Let's Shop!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Saturday evening, Dan and I had some friends over to watch the hockey game (Go Bolts, even though you lost). I love playing hostess so I went all out with staging the bar cart with flowers and pretty glasses, putting candles all throughout our house, and freezing fruit to make the sangria extra cold. My friends were the ones who really shone bright though when it came to food. I went to the bakery and bought donuts, but they made delicious appetizers like Buffalo Chicken Dip, Jalapeno poppers, and Cannoli Dessert Dip. So good!

These light blue shorts and pleated top are what I wore. I've had my eyes on these shorts since we got them at Loft; I just love the color! I wasn't sure what to wear with them, but knew I wanted to dress them up a little. Even though this Target shirt and sandals are simple, I feel like they made the statement I was looking to make. Sometimes simple is better!

The rest of my weekend ended up dedicated to a new project. I've been trying to downsize my closet as you read about a few posts ago, but local secondhand boutiques aren't buying as much as they used to. Although I love to donate clothes, I also like to get a little money back on things that I only recently bought that are still current and in good condition. That's when I heard about Poshmark, a way to buy and sell clothes and accessories. It's a (highly addictive) app you can download for free and then use however you wish: to buy or sell. I opened my account on Thursday and I've already sold two dresses! If you like my style and want to check me out, you can look me up at @shopccr or follow this link. I'll be featuring a few items here that are for sale on Poshmark, but I want to make one thing very clear. I will never use my employee discount at Loft to buy items to resell as that is unethical and illegal. A pair of these shorts are for sale and they were purchased at a great price, but that price did not involve any special discounts that I receive because I work for Loft. Cool? Cool.

Have a wonderful rest of your Monday and I'll see you tomorrow. :)


This post can be viewed from Mix It Mondays! Go see what other cool posts are being shared. :)

Tie the Knot

Let's be honest. It's summer and I'm a teacher, so I'm not really getting dressed most days. I wake up, shower, and put on another pair of pajamas. That's probably why when I shopped the Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual sale I came home with two pairs of sweatpants and nothing sexy (a girl who is comfortable is the most sexy of all, right?). So when I do have to get dressed, say to grocery shop or interact with other humans, I find myself leaning toward my most comfortable clothing items. That's why I have to love this dress: it's a multi-tasker. When I'm feeling glamorous, it goes fancy. When I don't want to put on real clothes but have too much pride to shop in pjs, it chills out.

Don't believe me? Go back to this post. Same dress, totally different feel!

Tying a knot in maxi or midi dresses is one of my favorite tricks to create a new vibe with an old piece. A knot in anything, be it a button-down top or a skirt, adds a feeling of "I just threw this together and it works." Add a scarf and call it a day. The fact that it's almost as comfy as my new sweatpants is just an added bonus.

Total side note, the lady who does my nails (who is awesome!) threw me some shade for putting purple on my toes and blue on my fingers. There's no rule saying that looks tacky, right? I like both colors. Why not?

Like what you see? The dress is currently on sale. You're welcome. ;)

You can find this post and others like it at Shopping My Closet and The Miller Affect.

Mosaic Print Tunic

The first time I saw this dress was when someone returned an XS Petite to our store. Knowing full well that I am not that size, I tried it on anyways to torture myself. So close. Just close enough to make me fall in love. I believe I've already sung the praises of the shift dress on the blog before, and my feelings for the tunic are pretty much the same. Others may call it "boxy" or "shapeless" but I'm a fan of anything with the comfort of a mumu that is meant to be worn in public. And get a load of this print! This dress is an online exclusive (currently sold out) but totally worth the wait. Plus, who doesn't love getting mail other than bills?

Imagine a smooth transition to a new topic here. Thank you. Over the weekend I finally picked up a copy of Cupcakes and Cashmere: At Home. I'm predisposed to liking anything she writes or does anyways, but I think Emily did an amazing job with this book. The book is organized by room and has plenty of gorgeous illustrations and useful tips for making a house a home. One of my favorite features is that at the end of each section, Emily gives her suggestions for making decor updates for renters and homeowners. I think that is a very thoughtful addition because, as a current renter, some suggestions like wallpapering an entry way just isn't practical for me. This book, and my own perfectionist-obsessive-list-making-craziness, has led to a full-scale attack on anything in my home that doesn't make me smile. Since buying the book I have moved a mirror, hung a new picture (actually a very old picture my grandmother painted), and reorganized our bookshelf for the millionth time. What inspires you to touch up your living space?

