Stitch Fix #2

I got my second Stitch Fix about two weeks ago! I know I said I was waiting until September, but then I could some graduation money and couldn’t resist. If you’re not sure what Stitch Fix is, you can read my first post about it here. Also be sure to check out my first box here! But to summarize: You fill out an extensive style profile, you pay $20, a Stitch Fix personal stylist picks out five pieces for you, it comes in the mail, you try them on, pay for what you want to keep and mail the rest back. It’s a pretty fun service that’s helped me get some pieces that I wouldn’t normally pick out myself.

My second box was pretty different from my first one. I tweaked my style profile a little bit so that it reflected my taste more accurately (no beige or white, more fitted tops) and I specifically requested bright colors, fun prints, and lightweight tops for summer. Each time you get a fix there’s a space to make specific requests like this:

My stylist did pretty good, but I was disappointed to not see ANY cotton. Two of my tops were 100% polyester and were long sleeve, which is not super summery. But overall I was pretty happy. Anyway, you’ll see! (PS: I am not wearing make-up in these photos please do not judge me)

1. Brooke Dot Print Tab Sleeve Blouse by Ellison – $38

Not off to a good start here. Yes, there is pattern. But it’s black and HEAVY polyester. Not remotely summer appropriate. It’s also very shapeless and not at all fitted. Umm, ok. Not really what I asked for. However, it looks nice tucked in, will work well when it gets cooler, fits my style well, and the price was right. So I’m keeping it, but for later in the year.

2. Diane Belted Colorblock Tank Dress by Kensie – $58
This dress looks better in person than in this photo for sure. The color is great, it’s lightweight, great for summer. Decent price, good fit, can’t complain. Except I wish it had more pattern, the color block is less than thrilling.

3. Ruthie Cross-Front Side-Ruched Top by Dylan and Rose – $48
I feel like you can’t tell how skinny this shirt makes me look in the picture. As soon as I put this on my mother told me I had to keep it. Normally I would not spend $48 on what is basically a glorified t-shirt but I really look that good in it. And I figure anything that flattering is worth at least $48. It also looks good with a cami under it if I wanted to wear it to work. Oh and it’s bright red! Yay! Color!

4. Ashton Pleated Chiffon Skirt by Everly – $48
This isn’t something I would have picked out for myself, but it’s fun and summery and the color is pretty. It’s a little shorter than I normally like but it’s definitely not too short. There’s not much to say about it, it’s just a great little summer skirt and I don’t have many of those!

5. Giselle Striped Tab-Sleeve Blouse by Fun2Fun – $48
Little stripes are hard to photograph! I should be wearing something under this shirt, I apologize for the sheer factor. Anyway this was the other long-sleeve polyester top that apparently Stitch Fix thinks is great for summer. I like it anyway though. The stripes are hot pink and turquoise and it’s a lighter poly than the polka dot shirt. I actually wore this one already and got a few compliments, so I guess it’s a winner!

Anyway if you can’t tell, I kept the whole box. When you keep all five pieces you get a 25% discount, and with my $20 pre-paid styling fee I only had to pay $165 for all of this. Which is $33 an item, which isn’t bad.

Overall though, I feel like while I liked everything in this box, I did not LOVE any of it. I’m not sure what else to do to get items that I really really really love. Maybe I will make a Pinterest board separate from my usual fashion one that is more specific to what I really want, but I’m skeptical that they spend much time on Pinterest when styling for us. Can they really have that much time? I will probably wait until fall to get another box just because it’s expensive and I don’t have a job.

If you’re ready to try Stitch Fix I would just love it if you’d use my referral link! I get a $25 credit that I can use to buy more clothes from my next box! Thanks in advance.

Thoughts on Memory Keeping

Warning: Long post ahead!

Scrapbooking has been on my mind lately. Like a lot. Like it’s literally keeping me up at night. Have I mentioned I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when I was 19? With obsessive-compulsive features. And a strong dose of perfectionism. That all comes into play when I think about scrapbooking.

