Oh the beach and my love and hate relationship with it.
I love the water.
The sun.
Boating.
Feeling the weight of "adulting" seep out of my body and evaporate into thin air.
BUT I don't especially like finding the right bathing suit for the occasion. I've never had a six pack, unless you are talking about the beer kind in which case I've had a few in my day. I work hard to stay in shape by running and watching what I put into my mouth, but my body is what it is and I've worked hard to embrace it as it is.
A couple of years ago as I sat with my three mommy friends, I realized that I was the only one sporting a bright, pink bikini. I became super self-conscious, not because they made me feel this way but because that's just the way I am. I went out a bought a very expensive, one piece, black bathing suit shortly after. I really like how it looks on me but truth be told I don't wear it a lot. The real point of this is that I doubted myself and what I was wearing. Why do we do that to ourselves? Is there an acceptable/unacceptable age for wearing a bikini? Who decides?
I have two little girls and I want them to grow up to be confident. Strong. Healthy. To lead an active lifestyle. To be aware of their own judgments and to work on them. To elevate others and themselves. To be proud.
So today, and most days, I put on my bikini and I show them that even though I may not always be happy with my body, that I don't have to hide it. I can choose to wear a bikini, a tankini, a one piece, a cover-up, a rash guard, to put on make-up or to show the scars on my face from acne. So here I am laying it all out there.
I will say that I find La Vie En Rose to be a great place to find a bathing suit that fits my body at a great price. What I love most about them is that the bottoms, have a soft fabric that comes over my middle and doesn't cut and squish everything out to the side. Haha. I also love my rash guard for water sports and for playing around on the beach. Give me a cover-up or a summer dress, pair of sunnies, sandals and I am a happy beach goer.
What are your beach wear staples? Tell me where you find your bathing suits. Enjoy your summer and wear whatever makes you feel fabulous!
I took the plunge two weeks ago and created a spring capsule wardbrobe. Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed by all the choices in my closet and the process of getting dressed on busy morning ends up putting me in a bad mood. I am of the philosophy, "less is more". When I have stuff everywhere, I quickly become over-stimulated, can't make a decision, and struggle with where to begin. A part of me screams in frustration on the inside and the other part of me has a desire to crawl into bed and hide under the blankets. During such times my strategy is generally to, a) go for a run and clear my head, or b) walk away, make a list and then tackle the items based on the order they are on the list.
My process:
1. After looking on pinterest for inspiration, capsule wardrobe example, and reading this article I decided to include the following items in my capsule wardrobe:
6 t-shirts
6 blouses
5 pairs of pants
5 bottoms (skirts)
5 dresses
5 sweaters/outwear
I didn't not include my daily wear, like lulu pants and cleaning shirts, my jewelry, shoes, or workout clothing.
2. I pulled EVERYTHING I own and began separating the items into fall/winter and spring/summer wear. I placed my fall/winter stuff away into storage and my summer stuff that didn't make the cut in this capsule into a large plastic tub in my closet. I also made a huge donation pile and shipped them out of the house. I was overwhelmed and exhausted by this step!
3. Out of my sprint/summer stuff, I started to pick my pieces out for my capsule. I especially focused on items that I could wear to work, as most of my week is spent at work, but also keeping in mind that I like to have a few items for date night, and mommy wear.
4. I sorted and downsized until I had my wardrobe down to the list above. Everything else got placed into my summer container in my closet so that the only things in my drawers and closet are more or less the wardrobe capsule.
5. I organized and created my work wardrobe for the week with Polyvore so that I can just get up and get dressed. I always think about what my days at work will entail, (will I be in meetings, working with young children in classrooms, providing Professional Development, etc), and what the weather prediction is for the week.
What I learned:
Through this process I realized I had a LOT of stuff! I am not even a hoarder, I donate stuff all year round but apparently not nearly enough. For the first time ever, I have an nearly empty drawer in my dresser. I LOVE IT!!! I feel happy seeing neatness and organization in my closet and drawers. I am worried about lasting three months but I feel pretty sure I can make it with this wardrobe at least for two months. I also found out which pieces I love the most and which ones I need to replace with different pieces. I feel confident that I wont just be buying random pieces but will be much more focused.
