I went to a Catholic High School which required me to wear an ugly ass uniform every single day of the week with the exception of a few days a year when students were allowed to 'dress down.'  Those dress down days are when I would bust out my Club Monaco sweaters and gazelle running shoes and later on in my high school years, anything I bought at Stitches or Le Chateau...2 of the stores (in Canada) that everyone who was cool but didn't have a lot of money to spend shopped at.  I remember very vividly thinking how 'hurting' (that was our slang back then) it was to have to wear a uniform every day, and let me assure you it was nothing pretty considering our school colors were gray and maroon...gross.  But now that I'm in this self made predicament of a restricted wardrobe, which is growing more and more boring with each passing day by the way, I am beginning to long for those carefree (well, not really) high school days when I didn't have to worry about what to wear every day.

The Half Way Mark

August 1st.  I'm officially half way there. If I had any doubts in the beginning that I could accomplish this challenge, they are long gone by now.  The only downside so far?  My bank account doesn't seem to be reaping the benefits of my sacrifice.  I don't know what I was expecting to happen; that my account balance would magically be twice or three times even what it normally is?  It looks no different than usual which bums me out a little bit because I certainly don't want to feel like this was all for nothing.  I would imagine it's because all those expenses I mentioned at the start of my blog, well that's definitely started to kick in.  So I guess I should be grateful that my balance looks no different than the norm.

I still haven't given in to temptation.  And yes, there have been many tempting opportunities.  I mostly just stay away from my favorite shopping spots.  Athough, I have frequented one of my favorite shopping websites, giltgroupe.com, every now and then...just to see what I'm missing out on.  And to see if there's anything worth spending my gilt credit on.  It's not a huge amount so anytime I think I've found something on there I just have to have, it ends up being $10 or $20 more than what I have to spend.  So...the rationing continues.  And so does the procrastination by the way.  I'm amazed that I've kept up with this blog as much as I have.  The true test will be come September when I leave for my vacation in Portugal.  There's nothing I love more than shopping for new clothes before a summer trip.  And what's going to kill me the most is that the weeks leading up to my departure date is the time of the season when all the fab summer clothes and shoes are on sale.  My only saving grace is that I splurged a little bit on new stuff this past spring when I went to the Dominican Republic for my friend's wedding.  Had it not been for that trip, I would definitely have cracked sometime around the end of August.

Enjoying the Fruits of My Challenge

One of the reasons, among many, I wanted to do this wardrobe challenge was because of some travelling and weekend getaways I'll be doing and have done this year. This past weekend getaway was gloriously spent wine tasting, vineyard touring, mud bathing, drinking, dancing and DJ-ing. Not professionally though...I was just the one who brought her iPod and provided the mood/dance music in our hotel room and car rides during our winery hopping. I also unintentionally ended up acting as a travelling drugstore for the fabulous girls I was hangin' with in the Napa Valley. I may have a bit of a shopping addiction and can procrastinate like nobody's business...but if someone needs a bandaid, nail clippers, perfume, tide pen, etc., etc., then I'm your gal. I also just about blew one of my cousin's minds when I showed her how to hide her bra straps from showing by loosening the straps and safety pinning them together racerback style.  Who knew I could be such a wealth of information?  Hey, maybe I can't change a tire but give me a couple of safety pins and some uncooperative bra straps and I can transform an outfit!

I'm still doing well with the no shopping thing by the way. I haven't had as many moments of frustration as I was anticipating.  Maybe that's because I've been forcing myself to wear clothes that haven't been touched in years....so it almost feels like I'm wearing new stuff. Since I've started my challenge in June, I think I've worn at least 3 dresses that I haven't worn or thought twice about in probably 3 years.  Lucky for me...fashion trends are constantly repeating themselves so fear not, I'm not leaving my house in horribly outdated attire. And since some of this stuff was only worn a handful of times, it all looks as good as new.  Still no progress on the clothing swap idea...or the jeans I was going to turn into cut offs about 5 weeks ago.  Did I mention I was a procrastinator?

