Athletic Wear at It's Best

If you are anything like me you probably spend more time in yoga pants than you would like to admit. Part of that is due to actual time spent exercising, but a lot of it is just because getting dressed in the morning is exhausting with a toddler. Therefore, I've decided to put together a few outfits that will take you from the gym or just a comfy lounge-wear day, straight to the store or a casual lunch with friends. Athletic wear can completely be fashionable.

 For some of you this may feel like a lot of black, but that's what makes it so easy to transfer from the gym to running errands. Most of this outfit is actually from Target. Their Champion C9 brand is actually really great and cute. If you carry your weight in your bottom half don't be afraid of pants like these. The pattern isn't what makes your butt look big, the fit does. If you buy athletic pants that are too small the fabric will stretch and give that shiny see-through look that not only makes your rear-end look bigger, but it also makes your pants look cheap. You want athletic clothing to fit to point of not falling off but not overly tight. The pattern on these pants will actually work to camouflage (yep, I went there) extra padding on your booty. Solid fabrics in lighter colors are actually the styles you want to stay away from. The mixture of light and dark colors here works great. The tank with the built in sports bra and the cowl neck just adds a little bit of flare to what could otherwise just be a plain old sports bra and tank. It's also super flattering. You can't go wrong with a black pullover and a black hat, however you could always add a pop of color with a brighter colored hat though or bright shoes instead of the black ones from Champion. Neon shoes would be super cute with this outfit.

The next look will take you straight from yoga or a relaxing day at home to a casual lunch with your friends or a day shopping.

I love everything about this outfit. The LuluLemon sports bra gives a pop of color and style while the rest of the outfit is stylish and simple. These pants are great to either slip on after a workout or lounge about the house in. They are more of a fashion statement than just plain black yoga pants or sweats. You can pretty much never go wrong with a basic white tank. Just make sure it's not too thin because that will make it too see through. You could pair this outfit with classic black sneakers like this or with cute sandals or even sneakers like Converse, Keds, or Vans. If you wanted you could also put a simple light denim jacket with this too if you needed another layer.

So there you have it! Two ways to wear athletic wear and still look put together and fantastic. Who else wishes they had both of these outfits in their wardrobe right now?

New Post Coming!

Hi Friends,

There is new post coming tomorrow (hopefully) about flattering and stylish ways to wear active wear. I wrote the whole thing tonight and sadly, it didn't save. So, tomorrow I will rewrite it and hopefully it will not disappear on me again!

Thanks,

Ellie

Style Overhaul

I'm not sure if anyone has hung around while I took a much longer hiatus than I had originally planned, but if you did, hi! Most of the reason for my longer-than-planned hiatus was due to the fact that adjusting to life with a child, 2 jobs, a house to take care of, and a husband to hang out with was a little bit more all consuming than I had thought. The other reason is that with pregnancy came way more weight gain than I ever thought would happen. I honestly didn't know what to say about clothes any more because I felt like all of my ability to dress myself well went out the window with my post baby body. I had no idea what to do with myself. Eighteen months and 35 (almost 40) lbs later I feel like I'm getting my groove back style wise and I've been missing this blog more than I ever thought I would.

Dressing a body that doesn't feel like yours is very difficult. The weight isn't really the issue at all. If you don't feel like you at the size you are than finding your style is incredibly difficult. The stuff you used to love doesn't quite look right anymore, and buying clothes when you are working on losing baby weight (or any weight) is not something you generally feel like doing. However, through it all I've learned some lessons about great style.

The main thing I learned is that your size has nothing to do with great style. If you feel great, you will dress yourself well, and if you dress yourself well you will feel great. It doesn't matter what size you are, it matters how you feel in your clothes. The confidence you get from feeling unstoppable because of a great outfit is priceless (even though the great outfit probably wasn't).

The other thing I learned is that I need to purge my wardrobe. The first step is to just get rid of everything I don't feel great in, anything that doesn't fit, anything with holes or tears (even the most comfy shirt or sweats you've ever owned), anything I have too many duplicates of, and anything I haven't worn in the past 30 days (this specific rule doesn't apply to dresses that are meant for more special occasions... however I would keep those to a minimum. Only 1 or 2 special occasion dresses, just go for the classics!). This step has taken awhile and I am still working through it. I have already filled about 5 or 6 trash bags with clothes to donate and I'm pretty sure I am not done.

This purging of my closet will be leading to my own version of a project that my sister started a few years ago called 20 Pieces. My sister and her friend Julie pared their closets down to 20 pieces of clothing... Total. Yikes! My version will be 50 pieces of clothing... 50 felt more doable for me. Over the next 6 months I will continue to purge my closet and work on collecting classic pieces that are higher quality and are more versatile. When I get my closet worked out I will live for a year only shopping to replace if necessary. That part is going to be incredibly hard for me. I LOVE shopping.

Anyone feel like joining me on this journey to simplify your style and your life? During this I will talk about ideas to change up outfits that could otherwise get mundane with accessories and different styling options. Did I mention that i'm not counting my accessories in the 50? There is no way I could do that. I need my accessories... I need them. However, they do count in the no new purchases unless they need to be replaced rule.

Hope you guys join me again over here at Southern Creative! Once again, I apologize for the extra long disappearance... I will try very hard not to do that to you again. I promise.