Practically Perfect

I'm a sucker for a good dress.

Professional Get-up

Every now and again I actually use my University degree.

Winter Uniform

Do you ever wear something so often that it starts to feel like a uniform? Well, if I had to have a uniform for winter - it would be this: jeans, tank/tee, button down, vest, moccasins/boots. Done. Voila.

Confident Twosday: Navy & Cobalt

I am so excited to be co-hosting Confident Twosday today with Laura from I do deClaire!

I do deClaire (Bloglovin) | What Mama Wears (Bloglovin)

Navy, Red & Retro

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This sweet, basic little navy dress (with pockets!) was one of the boxing day deals I happened to pick up at Target. It was a great deal at 50% off and I ended up paying less than $14 for it.

Gingham & Boyfriend jeans

Okay, I admit it. I've worn these jeans like a billion times since I picked them up at the V-V boutique (aka Value Village). They actually come from Old Navy, but I much prefer to pay about $7 for jeans than $30. This gingham shirt has gotten a lot of wear this summer and these scalloped flats add just a bit of punchy colour to this outfit.

Blue print and ball cap

These blue print pants are back in rotation again. The weather is starting to turn colder and once it stops getting up to 15+ degrees in the afternoon, I'll have to give up and put these pants away for the winter.

I finally picked up a "leather" ball cap. I've been wanting one for some time, but I sure didn't have the cash to drop on a real leather ball cap. I picked this one up from Ardene on a 3 for $10 deal - that means this hat cost $3.33! Now that's a steal!

It was pretty cool this morning, so I opted for a black waffle-knit crew neck tee-shirt under my blue cardigan both to keep warm and to pick up on the black in the ball cap. My trusty navy boat shoes and I was set!

Considering fall trends

I've been thinking a lot about fall.

Now, don't get me wrong - I get as irritated as the rest of you every time somebody pins a pumpkin-frickin-spice-latte on pinterest, or something about "can't wait for cable sweaters and coloured leaves" and blah blah blah... yeah, everybody loves those things about fall. But here in Canada, and specifically in Ontario, those aspects of fall (the coloured leaves, the bright sunny but still nicely cool/crisp days) last like a couple of weeks, 3 tops. The rest of "fall" is either late summer weather where people have put away their shorts and tee-shirts and then suddenly we have like 4 days of 25+ weather and by day 3 everyone is finally unpacking some of their summer stuff only for it to go back down to 10 two days later. And rain. That's pretty much fall in Ontario.

HOWEVER - I am kind of excited about fall fashion. The nice thing about fall in Ontario is that even after all the leaves have fallen off the trees and it has stopped raining and is cool, bordering on cold and mostly the sky is grey-ish, because clearly winter is coming it's still "warm" enough (warm being a relative word in Canada) to wear our outfits with a few layers, but without the winter necessity of scarf, toque, boots, mitts and down-filled coat. It's a nice in-between season.


And speaking of fall fashion - there's quite a few trends out there that are hitting the flyers and websites... but not all of them are mom friendly, or plus-sized friend, or (IMHO) real-life friendly. So I've picked out a few that I think are classic enough to be worth spending a little cash on, but trendy enough to not make you look like you haven't updated your wardrobe for like 10 years. Cool? Cool!
Onwards.


Mama's Picks for Fall Fashion 2014!

Back to School Shopping - a shorts story

Back to School Shopping.

4 little words that make almost any parent shudder.

Oh, the humanity!

The backpacks, the lunchbags, the pencil cases, the stuff stuff stuff... and our kids are only in JK and Grade 1 - and they don't even need any of that stuff (try telling them that).  So thankfully (thankfully?) our Back to School shopping is really only grocery - stocking up on things like juice boxes and lunchmeat and snacks for recesses. Of course - all those individually wrapped, correctly marked 'nut-free' snacks aren't exactly cheap. Thank goodness I'm pushy, handy with a pen and like bulk barn and sandwich bags. But I digress.

