Today I spent the afternoon moving clothes between closets. I look over what I have, what I have bought, create stacks to give away or to donate to charity. Sometimes I feel like I have found a beautiful old friend among last year’s wardrobe, and sometimes I wonder what the hell was I thinking when I bought that! I don’t know about you, but I am very guided by mood when I shop – one day I feel very classic and I’m buying conservative clothes, and another time, I’m thinking I have to jazz things up. My real style is somewhere between the two, so the transfer exercise comes with a lot of surprises.
As most people know, I love animals. Domestic and wild, I love them all. So it is probably not too surprising that I like animal print. I am attracted to it like a nail to a magnet. I’m not one of those crazy women that wears animal print on animal print – I mean, that really only works on the big cats, don’t you think? But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to have a selection of pieces to work with. A woman likes to have options.
Now early in the season, I bought two pieces of animal print – a popover top that will work well with leggings, and a brushed cotton top that will work well with brown slim leg pants. I was feeling pretty good about my restraint this season. That is until I went to my closet and discovered that perhaps I had more animal print than I remembered. No fewer than 3 blouses, a cardigan, a long sleeve scoop neck top. Another sweater with an abstract animal design in black and gray. I started getting a sinking feeling – you know the one when you realized you should have checked what you had on hand, before you went shopping? 5 pairs of black pants, in addition to the two that I bought. 3 pairs of brown pants in addition to the two that I bought. 2 black ponte jackets. You see where this is going. I really didn’t think I had shopped that much last year. More importantly, I hope my husband didn’t think I shopped that much last year. The truth is, if I didn’t shop for the next two years, no one would notice, although the local stores might have to close some of their locations.
It’s going to be a chore getting the clothes back in the closet. I dread that part. I still have to locate last years shoes, to put on my shoe rack. The transition takes a lot of time, because I have visions of clothes being organized just so. It won’t last and I know that, but it seems important to start well. Now if I can just resist anymore animal print and brown pants, I’ll be set.
Until next time – Elsie