You can find this post on Confident Twosday and Style Sessions.

Garden Gingham

Sunday was Dan and my one year anniversary. We started planning months ago, tossing ideas around to see what stuck. Going away for the weekend was out of the question because of Dan's new job, so I decided to poll my friends for ideas. I heard a ton of great suggestions of places to visit for the day, but having grown up in Florida, none of them were places I'd never been. Then a friend recommended the Marie Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota. I looked on their website and was instantly hooked! I believe that gardens and flowers are innately romantic, so when Dan agreed that it would be fun, I started making plans.

When I plan, I tend to envision exactly what I want and then run the risk of getting disappointed when reality doesn't match my vision. For some reason, every time I thought about the plans (the drive, a local flea market, a picnic, then the garden and a romantic dinner) I kept picturing myself in a gingham dress! I can't explain it, I just did. Then, when I began searching for the perfect dress, I found it doesn't really exist. I'll probably have to sew it myself at some point, but for the day I had to settle for this gingham shirt. The shirt itself is not a letdown. It's light, airy, and ties like it was meant to, so I have no complaints about the shirt except that it isn't a dress. Shirt/Dress issue aside, which is so minor, our day was perfect. The garden was absolutely gorgeous, with a greenhouse, mini rain forest, bamboo garden with a Koi pond, and so much more. If you get a chance, I'd definitely recommend it as a great way to spend an afternoon.

Have a very happy Monday and I'll see you tomorrow!

[Top and skirt are Loft: shirt is not available online yet]

Bring on the Joy

Today I have no outfit photos to share with you. No links to clothes that are probably from Loft. You see, I've had something on my mind for the past few days and I think now is a good time to share it with you. I hope you stick around to read.

For the past couple of weeks, I've felt very disconnected from my clothes. I know that's a weird thing to say, but I've kind of felt like I've been going through the motions of getting dressed without really feeling happy with what I'm wearing. At first I didn't know where this feeling was coming from. I thought maybe it was just a reaction to the feeling of change brought on by Dan's new job, the end of the school year, and my transition back into retail. But I began to realize a lot of these feelings stemmed from the amount of shopping I've done for the blog. Lately I've found myself buying things while thinking, "this will be great for the blog!" instead of "I absolutely love this outfit!" What that has created is a wardrobe I don't really know or feel anything special about. What used to be a collection of clothes I truly loved has turned into a closet full of stuff I haven't connected with because of the sheer volume of new clothes I've worked in.

I've felt this way before. The winter before I turned 18, our family home burned down. I'm not going to go into the details here, but let me assure you we lost pretty much everything, save the things that were buried in boxes the fire didn't fully destroy. God is good, our church family of the time was amazing, and things were slowly replaced. But when you go from things you've known since infancy to new things you have no memories with, it creates a disconnect. A weird feeling like when you're staying in a hotel and you know nothing there is yours, except that you have no home to go back to. Having all these new clothes is creating that same disconnect on a smaller scale.

At this point, you may be thinking, "I can't believe this girl is complaining about having new clothes!" and I get that, but hang in there for a second. Having these feelings and being back in retail has caused me to realize something disturbing about our current material world (cue Madonna). Women, myself included, aren't shopping because we actually need new clothes; we are shopping because we don't know what we already have. Let me explain. I recently realized I have five chambray shirts. FIVE. Sure one is lighter, one has a print, and one is only a half button-down, but they are still five ridiculously similar shirts. Example number two: yesterday a women was shopping for a pair of white shorts and her husband asked, "honey, don't you already have white shorts? It seems like you do." and she had to stop and think about it, but then made the argument that even if she did, they didn't have the scalloped edge that this pair had. I'm willing to bet that now that she owns the scalloped pair, she'll never touch the other pair again. Just like how I only wear two of my five chambray shirts.

It's not that we NEED clothes, or that our wardrobe is lacking something essential, it's that we like to shop and don't love what we have.

So what's the problem? Who cares if women are shopping as long as they aren't shopping themselves into debt, right? The problem is this. We end up with such bloated wardrobes that we can't see what we have. When we can't see what we have, we feel like we have nothing to wear. When we feel like we have nothing to wear, we shop, adding to the vastness of our wardrobes. And around and around we go.

