardrobe. The hardest part is not having the budget for it, so I am limited. But that will not always be the case. At least I hope not. For you all, I hope that is not the case. It's fun going clothes shopping. Usually. Without kids.

I read this book recently. Curated Closet by Anushka Rees. I picked up the e-book from my library after having it on hold for forever!

I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I was going to try to move through it quickly (seriously the wait line at the library for it is so long!) and a friend was next in line. But this is so full of information for the wardrobe obsessed individual it makes it hard to just read. I had to take notes. I have a Trello board dedicated to the notes I have from this book.

And I feel that I need to go over it again. I haven't performed all the exercises she goes through in this book. And some I need to be more thorough with. The above picture is outfits that I have pinned in my summer and winter inspiration Pinterest boards. I still have yet to create a "mood board". It seems like a lot of work, but I think it may interesting later.

One of the activities is comparing the outfits you have to the typical activities you do during a 2 week period. These are a rough estimate for now. If I pulled everything out and categorized my thoroughly it would be more accurate. And if I created a section for costumes, because I kept all the Halloween Costumes from over the years, it would be more accurate!

Seriously. I go nowhere except pick up and drop off for the kids, and grocery shopping during the week! Maybe the occasional play date if I can get the kids out of the house in time. My life is so boring! I had to back it out a month because I *sometimes* am able to make it to a house evening with the girls or a quilt guild meeting. Though that would still count as "daytime" outfits and not necessarily semi-fancy as I have it sorted for the purposes of the above pie chart. (I did this in google sheets, super excited I figured that out!)

The current wardrobe is an interesting thing, especially in comparison to what I actually do during the day. Granted it is not as accurate as it could be. It includes dresses I have worn for weddings, clothes that I never touch, clothes that don't fit that for some reason I still cannot get rid of, and the small number of clothes that I actually wear (making a case for a capsule for myself I think?) I still have clothes from my working days; I stopped working to be a SAHM back in 2013! It's been 5 years! I am laughing at myself at the moment...

After looking through the outfits I would actually wear, and the clothes in my closet I do wear and using her book, these were the colors I came up with. After doing this it made me feel better about my mini capsule choices (read about it here and here).

I seriously had fun with working through the outfit formulas too.

Now, this would all be amazing if I took the time to actually discover all my different outfit combinations and ways to style them. She even talks about that too!

I think my most exciting takeaway is that this book gives you strategies to help build a wardrobe despite the trend of fast and cheap fashion. I have fallen to the ills of fast fashion with almost all of my wardrobe buys. I hope that this book and the strategies she suggests help me when I am at the store.

All the rest of the book is probably way more hassle than it's worth. But, I have enjoyed it!

So far I have not made any clothing purchases in the last few times I have been to the store because none of the items worked for my lifestyle or what I already have in the closet. I call that a win!

Do you have a wardrobe you love, or do you wish you could vamp it up somehow?

Making an Announcement {Motherhood}

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I have managed to keep this secret (kind of) from the social media world. Mostly my general facebook account and other media outlets. Yes, it has come out in some of the groups! It is so hard keeping something like this a secret! Especially when it feels so exciting! How long have you kept something a secret?

It was the beginning of December when I first suspected. It was way to soon to really tell, but I had a feeling. My husband just laughed at me when I told him, but I could see the wheels in his head turning.

We told the kids New Year's Eve. We weren't just celebrating the coming of a new year, but also celebrating...

the coming of a new...  Baby!

We are beyond excited!

We found out the gender a little over a month ago, and we couldn't be happier the baby looks healthy. The most important thing is a healthy baby.

I know Nikolai is beyond words excited he is getting a little brother!

2 of each.

Our little guy is due to arrive on or around August 24th.

I figured I should probably say something if I wanted to share some new items I am working on for a mini capsule (and the need for it since I got rid of most of my maternity clothes!) Oops!

Yes, I made the kids shirts! How could I not?! Especially after how much I loved these!

Nikolai's

GYCT Primary Tee. size: 6 in width and 8 in length. It is perfect.

Samara's

GYCT Tinley Tee. size: 4. I made it with the flutter sleeves and without the waist binding.

Kiera's

GYCT Tinley Tee size: 2 taken in a little in the width. Also with flutter sleeves and plain hemming.

Baby Boy

PAB Rompalls. size: newborn. Pants length. It seems so tiny and yet so big for a newborn!

I used a freezer paper stencil to make the design on the shirts (though I am wishing I had a machine that worked to cut some htv!).

I love these so much! I'm hoping we might be able to use the baby boy's as a going home outfit or something. Either way, I'm excited!

Bonus! GYCT is having a summer sale until the 20th! Perfect time to pick up the tinley and primary tee!

