How I wore it: something about the chase

... six whole years!

Yesterday (Wednesday, as technically it's now Friday, but in my brain it's still Thursday - OK, fine, March 7) was my husband's and my six-year anniversary as a couple. As it's a rather special anniversary, what with Baby Boots and all, we decided to do something nice. We went to a favorite restaurant in our old neighborhood in Boston, baby in tow, and scarfed our food quickly while holding the little one (or, in my case, nursing her). She behaved well, although she had a major freak-out once we arrived home; it wasn't the most relaxing dinner we've ever had, but it was quite fun to dress up and show off the babe. Hey, my motive aren't ever that pure...

Anyway, I'd done a small Old Navy nursing wear order a few weeks ago and was excited to wear a new dress in a favorite color:

Ever-flattering photo by my husband. Do you get the sense he's a wee bit taller than I am?

A turquoise nursing dress! What are the odds?! I paired it with matching jewelry, including a wee little pendant, as Baby Boots' grip is quite death-like and I didn't want to bother her with my bigger turquoise pendant. As I've felt rather ungainly over the past few days, it was nice to doll myself up with a flattering (trust me: this photo is ghastly - it looked a lot better in person) dress and fun tights and a favorite pair of boots. It was worth shoveling mussels down my throat in five minutes flat! 

Kitty also needs love...

Anyway, I wish I had some better photos to take, but that's what you get when you ask your non-camera-savvy husband to take pictures well past midnight after your baby has been exercising her powerful little lungs for a couple of hours...

Maybe when our wedding anniversary rolls around in June, we'll all be more used to social evenings out!

Turquoise dress: Old Navy Maternity

Grey patterned tights: Gap, remixed

Boots: Steve Madden, remixed

How I wore it: ladies who lunch

Today I had the distinct pleasure of having an old friend over for lunch. We hadn't interacted in probably twenty years or so. Her parents worked with my parents and she's a year older than I am (and her sister a year younger), so we ended up being friends - you know how that works when you're kids, right? We had a lot of playdates at each others' houses and went to birthday parties and whatnot. Sometimes her little sister and I ganged up on her, sometimes she and I ganged up on her little sister. We were charming. Anyway, she's finishing up her Ph.D. in Cambridge and we decided, after a few months of planning, to get together. So, like big adults, she came over and we had lunch. At a table! Like women.

I decided to wear a more socially acceptable version of my "mom at home" uniform:

Still couldn't be bothered to wear real shoes...

I've noticed that I'm being drawn to bright colors a lot in my "fourth trimester" gear. The nursing clothes I've bought recently (all from Old Navy, I think) are almost all in bright, vibrant colors: turquoise, pink, brilliant blue... I don't know why it is. Perhaps the months of wearing the same clothes over and over again during pregnancy made me crave color and novelty?

This particular top has been problematic in the past. The crossover/wrap style can be super-unflattering, especially if you futz with it a lot, the way I am inclined to, in order to make everything lie flat. Today I learned that the less I play with the bands, the better they look when allowed to fall naturally on the body. So I didn't touch them (except with regard to nursing Baby Boots) and I was the happiest I'd ever been with this shirt! Yay for not giving into one's OCD tendencies!

Pink top: Old Navy Maternity

Jeans: Maternity America, by way of Gilt Groupe, remixed

Flip flops: Urban Outfitters, remixed

Full disclosure

So you may have noticed a cool little banner to the right of the page, with a purty dark-haired lady in a red dress and big earrings [dammit, I wish I could just describe myself with those words!]. That, my friends, will take you to the Shabby Apple website. Do you know about Shabby Apple? It's an online boutique with some of the most gorgeous dresses I've ever seen; I first heard about them through the blogging community and I often go to their site to drool over some dresses (I've been in love with this little houndstooth number for YEARS)...

Anyway, I was contacted them to sign up for their affiliate program and I decided to do so, hence the banner. What this means, dear readers, is that if you click on the banner and buy something, I get a tiny commission off the sale. Cool, no?

I thought long and hard before signing up, and I obviously decided to do so for a couple of reasons. The first one was: "Hey! Maybe I can make a couple of bucks and pay for Baby Boots' education!" The other reason is? I truly think that this is a lovely boutique. Granted (in the interest of FULL full disclosure), I've not bought anything from them, mainly for financial reasons. However, I think their clothes are honestly gorgeous and I would never link to something that I wouldn't endorse (or have heard the endorsement of from other lovely ladies, such as many of yourselves).