One of my favorite outfits this week was my coral pencil skirt, chambray shirt, little brown belt as an accessory, statement necklace and comfy, Nine West, nude pumps.
How do you organize yourself and your closet?
Logan and I have been married for twelve and a half years
and have been together since high school.
Like most couples we have had our share of ups and downs, times of doubt
and absolute happiness. We have changed
in so many ways since the beginning but throughout these changes we have also
been able to support one another. When
people first meet us, they often see us as opposites. I am chatty, outgoing and always on the
go. Logan is quieter (until you get to know him), go with the flow and very content to just live
in the moment. How does it work??? Honestly, I am not sure that I know the answer to that but
I think at the core we have always had similar values, wants and needs. We both wanted a family, we love to be around
people we love, and we value spending time together and open
communication. We both enjoying being
outdoors, doing physical stuff and have complimentary parenting styles. When we decided to get married we had already
overcome some obstacles and we were aware and prepared to work on our relationship
when things were hard.
All of that being said one thing that has been extremely
helpful in continuing to have a relationship and identity as husband and wife
has been regular date nights. We attempt
to get out at least once a month. Our
dates vary from dinner, going to the theater (plays, not so much movies
anymore), walks, golfing (which I am terrible at but do it for Logan), snowboarding,
biking, etc. My parents live in the city
and are always willing to have the girls overnight J. They are the BEST!!! In fact, when we first become parents at 25
and were just starting out, my parents and sister, really encouraged us to continue
to take time together as a couple. This
was great advice and I am glad they did.
We are fairly involved parents and enjoy spending time with the girls,
but we have made a cognisant effort to not build our whole identity around
being mom or dad. As our girls get
older, they will want to spend more time with friends and eventually will leave
the nest (insert sad/sobbing face) and when this happens Logan and I want to still
have a relationship that makes us happy and fulfilled. Now, I know there are no guarantees in life
but date nights are just one way of making sure that we continue to connect and
grow as a couple. I’d love to hear what
other people do to stay connected and other date night ideas.
Saturday night we went to the Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury
Story at our local theater. It was PHONOMENAL! Honestly, I was not sure about going to watch
this because it deals with some pretty sad and tragic events but I was
completely engaged for the full two hours.
If you don’t know the Theo Fleury story, the short version is that he
was a great but troubled hockey player.
He was sexually molested by this WHL coach, Graham James, as a teen and
also had a tough home life. He was
extremely determined and worked his way up to the NHL and was really talented
but drugs, alcohol, gambling and the trauma his suffered eventually caught up
to him. He ended up spiralling out of
control and losing his fortune and pushing his family away. When he was finally ready to turn his life
around he had to face all of his demons and pick himself up from there. I knew the bits and pieces of his life but
Logan and I were both so captivated by the play that we plan on reading his
book, Playing with Fire (check out the review from goodreads.com).
Here are a few pictures from our night out.
No, no, no! I would never drink wine at work, but I am having some right now :) .
So what brought this post on? Well here is Saskatchewan winters can be long and I always find mid-January and February I go into a somewhat of a hibernation mode. Work is usually busy at this time of year, the weather is off and on, and when I leave the house in the morning it's dark and when I get home it's dark.
Anyway, during this time of year I also start to wear a lot of black, gray, brown, navy, etc. The other day I saw this post on What I Wore and I was immediately inspired. I love fun tights and I used to wear them but hadn't this fall/winter season at all. I work in a fairly conservative environment and I feel that dressing professionally is important. I decided to take out my wine colored tights, I have pumps and a dress in the same color because I love it so much, and pair it up with my gray pencil skirt and my go-to navy, polka dot sweater. It turned out okay. If I could substitute the gray pencil skirt for a fun, flair, black mini, I totally would but I couldn't for work. This is what I looked like, sorry for the poor lighting.
