The Continuing Journey: Maryann's Closet Round 3

Since Memorial Day, Maryann has been able to enjoy her remodeled closet. After Round 1, I had gotten most of Maryann's clothes sorted by Type. When she moved into her new closet she mixed things up a little but had her blouses sorted mostly separated into two blocks of mostly pink and blue. She called her top section of pinks her "happy clothes". 

With Round 2, I facilitated a joint sorting venture using a simple 1 to 10 rating system. Something from an old Carol Tuttle video has stuck with the me and inspires me still. She said something to the effect of we should wear clothes that make us happy. In the rating system this translates to wearing only 7s and higher, with the aim of filling your closet with mostly 10s. This is an idea that is probably in the new Carol videos, but as part of the Lifestyle subscription content that I don't have yet.

So, in this sorting phase, I did the heavy lifting and let Maryann tell me which pile to put the items into. This worked really well since she was feeling a bit under the weather anyway. Happily, we were able to find a good pile of 10s and a substantial pile of 7s in her Type 1 colors to work into a capsule wardrobe in our next round. Here are her tops. See how happy they look!

There was still a hefty pile of off-type clothes that she wasn't quite ready to part with. But we also eliminated about 50% of what she had hung up in her closet in this round. What an amazing amount of purging!

A lot of what we got rid of were Type 3 clothes. She'd already been chipping away at those in the months since Round 1 on her own which was great. She we also able to identity a lot of items that she hadn't worn in a while due to fit and whatnot. 

We were also able to identify a lot of themes in what she likes to shop for so she can continue to find those things in her bright happy colors. Maryann is a big fan of paisley, lace overlays, stitched embellishments, tie dye, and the colors pink, purple, and oceany shades of blue and green. The styles she gravitates toward include peasant tops, button-ups (for riding horses), and blouses with the high-low feature.

 

It was fortunate that I had all four Style Guides to show Maryann so that she could see what I see when I differentiate between the different color families. She was also able to read the backs of them and get more familiar​ with the styles that will support her Type 1 nature.

We found a lot of great basic pieces along with a lot of fun patterns that will be really fun to mix and match. I hope Maryann will have a lot of fun exploring these options. I was able to show her a couple of combinations that she hadn't thought of before that got her excited about this next phase of utilizing her clothes in new ways. I think she's even interested in buying her own DYT course so she can have her own copy of the color cards to shop with. 

In the couple of weeks since this latest transformation, Maryann has been in a very normal regrouping phase. She lost a lot of her old outfit combinations, so she's had to stretch a bit in putting new looks together. As a Type 1, she feels the loss of that 50% decrease in items, but she also feels lighter. Plus, some of the 7s have become new 10s.

To help her feel better about the purging process, I told her about the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle). In closet terms, this means we wear 20% of the items 80% of the time. What we did was eliminate a chunk of the unworn 80% so she could have better access to the 20%.

If you are interested in buying your own DYT course and feel that I have helped inspire that, please use my referral link to start that process. 

In the meantime I'd encourage you to "shop" in your own closets and sift out the items that don't make you happy for whatever reason. Why spend any time in clothes that don't make you feel great? Who knows, you may even rediscover pieces that can be worn in new and exciting ways that you hadn't thought of before. That almost feels the same as getting something brand new from a store right there. 

Bonus Feature: Remember those Type 3 clothes Maryann was able to release? I took a bunch of them for another friend. Once I got them home I played with them and made a capsule out of what was there.

This capsule is more like a 10 Item Wardrobe, but it would be a great base for a Project 333 wardrobe. It has 3 skirts, 2 vests, and 4 blouses. Just add some jeans, a couple more tops, and accessories and it is set.

Adventures in Polyvore: Illustrating My Project 333 Capsule Wardrobe

Well, it's been so much fun doing the full capsule wardrobe experience the last couple of months that I thought I'd go another round of talking about it. My first three month round of the Project 333 system is almost up. This has been a rather freeing experience. I love everything in my closet, I wear everything in my closet, and everything in my closet works quite well together. You usually can't say that about a normal closet full of clothes, especially if you find yourself complaining that you "have nothing to wear".

I think my biggest secret to having the capsule wardrobe work so well is starting with a pretty tight selection of colors that you know work well together. Here's my color palette from this round.

As a Type 4, black and white will probably always be the base of my wardrobe, and I'm ok with that. But playing with the accent colors is where I get to have fun changing it up and giving spice to a wardrobe that might seem rather one-note otherwise.

Another trick is being able to have all the levels of dress represented in the capsule. From casual all the way up to dressed up, you want to feel like you are ready for any circumstance. This does mean having some understanding of the levels of dress that are appropriate to your life style. I'm a church-going stay-at-home mom, so my capsule might lean more to the casual side. But I also have comfortable items to look amazing in on Sunday's too.

Even though I have worn everything I selected for this capsule, there are of course combinations that I noticed that I wore a lot. These are they. The striped pencil skirt is actually a LuLa Roe maxi, so I actually wore that as "lounge wear" when I didn't feel like wearing jeans (read: jeans were in the laundry), but I still make a point of getting dressed everyday. (I feel like I really don't get anything done otherwise.)

