My Closet Remix

I found an inspiration photo for my Day 31 outfit. But I can't find the photo to show! I know I pinned it, so not sure what happened. Anyways, I hadn’t worn this cardigan cause I wasn’t sure if it was too flashy. But because I’m forcing myself to wear everything in my closet for this challenge I had to put it on. And now that I look back at this photo I really like it. I think it looks better open than having it buttoned up.

The cardigan is from Apt 9 at Kohl’s ($10), the white tank top is from Gap ($6), the cute belt is new from Nine West ($4 at Macy’s!), and I paired it with my Calvin Klein olive slacks. This outfit only counted as one piece for my challenge - boo!

Since this was a Friday, my husband and I went out for a casual dinner with friends. I made myself wear one of my pieces to help advance in my challenge. So I just grabbed this brown cowl neck sweater and paired it with skinny jeans.

Brown cowl neck sweater is from Express ($10) and skinny jeans are from Gap ($20).

I did have some inspiration from Pinterest. I kept seeing photos of “arm candy” where girls layer a watch with lots of bracelets. So I thought I would give it a try to add to my simple outfit. Here’s how it came out:

It’s not as complex as it should be, but it’s all I had in similar tones (I need to shop for some more cheap bracelets haha!). I still thought it looked cute so happy that Pinterest photos inspired it.

So this outfit only counted as one piece as well. So that means I have 48 more pieces to go!

This outfit was just okay. I wasn’t sure what to pair the shirt with so I tried it with the blue cords, but I don’t think that was the right choice now that I look back at this picture. Come to think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever really liked the way this shirt looks on me. It’s sleeveless so I always have to wear a cardigan or blazer over it. But I dunno it just doesn’t do anything for me I guess. I’m thinking I will give it up, but at least I wore it one last time!

The cardigan is from Gap ($8), sleeveless striped shirt is from LOFT ($8), and I paired it with my blue cords.

Looking back at all my pictures I can tell when I don’t really like what I’m wearing. You can see it in my face, like I feel awkward. I really light up when I’m wearing something I like and I feel good in. It’s so funny to notice that!

Aw man! You can’t really see the details in this photo! I really liked this and put this together myself. Again just cause not much is left and I just have to force myself to wear whatever I haven’t worn yet.

The boyfriend blazer is dark gray and is made of a faux-suede material and is very light (not structured). And I paired it with a black-striped sequined shirt. Although I love this blazer, the fact that it has no structure was challenging for me. Because I’m busty it always made me look too top heavy. To my surprise when I wore it with structured flared trousers it looked really good! It balanced me out so I didn’t look too top heavy. I thought it looked casual and cool, yet still appropriate for work.

The blazer is from Lauren Conrad LC ($15), the black-striped sequin shirt is from LOFT ($8), and I paired it with my black Calvin Klein slacks.

Today's outfit is funny to me cause I didn't plan it ahead of time. Actually, I put it together in the dark haha! My husband is sick, and so to be nice and not wake him up in the morning, I didn't turn on the lights in our room when I was trying to get my clothes together. I knew what colors the pieces I was grabbing were, so I just thought I would pair the similar colors, expecting it to look bad once I got a good look at it in the light. But when I put it on, and walked in to a different room to take my picture, I was surprised at how cute it looked!

So I'm in all different shades of brown, but it looked nice and was very comfortable to wear. These are the second pair of pants that I added to my challenge cause I was able to newly squeeze in to them. So no Pinterest image inspiration for this one.

The cardigan is from some organic cotton company. I bought this at Niagara Falls when my husband and I were visiting about 5 years ago. It was unexpectedly really cold, so I just bought it to stay warm. And I ended up keeping it. I think it was $20. The tank is from LOFT ($15). It has a metallic bronze-colored sequence at the top, aside from the layers. And the brown silky trousers are from a.n.a JC Penney ($10) - these pants are like 6 years old but are still really nice. You can't really see, but I am wearing a fabulous metallic bronze-colored owl ring - super bling!

