25 Years Ago Today....

I was at Tuesday School.  Don't know what Tuesday School is?  For our community in southern MN, it is when the Lutheran kids in 8th and 9th grade go to church for confirmation classes.  I'm not sure why in the world it was on a Tuesday, but it was.


We went to church, did our lessons and were excused to catch the bus back to the junior high school.  It was snowing and gloomy outside, so we were standing in the entryway waiting for the bus.  As we were standing there, the church secretary came out and told us.


"Did you hear?  The Challenger exploded."


Where were you when the Challenger exploded?

The View From Here....

I have no energy to take a photo.

But if I did it would include OJ, tissues, cough drops, DVR'd 70's sitcoms, cold medicine that I was carded for at Target (this still irks me....), the phone in case someone calls, and cozy blankets.

Yep. Like my work buddy Tracy....I too, have the crud.

I don't blame Tracy.

I blame the woman at work who came in after MLK day with a terrible cold. All but one person in her cubicle row is sick.

Apparently sitting one row over wasn't enough of a barrier....

A Time of Celebration...

Enjoying time with our friends as we celebrate with a baby shower!

Congrats to our friends, Weston and Terra on the upcoming birth!

Speaking of babies..... 

One of the director's on my floor at work is pregnant.

Two people on my old team at work are pregnant.

One of my co-worker friends is pregnant.

I'm a little afraid to drink the filtered water at work right now....

Anyone else pregnant that I don't know about?

This is What Happens When you Don't Spend Money for a Year....
As I shared with you on Monday, last weekend I had a "closet audit" with my friend Kathleen. She and I worked together at camp in 2004. She has a really fun part time job working as a fashion consultant with Urban Darling.


As I mentioned, I finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't doing myself any favors with my wardrobe. It was time to start dressing....glup....like an adult.


*sigh*


I met Kathleen and we hit the mall last night! And surprisingly....we only hit one store....Lane Bryant. As a plus sized girl, Lane Bryant is great with the cut of their clothing. While the patterns sometimes make me raise and eyebrow, I do feel that their clothing is well made and lasts.


The experience was great. We made our way through the store and I tried on many different pants, tops, dresses & jackets. We discussed the different items...why they looked good....why they didn't.


There were a few items I wasn't crazy about and Kathleen had one rule: if I didn't like something, I had to say what exactly I didn't like. For example, I tried on a top that fit well, but the pattern was just not something I cared for. Once Kathleen heard that she found this....

Same top...just in a solid.
Adorable!


When all was said and done I walked out of Lane Bryant with:
*2 pairs of dress pants (one in tan, one in grey)
*1 pair of trouser jeans in a dark wash
*4 tops (one of which came with a belt!)
*1 cami top
*1 jacket
*1 skirt
*1 shirt dress
*1 black cardigan sweater


When all was said and done, I paid about $220 for all of my items. I would have paid close to $400 had we not had a coupon that saved us $125. I also had a gift card from Christmas for $100. So, I did splurge a bit.


The other reason for a splurge was that these pieces can really be worn with so many more items already in my wardrobe. For example, this top:

...can be worn with all of the pants in my closet, the fun skirt I picked up, as well as jeans!


I will also say this: I wasn't forced to buy any of these items.
Kathleen and I may have tried on half of the store....but it was, in the end, up to me if I would buy it or not. This was coming out of my own pocket, and it wasn't mandatory for me to buy x amount. I could have bought just one pair of pants and a top and Kathleen would have been just fine with it.


All in all...my experience was great and I can't wait to go back this spring.


After all, if I can find more cute clothes to match this awesome shirt dress.....

I'm in.



Urban Darling has no idea who I am, nor am I being compensated to write this. I'm simply a girl, who loves her UND sweatshirts, but realized that it was time to start dressing like someone who has a Master's degree and works for a university.

I've Been Buried in my Closet....

I know.

I know.

I haven't updated this thing in 2 weeks.  I promise I'm OK.  I've actually been doing a bunch for the 2011 3-day walk and getting our facebook page and website up to speed.  I've also been working on promoting the Cards by Amy's Angels site.  We started a twitter page--so feel free to follow us on twitter!

It's amazing how easy it is to forget about things when they are out of sight, out of mind!  The 3-day ended last year and those pages/sites sat untouched.  But it's been good to get in there and purge the old and bring in the new.

Speaking of out-of-sight-out-of-mind-out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new....

This weekend I had a closet audit.

One of my camp friends, Kathleen, is a fashionista.  She loves fashion.  Shoes.  Handbags.  Dresses.  All of it.  

I, on the other hand, am not.  Never have been.  I have worked in jobs where the dress was either shorts and a t-shirt or "business casual" and to me that has always been "not jeans".  And while I don't have to wear a suit each day, I feel the need to just dress better.

Kathleen started as a part-time consultant for Urban Darling--a company that helps style you, but stays within your budget!  Since admitting is the first step, I reached out to Kathleen. We chatted about the process, and really, it's simple.  She comes out to your place, goes through your closet, and has you try on all your stuff.  In the end, we had three piles of clothes:  keep, tailor and donate to charity.  The donation to charity bags were gone that day--no opportunity to dig through them.

Because if I did....I'd be taking back two of my favorite sweaters and one particular pair of black pants.

But I know Kathleen is right.  They were not flattering.

And I had to let them go.....along with at least a 1/3 of my closet.

G. 

O.

N.

E.

Here is a photo of my closet before.

And after (check out the bottom portion of what is left!  4 items.  That's it!).....

Granted, I went through and actually moved the Big Guy's shirts over a bit (they were shoved all the way over to the right in the original photo) so it doesn't look like much progress was made.

But here is the proof that progress was indeed made:

And actually....there were 4 bags sent to charity.  We'll go shopping later this week for additional items and the cool thing about this is that Kathleen isn't trying to break the bank.  Instead, we'll find a few pieces and be able to build outfits from there.  I'll share more about that when we go shopping later this week.

Thankfully, though, we had an agreement:

I get to keep my UND and Camp Lincoln/Camp Lake Hubert sweatshirts.  

*whew*