Finding My "Inner Molly"

Most of you know I work from home and have a pretty casual dress code. In fact, calling it a dress code at all is kind of silly. I don't work in pajamas (except on extremely rare occasions), I work in real clothes... real comfortable clothes.  You know, sweats and a warm, cozy, long-sleeved T-shirt in the winter and crops and a comfy T-shirt likely bearing some store's logo in the summer.

Pretty riveting wardrobe, huh?

A few weeks ago my husband blogged about the perks I have in working from home:  my commute, my dress code, not having to share the coffee machine or microwave, and making every day Take Your Pet to Work Day, to name just a few.  

Other than the social aspect of not having that face-to-face interaction with another person every day, I've never really considered there to be a down side to having a home office.  I spend my day conversing with basset hounds and that's okay, we get along great and there are no personality issues. 

(Except when Belle "humphs" at me, and yes she can "humph".)   

For the most part I'm very fortunate.  

However, it recently came to my attention that there is another down side to this home office thing. 

A few weeks ago we were in church as usual on Sunday. We always sit in approximately the same spot.  We like our view and we enjoy visiting with those who sit around us,  especially Molly.  When we first met Molly I asked her if she was in college.  She laughed, said that was a compliment and told us she had been out of college for (I think) 7 years.  Molly looked like a college kid to me!  Since then we have sat together in church each Sunday and gotten to know each other better. Molly is actually in her late 20s if my math is right and she is a social worker.  She is a joy to chat with in church, has joined us for dinner after worship, and we hope to have her join our connection group once Michael is feeling up to pursuing that. 

The Sunday that Molly joined us for lunch I complimented her on her outfit.  She dresses so cute and is always so pulled together. For weeks I had sat in church admiring how she dressed.  Each week I would look at how Molly was dressed, then would glance down at my own clothes: jeans (our church is casual) and a shirt (a nice shirt though, it was church, after all).  

All those weeks of admiring how Molly put an outfit together and then looking at what I was wearing each Sunday suddenly made me realize how limited my wardrobe had become.... and how frumpy I felt.

 So after church I went home and took an inventory of my wardrobe.  After losing weight, I had gotten rid of all of my clothes except for 1 pair of jeans which I kept as a reminder of where I had been at my highest weight. Over time I replaced what I absolutely needed, but I just never got around to rebuilding my wardrobe.  

For instance I own 1 dress.  I got it for my Dad's funeral.  I have no other skirts or anything dressy or girly to wear.

I have a few pairs of casual dress slacks and a few nice tops that I grab when I need to go into work for a meeting. But it really comes down to about 3 outfits to choose from for those occasions. 

The rest of my wardrobe consists of sweats, t-shirts, long-sleeved T-shirts, and a wonderful assortment of Life is Good Shirts.  But to be honest, I wear about the same 4-5 shirts ALL. THE. TIME.  I'm guessing there are people who think I only own 4-5 tops.

It's not that I have to dress up often, but I realized how I had let my wardrobe slide and that I was no longer putting effort into "dressing up" simply to feel good about the way I looked when I walked out the door. 

I sighed and told my husband, "I really need to go shopping."  

I am guessing he was tired of seeing the same 4-5 tops all the time as well, because he eagerly sent me on my way.   

Let me just say, when you have not shopped for complete outfits for a while (decades?), it is overwhelming!  If I had been able to phone a friend and call Molly or Linda, I would have .. ASAP! Once in the store my head was swimming.  There were so many options and I was trying to figure out how to put things together.   I honestly wanted a personal shopper.  

But I survived the shop-a-thon and I now have some fun pieces  that I can build on over time.  

Here's a few of the items I picked up. 

 White jean jacket

 Brown tank

Maxi skirt in autumnal colors

And of course I had to get some earrings  - one pair of brown and one pair with some orange accents.  I'm still working on a necklace to go with this outfit. 

I also picked up a blue jean jacket (love!) same as the white one, a black maxi skirt, about 6 tops, and a few scarves.  I especially love my jean jackets.  I am always cold so having a jean jacket works perfect to keep me warm indoors if I am cool.  In addition, I can wear it outside when I might otherwise want to grab a heavier coat. I've learned in a college town I can quickly look like a dork in a winter coat with college students running around in shorts and sandals! Another plus of the jean jacket is that I don't like to go sleeveless or wear short sleeves.  So now I can buy those cute tops without sleeves and just wear a jean jacket over them!

Don't get me wrong.  While working at home I'll still be frumpy.  With dog hair  abundant in our home and the ability to spill at the top of my list of talents, it would be crazy to dress up for work and ruin truly nice dress clothes.  

But I now have some things to wear out and about that make me feel just a bit more special.  For Easter I wore the above outfit to church.  It was so comfortable!

 I still have some shopping to do to complete a few outfits, a piece of jewelry here, etc.,  and I have a feeling this will be an ongoing thing.  I'm trying to pick and choose things that work with multiple outfits to get the most out of my money. 

My husband may regret eagerly sending me off to shop.  

But I'm loving finding my "inner Molly."