7, week 2

...and then came clothes. this "fast" ended up being slightly comical in nature... i thought, "hey, this'll be easy - i did the experimental 20 pieces for 20 days in december, so i've already basically done this!" and it's true, i had already processed through a lot of what the fast was meant to allow us space to process. just how much excess we constantly live with, and how it presses on us, and how freeing ourselves from the majority of the zillion choices we have to make (starting with what to wear in the morning), can make life simpler, freer in general. this one had a few modifications, though. shoes "counted" into the 7 clothing items we could wear for the 7 days, and no accessories (!!). this definitely ruled out the whole "creative" factor that i generally enjoy seeing come out as options become limited. bo-ring! but i decided that, hey, maybe that's the point. so, for 7 days, i wore only 7 items of clothing (first question everyone has asked me: NO, underwear doesn't count. ;)

so here's a look at my 7 i chose...

1. black tank top: old navy maternity hand-me-down (jason pointed out halfway through the week that the top was wearing thin enough that he could see my belly... you win some, you lose some ;)

2. cutoff khaki shorts, thrifted & cut

3. flip-flops, old navy (for some reason the author of the book counted 2 pairs of shoes as one "item", so i went with it, and had a black pair and a brown pair to match both ;)

 part of the reason i thought "this will be so easy!" initially was because it's summer in southern california, and i knew i'd only need shorts and tank tops, so i was going to have at least 3 or 4 complete outfits to rotate between. however, the first "complication" was that we went camping up north for a few days during this week's fast, and it got down into the 40s (huge departure from the 80s we were having at home)! so i couldn't get out of at least a pair of pants and a sweater of some kind... the girls in my "group" encouraged me to bring an (uncounted) extra "warm, but not fashionable jacket". unfortunately, i don't own that particular piece of clothing after "simplifying" in december, so i went without, deciding that i'd just pile on blankets as needed (and it was all fine). also, i needed these things to all be comfortable (i had to wear these pieces to bed, too!). so i went with:

4. yellow sweatpants, thrifted. this made me not have the issue that some of the other girls in the group had of getting bored with their clothing options because they were all drab blacks and neutrals - yellow! heck yeah!

5. plaid tank top, thrifted

6. camel cardigan, anthropologie

note: i may or may not have chosen my outfits for this week based on whether or not they matched my "turks and caicos" pedicure

and last, but not least:

7. the little black dress, white house black market, thrifted. if i could only wear one thing the rest of my life, it'd be this. it is that comfortable. 

sleep in it, party in it, anything in between... 

fits me all the way through pregnancy, and hides the "extra" afterwards... 

it's pretty much awesome. 

 so there you have it! a pared down, simple wardrobe that i was not even close to sick of by the end of the 7 days. i really only missed wearing accessories (i mean a plain black top or dress real warrants a necklace or scarf or something gracing it...). the comical moments mostly had to do with jason sharing the experience with me. he chose his 7 items of clothing, and had dirtied all but a fleece and his hiking shorts by the end of the first day - like, enough that they could not be worn again until they were laundered. so, we threw a load in first thing in the morning, and he went to the farmer's market in a fleece and hiking shorts ;) boys just get so much dirtier faster, i guess (working out, working on cars, yard work, hiking, off-loading... all activities he did during this week that got him in trouble and in dire need of laundry :)... when we broke down on the way to Kings Canyon National Park, and he had to change the alternator himself (sexy!) he wore only his hiking shorts, so as not to dirty any of his shirts before needing to wear them the next 3 days without laundry. good thing, too, 'cause this is what he looked like partway through:

 hahahaha SO DIRTY!!

so, i'm not sure that i learned a whole lot of new things this week of "clothing fast", but i was reminded again how much freer i can feel when my world is simplified... which leads into the following week: possessions (stay tuned!)...


p.s. what he wore:
good thing "cow appreciation day" at chick-fil-a was not until the day after the clothing fast ended, or we wouldn't have all gotten free food for our costumes we wore... i'm only willing to show you joey's, though. mine was a little too embarrassing - he's just cute :)