My (lack of) 50's Style

One of my favorite things about the 1950's housewife is that she always, and I am always, looked her best.  Me on the other hand?  Unless we are going out somewhere, I'm sitting at home with my jeans and (stained) t-shirt, hair in a frizzy pony tail, and not a speck of makeup.  I feel like a skuzz and hate to go to the door if someone rings the bell.  I mean I'm not walking around nasty dirty but still I don't feel "pretty", you know what I mean? 

Let's just go over my contents of my closet, shall we?  The majority of my clothes are dark in color (black is slimming right? =P) *Quick Note - If you want to skip over the contents of my closet and get to the "point" of this post, scroll down to the next asterisk (*).

Dresses:
1 floor length black (This is what I call my "fancy" dress)
1 knee length black (Even I have a LBD)
1 knee length floral (worn once because I got too fat for it, have since lost weight, yay!)
1 knee length black & white (favorite!)
1 knee length white & gray (newly purchased for the hubs birthday last Feb, OK so not new exactly)

Skirts:
1 long black
4 knee length black
2 olive green
1 khaki

Pants:
4 jeans (3 blue, 1 white)
2 slacks (1 gray, 1 black)

Shorts:
2 jean
1 khaki

Now looking at all of that, I would think to myself, "Well what's the problem?  I've got nice clothes, why can't I make that stuff work?  Well the problem is my collection of "tops".  It consists of mostly t-shirts and more t-shirts lol. Honestly I can't remember how many shirts I have at the moment and I'm not going to go count them right now (I know, I know, lazy!) so I'm just going to estimate.

Sweaters:
1 black
hmm I honestly only can remember the one!  I need more sweaters!  Or maybe I have some and just never wear them?  I'll have to check that out!

Long Sleeved T's:
3 black
2 gray
1 blue
1 pink

Short Sleeved T's:
8000 - OK not that many but at least 30.  They are all different colors!  But I almost ALWAYS wear T's.  I don't have hardly any winter shirts because I just wear a t-shirt under my coat.  It's crazy now that I think about it...  I've got problems lol! 

Almost forgot the tank tops!  It's summer and I have a ton of tank tops...  Probably 10-15 in varied colors.  I wear them to sleep in or around the house.  Rarely outside the house but if it's hot enough, I'll totally go for it!


*My goal is to spend the next 30 days making what I currently have in my wardrobe work.  Fall & Winter are rapidly approaching so I will be trying to make a few sweater additions but as I said, I'm just going to try and work with what I already have.  Later today, I will be going to clean out my closet and I will *try* to take and post photos for you guys.  Once I get things sorted out and organized, I'll take inventory of what I actually have and post an updated list (hopefully, you know how it is as a mom, you get side tracked!).  With that list, I will plan out my outfits a couple of days in advance! 

Why am I doing this?  Is it because my husband thinks I'm a slob with no style?  Is it because I think housewives should always look fabulous?  Well no...  It's because I am tired of feeling like a frumpy housewife.  It's because I want to take pride in my appearance.  It's because I want to feel good.  Am I going to play dress up like it's the 50's, wearing my dresses and pearls every single day?  No.

What I am going to do every single day is:

- Wear a nice, yet comfortable outfit every day.  (This may even include a t-shirt, because my collection of what I would call "nice" tops is very limited.
- Accessorize with some jewelry.  I have a lot of nice jewelry yet the only things I ever wear are my wedding band and simple hoop earrings.
- Stop just pulling my hair back in a pony tail!  I exercise daily so I have to have a pony tail then but lately, it's been up all day every day.  So I'm going to start prettying it up!
- Wash, moisturize, and makeup my face every morning!  I am great about washing it before bed but totally slack on the morning routine.  Also, I'm not talking all out war paint but a little powder and mascara really makes me feel pulled together.

That's really not so bad is it?  I mean how long will it take to do all that in the morning, 10 minutes at most? 

I have one more thing that I want to touch base on really quickly and I hope it doesn't get me virtually thrashed.  I think that it is extremely important to "pretty up" for yourself.  To give yourself a bit more confidence and to hold your head higher (some of you may not need that, and if not good for you, I admire you!).  But I also think that it is important as a wife and mother to look nice for your family.  Personally, I know from past experiences that my husband notices (and comments on it) when I take a little more pride in my appearance.  When I first met him, I was always dressed nicely and always had makeup on.  Why should we stop doing this once we are married? 

So if you are like me, tired of feeling frumpy.  If you want to start putting a little bit of effort into the way you look each morning, join me!  We're all in this together anyway right?  Let's look awesome while we're at it!  If anyone wants to do this with me, let me know!  Either here, on my FB page, or email me.  We will support each other!  =)

Also keep in mind, I'm no style expert.  I'm just a woman, a housewife, and a mother wanting to un-frump.  I don't think I'm qualified to write a "how to" exactly but maybe one day, at the end of this exercise, I will be able to!