Mini Makeup Splurge

In an effort not to lose my mind half way through the 2nd month of my 4 month wardrobe challenge, I decided to treat myself to a little retail therapy a la beauty shopping.  I was sticking to the rules by not buying clothes, shoes or accessories but at the same time was able to ease the shopping withdrawls a little bit.  During an unexpected power outage at work last Monday (well, any power outage is unexpected, I guess) I had some time to kill while I was still on call to go back to the office if the power came back on. So I found myself pulling into the parking lot at Ulta...the most fabulous beauty store around. Yes, even more fabulous than Sephora in my opinion because you get the best of both worlds there...high and low end beauty products. I decided to treat myself to some new eye makeup by a brand called NYX....a brand I've heard of before but have never tried because it's not easy to find in stores.  I learned of this fabulous makeup brand from watching a makeup tutorial on youtube (don't judge me...it's free makeup tips!)...and the makeup artist I watched, whose name escapes me now, went back and forth between MAC and NYX eyeshadows.  She raved about the quality and affordability of NYX eyeshadows and compared them to MAC.  Being someone who's always on the hunt for fabulous and affordable beauty and fashion finds, I finally tried out NYX eyeshadows and eyeliners...and was more than pleasantly surprised! The colors are stunning and lasted quite well throughout the day.  Maybe not quite the selection that MAC has but definitely gives MAC shadows a run for their money.  The only downside to my first NYX eyeshadow experience?  The day I wore the deep orange/almost but not quite red eyeshadow...when I got home from work and my husband looked at my face, he said it looked like my eyes were bleeding.

Here's what sucks about this challenge. Yes, there's the obvious reason that I can't do something I enjoy and brings me pleasure...but it sucks even more because I suffer from a disease that plagues many...a disease that I fear is in my blood and I cannot be cured from. Yes friends, it's the disease of procrastination. I've had this disease from an early age and I don't know if there's a cure or not...because I've never gotten around to researching it. It's because of this disease that I still haven't gotten around to turning that old pair of jeans I don't wear anymore into jean shorts. It's because of this disease that I haven't pursued the clothing swap option that I found a website for. And its because of this disease that this challenge will be way more challenging than it needs to be.

Every weekday morning when my alarm goes off at around 6am, I turn on the tv in my bedroom and watch some mindless show for about 10 or 15 minutes..it's how I shake the grogginess from sleep.  Lately I've found myself tuning into reruns of one of my absolute favorite shows...What Not to Wear. Words cannot describe how much I adore that show and I often wish upon a star that I could do what Stacy and Clinton do as a full time and well paid day job. Hey, a girl can dream, right? There's plenty of other reruns of ah-those-were-the-good-old-days shows I could be waking up to like Saved by the Bell and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and of course, there's always the cartoon network. But no, instead I find myself being drawn to a show about something which I have forbidden myself from doing for 4 long months.  So to all you dieters out there who are forbidden from eating what you really want...I feel your pain.

Well, it finally happened. I stood in front of my closet yesterday and came to the conclusion that I had nothing to wear. It sounds ridiculous but it's true. And the funny thing is I didn't even have anywhere special to dress up for. All I did was go to the movies with my husband. Who on God's green earth cares about what they're going to wear when they're going to be sitting in a dark theater for 2 hours? Me, that's who. I don't know what came over me but in that moment I thought to myself, 'this wardrobe challenge is the dumbest idea I've ever had.' Maybe it was because yesterday was one of those 'I feel fat' days that us girls have from time to time....which also inevitably turns into a day when you feel like you have nothing to wear. I literally sifted through my drawers saying "ew...ew...ew" after every article of clothing I flipped through. So of course before I knew it we had 15 minutes before the movie started and I still hadn't decided what to wear. I finally threw something on that I was mildly comfortable in and after hearing my husband ask me in his 'I'm irritated' voice if I was almost done, I realized I didn't have enough time to do my makeup. So I left the house without it. Not a lick of it anywhere on my face. I can't even remember the last time I went anywhere without makeup on. Now, I'm not saying I glam myself up every time I walk out the door but I at least try to put some mascara and lipgloss on. This time I went completely au natural.  I slapped on some chap stick on the car ride to the movies and called it a day. I expect I'll have plenty more days like this before my challenge is over. But I've already successfully made it through one whole month of this challenge so there's no turning back now.