My husband received the Nordstrom catalog yesterday, and I did a new thing: I looked at all pages of the catalog, and decided what I could/would wear, if my lifestyle suited it. For instance, I can't think of anywhere I'd wear a dark pink gingham midi dress, but for last night's purposes, I considered whether I'd feel fantastic wearing it, say, at lunch with friends, regardless of cost or frequency of wear... just for the exercise. Traditionally unless a stylist picks something for me, I've stuck to shapes, fabrications and colors (and prices) that are within my comfort zone. This catalog exercise has helped me think outside the box. I am challenging myself to buy an outfit (or something similar) from the catalog this spring/summer. (It helps that the catalog is a finite number of pages.)

I'd love to hear your successes. How do you stretch your style preferences and think outside the box?