Wool and 100 day challenge done!

 

100 days in the same dress

I wasn't sure about this whole thing when I started this.  Could I wear the same dress every. singe. day. for 100 days.  The answer is yes.  Did I get bored and lose enthusiasm for the dress?  Yep, did I throw in the towel and wear something else?  Nope.  I wore the dress to work, at home, camping, kayaking, hiking.  In cold weather, in hot weather, it was nice to not think about what I was going to wear (tho, it did sting when my daughter told me that it's not the most flattering style on me...until I belted it and dressed it up a bit).

So now the challenge is done.  I'm tired of black.  My sierra will get a lot of wear still, but I feel the need for some color.  :)

Eighty (and counting) days in a Wool& Dress

Because I'm not particularly talented at posting pictures in order, these start at the bottom and go up from Day 1 (the day I got my covid vaccine) until Day 80 of the Wooland challenge.  I am actually on challenge day #86, but that group will be added later, trying to get these photos loaded has stretched my computer abilities for a Tuesday afternoon the second week of my summer break.

What have I learned so far with this challenge?  Well. Despite my good intentions I am not going to blog about this every day, nor every week (too late to go back now!).  I started this in April during the most stress-filled school year ever, I was lucky to get out of bed and get dressed, my hair brushed and my teeth brushed and out the door with my lunchbox.  Thank goodness, this dress took the stress out of the getting dressed bit. The last day at school was day 75ish of this challenge and not one person mentioned the fact that I was wearing the same thing, just styled a little differently, every single day.  I did mention it to a couple of co-workers who gently teased me about the fact that my wardrobe before this challenge was pretty much the same thing (as is theirs)

Another thing I have learned is that I'm not wild about my pictures and that I've never had so many taken of myself.  I had all of these great ideas about styling my photos and perhaps having my husband take them for me.  Then I realized whenever I ask him to take a decent photo of me he'll shoot one and say "there you go, it's a good one" and when I look it's fuzzy, my eyes are closed and not at all going to work.  So I have done a few run ins and those last couple of weeks of school I stood at my front door, placed my phone on the stairs took a snap and headed to work.

Most people don't notice what you're wearing.  Oh, they might say I really like that (fill in an article of clothing) you wear when it's (cold/hot/raining/a field trip/etc), but they won't necessarily miss it if you don't wear it for a while.  The kids at my school watch for my hand knits.  They notice my socks, every single scarf I wear, my hats and even a sweater or two, otherwise they could care less what I'm wearing.

At this point (day 86 and counting), I'm tired of black.  The little black dress may go with everything (I've not had the best of luck combining it with navy blue), but every now and again it needs a bit of something else...anything else.  I know that at the end of this you get a "reward" of some $$ off of a new dress, I know which dress will be my next one...but right now I have a lovely olive green one waiting for this challenge to end (on the last day of an upcoming camping trip).

The dress is comfortable and it's made me look at my (rather limited) wardrobe in a different way.  The past 86 days have been a learning eperience, a good one for the most part!!

#wooland  
 

Today is day 19 of this challenge.  I'm getting my hair cut (finally) this afternoon, so no morning picture :) .

Things I've learned in the last nearly 3 weeks.  I'm not a fashion plate, comfort is what drives what I wear and this dress is comfortable.  Lint rollers are a must, especially with dogs that shed like mine do.  I've spent both more and less time getting dressed.  Much of the last three weeks have been spent with copious amounts of snow; as I type this it is snowing outside, for the 3rd or 4th (I've lost count) day.  One would think that a sleeveless dress would be a crazy decision for springtime in Colorado, but having lived here nearly 30 years I know for a fact that layers are a necessary thing.  I have found different ways of wearing many of my "normal" clothing pieces and this is definitely not a bad thing.  So far no one has said anything about the fact that I've worn the same dress for so many days...but that could be the number of snow days we've had lately.

 

 Today is day 9 with the dress.  I need to work on my styling, which this weekend is merely "let's just hang out at home near the fire" with the blizzard the husband believed would (for the most part) miss us.  He's changed his tune, we've gotten over a foot and it's still snowing and snowing...and snowing.

