Greetings St. Bernards. Please say you’re St. Bernards; helpful canines with restorative brews in little barrels around your necks. There is a plague upon the snug bug residence. A springtime plague that is mimicking the symptoms of an old-fashioned cold. And as a further punishment, Mr. Bug and I went to Sonic for a super-easy dinner and I was so excited for the chocolate shake that was sure to soothe my sore throat, but they were OUT OF WHIPPED CREAM. A disappointment, although the shake did feel good on my throat.

Tonight’s post is actually a re-post of some of my recent projects. I realized a few days before the end of March that I had completed almost enough items to enter the Mini-Wardrobe contest on Pattern Review– that was the goad to get me to finish the Lotus Blossom Skirt. The rules of the contest were to make four garments during the month of March, mix with one item already in the closet and take pictures of at least six different outfits. Since I’d been working on the Colette Spring Palette challenge, I even had stuff that coordinated!

[Me playing with the super-zoom on my camera. Also things I wore in the Mini-Wardrobe pictures. And my green vintage purse that’s close to seeing its final days.]

First I had to pick out my four March-made items. I thought about including my jeans, but as much as I love them, I really prefer how I look in dresses and skirts, so I went with the black March dress as my second ‘bottom.’ Black dresses are so not-photographable…

As I already alluded to, I included my Lotus Blossom Skirt…

For my first shirt, I went with my wheatgrass blouse! I love the style, but even more, could there be a color more spring-like than this color?

Don’t garments look sad on hangers? I went with my polka dot T for the second shirt option – super basic, but as all you rickrackateers know, I have a special place in my heart for polka dots!

I chose my rose garden cardi as my already-in-the-closet garment. The whole goal of this contest was to make something in the closet more wearable, and I thought the cardi fit the bill. Since I went crazy with the flower embellishments, I don’t really feel that this works with much except super basic stuff. I only used it in two of the six outfits that I included in my wardrobe entry, but at least I gave it a shot!

It was fun deciding what outfits to put together. Lately I’ve been obsessively reading about wardrobe capsules (here’s a link to a series of posts on wardrobe capsules on Inside Out Style.) There’s something so tidy and efficient about this type of wardrobe planning, and shoes and accessories make all the difference! First: the belts and scarves in included in the mini-wardrobe…

black braided belt – Torrid

green wool scarf – Anthropologie

purple scarf – me-made from Anna Maria Horner voile

pink ‘belt’ – 1” grosgrain ribbon

A true child of the late 80’s… I have a magpie-like love of sparkly things. The only jewelry I wear that is of any value is from Mr. Bug and has a lot of sentimental value (and sparklies!) – my wedding and engagement rings and a pair of diamond stud earrings that I haven’t taken off since he gave them to me a few Valentine’s Days ago. Everything else is a mishmash of vintage and recently-made costume jewelry, with a definite preponderance of pearls. I love bracelets too, and would wear them up to my elbows if I had enough. I’ve found that Avenue is a nice source for tacky bracelets that fit my giant hands and wrists… here’s everything that I wore in the mini-wardrobe photos (OK, I didn’t wear the ring of keys, I just didn’t take them off the hook where they live.)

And of course, there’s the shoes. Speaking of which, I’ve been hunting for a pair of raspberry pumps with a vintage vibe (not mary janes or t-straps), a reasonably blocky heel and a somewhat affordable price. I kid you not, my adorable fluffy brandy-bearing puppies, there is not a raspberry pump to be found in the Mall of America at this point in time – affordable or not. How is that possible? There’s a Nordstrom and a Nordstrom Rack in that mall! It’s SPRING!! What is the deal with black, red and brown being the only acceptable colors for shoes?? Isn’t a raspberry shade ‘the’ color of the year, according to Pantone? Those ninnies.

pink shoes – Target, from a few years ago

black wedges – Rocket Dog

black bow pumps – Franco Sarto

brown riding boots – Avenue

black heeled boots (extended calf!) – Avenue

Clothing and accessories detailed, here’s the outfits that I included in my entry. While I was putting them together, I tried to include things to wear to a variety of activities… here they are in a general order from most casual to, well, least casual…

Walking the platypus (aka Lucy the hound)

Running errands (aka… feverish fabric buying safari)

brunch (aka… brunch)

happy hour!

office appropriate

date night!

Huh- organizing them this way made me realize that I consider the black dress as more ‘fancy’. In real-life, the dress is pretty casual, although like all good black dresses, I suppose it’s pretty versatile!

So there’s my mini wardrobe! I had a great time putting this together and really need to do more of this so I don’t end up with a closet full of clothes that only work for one outfit. I just don’t have the closet space for that!

In closing, here’s the actual entry…

What to look forward to this week on The Snug Bug…

I’ve spent one movie (Die Hard. Mr. Bug’s choice.), three episodes of Twin Peaks, a few episodes of Scrubs and some audiobook time laboriously hand stitching buttonholes on my Sound of Music coat (again, Mr. Bug chose the name. Apparently, I have a singing nun thing going on in the coat.) so hopefully I’ll get buttons sewn on and photos taken. Other than that, I still have the Anna Sui muslin to dissect and stew over, a drastic re-imagining of a long-plotted skirt, and I’m working on grading a bustier up from size 20. I have some nice stretchy denim for the muslin. Also, I’m still percolating my classic wardrobe capsule and thanks to the acquisition of a fine pair of combat-boot-wannabes, will likely be putting on a little PJ Harvey and plotting out some flowered frocks to accompany said boots so I can properly relive my angsty youth.