The beauty of a Capsule wardrobe

It’s been a while now since I stumbled upon the concept of capsule wardrobes. It was in April I first read this Blogpost  which changed my opinion about clothes and made my life a bit easier. My wardrobe looked like it had been bombed, I couldn’t find anything and it was a real struggle every day to put together an outfit. All these clothes and nothing to wear. I read this post a Saturday night and really wanted to start right away, but who purges their wardrobes on a Saturday night?? I almost couldn’t sleep all night as I was so excited to start sorting and purging.

 

I spent most of he Sunday in the bedroom with all my clothes in a pile on the bed. I couldn’t believe how much it really was. I followed the 5 steps, and I have to say already on the 1st step, you get so much more control. For me choosing a base color was essential, I chose navy and took all the black I wanted to keep and stored it another place. I decided to use navy for spring and summer and use black for autumn and winter. (That’s not exactly what happened, as now black is phasing out of my wardrobe, but that’s another story). What happened was that I fell in love with my clothes all over again, I realised I had a lot of good clothes, and suddenly I was able to see them, and put together outfits with them.

After this lifechanging Sunday in April I’ve actually had a quite simple life when it comes to get dressed. I know where everything is, everything goes together more or less, and when I buy something new I always make sure it will go with at least five other items in my wardrobe. Ofcourse I’ve done a couple of bad choices too, but all and all I’m happy with what I’ve bought. Like this striped dress which seemed to pair nicely up with almost everything.

I’ve had a couple of purges after this Sunday in April, it’s a  work in progress really. And every time I’ve purged it’s been easier to let go of clothes that I’ve kept just in case or for sentimental reasons. I will also give the advice, don’t purge the winter clothes in summer or vice versa. It might be you throw out something you really need. If you have a winter coat you’re not that happy with, wait until winter and until you found the perfect coat before you let it go. If not you might end up buying another coat you’re not that happy with just because it’s cold and you really need a coat to stay warm.

This has all been so inspiring and I’ve also learned I could be an inspiration to others, who would have thought?  When starting up this blog I never intended to be a model myself, I used a mannequin to photograph my clothes until one day my friend Kari told me I should be a model myself and offered to take the photos. We’ve had a couple of photos shoots and a lot of fun, to my surprise I’m not half bad as a model.

I’ve been playing around with my clothes, tried out combinations I really didn’t think would work, some of them has ended up on the list of favorite combinations. I’ve learned always to take photos of the outfits, for some reason it’s much easier to judge from a photo if something works or not. So this is another advice to you, try on different combos, take photos, dare to be silly in front of the camera, pretend you’re a model on a photo shoot. Remember all photos can be deleted and no one needs to see them, and maybe some of them turns out real good. Here’s a Selfies for dummies crash course.

So if you have loads and loads of clothes in your wardrobe, but nothing to wear, consider a capsule wardrobe. It doesn’t have to be a set number of clothes, if you have 100 pieces or more you’d like to keep, keep them, but sort them into seasons and colors. That way yo will get a much easier life when it comes to get dressed in the morning. Challenge yourself, do a 30×30 challenge, that means for 30 days you only wear 30 pieces of clothing. Or even more advanced a 10×10 which is, well I guess you’ve got the picture.

Until next time

Kari

 

 

10×10 challenge – Days 8,9 and 10

Yay I’ve done it, 10 days wearing only 10 pieces of clothing, 3 pairs of shoes, a couple of accesories and 2 pieces of outerwear. I’m not sure if I’m happy  it’s over or if I will miss it. To sum it up, it’s been quite easy to dress and I have a lot of options left in my Stylebook app which I haven’t used. The hassle has been that I had to wash clothes more often then I’m used to, and that it was so little to wash so impossible to fill up the washing machine. After all we’re only 2 adults in this household so we don’t exactly have piles of dirty laundry every day. So from an environmental point of view this was not a big success.