That being said, this changes nothing. If you want to buy yourselves a pretty dress or something, hey, great. If you don't? The ad itself is pretty.

I just thought y'all should know.

PS - Ohmigod, y'all, there's a whole Academia collection! Time to go work on that course proposal...

How I wore it: show-off

Last night was a very important night in the Boots household: our first social event (not hosted by us)! My job was having an end-of-winter party (despite the fact that it had snowed on both Wednesday and Thursday. For the first time in months.), so I decided to sling on some contacts, put on some cute clothes (and boots!), pack up the baby (and husband), and go to a partay!

While I was happy with the outfit I'd created, I wasn't sooooooo thrilled with the execution:

I felt weird and overly formal, although I did fit in fine with the other attendees. I think that wearing comfy PJ and yoga pants have gotten me unused to wearing fitted clothes again. The issue is the same as always - while I'm not too unhappy with the number on the scale, the weight distribution (on tummy, hips, etc.) makes wearing all my clothes tougher than I'd like. Then again, as my husband says, if the clothes fit, that's enough. Of course, he doesn't have to sit down in an overly tight skirt and show an expanse of generous thigh. 

That being said, it felt pretty nice to get all gussied up, despite my initial discomfort in the tighter-than-usual skirt. My Fluevogs fit like a dream and it felt nice to to be comfortable in my boots again (no more swollen feet/legs!) and whatnot. My husband also liked the outfit. My daughter? Not so impressed...

More natural, less flattering...

Holy God, do I love those boots. 

Anyway, today I'm back in my comfy sweats and maternity jeans, but it was nice to be in society again! Baby Boots acted like a champ and socialized for a little before falling asleep. Good first party!

Black top: H&M, remixed

Black tank (underneath): Old Navy Maternity, remixed

Skirt: Ann Taylor Loft, remixed

Green tights: Gap (remixed?)

Black boots: John Fluevog, remixed

A queen in days of old

Hi, all! I've been wanting to write about this for some time now, so I decided to finally do so before February ended just because I don't want to work on a course proposal instead.

When Baby Boots was born, my mother-in-law flew in from Greece in order to meet her (she'd actually booked her tickets to correspond with the due date, but the baby was born 17 days early, so...). She came laden with gifts, mostly for Baby Boots, but with one honking big one for me.

Namely, this ring:

Yowza, am I right? Isn't it gorgeous? I love its material (beautiful, shiny, pure gold) and the blue bead (the "olive" on the olive branch). It was bought at the same jewelry store in Sparta where I've bought (or been bought) a LOT of other things. I lurve it. I've worn it twice now, both times to church, as I tend to wear gold jewelry a lot when I go to church. 

I like a lot how it looks on the hand, too. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of unique accessories and I think this one fits the bill perfectly. It'll be yet another gorgeous piece to pack along my travel case this summer...

How I wore it: how I wore her

Y'all, we're about to watch Colbert, the baby's down for the "night" (i.e., anywhere between two and six hours), I'm exhausted, my husband is sick, but I'm going to BLOG, dammit.

Heyyyyyyyy, guys.

There's a lot of fun things happening in C&B headquarters, the first of which - which has already come to fruition - is my purchase of a new laptop. My MacBook (which I'd gotten in January of 2007) was slowly grinding to a halt, so I bought myself a lovely MacBook Pro. We are in love. There's other stuff coming up which is just as exciting (in terms of stuff I bought for myself), but for now it's all about the computer.

The weather today was beautiful: sunny and highs in the mid-50s. I decided that - by hook or by crook - I was going to take Baby Boots out for a walk today (our first one alone together) and so I did. I was very proud of myself, though shocked at how tired I got walking three quarters of my formerly favorite running route. Getting back into shape is going to be a laugh, won't it...

