Color Palettes for Cameron & Sara

Cameron & Sara both have "Summer" seasonal color palettes.  (Cameron was blonde like Sara as a child.)  Although I've been thinking about the color palettes for a while, this is the first time I've put together a cohesive graphic.

This is Cameron's color palette: (possibly a work in progress)

I first started thinking about Cameron's color palette a few years ago, focusing on his dress clothes, namely what color suits and ties look best.  He mostly wears a navy, gray, or gray tweed suit.  Gray is a concession only for dress clothes, because it looks better than black or tan, and it is in the seasonal palette.  Maybe I should just add it to his graphic?  It's also interesting that, even though I thought at the time that he was a "Winter," I still instinctively didn't like black accessories on him.  So, he wears brown/cognac shoes, belt, and leather bag.  Not technically in the summer palette, but I think they look nice with navy.  I would like to try this out for a while, maybe starting by putting away the ties/dress shirts and polo shirts that don't fall into the color palette.  I wouldn't put away some of his favorite t-shirts, though.

This is Sara's color palette:

For Sara, I noticed that I bought her mostly navy, pink, and white clothing, with patterns of stripes and florals.  I just pulled out her spring/summer size 2T clothing, and I had bought lots of navy, pink, and white, but also a lot of turquoise.  Giving it more thought, I think I may have bought so much turquoise because it looks good on me, but she would look better in a more pure light/medium blue.  Next time she moves up a clothing size, I will keep that in mind.

Packing for Greece - March/April 2019 Capsule Wardrobe

So it's been over a year since I've written anything on my blog.  I've missed it, honestly, because it is relaxing to me, but I just haven't had/taken the time.  I've still been mostly living with a capsule wardrobe lifestyle, especially since I got pregnant in America with all my maternity clothes still in Romania. I had to buy just what I needed, although I invested in some pieces that were in my new color palette.  And now I'm living in that awkward postpartum time, where I need clothes that are breastfeeding-friendly, but I'm also trying to hide my "no I'm not pregnant anymore" belly.  Some of the most breastfeeding-friendly clothes are not the best at hiding my belly, so I have to try to find a balance.  My color palette hasn't changed since my last post, a year ago.

I thought I would start back by writing about packing for our trip to Greece March 22-29, which has ended up being a functional capsule wardrobe even until now.  I'm not sure if I'll get to take pictures of my individual clothing items, but I did make a packing list:

Olive green dress

Brown skirt

Olive green leggings 

Brown leggings 

Medium wash jeans

Teal T-shirt

Olive green T-shirt 

Teal tunic

Coral tunic

Teal crop top

Ivory cropped sweater

Coral cropped sweater

Tan long open sweater

Teal scarf

Teal patterned scarf 

Olive green bralette 

Teal bralette

Coral bralette 

White nursing tank

Pearl stud earrings 

Swimsuit - olive green high waisted bottoms & coral flowy tankini 

3 pairs black underwear 

3 white no show socks

2 white ankle socks

Nude sports nursing bra

Nude pull down nursing bra

2 sleep nursing dresses

Olive green robe

Tan Toms shoes

Tan flip flops

Tan ankle boots

Capsule wardrobes, color palettes, and packing cubes have been true life changes for me.  I put all my regular clothes in one packing cube:

My underwear, etc., in a second one: 

And my shoes in a third:

 My daughter's clothes all fit into one large packing cube:  (hers are pink):

My son's things fit into two packing cubes, regular clothes in one and burp clothes, blankets, etc., in another one.  For this trip, he used one of my husband's blue packing cubes and one of my purple ones, but I recently bought some green ones for him that we can use on our next trip.  Color coding really helps when we all share a suitcase.

I didn't plan exact outfits in advance for this trip, but I did take a picture each day. I tried to not wear the same thing or same color two days in a row, while still mix-and-matching a smaller amount of items.


Day 1: travel outfit - teal tunic, teal patterned scarf, white cropped sweater, jeans, ankle boots
(I wore the jeans and the boots for travel because they took up the most space/weight in our suitcase.)

I read somewhere to wear the same outfit when you travel to and from a place, and it is really easy.  I didn't take a mirror outfit picture on the first day, but here is a picture by the seaside.  I wore the ankle boots on the plane, then switched to the Toms after we arrived.  Because the sidewalks were so uneven, I ended up wearing the Toms whenever I was indoors at meetings and the ankle boots whenever we walked around the city.  I didn't wear the flip flops much, because we never went to the hotel pool.  I also wore the same jewelry every day - pearl studs and gold watch.  I can't wear much else, because my baby grabs and pulls.

 Day 2: white nursing tank, olive scarf, coral cropped sweater, jeans, Toms/ankle boots

Day 3: olive dress, white cropped sweater, Toms/ankle boots (it was warmer this day, so I didn't need a scarf)

Day 4: teal tunic tucked into my brown skirt, teal scarf, white cropped sweater, Toms/ankle boots

Day 5: pink tunic, teal patterned scarf, white cropped sweater, brown leggings, Toms/ankle boots

Day 6: olive t-shirt, tan long sweater, jeans, Toms/ankle boots (another warm day)

Day 7: a proper picture of my travel outfit

Overall, I feel like I packed very well.  There were a few things I didn't use, but not many.  It helped having a variety of shirts especially, since my baby spit up on all of them eventually.