Da har jeg vært igjennom 10×10 utfordringen, dvs i 10 dager har jeg brukt kun 10 plagg, 3 par sko, et par sjal og smykker og to ytterjakker. Totalt 11 antrekk i løpet av disse 10 dagene og enda har jeg mange kombinasjoner jeg ikke har brukt lagret på Stylebook appen. Det som har vært aberet er jo at når man kun har 3 t-skjorter og en genser å bruke så må man vaske forholdsvis ofte og siden vi bare er to voksne mennesker i husholdningen så har vi jo ikke akkurat hauger med skitneklær. Det holder normalt lenge med å vaske 2 maskiner i uken utenom sengeklær og håndklær. Så for miljøet sin del har det vel ikke akkurat vært en suksess.

Day 8

This was the day I dreaded the most, because me and my friend had a stand on a market where we sold clothes, shoes and other stuff we don’t use. It was an outdoor market and it was quite cold and it rained part of the time. I had to use most my clothes, and also a wool singlet which was not on my list. In  total 4 layers and still it was cold. Due to the weather there weren’t that many customers either, but we got rid of something and did come home with some money. I have not any selfie from this day, but here’s what I wore.

Dag 8
Dette var dagen jeg ikke helt var helt forberedt på da jeg plukket klærne for 10 dagers utfordringen. Et bruktmarked ute i 14 grader og regn, mange timer forholdsvis i ro i salgsboden min venninne og jeg hadde var en litt kald opplevelse. Jeg brukte omtrent det jeg hadde av klær i tillegg til det på collagen hadde jeg også på en ullundertrøye. Siden været var som det var så ble det en litt langtekkelig dag, lite folk og ikke akkurat storsalg, kom da hjem med noen kroner. Det hadde nok vært en helt annen opplevelse om været hadde vært bra og kundene flere.

Rating of the outfit: 6, it was a little to cold, I wish the sweater had been wool and that I had brought a wool hat and gloves too.

Day 9
I dressed up a little and went to have lunch and dinner with a friend. It was one of these days when sun is shining one minute and the next it’s pouring down. I managed to keep almost dry as I also had my umbrella with me. It was a time I wished I’d put on my wellies though, I was afraid my brown leather shoes would be ruined by all the rain.

Dag 9
Lunch og middag hos en venninne. Regn og sol om en annen, noen skikkelige flobyger innimellom, da jeg gikk av bussen hadde himmelens sluser åpnet seg og jeg angret på at jeg ikke hadde tatt på meg sjøstøvler. Utrolig nok kom jeg meg noenlunde tørrskodd fram. Jeg hadde jo selvfølgelig også med paraply.

Rating of the outfit: 8 but just because it rained so much. I like the combination of navy and coral and also the belt on the blazer.

Day 10
And I’m back in my most worn item so far this month. My Global funk dressy sweat pants, I do love them. They are so comfy and I can also wear them without any problem just about anywhere and still feel dressed properly. This was the day I cleaned our fridge, it was a much needed thing to do, I just hate cleaning the fridge, don’t you? No need for much accessories, but I tried on a wrist scarf for 5 minutes just because I’d seen it and I thought it looked kind of cool. Not very practical for cleaning the fridge though. My necklace is from Syster P,

 Dag 10
Igjen har jeg på meg månedens mest brukte plagg,  kosebuksen fra Global Funk. Den er både behagelig og jeg kan egentlig bruke dem hvor som helst. Trenger ikke skifte om jeg skulle finne på å gå på butikken eller gjøre noe annet, i denne er jeg kledd for det meste. Jeg så et bilde av en som brukte et silkeskjerf rundt håndleddet og syntes det så litt kult ut så det måtte jeg jo prøve. Hadde det på i fem minutter for på agendaen sto vasking av kjøleskapet. Ikke akkurat praktisk da med et silkeskjerf rundt håndleddet. Jeg hater å vaske kjøleskapet, men det må gjøres og burde vært gjort mye oftere. Smykket med bokstav på er forresten fra Syster P, det finnes på Floyd.no. Jeg har kjøpt det på Freequent i Galleriet. Fikk spørsmål om dette smykket av en venn. Jeg har brukt det mye. Lurer dere på hvilket merke og hvor ting er kjøpt så må dere bare spørre så skal jeg svare så godt jeg kan.

Rating of the outfit: 8, it’s a bit boring, but it served it’s purpose. And I do love those pants.

