Ladies Nite

I have a great group of girlfriends from my home church and we try to get out for a Ladies Nite as often as we can.

Hottest day of the year

This dress is quickly becoming a summer favourite! I picked this up from Old Navy a little while ago and altered it to fit me properly - and on the hottest weekend of the summer so far it was a cool and perfect dress to wear.

Fashionably Frustrated

I am in a shopping rut!

Blazer Week: Cobalt with Stripes

This is my second outfit for Blazer week which is being hosted by Andi from Just Another Smith. Wearing a blazer this often is a little weird for me since I usually gravitate to a cardigan or sweater if I need to add a layer.

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!

Maxi dress 2 ways

What on earth is going on with this weather?!
I mean, honestly, it's supposed to be like 40 degrees (with the humidity) tomorrow. Where was this weather in July when we could all just laze around and enjoy it. It's gross when I have to get kids up and dressed and lunches made and to school on time when you walk outside and the sweat just basically beads up on your skin. Ugh.

Anywho - weather like this (in July or in September) requires dressing so that air can flow around my body as much as possible. I picked up this awesome dress in the states at Walmart, it's from one of my favourite US Walmart "brands" Faded Glory and it was cool and breezy enough to wear all day, but when I went over to our church that evening for our band practise I threw on a t-shirt for a little extra coverage and it makes this cute dress look like a super-fun bandana print skirt!

Consider dressing your maxi dresses with a solid t-shirt over top and get double duty out of your wardrobe!

  

Cowboy hat & Aztec print

So sometimes an outfit just kind of comes together of it's own accord. This was one of those days. We were heading across the city to stay at my in-laws for a couple of days, so I knew I wanted to wear something comfortable for riding in the car and lounging around at a friend's pool, plus the hubs had made some crack about me not wearing enough skirts or something, so I grabbed this aztec print skirt out of the closet and threw it on with a classic black v-neck t-shirt.

Then we did actually go to a friend's house to swim and lounge and I knew I needed to wear a hat (so I didn't look like Bob the Tomato for the rest of the weekend) and I put on my straw cowboy hat that I picked up when we visited the Calgary stampede earlier this summer. And then I did swim and my hair was all kind of beachy and such and I thought - hey - I look pretty good right now - Hubs! Take my picture.

And that's all there is to it. Voila.

Summer Blues

The end of summer always gives me a slight case of the blues. Summer is so short here in Ontario, and while I do look forward to crisp fall days, and the colours of the leaves on the trees (and all the thing I'm allergic to being dead and not affecting me anymore) I know that it will only be a short time before I'm longing for the hot, lazy days of summer.
Also - it just so happens that my birthday falls in the last week of August, so I have to officially get older every year at the end of summer... so, y'know, there's THAT.

That said, the blues in this outfit do not give me the blues. They're actually quite bright and fun, and I love these printed pants so much that they basically always get worn straight out of the laundry basket.

Boho Mama

I'm absolutely positive that I am so far from actual "boho" fashion or lifestyle or whatever, but occasionally there are days when I just want to wear a flowy scarf as a vest and braid part of my hair and walk around a farmer's market in flip-flops. This was totally one of those days.

Also - I let my two kiddos take turns taking some pics with my camera -you know, you get a really interesting perspective of a place when you see pictures from the view of a child. So I thought I'd share some of those with you too. Enjoy!
Tea.

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.

Playdate: Comfort to the Maxi... dress

There's something about hanging out with my best friend that makes me want to wear pjs. A little weird, I know - it's not like our whole lives have been endless slumber parties, but when you're as open and comfortable with someone as I am with my BFF I usually just want to wear something relaxed and comfy. Our kids tend to drive us fairly crazy, so we usually hang out in her livingroom while they destroy each other the playroom and chat and drink tea. See? Perfect. She totally gets me.

So this is what I wore to our "playdate". I love this maxi dress. I got it from Old Navy like a billion years ago (or, like 4, what ev's) and it's just like wearing a nightgown - only appropriate to wear outside your house. Which equals awesome. I'm not a fan of having half my bra showing which usually happens because the armholes on this maxi are abnormally large, so I usually throw a little shrug or cardigan over top. It was kind of hot and muggy this day, so I went with this cool little crocheted shrug. Just enough to hide the massive armholes, but not so much so that I was overly hot. Comfortable.

 

Rainy Summer Day

I love the summer. Mostly because in relation to it, I can't stand being cold. I love those long, hot, summer days where you really just want to lay down somewhere and soak it in.... however, when we get a little brief reprieve in the middle of summer, after a good long thunderstorm the night before and you wake up in the morning and the air coming in feels fresh and cool. This was one of those days. Not planning on going anywhere means being dressed in something that's comfy enough to wear around the house, play with the kids and just hang out.