The blazer in today's outfit was probably the reason I even came up with this “wear everything in my closet challenge." I bought this Anne Klein blazer just over 2 years ago. I loved how it was military style, but dressy. It was on clearance for $20, marked down from $175. Perfect, and yet I had never worn it (still had the tags on prior to today). I just couldn’t figure out how to wear it. I did try it on at home many times to see if I could make an outfit for it, but always failed. And that’s when I came up with this challenge. I had to make myself wear everything I owned, if not why am I buying this stuff?!

So when I started this challenge, I ran in to this picture on Pinterest:

Source: chris10ne.blogspot.com via Ana on Pinterest

This was it! I knew this is how I wanted to wear my blazer. I never would have tried to pair it with a skirt, so I was excited to try that. And I love how she has it open, but kept together with a belt - again never would have thought of that.

I have been waiting to wear this outfit since I found this image, but I didn’t have the right belt. I really wanted a belt with a gold buckle haha! I’ve spent the last couple of weeks obsessing trying to find one and finally found it last week! I must admit, I spent more on the belt than I ever have, but I thought it was definitely worth it. And luckily, the weather was warm enough for a skirt too.

So here’s how my interpretation of this outfit turned out:

You know you have a good outfit when you feel good in it. And I did! I love everything about it, and I love that I finally wore this blazer!

So here are the details. Again, the military blazer is from Anne Klein ($20), the shimmery linen tank is from LOFT ($10), the black pleated skirt is from Gap ($12), and the belt is from White House Black Market ($24 - the most I have ever spent on a belt, but so worth it!). I also found this great black and gold necklace from Kenneth Cole for $10. I'm also wearing my gold owl ring from Lucky Brand ($10). I wish the photos were better quality so you could appreciate all the details in the accessories, but oh well.

First of all, I wanted to start off by confessing that I finally broke down and bought myself a piece of clothing. Macy's was having a big sale on Friday, so I couldn't resist a Rachel Roy shirt that was on clearance haha! So I'll add that to my mix. Hope I don't buy anything again! Hey, I thought it was a very good run!

Anyways, I ended up working on Saturday. Went to a parent workshop in the southside to observe how we are going to re-vamp it in the next couple of months. So it was a casual day, but I still used one of the pieces in my challenge, so I thought I would add it to the blog. Here it is:

Look! I tried a new pose haha! The purple cardigan was part of my challenge. I've been seeing on Pinterest how people put striped shirts under any type of sweater. So I tried it with this sweater and I really liked it! I never would have tried that, but it looks really cute!

This was Friday, and I'm trying to be a bit more casual on these days. This is one of my favorite sweaters, it's from Calvin Klein. I remember when I first saw it at Macy's a couple of years ago I really wanted to buy it, but it was so expensive - like $150. I think I was stopping by Macy's every 2 weeks checking to see when it would go on sale for a good price. It was several weeks later that I finally caught it on clearance for $20, and of course I snatched it right up.

Even though I love this sweater, I'm not sure why I have such a hard time figuring out how to wear it. I found this photo on Pinterest and thought I would try it like this:

Source: flirtcatalog.com via Ana on Pinterest

Source: lyst.com via Ana on Pinterest

So basically with skinny black jeans. And I found a white shirt that I hadn't worn either, so I used that to get another piece to count. So here's what it looked like:

Now that I look at the picture, I see what I don't like about it. I think the sweater is too long for me. I'm only 5ft3in, so it makes me look short and big. I even used a belt to try to synch at the waist, but I still don't think it looks good. Later in the day I took off the belt and just let the sweater hang. So I think this does not work on me, but hey that's okay. That's what this experiment is about. I don't think I'll give away this sweater, but I probably will only wear it for a casual weekend to keep warm.

