I had this past week off from work. I was extremely pumped to have the week off with the girls but it wasn't all I had hoped that it would be. Regardless we made the most of it and we managed to do a lot of fun stuff such as babysiting our nephew, visiting with a few friends, going to wet pain pottery, zoo, etc. Since I wasn't feeling 100% like myself, I was thrilled to have some time to lounge around in the mornings with the kids, sipping my coffee, reading my book while they watched TV. We were mainly lazy in the mornings and then got dressed for the afternoons. Since I don't get to wear super casual outfits often during the week, I took full advantage of it and created 7 casual outfits that any mom can wear with a minimal wardrobe. Check them out!
The last two outfits I am planning to wear over the weekend. Hopefully the weather continues to stay relatively nice and our family gets outside for some Vitamin D.
If you are interested in more SAHM outfits, Allison from Get Your Pretty On is doing a wardrobe basic challenge for $29, click HERE.
Over the weekend Logan celebrated his 35th birthday. We had my family over for birthday cake and drinks, but other then that we kept it pretty low key. We don't often do grand things but since it was the weekend we spent time lounging around the house and then heading outdoors to the forestry farm with the kids in the afternoon.
I don't celebrate my husband nearly enough so here are just a few of the reasons why I love and adore him.
#1 He is an incredibly supportive partner. Logan and I met in high school and started dating on New Years Day 2000. When we first started dating, I was pretty broken and skeptical about being in a relationship but Logan stuck by me, while I worked my commitment issues out over the years. As any relationship we've had really good times and some pretty low points over the years. Logan always believes in us and shows me respect and kindness. He is always there, the self-assured one, when I am wavering. He is always willing to encourage me in my ventures, even when he isn't 100% sure of the outcome. When I began my journey of obtaining my masters of curriculum studies, with a full time job, and two small children, I was overwhelmed. I came home from spending a full Saturday at my first university class in years, with tears stinging and threatening to pour out. I was overwhelmed. Logan at first said that it was okay if this wasn't for me (he himself wasn't sure if I should be doing this), but I looked at him and told him that I needed him to lie to me. To tell me that I had this. That it was the right decision. That I was going to succeed. And so that's exactly what he did. For the next 2.5 years, anytime I showed doubt or exhaustion, he told me that I was doing well. That the girls were adjusting fine. That I was keeping all the balls in the air and above all, that he loved me. I am sure sometimes he believed it and other times I know he was the one pulling the majority of the weight at home. He stuck by me and it meant the world to me.
#2 He is the BEST DAD in the world. Seriously, Logan was meant to be a dad. He loves spending time with the kids and has been integral part of their upbringing right from the beginning. He is the guy who wanted to take a week off as soon as the girls were born, to bond with them and just be with them. He changed diapers, helped with the feedings, rocked them, sang to them, played with them and over the years he has seamlessly transitioned from having babies, to toddlers, to school age and now even having a tween. He has even learned to do pony tales, piggy tales, and straight down hair. He will sit and do crafts, play dough, play games, watch movies, and whatever else the girls ask of him.
#3 He is up for doing anything with me. Naturally Logan really enjoys just being at home, but he is also up to doing anything I can think of. We both love the outdoors and staying active. He enjoys playing hockey and I am happy that he has returned to doing that on a regular basis over the past few years. We enjoy snowboarding in the winter and boating/camping in the summer together. He loves to play golf and I suffer through it. I love to run and he suffers through that. Last summer we had an opportunity to travel to London alone for the first time since having kids and we discovered that we both would like to do that more often. As this point in our lives we mostly like to travel as a family unit because we know our time with the girls is limited, but we also discovered that we do need to plan more mini-vacations, even locally, just the two of us.
There are many other reasons that I love this man who stands in life beside me but I just wanted to share a little glimpse of him today with you.
