week 2 - fat wallet, skinny closet. by orange

man oh man - I'm just saving money left and right! ...kidding. I wish I was!!

week 2 has been a bit of a struggle, but not as bad as I thought it might be. This may be because my wallet is sitting empty. you may be thinking, why?? (if you are not shopping!) well those little things I picked up at Pier 1 and Ikea did cost money. shocking I know. so until I get paid (today! yay!) my wallet has looked depressing - thus no spending was really possible.

the things that did keep me itching in my seat a bit to want to buy were the following:

1. the many wonderful posts on Emily's cupcakes and cashmere

2. especially the #10 item on this post

3. the gd (god damn) nordstrom anniversary sale - I swear everyone at my work (Starbucks headquarters) and their mother have mentioned it to me.

4. my closet (it yearns for new items almost just as much as I do)

sigh. week 3 here we go!

week 1 - fat wallet, skinny closet. by orange

week 1. (the mission)

not as hard as I thought!

possibly because I still got to go shopping, for household items (which is just as fun!). I went to IKEA and was Shocked at all the good stuff they currently have. I think IKEA is a perfect place to visit ~ 2-3 times a year. that way, whenever you go (if you space those trips out) they have a whole new stock of things to look at. in addition to all the new items, I was thrilled at some of their sale items! I've also been spending a decent amount of time at the nearby Pier1. Here are my favorite purchases from these trips:

Andrup Rug - IKEA: $29.99!

9-Clip Window Wall Frame - Pier 1: $28! (we now finally have wedding pictures up in our house!)

the week did get a little rough when I visited the local West Seattle Summerfest. I came across two adorable booths - one with wall paper collages, another with darling jewelry. I guess technically I could buy one of the wall paper collages as it doesn't fit into the "don't go there" categories...but I did not indulge. The earrings that I was so enamored with were these little circle pendant earrings. They had a lime green background with a bright orange dove in the center of the cirle. Beautiful! And made by a local artist - even better. Of the two booths, one has a website, the other is on etsy. Check them out:

Rebekah J. Designs (earrings): http://www.rebekahjdesigns.com/

Lonjina K. Verdugo (collage artwork): http://www.lonjina.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7042038

This was the piece of artwork I was pining after at the summerfest:

Circles 2

cold turkey. by orange

With being part of a blog, comes a lot of blog sleuthing. And wow can hours just seep by with no notice. Earlier this week I was deep in some blog perusing and came across a couple posts about a shopping hiatus. Well ladies and gentlemen I will be taking on my own shopping hiatus:

operation fat wallet, skinny closet

My inspiration is from two lovely ladies: Joslyn {Simple Lovely Blog} and Rachel {Heart of Light Blog}. Joslyn actually had a support group of many ladies going on a 12-week shopping hiatus while Rachel just did it {amazingly!} by herself. Joslyn's rules were basically: do not buy anything non-essential.

Non-essential and 12-weeks are a bit too aggressive for me so here are my relatively simple rules:

1. no clothes

2. no shoes

3. no jewelry

4. no handbags

5. none of the above until Labor Day {Sept 7th}.

gulp. Yep my stomach just did some major churning while writing out all of these no-nos.

My reasons for this crazy under-taking:

1. I would be highly impressed with myself for completing this.

2. The husband would be highly impressed with me for completing this...he has some interesting thoughts on this plan of mine {more on this in another post}.

3. I do spend a lot of my hard earned money on clothes, etc - perhaps I will learn some lessons through these next couple weeks to taper that in the future.

4. Saving money! Who doesn't want to do that.