Checkered in Dressember

Last week while I was at the gym, a friend commented to me that I should do “Dressember”. When she mentioned it, I vaguely remembered her talking about it when she was doing it last December but couldn’t quite remember what it was. So I asked her again what it was. It’s a month long campaign, if you will, to raise awareness about sex trafficking. In order to raise awareness, participants wear a dress every single day for the month of December, and this will in turn hopefully encourage people to donate money to the cause. Last year they raised $165k, and this year they hope to raise $500k.(You can read more in the “About” section of their website here) I love stuff like this. A lot. Anything that has a cause behind it, I get super excited about. Because as much as I love blogging and fashion, my heart behind it all is that you find who God made you to be and take pride and joy in celebrating it. And I can’t believe the indignity of these girls that are literally being robbed of that.

But as I write this, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do it. (If you’re even reading this, I am, though.You are just seeing what has been going through my head all day long.) A month is a long time. That’s THIRTY-ONE days of dresses. Don’t get me wrong, I love dresses. A lot. But I also love jeans. If you were to scroll through my Instagram feed, you would see that most of my daily outfits are based around some sort of bottoms, denim, leggings, etc, not dresses. So to commit to this is a big deal for me. I think the real thing that gets me though is if tomorrow I make the decision to DO it, I have to DO it. It’s a public proclamation. And even more than that, I know that if I started, my conscience wouldn’t allow me to quit, even if you all forgave me for not following through. I’m realizing too that the thought of not being able to choose not to wear a dress if I don’t want to irks me. I don’t like to feel bound by rules. It’s the same reason I never say I’m on a diet. If I say I’m on a diet, I’m gonna want to eat all the nachos and ice cream everywhere. But if it’s my CHOICE to eat healthy, then I’m less likely to splurge as much. I guess that same battle goes on in my head about this. I want to wake up every day and CHOOSE to wear the dress, not have to. But maybe that’s what I’m gonna learn from this. How thankful I am to be able to choose what I’m allowed to wear everyday. These girls don’t get to choose where they have to go or who they are with, let alone what they wear. And worse even, they are being horribly abused and suffering from indignities that you and I wouldn’t even be able to wrap our minds around.

But my flesh is warring against me in this. I also wonder if it’s bad for a blogger to be so limited in clothing. Aren’t I supposed to bring variety to your life and show you all sorts of different things you can wear? But you will be, Christine. You’ll be showing how many different ways you can wear dresses. It’s a freaking month, for crying out loud. Get over yourself. But can I really get over myself? I’m hoping. I’m hoping that you are actually reading this, and that my heart is stirred to action. And that I listen to this nudging in my heart to do this. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be thinking twice about doing this at all if I didn’t feel stirred in my heart by God to do so. I do not have the strength to do this on my own, as silly as it may sound. But any time I feel this nudging in my heart, I know it’s for a reason. I know God is doing something in me and that everything He does is GOOD.

Funnily enough, I had this post planned for today. And it’s a dress. So it worked perfect for this post. (I honestly went back and forth so much about doing it that I obviously missed yesterday BUT I literally did not even get dressed yesterday or go anywhere besides the gym 😛 )Plus I have two shoots I just did in other dresses, one even with pants under it! God knew what was coming! You can probably expect to see some of the same dresses too. I have a few black ones that are going to be perfect for layering all sorts of ways. I’m actually a little excited at the prospect of this challenge. And also nervous. Dear jeans and tees, I’ll miss you extravagantly.

And now, the rules are as follows:

-I must always be wearing a dress, but it can be over pants or under a skirt or even with a top over it to change the way it looks. I will try my best to let you know what the dress is if it looks like it’s hiding, but I promise I won’t cheat! 😛

-I can wear pants to work out or for cleaning etc at home.

-You can find all of my looks under the hashtag #moxieindressember. I will do my best to post a photo daily, but will probably do it at varying angles etc to make it more interesting.

-I will still have blog posts in things other than dresses as I may still have collaboration obligations, photos previously done, etc. But all of my daily, real time #ootd posts will be in dresses. If you are a boutique and reading this and would like to sponsor me with a dress for Dressember, please email me!

-Do your part! You can donate here or play along yourself by taking photos of yourself each day in a dress and hashtagging the photo #dressember! Follow @dressember on Instagram to stay updated as well as visit their website here.

A special thank you to Blythe for the creation of this cause and to Sarah Corps for the nudge to participate.

Dress: Urban Outfitters (sold out, must’ve been in the Black Friday madness 🙁 ), similar here, splurge here and here; Boots: Forever 21 (sold out), similar here, here, splurge here

Good morning, Ladies! It is RAINING in So Cal. FINALLY. I’m seriously so happy. It rained all day Sunday, and now it’s raining again today. Happy Day. We haven’t had rain in months. I am currently sitting on the couch sipping coffee (don’t tell the hubs I borrowed his hazelnut creamer) with the Christmas tree all lit up listening to the rain and writing this post. The BEST.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?! Mine was wonderful. We spent the day at Ben’s parents’ house with both of our families. Ben’s mom always has us do a little something to get us in the Thanksgiving spirit, and in addition to reading some Bible verses, his 10-year-old sister, Esther, did sign language to a worship song about giving thanks. It was the sweetest thing ever. And later after we all ate, and most of the extended family had left, both of our families played a few rounds of Catch Phrase. I LOVE that game. In the end both teams won one round so we left it at that to avoid too much gloating. 😛

Now onto this dress! I was lucky enough to snag this dress at Urban in the clearance section. I couldn’t believe I got it for $20 (orginally priced at $98!). It was still online for a while but it must have sold out in all the Black Friday madness.I love the top of it and how it has a medieval or renaissance feel to it (like this dress here) but with a modern pattern and cut! (P.S. I cannot tell you how long it just took me to remember what era that was when they wore those type of dresses. I googled like five things before I remembered. 😛 ) I linked some similar ones plaid ones but couldn’t find any with this cut. 🙁 But I’m especially in love with the one I linked from Lovers and Friends if you are able to splurge. 😛

Hope you all are having the best week, and thanks for reading! Don’t forget you can subscribe to my posts by clicking on the tool bar on the top right corner of my blog and entering your email!

xoxo,

Christine