Category Archives: Home

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From My Minimalist Closet: Extreme Layering

I love this outfit!

It might not look like much, but there is a lot going on here. This is actually a black sheath dress, which I have had for years and has its CPW down to pennies. (That means I wear it a lot!) I styled it here to make it look like a skirt. Tricky!

I layered a pink tank top over the top of it, along with a green cardigan and a pink snake-skin scarf. Voila! Cute outfit for work.

Oh, and I’m wearing my nude heels. You can’t really see them in that picture above, but here’s what they look like:

So if you’re trying to get more wear out of your wardrobe, I recommend layering your clothes in unusual ways. You’ll be surprised to see what works!

Have you pulled off any unique clothing combinations lately? Share!

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It’s Officially Grilling Season!

Oh, man – I am so excited! We are doing our first big grilling event of the year. The weather is beautiful, we have some great friends coming over, and the food should be awesome.

What more can you ask for?

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

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A New Attitude and Hopefully A Cleaner House

I feel like I’m on a quest to literally get my house in order. I have been frustrated lately when I can’t find things that I’m looking for or when I have to clean up after an old project to begin a new project. Living in a messy house is no fun!

I decided that I needed to clean up after myself regularly (obviously). I tried to think about other times when I would do this automatically and how I could incorporate that into my daily life.

I remembered when I was young, and my parents would take me to a lot of my brother’s Boy Scout activities. The Boy Scouts would always make a point to leave a place cleaner than how they found it. For some reason, that has always stuck with me whenever I’m visiting a shared, public space. I try to pick up litter and be hyper cognizant about what I leave behind.

So I’m going to try to do that in my house – leave it cleaner than how I found it. It’s been working pretty well so far. I’ve been putting away my sewing machine every time I use it. I’ve been doing the dishes regularly. (That’s the picture that I posted above – the FlyLady would be proud!)

Whenever I finish whatever project I’m working on, I just pause for a moment and ask myself:

1. What did I get out to do this project? / What needs to be put away?

2. Is there anything else I can do to clean up this area?

I’m certainly not perfect about this yet, but I think it’s a good start in a healthy direction. I’m hoping that this new attitude will help me create a better functioning home.

What do you do to motivate yourself to clean? Any tips to share with me? I can use all the help I can get!

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Frogs and bugs and camo…oh my!

Recently, I told you guys that I was making a new quilt. Remember this fabric?

Well, that fabric doesn’t look like that at all anymore!

A few people have asked me about the process of making a quilt. I took the time, while I was frantically cutting and sewing, to take pictures so I can show you all of the steps that go into a quilt. It is a fascinating metamorphosis. Feel free to ask questions at the end! I’m sure I’m going to leave some steps out.

First you cut and piece the top of the quilt. The pattern I am using is called a Coin Quilt. It was easy and came together quickly; I highly recommend it for a beginning quilter. (If you are interested, the free pattern is available here from CluckCluckSew.) When I finished piecing my top, it looked like this:

Here’s a close up of what it looks like now. This is going to change soon!

The next step is to make the quilt sandwich. You tape (with blue painter’s tape) the fabric for the back of the quilt onto the floor. You tape it so the print is facing down on the floor. The batting – the warm part of the quilt – is laid on top of that. Then you put the pieced top on top of that with the right side up. Once they are all lined up, you pin through all the layers with safety pins.

And this is what the back looks like:

The next part is what is technically called quilting. It involves sewing through all three layers. This is free motion quilting in a stippling pattern. Here is a close up picture.

And when it’s done, it looks awesome!

You’re not quite done yet! Now you cut the excess fabric from around the outside.

For the last step, you need to bind the quilt. I pieced my binding on this one, which is a first for me. I like the way it looks!

And then you hand sew the binding to the back.

Voila! All done!

Pat yourself on the back; you made a beautiful quilt! It’s all ready to snuggle a sweet baby boy.

Whew! I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. Have a great weekend, everybody!

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Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!: Shoes

It’s time again for Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop! I had a chuckle when I saw this month’s prompt; I talk a lot about my clothes, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about my shoes. I haven’t been too strict about how many I have. As a minimalist, I thought I was going to have to out myself as having “too many” shoes.

But I was surprised to see that I have seven pairs of shoes. And I’ve been strategic about what I own and why.

 

I used to a big shopper (I still struggle with this!). Anyway, I used to buy shoes all the time. They were cheap! And cute!

About a year ago, when I first became interested in minimalism, I started thinking about what kind of shoes I wanted to own. I wanted good quality shoes that would last a long time, that would be comfortable, and that would be cute as heck. I decided to only buy one pair of shoes per season.  Instead of buying 3 -4 pairs of $15 shoes, I could buy one pair of $60 shoes that would be higher quality and last longer.

 

I have been doing that ever since, and I love my shoes now. I have been done a great job of buying good quality, classic (yet fun!) shoes that I enjoy wearing. Plus since they are quality shoes, I have been able to take them to the cobbler to get them repaired when they need it. They are lasting a long time. I am getting my money’s worth out of these guys!

 

I have owned those polka dot galoshes forever. They are so cute! I bought those nude shoes in the middle for Spring 2011. The pink butterfly wedges were for Summer 2011. For the fall, I bought those brown boots on the right. They were pretty pricey, but I wear them ALL. THE. TIME. My cost per wear has got to be pennies by now. The red heels (second from the right) were for Winter 2011/2012. I did buy two pairs of shoes for this spring – the brown pair of booties (second from the left) and the black pair with bows. But again, they are classic shoes that I wear all the time. I love them all!

Most of these shoes are Clarks or Naturalizer brand, so they are über comfortable. Excluding the galoshes, they are all heels, but they are only 1″ – 2″. They are comfortable, and I can wear them all day at work or dance in them all night long. Trust me – I’ve done it!

