Style Me March - Hemming Things Up

When I embarked on the #stylememarch challenge on March 1, I was hesitant. I DM'd Hilary Rushford, its creator and author of the bow ties and bettys blog, proposing that I was too middle-aged and my fashion budget was too strapped for me to participate. Hilary encouraged me to join, stressing the fact that the challenge was open to all ages, and that one of the main tenets was to do the challenge primarily with items we already owned.

I dove in on March 1 with "favorite color" day:

And rounded out the month on March 31 with "plays up your best feature" day:

It took a few plays on words and coaxing some rarely worn items out of the deep recesses of my closet, but I did the challenge every day except "hair braid day." Here is the entire list:

Now that the challenge is over, I have a few observations by way of closure:

My earrings are in a conspiracy to remain separated from one another. It is almost impossible to find two matching earrings when said earrings would be perfect with an outfit. Ditto for earring backs. Yikes.

It is seriously difficult to take pictures of yourself. I don't know how teenagers do it (and they seem to do it all the time!). This process resulted in a lot of outtakes. Like this:

and this:

On the bright side, though:

Twenty Pounds Later. Oh my gosh I have lost almost 20 pounds over the past year! I knew that (because I weigh myself every day) but I have really focused on my fitness goals and haven't been fixated on the numbers so much. It really hit me when I grabbed items that I had not fit into in so long, put them on to see if they could be used for a particular day's theme, and they fit!

This white dress is an example, both of the weight loss (read above)
and the "power of the belt" (read below).

Belts! I haven't been giving belts enough credit. When your hips are disproportionately larger than your bust, some styles are horrible ideas. It's nice to accentuate a (relatively) narrow waist) but accentuate it too much and it only makes your hips look bigger. But belts make it possible to manipulate the top of an outfit in a way that balances out the bottom. That adds quite a few options I had not considered previously.

Confidence. One of the most powerful moments in therapy for me (when I was in my 20's) was a visualization where I looked at my (selfless, humble, incredible) mother as she carried herself and dressed, juxtaposed with the same wonderful person dressed confidently, carrying herself with a clear aura of "deservedness." It is so easy to feel like you are helping everyone else by "going without" but the price is heavy. Our daughters don't need mothers who constantly tamp down their own needs and sense of self in deference to everyone else in their lives.

Our daughters need mothers who (in Hilary's words) approach each day with grace and gumption. Thank you, Hilary, for reminding me to take a second look at my closet as well as my psyche.

If you want to see pictures of me ad nauseum (ha ha), here are all of my #stylememarch posts:

Week One is here.

Week Two is here.

Week Three is here.

Week Four is here.

Week Five is here.