Remember me?

*Dusts off the ol' blog*

Well, I think I can make it work again... Grease the wheels a tad and tighten the screws...



I feel like not much has changed recently, but things have moved along since I last wrote. Many times I've started posts and there's at least a dozen almost finished sitting around in the drafts section. I wanted to share many things and felt they all were a little silly.

I didn't take many photos for a while, but recently I've picked up the camera a bit more often with the thought that I'd like to share some ideas again. Maybe it's the fall that does it to me... Every time October rolls around, I feel like a new person again.



2015 has been a very strange year so far, but at least the October charm still works...

I've missed you!

This is going to be harder than I thought!

I wanted to start that clothing challenge from something manageable and relatively easy. I was going through some items of clothing in my head doing a rough estimate how many I think I have. I know there will be very difficult ones! Like T-shirts. I love t-shirts. I wear them pretty much every day. I'm wearing one right now...

[It has a Superman logo on it, so it's only for home. I won't be caught publicly supporting the wrong superhero. I'm a Batman kinda gal!]

...so there will be a lot of them. I'm pretty happy in my ignorance when it comes to the amount of them. There might, or might not, be an entire drawer for t-shirts.

I started thinking something I don't wear that much... Shorts? I think I have 5 pairs or so. Three of which are for sports. They are in the basement with the out of season clothes, so I'm not going to bring the box and more stuff upstairs right now.

Ok, skirts. I think I have 10.

These are very typical skirts for me in the colder seasons... A lot of black, zippers and fun textures

No. Wait. I forgot about this one. So, elev... No, I forgot that one too.

Screw it. I'll just go count.

...

18 friggin' skirts!

These, on the other hand, are not typical at all. Even the shapes are unusual for me.

It's even possible that there is one more hiding in that out of season box...

I do wear a lot of skirts in the summer, so I knew there would be quite a few. Eighteen just seems a lot!

I might do an actual post about the specifics of this challenge if you guys are interested. I just wanted to share my astonishment and building dread about what I got myself into!

How about you try this out too! Just pick one category of clothing, make a guess and actually count how many you have! Please share the results! I'd love to hear about it!

What's in my closet and why isn't it working for me?

In my need to reorganize and streamline my life, I know there's a huge challenge waiting for me. My wardrobe is not working for me as it is right now. I am working on getting rid of things that don't serve a purpose and I am dreading the project that is my closet!

This is a photo of my closet taken just now as I was finishing this blog post. 

(Sorry for the quality... I'm still testing the various photo editing tools)

I read about an interesting clothes challenge. It's in Finnish, but that doesn't really matter. The gist of it is to challenge you to count all your clothes and share how many you have. There's no exclusions, you're supposed to count every item including underwear, socks, mittens and scarves.

Now, I like numbers. Statistics and percentages. I like to keep track of things. So, clearly this sounds intriguing to me. It also goes nicely with my need to get rid of stuff.

With somewhat limited free time, I'm not committing to doing this whole challenge, at least at one go. I will, however, go through parts of my wardrobe. If I get really into it, then maybe I'll keep on going... If nothing else, I'll get rid of some additional stuff. This is just a start in a larger quest to really figure out what my style is, how will it work for me and how to reduce the stress of getting dressed!

Some of my shoes... You can see exactly the two types of shoes I love, crazy heels and (Adidas) sneakers!

I've gotten rid of a whole lot of clothing since the move to Toronto just over a year ago. It has been an ongoing project since moving and every time around I get rid of a few more things. What I do with all of the clothes is another topic that I'd love to get into another time, but for now it'll suffice to say they will no longer crowd my limited storage space.

Like I said before, I dream of a closet where everything fits and has a purpose. I'm OK with storing out of season clothes in the basement, but those will have to be in good working order and functional without any crazy prep-work. I also mentioned that since I absolutely hate clothes shopping, I have a lot of things that are almost what I need. Fact is though, that 'almost' means that it'll either stay in the closet or I don't feel fully comfortable in it when wearing that piece of clothing! And neither those sound like a really good outcome to me!

I love fashion, but trying things on can be such a drag. I have admittedly on more than one occasion bought things that are "close enough" instead of waiting for the right one. I am working on my bad shopping habits, but that's what I have to work with right now. 

I promise to share at least some of my clothes counting and wardrobe overhaul results with you!

Do you know exactly what's in your closet? Does everything have a purpose?

Mail Monday

I sent some mail last week. The envelopes weren't particularly innovative, but at least the contents were something a little out of the ordinary. Last week was Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ram started on Thursday. Even though we don't really celebrate it, I still like to send good wishes by mail. I figure no one gets too much good luck sent to them, right?

I really like the stamps Canada Post issued for the lunar new year!

Is it just me or does it look like that ram is shaking it? Like he's hearing HIS SONG and just have to boogie! Maybe he's twerking, what do you think?

I made a few small envelopes out of book pages and added those in the mail as well. It's tradition to give out red envelopes with money in them. I figured chocolate coins will do the trick too.

Incoming

I had a really good mail day on Thursday! I got two letters from the UK, one of them to replace the one that got away. How amazing are those Alice in Wonderland stamps?

Do you ever feel stamp-envy? It happens to me quite often :)

One week, 5 posts

It's now been a week since decided to come back to my blog. It wasn't one of those large scale resolutions, but just the thought that I missed it. I had no real goals about it besides just wanting to write again and I was surprised how easy it was. Somehow I managed to write five posts, including this one, without really having to think too much about it.

I was worried about being able to find things to write about, but that wasn't hard. It was more of a challenge to find the time. That will be an ongoing struggle, but I think that if I keep this up, I won't waste time thinking about what to write, and just do it when I get a moment.

Due to my pedantic nature I am really tempted to make more specific plans and schedules. I feel an urgent need to set goals and a detailed road map...

Have I ever mentioned how I'm a natural project manager? Like, to the point that I like statistics and Excel sheets? I really like to break large concepts into smaller pieces and then make a plan to achieve it all?

Maybe one day I will get there with my blogging, but right this moment it feels too constrictive of what I want to do. I just want to write about silly things and some not-so-silly ones. I'll want to write every day or once a month, depending on how I feel. It's a new way for me, so again, I'll just leave it at that.

Less self-censored writing and a little more silliness.

The biggest obstacle right now is actually photos. I need to get into taking more photos and figure out a new routine for editing them. So far the photos on my posts have not had much to do with the text. I'll take that on as the next issue to tackle!