Thursday, June 17, 2021
LOFT Sale Top Picks
Oh heyyyyy did you miss me? I haven't been shopping much lately (in case you were wondering where my May budget post is yeeeeeek) but saw there's a huge 50% off sale at LOFT and did some serious credit card damage. I am LOVING this top in red but they were sold out in my size so I went for white (because I definitely needed another white lacy top) and obviously I couldn't say no to this beautiful swing dress... or these pretty & comfy sandals ;)
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Currently #8
Here's what else I've been up to:
Buying
Shockingly little over here, partially because I don't want Jeff's mom to judge me too hard when 500 packages arrive at her door, and partially because I currently can't find my Old Navy credit card. I destroyed two pairs of skinny jeans while we were moving, and so I decided to let Gen Z win and bought this pair of demi-crops, and I've basically worn them every day for the past two weeks. They're comfy and relaxed but not too relaxed, and make me feel like I'm not a regular mom, but a cool mom ;) I also got a tall length so they aren't crazy cropped on my long legs. Highly recommend!
I also was sent out on Mother's Day to run an errand with strict instructions to buy myself a present, and I ended up coming home with this adorable hydrangea wine tumbler. It's been perfect for hanging out in the back yard and chasing Mia around on her tricycle.
Cooking
I'm back on the cooking train and I'm very into it! You might remember I basically stopped grocery shopping and cooking and relied completely on Blue Apron and Amazon Fresh for meals while we were getting ready to move. Now that we're settled at the in-laws I'm back baby! I made this Hawaiian grilled chicken to rave reviews over the weekend, and also made my favorite vodka sauce again last week - yum! Jeff's mom asked for the recipe and I told her she'd like the pasta a lot less after she saw the recipe because it is not any semblance of healthy ;)
Reading
I haven't had a ton of time for reading lately, but I just finished We Are All Good People Here and I was surprised by how much I ended up liking it! It opens with two young women going off to a conservative southern all-girls college in the '60s and becoming best friends in the dorms, wearing their matching twin sets off to rush a sorority. I thought it was going to be this fluffy college story, but it ends up being about the two women trying to navigate the politics of the '60s, and figure out how they can help work against racism, sexism, and the war in Vietnam. It follows their friendship through the decades and shows how they evolve as they try to be their definition of good people.
Watching
I started The Baker and The Beauty on Netflix and it's a cute, fluffy romantic comedy - very into it (although it looks like it wasn't renewed for season two - wah wah!). I'm also almost fully caught up on this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht and I'm so into it - might be the best Below Deck season of all the different spin-offs (besides the original boat's Season 2, of course ;). They managed to get a love triangle, guests with crazy back-stories, and of course some great boat drama.
Monday, May 3, 2021
April Budget
I got excited by the couple of days of warm weather and ignored the 25 days of cold weather in April and went all in on summer clothes. Jeff's mom is going to be super confused when I move in this week with 25 summer dresses for seven weeks. Of course, if she doesn't know by now that I'm packing 17 suitcases for our #hotgirlspring at her house, then she might not know me at all.
Here's what I bought in April:
J.Crew Tiered Tee Shirt Dress - originally $49.50, on sale $29.70. I bought this in white last summer and loved the easy shape and lightweight fabric - perfect for those hot, hot summer days! The white was a little tricky because every time I wore it I immediately spilled something on it (anyone else with white clothes?! I swear I never spill on other stuff) so I was excited to see a few new colors this year.
J.Crew Eyelet Shirt Dress - originally $158.00, on sale $94.80, used giftcard $44.80. This reminded me of my favorite white shirt dress that I brought on my honeymoon to Italy SIX YEARS AGO that sadly no longer fits because it turns out you don't stay down at your lowest wedding weight for very long so I basically had to have it. It is two different pieces, a slip and the eyelet dress, and the fit is surprisingly cute and flattering. The sleeves are poofy but not too poofy. I'm all in.
J.Crew Factory Eyelet Tiered Shirt - originally $69.50, on sale $33.57. I have this weird thing where I'm obsessed with black eyelet fabric. It's like, take summer but make it night time? I don't know. It's wrong and feels right? Nope let's pretend I didn't say that. I'm always worried that tops with a seam right above the bust will fall weird over my chest, but add a cami underneath to make a cute little uniboob and you're good to go. Yes, uniboobs can be good sometimes. Oh god I'm just going to stop here.
