Winter Casual

Hello friends! I may have shot this look pre-snow but the outfit is one I'm still wearing in the January cold (plus my cocoon of a puffer coat for any outside speed walking from car to building). Black denim becomes my favorite go-to for winter ... perhaps it's that slimming effect after all the holiday cookies?  Regardless, black feels more wintry and chic after all the lighter blues and sweatshirts reign supreme in comfort. A little off the shoulder number is fun as an alternative and bonus for me, works just as nicely over a leotard in my dance classes. A very 80's high hip leotard and off the shoulder sweatshirt sort of image is likely coming to mind right now, right? Lots of hip rolls and headbands. Ha! Yeah, it's exactly like that. 😉

Jacket - Zara

Jeans and scarf - Madewell

Sweatshirt - J. Crew

Thank you to Erin Jean Photo for the beautiful photography. 💗

Sunday Best

Love mixing the coziest of textures for winter and on this particular Sunday it was a white cropped knit with a forest green suede skirt, a lucky find at my local thrift store last fall. Just 4 sweet little dollars and it's a beauty. (You may remember it from a shoot I did for YOU mag :). 

Sweater -  (old) Target
Skirt - Bethesda Thrift Shop
Booties - Zara (similar HERE but buy THESE instead!)
Belt - (old) Arden B
Necklace - Loft

Mama Style

Hello friends! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving week, eating and cuddling with the ones you love and getting all the Christmas decor started at home, perhaps? At least that's what we did this weekend and it's looking happily festive and smelling deliciously woodsy at our house right now. Still working on more decor ideas and scheming up some fun ideas for the dining room as I'll be throwing a Christmas party this upcoming weekend already! No need to drag your feet once December hits as it seems to absolutely fly by. It's seriously difficult to fit in everything during the holidays, but here we gooooooooo ....... 

I have a little style post for you today as I wanted to get some photos of this new coat, sent my way from Yoins. It's got a cute little buckle detail around the neck and a great slim fit for those days (perhaps date nights?) when I don't want to layer on the puffy snowman coats during the winter. And as usual, I'm joined by my side kick who I find is more resistant to pictures with mom these days. But at least she was willing to eat her cheese stick somewhere within the frame. 

{me: coat - c/o Yoins, sweater - Forever 21, blouse - Old Navy, jeans - J. Crew, boots - Zappos

S: jumper & boots - Zara Kids}

Family Style {blue baby}

A little family love for you today friends. Here we are, all in our Sunday best, which just happened to be gorgeous shades of blue. Blue is my favorite color on these guys and a shade that really and truly looks gorgeous on everyone. We need more blue in our closets!

 {please scuse the mess on the pants. we can't possibly stay perfectly clean at church}

{sometimes the accessories cannot be helped, they just happen}

 {not in the mood, mom}

{me: necklace - J Crew outlet, shirt - Gap, skirt - borrowed from mom Kohls, shoes - Zara

Parker: top - H&M, pants and shoes - Gap

Monty: hat - recent souvenir from Green Bay Gamblers game, shirt - Gap, jeans - South Africa

Elliot: shirt - Gap, pants - South Africa
Scarlet - dress - cousin Adorlee's closet thrifted, tights - Gap, shoes - Robeez}

Mama and Mini Style

Catsuits are my jam and I've missed them! It's been so long since I've had a chance to wear this one and all of those sweet summer rompers cause of the baby belly and then the shedding of those extra preggie pounds. And now with spring in the hopefully not to distant future, I am reclaiming all clothing with connecting tops and bottoms. Yes, yes please. ;) 

Scarlet's dress was a gift from her Ouma, who found it on a trip to Australia. It feels very Russian though and so Olympic inspired. Ha! It also reminds us girls of the character skirts we wore for ballet when we were young. In South Africa we studied the Royal Academy of Dance ballet method (originally from England) and for several years we had to bring a character skirt to class for the international dance portion of the curriculum, which we were eventually examined on. So very different to ballet dance over here in the States. There's certainly some good and not so good in the way dance has been approached in my studies here, but what I can say about the former is that I developed a newfound freedom on this side of the ocean and it sort of unleashed a theatrical dancer in me, where the facial expression and "feeling" in the movement was formerly a huge struggle for me. And it eventually deepened my love for the art and allowed me to be much more expressive and creative in the process. I think Americans are so good at being expressive, aren't they? And it certainly carried over into dancing for me. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent there … (insert blushing emoticon please) …