So all and all, I have been quite content with my 10 items and the little extras. It was a great exersise for packing for a weeks trip to London in the autumn. Now I wonder what to wear tomorrow, I have endless options now that i have my whole closet to choose from again. HELP!!!

Alt i alt så har jeg vært ganske fornøyd med de 10 plaggene pluss, pluss. Jeg skal en tur til London i høst så dette er jo egentlig en ganske bra pakkeliste til turen. Nå lurer jeg på hva i all verden jeg skal ha på i morgen, det er jo endeløse muligheter nå når jeg får hele garderoben min å velge fra igjen. Hjelp!!!

Until Next time

Kari

10 X 10 challenge – Days 5,6 and 7

Day 7 already, and I’m still going strong. Have been a little under the weather a couple of days and had to relax a lot. When just at home relaxing I’ve used my comfy pants from Global Funk, ended up using them 3 days in a row so not very inventive. My waterproof jacket has also been used the few little errands I had to go.

Dag 7 allerede og jeg holder ut, nå har det vært et ar dager jeg har følt meg litt pjusk og da har det blitt til at jeg bare har slappet av i kosebuksen min fra Global Funk, så jeg har ikke vært så veldig kreativ. Regnet har det også så når jeg har vært noen småturer ute så har den vanntette jakken vært god å ha.

Day 5
The coral scarf added a pop of color,  I should have worn a black or flesh colored bra, but I was just at home and no one but my hubby saw me, and now everyone who reads this blog. Do I care? Not so much.

Det koralfargede skjerfet gjorde at det ble et antrekk og ikke bare en t- skjorte og kosebukse. Jeg hadde hvit BH under, ikke så pent, men det var jo bare min kjære som så meg og nå alle dere som leser bloggen, ryktet mitt får seg nok en knekk etter dette.

Rating of this outfit: 9 it got me through a not to good day, and made me look better than I felt.

Day 6 morning

It was my hubbies birthday, I started the day in  a tee and the same cosy pants as the day before, and the cardigan was on and off. Had to pop out a errand in the rain too. I was still not feeling to good, but better. I put up the flag and prepared the gifts.

Bursdagen til min kjære, jeg startet dagen i t-skjorte og kosebukse, strikkejakken var av og på alt ettersom. Formen var stigende og jeg fant fram flagg og pakket inn gaver til min kjære, et lite ærend ut også. 

Rating of this outfit: 8 due to it was a little boring, other than that it worked well.

Day 6 evening
Since it was my hubbys birthday I couldn’t walk around in a tee and cosy pants all day, I had to dress up a little. As I had no dress among the 10 pieces I considered break the challenge, but accidently I had seen a Youtube video a couple of days before how to make a shirt to a skirt. In the video they also showed a sweater and I had just the right sweater among my 10 pieces. We popped a bottle of Prosecco and later we went for dinner at the local diner.

Jeg kunne ikke dasse rundt i T-skjorte og kosebukse på min kjæres bursdag så utpå ettermiddagen skiftet jeg. Jeg vurderte å bryte utfordringen og ta på en kjole, men tilfeldigvis hadde jeg sett en Youtube video et par dager før der en dame viste hvordan man kunne bruke topper og gensere som skjørt. Jeg hadde akkurat den riktige genseren. Vi åpnet en flaske Prosecco og senere gikk vi å spiste på kebabsjappen. Skikkelig gourmetmåltid.

Rating of this outfit: 10, I felt surprisingly comfortable in my sweaterskirt, I’m sure doing this again. Might also be the Prosecco talking.

Day 7
Now I’m starting to feel it’s good the 10 days soon will be over. Started the day with the shirt tucked into the jeans, felt a bit uncomfortable and put under a white tee and wore the shirt open instead.

Kjenner nå at det er greit at de 10 dagene snart er slutt. Begynte dagen med skjorten nedi buksene, men følte ikke det var helt komfortabelt så endte opp med å ta på en hvit t-skjorte under og bruke skjorten åpen utenpå.

Rating of this outfit: 8 after untucking

Tomorrow I’m attending a thrift sale and will spending the whole day outdoors and not moving that much. I suppose the challenge will be broken as I might to put on some wool to keep warm.