This first week with the dress has been a learning one.  So far no one has said "hey did you wear that yesterday?" even tho for 3 days I wore the exact same thing with the dress (a long-sleeved t underneath) just added a duster, a t-shirt tied over the dress, and just plain.  Getting dressed is easier as I know what I'm wearing, accessorizing is more involved as I don't care to look the same every day.  So here are 8 of the nine photos of the past week and almost a half.  Eight days down...92 to go!

 

 

Day 2 With my photo buddy

Day 3, you really can't see the dress, and I have to say I'm not wild about the scarf.

Day 4 with my photobombers.  I need to find a better angle with the camera as this angle makes my body look bigger than necessary (it needs no help with looking bigger) and makes my head look small (my head may be empty, but it is not small.

I am hoping to find more inspiration for this challenge, but the dress is so comfy I could wear it as is and be perfectly happy.  Okay, maybe not "as is" since it's sleeveless and apparently we're supposed to get feet of snow this weekend.

I am looking forward to figuring out more creative ways to wear things with this dress. :)

 

A little challenge #Wool&100daydresschallenge

 

So this happened today.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to try the Wool& dress challenge.  Wear one of their wool dresses for 100 days, get a credit on your next dress.  I like wool, I like dresses, I enjoy getting a deal.  So here it is.  Got my Sierra dress and began this journey with my second covid vaccine. Love the fabric of the dress, love the dress...hopefully I will love it just as much 100 days from now.

Sometimes, I long for the "olden days"

This year is drawing to a close and I realize that around Christmas we all start looking to the new year, what will our resolutions be?  But a conversation I had with my mother about her new cell phone, her "android" as she calls it made me think backwards, sort of.  Mom was complaining about how long it takes her to make a phone call on her new "droid" and that every time she goes to use it the battery is dead, "the battery lasts no time at all, I just don't understand it".  I can remember when we got our first cell phone and how foreign it felt.  I was pregnant with my 3rd son, I'd lost four pregnancies at this point so my pregnancy with him was high risk.  My husband was working about an hour from home and wanted/needed for me to be able to get in touch with him if I had any problems this time, so we got this cell phone.  I remember it was a flip phone and I will admit that it was handy if I needed to get in touch with him, or him with me.  It made phone calls, it accepted phone calls and that was the extent of it.  We took it on vacation with us when we would take the two day drive from our house to California "in case something happened".  My mother would be upset because she would try to call several times while we were traveling and we'd never answer.  The phone at this point was still just a glorified wireless phone, when we traveled it was turned off and thrown into the glove box as a "just in case" sort of thing.

Flash forward 18 nearly 19 years.  Our phones seem to rule our lives.  We can surf the internet, call, text, listen to music...the dang thing does nearly everything except the windows.  We. are. never. out. of. reach.  I'm trying to explain to my elderly mother that her new cell phone is for all intents and purposes a computer.  We're three states away from each other and she refuses to go into the cell phone store and ask for help.  She's hard of hearing and I just want her to learn to use the damn thing so that she can text since she refuses to write a letter....doesn't matter what type, email or paper, the woman won't write.  I don't know why I think she'll text.  I do know that she hates when I don't carry my phone with me.  My kids hate it too, when they'll text or try to call me when I'm at work and my phone is turned to silent, or I ignore it until I have a break.

I miss 1985.  I really do.  I never thought I would.  I remember searching for a working pay phone and digging around for change so that I could use the phone.  I was 23 years old, but my mother still ruled my life with an iron hand (you get off at work at 10:30pm?  I'll call your apartment at 11:00 sharp, if you don't answer, then I'll call your friends and their parents until I find you....and yes my mother did this and yes I'm still apologizing all these years later for my mother's insane phone calls tracking down her grown daughter).  I kind of wish I'd had a cell phone then. But now I relish the idea that I'm "off grid" for a while.  I don't always have my cell phone on me.  Rarely is the volume so that I can hear it.  Sometimes I feel I just need to slow down and pretend it's 1978...well maybe not 1978 because we shared the phone line with our neighbor, which was a whole different sort of fun when you're a teenager...maybe we'll pretend it's 1980.  We have our own phone line, a letter is something you stick a stamp on and send through the mail.  You have to be patient, life isn't just a click away....  Maybe that's not so bad.