{me: blazer and catsuit - H&M, shoes - Besselli (GB)

S: hat - Gap, dress - Pumpkin Patch (grandma's trip to Australia), tights - Target, booties - Minnetonka} 

Mama and Mini Style

Happy Valentine's evening to you friends! We've been lounging around at home most of the day though we did squeeze in a trip to Target (see Instagram for the gorgeous little dress I found for Scarlet). The boys didn't have school today so we began our day with warm cinnamon rolls and coffee for me and the dad. I've been taking a little longer to clear out the cobwebs as miss Scarlet is now waking up twice at night since she became mobile. You know how that goes ... So for the time being, I'm going with it and drinking an extra cup of coffee to get through the grogginess. She is so big and important now, crawling like an Olympian, up stairs too mind you, and pulling up to stand like it's no big deal. She's loving life! So I can imagine how all this new-found energy and sense of adventure would interrupt a night's sleep.

We also cut out hearts and painted them with watercolors and Elliot created a dreamy little piece called power ranger shark. It's currently accompanying our framed photos on the picture ledge. I'm sort of crazy about watercolor right now. I've always stuck with oils in the past but after sitting down to it a few times over the past couple of weeks, I can absolutely see why some of my favorite new artists use watercolor as their go-to medium. So beautiful. 

So today I wore my husband's hoodie and Scarlet wore a butterfly crown, all in celebration of St Valentine. :)

 {me: sweatshirt - Gap (men's), jeans - Citizens of Humanity from Anthropologie, boots - H&M

Scarlet: shirt - Carters (friend Mackie's), shorts - Zara, tights - Children's Place (cousin Adorlee's), homemade tinsel crown}

Mama and Mini Style

This girl … 

Just a quick pop in to show you how we're keeping warm without forfeiting our love of style (easier said than done sometimes!). I'll wear this again come springtime, perhaps with a pair of cut off denim shorts peeking out from underneath. S p r i n g. 

"Beautiful sparkly shoes, mama"

{me: tunic - purchased a couple of years ago from Parisian blogger (so fancy eh?), jeans - Gap, shoes - CrewCuts

S: outfit - Zara}

Family Style

Hi friends. Hope you've had a beautiful weekend. Here's a snippet of my family, all dressed up and feelin' fine. We wanted to show off Parker's new glasses this time, a smart little addition that we couldn't be happier with. We didn't search far and wide exactly (at least not locally), but I did scour the internets for kid's eyeglasses and thanks to a friend's recommendation, landed at Jonas Paul Eyewear where I felt instantly relieved. Not only are the frames incredibly cute (a little vintage, a little hipster), but for every pair purchased, the company gives a pair to CBM International "to bring vision to a person in need". Win win! They're just the frames, mind you, and we then take them to any eyeglass shop in town to have the prescription lenses added. Anyway, so happy to have found a pair he loves and thought I'd share the love. 

(This guy also sports an impressive orthodontic expander system in his mouth along with a lip bumper that he is constantly playing with - see above - so this is quite the year for him. He's managed to take it all in stride, not being bothered one bit with the changes, which I'm rather surprised at since he's generally not too fond of change. I wonder if Scarlet will one day embrace these sorts of additions as seamlessly? Not likely huh. But everything is so improved from when we were kids that maybe it will be easier for our own. I too had to wear a lip bumper as tween but it was AWFUL)

 {blazer - H&M, sweater - Gap, skirt - Zara, boots - Steve Madden

Parker: glasses - Jonas Paul Eyewear (thanks Sheana for the recommendation!)}

This outfit is hinting at spring with its whites and tiny blooms. I am so very ready for things to thaw. Luckily I'm seeing spring-y things popping up here and there. Spring dance costumes are arriving on my doorstep and I'll be shooting a spring fashion spread this weekend for YOU magazine which is always fun. I'm toying with the idea of doing this to my hair! Yes?

Mama Style {think pink}

A little Sunday best for you today … the sweetness of candy pink mixed with the yummy coziness of a creamy cabled sweater. Top it off with a few favorite boho jewels and a pair of western booties and I'm good to go. At least on this occasion, to church. I'm feeling the pre-valentine urge to not only inhale all things pink and delicious but wear them too. How about you?

{sweater - Forever 21, skirt - Gap, jewels - Somewhere in Time (GB)}