I can't believe it's already July and how absent I have been around YLF! I've been getting the work done that I need to, but I miss this place dearly!

The most exciting news is that we adopted kittens about a month ago! They are pretty much the best thing ever, and getting along swimmingly with our elderly cat who lost her brother in January. They are 4 months old now, and Franz is already nearing 5 lbs while Milo is a bit smaller at 4.5 lbs!

I've been keeping my wardrobe as minimal as I feel comfortable with at this point. Excluding gear, I'm at 64 items of clothing, 6 pairs of shoes, 4 scarves, 5 belts (and flirting with the idea of fewer), and 22 pieces of jewelry. This is the smallest my wardrobe has ever been, and I'm absolutely loving it!

After being very unsuccessful with my original SYC and SYB attempts, I'm managing to keep my shopping rather under control. So far this year I've bought 9 items: 2 sandals, 2 tops, 2 earrings, 1 belt, 1 jacket, and 1 versalette (http://revolutionapparel.is/pa.....le-apparel). And 4 of those items (earrings, belt, and versalette) haven't even arrived yet! This is roughly on par with the
10 items I bought from July-Dec 2011, but miles ahead of the 31 items I bought from Jan-June 2011. I've struggled a lot of keep my consumption habits consistent with my grad student income as well as my morals, and I feel like I'm finally pretty close to where I want to be.

What I particularly love is that with the exception of the 2 tops and jacket (pictured below) these items have been customized to be exactly what I want! Both of the sandals are huaraches (one in tan leather for everyday, one in brown nylon and black vibram rubber for the rain) that have soles cut to perfectly fit my feet and laced exactly how I want them. My picky feet have never been so comfy, plus I'm working to rebuild my sunken arches and stop over-pronating so much. Plus both sandals are re-laceable so that they should last me a long time! For the belt, I got to choose the color, width, length, buckle, and thread color. I'm finally in a place where I know exactly what I want, and have been able to find producers (mostly on etsy) or products that can be modified to perfectly fit my needs. It's wonderful buying items and knowing that I'm going to be getting a lot of use out of them for many years to come.

Additionally, most of my new items have been purchased directly from either the artisan or US company that made them (again, with the exception of the tops and jacket). It makes me feel so much better wearing items without wondering about what kind of terrible conditions the people who made it were in. Yet I've found that this type of buying is far easier for me to do with accessories, shoes, and jewelry than with clothing. I'm still struggling to find clothing options in colors and styles I like that come from ethical producers and that I can afford. It's difficult. But I haven't given up hope yet!

In the rest of 2012 it's looking like I'm going to have to go back to focusing on clothes more than accessories. Two of my workhorse cardigans are clocking in at 41 and 58 wears and are going to need to be replaced soon. My skinny jeans with 120 wears are holding up surprisingly well, but my gut tells me that I should be looking for a replacement pair so that I'm not caught in a pickle when they inevitably get a rip or hole. With any luck the rest of the year won't be quite as hectic as the first half, and I'll be around more to share my shopping trials and tribulations!

ETA: pictures of sandals