My mom started scrapbooking when it was the highest art form of suburban moms. She made a really awesome baby book using photos that had been stored in boxes or plain albums for years. Eventually, scrapbooking’s popularity faded and my mom got tired of it and all the photos and supplies were put away. It’s no wonder she got tired of it and overwhelmed by it. Scrapbooking then was LEGIT. Here are some pages from my baby book:

DO YOU SEE HOW TIME CONSUMING THAT WAS? Not only did each page have to be CUTE, it had to be different. She had to come up with the ideas for each page, cut pictures into various shapes, carefully cut paper, meticulously place stickers, etc. Do you see the second page there? She had to braid the paper basically! Insanity! So obviously, this was a tiring and overwhelming task. This book goes until I was two, so when she quit doing this, she was probably thinking “how can I do this for 16 more years of photos???”.

Well now I am 27 so it’s even worse. We have SO MANY PHOTOS to organize and get into books. Clearly, this traditional style of scrapbooking is not sustainable.

Then when I was in my last year of college I heard about digital memory books. I got a free book through a company called Inkubook, which no longer exists. I used this book to document the trip I went on with a band I was friends with. The book was fun and easy to make and I was pretty pleased with the quality. Here are some pictures:

Not great, but not bad, either! I became pretty convinced that digital scrapbooking was the way to go and decided to make a book for every year. Unfortunately, I ran into some problems. First, even though digital scrapbooking is inexpensive compared to printing photos and buying materials for other memory keeping options, books still run about $50 at the least when you factor in shipping and stuff. Now that is a good price and I know it, but I still get nervous when it gets to check-out time. I haven’t actually purchased a single “yearbook” I’ve made.

The second problem is that I actually became a yearbook adviser when I was teaching! We went through Jostens and used their yearbook creation software. And it is awesome. You can make the photos and text boxes the exact size you want them to be. I mean down to the pixel! It is so easy to make your own layouts, or use pre-existing layouts and edit those to be exactly what you need. Digital scrapbooking sites such as Shutterfly or My Publisher are easy to use, for sure, but more often than not their layouts don’t exactly match what photos I have, and editing their layouts has just never worked out for me. They lack the precision of the Jostens software and I end up with misaligned photos or awkwardly placed text boxes. Having used such great software, it’s been frustrating to use something that’s just not as good.

My next effort was very different. I did not consider this to be a real or official scrapbook, just a place to store important and important-ish things. Like cards, photos I used to have framed and then replaced, letters of recommendation, etc. I went into this with the attitude that nothing had to be perfect or even chronological. Just add in things as I find them. I bought an album at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off, pulled out my box of cards and photos, and got to work. I tried to group things by event or by person for the most part.

I like how this is going for me and I will probably keep up with it randomly. Like right now I have a bunch of cards floating around so I should probably just go ahead and put them in. Because it’s okay if they are out of order. It’s okay.

So why is this on my mind so much now? Because about a week ago my mom pulled out a ton of her old supplies and some boxes of photos. Then she took me with her to what may be the last remaining scrapbooking store Katy. I showed her “pocket scrapbooking,” known to most by the brand Project Life. She loved it. I loved it. We decided once we get all the photos organized, this is how we would move forward. Just crop the photos to fit in the pockets, write on some journaling cards, call it a day. Or if we come across a group of photos that just doesn’t work in one of the pockets, they have full 12×12 page protectors too. So we could make some pages in the traditional way if we wanted to. Flexibility. Yes. Perfect for the boxes and boxes of photos we have in our spare room.

But what about the digital photos? I’m not sure if I want to put them in a Project Life style album or stick with digital. My obsessive-compulsive tendencies kick in and I want all the albums to match. So Project Life. Then I think about how much more compact the digital albums are. Digital. Then I think about how you can’t include things like ticket stubs in digital albums. Project Life. But then I get an idea to put a craft paper folder in the back of the digital album to put ticket stubs in. Digital. But then I think of how annoyed I get with the digital software. Project Life. But then I think about how with Project Life I’d have to choose photos, whereas with digital I could include more! Digital.

