I'm checking in at the end of the first week of Sterling's June challenge. I challenged myself to photo every outfit, and rate both the items and the outfits - eventually purging items that don't work, and coming up with capsules of items that do.

I didn't photo every outfit this week (missed one), but there's extras tossed in here that I didn't post from the end of May. Here they are reverse-chronologically.

#1 - gingham shirt ensemble (from today's post). I was scheduled for my kids to play in the park with friends, and didn't want to try to pull off white jeans, so went with dark shorts instead. In the mirror, this outfit seemed to emphasize my broad shoulders, and I didn't like that, but I like the photo quite well.

#2 Worn out on business (hotel bathroom photo). I'm loving this black and gray brocade pattern sweater. It's a bit cropped, so I'm wearing a cami under it, and blue skinny jeans (it was casual dress code). This may have been my favorite outfit all week.

#3 Another winner in my book - but a bad hotel-room photo (very little light in there) - it's a teal sheer top over a black tank and black bootcut jeans - topped with my black leather jacket because it was chilly.

#4 - a flying outfit - blue bootcut jeans and a plum lightweight sweater. The sweater is fine, but the jeans make my butt look big, I think.

#5 - A summer casual outfit - turquoise mesh sweater with navy stripes and darkwash jean culottes. I'm not a fan of this outfit, nor of either piece - the shorts in #1 are much better than these, and the sweater is just weird proportions.

#6 Olive and black - black cropped pants with my olive shirt and the black vest I bought this spring. I don't think this works right, but I can't quite figure out why.

#7 A new favorite-ish summer top (it's blue/white railroad stripe with blue extra thick splotch type lines - I'm not even sure what to call it, but it's more interesting than just a basic stripes shirt....) With the culottes that need to be purged again New-to-me watermelon bag in use - happiness is high on that!

#8 Trying to downplay the brightness of my floral cropped pants with black - does it work? Somehow it doesn't seem quite right to me, even though I like all the pieces quite well.

What are your thoughts? Life is pretty busy for me right now, but I'm working toward finding a better work-life balance, and assuming that I'll be successful, my participation here might be able to pick up again.