Fashion - Pocketful of Joules

My December Stitch Fix: Another Buy-it-All Box?

Bring on the eggnog and Christmas cookies, because it’s time for my December Stitch Fix!

I’ve basically been looking forward to this Fix since about two minutes after I sent my November Fix back… so as soon as the box arrived I went from clothed to nekkid in about 19 seconds so I could try everything on.

Don’t worry, the postlady was gone so I didn’t scare the bejesus out of her.

I was extra excited to get this Fix before Christmas so I have a couple new things to wear for our various holiday events – I have some girlfriends coming over for a Bellinis, Brunch & Love Actually party, two family Christmas dinners AND two planned dates with my handsome hubby! Also, I listened to all your feedback about wanting larger pictures with MORE outfit options… so I hope you like the THIRTEEN pictures in this post!

{For my new friends, if you’re wondering what a Stitch Fix is, please check out this post. If you want to know why I spend money to have a stylist send me clothes and whether I’m getting rich off these reviews, click on this one. If you’re wondering if I ever regret a Stitch Fix purchase, give a clickty click over here. If you’re feeling super stalkery and want to see ALL my Stitch Fix posts, you get on with your bad self and click around here. Okay, all caught up? Let’s join the rest of the class now…}

In the notes section for my December Fix, here is what I wrote: “Stylist Sara J again. It’s getting COLD so I’d love to see sweaters – I tend to like v-necks and cardigans the best. Chunky & Warm, but not scratchy! I REALLY want to try the Kirsten Sequin Raglan Tee by Pixley (please, please!!) because it would be great for xmas! Also I’d love to try the Loveappella Evie Draw String Funnel Neck Sweatshirt & the Tobie Folklore Scarf Dress.”

I thought by being much more specific with my requests – including some items I’d love to see – I’d be more likely to get a Fix I loved. I was initially a little bummed out when I opened my box and read Sara’s note that they didn’t have any of my requests in stock. However, I totally forgive her because she really delivered and this Fix ROCKED!!

Let’s see what I got!

Item #1: Market and Spruce Alan French Terry Asymmetrical Zip Cardigan – $68
My initial thoughts when I saw this cardigan is that it looks super similar to one I just ordered and returned to another company. That one fit super weird and was kind of scratchy, but this one is just the opposite. It’s super soft, lightweight but still substantial, and makes me want to throw it on with everything from a pair of black jeans to yoga pants. I actually like this cardigan open a lot more than I like it closed, but I showed you how it looks each way in case you are interested in requesting it for yourself. The sleeves are a bit long, but I actually love an extra-long sleeve in the wintertime.

I styled it for you three different ways. First, I threw it on like I’d normally wear it on the weekends, with a t-shirt, distressed jeans and my fabulous Fryes:

Then, I gave you a little more of a dressed up look with a colorful tank top, black skinny jeans and knee-high boots:

For the last styling, I zipped it up over a cute striped tank top and a pair of yoga pants, since this is how I will probably end up wearing it on my work-from-home days:

Item #2: Pink Martini Moises Floral Printed Colorblock Dress – $78
When I first saw this dress in my box I was kind of in love with the adorable fox printed fabric. I love a nice and subtle animal print, don’t you? The top of the dress is a super soft cotton mix and the bottom has a more substantial fabric. At first, I was a bit concerned that the high-waisted fit looked a bit young on me. However, when I styled it for cooler weather with fleece-lined tights, knee boots and a green cardigan it looks pretty darn cute.

Here it is as if it weren’t actually 3o degrees on my front porch:

Here is how I’d wear it now to keep warm:

Item #3: Desires Nero Hooded Long-Sleeve Sweater – $68
Okay a sweater is right up my alley and totally what I was wanting in this Fix! The weather is getting quite frightful in Maryland and I was hoping for something that would keep me warm while still being cute. Sara obviously took my notes asking for something chunky and warm seriously when she choose this sweater for me. Also, the neckline is really similar to the drawstring funnel neck sweatshirt that I asked for… so YAY Sara!

Here’s a close up of the neckline:

I styled it with a pair of gray skinny jeans and knee boots for a typical running around (but still staying warm and looking cute) look:

And here it is dressed down even more with a pair of jeans and chucks:

Item #4: Skies are Blue Gabrielle Embroidered Bib Knit Top – $48
Hmm… does this shirt remind you of anything? Take a little gander over to the right and check out my profile picture. It’s like shirt twinsies, right?! However, my summer embroidered top is black, super flowy and short-sleeved. This one is navy blue, fits perfectly and has nice extra-long sleeves that will keep me warm this winter (and fall and spring). Oh, and it’s a super soft cotton. I love this top and already wore it for my girlie get together over the weekend. So this one is obviously a keeper!