Regardless of all this over thinking, my choice has been made easy for me. I tried to order a digital album I’d made from My Publisher. With their “free extra pages” promotion, I was set to get two years worth of photos for only $50. BUT every time I tried to purchase, I got an error message. FOUR TIMES. So I gave up. I went and bought some Project Life page protectors and started printing photos from this year and slipping them into the pockets.

AND I LOVE IT.

I am waiting for my core kit to come in the mail so that I can use the journaling and filler cards, but I’ve already got photos in place for January through March, and it only took a couple of hours.

Seriously y’all… go get Project Life. It’s on Amazon or at Hobby Lobby or at Archivers. It’s not very expensive, it’s easy, it’s quick, and it’s fun.

I’ll share some pictures once my core kit comes in!

Cell Phone Photos

I had some other posts I wanted to share this week but I got distracted by some other projects, one involving memory keeping and one involving a lot of television. I definitely want to keep up with my blog but there are also other projects that are more important to me, so as much as I’d love 3 posts a week maybe it won’t always happen and maybe that’s ok. Anyway, here are the photos I took on my phone this week:

1. These kids were high school freshmen when I was a first year teacher. In some ways we really grew up together and it was a joyful occasion to see them graduate!
2. The program from graduation.
3. My favorite student and my yearbook editor-in-chief! She graduated when I quit, also significant. Anyway she had a baby! A cute one!
4. My friend Cara came over to visit me in the suburbs and we went to the pool to get tan!
5. I dog-sat for my friends. This is Lucy!
6. She got scared by something outside, so she laid by the door and smashed her face up against it. She was READY for intruders.
7. So in high school my mom made a SWEET scrapbook for choir. She has some skills (more on this next week). Anyway she was lamenting that she should have kept it, especially now that my choir director isn’t even at that school anymore. So I went up to the school and asked for it back! This is the photo I sent my mom to show her I got it.
8. And this is the one I posted on Facebook and tagged my choir director in.
9. After this success I went to the mall to return something and stopped into Godiva for my free chocolate. Did you know if you sign up for their club you get a free chocolate each month? Anyway, when she scanned my card she said I was eligible for a free two-piece box and would I like one. Um, YES.
10. Okay so my friends talked me into to watching Teen Wolf which is an MTV series based of the 80s Michael J. Fox movie. It is so ridiculous but oh my gosh do I love it. I took this picture because LOL. Anyway two, 12-episode seasons are on Netflix and the third season JUST started on MTV. DVR that mess and catch up!
11. Ah, the joys of memory keeping. My mom pulled out some old scrapbooking stuff in an attempt to organize and restart her efforts from the late 90s. Again, more on this next week.
12. My car thermometer said this but I am assuming it was just a mistake. It quickly dropped to a more respectable 96 degrees.
13. Another LOL from Teen Wolf. In this one a teacher holds a student to her bosom to protect him from attacking birds. Because that won’t end in jail for sure.
14. Found this in a scrapbook my mom made and it’s hard to explain exactly WHY this is funny. But it is, so I sent it to my friends who know the boy in this photo.

“Book” of Lists: I’d Rather Be Doing…

I always feel lame around this post because everyone else on this project makes a cute little book to put their lists in. But there are other things I’d rather be doing than making a cute book for my lists, and I can’t do it all!

It’s summer vacation for me right now. I graduated with my master’s degree, completed my final practicum, and the job I hope to be officially offered very soon won’t start up until August. So it’s hard to say what I’d rather be doing right now, because I’m really able to do just about whatever I want. But here’s what I can come up with:

1. Traveling. Growing up, my family travelled a lot. Since becoming an adult, my travels have consisted primarily of road trips to nearby cities, or the occasional faraway trip for a wedding or family event. I would really like to go on a proper vacation again where I fly there, stay in a hotel, and see the sites.

2. Scrapbooking. My mom pulled out a bunch of scrapbooking supplies in an attempt to reignite those efforts. She was one of those hardcore scrapbookers back in the day, but it has since fallen to the wayside and now we just have a ton of loosely organized pictures and lots and lots of paper. This is a daunting task to my mom, and I have to allow her to go at it at her own pace. I wish we could just dive in though and get something done!

