Posted on | March 31, 2011 | 9 Comments
happy friday mah people! you know what friday means (besides the weekend, adult beverages and pizza), another beautiful mama blogger coming at you. today we have Ellen from Black and White and Loved All Over. i just adore this lady, her cute family and her posts – she’s always giving life to old items, making me drool with her style inspiration and making my ovaries twitch with her photos of her little lady, Tessa. she is wife to Nekos (whom you can tell she is completely and utterly head over heels for) and together the 3 of them happily live in Nashville and she shares their adventures there. pop over, say hello and then add her to your daily reads.
how has your style changed since becoming a mom?
My taste hasn’t changed, but my style definitely has. What I mean is: I’m a work-from-home mom so I don’t have to worry anymore about being work-appropriate or pleasing anyone other than myself. I get to wear exactly what I want to wear and I’ve added “playing dress-up” to my favorite hobbies. I’ve really embraced my inner flower girl by wearing lots of maxi dresses and skirts, as well as bellbottoms and wide-legged jeans. High-impact pieces — like a tomato red beret or a door-knocker-sized necklace — have found an important place in my wardrobe because they’re easy to throw on over an otherwise unremarkable outfit. I’ve also rediscovered my love of vintage in a big way. And because dates with my husband and girls’ nights out are less frequent than they once were, I spend more time planning what I want to wear for a night out. I also think that my newfound love for fashion was “born” out of my utter relief in reclaiming my body after pregnancy. {editors note (that’d be me, Mandy): i so so so feel the exact way about this last sentence! yes!}
if you’re having a particularly crazy day, what is the beauty/style step you absolutely will not skip?
Cheek stain. I’m pretty fair and a huge fan of rosy cheeks, and a couple dabs of Tarte blush makes me look and feel alive and healthy. Coming in at a close second — mascara!
have you ever been mistaken for the nanny?
No, but I’ve worried about it. My daughter Tessa is bi-racial, and I don’t think I look very much like my gorgeous tot so I sometimes wonder if people mistake me for someone other than her mom. My husband and I were married for four years before we had her, but I didn’t change my last name to his until I was pregnant with her. I wanted to make sure that there was no mistaking who her mama was — last name included.
piece of advice for new moms who don’t want to give up their style:
Put your baby down for a nap, put some fun music on (not too loud lest you wake up that sleeping beauty), and rediscover the contents of your closet. Pull your 10 favorite items out, lay them on your bed, and go to town remixing them. Try them on, layer them, play with belts, shoes, tights, and jewelry. Find the joy in getting dressed again. Find the joy in being a girl.
Maybe your only outing in a given day will be a run to the local coffee shop — and only because you can’t bear one more minute with just you and the baby at home — but use that errand as an excuse to shower, get dressed, and apply lipstick.
Fashion writer Linda Grant has said, “To love clothes is to embrace life in all its joyous variety, even if all you ever do is turn the pages of a magazine and long for fairyland, crave couture ballgowns you will never own. We all need daydreams.”
such wonderful advice. thank you so much Ellen! see you guys back here sunday morning for SOS! and if you enjoyed mama style (you know you did), then give us a click or two here to show your lub.
Posted on | March 30, 2011 | 49 Comments
a few weekends ago we got ourselves presentable and took off to a big muddy field to get some family photos taken by my friend and amazing photographer, Stacy Jacobsen. Stacy and i met when Harper was just 6 months old when i found her photography business online and immediately booked her for a family shoot. i knew right away after that shoot that she was my kind of people, and we became fast friends. i completely adore her. she is talented and funny and i shiz you not – magical. Harper is not the most cooperative little nugget and especially so when a camera is involved. a shoot with Stacy usually always involves me freaking out because my kid refuses to stay still or smile or even look like she’s minutely excited to be next to her father and i. yet each and every time, Stacy sends me the photos and my kid is happy, adorable, looking at the camera – all things i swear to jason mraz she didn’t do ONCE whilst we were taking photos. magical i tell you.
i love her. i truly, truly love her and i recommend her to all of my friends. my dear friend Jessica used her for her wedding last summer. My bestie Bree is using her this summer for her wedding (ZOMG remember the engagement photos?). a bridesmaid of mine, Josie is also using her this summer (suuuuper cute engagement shoot as well!). if you are in the seattle/tacoma area and you don’t call her up for some peekchores, you’re doing yourself a disservice. yes, i heart her that much. WICKED AMOUNTS.
also she has a precious etsy shop full of fun things such as invites, notecards and fun party supplies like straws and wax moustaches. did i mention she raises 3 adorable boys while she does all this awesomeness? my hero.
we adore you Stacy! thank you so much for capturing our family and always making us laugh (i will keep that one joke between us if you promise to).
we are super close to number 6! 2 clicks is all it takes to show your love and get a narwhal in return. *narwhal may sometimes be replaced with a itchy elbow, slight breeze or warm fuzzy feeling. among other things that cannot all be listed here.