Labyrinth Lap Quilt: Finally Finished {Quilting}

I have about 4-5 posts scheduled to go live on this blog. The only thing those posts are missing is the pictures to go along with the writing. Sadly, my little boy is not cooperative after pick-up from school. I am assuming he's just overtired. After all, it's been a long time since they got a break even with the recent teacher strike that went on. And some of the things I have to share are dependant upon the one post with the kids! I might need to rearrange the posts!

I realized after the kids were making a fort because they used it, that I finished one of the quilts I set out to finish this quarter as part of the Finish-a-long! You can check out the goals I posted here. And I needed to take some pictures of it to share it with you! The camera was charged and ready to go! Pictures are going to happen!

This pattern is called Labyrinth (not to be confused with Labyrinth Walk) and you can find it here. My mom picked it up to sew my brother a queen sized for his bed. I decided to give the lap size a try since it was simple. A selling point to this pattern was no y-seams or diamonds. At the time (over 5 years ago now!) I had not known how to do y seams. Yes. This has sat unfinished that long...

It's a great easy sew. All half square triangles.

I attempted to get some up close of the quilting. I used it to practice my free motion quilting. I am going to have to practice more than once every few years if I plan or hope to make any improvements! Ha, but my writing is shaky enough as it is, there is probably not a ton of chance my movements with the machine will smoothen out!

My favorite quilting was in the gold square surrounding the star and the purple parts to the star.

The back shows the quilting a little bit better than the dark purple thread on purple...

I did not originally plan on using this fabric for the back of this quilt. It really didn't have a purpose when I bought it, but I was not a fan of the two patterns together. For the sake of completion. I decided to go with it anyway. It's interesting. It's growing on me.

But I think it contrasts well with the front even if I would rather not have used it as a backing.

I hand stitched the binding too! Something I have practiced more than FMQ and it is so hard not to hand stitch a binding down. I think the finished look is just so much nicer! At least for me! Ha, squiggly binding anyone? No?

The next morning (since I finished it after midnight) the kids had commandeered the quilt and promptly put it to use making forts. That tells me it's a win!

What finishes do you have so far this quarter?

Budgeting Back to School {HomeLife}

I kind of have been working on the back to school budget. Woah. Back to school what?!? It's only May!

I know. I actually worked on the budget back in February.

It was the "kinder round up" which prompted me deciding to start it then. Especially since Samara starts kindergarten in the next school year!

Our school year here in Arizona (and I am fairly certain it is most of the state) starts at the beginning of August. The district in which we live starts in the middle of July. It is a modified year-round, so our summer is shorter, but we get longer breaks.

Starting the budget for it in February gives 5 months to save up for buying the supplies, clothes and other necessities. It is easier to save earlier than to start saving later. Plus it is a bonus to plan for the cost non-sale items and have money left over.  I think after this next year I'll start saving right after the start of the year instead of only the 5 months I gave myself this year (this is all in theory anyway. I may forget! Ha!).

I'm fairly thankful our school has the supply shopping lists for each grade posted on the website. I don't know what my parents did in the time of no internet. I remember getting the shopping lists at school, was it at the end of school for the next year or at the beginning of the school year I do not remember. But I need so much more time than that to plan. It must be my type A personality. I'm just thankful I can access it anytime.

I used the list from the website and entered each item into a spreadsheet. I used google sheets because it's easy to access from my phone and computer straight from my google drive. The columns from there are the total of the item, running total to spend, what I spent per item, running total spend and the difference. Here is an example of the columns...

I did this for the optional items as well. If we can save up for those we would try, but I am not too worried about those.

To find the cost of the items, I went online and checked out Walmart, Office Max, and Target for their current cost of items. I'll be honest, some costs carried over from previous years and I didn't bother to check those. I tried to make it as up to date as I felt necessary. I'll see next year how much it changes.

I took the final tally and divided it amongst the paychecks between then and the start of the school year. And each kid has their own budget, they each get their own line.

It helps to keep up with what you spent the previous year. I did this for when my first started kindergarten as well and discovered I underbudgeted for some of his clothes. The difference for things like his backpack made up for the amount I was short (I only spent half), but I have since adjusted those overspent amounts. Tabs at the bottom help keep track of it.

This year I plan on working on keeping the kids with a capsule wardrobe (yup. love those things) to limit the number of clothes they have and so I do not need to spend too much money on things for them (and don't forget not having loads of laundry). Luckily, for now, they still have shirts that fit. Pants, shorts, and undergarments will be the biggest expenditure for clothes.

I'm excited. I love shopping for school supplies and new clothes.

I'm sure the way I do it is either harder than it has to be or too simple.

How do you budget for the school year?