I didn't do a great job with this next outfit haha! I had a skirt planned for the day, but the temperature dipped again and was too cold to wear. So I had to improvise and come up with something else at the last minute.

It's very basic. I grabbed this DKNY teal shirt ($15) that I hadn't worn and just paired it with these brown slacks that I had worn before in a previous day's outfit. I wasn't sure if these colors would work, so I quickly checked Pinterest that morning and found others wearing this combination (I thought I pinned them so I could share, but I guess I didn't).

Day 23 showcases another blazer! I've always paired this red blazer with dark denim, but on Pinterest I found an inspiration photo of someone pairing it with beige and black:

Source: carolinesmode.com via Ana on Pinterest

Except of course, the photo has it reversed. I think it may have looked better with a more neutral beige than the one I used, but I still thought it looked good.

My red blazer is from LC Lauren Conrad ($15), the white and black blouse is from LOFT ($10), and I've already worn these slacks in a previous day's outfit.

The photo from Pinterest, and many others I have seen make me want to buy red pants. They look sooo good on people! I want to wear this exact outfit cause it just looks awesome. But I am terrified of buying red pants, they are quite intimidating. Maybe later on I'll be up for it haha!

I love blazers! And I have quite a few of them. So I decided that I really needed to get through a lot more of them this week. I didn't use Pinterest for this outfit. Again, I'm just trying to combine things that I have left to wear, so I'll probably be relying less on Pinterest as I continue through the challenge. And I think the outfits I come up with from now on may not be as cool as the earlier ones cause I'm just trying to wear everything.

So here's Day 22's outfit:

This is actually one of my favorite shirts. It's a peplum-style shirt from DKNY that I thought was a steal at the clearance price of $10. I've never paired it with a blazer before (Calvin Klein, $20), but again I'm just trying to wear everything I have left. I've already worn these Calvin Klein black slacks in a previous day.

It's Sunday evening right now, and I did not do any of my posts this week. My husband and I haven't been feeling great this week, so I just didn't have the energy to post in the evenings. But I did take all my pics. So here are all this week's posts.

Let's start with good ol' Monday. The start of a new week. I've lost 7 pounds now, and was able to squeeze in to 2 more of my pants that I had set aside at the beginning of the challenge. The good thing is that I can fit in to these pants, the thing that sucks is that it adds 2 more pieces to my challenge total lol! Here's one of the new pants that I've added to the mix:

You can't really tell from the picture, but the blazer is velvet and is a maroon color. I think it's quite gorgeous. It's from the LOFT ($30), the pink top is also from the LOFT ($15), and the gray slacks are from Calvin Klein ($15). Also, I just bought these Nine West nude pumps at TJ Maxx ($30) last weekend cause I noticed that they are quite essential to many outfits. So I was pretty excited to put them on.

With fewer pieces to choose from in my closet, I'm trying to combine whatever things I have left. So in this case, I thought these pink and gray shades would look nice, and I used Pinterest to see if this color combination would work. So here were some photos I found that were using the same colors:

Source: Uploaded by user via Ana on Pinterest

Source: theperpetualstudentswife.blogspot.com via Ana on Pinterest

I am actually proud to say that today's outfit was all me - no direct inspiration image from Pinterest. I didn't do this on purpose, I was just so tired from my trip that I focused on getting sleep rather than planning my outfit haha! Luckily, I put together something on my own that I think looks really cute!

BTW - that's Canela, 1 of 4 of my dogs being lazy on the couch behind me hehe. It's a simple outfit, but was casual for a Friday at the office.

The chiffon top is from Kensie, which to me is a pricier brand. It was on clearance for 75% off at Macy's, and was still pricey to me at $19. I really try not to spend more than $15 on a top whenever possible, but this one was very special and I think it's a "statement piece". You should really have a few of those in your closet. To me a statement piece is one that looks good and special even with the simplest of things paired with it. In this case, a white long sleeve shirt and denim trouser pants.

