What I Wore To Church - Yellow Polka Dots

Dress: eShakti Eternal Sunshine Dress
Cardigan: ModCloth Charter School Cardigan in Sage
Shoes: H&M

You know the phrase "Fake it till you make it"? That's totally what I was doing today. I'm definitely to the uncomfortable and exhausted part of my pregnancy, so I decided to wear the sunshine-iest (totally a word) dress I had to cheer me up. I'm telling you it works. You can't frown while wearing a yellow polka dot dress. You just can't.

This dress is actually the dress that started the addiction. This was my first eShakti purchase EVER. And it's fantastic. It's super flowy (I almost had a few "Marilyn Monroe" moments in the wind today), and cheery, and I love the cowl neck detail. The name (Eternal Sunshine Dress) is quite appropriate for the amount of brightness this dress brings. Kyle told me it made my huge tummy look like a beach ball, but I loved the effect.

The last time I wore this dress (pre-blog) I paired it with navy, and it looked pretty good, but in the spirit of spring, I channeled my inner daffodil and paired it with my sage cardigan from ModCloth. I seriously would have no styling options without my ModCloth cardigans. They are all amazing, but this is definitely one of my favorites. You would be surprised how many colors you can pair sage with.

I kept the rest of the accessories simple to let the dress do the talking, and I liked the way it turned out.

Closing note: I was really tempted to title this blog post some play on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Spotted Mind? Polka Dotted Mind?) but decided against it. I absolutely love puns, but I couldn't come up with one I was happy with. So, I'm tasking you to help keep the cheer going and give me your best suggestions!

Happy punning! And Happy Shopping!

PS. eShakti has a 30% off sale going on for the next 2 days that you should absolutely check out. If you create an account you get $25 off your first order and your first customization is free!

If you've never shopped with ModCloth before, use this link and get $15 off your first order of $50 or more.

What I Wore To Church - Spring Has Sprung

Dress: eShakti Floral Vine Print Cotton Dress
Cardigan: ModCloth Charter School Cardigan in Rust
Shoes: Cato Peeptoe Cutout Heel

For those of you that know me personally, you probably know that my dad passed away 2 weeks ago. It was pretty devastating, and I contemplated taking an extended break from blogging, but I know that my dad would want me to move on, and try to get back to normal.  At least as normal as things can be. So here goes.

I was so excited that Spring has officially begun, and I celebrated by wearing my new favorite floral dress. Another eShakti success story. When I saw this dress, I knew I had to have it. The pattern was so pretty, the colors go great with my red hair, and I loved the detailing across the waist. I also loved the light cotton material. A lot of their dresses are the cotton poplin which is a little thicker and stiffer. This is a nice light cotton that flowed and breathed nicely.  I was already warned by a friend that had the dress that the neckline was a little low, so I customized to raise the neckline as well as switching the dolman cap sleeves with regular cap sleeves to give me a little more coverage (I'm still floored that I can customize their dresses for only $7.50 total per dress). I took a pic below without the cardigan to show the difference. It doesn't look like a huge difference, but a little bit more coverage goes a long way.

I've already talked about the cardigan at length so I won't repeat how much I love it here (which is a lot!).

I picked up the shoes at Cato while I was at home last weekend. I love the retro feel of them combined with the modern perforated cutout trend that is huge right now.  They have quite a bit of padding in the toe so they were pretty comfortable too. The $22 price tag didn't hurt either. They look a bit big in the picture below, but they fit just fine.

Overall I thought it made for a great intro to spring outfit, and this may be the last week I can pull off wearing non-maternity dresses as maternity. My belly is just getting too big, but there's only a few weeks left. 30 days and counting! Who's excited? I'm excited!

Happy Shopping

What I Wore To Church - Navy and Mint

Dress: Old Navy Ponte Knit Maternity Dress (no longer available, but similar)
Cardigan: Tilly's Essential Elbow Knit Cardigan (no longer available, but similar)
Shoes: JustFab Naples (no longer available in mint, but similar)
Necklace: Monica's Fantabulous Fashions
Belt: LOFT

Don't fall over from shock, but I'm wearing an actual maternity dress. I'm pretty shocked too. I have a couple in reserve for when I don't feel like making a normal dress "work", and this is one I bought on sale a couple of months ago at Old Navy. That's definitely a maternity shopping tip. Check sales often throughout your pregnancy, and buy things you are too small for now in anticipation of your 3rd trimester. This dress looked terribly frumpy and boxy on me when I bought it, but let the belly grow a bit, and it looks great! Also, look for classic pieces in solid colors that you can accessorize. 

As soon as I pulled this dress out of the closet, I knew I had to pair it with mint. Mint and navy is one of my favorite combinations and boy, do I have a lot of mint accessories. It took some self-restraint not to overdo it with the mint accessories. I had a mint belt I was going to add too, but that would've been way too much. Plus, I liked the little froofy (that's totally a word) detail of the flower on this belt, as well as the contrast of the black over the mint cardigan.

I definitely got comments on the shoes all day, mostly people telling me not to fall off of them. I just keep saying that I will wear heels as long as my body lets me, and so far it's cooperating. I've been blessed that my feet haven't started swelling yet (knock on wood), so heels aren't any harder to walk in than they were before. Once the swelling starts and for awhile after the birth, I'll be sticking to flats, so I'm trying to get as much wear out of my precious heels while I still can.