I decided I'm over it. There is no reason to have my closet so jam packed with things I never wear that the clothes I do wear are always wrinkled and hard to find. So what did I do? I read. I turned to the internet and read article after article about how to minimize your wardrobe. Most of the articles are the same and things we all already know. "If it is too small or too big, get rid of it" or "if you haven't worn it in the past year, give it away." But what about people like me who already go through their clothes on a regular basis and get rid of anything that doesn't fit or hasn't been worn in a year? What if my stuffed closet has already undergone that style of cleansing? Then I found a new article with a new concept I'd never heard before. "If it doesn't bring you joy, you shouldn't keep it." Wait, what? Joy? That's a tall order. It was just the kind of standard I needed to hear.

Two days ago, I took EVERYTHING out of my closet. I mean everything. I went piece by piece and asked myself three questions:
1. Does this piece bring me joy?
2. Does this piece have an occasion?
3. Does it have any coffee stains I can't seem to remove?

And by using those guidelines I filled two garbage bags with clothes that I have either sold or donated. What I found is that I felt very blah about some of my clothes, or that I had a dress that was too short for work but not something I wanted to wear on weekends, and occasionally an item I loved but had spilled coffee on and hadn't been able to let go. Why hold on to things I never wear just because they fit? Exactly. Someone else can use those clothes.

I still love to shop, and I'm not going to stop doing it, but I am going to give myself some guidelines. First, I'm done buying doubles, unless I need to make an upgrade. For example, I have a black blazer, but it's pretty cheap, so investing in a higher quality blazer makes sense as long as I donate the old one. As for new items, I'm going to use my Stylebook app to make sure it suits my current wardrobe, and will be easily combine to make at least five new outfits. The exception is, of course, dresses which don't always mix five ways. For dresses, I will make sure it can fit at least three different occasions. If it's something I like but can't wear to work, won't wear on weekends, and can't wear to a wedding, I probably shouldn't own it.

Whew! I truly feel like I've gotten something off of my chest by writing this post, and I'm eager to hear your feedback! I've linked to the article I referenced in case you'd like some inspiration. By downsizing my wardrobe, I feel like I have MORE to wear, not less. I can see what I have, and I love every piece of it.

A Therapeutic Approach To Closet Cleaning

Bohemian Vibes

Is it me or is my style getting a little bohemian lately? The patterns and vibes of my past two outfits feel a little bit vagabond. Maybe it's symbolic for how I feel now that it is finally summer. I'm a wanderer (my mind wanders at least) with a part-time job and sudden free time on my hands. What should I do with all this freedom?

At the beginning of every summer, I make a list of things I'd like to accomplish. I've decided I might as well share it with you so you can keep me accountable when I head back to my full-time job in August. :)

1. Crochet a baby blanket
2. Sew a shift dress
3. Get 1,000 followers on Instagram (@coffee.clothes.repeat)
4. Create scales for all the standards (teacher stuff)
5. Discover a new local coffee spot
6. Kayak with Dan
7. Go to the beach in the middle of the night with Dan
8. Completely organize every part of our house
9. Meet new people
10. Collaborate with a brand/blogger

There's more on the list, and an entire other list with some of my friends, but you get the idea. I want to stay busy! What are your summer plans?

An Unfortunate Soundtrack

There's a lot going on in these photos that you can't see, so let's take a second and imagine some tasty little details. Dan and I found this awesome road that dead ends at the bay, so we figured it would be a nice place to take pictures. Upon pulling up, we discovered that the parking lot off to the side (to my left in these pictures) was not as empty as it had looked from a distance. Parked all the way on the far side were a few cars with their doors open and teenagers spilling out. Some were sitting around on skateboards, others were sitting in the car. A few quick glances verified that none of them were my students, so we decided to stay. We wouldn't bother them, and they wouldn't bother us, right? So we got out, grabbed the camera, and starting shooting some photos. Just a few seconds later, our teenage buddies started blasting some of the most disgusting rap I have heard in my entire life. I don't hate rap altogether, but the lyrics were the type that make me physically cringe and wonder if it could even be more graphic. We wrapped up pretty quickly and went home. *eye roll* Youths.

When we got home, I scrolled through the images we had gotten, and low-and-behold I was cringing in a good deal of them lol. My face pretty much always shows my feels, which gets me in trouble sometimes, and I definitely didn't hide my disgust for the music. So now as you look at these photos, you can imagine the whole scene and hopefully have a nice chuckle. :)

This outfit is a mix of old and new. The shorts and vest are current and from Target, and the top is last year from Francesca's. As you can tell, the sleeves have cutouts leaving the shoulders pretty bare. To make the look a little more comfy and less predictable, I added the denim vest which is one of my favorite ways to layer.

Happy Monday everyone, and may your week feel nice and short.