back by unpopular demand

hi. are we still friends?

 i know, i know. i claimed i was "back". but i wasn't. really, it's not you. it's me. and i'm not going to go all rick astley on you and claim i'm not going to give you up, let you down, or desert you. 

i'm not promising anything. but you don't come here for empty promises, do you? 

so, i dislike when really great things hit overkill level. supersaturation, if you will. 

take these fake jcrew bubble necklaces:

they are so fun! i loveLOVElove mine! but i love it less all the time because they are everywhere! i don't want to sound like some weirdo who canNOT be associated with anything mainstream (cough, cough hipsters everywhere), but it makes me sad that one day my daughters are going to laugh and ask to borrow it on dress like it's 2012 day. fun necklaces shouldn't turn into the butt of a joke!

 i can admit that i like kelly clarkson. i think chevron is fun. there is no shame in eating at olive garden because you like the food. some things are popular because they are GREAT! but, when the market becomes so saturated with an item, i find that it really dates it quickly. 

par exemple:

what year do you think of when you see these?

1999 right? but i don't want to party like it's 1999 when i see these. i think, "ew gross why would anyone over 10 want to wear these?"

but GROWN WOMEN sported these. we sold them at my college job for 15 cents apiece to.... grown women. 

sure, the faux jcrew bubble necklace is a far cry from a butterfly clip, but nothing fantastic should become a cliche.

how bout a year for this one:

1994! love it or hate it now, you had it. and then you hated it because everyone had it. personally, i loved it because it looked good on me. layered haircuts are my friend, my friends. i felt this haircut was a coming of age moment for me. i shed my decade of perms or grown out perms for this cut and i felt like things were finally looking up. because after a perm, things can only look up. BUT, because of the haircut overkill, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. 

SAVE THE FAUX J CREW BUBBLE NECKLACE! 

and here's my cute baby:

the end!

going off of the rails on a crazy train

bachelor pad finale was on tonight! and while the ending was epic, this ensemble stole the show. 

what the heck is going on here? i'll ask it again, what the heck is going on here? it's a triple threat of claire's icing reject earrings, sparkly face stickers and a old broken bike chain welded into a headdress? jamie claims that she wasn't looking for love, and she's serious about it. would this attract any guy? ever? she obviously owns a metal detector. all of that metal must have been magnetic and that's how she can accept phone calls. or communicates with other planets. i wish i could have found a full outfit shot. her dress was covered in gigantic gold paillette sequins. it was blinding. a fashion debacle of epic proportions. she was doing nothing to dispel her image of being the conductor of the crazy train. 

and i don't even hate head pieces. i think my girl crush nicole richie rocks them. 

throwing on every single trendy item you could find does not a stylish outfit make- yoda

before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory" -coco chanel

happy girls are the prettiest

unfortunately, even though i am 32 years old, have a wonderful husband, 3 great kids, am a (mostly) productive citizen in our society, both ridiculously smart and ridiculously humble, i still get hung up on the number written on the inside of my pants. not just hung up, but that stupid little number that only indicates fit and not self-worth, can really hammer me mentally. i bought a pair of jeans this week that fit me well but i almost didn't buy them because they weren't the size that i deemed okay for me to wear. it's embarrassing to publicly admit that. it makes me so angry because i am a happy and fulfilled person, dang it! i hate being mentally unhealthy, especially when i know i have my girls looking at me and i never, ever(ever!) want them to feel this way. when i was in college i dated a guy who told me that he wouldn't marry me unless i got plastic surgery on my nose. not even my chest(which we at least be remotely understandable being that we live in a world where breast implants are as ubiquitous as cell phones and hot pockets), but my nose!!! and the absolutely worst part of it is that i actually contemplated it. talk about a low point in my life. if anyone ever says something like this to one of my kids i would knock them into next week. i definitely approve of maternal violence as the antidote for cruel comments. for years i couldn't look in a mirror without staring at my nose and wondering if it was worse than it really was. i never thought there was anything wrong with my nose until that point. it was a lot of wasted, useless thinking. thinking that imprinted itself on my brain that i still occasionally refer to. 

but, i'm not doing that anymore. 

 i starting training for another half marathon recently and i discovered something. when i look like this:

i feel awesome. better than awesome, i feel amazing. i don't care about my nose, i don't care about my stomach overhang, i don't care about being slow or the fact that i'm panting like a dog hanging out the window of a moving vehicle. all my appearance issues are put in perspective. i have been blessed with an incredible body and i am using it. i know that i am being healthy. it's the best kind of medicine for me. i stink like dead fish because i sweat like a hairy man on the bayou, but i don't care. exercise makes me happy. and "happy girls are the prettiest." audrey hepburn

the end

what's working for me

this is what's working for me lately. 

1.

i've lived in this pencil skirt and another jcrew no. 2 pencil skirt this summer. they fit my birthing hips. i love them both. i'll tell you what though, i am tempting fate by wearing this skirt and holding the baby. she seems to sense when i am wearing it and likes to drop a bomb on it. i had to dry clean it twice last week. 

now i'm off to conquer the world to find jeans that fit my birthing hips. denim is intimidating. 

2.

delectably moist(sorry jamey) cupcakes. prepare a regular cake mix following box instructions. add 1 cup sour cream and one instant pudding mix. bake as directed. even your friends that don't like cake(i'm looking at you paula "i just want fruit salad" roberts) will think they are a taste of heaven.  they don't really even need frosting. but let's not get crazy. 