Since the baby has been born, I've been trying to figure out what the best way to transport her is, both in and out of the house. She insists on napping only in someone's arms, meaning that I spend most of my day on the couch, nursing or cradling her. Which is lovely, but leads to non productivity and a lot of 'America's Next Top Model.' I got a Baby Björn from my family, but the baby is a little too small for it for now. I'd bought a Moby wrap before Baby Boots' birth, which is great for around the house, but it's also very hit or miss as to whether the baby will enjoy it or not. So I went with what seemed like a most popular choice (and what our very own Kelly uses AND recommends!): the Ergo baby (with the infant insert). I might use it forever (although I do think the Björn is prettier, but it of course depends on baby's preference when the time comes), though. Baby Boots loves it and falls asleep almost immediately when placed inside. So it was an obvious choice today with the rest of my outfit:

There's a baby in there somewhere, I swear

We had a lovely walk and she had a good nap (she fell asleep in about five minutes). 

Fun fact: the last time I wore my blue Fryes was the day of Baby Boots' birth. Also, my feet are no longer swollen: yay!

[Also - does anyone who has given birth have any tips as to how to make one's stomach less paunchier and maybe even one's hips less hippier? I'm thrilled to fit into my jeggings, but non-elastic pants aren't that much of an option, although I don't weigh as much as I have at my heaviest, when I've been able to wear some of my non-elastic pants.]

[Yes, I'm shallow.]

In other news, my hair is growing out something crazy and I have some sort of sad shag. The good news is that I booked my next haircut for about a month from now - I want Cheryl to continue trimming/shaping it so that it grows out a little less nuts. 

Can you see the craziness?

... See what I mean?

Well, that's all for me, folks. I'm going to try to sneak into bed as quietly as possible...

Green hooded top: Old Navy Maternity, remixed

Blue jeggings: HUE, by way of Lord and Taylor, remixed

Blue boots: Frye Veronica Slouches, by way of zappos.com, remixed

It's the time of the season for loving

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

So it's been four weeks (and two days) since I last posted. Oops.

Everything has been going great at C&B headquarters. Little Boots is growing day by day and keeping me fantastically busy, although my whole day is spent doing nothing really but feeding her. [It's amazing how much this post by Kelly, about Baby T, has been true to my life: this is what I've been spending my time doing.] I've been wanting to blog for weeks, actually, but the idea of having some time alone at my computer was...laughable. In fact, right now she's doing her long end-of-night/morning nap and instead of sleeping, which would be the SMART thing to do, I'm finally updating. That's how much I love you all, people.

Aaaanywho, I've just this past week started reading blogs again, so I haven't been updated, nor have I been commenting, so...I'll try to do better now.

Anyway, it's early February and in my world, there is one thing to be excited about in early February: glasses!! Yup, my yearly check-up is in one week and I'm desperately hoping to get new frames out of it. I've had my black Ray-Bans for two years now and my insurance covers new frames every two years. God, I hope my prescription will have changed. Which is kind of a sick thing to wish for, come to think of it.

Anyway, as I told y'all back in the day (probably due to watching too many shows set in the 60s, such as 'Mad Men' and 'Alcatraz'), I've been falling in love with Ray-Ban's Clubmasters (in black or tortoiseshell). I have no idea whether or not they'll look good on me, but I'm determined to give them a try if my eye doctor has 'em. Anyway, while I was browsing through the Ray-Ban page the other day (to look at glasses some more, which I could really do all day), I found these little dears (they're a new release!) and promptly fell in love. Now I don't love the black, as the frame is a little thinner than what I'm normally attracted to, but, oh, the possibilities (plus, I want to go more tortoiseshell in order to lighten up the look: I have such dark hair and wear black eyeliner and a lot of black clothes...it's time for a switch, no?)!

This is the frame with which I'm the most in love:

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Since they are new, I really do hope that my guy carries them, because I would love to try them on. Unfortunately, I've found out that my husband prefers black frames and finds tortoiseshell a little aging (though his opinion is moot if I like them a lot), but I found a nice couple of compromises for him:

These...

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I think these are kind of cool, although they're brown and still potentially in the "aging" category that my husband criticizes... Those would be choice three. 

Choice number two?

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Dudes, grey glasses! That fade out! Hamazing, am I right? My mom loved these on the website and said that this kind would probably lighten my look a lot as well. 

On that note, have y'all noticed how popular the fade-out look is on glasses nowadays? I first noticed it when trolling on the Warby Parker website (although the style didn't look as great on me as I'd hoped) and, since my eye was attuned to it, I started noticing it a whole lot. What do you guys think of this look? Have you noticed it as much as I have? Do I notice others' glasses way too much?

On second thought, don't answer that...