Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.

Monday, August 31, 2015

On Travel Planning

Hi friends,

So I was thinking about trip planning lately and how before I got married it was so much easier to just go on a trip with a small budget.  Now we have so much more to worry about when thinking about a trip.

For example I am up for most things minus sports and really intense physical activities.  I'm just not much of a thrill seeker or someone who's interested in spending time I see as relaxing straining myself physically.  That still leaves a lot open.  But when you plan for two there's even more to consider.

My husband Bryan dislikes crowds, so if he's got to deal with one it had better be worth it, like at the Louvre or Disneyland.  He's had problems with his joints in the past so a lot of walking is something he's more cautious to add to an itinerary.  He likes to know a plan in advance, though I don't mind flexible plans.  Sometimes I think we're opposites, but we just have a different approach in some ways.  What we want to get out of a trip is remarkably similar, as are many of the places we might prioritize visiting.


How do we get to a fully planned trip?  And how do we afford it?  Because we all know when your costs double it's going to be harder.  I still don't want to think about how we'll pay for travel with kids when that day comes!  However, for now it's the two of us.  We start off with me handling the planning, Bryan has me run things past him at various points along the way.  I mostly have free reign to plan many of the fun things I like so long as I keep in mind just how much Bryan is willing to drive, walk around, and tolerate things he's less interested in.

I'm currently planning a trip to the Texas Hill Country (partially for a wedding), and I thought it'd be a great time to take my readers along for my planning process.  This post marks the start of that series.


I'll write a post on transportation deals, one on hotels and other places to stay, one about what to see and how to find it, and finally one on staying sane when things don't go as planned.  So sitck with me and we'll plan some fantastic trips!

Love,
Lydia

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Making My Second Capsule Wardrobe

Hi folks,

So this week I've been putting together my capsule wardrobe for fall.  This has mostly involved going through my clothes that I wasn't sure about, or hadn't unpacked in a long time.  I think all said and done I have kept about 1/3 of all the clothing I originally had before moving in May.  Mostly that's consisted of things that just didn't fit right or I didn't like as much as I thought.  Back in June I sent off two boxes of clothes to Goodwill.  Now I have this sitting in my bedroom:


The basket contents are the more visibly worn items, headed to Goodwill, the small box is all shoes in good condition, and the bog box is all the nicer clothes.  The nicer things and shoes will be sent off to Thred Up, an online consignment store I think I've mentioned before.  They give you a bag to mail your items to them, they buy the best of them, and you can buy new clothing with the credit. They only take items that are on trend an in like new condition, which hopefully will get me a good amount of credit towards pieces I might need in my winter and spring capsules.  This is my first time using their site, though I've done some browsing and really like many items I've seen for sale.  If you'd like to check them out you can use the link above to get $20 off your first order!

Tuesday is when I'm aiming to have my fall wardrobe fully picked out and ready to wear, then I'll be sharing more with you all about it next week.  I've be spending the past few days trying to photograph what I'm keeping or find better photos online so when I compile everything people can understand all the little details.

I wanted to show you what process I've been using beyond simply trying everything and tossing whatever doesn't fit.  I found this tool at Unfancy to help plan a wardrobe, and I've been using it to help me as I progress to choosing my items to include for fall.  I feel like fall is a lot harder to plan for since weather can be so different from early Septembers 90 degree weather to late November when I could be cold enough for snow (though it's very uncommon to get snow it's no usual to be that cold).  However, we won't get the true bite of winter until further into the season, so I'm leaning towards not including my wool coat, but having more flexible layering pieces and my lighter weight jacket instead.  Here's a peek at my planner sheets so you can get a feel for how it works:





Of my summer capsule I should note that I never wore these items:
 

I actually really like all three items, but didn't find as many occasions for wearing them since they're more formal.  I don't think I'm going to pass them on yet, though I'm debating about the dress.  I also had several items I didn't wear much and plan to cycle out (geometric top, and black tank with sheer details.  You can read about my first capsule for summer 2015 here and see all of what I picked.




The color scheme above is tentative, but quite likely what I will go with.  I'm at the stage now where I'm starting to pull my pieces and hang them together in my closet to see how the colors and styles work together.  I want to make sure the pieces are versatile for combining and not too many prints vs solid items.

When I made my first capsule I didn't know there was a planner, so I just looked at what other people were doing and came up with a list of how many of each piece I might need.  This worked fairly well as a simple way of planning, and I used that as my way of approximating in my planner above too.

This time around I've also included a flex item, which is something I didn't officially do before.  It might end up being the colored jeans as I get further into fall if I can find a pair and for now I may add an extra summer shirt since 8 hot weather appropriate tops makes it harder to have a little leeway between laundry days.  I know this will also be something that will change the feel of my capsule since I will be more limited in selection at first than I was during the summer capsule.  Additionally I am not including accessories like bags or scarves in my capsule, though I aim to have 3 of each that will work with the capsule selections, and will likely limit myself to those.

It's a lot to think about, but a couple days of thought means I'll have a solid set of clothing to choose from and have a lot less fuss later.   Honestly I think I'm spending more time now than I will in the future because it's still my first year planning capsule wardrobes, and until I've been through all the seasons I won't really know how things will go.  And the largest chunks of my time are sorting things since I'd been procrastinating about that, and then documenting it all so I have images I usable for my blog.  Fall will be much more minimalist than summer though, and as I sort through things I imagine I'll be sending even more away than I thought.  I can't wait to see how much space I'll have free when I'm done though!

Please let me know if you have any thoughts about my choices or advice to share in the comments below.  I'll see you again Monday!

Love,
Lydia