Clara Days 4 through 8

This post is for all the people who saw my children Sunday morning and thought maybe we had become homeless. Or brushless. Or robbed of all hair bows....

Sunday was race day, and daddy dressed the girls. He is pretty competent in that area, and I don't always pick out clothes for him in advance, but this day I did. Two very cute coordinating but not matching outfits. Ah, the photo ops! I carefully ironed the outfits and laid them out for Mike the night before the race. 

I left early the next morning as everyone was eating breakfast, and I was surprised to find my girls in what looked like pajamas at the finish line when I finished the race. Upon closer inspection, they were wearing their "workout clothes" apparently in solidarity to mommy running (cute!) Also in solidarity, they apparently decided to forgo brushing their hair, and also affixing it with any type of barrette or hair tie. Maybe they figured their ragamuffin looks would distract from my sweaty, smelly self after the run? Well played, girls, well played. Of course Sunday was the day I ran into EVERYONE. Oh, you know the type of day. Where you have on no makeup, an old t-shirt that you kid spit up all over, and you haven't showered in 2 days? Then you run into the grocery store to buy some emergency supplies (chocolate, wine, and diapers) and you see your old college classmates, who you haven't seen in 5 years, and they are dressed zippily in business casual with a perfect figure and even more perfect hair? Not that that has ever happened to me, of course not, but I'm just saying...

So, if you haven't seen my kids in 6 months, and you're wondering if we're trying the hands off natural parenting approach, these photos will lay your mind at ease. Here is Clara Couture days 4-8. And for reference, it was 90 Monday, and it's going to be 60 tomorrow. So yeah, Clara Couture will be taking a few days off until summer decides to grace us with it's presence again.

Day 4

Here's a reuse of one of our Disney t shirts. Got this beauty on Amazon for something like $6. Paired with some Matilda Jane ruffles we bought last summer.

Day 5

Love, love, love this dress (and Clara's face). I bought a dress from Matilda Jane's Platinum site. That's like winning the lottery in and of itself, since you basically have to be on the computer when they upload or within 30 seconds to even have a chance. Got the dreaded phone call that they had oversold the dress I caught, but the silver lining was that they would let me pick ANY platinum dress I wanted to replace it. I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but the bottom tier of this dress has elephants (swoon). This one is going to have to come out of the closet a few times this summer for sure!

Day 6

This little beauty is a resale pick. We had this exact dress for Olivia when she was Clara's age, but I accidentally bleached the whole thing. It was fun finding this one again. 

Day 7

Another old Gymboree piece. Also got this at a resale. We had lots of this line for Olivia, but not this particular dress. It's a bright pink with turtles, so cute!

Day 8

Boutique end of season dress. Bought this in the fall and stored it. It's Elaine Et Lana and I love the color, the ruffles, and how stinking soft it is. Clara decided it deserved a little cowgirl stylin', she is truly her own little person!

Clara Couture Days 2 & 3, Kinda

I've been getting lots of concerned texts and phone calls..."what happened to the CC project?" "is Clara wearing any clothes?" "did Bravo pull out of the production?" All I can say is, chill people (or that's what I would say if any of the aforementioned items had actually happened. But they didn't. Nope. Not even one. "Is anybody listening, noooo....there's no reply at all"). 

Anyways, back to Clara, and her clothing, and FUN!! Did I mention in my previous post I had too many clothes? Because why, I live in Indiana. And since it's Indiana the gods of nature decided it was getting hot way to fast, and they put the brakes on the whole shebang. Which is fine, in my normal life, because high 60's and 70's pretty much sounds like the perfect weather to me, but it does nothing for modeling my kid's summer wardrobe. Just for fun, I took some photos of her in her transitional spring clothes, so you can see what's she up to. I'll call these days 2 & 3, but they might actually only count for half a day each.

First, a Matilda Jane set. The thing I love about this brand is that although the dress and pants were originally worn full length, she can still wear them after she's grown as crops and a more tunic-y style. Accessories are completely Clara's department. 

Next, and second, and last, we have a Gymboree set. Got this at a garage sale for a buck. Yep, I big puffy heart garage sales!! And this is the new facial expression daddy has taught her for photos. Joy

Clara Couture

My kids have too many clothes. There! They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, and boy do I ever. It was driven home this weekend when I switched over Clara's closets from winter to spring/summer. I kept pulling out outfits, and outfits, and...um...yes, outfits. It wouldn't be so bad except that A.,we live in Indiana, where summers are short, and B., she goes to preschool 3 days a week, which of course she has a totally different set of clothes for, so the ones in her closet were for 4 days a week. If the weather stayed nice starting today I don't think she would repeat an outfit on a nonschool day until September. Sep-freaking-tember.

I decided to bite the bullet and change over Olivia's closet too, and although she has plenty of clothes, it's a more reasonable and rational amount, so of course had to give myself a big ole pat on the back for that one ;)

After 7 years of dressing little people, I took a little time for introspection and asked myself why my kids have so many clothes. Honestly, I think I can trace this back to my own childhood, and my urge to now live vicariously through my children. My family wasn't poor, we always had plenty to eat and lived in a nice home, but for a girl like me shooting up like a weed every year, there wasn't always money for the best clothes. I got some strange, strange hand me downs from friends and family, stuff that may have been in style 10 years prior but didn't even come close in 1992 when I was in middle school. I was tall, okay, I guess I AM tall, but reached my full adult height in middle school, in a day and age where tall jeans were not even on my radar, and if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me "where's the flood?" I would have at least a dollar ;) Yes, I was an awkward, bookish, crooked teethed short pant wearing fool, and I guess that stuck with me since now I way overcompensate for my children. Of course, the rational part of my mind says that for all those awkward moments, my life turned out pretty okay, actually great, so maybe it's not the worst thing that ever happened to me. Then the irrational part of my mind says, "Oooooo....a sale."

To help me remember the fact that we do not need this many clothes, I'm going to post a photo of Clara in her outfit each day, until the day comes where we repeat. You may be surprised at the clothes she wears. Yes, she has some really nice, new, pricey items. But for every one of those, she has 3 things I purchased second hand. I love to shop garage sales and children's consignment sales, so I pick up a lot there. And I buy ahead. Most of her new items are things I bought at deep discount at the end of last summer, and held in a bin until this summer. I'll share what the items are and where they came from, if I remember. You can read all about it, or just look at the photo of my cute kid. Whatever floats your boat.

And lest you start to worry about Olivia and her "uninclusion" in the Clara Couture Project, just remember that a 7 year old has very strong opinions about her clothes, so she has less because she likes less. She'll probably sneak into a couple of photos anyways, I just can't help it.

So here we go, day 1:
It was 82 degrees here today, lovely, lovely! We broke out this Mim-Pi dress that I bought at discount last summer. Saw one of my online friend's daughters in it and coveted from a distance, but when it went on sale I snatched it up. It's the most beautiful shade of blue, and it has horses on it. Ah....sigh...love. This isn't the best photo of the dress but it's the best Clara photo, and since after all everything we do is for our kids, I picked this one to share.