Swappin' them Clothes

It's that time of year again.....for a clothing swap! I'm so happy that they have been holding these swaps almost quarterly, rather than twice a year. Since I'm a girl on a budget, these swaps really help me expand my wardrobe for only $5.00. (It also helps me keep my closet clear of items that I'm not wearing). 

This past swap was a little bit different as they changed the venue to a high school's cafeteria, and had enough room for 300 swappers. (Yup, that's right, 300....there were so many clothes). This swap also had a $5.00 entrance fee....which let's face it, is a steal of a deal for clothes. Half of the money went towards the school's debate team and the other half went towards making the group a non-profit. If you are in the DMV area, (DC, Maryland, Northern VA), then check out Frugal Fashionista's clothing swaps! I won't be able to attend the next swap (June 15th), because of a family vacation, but I encourage you to look into it. If you aren't in the DMV area, I still suggest that you check out Meetup.com and look for clothing swaps in your area. I love this site because while it can be a dating website, it is more of a social site that connects people with similar interests. 

This is the outfit that I wore to the latest clothing swap. The dress that I'm wearing actually came from my very first swap. Under the dress, I'm wearing a black tank top and black leggings...to make trying on clothes in a room full of people easier. There were some girls who were stripping down to their "small clothes", but I'm just not comfortable doing that in a room with 300 people. 

 I had this white belt on at first, but I wasn't loving the look. My original plan was to wear gray leggings, but I felt like they were too see-through to wear once the dress came off. 

I went to the swap with two friends, and this is our haul. I was halfway to the swap, and realized that I forgot to bring my beach bag for carrying all of my clothes! (Hence the garbage bag).  I was being proactive for this swap, and I had all of the clothes pre-sorted into small bags according to size. I won't forget my bag on the next round!

I was able to get two pairs of shoes from the swap....however I didn't take any out of my closet before the swap. Oops, now I'm short on space! Lol. The gold glitter pair of flats are brand new!

Here is my pile of clothing from the swap. It entails 2 pairs of shoes, 1 dress, one short dress/long shirt, 1 skirt, 3 shirts, 2 cardigans, 1 summer vest, 1 bracelet, and 1 necklace.

I forgot to mention that there were raffle prizes at this swap too! Multiple businesses donated items and gifte cards to the swap. Since my crew and myself were there early, we each scored two gift cards (one to a local jewelry store and the other to JustFab.com). All three of us actually won a prize from the raffle tickets as well. 

This is the necklace that I won from the raffle. One of my friends won a necklace and a bracelet, and my other friend won a loose ruby valued at $600. Yes, you did read that correctly....and she was so excited.

The beautiful bracelet that I picked up at the swap. I couldn't believe that someone gave this up. It had a pink "sister" bracelet, but I gave it to one of my friends as I already have a pink bracelet and she didn't have any yet.

I have been wanting a long turquoise necklace for some time now. The man bought me a beautiful short turquoise necklace while we were in Jamaica, and now I have a longer version.

You might be wondering how in the world I can gather a minimum of 5 pieces of clothing and 2 accessories from my own closet for each swap. Well I'll share my little secret. Sometimes the items that I get from a swap don't work in my closet, no matter how hard I try. These items go back into my "swap pile". 

Another way that I get items together is by helping others clean out their closets. Is it cheating? Maybe....but it's for a good cause. Any time that I hear of someone who is getting ready to clean out their closet, or already has done the deed, but hasn't donated their clothes yet, I try to get them to give me their clothes. Most people don't have a problem doing this since they were planning on already giving their clothes away. 

I typically roll into the swaps with multiple bags of clothing and accessories by doing these things, and I usually walk out with less than I brought. However, since the clothes haven't all come straight from my own closet, it works out. The more clothing that we all bring in, the more clothing there is to go around!

Earlier I said that I did not take any shoes out of my own closet for the swap, so I didn't have any room in my closet for the new pairs of shoes. You may think, "That's not fair, you shouldn't take shoes if you didn't put any into the pile"....except that I did. I put shoes into the shoes pile for the swap...they just so happened to come from some else's closet. LOL.

I also try to look for items for the individuals that donate their clothes to me. I figure that getting them one item in return for the BAG of clothes that they gave me is the least that I can do. 

If you live in the DMV area, please sign up for the next clothing swap! I'd love to meet up with you! (After the June swap that is). And there are also plus size clothing swaps for those that are XXL and over.