I morgen skal jeg og en venninne ha en bod på et utendørs bruktsalg, Er redd utfordringen blir brutt da, for om det blir kjølig så blir det nok ull som gjelder.

Until next time

Kari

10 x10 challenge – Days 2,3 and 4

Ok I’m well into my 10 X 10 challenge, it’s going very well and I think I can manage for 10 days. I have actually lot more outfits of the 10 items and come up with new every day.

Da er jeg godt i gang med 10×10 utfordringen. Det går overraskende bra og jeg tror nok jeg skal klare å holde det gående i 10 dager. Jeg har jo lagt inn en del forskjellige antrekk i Stylebook appen og jeg finner på flere hver dag.

If you don’t know what it means you can read about it here:
Hvis du ikke har fått med deg hva en 10 x10 utfordring er så kan du lese om det her:
10×10 challenge

Day 2
A day for relaxing at home doing nothing. Due to my condition, I have vestibular neurithis, I have to relax after days I’ve done a lot. It’s really annoying, but it’s the way it is. I try to not plan things 2 days in a row.

Tee from H&M, Taupe jeans from Floyd and Smith (I’m om my 4th pair with these particular jeans in this color now). Taupe cardigan from Sisters point, few years old, so soft and comfy. Leopard Scarf as a headband, necklace made of my friend for my 50th birthday. Watch from Michael Kors.

Dag 2
Ble en avslappende dag hjemme. Pga at jeg fremdeles sliter med virus på balansenerven så trenger jeg å hvile etter dager jeg har gjort en del. Så jeg har lært meg å planlegge dagene mine slik at jeg ikke har store planer 2 dager på rad, jeg trenger tid å hente meg inn igjen. Irriterende, men det er bare slik det er og akkurat nå må jeg bare leve med det.

Rating for this outfit: 9
headband did not work for more than 5 minutes or else it would be a 10, I have to short hair and the scarf was to smooth.



Day 3
I was out with for dinner with the girls, and also met up with my cousin and her husband first. It was a day where the weather couldn’t really decide so I brought both umbrella and sunglasses. It turned out to be quite nice and sunny in the end so needed the sunglasses and had to put the scarf in my bag. I have left outerwear out of the challenge as we never know how it’s going to be. I wore my pink denim jacket on day 3.

Jeans – Fiveunits, Pink denim – H&M, scarf – old one, shoes – New Balance, bag – Mulberry, sweater – Anna Field, watch – Daniel Wellington

 Dag 3
Var i byen og spiste middag og litt shopping med 2 venninner. Før det møtte jeg min kusine og hennes mann, vi drakk te og jeg leverte en kanin som hennes barnebarn skal ha. Og som en ekte Bergenser har jeg med både solbriller og paraply. Fikk kun bruk for solbrillene og det ble varmere enn forventet så sjalet havnet fort i vesken. Yttertøy er ikke med i de 10 plaggene, om de hadde vært det så hadde de jo fylt opp halve kvoten.

Rating of this outfit 8 
but only as it got warmer than expected, I could have worn a tee instead of a sweater and dropped the scarf.

Day 4
Again a day at home, relaxing and preparing clothes for a thrift sale on Sunday. Tee and cosy pants very casual, but adding the necklace I found when “thrifting” my closet the other day makes the outfit a little more dressed. My cosy pant are olive and not grey as in the collage. Later I put on the taupe cardigan. Well I put it on and took it off a couple of times to be honest.

Tee – Lindex, pants- Global Funk (supercomfy), necklace – bought in Greece years ago

Dag 4
Ennå en dag hjemme, slapper av og forbereder klær som skal selges på et loppemarked på søndag. T skjorte, kosebukse og et smykke jeg fant da jeg holdt på å finne ting til loppemarkedet. Det ble kjøpt på en Gresk øy for en del år siden. Taupe cardigan var av og på noen ganger i løpet av dagen.