Total Spent: $120.32
God only knows what will happen with my spending in May. Maybe I won't order anything because I'm already embarrassed by how many packages I've sent to my MIL's house? Maybe I'll want to actually SHOP IN STORES because I'll be fully vaccinated and good to go? Maybe I'll forget about how many clothes I own because most of them will be in storage and accidentally purchase a full new wardrobe? Stay tuned!
Monday, April 19, 2021
Currently #7
(I had a few friends ask and no, this isn't our new house! I just finally started posting again to my Sweet Homes of Chicago Instagram again :)
BUT I'm so so excited for everything to work out and for us to move into our new single family home!! We ended up finding a place in Roscoe Village (after coming this close to putting in an offer on a place in the North Shore) which I'm so excited about. Mia will be a stone's throw from her neighborhood elementary school, we're right by a playground and the Roscoe Village downtown, and we're moving into what we hear from friends is a vibrant, fun neighborhood that has a small town feel in the middle of the city. I always hoped we'd be able to be city kids for life, and am psyched that we're managing to do it.
Before we get to move in though, we'll be staying with Jeff's parents in the suburbs for two months! It turns out early spring is the perfect time to sell a condo in Chicago (particularly one with a roof deck like ours!) but not the perfect time to buy a house in a neighborhood full of families that send their kids to CPS, because Chicago schools don't let out for the summer until the end of June so no one wants to close before then. It took me a little time to accept that we won't get to move straight from one house to another, but now I'm game for two months of having built-in babysitters for Mia (and potentially some date nights?!) which after a year of quarantining sounds amazing. Hello adult time! His parents are also members of a pool, and Jeff's best friends just bought a house nearby with a pool, so I'm hoping for some warm weather so I can pretend we're on a two month vacation ;) Their house is also close enough to downtown that we can keep Mia in her preschool pod (and have an excuse to come into the city every day).
In case you came here for some of my usual Currently content and not just a 500 word life update, here you go:
READING
I finished Leave The World Behind a couple of weeks ago, and if you were thinking you wanted to read something that's half dreamy vacation and half disturbing dystopian nightmare, than I found the book for you! I don't want to give the story away, but it's about a family vacation in the Hamptons where things all the sudden take a turn. The writing is very poetic and dreamy and almost made me put it down after the first page because I couldn't tell what was happening, but I ended up getting really into it - it makes you wonder if what you're reading is really happening or not.
WATCHING
Jeff and I are two episodes in on The Great on Hulu, and I am loving it so much. It's a satire (very) loosely based on Catherine the Great, and was created by one of the writers of The Favourite and so shares a similar vibe. The show is hilarious and dark as it follows Catherine's attempt to murder her husband and become Empress of Russia.
I also started Ginny & Georgia on Netflix, which I heard described as similar to Gilmore Girls, but only if Lorelei was a criminal. Ginny is a biracial teen who moves to a wealthy white suburb with her hot young mom. She thinks she's studious and conservative, but this new town shows her she might be a lot more like her mom than she thinks. The show has a similar mother-daughter bond to Gilmore Girls, but also lots of sex, drugs, and guns.
PINNING
Lots of pretty white bathrooms! Our new house was built in the '90s and parts of it really feel like they were built in the '90s, so we're planning on redoing the primary bedroom / bathroom ASAP when we move in. I've reached out to a few designers and all of them told me to start with a Pinterest board. I managed to nail down exactly what I want for a bathroom in about 30 minutes (contemporary, white, texture, interesting finishes that don't feel so "now" that it'll feel outdated in a few years) but am seriously struggling with what I want for a bedroom. There are really high, vaulted ceilings so I'm thinking some exposed beams and a four poster bed, but I also don't want it to feel too farmhouse. Although the kitchen leans toward farmhouse, so maybe I should just embrace it and put barn doors everywhere? Send help pls.
EATING
All of the Blue Apron meals! I decided when we started freaking out trying to paint and caulk every surface in our condo that something from my schedule had to give, and that something turned out to be meal planning and grocery shopping. We had done a meal kit boxes a few years ago when I had a really long commute but never really loved it and ended up skipping a lot of weeks because there was nothing on the menu I wanted. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Blue Apron has a ton of options to choose from and lets you make swaps in the meals (i.e., chicken instead of shrimp, a better cut of steak, etc.) as well as lets you choose from 2 person or 4 person meals. I don't think we'll be continuing after we move because honestly after 6 weeks I'm starting to miss meal planning, but it's definitely nice for getting out of a cooking rut and for saving time. If you're looking to start Blue Apron, google for promo codes before you sign up. Usually you can get $60 or $80 off your first month.
