Double high fives for the end of the Spring 10x10!
Ten days ago, I jumped on a bandwagon. Bandwagons aren't things I usually jump on. In fact, as an enneagram type four, I'm sorta anti-bandwagon. Nonetheless! I joined the #Spring10x10, which was an Instagram challenge to choose ten items and to remix those ten items into ten different outfits for ten days.
I DID IT, Y'ALL!
This may not seem like a big deal, but need I remind you that I only made it six days into a 365 Photo a Day Challenge, 14 days into a 30x30 I tried five years ago, and this blog serves to show that I have not ever achieved my new years resolution... ever. BABY STEPS, PEOPLE. I'm celebrating the small wins, okay?
Here are three things I learned about myself during this experiment:
01 / This reaffirmed that capsule wardrobes are not for me. I missed color and patterns and being able to wear the things I adore on a whim.
02 / Every day I need a little something that could cause a stranger to break the ice and comment on what I'm wearing. My friend Siobhan calls this "Claudia" (as in Claudia Kishi from the Babysitters Club). Without a little Claudia, my outfit feels incomplete. On the days I felt especially boring, I added a hat or a jacket. Bonus: This also made me realize that it's time to dust off my animal jewelry collection, which I had stored to save for my girls one day.
03 / My biggest discovery is this: I used to put a lot of undue stress on myself. I think when I was trying to run my personal style blog more seriously, I would get caught up in my photos and reach not being as good and as wide as my friends in the Delightful Dozen. But now, with the pressure totally off, I can get the one shot I need in less than five minutes flat (instead of the 10 or so I wanted for my post), edit on my phone, and bammo. It's done... and fun.
Do I recommend you try a version of a 10x10? Absolutely. Give yourself some flexibility with the "rules" but hold yourself accountable to do your best when you can. Maybe you'll see you don't miss your other clothes (I missed my other clothes!). Maybe you'll see this makes getting dressed in the mornings 100 times easier (getting dressed was harder for me!). Or maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to do this and you'll let go of more than just pieces of your wardrobe. I was able to let go of the notion that in blogging I need to keep pace with everyone else. I walked away more confident in who I am and what I like. I walked away with a slice of the same joy that blogging circa 2010 used to give me. And that's what I can hang my hat on.
If, like me, you're feeling nostalgic for the D12, check out these posts:
- Introducing the Delightful Dozen
- The 10th Dynamite Dress
- It's Been Delightful (my farewell to the D12)
