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.