First up is my comfortable, yet sassy look with distressed jeans and my Fryes:

Then, I dressed it up a little — which would be perfect for Christmas dinner — by styling the top with my gray skinny jeans and knee boots:

For the last look, I added on a comfy boyfriend sweater for those extra cold days:

Item #5: Collective Concepts Illiana Embellished Trim Tab-Sleeve Blouse – $68
I really wanted a little sparkle this holiday season and this top has just a smidge of sparkle along the front. It is navy blue and a little bit transparent, so I’d have to wear a tank top with this one. However, I think it can dress up a pair of destroyed jeans AND look equally cute styled for a typical workday. This could be one of those sleeper pieces in my wardrobe – it looks pretty simple now, but could certainly be worn with pretty much everything!

Here’s the top styled for a date night with my handsome husband — I added in my sassy distressed jeans and some leopard print heels. Roar, baby.

And here is how I would style it for work:

Help me!
Now it’s time for you to help me decide what I should buy! I purposefully didn’t give you too much information on which ways I was leaning because I LOVE getting your feedback. Is this one of those buy-it-all boxes? If I do decide to purchase the whole Fix I will save $77.50 with the buy 5 discount (in addition to my $20 styling fee credit)… making my total for all 5 pieces $232.50.

I’d love to hear your feedback, so please leave me some comments below and tell me what you think!

1/13/15 Update: I got bogged down in holidays (and holiday cookies) and totally forgot to tell you which items I decided to purchase! I bought the Market and Spruce Alan French Terry Asymmetrical Zip Cardigan and the Skies are Blue Gabrielle Embroidered Bib Knit Top. In the few weeks since I bought them, I’ve worn them both a ton so I’m totally happy with my choices. Thank you to everyone for your feedback!

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Stitch Fix, I pay for the $20 styling fee and any clothing I purchase with my own hard-earned money. If you enjoyed my review and decide to try Stitch Fix for yourself, the biggest compliment you can give me is by using my referral link. Thank you to anyone who chooses to click through and support my shopping addiction!

Psssst…Do you love checking out what other people received in their Fixes? I added quick links to every single one of my reviews on my Stitch Fix Reviews page!

The Joules Purge: How Did It Go?

Remember in October when I told you that I had a plan to unbury myself from a mountain of clothes and relentlessly purge my entire closet?

Well, almost every day after that declaration I pulled a different piece of clothing out of my closet to wear, posted a picture on Instagram and then evaluated the item.

At the end of a long work day, I’d ask myself:

At any time throughout the day did I feel uncomfortable because of the item’s fit?
After a full day of work, do I feel messy, disheveled or super wrinkly?
For work clothes, do I feel like I look nice and professional?

A bunch of you all followed along with my #thejoulespurge tag and commented with your thoughts each day, so THANK YOU all for your awesome feedback!

It took 7 weeks (I wasn’t able to do it every day, due to work-from-home days or stuff that required certain outfits) but I finally reached the end of my overstuffed closet!

It was actually really fun to force myself not to be lazy when putting together new outfits. It was also a bit like finding new clothes each day, since some of the items haven’t been worn in quite a while. I found some winners and I found a bunch of losers too… which immediately got evicted from my closet. It actually felt really GOOD to get rid of a piece of clothing at the end of the day.

Here are the results:

34 instagram pictures using #thejoulespurge hashtag
24 clothing items reviewed, photographed and kept
7 clothing items reviewed, photographed and donated/sold
A bunch more items that were not on the chopping block (recently worn, recently purchased, etc)
2 trash bags FULL of clothes donated to Goodwill
23 items shipped off to Twice to sell
$110.50 earned by selling off my old clothes! (Not including an offer I’ll be getting for a bag I shipped out Monday)

(PS if you want to clean out your closet and sell some stuff, you can use my special referral code to earn an extra $10!)

What I Learned…

Buying Multiples is Not Always the Answer
I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds a favorite shirt and then runs right back out to the store to buy it up in every single color they offer. I mean, if you LOVE it… you obviously need 5 of them in different colors, right? WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

One thing that I learned while doing my purge is the more isn’t always better. If it is a classic piece in my wardrobe – like the black slub t-shirts that Loft comes out with every year or a pair of perfect fitting pants – then, YES, I’m totally allowed to buy a spare. However, if it’s a dress I love in bright red and I notice that it also comes in blue and white stripes, I’m going to make myself just say no.

From my purge findings, if I truly love something and then buy it in a different pattern… somehow I don’t love it as much. So I end up still wearing the first item with glee, and pretty much NEVER wear the other one. So, the buck stops here and I’m going to nix all buying of multiples (except those mentioned above) and save myself some money.

