Ready to FALL

 Photo Credit

Normally I would be posting photos from our Labor Day weekend fun. We did have fun - swimming, movies, friends, etc. - but I didn't get any awesome pictures, so instead I'm going to write about....FALL! Who else is ready for fall? Since it is September 3rd, and the day after Labor Day, I am officially over summer and ready for fall. (Also since my husband informed me today that he is done with the pool for this year....we shall see.)

You know who doesn't agree with me? The weather. It is still super hot here - pushing 100*. Yuck. But rather than complain I am going to share all the things I am looking forward to about fall! Starting with fall weather. I am ready to be able to walk outside past 10 AM and not sweat. I am ready for the leaves to change. I will gladly pretend that our daily walks will look like this, even if we may not get quite the same color scheme. I'm ready for the crispness of fall mornings and afternoons that make going outdoors comfortable enough for adventure.

 Photo Credit

Like many people, I am ready for my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season. I honestly prefer the frappuccino version of this drink, but whatever. I liked the burlap background and whipped topping in this photo. I think I will treat myself to my first one this weekend.

I am ready to shop for Eva's Halloween costume. I was thinking either a duck or a cow. I will most likely visit the new Kid to Kid in Grapevine and choose from their selection. I'm not too picky, I just want her to be some cute animal that she can make the sound to go along with her costume. I'm betting that she will really enjoy trick-or-treating this year :)

I'm looking forward to doing some fall learning activities with Eva. She likes things with felt so I'm planning on making these leaves and she can practice putting them on a string. Here are some other fun fall activities for toddlers. 

Photo Credit

I am looking forward to fall decorating! Bring on the orange, the yellow, the pumpkins, the burlap, the chevron, and the leaves! I'm making myself wait for the first cool day in September before I get the my decoration box out. I know it will happen.

I'm ready for fall fashion. I've been missing my boots all summer long! I love these two looks on my Pintrest board. I pretty much have the pieces for the look on the left and think I should be on the search for some yellow tights like the photo on the right. I'm even excited for some fall toddler fashion. Spoiler alert: I got Eva some brown boots for her birthday!!!! I can't wait for her to wear them when I wear mine.

Naturally the highlight of fall will be my 30th birthday. Only 2 1/2 more months. This is an old birthday photo but I like the joy in it. And the chocolate. 

And finally today we started our fall "school" activities. Eva was so happy to get to "do school." We read and sang about cows, did a cow nursery rhyme, and made a cow out of black and white squares. She loves to do "awwtt" as she calls it (art). We are putting everything for the week on our "school board" which is really just made from fabric pieces that I had leftover from making placemats.

Okay, that's my list. I'm ready. Come on fall!

Sew What?

I recently found a dress for $1 at a thrift store. At first glance I wasn't so sure about it but decided to try it on anyway. It was a size too big and not exactly stylish but I thought it might make a great sewing project. "Oh, you sew?" I hear you asking. Umm, not exactly. I can hand stitch a pant's hem and I can reattach a button. But I have been wanting to learn to do so simple sewing jobs so I thought this might be fun. I figured that buying the dress for $1 was actually cheaper than buying fabric to practice on. I borrowed my mom's sewing machine a while back in hope that I could accomplish something. Then on Tuesday night I had a sewing night with a friend which mostly resulted in me learning how to be great at taking seams out as I kept struggling with the machine. Ah! It can be tedious to try the same thing over and over when it isn't working. Finally I figured out what the problem was and was able to complete this project in about an hour's time (minus the 2+ hours that I spent figuring out what the heck I was doing). 

My before and after! What a  difference. Before: frumpsville. After: stylish. Basically I took off the sleeves and reseamed the shoulders, hemmed the dress by 2 inches, and fixed up the belt so that it ties at the front instead of in a huge bow right about my bottom. Much better! I really enjoyed working on this and may have found a new hobby for myself. Although I've promised Ryan that I won't start trying to make all of his clothes quite yet :)

Style {Hand me UPs}

We are all familiar with the idea of hand me downs - the old clothes that some sibbling or cousin has outgrown that are now passed down to you. I'm sure the if one day we end up having another girl she will have many hand me downs from Eva. But when you say "hand me downs" it almost suggests that these clothes aren't that good anymore. Like nobody else wanted them so you are stuck with them. Thus I decided to call my outfit in this post a "hand me UP" ....these are not hideously old clothes that are torn or outdated....they are simply outfit pieces that no longer suited the original owner.