Since the trip, I've basically been wearing the same clothes at home.  It's funny how taking a trip can help naturally make a capsule wardrobe.

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.

Personal Training - it's Christmas!

My original goal when I started personal training in August was to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Christmas.  About halfway through I realized I wasn't losing as much weight because I've been gaining muscle along the way, so I changed my goal to be able to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes.  I have met that goal!  I'm not to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm basically the same size.  However, I feel better than I did before I got pregnant, because I'm in better shape.  I'm eating better.  I have more energy.  And really, that's what it's about - being healthy.

I had a little bit of a setback emotionally when I went to a checkup this past week and saw that my BMI is considered "obese."  I mean, I know I'm overweight, but I didn't remember that I was in the obese range.  If I lose 2 more kilos, I will be in the "overweight" range.  But the thing with BMI is that it doesn't take into account the muscle mass I've gained in the past few months.  I would be interested to see what my body fat measurements are with calipers, but I didn't do that when I started, so it would still be hard to see how I've improved.  Anyway, when I talked about it with my trainer, she agreed with me that, while I'm not where I need to be, BMI is not the best measurement of a person doing strength training.  Ironically, my original goal weight when I started trying to lose weight before I got pregnant, is the highest weight in the "normal" BMI range.  I had actually picked that weight because it is what I weighed in college, and I felt it was an appropriate weight for my body and bone structure.  But now if I'm gaining muscle mass along the way, I think a better goal for me would be to look at my jeans size.  I'd like to go down one more jeans size, but not more than two sizes.  Also, my belly is still proportionally a little bigger than I'd like, but it's much better than it was.

I've decided that I'm going to continue with personal training for a while longer, until I get to a place where I want to just maintain.  I'm realizing that at this point, I wouldn't push myself enough physically at the gym to get the results I want.  I need someone else to help me know how much I can do. 

And of course, what started out as an experimental diet has become a lifestyle for me.  I originally only planned to do the "Sugar Detox" temporarily, but it has made me feel so much better to eat a lower-carb diet.  I have more energy and I no longer have "sugar crashes".  It will be harder in some ways as we spend six months in the US next year and travel a lot, but I want to eat well as much as it is within my control.  If we go to someone's house, I will eat what they serve me, but if we go to a restaurant, I will order a low-carb option.  I'm thinking about having one "cheat" day per week, where I can splurge a little, just for the emotional strength to keep going for the longer term.

So for a before and after picture, I found some pictures I took in June (at that point I was in the middle of the C25K but I hadn't yet done the Sugar Detox) and recreated them tonight.  The only thing I changed was that my navy leggings in the June pictures were maternity and I put them in storage, so I wore gray leggings.  Also, it's kind of funny that my smile is bigger in June, but I'm really tired and I didn't notice that I didn't have a good smile in my after pictures.  I promise I'm happy!  :)

Cold Weather Food Capsule

We *sort of* have a new cold weather food capsule going, so I thought I'd share.  Basically, I've been trying to make the switch from salad to soup.

Breakfast hasn't changed much, but we have made sweet potato pancakes a few times, which is a fun way to mix up the routine.

For lunch, I've started making two different vegetable puree soups: green (broccoli/green beans/peas, seasoned with parsley) and orange (sweet potato/carrots/cauliflower, seasoned with sage).  The orange soup has a little bit more carbs, but not too bad.  We usually eat them with ham and cheese rolled up.  Sara eats ham, cheese, and cut up vegetables, because she refuses to eat "baby food."  :)  I had aspirations of making other soups for lunch (chili, chicken vegetable), but so far we've had chili for dinner and never made chicken soup.  We also found a restaurant that delivers with a great cream of broccoli soup and grilled chicken, which we order quite a bit.  Occasionally, I still have salad if we're out at McDonald's or Subway.

For dinner, we have had chili, tacos, or a meat (salmon or burgers, usually) with sautéed vegetables (two of either broccoli, carrots, Brussel sprouts).  We also recently started making spaghetti again.  We've tried spinach noodles, but I'm looking forward to trying a spiralizer I bought recently to make zucchini noodles.  We made our own sauce for the first time last night, since the store-bought kind has sugar in it.

What looks best? I'd like your opinion.

Lately I've been experimenting to see what shapes are most flattering on my body.  I thought maybe it would be helpful to expand beyond my and my husband's opinions.  The better I know what looks best on me, the better I can narrow down my wardrobe.  Which do you think looks best, and why?  Please be kind and constructive!  :)

1. green maxi skirt
2. navy maxi skirt
3. green short dress
4. navy short jersey skirt
5. navy short circle skirt
6. brown corduroy pencil skirt

 (side view of the same skirts, dress not pictured)

1. tall cognac boots
2. ankle cognac boots
3. short brown boots w/ heel
4. metallic flats

(another church outfit I've worn lately)