We’ve been cleaning and fixing up our cottage, which is dirty work, so I haven’t had an opportunity to clean myself up and do an outfit post for a while. It felt good to shower the dry-wall dust off yesterday and snap these shots. Here’s the long-awaited number nine! It was snowing lightly, which made for some pretty pictures…

I have already worn all these items in other outfits, so they probably look familiar to you. I actually had to ask myself, wait, have I already worn this outfit?? I felt a tad self-conscious when I ran to town to do errands, wondering if people think I wear the same thing over and over and never do my laundry…but I am sure no one is concerned with my outfits. Besides you guys {but only because I force you to be by blogging about them all the time!}

Anyway, this outfit was- like all my outfits- about comfort and warmth first and style second. The wool pants are really warm, and I layered two long-sleeve shirts for extra heat-retention. To me, this outfit says, “Yeah I clean up nice but if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to my farm chores now,” which is exactly what I was thinking, but didn’t necessarily intend my outfit to reflect that. Funny!

The chambray shirt I wore on top is a summer shirt, but works for winter when it is layered with something else. Making my clothes work for me in multiple seasons is a great thing that I realized by doing this challenge. Until next time, happy remixing to all the other 30 for 30 Challengers out there! P.S. What am I doing with my hand in this next photo?? Geeeeez I throw like a girl.

Scarf: Target / Both shirts: The Gap / Belt: J Crew / Pants: Nordstrom / Boots: J Crew

I’m moving slowly through the 30 for 30 Challenge {I don’t wear “outfits” every day because most days I don’t even leave the house! The beauty of working from home and living in the woods…} but I have already learned so much, and I wanted to share some of my revelations with you all.

First of all, my appetite for shopping has been curbed, big time. I used to religiously check JCrew, Madewell, Anthropologie, and other clothing websites every few days to see what was new. I rarely let myself be tempted by the pretty things I saw, but all that window shopping was hurting me because it made me feel like the clothes I already own were not good enough. It made me dislike getting dressed because I was not satisfied with any of the choices in my closet.

This was an unhealthy habit and mindset that I desperately wanted to get away from. The truth is, I might not have every single beautiful, fashionable, latest, greatest piece of clothing that I have ever wanted, but there are so many people out there who don’t even own a warm winter coat, and I have three. I have pants for every occasion, and shirts to match. I have dresses, shoes, accessories…I have way more than I need.

When I do start shopping again, I am going to approach it very differently. Instead of falling for 40% off bargains on items I don’t really need {“But it’s JCrew! And it’s on sale! And you can never have enough cardigans, right??” WRONG!}, I am going to invest in high quality items that won’t go out of style, and I’m only going to buy things if I don’t already have a perfectly good one of them at home. Seriously, how many pairs of jeans do you need?? Like two pairs. So I’m not shopping for more jeans until I NEED to.

Those are my thoughts thus far. If the challenge has done me this much good in only eight outfits, I can’t wait to see how I’ve changed by the end. Clothing/shopping/fashion is a major weakness for a lot of us, and for a long time I felt so guilty about it, but I’m breaking free from it now, and it feels so good. If any of you out there are doing this challenge, or something similar, I’d love to hear from you!

Here are some resources that I think you should check out on the subject:

Miss Minimalist has a wardrobe of only 10 core items! She wrote a great post answering some questions about why she made the decision and how it works for her.

Minimalist wardrobe tips for men from The Everyday Minimalist.

The Instructables site gives a tutorial for making a cute dress out of a mens button-down shirt.

The original 30 for 30 Challenge blogger, Kendi, in all her cute outfit glory, is already on outfit #28!

Shopping tips for keeping your closet simple and small from The Urban Minimalist.

See all my remixed outfits so far by clicking the “30 for 30″ tab on the right, or click here.

Happy March, everyone! It’s a beautiful sunny day here in the Northland! I did a bunch of errands in town today in preparation for having company this weekend, so my outfit was comfy and warm for trudging from the bakery to the grocery store and home again.

…Ok, I also stopped at the fabric store to eye up the new spring fabrics {I’m thinking about trying to sew a simple maxi dress…} and the coffee shop. They have this super amazing “Spiced Mayan Mocha” that has dark chocolate and cayenne pepper in it….YUM!

Even though it’s sunny, it’s still really chilly out. I spent 20 minutes doing my hair this morning {which is super unusual for me}, and then realized after stepping out the door that I was going to need to wear a hat. Dang!

My parka {outerwear and accessories are not included in the 30 items, by the way} was a hand-me-down from my mom. It’s perfect for fall and spring because it’s water and wind proof, and warmer than a regular rain jacket.

I love it when old styles come back into style years later. This parka is from the 70s but I’ve been seeing new versions of it all over the internet recently, selling for hundreds of dollars! This is me jumping for joy that I hung on to it long enough for it to be “cool” again!

I wonder if someday MY kids are going to want to wear all the stirrup pants and shoulder-pad-sweatshirts I have from the 80s……

Moral of the story…parents that were in their teens and twenties during the 60’s and 70’s usually have some pretty neato clothes left over from those years. And if you’re lucky, they’ll hand them down to you!

Hat: Smartwool / Parka: Handmedown / Sweater: Anthropologie / Shirt: JCrew / Jeans: Andi’s Closet / Boots: JCrew