Color-blocked

So a week ago I got dressed to go to work, and felt really good about my outfit choices. Then I went to start my car and it was not running like it is suppose to. Now my commute to work is not a short one, so luckily the man came to my rescue and drove me to work (and picked me up), but it was not the day that I had imagined as I got dressed that morning.

As I was rummaging through my closet that morning, I was drawn to my color-block blue/green shirt. I honestly wasn't sure which of my pants were clean though, so I had to go through my pants in my dresser, and I pulled these babies out from the bottom of the stack. Now I love these pants, as they are extremely comfortable. I also love that these pants were on the sale rack for a cool $8.00 at Target last fall. 

I'm going to try harder to remember that they exist. Really, I will.

Color block shirt: Dress Barn (Fall 2012)

Black cardigan: Charolette Russe

Pants: Target (Fall 2012)

Shoes: Dress Barn (recent)

Necklace: Express 

Earrings: Francesca's Collections (Winter 2012)

Spring Clothes

Lately I have been in the mind set that if I dress for the weather that I want, then maybe the weather will cooperate and be warm. You can tell by this outfit that I was obviously channeling Spring. This particular day was a bit chilly out, so I decided to add my half-cardigan with long sleeves to my floral blouse. 

I love this floral shirt. I mean, when I first got it, I wore it at least once every week. It was a serious problem that I had. Now I try not wear the same thing back-to-back (unless it is my work uniform). 

Semi-cardigan: The Limited (very old)

Floral shirt: Khol's (old)

Jeans: Target

Necklace: (gifted) Macy's

Bracelets: Stella and Dot (recent)

Break it up

I got this sweater from Target during the fall season on sale. I was in a relaxed mood when I got dressed, hence the baggy, comfortable sweater. I added the long white tank to break up the outfit a little bit. Otherwise the whole look is a little too dark for me. 

Okay, so now that I made a post about how my enthusiasm to shop has been curbed.....I have the urge to shop. I blame the fun spring lines that are out everywhere. And the Target catalog that was mailed to my house with a coupon in it specifically for clothes. 

Sweater: Target

Pants: Target

White Tank: Express

Boots: Khol's

Earrings: from Jamaica

Feather ring: Clementine boutique 

Don't remember where the necklace is from

Polka Dots with a Pop of color

So this past weekend I got to spend some time with my family...and they got me a bit sick. I have a lovely little cough and sore throat. My job consists of constantly talking, so work is not the most fun right now. I'm almost hoping for some snow right now so that we can officially close for tomorrow. (It might be a staff only kind of day, but I'd rather curl up on my couch with a warm cup of tea).

So I've had this blazer in my closet for a few months now. (I picked it up at the first clothing swap that I attended. )However it is dry clean only, and I didn't have a need to go to the cleaner's for anything else for a while, so it just sat next to my laundry hamper for a while. (Because the floor next to the hamper is the designated dry cleaning spot). 

I was determined to wear flats this day, even though my ankles weren't too happy about that. This is my way of channeling spring. (It may not be working since it is suppose to snow this week).

Blazer: from the clothing swap

Green Shirt: Dress Barn

Pants: Old Navy

Shoes: Old Navy

Green Team with a side of fur

The man and I were able to attend the Virginia Wine Expo this past weekend. Luckily I have family there so we had someone willing to be our chauffeur as well as a comfy bed to sleep in. If you are a lover of wines, then I'd recommend that you check out this event! It was a lot of fun, and we didn't even get to half of the vineyard's tables. 

This is the outfit that I wore on Friday/ on the road to Richmond. Of course I didn't get a photo of the outfit that I wore on the day of the wine expo. But I got a photo of this outfit and the one on the ride home. Two out of three isn't toooooo bad. 

Green Sweater: from clothing swap 

Faux Fur Vest: Dress Barn

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Express

Necklace: Francesca's Collections

Earrings: From a local in Jamaica 

Green Sweater Dress

I'm not sure what the temperature is like at your house, but it was COLD here over the weekend. Even though the weather was less than stellar, I was dead set on wearing a dress on Sunday. Every outfit I was picking out in my closet was a dress, but I kept putting them back because it was too cold. Then I spotted this sweater dress nicely folded up on my closet shelf....and I knew what I was going to wear. I have to be honest, I have never worn this outfit before. I bought it a few years ago, but I have never found an appropriate time to wear it. The dress itself is a heavy material, so I felt like the parts that it covered would always stay extremely warm, while my arms and legs would freeze. 