Boy this week flew by quickly. Our home is feeling a bit under the weather with stomach bugs and low energy, but we've made it to the end of the week and have next week off!!!! I can't wait to stay in mommy gear all week long. I will be sharing my mom outfits from the week next Friday but in the meantime you can follow along on Instagram.
Let's talk about the cold should trend. I LOVE it even more then the off-the-shoulder look, mainly because I can still wear my regular bra and it's work appropriate. I purchased this cable knit sweater from Guess right after Xmas and have styled it several times this winter already. My favorite way to style it is with my Vero Moda leggings, also featured HERE.
What makes an outfit even better?!? Well a faux fur coat of course!!!!
Last week I finally purchased a set of hot rollers to try. I love them!!!! I need a bigger set, the one I purchased has 6 jumbo and 6 regular rollers, and with my thick hair, I could certainly use a few extra rollers. I feel like I am in the 80's with big hair and I just don't care!
This year I've decided to treat myself to gel nails every 3-4 weeks and I love the Valentines Day designs that I got for February.
Before I say goodbye I have one more thing to share. A couple of weeks ago I told you that I participated in Alison's GYPO Style Challenge, read about it HERE. Alison is back with a Basic Capsule Wardrobe that's mainly focused on stay at home moms. If you are feeling stuck in a rut, or have a closet full of stuff but struggle to pull the pieces together to create fun outfits, or just want to revaluate some of your choices, this might be the perfect place to begin. Having a strong basic wardrobe will save you tons of money in the long run and you can spruce it up by adding seasonal accessories or trendy pieces without spending a bunch of money on a "new" wardrobe every season (who can afford that?!?) If you are interested just use this LINK and sign up for just $29. I will not be participating because I feel like I have a strong basic wardrobe already and seeing as I work full time I feel that the outfits maybe too casual for my workplace environment.
Have a wonderful weekend all you pretty ladies and thanks for stopping by.
Do you ever feel like you didn't turn out to be the mother you always invisioned yourself as being?
I do.
There have been moments when I've felt like I am sitting on a moving train, looking outwards and seeing my life flying by and completely being disconnected from it. Thankfully it's only sometimes that I feel this way and over the past five years I've been making a concious effort to live in the present more often then worrying about the next thing life will throw my way, or the scheduals that I need to keep up, or the next step in my career, or all the activities my girls "should be in". Today I am celebrating taking a moment, or the weekend, to truly enjoy being with my girls. A couple of weekends ago Logan went off to visit his buddy in Edmonton and the girls and I planned a weekend for ourselves.
Friday night we cuddled up on the coach and binged watched The Next Step. It's a dance show about an aspiring group of tween dancers and their day to day trials and tribulations. It's totally corny and I am totally into it. LOL!
Saturday we made gluten free pancakes (we all agreed that they turned out pretty well ) and hit the mall to get the girls haircuts. We had a quick stop at Hardpressed, a local store that makes Saskatchewan unique shirts. We purchased a 'grown on the prairies' shirt for our baby cousin and a few items for me. Halie and I agreed to buy the cropped sweatshirt to share, our first mother-daughter piece of clothing to share. 😍
We hit the road to Regina right after lunch in good spirits! We had loud girly music, coffee and hot chocolate for the road. In Regina we had a blast staying with one of my dearest friends, Ashley and her family. We made homemade pizzas, the girls played for hours, went into the hot tub and had a movie night!
On Sunday Anya helped Myalle's celebrate her 6th birthday, while Halie and I had a few hours to ourselves. Halie's wish was for the two of us was to hit the trampoline park. I hadn't participated in the jumping before so it was a lot of fun to do various obstacle courses, play dodgeball and jump around. My cousin also joined our fun!
Finally we made it home late Sunday night, after we stopped by McDonalds for Happy Meals. My girls were thrilled, as this is not a normal thing for me to do. Sometimes its nice just to be "fun mommy" for a whole weekend and not worry about a clean house, chores piling up, doing homework, or working on anything except spoiling the girls.