3. Shopping. I shop a lot, actually. What I mean is I would rather be shopping with a personal shopper and a ton of money. Since shopping with a friend with a totally different style than mine and getting a Stitch Fix, I have realized how much I yearn for a style reboot.

4. Decorating. This is another way of saying “I wish I had a ton of money”. I would love to repaint my room and the “craft room” in my parents’ house and just go crazy redecorating. My room looks basically the same as it did when I was 15, and the craft room is just a mess (due in part to my boxes being in there, but also it was crazy before that).

That is really all I can come up with. Summer vacation is basically a dream.

Instagram: May 2013

It’s a photo heavy day! Some of these you’ve seen before, but this is what I’ve posted on Instagram this month:

Cell Phone Photos

Missed last week, but there wasn’t much to post anyway since I did a mid-week photo update! Here are the photos I’ve taken since then:

1. My mom bought peonies, which may be my favorite flower.
2. My final project at my practicum was job fair, the very first one the school had hosted (probably not true, it’s an old school, but the first in a very long team at least). It was quite successful!
3. I caught this lizard at Kathleen’s house and it was AWESOME.

4. I was very excited. This is a selfie of me and the lizard.
5. Here is Meredith wearing her mom’s new shirt from Stitch Fix (that’s my referral link, please use it!). ADORABLE. Oh and be on the look out for a second Stitch Fix post from me soon!
6. Toddler selfie!

Things That Make Me Smile

I read somewhere that everyone should be able to rattle off a list of 10 things that make them happy. I tried to think and beyond the basic “my family” and “my friends” I was really discouraged to realize that didn’t know what made me happy! This list has taken a while to develop, but I’m glad to have it for future reference if I’m every having a blah day.

1. A good YouTube video. This is a new favorite, but here’s a link to my ever-growing playlist of videos that make me laugh.

2. The humor section of Pinterest. I look at this section of Pinterest when I’m bored or sad. Usually bored. I try not to look at it too much in public because it makes me laugh out loud, REALLY loud. It recently produced this gem:

3. Cuddling with dogs (especially puppies). This is scientifically proven to make people happier, so it’s no surprise. The dog pictured is my standard poodle, Shep, who died almost 2 years ago. So for now, I have to borrow other peoples’ pups.

4. A chai latte (especially from Onion Creek). These are good hot or iced, and Onion Creek in the Heights has the best chai latte I’ve ever had. There is just something so comforting about them!

5. Singing along to musical soundtracks. I sang in the school choir in junior high and high school, and even a semester in college. My singing muscles aren’t in great shape these days, but I still love belting out some showtunes in the car.

6. Disney movies. I think there is just something comforting about watching an old animated movie. Even though they almost always involve the death of a parent, they usually have happy endings. And songs to sing along to (see above).

7. Getting mail. I mean duh, who doesn’t love this? It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then I’ll get an invitation to something, or a thank you note, or a letter from my Compassion International sponsored child (my favorite kind of mail). Regardless of the type of mail (as long as it’s not junk), something in the mail with my name on it makes me smile every time!

8. Pumpkin bread from Starbucks. This is probably horrible for me but I love it. Love love love it.

9. Cooking/baking things that people love. I really need to work on getting some of my favorite recipes up here, but here are links to a couple EASY desserts that always get amazing feedback: Two ingredient pumpkin muffins and Nutella cookie cups (on the latter, I use pre-made cookie dough to make it even easier).

10. Getting a great deal. This is why I love going to the J.Crew Factory Outlet when I’m feeling down. Not because shopping/buying things makes me feel better, but because I love knowing I got a good deal. The J.Crew outlet has lower prices already, plus outlet discounts, plus I get 15% off with my school ID. It shows on the receipt how much I saved and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside!

Can you think of 10 things off the top of your head that make YOU happy? Now that I’ve finally come up with my list, I can think of a few more: feeding giraffes at the zoo, buying the perfect present for somebody, reading a thoughtful note in a card, playing with happy babies/toddlers. But coming up with those first 10 was definitely a challenge. If you write a list like this I’d love to see it, so link in the comments!