We were still at my in-laws this morning, so I was only able to dress from what I packed, but this outfit was comfortable for a day of hanging out, travelling back across the city, and then shopping with the hubs and the kiddos, making dinner and hanging out before wrangling our monsters into bed. You've seen these eyelet shorts and this gingham shirt before, though not together - I quite like it! It's like a very subtle print mixing type of feel.

Fam Jam Casual

Our family takes pretty much any excuse to get together - and we love to hang out and celebrate pretty much everything with lots of food, laughs and yummy cake. Our parents birthdays are only 5 days apart in August and we generally do a family get together somewhere in between the two. I wore some seriously comfy (and very stretchy) jeggings, a great gingham button down and some bright accessories.  A great, comfortable fam-jam casual outfit.

Print Mixing

Print mixing is one of those things that can either be awesome or horribly horribly awful. You know what I'm talking about. For the longest time someone would say "print mixing" to me and I'd immediately have a mental image of a teacher from my grade school, rocking the crazy aztec print blouse with a giant, floral skirt.... not.... awesome.

So, while I've had this t-shirt and these shorts for a while, and I often pull them out to wear together I usually buckle under and change one or the other for a solid instead of wearing them together. But THIS TIME I packed them in my bag to go on my kids-free weekend with the hubs... and I didn't HAVE an option to switch either for a solid piece instead... so I just went for it. And y'know - I think I like it after all! It helps to have the prints be reasonably close in size and the colours to match (and or compliment) well. That's my 2 cents for print mixing - take it for what it's worth people.

Eyelets and Lace

All last summer I was obsessed with eyelet or lace shorts - but I can tell you that finding them in a size larger than say a 10 or a 12 was like hunting for El-freakin-Dorado. And then, suddenly - magic! These babies were sitting on a sale table in Target for a whopping $12.99. It was meant to be.

I paired these sweet eyelet shorts with a fun lace yoke top that I picked up in Walmart in the states. Again - Faded Glory brand! I just love it, they make such great basics. Navy boat shoes and a fun pop of bright pink nailpolish made this a great outfit for hanging out at home and running a few errands before the hubs and I get a kid-free weekend away! Double yippee!

Well, I think that's enough exclamation marks for one post. Do you ever have a clothing obsession that you couldn't let go of? I don't know if these shorts are still "in" but I don't really care. I love them and I think I'll be wearing them for many years to come.

 

Cottage Chic

I may have my faults as a mother... and as a human being in general - but there is one thing that I will not apologise for.... teaching my children the right way and wrong way to dress for certain situations. Examples of clothing related wisdom I have imparted to my boys already:

1) Leggings are not pants. I feel like we've covered this before... and speaking of covered, if you're wearing leggings and your butt is not covered, you in trouble with Mama. Leggings =/= pants. NOT. PANTS.

2) It is either hot enough to wear shorts or cold enough to wear winter-style boots. Girls who wearing shorts and uggs - I'm talking to you. It cannot be both. Pick one. If one of my boys comes home with a girl who does this, she is obviously not intelligent enough to date him. Mama has spoken

3) You do NOT dress up at the cottage. Duh. The cottage is a place, fashion wise, that's kind of in a twilight zone.

Seriously: those jeans you wore when you were a teenager and have huge holes in the knees and you can't actually button up the button, but otherwise they still fit and they feel AWESOME... go for it. A random sweatshirt for a university you did not attend (and can't actually remember who might have attended it or visited it or why this sweatshirt is actually up at the cottage) - perfect. Those sneakers you wore when your Dad made you paint the back deck and have stain splatters all over the top - couldn't think of anything better. Pretty much anything goes at the cottage - I mean - it's the COTTAGE for Pete's sake!

So this "outfit" is your basic jeans that fit and feel good + shirt that is comfortable/hoody that's comfortable + new moccasins (because I just bought them and I wanted to... enough said) = Cottage Chic.

I'm so stylish I can hardly stand myself sometimes. Also - I definitely did not brush my hair this day. All in the interest of honesty here folks.

 

Bonfire time!