I want to make these weekends a more regular part of our lives, especially since the years are just flying by and before I know it, they are going to be doing their own thing, with their own friends.
Two nights ago, Logan and I had a date night with some friends that included a dinner and a live play. I was super excited to check out our local, gluten free fine dining restaurant, Leyda's. The food was 100% delicious and was a hit all around!!
In the spirit of Valentines Day that is fast approaching, I decided to wear this little red dress that's been hanging at the back of my closet for forever. This dress is OLD, like 5 years old, but it's a classic piece and in great condition so I keep it around. This dress used to be my GO-TO dress for anything important, presentations, parent teacher conferences, interviews, etc. I always felt good in it. I remember my colleague Jaime saying to me the morning we were going to present to a group of teachers, "I knew you were going to wear your red dress today, because you always wear it when you have to present." It's been in retirement for a few years but once I put it on I was reminded why I love it so much.
#1 Red dress, blazer and booties. I will be wearing this to the office on Valentines Day. (I just realized that I seem to have a lot of sass in the second picture which is not like me, and I will be leaving it at home)
#2 Red dress, fuzzy cardigan and strappy heels. I wore this out for dinner mainly because it was -35C. Brrr. I really needed to keep toasty warm during dinner and the play so it just felt like the better choice for the freezing cold weather.
I added some bling by wearing my H & B rose gold jewelry, which I always wear. I decided to stack the H & B bracelet with my pearl bracelets as well to make them stand out a little more. I also added a skinny black belt just to pull in the waist a little bit. Overall I am happy with both outfits and thrilled to have this dress out of retirement!
Just before the holiday season I found myself feeling unmotivated and lacking creativity with my outfits. I was sick a lot of the time, which I have finally sorted out, and tired most days after work; this is very unlike me. This was probably the first Christmas season that I entered feeling somewhat overwhelmed and exhausted by the idea of the holidays. In an attempt to pull myself out of the funk I decided to join Allison's Get Your Pretty On Winter Style Challenge. I wanted/needed to have someone tell me what to wear and when to wear it. The group of women that participate in the challenge also have a special FB group that they post their daily outfits in and seek advice from one another. These women make you feel like a million $$$ and are extremely supportive. It's a rarity in this day and age, sad to say but true, to see women encouraging, supporting and championing one another, making it worth the expense of joining the challenge. The prompts provided are mostly casual, stay at home moms or casual work environment, but you can add your own flair to them as I do to make them work for me and my work environment. Honestly much of the time the prompt is just a starting point and I often end up with a completely different look. I highly recommend joining if you have never done something like this before or are looking for a fun way to revamp your wardrobe. Currently there isn't a style challenge happening but you can sign up for the annual membership at discounted rate using this link (a year membership gives you one challenge for free). Anyway this week for Fashion Friday, I am choosing five of my favorite work/casual versions of the outfits that I styled during the 2 weeks that I was a part of the style challenge.
#1 Tunic, Printed Scarf, Leggings and Boots: I love how this outfit added color to my wardrobe especially in the dead of winter.
#2 Sweater Dress, Fur Vest, OTKB and Long Necklace: Wore it twice! Once to work and once for date night.
#3 Cable Knit Sweater, Leather leggings, Ankle Boots and a Blanket Scarf: I finally have a blanket scarf!!!! Actually I have two now and the one I am featuring here was a gift from a fellow Canadian who was also in the style challenge. They organized a gift exchange among the ladies in the group and it was so much fun!
#4 Black Leather Leggings, Black Top, Black Ankle Boots and a Printed Scarf: I love this monochromatic look so much!!!!! I did add the fuzzy sweater because it was -30C outside.
#5 Grey Dress, Pink Blazer, Ankle Boots: This outfit was inspired by the prompts with pink sweater and gray jeans but that doesn't fly in my work environment but I loved the color scheme so much that I dug out this little outfit from my spring/summer bucket and added some booties to it.
The kiddos and I are having a GIRLS ONLY WEEKEND!!!
