14 Elul: Starting

Remember not the first events, and do not meditate over early ones.  Behold I am making a new thing, now it will sprout, now you shall know it; yea I will make a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland. - Yishayahu Chapter 43

And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you. - Genesis Chapter 12

This writing prompt is one from Ima on the Bima's Blog Elul prompts

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I didn't feel like Rosh Hashanah is really a new time of year.  That being said, it is a time to reset and restart.

Interestingly enough, I have started to think about my outside appearance (funny how I also mentioned changes in wardrobe in yesterday's post too).  I have chosen to dress modestly, I can't really say when I started, but here I am wearing only skirts, long sleeves and I started covering my hair a few months ago.

As a stay at home mom, my daily wardrobe consists almost entirely of t-shirts over shells and a skirt and some kind of hair covering.  I spend Shabbat mornings agonizing over the contents of my closet.  I have many pieces I owned before dressing modestly, and while I could throw a shell underneath many of them, I felt a little blah overall with any of my choices.

A while back, in my Pinterest wanderings, I came across travelling for two weeks using nothing but a carry on.  I then somehow discovered this site that describes ways to jazz up the wardrobe you already own.   I noticed there is very little out there relating to modest dress however.  After much searching I found Ally's website and more ideas.

I've started to apply these concepts and I feel like I've opened a whole new world of modest dress.   The last couple of days I didn't wear my t-shirt/shell combo and I felt...different.  Maybe because I dressed more like a grown up, maybe because I focused on making things a little prettier on the outside, the inside felt a bit prettier too.

I have also decided that in September I will attempt some form of 30 for 30 outfit challenge.  This of course closely coincides with Rosh Hashanah (which starts September 4th).

I originally had been trying to find some new outfits for the High Holidays.  I found one pretty dress that I fell in love with (rare) and I decided it would be my splurge (70$ at 50% off).  The rest of my outfits will come from my own closet, wearing them in ways inspired by the links above.  (As someone who didn't grow up with any kind of fashion sense, this is a major step for me).

I guess this year, I will work on the outside as well as on the inside.