My Latest Score
Not particularly ground-breaking, but I just re-purchased my very favorite vanilla for baking: Nielsen-Massey’s. It is twice as expensive as the grocery store variety, but I promise you it is SO worth it. The best, richest flavor. I bake a lot (too much?), and I swear that this ups the ante on even the most basic of baked goods, like the classic Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies I made earlier this week for a very pregnant girlfriend of mine. (What did you think, K?)
You’re Sooooo Popular
The most popular items on Le Blog this week:
+This tie-front midi dress, which is now nearly sold out (womp womp). These tie-front styles are SO trendy right now, I’ve bookmarked a few I’ve loved only to find them gone within 24 hours. I love this style and this style as alternatives.
+This monogrammed bathmat ($29 but looks SO much more expensive!)
+My day designer ($29). I’m convinced many of you will be just as obsessed with it as I have become.
+This adorable gingham midi skirt ($95). Very Grace Kelly.
+This easy-going tee dress from Everlane ($38). I’ve actually heard from a few of you in the comments and via email that this is one of your favorite everyday wardrobe staples!
+This adorable eyelet mini skirt ($75, but extra 40% off RN!)
+Chic running jacket, on sale as a part of Nordstrom’s Anniversary sale ($69). Get it in that cool freesia orange color!
#Turbothot
There was a moment two weeks ago where I legitimately had no idea what day of the week it was. It made me realize that caring for an infant has occasionally made my life feel like Groundhog Day — and I say that mainly for comedic effect, because I absolutely love being a mom, but there’s a nugget of #realtalk truth in there, in that most days are a blur of feeding, changing diapers, and putting her to sleep and sometimes I pause, while wiping her little pink butt for the trillionth time in a day, and say: “Oh, hey, it’s 4 PM, and…this is my day.” Don’t get me wrong: most days, I am happily gliding through our daily routine, obsessing over mini and traipsing around the neighborhood with her as if she’s Simba on Pride Rock, but there are those moments where I zoom out and see myself as a hamster on a wheel. A happy hamster with a cute little hamsterette and a great OTS dress (o heiii girl heiii)…but a hamster nonetheless.
Long prelude to say that I felt a little out of sorts for a day or two. (And, admittedly, I’m neither old enough or young enough to lose track of time as I had, so shame on me.)
And then I mimed Cher in my favorite scene of Moonstruck (please tell me I’m not the only one who absolutely LOVES this movie? EPIC), and told myself: “SNAP OUT OF IT.”
I thought about two things: a) my insanely good fortune, both to have mini and to have the option to choose to stay home with mini, rearranging my work around her, and b) advice from a dear friend, who once told me, likely in a polite, thinly veiled attempt to suggest I take action myself, that his sister had been complaining about how stuck she felt in her job, in her relationship, in her small town in Wisconsin, and he said: “Then DO something. No one’s going to do it for you.”
And so, I told myself: let’s take control of this situation. I bought a new planner, researched classes and activities and museums in Chicago, and created a long, long list of to-dos for mini and myself. Then I sat down and started planning out the next few weeks against a calendar, marking each day with various outdoors adventures and new exercise studios and mommy-and-me classes and tasks I’ve been meaning to do for awhile (ahem, get a new library card — which, while we’re on the topic, was ultra-fortuitous because the City of Chicago has passes to all of the local museums so you can get in for free by renting them when you have a child under the age of 18 with you! So, we’ve been to Shedd Aquarium and The Museum of Contemporary Art gratis. Which is great because we probably spent about 45 minutes in each and I can’t imagine having dropped $20 per ticket — more for out of staters! — on such a short-lived visit).
I have to tell you: this has restored to me a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. I feel like a better mom, a better wife, a better person.
Shopaholic
On my current radar:
+Such a unique blouse ($168). I can’t stop staring at it. Uber chic with black skinnies and huge black shades.
+Funky printed vacation-ready dress ($99, plus 50% off right now!)
+Fabulous pillows for a breakfast nook / screen-in porch (on sale for $62). The tiger print!!! So good.
+I need this dress ($168). That bow shoulder!!!
+This tie-trimmed bathing suit ($99) is super sexy and resembles a much more expensive one that everyone wore last season — I think it was by Lisa Marie Fernandez? Anyway, super chic. That said, if I were to splurge on one more bathing suit this season, it would be the Marysia Venice Maillot ($350). I die over it. SO freaking chic.
+Easy striped dress for these steamy late summer days ($80).
Just this week I was telling someone that the key to being a SAHM (for me) was to get out of the house everyday – whether it be for outings, errands, or a combination of the two. We all benefit from the change of scenery and I especially need it for my sanity. I’ve been home for nearly 7 years and quite often make the Groundhogs Day reference – every day is dishes, laundry, rinse, repeat – so I HAVE to break it up. And 7 years later, still wiping butts!
So good to hear this from a TRUE SAHM veteran! I think I’m on to something…