BUYING
A swimsuit (or two) for Mia! Last year I ended up with four or five swimsuits for her (thanks in part to a few grandmas who wanted to buy her gifts - thanks grandmas!) but ended up putting her in the same one every time because it had long sleeves and didn't expose her stomach, which meant a lot less sunscreen time for a wiggly little toddler. Mia seems a lot more amiable to sunscreen application so far this year, but I still wanted a long sleeve suit. I ended up ordering this cute one that's a rashguard and bottoms, but I'm still on the hunt for a cute long sleeved one piece.
I also am allllllll about the cute spring dresses right now and just ordered this pretty white eyelet dress - hoping it will be similar to a shirtdress I wore on our honeymoon in Italy! I also ordered this dress in mint, I had it in white last summer and loved how comfy and easy it was.
Monday, April 12, 2021
March Budget
I share my clothing budget here every month. My budget per month is $350, which may seem like a lot to some people or a little to others, but for me feels just right. I include all of my clothes, coats, shoes, and accessories in that budget, but not athletic gear, pajamas, or intimates.
Here's what I bought in March:
LOFT Peplum Tee (sold out noooo - here are one, two, three similar tops) - originally $59.50, on sale $35.70. It's a little breezy for Chicago weather, but super cute! I somehow got a stain on it immediately when wearing it the first time so I'm currently crossing my fingers it comes out in the wash!
LOFT Black Shirtdress - originally $89.50, on sale $44.75. This is my favorite cut of dress from LOFT from last summer so I was excited to see it again. It's very light and breezy, perfect for hot hot summer days. The only funny thing about it is that the buttons are all functional, and I did look in the mirror while wearing it and realized one of the middle buttons had come undone - whoops!
LOFT Everyday Sweater - originally $49.50, on sale $24.75. Actually I'm not sure why I said the black dress was my favorite because I have definitely been reaching for this sweater every time it comes out of the wash. It's a great lightweight sweater for spring, but the fabric is still really soft, not scratchy like a lot of lightweight sweaters can be. I might need it in another color or two...
LOFT V-Neck Shell - originally $44.50, on sale $22.25. I always want to wear cute little camis under sweaters and blazers, but they look terrible with my bras when I inevitably get too hot and take the top layer off. I love that this has the feel of a cami but with the ability to hide thicker straps.
Total spent: $127.45
In April I'm trying really hard not to buy anything because... we're moving!! More details to come, but we are spending this month packing so I probably don't need to buy anything more to pack up... right? Right. Right?
Friday, March 5, 2021
Friday Finds
Happy Friday!! This weekend we're celebrating Mia's birthday again, with Jeff's family this time. Nothing like three parties for one little girl! Of course, you don't have to twist my arm to get me to eat another piece of cake ;)
Here are my finds for the week:
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Mia's 2nd Birthday Party
After our giant birthday party for Mia last year (it was the last time we had people to our house!) I tamed it down a little, you know, mainly because of the pandemic. We celebrated over the weekend with just my parents and my sister's family, and a whole lot of balloons. I didn't go for a theme this time, and instead had the theme just be "pink birthday."
For decor, I found this balloon kit on Amazon. I keep complaining about the effort we put into it, but really it probably took Jeff and I an hour and a half to put it together, and that includes manually blowing up all of the balloons because I didn't realize until too late that the package said you should definitely use a pump ;) And the impact is real! It looks so good in photos, and is still looking pretty good several days later because I told Jeff we had to leave it up until Mia's actual birthday. The kit included balloon tape (a long ribbon with holes) that you insert the balloons into, which made things really easy. It also had glue dots for filling in gaps, which worked amazingly well!
I also bought the matching streamer kit off of Etsy. The balloon kit and streamer kit are made in the UK and I don't know what the deal is, but there were a ton of vendors on Etsy from the UK just straight up selling these kits they didn't make. Not sure how that's allowed, but if you see one with pictures that look like this, chances are it's the exact same thing. I bought two of the streamer kits and I definitely recommend that to get a full look if you're covering a space more than six feet wide. The streamer kits were way more frustrating for me to put up than the balloons even though they look simple (partially because Mia was refusing to nap while I was working on them and just screaming into the monitor). The problem is that the string they provide in the kit is stretchy, so it slowly drooped as I added more and more streamers to it. I definitely recommend using regular fishing wire instead!
The only other decoration we had this year was the Happy Birthday sign - I made it on my Cricut! That thing has honestly saved me so much money just in banners that it's going to pay itself off soon ;) I used this paper for it.
