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