So again, the chiffon top is from Kensie ($19), the white long sleeve shirt is from Gap ($6), and the denim trousers are from Calvin Klein ($10). And I paired it with my shiny red pointy low heel shoes for a little extra pop of color.

I want to start off by warning you that the picture you are about to see of me is absolutely terrible. In my defense, I had to skip a day in my blog cause I went out of town on a business trip. I woke up at 3am and drove 3.5 hrs each way, so didn't get home till 7pm that day. I ended up going super casual for the trip. So Day 19 is actually the next day after the trip when I went back to work. I was very tired this morning, didn't make time to "test" my outfit before I put it on, and was in a hurry to get to work. So please don't be harsh on me haha! Under these conditions, this is the picture I am putting out there:

Here's the Pinterest photo I practically copied:

Source: luv2shopmom.polyvore.com via Ana on Pinterest

I try to "test" the outfit on myself at least the night before to make sure it "works" on me. But I didn't get to do that. I must admit I wasn't very happy with the way this looked on me. The slacks I'm wearing are more like capris, but I tucked them in to my boots. They ended up looking so wrinkled. So I felt uncomfortable with the way that looked. I should have paired it with a wide leg trouser to balance me out cause I look too "top heavy", which I don't like at all. Oh well, you live and you learn.

The white oversized cardigan is from Gap ($10), the hot orange sweater is from Gap (this is actually a reuse piece from Day 1), and the pants are also from Gap ($10).

This is my Day 18 outfit. I have to get through a lot of skirts while the weather permits haha! I've only worn this skirt once before, and I wore it with all black. But then I found this image on Pinterest:

Source: google.com via Ana on Pinterest

She's wearing all black, but had a pop of color with the cardigan. So I tried to draw out a color from the skirt, and found this olive green cardigan in my closet. Although it's not the exact same shade from the skirt, I thought it would still work (and really I had to make it work to get through this challenge haha!). I've seen on Pinterest too that people don't really do matchy-match all the time. I'm realizing that the secret is that you just gotta look like you're doing things on purpose and it will look good! I was also nervous about mixing a ruffle shirt with a patterned skirt and a sequin cardigan - but I went for it, and really liked the outcome. I'm surprised how trying these new things are really turning out great!

The olive sequined cardigan is from LOFT ($10), the black ruffle shirt is from Gap ($8), and the skirt is from LOFT ($15) = $33 for this outfit.

It’s schoolgirl Monday haha!

I bought this plaid skirt over the holidays and have been looking forward to wearing it. But I did not imagine I would wear it like this! I've been tucking my shirts in my skirts, but I've been seeing girls wear baggy sweaters with skirts on Pinterest. So I thought I would try it, although my turtleneck is not so oversized as the ones those girls wear. Also, I saw a photo of someone wearing a plaid skirt with colored tights, so I tried that too. I really liked the way they popped with the outfit! And wearing booties rather than tall boots also helped keep this outfit young (and doesn't hide the colored tights). Here are the inspiration photos:

Source: yesstyle.com via Ana on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Ana on Pinterest

Source: akeytothearmoire.com via Ana on Pinterest

It's Friday! Here's my day 16 outfit:

I was surprised that this picture of me taking my own picture didn't come out too bad haha! I guess I'm getting better at it. I actually thought I was going to have a difficult time finding something to wear with this knit vest. I was worried that it wouldn't look dressy enough for work. But I found this image on Pinterest that gave me the idea to try it:

Source: thelimited.com via Ana on Pinterest

What I liked about it was the colored long sleeve underneath. So I was looking for pieces I hadn't worn yet, and found this purple top and brown slacks. I ended up really liking how the purple and brown complimented each other - who woulda thought?! So very happy with this look!

The knit vest is from Calvin Klein ($15), the long-sleeve shirt is from LOFT ($12), the slacks are also from LOFT ($20), and the metallic bronze belt is from Nine West ($10) = $57 total for the outfit.