A friend from church, Mey, who also happens to be my neighbor, was cleaning out her closet in preparation for a big move. She gifted me this awesome dress as a "hand me up" It is in great condition and I love the tiered ruffles. The dress she no longer was wearing is now my new spring dress!

The boots were handed up to me from my friend, Brooke. Brooke is 13 and got these boots passed on to her from another friend. The boots weren't the right size for Brook but they are great for me! I love the yellow stitching and they are so comfortable, especially for some two-stepping!

The belt I picked up this spring from a resale shop. So it wasn't a true hand me up since I bought it, but it was a piece that somebody else was finished with that now I get to enjoy.

And the black cardigan is actually an old piece from my wardrobe. I got this cardigan in -----sit down for this---- 9th grade. Umm, that is like 15 years ago! I had many years where I didn't wear it much but rediscovered it in my closet awhile back. I guess you could say it is a hand me up from my former teen self! Haha, but its from Express and still fits great. I must have had good taste in 9th grade. PS This is one of the only articles of clothing I still own from middle school. You know it's a good buy when you wear it for 15 years.

Style {Top Sliders}

Soooo, I had been wanting some type of top slider shoe for spring. We spend plenty of time outside running around with Eva and I wanted something tougher than my flip flops to keep up. I looked at Sperry's and had found some that I liked. Then I saw these at DSW that were like $50 CHEAPER than Sperrys. I'm sure real Sperrys are legit and worth the extra cost, but for my budget this was perfect. They are a great denim/gray color that goes with everything. My three pairs of shorts are denim, navy, and white so these shoes will match all of them. And they are super comfortable! 

 {Don't be fooled into thinking that I'm wearing this today. It's 40 degrees and raining. I'm still in my pj's.}

I like the lacing around the shoe. These are the perfect shoe when you want to look more stylish than a sneaker but more casual than a ballet flat. These shoes also come in beige and a glittery white color.

Blouse: Old Navy (last year)
Tank Top: no clue
Shorts: resale (NY and Company)
Shoes: DSW (Roxy)

Style {Colored Boots}

This has been one of my go to stay at home mom outfits this fall/winter. Even though the colder days are hopefully leaving us soon, I feel like the bright red boots can carry me into spring and summer, especially on festive occasions. I also like this dress a lot because it is long enough to wear with with sandals in the summer and short enough to wear with leggings in the winter.

Where did these fabulous genuine leather boots come from? They were my grandma's...in the 1980's. She passed them down to me years ago and I've mainly worn them when I go out country dancing. I really wanted to wear them with my wedding gown at our reception but forgot to pack them. I started wearing them more the past year when I fell in love with leggings.

Boots: Grandma Dede's closet
Dress: Old Navy
Scarf: Target
Leggings: Motherhood Maternity (from when I used to be pregnant, now I just like wearing them)

Style {Patterned Leggings}

Recently I wrote this post in which I shared that not even the clothing resale shop wanted my old clothes because apparently they were too outdated. Ouch. But then the other day I saw that Bachelor Star/Dancing with the Stars Winner/ TV Personality Melissa Rycroft posted a photo of herself on her facebook page wearing an outfit almost identical to the one I am wearing above. I really wanted to share the photo of her but I'm not sure what the copyright/privacy rules are for facebook photos so I decided instead to encourage you to visit her page and "like" her. You can also see some photos of the awesome cake my sister in-law, Melody, made for Melissa's daughter's birthday (the Nemo cake).

Look who is stylish now! I owned all of these pieces long before seeing Melissa's photo and she got tons of compliments on her style. Take that, clothing resale shop.

A rare non-smiling photo of me - I honestly didn't even realize that I wasn't smiling. 

Sweater - Old Navy

Black Tshirt - The Limited (umm, probably like 10 years ago....)

