I need a break...

...from both blogging and shopping.

Juggling work, course work, and law review editorial duties is really burning me out. I need time to just sleep and catch up with my reading and household chores. Next week is another killer week, so I'll be away from blogging for a week or 2.

I also need a break from shopping. Lately I've gone to clothing stores to kill time in between events, so I'm actually a little tired of it. I have a list of very specific things that I need (such as summer work tops), but I need to stay away from nonessentials clothing. I realized that I've amassed so much clothes nowadays that I don't have the opportunity to wear each piece frequently enough, even though I like everything I have. It used to be rare for me to find pants that fit really well, but as my roommate rightly pointed out, it's starting to become less rare.

Here are my latest purchases:

1) Mossimo blazer from Target--$14. This one is actually quite nice. You can just tell it's worth the price based on the amount of work put into it. The pleats in the front require additional fabric and labor, and the blazer is fully lined. When I tried it on, I was wearing a casual outfit (t-shirt and denim mini) and the ensemble looked really good. I bought this blazer specifically for work, but unfortunately, all my work pants are wide-legged or boot-cut so they don't match the blazer very well. This was the best I could do a couple of days ago for work. Since then, I realized that the fit isn't as bad as I thought. It actually looks really good together with these pants:

These Vince pants are an example of a nonessential. The fit is great, the back pockets are cute, and the price is right: $15 instead of $180 from Marshall's because of a little dirt at the hem. They're a good replacement for another pair of white pants that got ruined in the wash, but I don't really need them.

I think that sometimes I snap up these things because I don't think I'll have an opportunity to get such nice things again, but it's not true. Eventually, I do manage to find what I want, and sometimes the find is even better than the one I let go before.

A temporary shopping ban allows for a symbiotic relationship to develop between old clothes and recent purchases. In those 2 outfits above, I paired my new purchases with clothes I should be wearing more--the green Express khaki pants for work, and the Esprit shrug for play/studying. It's also an opportunity to wear multiple older items:

I'm not particularly fond of this outfit, but everyone loved it. Still, it's a good opportunity to pair my new Forever 21 sweater ($1 FIDM damaged special) with my 10+ year old oversized seersucker shirt and my cute but fuschia BCBG shoes. In the outfit with the white pants, I wore a couple of accessories that don't get much wear--a $1 lariat necklace and a huge Hello Kitty ring that's been relegated to weekend wear (no one in the legal circles is going to take me seriously if they see me wearing it).