Clothes Are Just Clothes
Just because I wore a sweater a few years ago for an event that gives me warm and fuzzy memories, doesn’t mean I need to keep it in my closet. A memory can live on without me keeping an ill-fitting, worn out sweater. Also, just because someone gave it to me doesn’t mean I have to keep it until the end of time. I felt super bad about getting rid of anything that was a gift, but when it comes down to it… if it’s not being worn it might as well go to a new home.

I feel like I have a much better plan moving forward to purchase any new clothes and my closet is at a manageable size where I no longer feel overwhelmed when I look inside to pick an outfit. I am SO GLAD I did the #joulespurge and I’m thinking that I will definitely have to do another one in the spring when I get out my warm weather clothes. Having a closet full of clothing that fits, looks good and I LOVE is pretty fantastic!

If you looked in your closet right now, what is the OLDEST item you own? Are you impressed that I earned over a hundred bucks by selling my old clothes? Would you like to join on the upcoming spring version of #thejoulespurge?

My Thoughts on the Toms + Target Collaboration

Have I mentioned my Toms obsession? It’s kind of funny, when I first saw someone wearing Toms shoes, I thought they looked kind of weird – they’re just normal old wrapped canvas shoes.

What’s the big dealio?

They totally grew on me over the years though and I finally bought my first pair of Toms over the summer. They were a snazzy pair of zigzag slip-ons and I wore them ALL summer long. Then, Hautelook had a Toms sale… and I bought a couple more pairs. A few months later while browsing at Nordstrom Rack, I found two more pairs to add to my collection.

So yeah, now I have kind of a Toms issue.

As you can imagine, when I heard that Target and Toms were launching a collaboration I marked that shiznet on my calendar WITH an alert so I wouldn’t miss the good stuff! I stalked the Look Book and picked out a few of my favorites and waited until the collection went online on 11/16.

That morning, I clicked over… and was kind of underwhelmed. I don’t know why, but there just wasn’t much that rocked my world. The one pair of women’s Toms shoes were kind of boring and initial feedback on the website was that quality was lacking. The sweatshirt that I’d been eying just looked kind of ‘eh’ and nothing else was really calling my name.

I love the brand though and especially love that they would be donating shoes, blankets and meals to those in need for each purchase. I decided to order a few items and planned to return what I didn’t love.

Women’s French Terry Sweatshirt in Black & White
I was initially drawn to this sweatshirt because of this picture from the Look Book:

The nubby fabric was super cool and I imagined it being delightfully over-sized and looking adorably chic with my distressed jeans, boots and a scarf. Since I wasn’t quite sure how it was cut and I really wanted it to be large and flowy, I ordered it in both a Large and an Extra Large.

Um, what the heck. There is nothing adorable or delightful about this. I’m actually wearing the Extra Large in this picture and it’s still quite fitted. In fact, it’s practically a crop top and you’d be able to see my navel if I raise my arms. Not exactly the look I was going for.

Three Bracelet Sets
I ordered two different versions of the bracelet sets because I thought they were super cute, especially for just $15.

I have a friend who I think will love one set and I may be using the second set for an upcoming Secret Santa get together at my house. The sets in person are exactly as pictured and I love that they are already boxed nicely for easy wrapping!

50” x 60” Acrylic Fringe Throw
When I saw this online I loved the yellow and white version.

This is a really nice sized throw for $30 and I loved the way it looked online. I was just crossing my fingers that it was as soft as it was in my imagination. I ordered two of these, with plans to give one as a Christmas gift.

Unfortunately, when it arrived it was NOT the yellow version I had been coveting. I called Target’s customer service and apparently there was a mistake in the programming, so EVERYONE who ordered the yellow version was sent the wrong color! To thank me for my patience, they gave me a $25 Target gift card, which was pretty nice of them. I took a quick trip to my local Target to return the sweatshirts and exchanged the blankets for the color I had been wanting.

I’m so glad I did, because these blankets are so pretty and extremely soft! They are wrapped up really nice with a bow for easy Christmas giving, which is great for the one I’m giving away. I am keeping one of them for myself though… and Ollie approves!

All in all, I really like the Toms and Target Collaboration. I checked out a few more items in person when I was at Target and the clothing items and home goods all seemed to be made really well. I think it was really smart of them to launch this in time for the holiday shopping season, because there are some great and affordable gift options.

The only place where I feel the collection REALLY needed improvement was the shoes. I wish that they had offered more of the Toms shoe with funky designs that I love. I did get a chance to see the black women’s Toms in person… and just like the reviews said, they were really cheap looking.

Unlike some of the other Target collaborations, they will be restocking items so if you missed out on something you love there is hope that it will soon be available again! As an added bonus, Target has free shipping for the holidays, so you can order what you like online instead of trying to chase it down in the stores.

Did you buy anything from the Toms and Target Collaboration when it launched? Was it everything that you hoped it would be?

Disclaimer: This was not a sponsored post. I just really like Toms… and Target.