Leggings - Very Jane

Boots - Rocket Dog

Necklace - Resale

Style {Cleaning Out the Closet & Mom Jeans}

Alright. This is officially what my fall/winter/early spring wardrobe is now limited to. This past week I went on a massive closet scale down. What led to this???? Well it started off with some casual Pinterest browsing, which led me to this article about how stores like The Gap and Old Navy are secretly selling "mom jeans." This blog takes a comical, yet realistic look at how women are wearing their jeans and if you have some time you should read it :)  They may not be the pleated, high waisted, stretchy waist band type that were once parodied on Saturday Night Live, but they are mom jeans nonetheless. They are the type of jeans that make you look frumpier, hip-pier, more tired, and out of shape than you really are. Yikes! I've worked hard to get into good post-baby shape - no way do I want my jeans to make me look heavier than I am. I have blogged about avoiding mom jeans before and have been on the hunt for good jeans many times over the past year and a half as I've lost weight. I don't ever want to buy jeans that are too tight (gotta conceal those mama parts) but I also tend to buy jeans that are too big and then they stretch out and look too loosely. Add in the fact that I'm short, my budget is tight, and my time to shop limited  - it's a shopping nightmare. Since 2 of my 3 pairs of jeans were from Old Navy I had some serious concerns. {Side note: Did you know it's really hard to tell how your jeans actually look from behind?} So I carefully examined how my jeans fit and decided that while they aren't terrible, they aren't awesome either. While I was examining my cool stay at home mom style I decided that I might as well weed through my closet and get rid of some other pieces. I have so  many old clothes that don't fit great. I decided that I'd rather have 20 tops and sweaters that I really like than 40 that make me sigh hopelessly when I see myself in the mirror. I know that when I get rid of clothes I can't just go on a shopping spree to replace them and that's really fine with me. I don't need tons of clothes to go to Walmart and the park, just enough pieces to feel put together when I'm out and about and fresh when I get to go somewhere dressier. Simpler is almost always better.

I pulled out those pieces and tried to bag them up and sell them to Clothes Mentor. Bad news: They didn't want them either. You know your clothes aren't cool when the clothing resale store won't purchase them to try to sell to others. They did buy one dress, and in my defense, at least these were the clothes I am getting rid of and not the ones I''m keeping. I did walk away with one new pair of jeans that I really like. I think they are pretty stylish and I scored them for only $10. That's why I love resale shops!

Leggings. Not just for cute little kids.

I wore leggings in 4th grade. They were amazing. They had stirrup straps that looped down into my Keds. I was cool. Flash forward 20 years. I love wearing leggings!!!! Between 4th grade and when I became pregnant with Eva leggings at some point came back into style. I started wearing them at the point when I needed some comfy maternity pants and haven't looked back. I even admitted in another post that I still like to wear my maternity leggings. They are so comfortable! {insert eye rolling from every trendy person I know}

I currently own 6 pairs of leggings and I wear them all the time. A local high school recently banned leggings, citing that they can be too revealing, and I shuddered at thinking about getting through the winter without my leggings. Yes, I own other pants. There are days I wear jeans and once in a while I wear dress pants to church. But my favorite go-to outfits right now are based around leggings and boots or leggings and my oh-so-fashionable moccasins {more eye rolling and deep concern}.

Back to the ban on leggings...let me say that when I wear my leggings I make it a point to be modest and aware of what should be covered. A tank top and shear leggings does not an outfit make. Even if your leggings are fleece lined and not see through there are certain body parts that should be covered regardless of whether your 13 or 30.  I will leave you with this comic relief.

 

I can't be the only one who totally relates to this, right? {now being chased by fashion police}.