I am planning on buying one more pair of shoes for this summer. They will be a cute pair of bright colored flats – maybe pink or green. I’m taking my time to shop around, but I will be sure to share them on here when I find the perfect pair.

Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!

Whew! There – I have out’d my shoe collection. What do you think? Do you have a favorite pair of shoes that you can wear all the time?

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Crafting Closet Transformation

I know that yesterday I previewed a little project I’m working on, but that wasn’t the only thing I did this past weekend. I finally organized my crafting closet. Boy what a difference!

I am so happy I tackled this job.

However I forgot to take a picture of my “Before”. Epic fail! Instead, here is a picture of everything pulled out of the closet and unloaded in my dining room.

Imagine all of that stuff shoved into this closet:

It felt great to get the closet empty. My decision-making process was that I wanted to only keep things that I loved and knew that I would use. Specifically, this closet needs to hold three types of items:

1. Tools/camping equipment

2. Crafting supplies

3. Board games

So I put back the things that I love that belong in one of those three categories. And this is what it looked like!

Imagine for a second the “before” picture. The floor was covered with boxes, so I couldn’t walk in or open those organizers on the right. So that was a priority – access to my fabric stash.

This is what it looks like after:

Look! I can open and close the drawers with no fuss, which means I can actively use up my fabric stash. Win win!

The other thing that are important to me are my games. I love having people over to play board games, and it would nice to have them somewhere easy to access. They used to be on the top shelf, in the back. But now!

Bam! There they are. And since I can walk into the closet, they are easy to access. I need to plan the next game night! (And actually, they share those two shelves with my sewing supplies, which I also need to be able to reach easily. This is so awesome!)

So there you have. Three hours on a Sunday with no money spent, and I am one happy camper.

 

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Adios, Clothes

So some of you asked what I took out of my closet. Here they are!

Top left – clockwise

5 cardigans/shrugs

2 workout shirts & 1 swimsuit

1 pair of black pants & 2 skirts

3 dresses

2 long sleeve shirts

9 short sleeve/sleeveless shirts

And I just realized that I have some shirts that are on hangers that I moved to the guest bedroom closet. So they aren’t in this pictures. But there are probably another 5 – 8 shirts that aren’t in here.

What I took out is about 2/3 of what I kept. That’s why I had to let them go – there were too many clothes in my closet and my dresser! I couldn’t find things, hangers would fall on the floor in the closet, and I was frustrated when I would get dressed.

Now getting dressed is fun again! Seriously, I’m really enjoying it. I have made two brand new outfits in the past week that I wouldn’t have thought of if I had more clothes. And I love what I’m wearing these days. Win/win/win!

OK, I need some help with some other parts of the house! Advice please for minimizing my kitchen and crafting hoards!

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Purge’d!

I took a ton of clothes out of my closet and my drawers. I have room again!

But I don’t have pictures of that. I have pictures of the clothes that I love that I kept. Here they are!

I love my dresses! I realized when I was taking pictures that they are all v-neck. Hey, I know what I like! (There are two black dresses on the left there.) (7)

I have seven shirts too. They’re so pretty! (14)

And long-sleeve shirts, too. Five of these bad boys. (19)

Here are my three cardigans. (22)

And last but not least for tops – two blazers! (24)

Now for bottoms. Here are my skirts! So pretty! (That one on the left is navy, not black.) (28)

And I have two pairs of pants and one pair of shorts. Almost done! (31)

Finally, my outer wear. Here is my rain jacket and my delicious cognac satchel. Done! 33 items!!

As you can see, I was serious when I said two weeks ago that “my style” is dresses and skirts. They make up a large percentage of what I’m keeping here.

I want to show everyone who is putting together a minimalist wardrobe that you don’t need to wear all black! If you are smart and stick to a concise palette, you can curate a beautiful, colorful, minimalist wardrobe.

I am loving navy blue right now, so there is a lot of the in my wardrobe. I think of that as my first neutral color, along with white/cream, brown, and a little bit of black. For legit colors, I have pink, purple, and green. My wardrobe is bright and bold for spring and definitely not boring!

Finally, here are some pictures of my closet. The first one is the “before”, from a couple of weeks ago.

I can finally push things around and find what I want! There is definitely less hassle. I’m so happy!

 

Whew! That was a lot of work, but I love the result!

Did you purge your closet this weekend too? Share!

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Minimalist Challenge: Closet Purge

Hey, remember when I said I had done a spring closet purge?

Yea, just kidding. I pretty much just got out all of my spring clothes.

You know what? I still have too many clothes!

So I have decided that this weekend is going to be the real deal, seriously serious closet purge. In fact, I have decided to go back to my favorite fashion challenge: Project 333.

I am digging out the worksheet, writing down my plan ahead of time, and taking everything else out of my closet. Adios, things I don’t love!

On Monday, I will post my list along with pictures of the 33 items of clothing that made the cut.

Feel free to play along at home. I would love to have people join me and share their experiences living with less! Trust me – it’s better.

So what are you up to this weekend? Any fun challenges in store for you?

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Minimalist life?

One of my recurring problems that is rearing its ugly head this week is my damn tendency to over-schedule my life.

If you know me IRL, you absolutely know what I am talking about.

This week is even more stressful because I’m going back to visit my family for a long weekend. And I have so much to do before I leave!

There are the typical travel/packing problems. I also have activities scheduled for each day before I fly out. Plus I need to finish my application for my Dream Job.

This is on top of all the other January stressors like losing the holiday weight and getting the counting house back in order.

And of course, getting back on track with my blogging. 

So apologies if I seem erratic and distracted. I need to do all the things!

Any chance I could get a few extra hours a day??

What are you busy doing this month? How do you relax??