Then I learned about putting leggings underneath a dress for the winter, and this outfit appeared. I had originally paired my tall dark brown boots with the outfit for added warmth, but then I figured that since most of my day would either be spent indoors or in a car, I could swap out my boots for my booties since they matched my belt. 

I also had never unbuttoned the necklace of this dress, which felt like it really "opened up" the dress. (I didn't feel as stifled in the dress anymore.) 

I'm not sure how else I will style this outfit, but I plan on trying to figure that out in the near future. Maybe I'll try adding a long-sleeve shirt under the dress, or maybe try adding a vest with it. Only time will tell...

Sweater Dress: Dress Barn

Leggings: Express

Booties: Charlotte Russe

Belt: Francesca's Collections

Necklace: Francesca's Collections

Earrings: Gifted

Polka Dots and Green

Last weekend I went to a Stella and Dot party hosted by one of my friends. I don't own anything by Stella and Dot, but I have seen many of their items throughout the blogging world. I am getting this bracelet in pink and in white. I was loving just about everything in the catalog and wanted it all.  However, like most women I know, I'm on a limited clothing budget so  had to take a step back and think about what I'm lacking in my jewelry. I realized that I own one pink item of jewelry: pink earrings. I really liked these little bangles so I decided that they would be mine!

This is the outfit that I wore the the Stella and Dot party. If I were to ever sell jewelry, I think this would be the stuff that I would want to sell!

Polka Dot Sweater: The Limited

Green Shirt: Express  

Pants: Target

Boots: Expres

Necklace, Bracelet, Earrings: Francesca's Collection

*This shirt is really an Emerald green color, but the lovely lighting in my bathroom turns it into this color.

Purple and Green

If you look at these photos, you will see that I'm wearing two sweaters. I always wear the light green sweater over a green tank, and decided that I needed to switch it up. I took a look through my closet and noticed that the purple sweater was on a backwards hanger (meaning that I had not worn it yet) (And yes I know that sweaters should be folded, not hung up). I decided to try out the double sweater look, just for kicks, and I decided that I liked it enough to wear it all day.

 I own a few hats, but I never seem to wear them. As I was walking through my closet, I spied my purple hat and decided that it was time to wear it. (Hence these photos). 

When I say that I walked "through" my closet, I don't mean that my closet is so big that I can prance around in it. The closet is merely a passage-way from the bedroom to the bathroom, and is not as big as it looks. When the man and I were looking at apartments, we almost rented one that had two huge separate closets for us both. However, said apartment was not in the middle of the fun that we live in now, and it was going to be a bit more expensive. Maybe one day I'll actually photograph my closet for the blogging world to see.

Green Sweater: Dress Barn

Purple Sweater: Nordstrom Rack (Fall 2012)

Pants: Target

Necklace: Express

Boots: Charlotte Russe

Hat: JcPenny

Old outfit new location

So I know that I have already worn this outfit before and blogged about it. However we are in the lovely state of South Carolina visiting some friends and the weather here is amazing. I was so excited to be able to wear short sleeves and flats again, so I decided that I'd just show you a nice repeat. Hope you have a great weekend!

The green team strikes again!

 Before I started this blog, I had very little green in my closet. (When you look in it, it still seems like there isn't very much). However, I feel like I'm always having to come up with a clever title for my green outfits. It's okay though, because I really like the color!

This shirt is another one of my finds from the clothing swap. At first I wasn't sure if the bright green color would work with my skin tone, but I find that it pairs nicely with my porcelain white skin and reddish hair. 

How about this necklace? This is the necklace that I got at Express during their black Friday 50% deal. I was struggling with the idea of paying full price for this necklace, but I was able to score the last one in the store during the sale. $40 for a necklace isn't really a bad deal, but I'm working with a (very) limited budget so $40 is a lot for me right now. 

Do you have a color that takes over your closet?

Shirt: The Loft (from the clothing swap)

Pants: Target

Boots: Khol's (similar)

Bracelet: Francesca's Collection

Necklace: Express (almost exactly the same)(a ton of other gold collar necklaces)

Earrings: Francesca's Collection