Money Saving Mama

I was in need of a few shopping items yesterday. Eva needed a new pair of shoes because her feet seemingly grew like three inches in the past month so her old shoes were too tight, and she needs comfortable shoes since she likes to walk now. I needed some new shorts because (1) it's summer time in Texas (hot.),  (2) I've lost weight so the ones I bought back in March for my post baby body are now way too big (yay!), and (3) I got rid of my old smaller clothes back in December because I thought they'd never fit again (oops.) Like lots of people, our family budget doesn't have a lot of extra $$ to put towards shopping. Lucky for me, a friend had told me about a place called GW Boutique in Keller. It's actually right down the street from the office I used to work in and I had driven by tons of times but never knew anything about it. Guess what the GW stands for? Goodwill - as in the place you go to buy a funny Hawaiian shirt for a theme day at work. Their boutique sells all of the higher end brand clothing that people donated to Goodwill for only slightly more than regular Goodwill prices - brands like Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic, Express, Gap, etc. I decided to stop by and check it out. It was awesome! Of course there are the occasional items that were probably purchased from those stores back in the 90's, but overall they had tons of good, stylish clothing that you couldn't even tell was used. I ended up getting a pair of NY&Company shorts, an Ann Taylor Loft top, and a Gap skirt for only $25! I probably would have spent twice that just for one of those items purchasing it new at those stores. I will definitely be going back in the fall when its time for me to get a new pair of jeans :) If they asked me to be in a commercial to tell everybody how great this place is I would do it. Seriously, if you live anywhere near Keller at all it would be worth going to. I even saw a few items there that I own in my closet.

Then I still needed to get Eva some shoes.... so we drove a minute down the road to Kid to Kid, a kid's resale clothing place. I ended up getting her two pairs of Carters shoes because they were on sale for 25% off. I only spent $5 for both pairs of shoes. They are cute and don't look like they've ever been worn (one pair still had the tag on them). It was a successful afternoon of shopping and I love finding great bargains!

What to Wear

Like all future fashion diva's Eva likes to dress up. Or maybe it's her mom who likes to dress her up, but we'll just says it's her for now. What has she been wearing this week?

A floppy sun hat.

Polka dotted jammie jams that have a little white poodle on them.
Be unstylish in the crib? She doesn't think so.

Sunglasses.
No diva wants the sun in her eyes.

A princess crown.
Sometimes a baby wants to feel fancy.

Nothing at all.
Love tub time and LOVE having a baby girl.

If the jeans fit....

{Photo Credit} 

I decided this week that I needed new jeans. Not wanted - needed. As in my other pants would.not.work. I have been living in the post baby era where maternity jeans are way too big but my old jeans do not fit either. This is a place no woman wants to be. I try not to be overly into my looks. I would like to come across put together and classy without spending an obsessive amount of time or money (I don't have much to spare of either). The other night my mom came over and held Eva while I mercilessly went through my closet. I probably made a donation pile of about 1/3 of my closet. I figure that other people can make better use of my clothes that no longer fit. Here's the ironic part about losing baby weight: you can loose ALL of the weight - actually more - but everything on your body is redistributed. And not swimsuit body redistributed. All of this to say, that I was feeling pretty desperate when I decided to go to the mall and conquer the task of shopping for jeans.

Bless my wonderful husband for going shopping with me last night. I walked into a store that I haven't shopped in often but thought would sell age and body appropriate fashions for a hip 28 year old mom. Their jeans were all on sale for 40-50% off! Yes! I was already on roll. I casually browsed the store and took a few pairs of pants back to the dressing room. I tried on the first pair. Too tight. I tried on the second pair. Too loose. Third pair - too short. Forth pair - too long. I was starting to feel like the Goldilocks of the fashion world and then the sales lady knocked on my door and asked, "Is everything fitting alright?" I opened the door with a helpless look and said, "No. Nothing fits. At all." And then I went on to explain my post baby relationship with pants. I was lucky to find the worlds most understanding and encouraging sales lady (she wasn't even working for commission). I told her that I'm not trying to look like a ultra-skinny 16 year old girl but that I don't want to fall into the dreaded "mom jeans" look either. She listened and looked at how everything fit me that I had tried on. She was a mom herself and could relate.

With her assistance, I probably tried on 30 pairs of pants. I'm sure she wished she had never knocked on my door, but she was so kind. I finally found 2 pairs that worked well. I figured since I was tackling this task I might as well pick out a dressy and a casual pair. The ironic/interesting/horrifying part is that the size of my new pants is so different from the old size of my pants. I know that size is just a number. I know that all stores size differently. I know that my baby just turned 3 months old and that it takes time to tone up after a c-section. Be honest though, do these facts make any difference when you are the one shopping for jeans? I didn't think so. BUT I did really like how I looked and felt in the jeans and they were very affordable. I decided to overcome the vanity of hating the size and get pants that look great on the body that I have right now.