Dressing appropriately is the luck of the draw…

Ever since Fussy started Fight the Frump Fridays, Fridays have been fabulous (the after pictures of last week’s beauty alteration are posted here and please notice I am wearing earrings by Fussy!). Hmmmm…coincidence or Fussy’s own take on The Secret?. I don’t know, but I am just living the dream. Here is what is on the Nirvana schedule today:

5:30–3 boys wake up
6:30–3 boys are ALLOWED out of bed
7:30–breakfast
9:00–grandma comes over (Yeah!)
9:30–1st grader goes to school, grandma stays with 4 y/o because….
2 y/o and mommy go to play date with blog-goddess and fellow Texas dweller Anglophile Football Fanatic…

I know! Pretty exciting. Almost takes the sting out of the whole 5:30 three boys wake up thing. Yep, now for the real question that has brought about this post…

What am I going to wear? I have never met her in person so I would like to come across friendly without a hint of stalker. I would like to appear capable but not overdone. I would like to look current without being too-trendy. AND I would like to pull this off out of my current wardrobe because going early to the mall, buying something and changing in the minivan doesn’t fit into my schedule (and is a little creepy). The challenge escalates because we both recently threw out 1/2 our wardrobes and haven’t been to the mall since that time.

I have been addicted to What Not to Wear, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, Oprah’s make-over extravaganzas and pretty much any reality show with a big reveal. One of the things these shows have in common is they talk about mixing and matching, but don’t address core wardrobe. Tim Gunn has his essential list, but I find for me in mommy-mode it is quite a bit more dressed up then I am willing to maintain on a daily basis. I have lived 38 years without a little black dress *gasp* and figure my money is better spent on something I would use weekly.

So, I am in the testing stages of rolling out “Holly’s slot machine wardrobe system”. Fancy, eh? Classy too! Think of your basics as the three rows on a slot machine. The top row would be tops, the middle row bottoms and the bottom row shoes. At the minimum you would need 3 in each row, but eventually you may want the top row to have a few more choices. If you think of the rows when you are shopping you will find yourself choosing things that coordinate with your existing wardrobe. My choice has been to keep the bottoms neutral in color and use more pattern and color in the tops and the shoes. This allows for more different combinations of the same key pieces. I find that my bottom row expands at a much faster speed because of the ease of trying on shoes vs. actual clothes with 3 boys at the mall, but by using the slot machine system I can help keep my shopping in check. The slot machine would be just core pieces. Accessories, coats and other things don’t appear. Testing phase people! If this takes off, future Frump posts may include “accessory roulette” or “outer wear blackjack”.

These are my mommy play date slot machine choices…Let’s give it a whirl:
Let’s pick a winner…

What is the winning combination today? Simple. Whatever is clean.