I feel bad that none of the items I wore today are still available because there were lots of people asking about my outfit. I don't usually put links to "similar" items but seeing as there were requests, I did my best to find replacements. Hopefully those looking are able to find something that works for them. 

Happy Shopping!

Work Baby Shower!

As if one baby shower wasn't flattering and overwhelming enough, I was completely bowled over with the super sweet ladies at work that threw me another one! (Warning: lots of exclamation points ahead)

 

Look at that diaper cake! Isn't it amazing? It even had little baby socks rolled into roses. Cutest thing ever!

And the food! So much good food! I got to take the leftovers home and I'm not going to need to cook for a week. (Cameo from my "work mom" Cynthia. Isn't she adorable in her festive pink scarf?)

And super cute party favors for everyone to take. The buckets and bottles are full of mints.

We had a great time! We played a few games, ate the delicious food, and then opened the presents. Lots of cute outfits, receiving blankets, baby socks, and an overly generous amount of giftcards. The people I work with are absolutely amazing. They even made me wear the "mommy bonnet" which is a hat that was tied to my head, and then each time I opened a present, part of the wrapping got attached to the hat. It was ridiculous, but fun. Pictures were taken, but I haven't been able to get ahold of them yet (oh darn!).

And just in case you wanted to see me in my super unflattering maternity uniform, I try not to disappoint.

I wasn't as diligent at taking pictures at this one, but I know lots of other pictures were taken. I'll have to collect them from everyone else. This party was so much fun!

Special thanks goes out to Cynthia, Cathy, and Diane for putting it all together! You ladies are amazing!

Style Me - Crystal!

Dress: eShakti Pleated Cotton Knit Dress
Cardigan: Tilly's Essential Elbow Sleeve Cardigan
Shoes: JustFab Lainey

Since I spent the weekend in Atlanta, I don't have an WIWTC post for me this week. However, my awesome sister has agreed to stand in for me!

You may remember that my sister got this eShakti dress a couple of months ago, and she looked fabulous in it then (as seen below).

The great thing about eShakti dresses is that they can be worn on their own and look great, or you can do some simple styling and come up with a completely different look. We'd been working on getting the right combination for this look for a couple weeks and after a well timed sale, we were able to get the cardigan that worked perfectly at a steal (I have the same one and LOVE it). She also got the belt recently attached to a shirt from Target on sale. Once all these elements came together (and yay for sales!), we were able to give the dress a new look for very little additional money or effort.

I'll be back next week with a WIWTC post. Until then!

Happy Shopping!

What I Wore To Church - Is It Too Early For Florals?

 

 

 

Skirt: ModCloth Breathtaking Tiger Lilies Skirt in Stem Green
Shirt: LOFT Maternity (passed down from my sister)
Cardigan: Tilly's Essential Elbow Sleeve Cardigan
Shoes: Jessica Simpson Cheetah

I thought the title of today's blog was an excellent question. How early is too early for florals? My answer: it's never too early for florals as long as the color of the florals can be paired with fall or winter colors, and the florals aren't the most prominent part of the outfit. I think the opposite is true as well. If you have a skirt in a color that is more of a fall or winter color, you can make it more spring-like if you add some fun, coordinating florals. A nice floral summer scarf would be a great touch.

I picked up the skirt at ModCloth recently. It comes in a couple of different colors and I'm tempted to pick up a few of the others,  especially if they ever put it out in mustard. It's a versatile skirt with lots of "swish" to it. It also has pockets and an elastic back waist. What more could I ask for?

Mostly, I'm just thankful for the warmer weather giving me some freedom on what I can wear. I'm going to be in trouble when it gets too warm for cardigans. I don't think I leave the house without one these days. Maybe I overuse them in my outfits, but they are just so simple to style. In my mind, you can't own too many. What do you think? Do you have a go-to piece of clothing that you wear with everything? My opinion is that if you find something that works for you, then work it!

Happy Shopping!

What I Wore To Church - Happy Valentine's Day!

Skirt: eShakti Smocked Heart Print Skirt
Shirt: H&M MAMA Jersey Top
Cardigan: Charter School Cardigan in Rust
Shoes: Marco Santi Brand from Sole Society

Happy Valentine's Day from Pensacola! I hope you all are keeping warm in the winter storms. I spent the weekend at my sister's house in the warmth of sunny Florida.

I was chatting with a friend last Sunday, and she mentioned that she's never seen me wear the same thing twice. Well here you go. Not only have I worn this skirt before, but I wore this cardigan LAST WEEK. I wanted to wear something festive for Valentine's Day and what's more festive than a heart print skirt? The rust cardigan matched the rust colored hearts and the shoes matched both, so the outfit just sort of made sense. Putting this outfit together was as simple as that.

Now, I want to talk about the pictures for a sec. I've said this before, but there are days when the hardest part of taking pictures for my blog is my face. It has a mind of its own, and there are days I have no control over it. Sometimes that translates into good pictures, sometimes that just makes me wonder what on earth it was thinking. I'm not at all saying I hate my face or that I think I'm ugly. I'm just saying, I could never be a model because photographers would hate me.  That last picture is an example of that. I look like I'm mid-sentence, but WHO WAS I TALKING TO? I take pictures with a tri-pod! Hopefully you get a giggle out of it. I know I did.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day whether you spent it dressed up in something festive and fancy, or spent it on the couch in your trusty yoga pants. As long as you felt loved, then you made the best of it. And if you don't think you're loved, well you're wrong, because I love you!

Happy Shopping!