Downsize me/The Wardrobe diet. Step Four: Tops

Right, back to downsizing. After reading about this guy, I figured it was time to trim my wardrobe sails and get more minimal myself.  But when I streamlined my collection of dresses, scarves and shoes, I needed a bit of a breather. Talk about traumatic. I’ve been surprised though – I haven’t missed a single item once and I love how much tidier certain areas of the wardrobe are now. So I am buoyed to carry on. Next stop: tops. But not jackets, jumpers, cardigans or vests. One step at a time people, one step at a time.

So I had 48 tops. Forty eight. That is quite a few tops. No wonder my drawer was shutting under considerable protest.

1. Patterned tops

There are heaps that I think are great in theory, but are always bad in practice so they never get worn. The red tops, like the red dresses, have had very few outings so they got the boot. Well, to be honest, only the swirly one got the boot because I do really love the material of the other one, and kinda thought that maybe this time I will wear it. We’ll see. There’s a Moochi top in there that never gets out, so thats gone out, and then there are some perennials in there that I have worn, and worn, and worn. So I said goodbye to leopard print and the blue spotted number too. No-one wants to be wearing giant spectacles from the eighties in the nineties (although now they are Bang! Awesome Again) so I thought it was best not to be stale and say adios, while we are still friends. And then there is Coral Camp. I never knew I had such a thing for the colour coral. I have a coral skirt too. Maybe I could wear it all together and wig out at myself. That’d be amazing.  Needless to say, I kept all the coral I could.

2. Cottons

This pile is almost exclusively kowtow clothing – organic fair-trade cotton awesomeness from right here in Wellington. I am a devout follower and ain’t no way I am separating myself from any of their numbers. If you aren’t already acquainted with them, than get so. Its guilt free goodness. I kept the yellow number from Kilt too, because it has two birds on it. Fickle and true.

3. Sundries

A glitter singlet, a polka dot sheer top, a Sabatini top that should be good but isn’t, two mullet singlets – hmmm, there was a lot here to get rid of.

4. Black.

I took a photo, but really it just looks daft. Like it didn’t upload properly or something. So just imagine a pile of 16 black tops. Yeah, that is a few. Seems black is the constant across my wardrobe. I got rid of well over half – lets leave it at that shall we?

After

Sum total of tops after downsizing – 17. Thats the bottom of the drawer you can see there. I know -its a beautiful, beautiful sight.

There may be a sneaky few in the wash, but I figure, if they are in the laundry than I am clearly wearing them so that’s all good.

I looked at that minimal man again -  he had five shirts sum total. Well, there’s minimal and then there’s me.

Downsize me/The Wardrobe diet. Step Two: Scarves

So, sorting out my scarves were a breeze. I knew I had heaps of these suckers and boy was I right. But as I normally keep them stuffed in a bowling bag I never see exactly how many.

Soooooo, with a drum roll, here is my scarf collection before the cull. I had to take two photos, one of my longer scarves and one of my silkies. I love silk scarves but I collect them FAR more than I wear them. There were 28 scarves in total. That is alot of warm necks people!

And my after scarf situation. 11 scarves. Okay, so again, it’s not exactly minimal – but I have a feeling I will never be one of these people. But as long as I am not one of these people, all will be well.

Shwoproject: fresh gift wrap ideas

click to go to source

I just spied this article on fresh ways to wrap your gifts. I wish I had spied it earlier, as I had already ploughed ahead with a wee kids watercolour set and belted out these:

I am kind of pleased with them but I was in an 11pm flap and as a result they are a bit of a mess, as is the coffee table. Next year its going to be all about the silver pen.

Have a squizz at Pinterest too if you are hankering after some green ways to wrap your gifts. Its awash with (eco)festive shenanigans.

Shwoproject: DIY fabric bead necklace

I have to admit – I haven’t actually made this yet, but by jingos I am going to. It seems I am finding all sorts of waysto use my large scarf collection lately! Thinking this will make a lovely Christmas present for a few specials in my life.

click to go to source

 

Looks straight forward right? And if you want to skip the embroidery thread, there is an even simpler version shown in this youtube clip. Bonza.

Shwoproject: DIY Christmas

Yup, its certainly that time of year again. The carols are starting to play, the guy in the suit is everywhere and perplexingly snow covered scenes continue to hold currency. And with all of that Christmas frou-frou comes the push to buy, buy, buy.  If its local and ethical than there isn’t too much to go wrong but unfortunately so much of the Christmas tat comes from less salubrious circumstance . One way to avoid the dilemma is to do it yourself. With some time and a bit of motivation, producing your own DIY versions is infinitely more rewarding and a stack more pleasing to your conscience too.  Last year, we featured DIY Christmas trees. This year DIY Christmas cards.

For ours, we bought an Indian wooden printing block from Trade Aid. You can still buy small ones online here.

Shwoproject: Repurposed Printers Tray

Organising my collection of  jewellery has always been a struggle. I’ve run the gamut of  jewellery trees, wires on walls, mesh in empty picture frames and various  jewellery boxes and always somehow come up short. But after seeing this image via Pinterest, I thought it was worth having a crack at once again. And good news is,  I think this time I may have actually cracked it.

I found an old printers tray in a second hand store for $15. I really liked this one as it had brass plates on each of the joins.

I started by laying out my earrings and necklaces and arranged them in its nooks and crannies to figure out where to place what size eyelet.

I took a quick trip to Bunnings and bought some gold eyelets to match the plates on the tray. Then I got stuck into arranging the eyelets. I thought I would be able to just screw the eyelets in by hand, but I ended up needing a drill with a tiny sized drill-bit as the wood in the tray was rock hard. Once all the eyelets were screwed in, I gave it a dust with a wet cloth to get rid of the sawdust and then gave it a coat of beeswax. The beeswax seals the wood, so its easy to clean and so it will look good for longer. Linseed oil works equally well and it saves having to deal with stinky varnishes. 

And here you have it.

My big chunky necklaces and bracelets are still in a box, but hey ho, you can’t win them all.  And I forgot to get picture-hanging parephenalia at Bunnings so its not yet on the wall. But when it is, it’ll be awesome.