My Florida Style

With my trip to England coming up I’ve been sorting through my clothes deciding what to take with me. It’s still 13 days away but I like to do this inital sweep of my closet in advance – just incase i have to go shopping 😀

My closet here is pretty big. I chose the biggest one out of the 2 in the master bedroom, obviously! The items in there now, are not what I arrived with 2 years ago. It’s been evolving over time as my style has changed to fit our new surroundings. Partly out of necessity and partly through choice.

I also eventually decided the dresses I’d been hording since my pre pregnancy years were no longer necessary and handed them down to a teenager!

The picture ☝️makes it look like I have a lot but all seasons are in there including about 5 winter coats (Just in case!) I have beach / pool wear, casual summer, summer dresses, autumn dresses, jeans, church dresses, t shirts,long sleeve tops. You get the picture, there really isn’t as much as it looks!

When we arrived all of us needed to expand our summer wardrobes rapidly! I feel looking back I spent most English summer days in black leggings or a maxi and t shirt. I didn’t wear a pair of leggings our 1st year here until November some time. So being that I spend a lot of time in shorts I definitely need 7 pairs of denim ones, right? By this time of year I feel like I have lived on just a quarter of my clothing as we’re in summer wear April to October!

When we started looking for summer items I asked for some advice on where to shop, the 1st place I was sent I had a great time chatting to the glamorous Florida grannies but I did not find suitable clothing! (Steinmart!) Then I’d find shops that looked great, but were $$$, onto the next one. I ended up in H&M – familiar but somewhat plain unless you wanted some of the more quirky items. I began to just blend in, no real style.

Around the same time I was busy finding my tribe. They started pointing me to the right places and eventually I found my shopping groove again! (Although at the time of writing this I have been in a clothes shop 4x since the beginning of May. Clothes shopping with 3 kids tagging along is not fun)
Friends give you the confidence to wear what you like and feel good in it. I realised this is what I had been missing. My sister and my girls in England always helped me out.

My go to’s here now are forever21, H&M, Target, Plato’s Closet consignment shop and Dillards clearance. I’m also very close to the outlets but for my budgets sake I try to stay away!

Talking of budget, I like to look out for giveaways with closet items as well as house items. Grabbed myself a nice pair of black hunter wellies recently for free!

I miss primark so badly and just having a little wander down the high street, in & out of charity shops. My kids actually liked charity shops they’d head for the toys and have a mini playgroup in each shop whilst I browsed!

I enjoy rocking what I suppose could now be classed as vintage Primark, Matalan and New Look clothes and shoes (UK shops) and always get compliments in them! However when I’m back in England shopping everything looks so different! I didn’t buy a lot last summer because I felt it was all a bit too much for my beach town. My next trip I’m going to fill a case! I’ll wear what looks and feels good now. Dress as me not who I think I should be.

I’m so ready to shop back home! Light packing on the way out to fill up the case whilst I’m there. I know there’ll probably be more for the kids than me though!