Welcome!

Before we begin, let's get one thing straight. This is not a complain-about-my-body blog. There will be no rants about tummies, boobs, hips, or weight. Frankly, all that nonsense has been done to death and only succeeds in making women feel bad about themselves.

This is a work-with-what-you've-got-as-long-as-you-WORK-IT-GIRL! blog. I want to feel good about myself, and cute clothes help me achieve that. I do not want to be one of those women who completely leaves herself behind when she has children. Being a mother is only part of my identity, and while my daughter may not care what I'm wearing, I care. And that's enough.

Moving on...

Mommyhood makes me look for different attributes in clothing now. I sadly avoid loose knits and cool laser cuts that are easily destroyed by munchkin fingers. Low rise jeans will be left to the college kids across town. I hate it when my undies show. In fact, I'm reluctant to wear anything requiring special undergarments because special undergarments are nearly always uncomfortable. Dry-clean-only clothes are to be avoided except on special occasions. Aside from the toxic chemicals used in the dry cleaning process, dry cleaning is certainly more expensive than simply throwing something in my washing machine. Since Tiny Daughter has all sorts of goo oozing from various orifices at any given time, I tend to wash my clothes a lot. A lot.



I was thrilled to find this cute summer dress at Express. I liked it so much I bought it in red and black. It's a cotton/modal blend with an elastic (!) waist, so it's super comfy and can be washed in the machine and even shoved in the dryer. The double layer skirt means I don't have to think about what kind of underwear I'm wearing, and the split sleeves do a pretty decent job of hiding bra straps. I slap on a belt to cover the elastic and match my mood. I originally bought a black leather ruffly belt to wear with the dress but found some different belts that were more fun.


Here's the dress itself.









Here it is with the gold sparkly stretchy belt I bought for $6 at the Gap.


I added gold wedges I've owned for ages. Normally I avoid heels, but these are stable enough that I don't feel as if I'm going to topple over.











Finally, here is the dress with one of my all-time favorite purchases, a Desigual belt I bought in Zurich.












Plus, a close-up of the belt, which has a really unique design:






This dress should also work in winter with some tights and killer boots, no? Maybe a black leather jacket thrown on top...