Gigi: missed your elegant post the first time -- creatives speed read, ya know! I have not tried your approach before -- a mood board -- but it certainly suits my temperament. I get hung up on thinking of myself as "not visual." It's true I live in words and sounds, but I can usual a visual mood board AND put some evocative text with it, perhaps?

I may do a follow up post on this, focusing on mood boards as a creative alternative to - excel speadsheets, I'm allergic to spread sheets.

I am doing better and sticking to certain items, and certain silhouettes -- and not looking at everything. I think I'm in the remedial course of focused shopping, however, and you're teaching the grad seminar.

I'll get there!

I am like this with clothes and nowhere else. Truly, if only I could have some ideas in other areas. I've been working on this since landing at YLF, to get off the merry-go-round.

Beth Ann, you've put this into words very well......it reminds of a description I once read of the creative mind as being one in which "all of the tabs are open, all of the time"!

@Thimblina, thankyou for the link, I'm off to check it out...

I plan loosely, as follows:
in Feb/March, I shop for winter as that's when the full range tends to be in the stores in Australia.
similarly, in Aug/Sept, I shop for summer, especially for sunglasses as I wear them every day all year and I'm difficult to fit. Shopping when the full summer range is in store gives me more chance of success.
In August (my birthday month), I get all my health checks done and have a bra fitting....this is Angie's trick and I've done it since I joined YLF. No more scratching my head trying to work out when I last did it or when I'm due!