30 Day Challenges,  Fashion

30 Days of Dresses: Playing Favorites

This is what I wore for my birthday. I nearly chose to wear a skirt instead and take a break from the dress challenge, but then I remembered my favorite dress, and how it goes well with my favorite cardigan and my favorite shoes, and there you have it! All around, my favorites.

I think my 30 Days of Dresses might turn into more like 20 Days of Dresses. I definitely have at least 30 dresses, but I’m getting to the point where the ones I have left are dresses I feel like I’ve worn recently– before the challenge started– and also, I am getting bored of my closet. Today, I’m taking a break from dresses to go back to skirts, but I’ll get back to dresses tomorrow and try to make it to at least 20 days.

It’s funny how I feel at a loss as to how to style dresses, but I could wear skirts for days on end without feeling restricted, style wise. Part of the problem might be that most of the dresses I own aren’t quite my style somehow. Perhaps it’s time to do a closet clean-out (I already have a few dresses from this challenge that I’ll be getting rid of) and then only buy dresses that I absolutely love.

The one thing I love but don’t love about these shoes is that they are velvety, so any time there’s any sort of wet that I walk through, it soaks into the fabric and my toes get wet. But it’s a small price to pay for such pretty shoes, right?

I really want to find more shoes in this style. I’ve seen a few pairs on Modcloth.com that I may have to splurge for, like this pair… and this one… ah! I got rid of so many old pairs of shoes when we moved. I can totally justify buying new ones.  Although the thrifty shopper in me has a hard time spending more than $30 on a pair of shoes.

I may start actually budgeting my spending, though. Right now, while I haven’t bought new clothes in quite  a while, I tend to just buy whatever I like and not worry about whether it’s in my budget or not. Mostly because… it usually is within my budget, as I have very few bills to pay. But there are these articles in Lucky magazine about three women (who… work for Lucky? I can’t remember their roles exactly) who have their monthly budgets and how they spent them on clothing or accessories, and I think I need to start doing that. Of course, their monthly budgets range from $500 to $3,000, which is incredibly high to me.

But setting a monthly budget would help me when I’m wondering whether I want an item of clothing or not– even though I don’t buy a lot of clothes anyway, I still tend to buy something just because it looks good at the moment. Having a more set amount of money a month to spend on my closet would really help when I’m choosing pieces to purchase.

And, having a set budget would also be fun in a way because at the end of each month, I could do a breakdown post of the budget, what I spent, what I bought, and what I have left.

Anyway. It’s time for me to leave for work! I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

9 Comments

  • Demy

    Hi! 🙂 I love so much this look! It was the perfect look for this special day! You always make print mixing look so effortless and easy… My favorites though are these adorable earrings and the cupcake necklace. And of course the shoes. It doesn’t matter that they get wet, they’re too pretty to even care for some wet toes 😛 And as for the Modcloth pairs, I don’t really like the second pair, but the first one is cute. Yet, almost 60$ for a pair is a little too high, but I do believe you deserve it 😛 And as for the dress challenge, maybe you should do a skirt one! You’d definitely succeed hahah! 😀 And the budget thing is a really good idea. I think I’m gonna try this as well this summer once I find a job, because it’s a pity to spend money on something you don’t really want but looks good at the moment. If you get on it, let us know 😀 Many many kisses :* 😀 Oh and by the way, I hope May will be awesome 😀

  • Salazar

    Love the dress! The floral print is super pretty. But I know what you mean about feeling style-restricted in dress though. A dress is almost a whole outfit by itself, you can switch out the cardigan or shoes or accessories, but there’s not much else you can do to change up the silhouette or the style.

  • Loren

    I’ve been feeling the same way about the dresses in my closet. They aren’t quite ‘my style’. I love this look on you though. I do have a fairly strict budget for most things. But after I’ve stuck with it a couple months it got really easy.

  • DeAnna

    So it’s been a while since I’ve been on your blog 🙁 I really should make a mental reminder to come back more often! I absolutely love those shoes and the price you got them for! Total steal! haha. I love the new look of your website!

  • Megan

    You look beautiful! I love the stripes and floral together. Also, I really like your new header – it looks great!

    I try to stick to a monthly budget as well. I have a thrifting budget that I give myself, which is under $100, but it helps me pick and choose between items.

    • Mara

      Thank you! I wish it didn’t show when they got wet, but I just realized I have some waterproof spray stuff that might work to keep them from looking so funky when they’re wet.