Posted on | March 27, 2011 | 15 Comments
last week i needed a break from the internet. i love blogging and definitely can’t imagine my life without it, but sometimes, homegirl needs to step away. it was a good chance for me to think about lots of things (without then spewing them on the net), reflect (alone, without the opinion of people in my computer) and make decisions about where i see this part of my life heading (because i do consider blogging a big part of my life and something i find a lot of happiness in doing). i’m not saying i have it all figured out yet, but stepping away did help me clear the internet cobwebs (i feel like there is a pun there i’m missing) and i feel refreshed and excited about a lot of aspects of my life.
anywho! here’s what we were up to whilst we were gone:
1. i personally did a happy dance when i heard the news that the AAP changed the guidelines for rear-facing your kiddos. Harper, at almost 2 1/2 has still never faced forward a day in her little life and i am really passionate about keeping the nuggets rear facing as long as possible (until the seats height or weight MAXIMUM is reached as opposed to flipping them forward at the seats height or weight minimum). i could literally write an entire post about this, but i will just say for today that i was thrilled to hear the news and hope that all parents of little ones will realize the safety benefits (which are undeniable and cannot be ignored) of extended rear-facing. {side-note: after reading some of the comments on that article it seems there are LOTS of people who think this is an issue worth discussing (or disagreeing with) – for me personally it is not: the safely of my child is the most important thing and if making her as safe as i can when we are driving in the car is something i have control over, then you bet your sweet bippy i’m gonna do it. bottom line.}
2. we had a super awesome playdate with emily and poppy! the girls are in full on toddler mode lately (hitting, tantrums, generally expressing their feelings as little people do – with little to no regard for others 
) man, these girls are a handful! luckily, they are the cutest little biscuits so the toddler behavior is easily discounted when they hug each other or hold hands. hello, adorable.
don’t you find it nearly impossible to believe these two are ever anything but perfect muffin baskets filled with rainbow kisses?
3. i got a stomach bug. that blew. pun very much intended. do with that what you’d like.
4. i took some photos for Opal of some vintage pretties that i thought people may want to see on a model that actually has arms. i definitely plan on photographing all future clothing items on myself (um, as long as they fit) so y’all can get a more realistic feel before you buy. as you can see, i take myself really seriously.
5. Harper peed on the potty twice. i know! it was very exciting. she also peed lots of other places, like on 3 pairs of yo gabba gabba undies, the kitchen floor and the bathroom rug. but hey, she made it in the potty two times and for that, i’m so proud of her. i’m personally not in any hurry and obvs, she isn’t either. if she’s doing most of her bidnis in the toilet by the end of summer i’ll be pretty stoked!
6. planned a get together for the peeps walking for March of Dimes next month so we can meet up and get to know each other before the day of the walk. again, if you are anywhere in the area, PLEASE consider joining us to walk for babies. you can join our team here, and if you’d like to know more about the meet up before hand, be sure to email me asap. and stay tuned for more info here on the blog regarding the giveaway i posted about last month. also? thanks to every one who is walking, donated and started Bloggers for Babies teams around the country!
there’s more but i will spare you (and myself because typing this has made me tired). hope you all had a great week last week and if you’ll excuse me, my google reader is threatening to explode. i hope you guys missed me because i have a lot of things to do and therefor blog about coming up – you know, important stuff like thrifting, crafting, toddlers and food.
thanks for keeping us classy over at the tee bee bee whilst we were away! you guys are the best.
Posted on | March 27, 2011 | 32 Comments
this little lady is the only one who stepped out this weekend. i was rudely awakened at 3 am saturday morning with a tummy tied in knots with a nasty bug or food poisoning or something NOT OK trying to angrily get out of my body via any way it could (TMI doesn’t really apply to moms, so sorry about that). it. was. awful. Harper stepped over to GG’s house for a sleepover looking quite adorable if i do say so – and she picked her outfit again. it’s gonna be a bummer for her when these frog boots no longer fit because she loves them (although i think they have similar ones at where else – target).
so besides the end of the week harf session on my part, the week was good and i’m loving the bits of sunshine we’ve been getting around here. i hope you dudes had a good one, and i can’t wait to see what you guys stepped out in. xo!
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