On October 1, I’m going to embark on an experiment called the 333 Project, where you wear only 33 wardrobe items for three full months. If anyone wants to join me, I would love to post your photos and how the experiment worked for you.

Here are the ground rules pulled from here:

The Basics

When: Every three months (It’s never too late to start so join in anytime!)
What: 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes.
What not: these items are not counted as part of the 33 items – wedding ring or another sentimental piece of jewelry that you never take off, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing (you can only wear your workout clothing to workout)
How: Choose your 33 items, box up the remainder of your fashion statement, seal it with tape and put it out of site.
What else: consider that you are creating a wardrobe that you can live, work and play in for three months. Remember that this is not a project in suffering. If your clothes don’t fit or are in poor condition, replace them.

You can find out more about The 333 Project here.

As you see, the idea is that hopefully at the end of the three months you will have some insights as to what worked about the items you chose and what didn’t work, which should help you not only further refine your style, but prove that you can stick to a slim wardrobe.

I am wary of a few problem areas already, but am going to go ahead and give it a shot and report back to you later. Specifically, I’m worried that:

* It will become so cold that I will yearn for (and maybe succumb to by getting) my winter coat.

* If there is a lot of rain and snow, I probably won’t get as much use out of my flared velvet pants, which need high heels so they don’t drag in the mud, so to speak.

* I will get bored with my color choices.

Random Photo, Wish I Could Give Credit For It

Walking the Walk

Recently, a girlfriend of mine at a pool party told someone, “Kristi’s written a book.”

And I looked at her and said, “Yes, but it’s not published yet.”

“No you know … your other book. The one that I have.”

Oh. That one.

Occasionally, I am a little embarrassed that I self-published a book on living a life of style. Partly because it is very revealing, down to what brand of lingerie I wear, but also because it could have stood a professional editor.

I keep meaning to do a better edit, but my editing and revising time is exclusively for my mystery novel right now. Ah, maybe some day …

But despite all that, at its heart, the book really espouses my philosophies at life. That’s what I remind myself when people bring it up. It may not be high art or literature, but it does reflect my views on living. It is more like my own personal journal of style that I chose to share with the world after some of my wonderful readers told me “You should write a book on all this because I’ll buy it!”

Maybe that why is it embarrassing – what’s in it is a bit more like a private conversation I would have with a friend I know for certain is like-minded. It’s not something I talk about in casual conversation, these deep-felt beliefs of mine. But now it is in print. Some 130 copies have sold in the year since I wrote it, which isn’t a windfall, but isn’t too bad considering the only promotion I’ve done is having a sidebar on my blog.

I haven’t looked at it for more than a year, but I know it still reflects my philosophies. However, I was surprised the other day to find out just how much.

Recently, my family decided we would probably end up moving to smaller living quarters in the next year so we held a garage sale to get rid of some items. We are considering going from a three-bedroom house with a finished basement to a two-room duplex or apartment, so that means a lot of paring down.

Our garage sale went well, but what surprised me was that for the first time in my life, my garage sale items were comprised of mostly large furniture. There were barely any knick-knack type things that you would usually find at a garage sale. As a result, some people would cruise by without stopping. I realized we didn’t have the curb appeal of most garage sales, which are tables of small items, but was thrilled to realize that in the past few years I’ve been walking the walk.

Before my sale, I did a mental list of items that could sell, thinking through my house room by room. In the kitchen, I realized there was nothing … NOTHING … to purge. Everything in that small space gets used.

In the living room, everything is functional except a few sentimental objects I use for decorating and all the artwork. My décor is mainly books, pictures, and candles.

In the bedrooms, same thing. My accumulation of “STUFF” was so minimal that I didn’t have anything small to sell at my sale – just like I tell people in my book. I was happy to realize I truly am living what I preach.

A few people have emailed me asking about my summer uniform and those who know me know I love me a uniform.

This summer my “uniform” consists of flipflops and black sundresses. Although I do have green, blue and red sundresses, I have four black ones so I wear those more. Occasionally I throw on a black straw cowboy hat to keep the sun off my face.

Here is my typical “uniform” in front of the beautiful Mississippi River.

Any readers who are still around, thanks for hanging in there and checking back. I will keep you posted on my novel, which is taking up most of my spare time. I end up posting more over at my writing blog nowadays.

Please comment if you have a minute so I know whether it is still worth posting over here or not. I’m not sure very many people still check in over here since I”ve neglected this blog so much.

Just posted about our annual family tradition — a weekend spent at the lake with dozens of family members. Too much fun.

Check it out at: Kristi Belcamino’s blog

And leave a comment if you so choose.

I know I’ve dreadfully neglected this blog and so I want to point you to my other one as often as I can.

Thank you to those who still check in here!

xoxoxo

Kristi

Dear readers,

I entered a contest and posted my first page on my other blog

I’m not interested in winning the contest (which is really for young adult genre writers) as much as I am interested in feedback on the first 250 pages of my manuscript.

This is the first time I’ve really opened up my writing in this novel for critique, so if you have a chance, would love you to pop over there and weigh in. Be honest. I can take it.

thanks ahead of time,

xoxoxoxo

Kristi

Those of you who are facebook friends have already heard the news, but I’m over the moon that my mystery won first place in The Sandy Writing Contest this weekend! More details here.
Woot!
xoxoxoxo K

hoping i see this one day

Dearest readers … I’m starting to do book reviews on my blog related to reading and writing so if you have a chance hop over there and weigh in. Thanks
Kristi

That’s me with the sheriff.

Check out my writing blog for more pictures of me hanging with cops during my reporting days.
those were fun times …
Kristi

www.kristibelcamino.com

Beautiful Fendi BLUE Roman leather Selleria medium tote. So lovely

Like many of us, I am on my computer all day long.
I try to spend most of my “work day” actually working, but because I work at home, when I “take a break” for me that usually means a little online browsing. Blue Fly is one of my favorite places to do that.
Today I am fascinated by the Fendi handbags on their site. What I love most about them is that they are 1. Italian!!! and 2. Classic, timeless pieces that will always be in style.
Let me know what your favorite Fendi handbag style is.
I’m not a big logo person, so I prefer styles that are sleek and anonymous. I can’t imagine spending more than $2,000 on a handbag today, but I can still dream, right?
The Selleria above is absolutely gorgeous. It will never go out of style and if you like being incognito, like me, nobody would ever know you had a bag worth several thousand dollars. I also adore the color. Navy, as some of my dear readers know, is my favorite color. Hands down. And this is so dark, it is almost black, but not. It would go with anything and everything.