Today is the second installment of Weekly Wishes with the Nectar Collective with Melyssa.  Last week I mentioned about accents and wanting to soften my American accent.  I have been working daily on it and that is my accomplishment right there.  It is actually a fun thing to practice because my family joins in.  My boys already have a very hybrid accent from going to school here in England.  They go in and out of the local accent of Bath, their american accent (still showing signs of living in Hawaii), and some sort of mix in between.  Then you have my husband who from going to school in Brighton to working now in England has really taken on the local language.  I know other americans who put their foot down when it comes to pronouncing Basil like ‘Bah-zil’ instead of the american ‘Bay-sul’.  Ryan says ‘tah-mah-toes’ without batting an eye and shops for aubergines and courgettes instead of eggplant and zucchini.  It has been fun practicing my accent.  I just cannot wait until it becomes so natural that I do not think about it. For right now I am always thinking about it.  

w i s h e s  t h i s   w e e k 

To finally go through my entire wardrobe and get rid of the majority of my clothes.  I have said I will do this every week for the last few months.  Perhaps I have even said this for the last few years.  I want to finally accomplish this. 

I have had much of my wardrobe for so many years and have just slowly added to it.  Its a huge mix of everything, including some summer clothes from Hawaii.  I have clothes that do not fit. Clothes that need to be mended. Clothes that have bleach or dye on them from working in the salon.  I hang on to things I never wear because of the fear if I do not have it, I will need it. Honestly when I see the wardrobe sizes of other females I feel silly because its not like I have that many clothes. Its the fact that I have so much that I do not wear and so few that I do on a regular basis. 

My style icons are coicindentally also the same women I have mentioned before as my role models: Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie.   Basically everything needs to look good on me, tailored, and in the following shades of white, grey, black, beige, nude, or ballet pink. That way I can easily mix or match instead of having a shirt with some pattern in so many colours that hardly goes with anything that I own.  I then want to punch my wardrobe with colour in dresses that I would wear to go out.  I love to wear dresses and I feel like between my dresses and scarves thats a great way to go about accent colours.  I love to shop and if I could get rid of the majority of my wardrobe than I would be able to feel good about slowly adding to it with clothes I will actually wear. 

I have a stack of sweaters because England is really cold in the fall/winter/spring. However not all them do I love. Actually one of the ones I really love has a stubborn stain (probably hair colour from the salon) that will never come out. Yet here I have a drawer taken up by the bulkiness of sweaters.  I want to love every item of my wardrobe.  I am also tired of hanging on to things where the seam ripped or a button is missing because I plan to fix it and never do. 

To be fair I attempted and I have gotten rid of a few pieces. However I have not done a mass exodus of my wardrobe since I went through all my shoes last year.  I got rid of over thirty pairs of shoes to prepare for our move to Bath. The problem is I still have several pairs of shoes that I hardly wear and when I do they hurt my feet.  I ‘hoard’ shoes for the sheer fact that one pair may be my only pair in a certain colour, so I certainly cannot get rid of them. Right?  I have a pair of silver/grey shoes that made the cut, though they have a low heel are not very comfortable.  Which is probably do to the fact that I cringe to have to pay more than $20 on a pair of shoes for myself.  However, cheap price means cheap shoes. My sister shells out a lot for a pair of shoes that not only look amazing but feel amazing on your feet. One of these days I will follow suite.  Everything I have stated makes its seem like I must have a room devoted to shoes. I however have probably six pairs including my wellies that I actually wear. I then have a box of ‘ouch they hurt my feet’ cheep heels and boots that perpetually sit in my closet. 

I honestly think if I started shopping for myself on a regular basis I would not ‘hoard’ my wardrobe so much.  My husband does not have this problem and he is always shopping for himself. He loves those ‘ending soonest’ auctions on ebay because he can purchase a new shirt  or slacks for next to nothing.  He actually helped me get a pair of shoes yesterday, something I would have put off until Christmas when someone else could gift me what I need.  

Not having a car means we walk everywhere. I wore a pair of wedges to walk into town last week and by the time I got there my feet were killing me.  They did not feel better after lunch with Ryan, so I asked him if he could give me money for the bus. When I finally got home I realised I had blood blisters on my toes from the shoes. This is why my husband insisted we skip our country walk and get me some shoes that would not ruin my feet.

I really dislike having to wear my tennis shoes because even though they are white I feel like it makes me look ‘less presentable’.  The pretty beige shoes pictured above are the solution we found from T.K.Maxx.  I was surprised to see that they fit so well and that the back did not cut into my ankle like some similar ballet flats. Perhaps this will be a start of treating myself regularly.  I am not sure if other mums feel this way, but I honestly forget to do this.  

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This is my last week with my lovely sponsors, Tara and Rachel for July.  
Please check out their blogs and let them know I sent you.  

Her blog: http://www.withlove-rachel.com/