The cake was by my friend Laura at Butter Cream Flour. Her cakes are actually the best I've ever tasted and they're so beautiful too! She ends up booked solid some months so definitely reach out a few weeks early if you're interested!
And then I decided to put together a couple of little gift bags for my sister's kids and then for Mia to bring to her preschool pod buddies at school today. I made the little birthday cupcake cutouts on my Cricut (using this free SVG), and also wrote the names on the tags using the Cricut pen (note - the pen tool outlines fonts when it draws them, so I just colored in the insides of the letters by hand).
And now get ready, because here are a few more photos from the day:
Follow along with everything Kristina does via Bloglovin!
Monday, March 1, 2021
February Budget
I share my clothing budget here every month. My budget per month is $350, which may seem like a lot to some people or a little to others, but for me feels just right. I include all of my clothes, coats, shoes, and accessories in that budget, but not athletic gear, pajamas, or intimates.
I've now swung hard the other way from my pajama rut of January and February. Now that we've seen 50 degree weather in Chicago in the past week, I'm all about getting dressed again, and I want to get dressed in something pretty. Bring me some lacy, frilly, floral spring blouses. I'm all in.
Here's what I bought in February:
J.Crew White Skinny Jeans - originally $110.00, on sale $54.50. I went to put on my white skinny jeans from last year and they looked terrible - all stretched out and covered in stains! So it was definitely time for a new pair. I've tried J.Crew's white toothpick jeans in the past and didn't like the fit around the knee / ankle, but this year they somehow work for me. They're great because they're stretchy enough but aren't skintight and aren't see-through. Win win win.
J.Crew Blue Floral Ruffle Blouse - originally $89.50 on sale $39.50. Love love love this. It's one of those tops that can be dressed up or down really easily. There's really pretty lace detail at the neckline and at the hem, and I love the little ruffle details at the shoulder. I wore it here.
J.Crew Ruffle Button Down - originally $118.00 on sale $82.50 used rewards $72.50. This blouse is so beautiful in person!!! The ruffle details on the sleeves and collar are so fun and well done, and the whole shirt just feels really well put together. I wore it here.
Madewell Light Wash Skinny Jeans - originally $128.00, on sale $77.40. I saw light wash jeans with an 8 inch rise and I pounced! Most jeans on the market these days seem to have a 10 inch rise, and I can't wear them because as a short-torsoed individual, they basically go up to my bra-line. These are thick, don't stretch out, and the talls are the perfect length for me.
Total Spent: $253.90
I also ordered these flats but they did not work on me, the tiny bit of canvas around the top rubbed really bad. I also ordered this pretty blouse and am still waiting for it to show up! Besides the blouse, I'm also on the hunt for some pretty spring dresses!
Follow along with everything Kristina does via Bloglovin!
Follow along with everything Kristina does via Bloglovin!
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Outfits Lately
Where are you in your pandemic clothing choices? I've mostly been defaulting to loungewear and pajamas since the new year, mainly because pandemic winter is the actual worst. Every now and then I will put in a little more effort, and every time I make it at least two thirds of the way through the day before I switch back to sweatpants. It's the little things, you know.
Similar Sweater / Similar Jeans / Fleece Socks (also the best but in a very different way - apparently I'm a sock influencer now ;)
Monday, February 22, 2021
Mia's Spring Wardrobe
(Except, I have to say, for cardigans and vests. What is up with baby cardigans and vests? I can't get her into tee shirts I bought in December, but she still fits into a 6-12 month vest and her cardigans from last fall. Someone, pls let me know what's up with baby vest sizing.)
On the downside, bye money! But on the upside, I am never upset to shop for a whole new toddler wardrobe. I get most of Mia's clothes from H&M kids (I shop in both the toddler and girls sections right now), with stuff from Monica & Andy, Nordstrom, Crew Cuts, Old Navy, and Baby Gap thrown in too. While I went for earthier colors in the fall, for spring I decided to go all in on pink. She just looks so darn cute in it!
Pink Ruffle Sleeve Dress / Leggings 2 Pack / Heart Dress / Ruffle Sweater Jumper / Green Ruffle Cardigan / Blue Ruffle Blouse / Polka Dot Sweater Skirt Set / Grey Sweater Dress / Pink Cowl Neck Fleece Dress / White Button Front Blouse / Cream Sweater Dress / Pink Pointelle Cardigan / Henley 2 Pack / Tulle Dress (Mia saw her cousin's tulle dress and followed her trying to touch it for 10 minutes straight so I decided she needed one too ;)
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