Rating of this outfit: 10

Until next time

Kari

10×10 challenge Day 1 – And I’m an addict

I have to admit it, I’ve become totally addicted to Stylebook. Maybe not the worst addiction one could have. For those of you who don’t know what Stylebook is, it’s an app for Ios and it cost a small amount to download it. About $5 I guess. It takes a bit of time to register your clothes in the app, but once it’s done you have a very useful toy. What I have done is that I find similar clothes online and put them into my closet on Stylebook, I only photograph things if it’s some special items that’s a few years old. If you buy something new it’s easy to find the exact item and put it into your Stylebook closet. I like to get all my items pure and take away the background so the collages looks clean. It takes a little more time and some skills, but once you understand the concept of how it’s done it’s totally worth it. Under you can find my 10X10 challenge list of the items I’m going  to use the next 10 days. I have 10 pieces of clothing and will and added shoes and other accessories that goes with them. So this is what I’m going to wear the next 10 days. I have also made a pack list for our vacation in Croatia which I will show you in another post.

Jeg må bare innrømme det, jeg har blitt totalt avhengig av appen Stylebook som kan lastes ned på ios for 44 kroner. Det tar litt tid å få registrert alle klærne i appen, men det er så verdt det når det er gjort. Dessuten er det morsomt også å holde på med spesielt om du er litt datakyndig. Det jeg gjør er å finne plagg som ligner på nettet. En marineblå blazer f.eks er en marineblå blazer selv om den ikke er 100% lik den du har. Noe må man fotografere selv, har man et plagg som er litt spesielt og noen år gammelt er det ikke så lett å finne noe som ligner. Det som er viktig da er at det fotograferes mot en bakgrunn som har en helt annen farge og som er slett, da er det lett å få bort bakgrunnen. Det tar litt lengre tid og man trenger litt datakunnskaper, men når du har skjønt hvordan det virker så går det som en lek. Nå har jeg bestemt meg for å være med på en 10×10 utfordring. Dvs, jeg har plukket ut 10 plagg som jeg skal bruke på forskjellige måter nå de neste 10 dagene. Sko og andre accessorier kommer utenom, men jeg har begrenset utvalget også der. Her i Bergen vet vi jo aldri fra time til time hvilket vær vi får så jeg tenker at ytterjakke må man ta etter behov ellers så hadde jo halvparten blitt ytterjakker.

Ok once you carefully picked your 10 items, let the games begin. I have to admit I wanted a dress in this 10×10 challenge, but I had to be realistic  and add a comfy pants and a warm cardigan instead. Weather forecast for next 10 days soes not look much like dress weather and there’s no occasion that I know of coming up that requires a dress either. OK my hubby is having his birthday, but he will not celebrate it before we’re in Croatia so I’ll leave my dresses until then. You will also notice there’s a pink denim jacket in the outfits which is not in the pack list. That’s because our weather is totally unpredictable so I have left outerwear out of the 10 pieces.

Da begynner moroa, når du har bestemt for deg hvilke 10 plagg du vil bruke så kan du leke deg å sette sammen antrekk av dem. Jeg hadde fryktelig lyst å ha en kjole med blant de 10 plaggene, men dette er Bergen og langtidsvarselet tyder ikke på mye kjolevær så kjolene er på pakkelisten til ferien. Jeg måtte stikke fingen i jorden og heller legge til en kosebukse og en varm cardigan, for det trenger jeg mer enn en kjole. Ytterklær har jeg utelatt fra listen, for om jeg skulle hatt det med så hadde nesten halvparten vært ytterklær. Så om dere reagerer på at det plutselig er en rosa denimjakke på noen av antrekkene og ingen på pakkelisten så er det grunnen.

Here’s todays outfit, we have been helping my brother in his flat and after we went to dinner with him. As you see, I had to add my waterproof utility jacket as it was raining today and we had to walk a bit.

Dette var dagens antrekk, i dag har vi hjulpet min bror med å sette sammen noen Ikea møbler og etterpå var vi ute å spiste middag. Måtte ta på regnjakke i dag.

If you don’t have I-phone or I-pad, there’s similar apps for android, one is called Smart closet another one is called Your Closet. I don’t have any of them so I can’t tell which is the best.  

Om du ikke har I- phone eller I -pad så finnes det lignende apper for android, en heter Smart closet  en annen Your closet. Siden jeg ikke har noen av dem vet jeg ikke hvilken som er best.

Until next time.

Kari