Autumn Color Palette "Color Me Beautiful"

After reading countless blogs quoting Carole Jackson's "Color Me Beautiful" (the original seasonal color palette book), I finally decided to read the book that seemed to be the foundation.  I LOVED it, and I would highly recommend checking it out.

I decided on a fairly limited color palette with

 - neutrals of brown/cognac, denim, and cream

 - main colors of teal and olive

 - accent colors of coral (spring) and burnt orange (fall)

One thing I appreciated about the book was her insistence that redheads are warm autumns, not warm springs.  I had been struggling between the two, and thus I had too many choices.  The most major difference is that NAVY is NOT a recommended color for me.  I decided to follow one of my favorite quotes from the book: "Why look good when it's just as easy to look great?"  I've always felt that navy looked good on me, but maybe BROWN looks better!  I had been waffling between navy and brown as my main neutral, struggling to make a cohesive wardrobe with both.  So with the help of a friend, I decided to pull the plug on navy.  It doesn't look bad, but it will make my wardrobe much simpler and easier to mix and match if I stick with brown and get rid of the navy.

My classic example is that I bought two blanket scarves, because I was unable to decide which one was better, the navy one or the brown one.  Then I always felt funny if I wore the navy one with my brown coat, because it didn't quite match...maybe I should get a navy coat too?  That's when I realized that if I kept them both, I would almost need TWO wardrobes: one for navy and one for brown.  So with a sigh, I decided to get rid of the navy.  I went through my wardrobe and put away all the clothes that are not in my colors.  I've been shopping quite a bit, trying to replace them with items in my colors.  It's really too bad, because it wasn't that long ago that I started purchasing more navy as I started getting rid of black.  Also, I'm discovering that brown seems to be much more difficult to find in stores.  For example, the dress suit section typically contains suit jackets/pants/skirts in black, navy, and gray.

I have found with the pieces I've added so far (maybe I'll write another post sometime about that), it is much easier to mix and match my wardrobe.  I've added a lot of olive green (it's semi-neutral anyway) and coral.  I had added the burnt orange a few years ago, and I've always had a lot of teal.  I'm having a harder time finding clothes, but when I do, they are worth the effort. 

Sara's Accidental Size 18-month Spring/Summer Capsule Wardrobe

Last July, when we were in the US, I stocked up on the spring/summer clearance sales at Carters in size 18 months for Sara to wear this spring.  She's been steadily true to size in Carters, so I felt comfortable buying seasonal clothes in the age she would be (almost a year ahead of time).  Yesterday, I got them all out to do an inventory and see if I would need to buy anything else for the spring.  

All of Sara's 18-month clothes in a drawer organizer

When I saw how few clothes there were, I thought for sure I would need to buy a ton more for her to have enough.  Normally I have limited her clothes to one drawer full, which holds two drawer organizers.  Then with all my capsule wardrobe experience, I decided to see how many outfits I could make with what she already had.  

As I started laying out outfits, I couldn't believe the mix-and-match capabilities.  I had "accidentally" given Sara a limited color palette (navy/white/pink/light blue - with one exception yellow dress).  And I had a good, balanced amount of each different type of clothing.

Onesies - 3 short-sleeved, 1 long-sleeved

Shirts - 4 short--sleeved, 1 long-sleeved that can be cuffed

Rompers - 2 short-sleeved w/ long pants

Pants - 6 leggings (2 solid, 4 floral), 2 jeans, 1 jeggings

Sweaters - 3

I took pictures of each outfit, so I could count them.  Then the mathematical side of me got really into the combinations, and it ended up taking quite a while to do it all, but it was really fun for me.  It's a fun balance of math and creativity.  I took the outfit pictures by making all the combinations with each top.  I then sorted them into collages by short-sleeved and long-sleeved outfits, because she probably can't wear short sleeves in March, but she also can't wear long sleeves in July.  So, it's kind of like 2 capsules within a capsule.  But there may be some overlap if it's hot outside but cold inside, so the sweaters may still be helpful to bring in the diaper bag in July.

Short-sleeved outfits - 24

Some of these are just a little basic, like I'm not of huge fan of just a white onesie with leggings, but still possibilities.  Even so, this is more than enough!  I realized on our last trip how easy it was to wash a couple of Sara's things in the sink with her bath soap, so if we're traveling and she gets food on her clothes, I don't have to have a ton of other clean clothes.  I can just wash it, and it will be ready to wear in a day or so! I was worried about laundry detergent while traveling, because we use the sensitive kind for babies, but it's not a problem if I use her bath soap!

28 Outfits with onesies (and the green shirt)

22 Outfits with shirts (I miscounted the first time, thus the 2 blank squares)

That makes a total of 50 long-sleeved outfits.  I suppose that would've fit neatly into two 5x5 square collages, but miscounting is not worth doing all that work again.  That's incredible!

I counted dresses separately, because honestly, I typically only put Sara in dresses for church on Sundays.  I've realized that 3 dresses is plenty, and it will mostly be cold in church, so the sweaters add a few more possibilities.  I'm not sure when she will start walking, so she may need leggings even underneath the dresses to crawl around on the floor without hurting her knees.

Dresses - 3, making 5 outfits with sweaters

Also, we bought traditional Romanian outfits for the whole family, so Sara will also wear that to church sometimes while we're in the US.

Out of 23 items, I made 74 outfits!  After doing all the outfits, I realized there were a few things I had forgotten that were hanging in the closet:

Forgotten items

The navy vest will create more outfit combinations for sure.  The pink sweater (it looks like a coat, but it sweater material) is meant to match the blue onesie.  Then there is a rain jacket I bought in July, and a trench coat I bought at Zara for the fall that will also fit in the spring.  I didn't realize Zara's sizing was bigger than Carters, so we had to roll up the sleeves and put the snaps on a tighter notch this fall.  It should fit perfectly in the spring, though.



I may buy just a few things, like more white short-sleeved onesies, but I feel really good about this capsule!  It depends on how long she continues crawling what she will wear around the house, so I'm going to wait and see if I should buy some basic leggings or maybe even shorts/skirts/rompers to wear outside the house in the summer.  We will have her sleep in her size 12-month sleepers at least for a few more months.

I'm looking forward to catching the winter Carters sales to stock up on size 24 months!  Or maybe some 2T?  I'm thinking of getting a good mix of both.  I love onesies, but I know they don't work for potty training, so I will probably get good use out of both sizes.