September 6, 2007

Mother Talk book review: The Little Black Book of Style

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about how to make your closet work for you. And by “you” of course I mean ME because really, your closet is your problem, but I have to go into mine every single day and find something to wear.

Which can be a gigantic hassle, honestly.

So I’ve been cleaning the closet and swearing off shopping and taking pictures of my outfits every day. And into this midlife crisis (seriously, what else would you call it?) comes Nina Garcia’s The Little Black Book of Style.

I may have done a little happy dance when the book arrived, because god knows I need all the help I can get. Plus I had JUST finished cleaning out the closet, and had gotten rid of absolutely EVERYTHING that I wasn’t wearing, AND I had sworn off shopping for an entire MONTH so that I could have some time to really see what I had before I ran out and bought anything else.

I was sure that Nina Garcia was going to save me.

Garcia opens the book with some good solid advice, including specific instructions for “editing” your closet (toss what you don’t wear, buy the right size, don’t be persuaded by sale prices, avoid trends). She advocates ruthless editing, which I agree wholeheartedly with. Of course, I had already DONE that, but okay! We’re on the same wave length, clearly.

Garcia goes on to lay out the basics of the stylish wardrobe, and again, this is useful. The little black dress, the menswear shirt, the cashmere sweater–all good pieces, and worth having in your closet. But then . . .

But then she kind of lost me. (more…)

September 4, 2007

lucky 13

On Friday night, when I was lounging around watching What Not to Wear and drooling over the J. Crew catalog, I had a moment where I thought, “Why didn’t we make plans to GO somewhere this weekend? We could have gone to the lake or camping or SOMEWHERE. We’re so lame.”

By yesterday, I had remembered EXACTLY why we never go anywhere like the lake or camping: because it’s not really a vacation if you take the KIDS. Oh, sure, it’s something different and it fills the time, but to me a vacation is a couple of days (or more!) of NOT doing what I usually do. And honestly, toting my kids off to the lake or camping or ANYWHERE just means taking my regular day on the road.

Plus Wade doesn’t like the lake and I don’t like camping, so there’s that. (more…)

September 1, 2007

“critter couture”

Lat night, I was entertaining myself with the J. Crew catalog, because my husband went to happy our with people from the office and didn’t come home until 9:00.

He’s lucky I was too lazy to get up and get my wallet. Also that the kids were well behaved. Because who would have blamed me for buying an entire new wardrobe? (more…)