The following are several slides showing just how many different combinations you can make with a capsule wardrobe using items I actually have. Mostly I think the theme here is to pick great basic pieces with a healthy dose of accessories so you can have fun mixing and matching to find new combinations to fall in love with.

The rules of the Project 333 system call for you to include outerwear in the 33 items. Since it is winter here in southeastern Idaho, I have a heavier coat and snow boots out. The lighter jacket is for when I'm just running out to the garage for something or when I'm sitting in our almost unheated computer room working on the blog and such. Plus it wasn't completely freezing when I put this capsule together back at the beginning of November. 

Another awesome bonus that I discovered was the fact that for three months I had one purse out and never felt a need to switch it up. Raise your hand if you are a woman with more than one purse. (Guilty as charged.) Before doing the capsule wardrobe I think I'd change purses on almost a monthly basis because I knew the current purse didn't match the outfit I was wearing one day. With the capsule wardrobe and having a limited color palette with a purse to match, I never had to worry about that.

Now I'm looking forward to creating a new capsule for the next three months, purse and all ;)

My Project 333 wardrobe Winter 2016-2017 by heather-horikami on polyvore.com

Ring in the New Year with Self-Celebration: Instead of Self-Criticism

Happy New Year! We survived! That feels like something big after all that happened in 2016. Unless you were living under a rock. Lucky you.

'Tis the season of Resolution Making. I'm sure we already have our generic goals on our minds that we despair of accomplishing.

What a great way to begin a new year. Not!

Instead of being a downer and focusing on all the things we sucked at this past year, I'd like to break the pattern and celebrate what was great about my year and I encourage you to turn your thoughts in a similarly positive direction.

Started My First Blog

 

After ending my formal education two years ago, I haven't had much reason to stretch my writing muscles. Putting words together to form thoughts to share was something that I've kind of prided myself on probably since middle school. So ending my hiatus was something I'm really proud of.

In eight (or seven since December didn't really count) I have published 23 posts, gotten almost 1500 pageviews, and someone in  France is reading this, which is really exciting for me since I have a mental love affair with French-ness in general. So, merci.

Have I been great on my consistency? Not really. Do I hope to get better at that this year? Yes, but I allow life to happen as it will in this respect. I figure as long as I stay passionate about this project, then it will continue. I hope that will be a long while and will be a growing experience we share.

Survived First Big Road Trip with Babies

 

With two under three, in a small car, with no AC, and a month on the road visiting family and seeing sights, this was a big thing to accomplish. Somehow we didn't die. We lived instead. We had some amazing experiences. My favorites were the Devil's Punchbowl Beach in Oregon and the Monterrey Aquarium, hands down.

I don't know how much Jon will remember in the long run on his own, but he loves looking at our pictures from this adventure. I'm sure we will do more traveling in the future. Just maybe not so much this year. (We're hoping to save up to go to England in two years.)

Celebrated 5th Wedding Anniversary

 

In this modern age when the family and marriage institutions are under attack, it's another big thing that we are still together and going strong. Currently the average length of a marriage before divorce is eight years. So we are technically passed the halfway point of the statistic, but I think we'll make it far beyond that point.

Being part of the LDS religion, we truly believe in eternal marriages and sealed family units. I think this means that we don't go into this big commitment without serious thought and prayer and open eyes. I know in our case, at least from my side, I married Charles knowing that I was going to fall in love with him to a much greater extent than I did during our (very short) courtship through the course of our married life. I think I was lucky to have seen that in my own parents' relationship. That laid a very healthy foundational expectation of love and marriage. I know not everyone is blessed in such a way, and that is an unfortunate contributor to a lot of our current social problems.

This is not to say that everything is always rose-colored and smooth sailing in the Horikami household, but I can confidently say that our problems are pretty small in the grand scheme of things. We see our occasional upsets as growing experiences rather than deal breakers. We know that we married imperfect beings while being imperfect ourselves. We are on  a journey of growth together. (In rough nerd-speak:) What is a quest without challenges? Such a quest could not be as fulfilling when the destination is reached as one that is fraught with dangers overcome along the way.

Completed a Mini Bucket List

 

This was a journey I shared with you. I set my goals here. And then I reported on them in order (one, two and three, four, five). Please read those it you missed them.

I'd say it's a pretty thing to be able to say that I accomplished that which I set out to do. Am I perfect at all of those things? Not really. I'm still human.

So, here's an update: I'd say I'm ready to take my exercise routine to the next level. The holiday season has left me wanting to do another Whole30 (surprise, surprise), I'm really not worried about my face any more. I've mastered makeup application more so you can hardly notice my blemished when I "have my face on". And I'm really ready to take on the Martha challenges now that my wall cleaning project is done and the holidays are over.

So life is going pretty good. Maybe I'll make another bucket list, but not as a series of resolutions at this time. Right now I'm choosing to focus on my blessings more than on short-comings that I think need improvement.

Don't get me wrong, self-improvement is great, but I think it should be more of an on-going personal journey that isn't dependent on what day of the year it is.

Now it's your turn. Take a moment to think on what was great for you in 2016. Maybe leave a comment if there's something you're really proud of that you'd like to share.

May 2017 bring you new hope, new possibilities, and new adventures!