June Shopping List

Here is my June shopping list!  Most of these items are pieces I've been thinking about for awhile and will be perfect the summer.  I've found a few options of each piece and will be shopping around to find the best deal and perfect fit.

White Denim Vest

LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's $35

Two by Vince Camuto, Nordstrom $89

Old Navy $29.94

AG Adriano Goldschied, Shopbop $135

White Embroidered Peasant Top

Madewell $110

J.Crew $110

Free People, Nordstrom Sale $70.80

Sanctuary, Nordstrom $88

Snake Skin Flats

Sam Edelman, Nordstrom $109.95

Sam Edelman, Nordstrom Sale $87.06

Vera Wang, Nordstrom Sale $104.98

And thats it! Three items. It's a pretty small list and I'm planning on sticking to it, I have to! Let me know what you guys are looking forward to purchasing this month!  There are so many amazing new spring and summer pieces out its hard to just pick a few!

I'm Back!!!

I’m back! Now I know its been 9 months since I last posted, and while I have no real excuse for my absence let me explain where I’ve been. 

I graduated in May of 2012, and with no job lined up I moved back into my parents house one state away.  While living at home I continued to looking for jobs and interviewing, moved from my childhood bedroom to the massive bedroom in the basement. Yes, I was the jobless 22-year-old living in my parents’ basement.  In June I got an internship with a former colleague of my dads working for his start up consulting company.  I mainly did marking for the company, but since it was just the owner and I, I did a lot of other random tasks. I was lucky enough to have a boss that encouraged me to continue to look for a full time job because despite wanting to bring me on as a full time employee, he just didn’t have the resources yet.

In September I received an email from a company I had applied to months before and since I never heard anything back, I’d given up on them. To my surprise they wanted to do a phone interview.  The interview happened the next week, and the week after that I went for an in person interview, and a week after that I was hired.  Finally I had a full time job! I had to relocate back to the state I attended college, the biggest catch? I started in two weeks. New city, new job, chaos ensued. 

I wasn’t able to find an apartment I like within those two weeks and I didn’t know the area well enough to know exactly where I wanted to live so I moved into a hotel.  Spent two weeks there until I found an apartment.  And not surprisingly, the main reason I chose my apartment…it has a walk in closet. I moved, with no furniture, just my clothes, TV, bluray, laptop and air mattress.  I spend about two or three weeks furnitureless until slowly my bed and couch were delivered and my parents were able to move my stuff from home to my new apartment.  By November I was pretty well settled into my new apartment, and basically after that I have no good excuse as to why I’ve been MIA.

But I’m back, and in full force…I hope.  I have so many ideas for new posts. The main reason I really wanted to get back to blogging, is I’ve developed a rather severe addiction to shopping and over the next month or so I want to go shopping free or at least do much, much less shopping.  This of course doesn’t include grocery shopping and such but I’ve accumulated so many clothes and shoes and accessories over the last few months that my new walk in closet is exploding. 

So I’m counting on you guys to keep me in check. I’m going to take this month by month, some months may be no shopping, some months I might give myself a budget, some months I might make a list of the items I want to buy and must stick to that list, and who knows what else.

You’re probably saying, “but Ali, if you’re not going to be shopping what are you going to be blogging about?”

Great question.  I’ll be posting my outfits of the day, maybe doing a closet tour or apartment tour. Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of ideas. 

So for now, I’d love your support in my almost shoppless June, and please help me not buy anything off my tiny list I’m working on creating. (Post to come soon)

Until my next post, here are some instagram OOTD, real working girl (kind of…) style.

Cleaning Out My Closet

I've been doing some serious shopping recently so it was finally time to clean out my closet.  I'm no expert on cleaning out a closet, I tend to be a hoarder when it comes to my clothes but I like to go through my clothes and get rid of things at least twice a year.

Throughout my years of clothes hoarder I've come up with several tips that I am going to share with you. Through these tips you will see that I'm a hoarding cleaner...is that even a real thing? Even when I'm cleaning my closet out I tend to keep pieces I do not need.

So this is what my closet looked like when I started.

My closet extends about two feet farther on each side and was jam-packed! I seriously struggled every time I had to put something away. 

Here are my 10 tips for cleaning out your closet

1.  Pull everything you don't want to keep and everything you are questioning about keeping

2.  Try all the pieces on (you never know, you may re-fall in love with a piece you thought you didn't     

     want anymore)

3.  If it is too big get rid of it

4.  If you can think of several outfits to create with a piece, keep it (and the hoarding tendencies are                   

     beginning to show)

5.  If you are questioning getting rid of it, keep it, but only if you have the space (again, the hoarding                     

     side of me is showing)

6.  Create a Goodwill/donate pile

7.  Create a consignment store pile (this is for your higher end pieces that you will be able to get a 

     decent amount of money for)

8.  Create a Plato's Closet/Clothes Mentor Pile to sell clothes that are still in good condition 

9.  Don't take everything to Goodwill/Plato's Closet/ the consignment store for a few days, think about  

     the pieces you are getting rid of for a few days because you may change your time about a piece  

     (once again I'm a hoarder)

10. Do this every few months, and at least once a year, once a season is even better

These are all the pieces I didn't think I wanted or was questioning keeping. 

And these are the pieces from that pile I decided to keep. I'm pretty impressed with how much I got rid of. 

And this is the pile of things going to Plato's Closet. 

And these are the pieces going to the consignment store. 

And this is the final product! I have so much more space...which in Ali's world (yes I'm writing in third person) means SHOPPING!!! 

Next, I should probably go through my shoes, only problem, I'm an even bigger shoe hoarder.