3.

tortilla land tortillas

the best tortillas ever. a friend of mine tipped me off to these. i'll never go back to boring ol' tortillas. i find mine at costco in the same case as the fresh pastas. the kicker about these are that you cook them yourself. plop them on a hot skillet for about 30 seconds and flip. they taste like the tortillas you get at cafe rio.  ole!

4.

montreal seasoned hamburgers on a slider size bun

the bomb dot com. montreal seasoning is the 2nd best thing to come out of canada. first place being a 3 way tie between caillou, my SIL sarah and instant potato flakes. my local publix sells montreal patties pre-seasoned and i just throw them on the george foreman. they are perfection. but, if i am forced to make them myself, i take the patty, lightly brush it with olive oil and then generously rub it with montreal seasoning. i like the slider size bun because it's just enough bun, not too much. it makes it looks like a hamburger on a commercial, meat just spilling out of the bun.  

5. 

lash accelerator and maybelline falsies flare mascara. it's my winning combination. my kids and husband all have amazing lashes and then i am the odd woman out with lashes that stick straight out and are thin as kate moss's forearms. if i layer these two mascaras then i almost look like i belong in my family. 

literacy is the ill-est

believe it or not, i know how to read. 

in fact i love to read. 

since i've been breastfeeding a baby all summmer, i've been doing a ton of reading. i think i'm pretty tough to please too. i rarely give a 5 star rating and 4 star ratings and often begrudgingly given.  

one of my favorite things to do is update my book reviews on goodreads. i like writing the review almost as much as reading the book, even if i don't like the book, i love to write about it. often i even take notes. i think that means i need to go back to school and get a master's in book reports.

these are my top books from the past 2 months:

1. look me in the eye by john elder robinson

i thought this was a great memoir about a man who has asperger's syndrome but was not diagnosed until he was 40 years old. funny, shocking, sad and enlightening. 

2. bewitching by alex flinn

i love YA fiction, i love fairy tales, i love nerdy girls who like to read. this was just fun and easy. nerdy girls unite! it's the 2nd in a series, but it's not imperative that you read the 1st book(beastly, i also really enjoyed. now a major motion picture) to understand the 2nd. and this book cover is indicative of absolutely nothing in the story.

3. the book thief by markus zuzak

interesting view of WWII germany. very emotional. don't read it on a bad day.  a great book to take notes on.

4 and 5. wildwood dancing and cybele's secret by juliet marillier

 

both excellent. both a good stories exclusive of the other. again, i love fairy tales and these are really sweet but not so sweet that they give you a stomach ache. there is a lot to think about and lots of eastern european history. my friend wrote about them, "I like that the character in both of these novels are known for their intelligence and wit, rather than their beauty." well said. 

and some of my 5 star rated books on goodreads:

1. gone with the wind by margaret mitchell

pretty much the best book ever. 

2. economics in one lesson by henry hazlitt

about 10 years ago my husband paid me $50 to read this and i should have read it without the $50 incentive. it's an excellent way to begin to understand economics and how to make good financial decisions. i've referred to it several times in the time since and i am a smarter, better informed person because of it. 

3. two moons in august by martha brooks

one of my faves from my adolescence. i loved reading it and realizing that there are lot of teenage girls who feel lost. you'll want to call your mom. and wear bright red lipstick.

least fave

the trend i would most like to see die a quick and sudden death would have to be ugly cankle boots worn with skirts or shorts. 

i hate it.

it's like a really confused pioneer in summertime. "i want to enjoy the warm sun on my calves, but only on my calves. i've got to protect my feet from all those cow pies at the beach."

even worse are ragged shorty shorts with ankle boots. it looks so uncomfortable. if you twisted your ankle on those spindly heels you would absolutely scrape your legs all the way from shin to upper thigh. 

or when paired with a dress it reminds me of the orphans from annie:

but the worst offender in creation are the faux cowgirl boots. crime against humanity! if denise huxtable wore them 25 years ago, perhaps you want to forgo that trend. and i love me some denise huxtable.

which trend do you want to shoot to death at point blank range?

post partum

having a baby is pretty great, but the cruel irony is that you have this delightful bundle of slobber and none of your clothes fit. plus, if you are breastfeeding, you have to wear two-piece outfits for easy access. so getting dressed has been pretty low on my priority list of late. plus, in the last month my laptop died, i dropped my phone in water, got a mom haircut, started a fitness plan and my big kids both got out of school for the summer. blogging has been just above cleaning the refrigerator in importance. this is pretty much a head's up that if you read this blog strictly for "fashion"(or whatever i've been pretending to do), sorry. this blog is heading back to it's original format- writing about things that make me laugh or bug me with the occasional fashion commentary thrown in for good measure. so, girl who emailed me about not blogging enough even though i just had a baby and threatened to take me off the blah blah blah fashion bloggers directory? go for it. i'm quite alright with my sporadic blogging and i'm not losing sleep about losing readership. this is a hobby. my family is my life.

but i did wear this today:

 the skirt is from tjmaxx. i got it for $13.

yesterday i was supposed to be grocery shopping but i was a little depressed about the fact that i was wearing the same threadbare sweatpants again and i rolled over to the maxx instead. i don't want to make a huge financial commitment to new clothes, but i've got to be realistic that even if i get back to my former size, everything is going to be in a different. after my other 2 babies i eventually got back to the size that most of my clothes are, but even then stuff was wonky. and it's not even completely a weight issue. my hips are different, i'm a woman and a food source at the same time and loose skin is just part of the deal no matter if you lifted weights your entire pregnancy. i miss being fit! i miss my muscles and nothing tastes as good as fitness feels. so i started the jillian michael's 30 day shred. let's do it together! it's only 25 minutes. it's intense but i still have time to love on this diaper filler: