What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

You guys.  Seriously.  I just found something that I'm sure is not new and that I'm sure you have a pretty good chance of already knowing about, but that I didn't know about and that I think might just change my life, kind of like the way popping real popcorn in the microwave did.  I know.  Its that serious.  I wouldn't get you all wound up for nothing.

Two words: Capsule. Wardrobe.  Now, at first blush you might think that its a magical thing, like a tiny capsule that you carry around in your pocket that allows you access to your wardrobe, should you have, say, a malfunction of sorts.  Like, hypothetically, your girl-child wrestles the sqeezeable baby food pouch out of your hands, smashes down with all of her might, overflows her mouth, decides it was a bad idea, and then promptly ejects the food from her mouth, onto your shirt, in the middle of the restaurant.  Hypothetically.

But no, its not magic, although it might be something close.  I did not come up with this idea, but I was reading over at Woven and she said she heard about it from some other chick, who, upon closer inspection, has a blog called Un-Fancy, and I immediately put her on my "people to meet in real life and be friends with" list, right up there with Shannan and Kate and the inventor of milk chocolate (have I mentioned Lent is over Thursday night? No?).

via

Here's the nutshell - you pare down your closet.  37 items, to be exact, and then you wear those 37 items with all of the extra pieces of flair that your heart desires (mine desires next to none, but maybe that will change with time) and you rock it, for the season that you're living.  Like, "spring" season, not "my baby won't stop throwing food on me" season.  Just so we're clear.  Anyhow, you have a limited wardrobe, (a "capsule" of a wardrobe, if you will) and it makes your life better.  You only keep items that you absolutely love.  This is huge for me, because I have a moderate number of items that I have just because I feel like I should be wearing them, and then I wear them and feel uncomfortable and then I change out of my nice-even-if-its-not-"me" shirt in the middle of my daughter's birthday party and look like a slob in an old 5K tee. Hypothetically.

So anyhow, you can read more about it here.  I'm going to do the closet purge/state-of-affairs thing this week sometime, and I'm going to show you what I kept.  And then you can tell me what you think, and I can say "sailboat don't care" and keep it anyway.  Want to do it with me?  Are you in?  C'mon!  It'll be fun!

<3 M.

Nail Power - My Adventure as a Manicurist

I'm not really a "nail" girl, but for the sake of scientific experiment, I recently became one.

I do love a good experiment.

When my ole' friend Jess threw out a shout-out to the facebook world, asking for some people to test out the fancy pants new nail wraps she's selling (Jamberry), next to nicely manicured nails (Julep), I couldn't resist!  So I messaged Jess my address, and in my mailbox just a few days later they showed up!

Of course, since this was a scientific experiment, I went above and beyond what I usually do for a nail-painting, since I wanted to make sure I started out with the appropriately level starting ground.  You know, for posterity's sake.  I mean I went all. out.  Looked up the proper brush strokes for painting, made sure to cover the ends of my nails with paint, all of it.  I was aiming for the bigtime.

Turns out, I'm not an exceptional manicurist.

I made Handsome take the picture right there.  After looking closely at my nails, he suggested that maybe he should take another, but from, like, across the room... He wasn't real impressed with my painting skills ;)  However, the Jamberry wraps were not difficult to put on.  You are supposed to heat up the wrap before you apply it, after you wipe your nails down with an alcohol swap; I didn't feel like running back upstairs to get the hair dryer, so I used the "exhaust" from my laptop to warm them up.  Worked like a charm.  

The next day, post shower (the real magic behind every good manicure), my nails looked awesome!

This manicure experiment, which I cleverly named #JamberryVJulep, lasted for a week.  I haven't made a habit of painting my nails because the dots of color floating at the ends of my fingers were distracting to me.  This time, though, it seems that I've become more mature because I was able to resist the little floating points of color, and I kind of enjoyed having pretty hands! 

Just because they were pretty doesn't mean I went easy on them.  No sirree!  I washed dishes, picked open boxes, peeled labels off of wine bottles, etc.  So although I had pretty nails for the first 2 or 3 days, by the week's end, they were looking kind of rough...

Also, it should be noted that I don't take excellent pictures one-handed.

But, you can see that above.

The Verdict: At first, I had more fun painting my nails than I did carefully placing the Jamberry wraps.  By the end of the week, everything was wearing a little bit, but the Jamberry wraps were not showing their wear, especially when compared to the painted nails.  

If you're interested in trying them, you can check out Jess's website here.  I'm planning to place an order myself when I'm feeling particularly school-spirity, because, hello!?!  Go TIGERS!

Have you done any science experiments lately?  Tried anything new I need to know about?  Have you used nail wraps yourself?  Happy Sunday, party people.  Let's get this party of a week started!

<3 M.